Today's 3.5 hour day (the remaining amount needed for 40 hours) has turned into a full day, from 11:00 AM to almost 11:00 PM!!
Sometimes I really dislike being the one in charge...
My position here at Adobe is a bit tentative... supposedly it could become permanent, I could soon be leading a team of 3 at the Orem office and off to train a team of x number temps in India. OR I could be leading a larger team in Orem and then a team in India... It all depends upon the terms that my manager is able to get from her boss.
The issues for me are slightly more complicated. The system we started out using has proven to be a big hinderance in some ways, though useful in some ways...
My dillemas, well... I feel like I need to be the one to make this all work. I keep trying and trying to get this process smoothed out and set right but it seems that dillemas keep creeping in. Today I discovered that if we don't review everything that we've loaded into the system, then we could potentially have multiple parents in our files that we don't know about (multiple parents for 1 customer record). What that means is more time sorting through 1 company, we have hundreds of companies to get through!
I really want to write up scenarios behind all of the issues we are facing as a team so that I can explain them to the broader team but I am finding that my time is being eatten away by trying to fix the issues that are cropping up within my own files. The broader IT team in general has no idea what our process is now which needs to be amended before they will be able to understand how to help us.
One thing that is a big hinderance to me is my communication skills. At some points of time I am quite apt at communication, at others (around certain times of the month) I am TERRIBLE I just can't concentrate when a sea of raging hormones starts dancing around in my body, it is so frustrating!
It helps when my friend Robert is on the ball, he's a fairly good communicator, my IT contact that has helped me to create the current process our team is using. He created macros to use wild cards to search for the data we need to evaluate. Robert can talk a lot, and he interupts me at times during meetings, but I forgive him because he usually interupts with points that I am missing. He's been in the corporate world longer than I have and understands the business better. I am sometimes narrow minded as to why the issues we are facing should matter to the larger business community. My point is that these probelms irritate me and the team and then that they hinder us from accomplishing our goals. He usully stays focused on the big picture of accomplishing this extremely important goal of hierarchy creation (at least that's the whole point of many peoples jobs here). I'm starting to get it now, but I wish I didn't have to go through this painful adaptation process where I stumble around and look quite foolish trying to explain things.
Robert is the most professional guy that I've ever worked with. Straightforward, very respectful, very encouraging. He tells me that I'm a superstar and thanks everyone very sincerly when we are in meetings for their participation and for the good job we all do. Such good manners, I really like him.
Other members of the team are my good friends. They contribute quite a bit to our goals, I really appreciate them... but then it seems that I'm the one that identifies issues that need fixed, and it's hard for me to stay on top of team training when I'm working on everything else.
In any case, this has been the perfect job for me. I might sound like I'm complaining but I'm not, I LOVE developing processes, making things work, smoothing things out.
Whew
I will feel relived if/when my job becomes permanent. I will get health insurance, paid vacation time, paid holidays! YAY!
Other thoughts, what has led me to this point in my life? I'm waiting for my fiance to gain experience in his job field by working in India and I'm waiting for him to send me the documentation that I need to be able to apply for a I-129F visa for him. This time of being apart, him in India, me in the US with 12 hours difference (give or take a half hour) is challenging. We don't get to talk much, I get VERY lonely. In fact lonely enough to think of wanting to snuggle with someone nearby, even with Sam. I talk myself out of that really quick though, such foolish thoughts, so selfish of me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm being foolish in this, waiting around for someone I've known mostly from the inadequate medium of the internet and phone conversations. The time that I spent with him last year, in Feb and then in Dec was very nice, very reassuring.
I will describe my experiences and thoughts. In February, I arrived in Brisbane right after Australia had experienced a great deal of flooding. AP and I stayed at the flat he shared with his room mates, I borrowed his room mates hair dryer. :)
I was really shy at first, and quite shocked to actually meet him. In fact quite hesitant to resume talking normally with him. Soon enough though we were able to talk, and joke around. I remember driving in his friends dingy little car, I thought it smelled weird. It was quite disorienting to be driving on the wrong side of the road (in my mind). I'm glad AP drove everywhere. We spent most of our time at the apartment/flat talking through things, going for walks to talk some more and in meeting people. We went to a church activity which was interesting because Mormons act the same way in Australia that they do here (basically). It was a pot-luck and each family had brought their specialty to share with the Ward. Jell-o Salads and such abounded. It was a rowdy family affair designed as a "get to know you" for the ward. So I got to slide around introducing myself to the members of the Inagra ward. Strangely AP disappeared and I was a bit annoyed that he did because I was left alone introducing myself to people who sometimes didn't even know APhimself...
We went to the top of mount Kootha to see the stars at night. I could tell that AP was going to propose. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought, "No" it's too soon, I'm not sure, I really need to date more people. That's the idea that had been in my head from the beginning. But I felt calm with AP, he was reassuring, positive, and patient. I broke down at one point when I first arrived and started crying, I was overwhelmed, and it was the week before my period which always makes me over emotional. I had doubts in my mind about myself that had been there since the divorce and all the struggles I had gone through since. AP stood me up, looked at me straight in the eyes and told me that I am much better than I was giving myself credit for. That he believed in me, that I could make it. Other people have told me the same things, but then I've heard negativity about other people from them, their words never stuck because of the continual barrage on other peoples characters. Ajey never did or does that, he is positive, tells it straight. IF someone is in the wrong or has behaved poorly he calls that behavior out. He is fair.
So at the top of mount Kootha, I smoothed over the awkwardness of not getting to climb to the lookout where another couple was standing and accepted his ring, became engaged.
We visited with AP's friends from Saudi Arabia the next day, in fact we spent the day with them. They were very sweet and gave me flowers, chocolates and a card to congratulate us on our engagement. We then went to the Australia zoo/Steve Irwin shrine together. That was quite fun. I really loved the couples sweet little kids. After the zoo we went to the Gold Coast and walked along the beach, it was very nice to kick off my shoes and walk along the shore. I didn't have a swimming suit with me, but that was OK. AP's friend swam with his kids, his wife stayed on the beach reading.
APtook pictures of me, I love how they look, I look very natural.
We visited a sea food restaurant afterwords, that was more than I had bargained for. I ordered the sea food platter and literally got a large bowl of shrimp and other sea food and something like 6 large prawns in their shells! I didn't know what else to do but dig in, so that's what I did.
