MN or MT

I get some of the strangest phone calls at work some days. The winner of today's eye-roll award goes to the pleasant woman with the slightly southern accent. I had answered the phone in my normal manner and politely told her that the person (PersonX) she was looking for didn't work for our company on this campus.

She was obviously a product rep who was determined to follow up on a lead. She explained that PersonX was the campus marketing director for the dining service on the Missoula campus, and asked if I was sure she didn't work for us. Here's how the rest of our conversation went:

ME: "Missoula? Minnesota? I've never heard of a Missoula, Minnesota, but there is one in Montana."
Product Rep: "Oh, well I don't know about that. It's spelled M-I-S-S-O-U-L-A, and the information we have is that PersonX is the marketing director."
ME: "And it says that she's in Missoula, Minnesota?" (I'm wracking my brain at this point, because while I know I haven't heard the name of every city in Minnesota I'm also pretty sure there isn't a Missoula).
Product Rep: "It says Missoula, MT"
Me: "Wait, what? Did you just say M-T?"
Product Rep: "Yes, M-T"
Me: "That's Montana" (I try to say this in the nicest possible way I can, because darn it, there goes another 5 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.)
Product Rep: "hmm" (pause while I hear the clicking of keys) "So it is. Well, that's what happened" (she laughs) "Thanks so much sweetie, that was very helpful. You have a great day!"
Me: "You're welcome and good luck."

After I get off the phone I turn around and jokingly ask the room if anyone can tell me the abbreviation for Minnesota. A co-worker scoffingly asked if I was serious (my voice was apparently not dripping with enough sarcasm). Upon hearing that I was, in fact, serious he replies with the expected "M-N". To which I replied "Good. I was just checking to see if anyone here thought it might possibly be M-T".

"M-T" he says thoughtfully, "I don't think there's any state that's abbreviated that way." It was at this point that my forehead was once again introduced to my desk.

So, in the spirit of learning, I offer up a small Social Studies/Geography lesson for anyone who may be confused:

MT = Montana          MN = Minnesota

I am a "Star Performer"

I don't usually brag on myself, but today I'm taking the opportunity to brag on myself.

The plaque I received, now hanging in my cubicle.

Today I was honored to receive one of the University Services Star Performer Awards, and I am darn proud of it. I have been in my position for 12 years, and each day I strive to give my customers (the students, their parents, our managers, and all faculty/staff members) the best customer service I can. The kind of customer service I would like to receive, and that I would like my friends and family to receive.

It's not always easy, there have been many many days I have had to remind myself to do my best work for His glory (Colossians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 10:31). And while I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping our customers and trying to do my best work for God, it's also kind of nice to know that my hard work is also appreciated by others.

Here's how University Services (the non-Academic branch of the UofM) describes a "Star Performer":

Who is a Star Performer?

University Services has established values that enforce the University’s teaching, research, outreach mission and comprehensive academic plan. Our values are:

• Excellence in our products and services;
• Integrity in our actions with those we serve and with each other;
• Accountability in the value of our work;
• Stewardship of the University

In addition, Star performers generally exhibit the following:

• Exceed Expectations – Star Performers go above and beyond the call of duty of their day-to-day tasks. They pay attention to details, seek solutions to problems, and provide a high level of commitment in their duties.
• Customer Service – Star Performers take the time to understand the needs of the students, staff, and visitors to the University and to meet their needs consistently and effectively.
• Initiative – Star Performers find innovative ways to save time, money, or other resources, either through new ideas or new ways to do ongoing tasks. They often act to solve a problem before it becomes a larger issue.
• Reliability – Star Performers demonstrate a consistency in getting the job done right, on time, the first time. Star Performers don’t let their customers, or their coworkers, down.

All that to say, I must be doing something right! In the future, on those difficult days when I have to remind myself that I need to do my best for God's glory, it will be easier to remind myself that working for God's glory doesn't just help me get through the day, but helps others get through their's.

Electronics Fear Me!

Apparently, I am so good at my job that my mere presence can resolve problems with the electronics. Here are two examples:

1. My coworker, in the next cubicle, was getting an error message when she was starting her computer this morning. Also troublesome, was the fact that her normal array of desktop icons was not showing up. After attempting to reboot twice she asked if I could take a look. All I did was stand there and watch while she rebooted again, and everything worked perfectly!


2. About a half hour later, a manager from one of our dining locations called and let me know that their card reader was "completely dead". Turns out it wasn't powering up, and she wasn't sure if it was the power cord or the reader itself. I quickly reprogrammed a reader for her location and grabbed a power cord so I could test both possibilities. When I arrived at the location I plugged the original reader into the original power cord (for testing purposes) and it worked just fine. Both the manager and the cashier were baffled because they had tried three different power outlets (one on the other side of the building) and couldn't get it to power up. Yes, I did leave the back up reader and power cord there just in case, but it's been a few hours and I haven't gotten any reports of it being broken again!

You just have to love days like that, when your mere presence just makes things better. And now that I've jinxed my golden touch, all I can say is that I hope you are having a great day!

A Flashback

I was going through pictures on my computer and ran across this gem.  This picture was taken many many moons ago (late 2002 or early 2003 I think), and WOW has the office changed since then. When this picture was taken there were only four work areas in the room and the server for the meal plan system sat on a table next to my desk (which I'm almost certain caused some hearing damage).

Now the room is smurf blue, we have 5 work areas (trying to figure out how to add a sixth), and that pole in the middle of the room is gone. The cubicles are a bluish grey now instead of the brown-ish color in the picture.

Seeing this picture makes me think about how much some things change and others stay the same. For example, while I don't have the same "office" sweater in the picture, I do still have an "office" sweater, because this room can get crazy cold in the winter. And the meal plan system server is now under new management and lives somewhere else on campus now.

Also, Tony and I aren't so tight anymore. Seriously, a person can only scoop the litter box of a cat that size for so long before it puts a strain on the relationship. Know what I mean?

Exhausted Already

Wow, the next few weeks are going to be brutal. It's only Monday night and I'm exhausted already. Welcome Week doesn't officially start until Wednesday, but already the kids (college freshman) and their parents are lighting up my phone like nobody's business.

The next several weeks are going to be busy, busy, busy. Meal plan changes, meal plan activations, and answering questions will take up most of my time. So much so, that I won't be surprised if I dream about them (I have in the past).

Anyway, all this is to say that I probably won't be around the blog very much over the next few weeks. I'll try to post every now and then, but don't be surprised if I don't. Although, come to think of it, blogging may be just what I need to take my mind off from work. Hmmmm. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I guess I can still be surprised.

I've been doing my current job for about 10 -12 years. After all that time I thought I couldn't be surprised by the the questions I get. Today, I was proven wrong.

As I was getting ready to leave work today, I received an email from a student with a request for information. Only the information he was looking for had nothing to do with meal plans. He wanted me to help him find someplace to live. Apparently someone told him that I could probably help him, so he emailed me with his budget and other housing requirements.

Now I could help him with finding food, but finding a place to live? Well, "housing specialist" is definitely not one of the job descriptions I can put on my resume. Now I just need to figure out who in the heck would possibly tell this poor kid that I could help him. Either they wanted to pull a prank on him, or they wanted to pull a prank on me.

So it begins. . .

It is the time of year that I both wish for and dread. I wish for it because it means the summer season of last minute changes from customers and constantly shifting meal plan set ups is coming to an end. For this I give a big sigh of relief then take a deep breath. The deep breath is my way of preparing myself for the part of the year I dread.  For the next month or so I am "The Enforcer" and the crusher of dreams (or so I've been told).

What am I enforcing? Oh, just the policies regarding meal plan changes and cancellations. The rules are very straight forward actually, but there are always one or two or a hundred people (or their parents) who think their circumstances are more special than everyone else's and that I should make an exception for them. I never do.

Don't misunderstand, I really do have empathy for all the people who honestly are having financial/health/whatever troubles. I've been there and actually do know what it's like to have to scrape together the money to pay for tuition, housing, books, and all the other unexpected expenses of going to college. It's just that if I make an exception for one person's situation, then I have to make an exception for every person in that situation. Then I have to justify why that situation deserves an exception and not this other similar situation and then all heck breaks loose. Trust me, there's already enough "heck" broken loose that I don't need ALL of it to break loose.

Over the next few days, I may just tell you a few stories of what I mean by "heck". Some of the questions I get are hilarious, and some of the excuses people use to attempt to get out of a meal plan are mind boggling.

Back to work...

After a lazy week off, it's time for me to go back to work. Wish me luck.

And if you really need me, I'll probably be in my "happy place".

That kind of day . . .

Here's an example of the kind of day I've had . . .

I forgot to take my "lunch" pills (a couple fish oil pills and a multi-vitamin I take to help keep the AS under control). I noticed them sitting on my desk at work as I was about to leave. Since my water bottle was empty I figured I would stop by the water fountain in the hallway on my way out. As I approached the water fountain I popped all three largish size pills into my mouth. Then I lean in and press the button on the water fountain only to discover that the water fountain is broken.

The closest door into the main office (and the water cooler) is locked, so I end up having to walk all the way around to the main door. Not so bad, except I have two fish oil pills and a multi-vitamin in my mouth, starting to dissolve. Then the admin. asst. starts to talk to me as I pass her desk. It's only after I'm finally able to get some water and swallow the pills that I am able to explain the disgruntled look on my face.

Oh, and after I finally got home (I won't tell you about the people who rudely cut me off) TheHusband informs me that we have no running water. I laughed. I mean, what else could I do?

This is what happens . . .

. . . when it's SPRING BREAK!!!

Oh, I still have to work even though there's practically no one on campus, but this is bliss. I haven't had any voicemail messages so far (knock on wood) and instead of ringing 20-30 times a day the phone only rings 2-3 times a day. And while there are still PILES of filing on my desk, some of my other projects are actually getting done. Yup, I love "Spring Break"!

Jello Cake

This past week brought the birthday of a good friend and coworker. To help her celebrate the auspicious occasion, I decided to make her a Jello Cake (and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that she basically said "if you guys love me, you'll make me something yummy for my b-day" - nope, nothing to do with that what so ever). So, yeah, I know, jello cake, it sounds weird (especially if you're not from the mid-west), but it's something I knew she liked, and something I personally love so if there were leftovers there wasn't a problem! You can make so many different variations of this, but I made a white/strawberry cake.

This is what happens . . .

... when you help someone "find" $75,000.

Okay, so it wasn't really lost, just not entered in the correct place, but it would have taken her a lot longer to "find" it than the 5 minutes it took me. And I'll take a 12 inch vase filled with tootsie rolls any day. Yum!

No progress yet.

So, I obviously haven't been writing much, here or anywhere else. Ha ha. So much for that idea, but to say something in my favor, work has been crazy busy this last week and will be next week as well. It's always that way at the beginning of a semester. I did manage to get my unanswered emails down to around 180 before I left work on Friday though. I'll probably have dozens more tomorrow morning.

Why so busy? I work for the dining services at a major university. Specifically, my main area of responsibility is making sure all the meal plans work (or don't, depending on the situation), and the first couple weeks of a semester are crazy busy with answering questions, changing and selling meal plans, and ruining people's lives. That last one, yeah, I've actually been told that. I also get to do all the website updates for the dining services. We recently switched over to using the dotnetnuke platform for the site and it takes a little getting used to. Maybe even more so for me since all my website expertise is self taught.

This week is shaping up to be a lot more of the same. But I'm going to try (yeah, yeah, I know what Yoda says) to work more on this site. We'll see what happens. Anyway, whatever I'm doing, I hope you are having a blessed week as well.

Updates

It's been awhile since I last posted, and much has happened in that time.

I had surgery in the middle of August on my bum. I won't go into details, but everything went well (except for me wanting to go back to work just two days afterwards - I thank God for a good surgeon and for the lack of pain).

Then work got crazy busy. After taking a week off because of the surgery I had only one week to get caught up with things and to prepare for the busiest two weeks of the year (for me). I've worked two 55+ hour weeks and things will calm down now. I'll still be working quite a bit, but not as much as that.

I've decided to go back to school! It's been several years, but I think it's time. My boss has been really supportive of the idea and I think it will make his bosses see me as more than just "support". I really do a lot more than data entry, but I often feel that that's all they see me as. This was really driven home to me about a year and a half ago when they hired someone to help us and I later found out that this new person was being considered as my boss's replacement (if he ever got run over by a bus). This was very disheartening because I was constantly having to tell the new person very basic things (and I often had to tell him the same basic things repeatedly). So I've decided to go back to school to get my master's degree in MIS. All I have to do now is fill out all the paperwork and get accepted. Can't you tell that I'm confident that I'll have no trouble getting accepted?

I am currently working on getting my craft area cleaned up. It has become a catch all area for all my "stuff". This just won't be acceptable for when I'm going to school. Not only will it stress me out to have this "pile" of stuff sitting there, but I'll want to have a space to be able to study.

Also, TheHusband and I have reworked our menus. Really he did all the work and I just agreed to his suggestions, but I did volunteer to have a "New Recipe Night" every third Saturday. We had our first one last week and I'll be posting about it soon.

I think that's it for now. I am working on a new project as well so I'll post about that later as well. I do have to get a new battery for my camera so it may be awhile.

Then the phone rang. . .

Today was a tough day.

A coworker called me early this morning (yes, I was already at work) because she couldn't find any other number to call (she just started a few weeks ago). She was only looking for the cell phone number of her supervisor so she could call them to let them know she wouldn't be in to work because her father died last night.

When she told me, it was like getting the air knocked right out of me. All day I have been thinking of her and praying for her and her mom. I have also been thinking a lot about Dad today. Every now and then I catch myself just staring off into space. I hurt for her, and for me. I know that pain, and even though I don't know her very well I just want to take it away for her. But I can't, and I can't take it away for me. . . and there I go just staring off into space again.

It gets easier right? Or at least not so hard. . . .