I am sorry. I was cranky today. Once upon a time, when I had my childhood job over at That Darn EPA, I was almost *always* cranky about whatever ridiculous petty office polly-ticks were going on. For the first year or so of my tenure there, I was not very well respected. My boss Byron felt pressured to hire me (I think). I was a person who didn’t know doodly-squat about computers. Nowadays I would be skeptical about hiring meeeee too. The office “technical” “supervisor” was an insufferable young man (a Word of God guy) who (I sensed) had absolutely no respect for women and their potential capabilities in the info tech biz. I remember once when his wife visited the office and excitedly told us that she was taking a keypunching course and that she would leave all of that complicated computer stuff to her husband. Blech! At the time, my main job was to pull printouts off the Data 100 printer and put them into cubbies from where I could distribute them when people came to the “window” to pick them up.

This was stultifyingly dull for a woman who had excelled at school, whose favorite subject had always been mathematics. It was particularly difficult when they hired a complete nincompoop to do a higher level job than I had, at a higher pay rate. But not knowing what else to do with myself, I persevered. The Word of God guy left and, with his departure, a breath of fresh air came into the room. I discovered that I had a huge affinity for talking to computers and my boss Byron warmed to me. I learned everything there was to know about our data processing jobs, taught myself FORTRAN, got promoted and eventually became valued enough that I was offered ongoing part time employment with flexible time after I had my first beach urchin.

I rarely have anything to complain about regarding my adult job, that is, the one I have now. Maybe once or twice a year I get annoyed. Today was one of those days. I got tired of being echoed. I got tired of explaining something to the same person for the umpteenth time. I got annoyed at being asked to do something (by someone who is not my supervisor) that I was already planning on doing BECAUSE IT IS MY JOOOOOOB! DUH! Not to mention that the person asking this mis-addressed the message to my co-worker. I mean can’t these people remember ANYTHING! Honestly, I felt like I was five years old. I was very polite but I know that FZ (at the least) “got” that I was annoyed, especially after he heard me grumbling on the other side of the wall.

It’s okay. Patience has never been my strong suit in life but I am able to compartmentalize any anger/annoyance I experience in the workplace in order to move forward without p*ssing anyone off. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the old saying goes. (It works. Try it.) I kept a low profile for the end of the afternoon today and I am pretty much over it except for writing this.

So the GG doesn’t usually have to hear me complain about work these days but I used to *constantly* complain about my childhood job, at least during the first couple years. It was during one of those complaint sessions that the GG was able to actually shut me up. We were downtown having dinner at the Whiffletree and I was going on and on (and on and on) he said something like, “Well, do you want to get married?” Ulp. Okay. I think the GG regrets that it is a strategy he can’t use again. At least not with me.

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