Mr. Russell asked me to come in early today in order to get started on a lot of projects he needs doing before leaving for a two-day trip to meet with clients. I got here this morning at 8:15 a.m. and spent the next half-hour dealing with my computer, which would NOT boot up. So I ended “starting” my day at 8:45 a.m. – the time I normally get in!!

I’ll also be staying late tonight since I ended up leaving only 20 minutes late last night because the stuff wasn’t ready for me. I don’t have band practice tonight, so that was no biggie to stay late. *sigh* In 20 minutes he goes into an hour-long conference call, so that’s an hour wasted unless he can tell me I can book at least two of the presentations (here’s hoping :pray: !).

So more work is going on in our offices as we continue to renovate. Apparently tonight they are tackling our supply room, which has been a fiasco since I got here in July and apparently at one point was even worse than my experience. My old Company had a great supply room compared to this place.

Today they asked that our accounting person clear out the room (don’t ask why since she has NOTHING to do with supplies), and since I was at a breaking point in my work I opted to help out. Irish Accountant (her new nickname at this site since I’ll probably begin talking about her a lot), The Receptionist and I got to work and began clearing out the middle rows of shelves that will be cut down and surfaced with countertop tonight.

In the meantime, at about 2:45 p.m. an email went out to a handful of admins asking for their help at 3:15 p.m. to clear out the supply room. Irish Acct, Receptionist and I continue clearing the shelves. At one point one of the senior secretaries asked me what I was doing as I walked by with a huge stack of hanging folder boxes in my arms. I told her, and she followed me in to see what was happening.

What ensued was more than a little funny to Irish Acct and me. Senior Secretary proceeded to “help” by moving things from one side of the room to the other. While Irish Acct and I climbed ladders and dealt with an inordinate amount of dust throwing out 12-year-old phone books and 15-year-old blank forms, Senior Secretary would pick up a stack of letterhead and move it from one shelf to another. Or she’d pick up an empty box from one corner and move it to another.

I know I wasn’t the only one that noticed it – I’m positive that Irish Acct did as well because she’s quite savvy and notices things. And I also noticed that after a few minutes The Receptionist also began sitting down a lot, claiming her feet hurt in her high heels.

Promptly at 3:15 p.m. about five admins showed up, just as Irish Admin and I finished the entire job. “What can we do?” one admin said brightly.

“Nothing,” Irish Acct replied, “We just finished it all.”

“But I thought the email said to come at 3:15 p.m.?”

“It did, but the work actually began at 2:30 p.m.”

Needless to say I’ve been sneezing repeatedly over the past hour, and I need to take a shower because I feel like I’m covered in dust even though I washed my hands when we were done.

And now it’s 4:25 p.m. and Mr. Sutherland is gone and Mr. Russell just left. But I have some charts I have to do, so I’ll do two more and then head out myself.