2002-09-17 - 12:22 p.m.
"16 Tons, and whaddya get? Another day older and deeper in debt..."

Of all the ... *sigh* I don't even have the energy to work up a good indignation. I got an Official Warning today. That's right, on my next-to-last day. Why? Because I didn't attend the all-assistants meeting. First of all, I wasn't aware that attendance was so enforcably mandatory. Yet another assumption of what I should know, on the supervisor's part.

Yeah, "attend meetings" is on the job description, she says. But come on. How was I supposed to know it was a warning-punishable offence? It doesn't say THAT anywhere. I've never worked for a place that threw Official Warnings around before anyway. And secondly, why the, ahem, would I need to be there? It's all about planning for the next month, and swapping promises to teach someone a new skill, and so on. None of it has the slightest relevance for a person on her way out the door.

Frankly, also, I didn't want to answer another dozen times the question of just why I'm leaving. I may have got enough courage together to say Enough, but damned if I'm going to detail it out to every last co-worker, and I don't have the stamina to keep up a steady stream of half-lies.

Oh well. Not that there was ever a chance in hell that I was going to use this place as a job reference, anyway. It'll go on my list of past jobs, but I'm leaving any phone info blank, and putting in refs for the supers at my U jobs instead.

In entertainment news, the TV season is cranking back up. On Wednesday, we get to find out what Archer's doing in the 31st century and whether the Enterprise crew is going to get him back. (Of course they will, but I can't help the perverse hope that No, he DIES there, and we get a NEW Captain! Heh.) Then, Thursday night, Survivor: Thailand begins. Got to tape that one, or Mom will have a cow when she gets back from the cruise! Friday's the first ep of the new show, "Firefly," that I'd like to check out. And over the following week, CSI:Miami, Buffy, CSI, and (I think) Angel also start up. Hurrah.

On the downside, no new Stargate:SG1 until January. Blah. And the "Pyramids: Secrets Revealed" special on last night was an absolute bummer. I rather enjoyed finding out about the pyramid-building town and worker graveyard they've been digging up for the past decade, and the worker graffiti they've found in the pyramid was fun, but they way overdramatized the opening of the overseer's tomb and the robot up the passage with the camera.

I mean, how many minutes can you spend dusting and opening one sarcophagus, and then oohing and aahing over a plain set of curled up bones, with no other interesting items around it? If they'd had the forensics info on the skeleton, if they could tell anything about the man, that might have been cool. But just looking at the bones and going on and on and on about them having been hidden for 4500 years was boring. And the anticlimax of the camera! OMG! Two hours of easing a robot up the 40-degree, hundreds-of-feet-long 8-inch-square tunnel, boring a hole in the tiny limestone door, and then easing the camera through to reveal ... ANOTHER DOOR! *laughing softly*

Amazing, though, to reflect on what an ancient culture could do before inventing the wheel, the pulley, or even the load-bearing arch. Neat-o. Talk about determination, not to mention power, getting something like that built in 30 years with such a complex inner architecture.

Mmm. I should have stuck with the history/archeology/etc. arena in college, I really should. Heh. I SHOULD probably have SHOULD tattoed on my arm by now, the amount of times people fling it at me, and I use it about myself. Maybe I, ahem, should delete the word should from my vocabulary ... but I think it's like ain't. It ain't never gonna slip out of my speech patterns entirely, know what I mean? You might could take the girl out of the South, and educate her like a liberal Northerner, but you cain't ever get all the South out of the girl.

Hey! Did I mention yet that I went to the Shrewsbury RenFaire? I was sick, and Azash's feet got tired quick, so we were only there 3 1/2 hours but we enjoyed it. We had lots of fun crowd-watching and window-shopping; there were thousands and thousands of people there, and nearly 200 booths. We're definitely going back next year. It was a blast. Too bad there aren't more large RenFaires in Oregon.

*frown* Well, I've been lectured about needing to avoid "wasting the company's time" over these last few days, so I'd better wrap up my lunch break and post this. Tonight's bill night, tomorrow's last day, Thursday is freedom, Friday is panic and finally knuckling down to seriously looking for a new job. I've got a few apps in the works, but I've been reluctant to just spray resumes around until I have the time to go by and drop them off in person, you know?

Anyway. Later.