Well, I took today off work. This has been a really stressful and busy year!  So far I’ve only been able to take, I think, one vacation day so far (and I still logged in from home and worked!).  I’m sure one day isn’t going to be enough, but it’s all I can do in the short term. I have to report for jury duty again in a couple of weeks and that’s supposed to be for a long case (they separated out everyone whose employers covered 27+ days when I reported in September and told us we had to come back in October). So, with other vacations scheduled and preparing to only be in the office sporadically if I get picked for the jury, I can’t see me being able to take time off before Nov/Dec.

I can’t believe it’s already October! 

So what are my grand plans for this “free” day? Absolutely nothing. I managed to clear off and dust my nightstand, and I have plans to do the other one but I don’t know if I’ll actually get that done. I’m thinking about going down the street and getting a pedicure as I haven’t had one since before the pandemic but I’m not sure I actually want leave the house. I might just stay in and watch “Confess Fletch”. I bought it when it was released a couple weeks (?) ago, but haven’t watched it yet.

I’m so glad to be out of the office today, the dynamic there has changed a little bit lately. We have a new employee that transferred in who is best described as a “psychic vampire”. No one likes them. I keep having to give my speech about giving people a chance to settle in and get comfortable before deciding you don’t like them. Welllll, they’re awful.  Every time they come into the room they bring everybody down. Seriously! It seems like nothing is ever good enough because they did it better where they were at before, but the thing is no one liked them where they were at before (hence the transfer to our office) and this person always complained about everything where they were at before, so I don’t know. I’m just glad that I’m at completely the opposite end of the office and we rarely have any interaction. But whenever I do, they have a pretty bad habit of making me feel “less than“. Does that make sense? For instance, my boss and I have a routine in the afternoon when we leave. It’s nothing big, just something we do. One day, he wanted to leave earlier than usual and I couldn’t as I had a meeting. The vampire happened to be near us for some reason, overheard and jumped in to do what I usually do. It was weird, I mean I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it, just I couldn’t leave for the day. Then they started showing up every day when he and I normally left, doing my thing for me and purposefully making me feel like I was intruding and a 3rd wheel. Jeez, if they want to do it, fine! I can wait 5 mins and leave later without having the hassle of helping! They didn’t even go home, they went back up to their desk. They did the same thing to another co-worker when I was helping another office in another city and this co-worker went to a restaurant to pick up an order for him to take home to his family (my boss has mobility issues). They went over, got the order and went to take it with him to his car and at the elevator, the vampire made a big show of saying “thank you sooo much, I’ve got it now”, taking the dinner from her and basically dismissing her to go back up to the office. THAT did not go over well.  Oh yeah, they also called a co-worker a slut. Now, if you know someone well and are friends, it might be okay if you are joking, but they don’t know her like that and wasn’t kidding and the co-worker was pissed (plus, she’s not a slut, lol!). There are so many instances of their bad behavior!

Most recently, yesterday there were only three of us in the office other than this person. So there was really nobody to handle the day-to-day boring stuff that takes place so all of us had to chip in and process the mail, deposits, etc. It was no big deal, we’re a team, so we all help out. I didn’t know this person was even in yesterday so I went to the other employees I knew were there and asked if they had any outgoing mail as I had one piece to take down to the mail room and as no one did, I said “OK I’m taking my mail down”. About 45 minutes later the vampire comes up to my desk and demanded to know where the outgoing mail goes because they had items to go out. I calmly said I already took it down and they demanded to know what the mail schedule was, where the mail room was, who handles the mail, etc. Now, this person has nothing to do with me or my job, but I’ve been the only person who has treated them kindly and with respect, without exception and didn’t appreciate the tone they were taking. They have offended everyone, but I’ve still been nice. At this point, I’m exhausted from not having taking time off and covering the office when others have been out all year that I’m not having it. I coldly told them I will go back down and put their mail in the bin. They were surprised at my tone, but still started to bitch. I cut them off and said “I. Will. Take. It. Down.” And put out my hand. They gave it to me, muttered “thank you” and scurried away. Look, I could have told them to go to the fucking post office themselves, but it was easier to just do it. Side note: EVERYONE knows I hate taking the mail down. I’m lazy and it’s not on the way out.

The vampire has a good relationship with my boss as they’ve known him through their parents for years. They use this to try to get in between him and all the other employees. This is weird, because honestly, we’re not precious about him. We all have our own relationships with him and he’s just a nice guy and we don’t really care enough to say anything since we are all solid with him no matter what this person does, which I think pisses them off to no end and causes them to act like they are our boss or we report to them. We don’t, but it’s still annoying.

Okay, I just got another tabletop cleared off and dusted! I guess I’ll do the top of my dresser next. Then the hope chest and maybe that other nightstand. Heck, maybe I’ll rearrange the bedroom today. It’s an odd room without a lot of options as far as furniture positioning goes. I have four regular doors and one set of two French doors and one wall that’s just windows. That means most walls either have doors/windows or are too short for the bed or putting the bed there means you can’t open another door. Oddly, it’s a huge room! Such a shame. I’ll figure something out! It’s supposed to be in the 90’s this week, so maybe I’ll leave everything as-is since I have my fans and a/c already set-up for the heat.

I’m rambling!

More later!