Once Upon a Time.....

Happy Friday!  I cannot tell you how happy I am that this is the last day of work this week.  I am worn out.

We no longer have a temp in our office, so all the clerical work now falls upon us to do.  It’s a lot for a four person office to handle.  All of the clerical duties fall upon the person scheduled in the back office that week.  This week it was me.  So along with clerical duties, I still had to do my normal duties of getting clients on the phone for their interviews, scanning and indexing paperwork and helping them when they finished up.  Normally, I have my flow and everything goes great.  This week, we have had extremely extended hold times when we were able to get through on the phones.  If the hold time exceeds 25 minutes, the phone actually gives you a message and hangs up on you.  What clients don’t realize is that we do not have a fast track number to get to the interview centers; we call the exact same phone number they do to get an interview and puts us in the same queue was those that call in.  It’s not advantageous for people to come in and use our phones. 

Our phones are gross!  People are sick, coughing all over them, spitting in our trashcans, wiping their noses with their hand then placing them on the desks.  Oh, there is even vomit in one our trashcans at the moment and I am trying to keep all the contents of my stomach down as I cannot handle the vomit smell.  There is also a child with what smells like runny diarrhea in his diaper in the back office right now.  I am inundated with smells I cannot handle.  I feel sorry for this child as he is grabbing himself trying to get away from what is stuck in his diaper.  I’m sure this poor child has a rash.  And no, there is nothing I can do about it.  We cannot offer diapers or wipes to parents that neglect to properly prepare to take their child somewhere.    Pretty much, I am saying our office is a cesspool of germs and funky smells.  My nose actually hurts at the moment.

Out of the 340 clients we have seen in the office this week, 110 have been interviews.  I’ve put 110 people on the phone to speak with the interview center.  I have also processed 246 pieces of mail as of right now.  I am tired.  I would say it will get better soon, but it will only get worse with the holiday approaching.  People procrastinate.  People who are way over on income for assistance; apply, waste our time and get rejected for over income.  There is a lot of work that goes into every single application.  I’ve date stamped so much mail, I feel like the librarian in Indiana Jones. 

Yesterday, we found out one of our co-workers passed away.  He was my supervisor’s manager when I first started with the state six years ago.  I’ve been promoted since then so I am not in the same structure as he managed.  He was a processing center upper management person.  The right hand man to the big dawg.  I work under the resource center tree now.  He was an outstanding leader and someone you could bring problems too.  He was also totally ADHD and played games on his phone all the time.  He found out he had cancer 39 days before he died.  He had a rare colon cancer that had spread to his liver.  He tried all the options given to him.  He leaves his wife and three daughters.  He will be missed.

Yesterday, our little kibben got sick.  He spent the night in the vet’s office.  Tanner works at the vet office and had to work off the x-ray they took of his belly last night.  He’s still eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, but the vet said his bowel was not happy.   She believes he is either constipated or he ate something he was not supposed to.  He will be fine.  He received IV fluids to perk him up a bit.  Still I started crying because kibben!  Tanner will update me on him later this afternoon.   Last night, I told Maggie her brother was in the hospital.  I don’t think she cared, she just asked for more food.

This weekend should be good though.  I have Winter Wonderslam on Saturday.  I will be playing on two teams and be running the leagues social media account for a game I’m not playing in.  I am getting there early to help set up.    Afterwards, I am going to a trivia fundraiser at one of my favorite little burger joints in Westport.  I have a token for a free burger, I must find it. 

On Sunday, just practice and relaxing.


What are your weekend plans?