Putting Out Fires

Dudes.

I am such a bad blogger right now.

I totally intended to have a Tuesday blog ready for publication, even if it was just a “rerun” of a previous blog that I thought had some relevance this week. Well, it turns out the only thing that had relevance for me on Monday night was:

I could blame it on the Oscars and the fact that I stayed up until the end because this is the first year in the last ten where I’ve actually seen more than one of the movies nominated so I was semi-invested in who won.

It would’ve been over quicker, but we were forced to watch Renee Zellweger and Joaquin Phoenix ramble about what I think were probably really worthy topics, but that ended up sounding a little like they needed to take their ADHD meds and some Mountain Dew and chill with some background music for a few before composing their thoughts. (I live with two dudes with ADHD, so I know this works.)

In the end, Joaquin Phoenix managed to salvage the whole thing by quoting a lyric his late brother, River, wrote when he was seventeen, and his emotion was very touching. I’m just very ambiguous about using an awards show where people are wearing ridiculously expensive clothing and jewelry, arriving in ridiculously gas-guzzling vehicles, in the most vapid of cities in the world, to preach to the rest of us about ANY topic. I’m not going to lie…I stood up and applauded in my living room when Ricky Gervais told them all at the Golden Globes “So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent, and your God and fuck off, OK? It’s already three hours long.”

It’s not that I don’t agree with some of the things that these celebrities like to preach to us about. It’s just that I’m watching to see what Jason Momoa is wearing, or who Leo is dating, or what else Jane Fonda has lifted (and may I add, she’s rocking her 80’s like nobody’s business). It’s kind of like Facebook. I don’t want to be preached at and I don’t care who you voted for. Just show me your doggies and your kitties and your grandkids and your dinner and let’s move on. Besides…has anyone in the history of the world ever changed their mind over an important topic because of what somebody said in their Academy Award speech???

But I digress…

Anyway…I never got to publishing a blog post for Tuesday and part of the reason was my laziness on Monday, but part of it is that I find myself with less and less time. I know. I know. I say this every week and seem to have been saying this every week for the last year or so.

Well, my “busy” before had to do with being buried with work in a very inefficient company. We literally were expected to work seven days a week, from home or in the office, if that’s what it took to get things done. Oh, and we got paid salary, so overtime pay was non-existent. And the bonuses we were promised?

So now I’m in a place where they seem to appreciate us a lot more and we’re busy, but not drowning, because they are aware of workload fluctuations and that growth demands additional staffing. But…..we are a small company. We spend a lot of time doing this:

Now, add to that, I just got a promotion too.

Hang on. I need to retype that, because I haven’t been able to say that in nineteen (yes, NINETEEN) years.

I just got a promotion.

I’m an account manager. I’m one of them. You know. Management people. Of an account.

Either I’ve sold my soul to Satan or I’m finally getting what I deserve. I’m not sure which.

It sounds more impressive than it probably is. Or maybe it’s not impressive at all. I don’t know what your threshold for that sort of thing is. In any case, I am currently a one-woman show with this account. I’m in charge of managing the claim loads sent to us by our clients and making sure the inspections are completed in a timely manner. Then, I review the submitted estimates and reports and make the appropriate corrections before sending them to the clients.

I don’t have any actual people to manage “in-house”, but I do have to crack the whip with any “outside” people that work for us. And by crack the whip, I mean calling/emailing/texting/stalking them until they respond and/or give a valid excuse for not completing whatever it is I’m calling/emailing/texting/stalking them about.

Of course, being a new account, we have had a learning curve and it seems like I field a hundred emails a day asking me to change this or update that.

Most of my mornings look like this:

And on top of that, I still wear my other hats, so I’m assisting in various capacities on other accounts.

And then…on top of THAT…it would appear that the final hurdle has been jumped, the final hoop has been completed, and the final red tape has been…taped…and we are officially breaking ground on our new house this week.

What that means for me is that shit just got real and now I have to really start thinking about packing the hoard.

Or having a bonfire.

Blogging will still happen, but it may be sporadic. Be patient, my friends.

And bring stuff to make s’mores.