Tired of complaining

I keep waiting for the tide to change, but it doesn't look like things are going to get better soon. Every day my steps drag as I walk to the trailer, knowing that today will just bring another bout of tension and snappiness that's become semi-permanent. My files and notices are piling up and I just can't seem to get caught up with everything. Everyone is wearing on everyone else's nerves and it's like walking on eggshells. You can even hear a conversation going on at the other end of the trailer.

Problem is, is that we spend so much time complaining about how it's going that it's starting to get really old. I'm even starting to get sick of hearing myself! :) Going to try and be more optimistic. I mean, I still have my job! (if you can call it that) haha

Found out today that one of the mui court judges (former prosecutor) tends to think of CPD as a canine friend. He told one of the office attorneys that really the only way he could bring himself to deal with CPD in the past is to treat him like a dog. No, off, good boy, sit, stay, and the like. How embarassing. It's great to know that our boss has such a great reputation in the community! To top it off, he's in one of his "moods". Snappy at everything, Mr. I know everything.... He struts around the Court house like he's King of the Earth and spends his time driving everyone mad with his ridiculous questions.

Oh well, if he got bumped on the head and was suddenly normal, what would we have to talk about?!

Oh yeah, the office administrator. Who left sick AGAIN!!! She left early Monday, went to 2 dr's appointments yesterday and left sick again today. But not before sneaking a bunch of court notices under another pile I had that were for TODAY! Does she think I'm not going to notice that she's doing that? That's the third time she's pulled that stunt in the last couple of weeks and now I'm going to have to have a talk with her about that, which will be really unpleasant. She gets so far behind in her own work that all the blame ends up falling on me, because if people dont' show up for Court, the attorneys shoot arrows at ME. Very conniving.

Is anyone out there hiring by any chance!?! :)

a little tense

Pat blew up at CPD yesterday. CPD has been spending most of his time in his office in the AC, surfing the net. Why they reconnected the computers in the old building, I don't know, but we're not complaining that much since he's always gone. Let him breath in all the mold he wants to, the crazy fool.

Anyways, he walks in yesterday, walks up to Pat, and says "you know it's not that bad in here. You people would have never made it through Marine training!". Well... it's 94 degrees in the damn trailer when he's saying this, and Pat just had enough. He told him he was being a terrible leader, and that he didn't sign up for "marine training", he signed up to be a lawyer. Nobody appreciates when he struts in for his 10 minutes show while the rest of us are actually working.... he just laid it all out, and then left for the rest of the day. Of course CPD went on his "how dare he" tirade, but he had it coming. In spades. The didn't see each other today, but I'm sure everyone will pretend like nothing happened when they do.

On a brighter note, the AC was fixed :) FINALLY. after 2 weeks of horrible heat, we're finally comfortable again. One of the commissioners, in the middle of our own personal heat wave, decided to come over for the first time, and instead of asking how we were BROUGH OVER BLACK WALNUTS FOR MERLE! Can you believe it? We have sweat pouring down our faces, clients all over the place when she walks in, and she drops off a bag of walnuts for that squirrel.

Honestly. Does someone have to die to get their attention? I was willing to fake heat stroke for the cause, but I'll bet that wouldn't have even worked!

Canned Heat

The week that CPD takes off for his birthday is usually the best ever. Except for last week. The average afternoon temperature was around 85 degrees in the afternoon, and our AC unit is broken. Of course, both trailers on either side of us have AC's that work, but that's another story. The average afternoon temperature in the trailer, with windows open and fans blasting? Around 92 degrees.

92 degrees! and we have to work in this!

All sense of work attire has gone out the window for the support staff. We're in shorts and tank tops now, and even bringing in extra clothes to change into mid-afternoon. The poor attorneys have sweat dripping down their faces as they sweat away in their suits. It's horrible. But CPD wasn't there. So it wasn't all that bad.

After much persistence in our complaining, the maintenance guys finally told us that the replacement part could be in today; Monday, IF we're lucky. However on Friday, I think our office administrator pushed that date back by about 2 weeks.

Our unit is connected to the Commissioners unit, and they have AC. While we were sweating away, our office administrator decided to be catty and turn on our air (which is exactly that, air that just gets pushed around, no hot, no cold) in hopes that it would short out THEIR AC unit.

Well, a unit shorted out alright. Only it was OURS. Abe and I were working in the middle of the trailer when a loud BOOM came from the back. All of the sudden this horrendous gas started pouring out of the unit into the trailer and outside. Abe told us to get our you-know-whats out of there ASAP.

Like I was going to stick around.

It was the most horrendous gas ever. Every breath burned my throat and lungs as we coughed and gagged our way back to the old office to take cover. Abe ran over to get the commissioners to let them know what had happened. One of them eventually came over, took a whiff of the lingering scent, and told us to let them know if it happened again.

Lots of help there!

So it fades and we get back, sweating, shaken up, coughing, and now with the sinking sensation that our unit is going to be needing alot more parts once the maintenence guys take a look at what happened.

Hope that little stunt was worth it to her!

Save the drama for your mama

I have survived week 2 of trailer living. We've found out that we won't be returning to our old building due to rot in the basement (lovely) and have no idea where we will be placed. In other words, who knows how long we're going to be here for.

Great!

The Children's Advocates trailer is next to ours, and we noticed they had placed a pink plastic flamingo outside yesterday. Ohhhh, it's on. We're going to find some jalapeno lights to hang outside. When in Rome, right?

We had an intern start last week, who seems nice enough. But earlier this week, he showed up on a day when he wasn't supposed to to talk to Pat. We sent him over to Municipal court to watch a suppression hearing, and Pat later came back with some lovely news. It seems the intern didn't think he could work around CPD anymore because he was "too weird". Pat had to promise him that he wouldn't be anywhere around him anymore! Last week both the intern and CPD sat at the conference table and CPD talked to him for 2 hours. Apparently some of the questions were along the lines of "do you think my neck is too big?" and "what do you think of having a squirrel for a friend?"

can't really blame him for not wanting to come back, can ya?

So I've been named distraction police, and have promised to keep CPD away from the intern by any means necessary.

On another note, CPD turned 50 this week. Now whenever his birthday comes around, he usually treats it as a week long celebration, so his birthday gift to us is taking the entire following week off. It's normally the best week of the whole year by far. But this year we're in a trailer who's air conditioning doesn't work, so who knows? We might have a new "best week" contender this year. :)

Busted

I've had this blog up for less than a month and I've already been discovered. Abe just happened to come across my blog in one of his various Public Defender browsings.... figuers. At least he finds it humorous and has said he will remain mum on the subject. We'll see how that goes.....

So, let me tell you about Merle.

Merel is our unofficial office mascot. He's a squirrel who's been hanging around for the past few years and who lives off of the peanuts our office leaves out for him. Ok, that CPD leaves out for him. CPD has proclaimed Merle as the best thing that ever happened to his office, that he loves him, and that he's his best friend. He's the only one that's never let him down. Nevermind the fact that over the years Merle has been a male, a female, has had no hair on his tail, and has had a limp... but I digress.

Two weeks ago I actually made the mistake of saying that Merle might not have survived the flood and perhaps we'd seen the last of him. CPD's mood actually crashed and as he walked away he had tears in his eyes. Oops. But low and behold earlier this week that damn squirrel actually showed up again. I guess he knows not to blow a good thing.

The people in the county have become aware of CPD's "friendship" with Merle. They're aware that he feeds him and goes outside to talk to him. I guess to them it's just "eccentric". Or perhaps that's how they justify it in their heads. Either way I get to come home and tell stories about how my boss is friends with a squirrel. I'll tell you one thing, work is never boring.

Did I say it couldn't get any stranger?

Well, I survived week 1 of working in a trailer with everyone. It's actually quite nice. Wooden 70's wall paneling, musty smell, nice, narrow layout. Everyone on top of each other.

I'm sharing a desk with the other legal secretary, and set up a table for our office administrater, who's still MIA but due to return tomorrow. All three of us are in a room that's about 8 x 12 ft. It wasn't THAT bad last week, but with her return tomorrow (and no doubt with her cell phone glued to her ear for the entire day as usual) it should be interesting.

The attorneys are scattered about in the rest of the trailer, along with our conference table, file cabinet, photocopier, 6 phones (which gets REALLY loud when they ring) and other various "need to have" items. Due to his serious fear of change, Abe claimed a single table for himself, moving his stapler, calender, picture of his wife, Staple "that was easy" button, and briefcase to his spot. I picture him clinging to the edge of it for dear life. But on a bright side, he now has a window, and if he's happy, everyone's happy.

Keefe, on the other hand, absolutely refuses to move. He's still up in his office, surrounded by files. We either reach him by phone or smoke signal.

CPD has either been in the trailer driving everyone batty, or suspiciously absent. During moving he followed me back and forth between the trailer and the office 5 (FIVE!!!) times like a little puppy, asking me who I thought was a better Dracula, what do I think of Hammer films, if I thought the county knew it was an OSHA violation to work like this, if I thought he should complain about asbestos... and finally "Natalie, are you mad at me?" when I finally displayed some impatience.

Kill me now.

While the phones were being hooked up, the phone technician asked me if he was on medication when he started making donkey noises. The IT guy gave me a look of pity and said "I can't believe you have to work with that madman". How flattering.

Oh well, on a bright note, I still get to flirt with the cute deputy in the greenhouse at the Common Pleas Court.

On an even brighter note, when CPD found out we were ticked off at a certain office manager, he bought us pizza and attempted to bitch with us as a form of "bonding". We also got a git basket of Panera Bread from another attorneys office as an "I'm sorry you guys are in such a crappy position".

Tell me about it. When clients come in now, there's no more glass seperating us from their "I'm going to invade your personal space" selves. They just walk right up to us and want to know what's what. If they see they're attorney, they stroll right through the trailer to talk to them. All sense of stability is now GONE. It's every person for themselves.

CPD delights us all in making his appearance every afternoon after his lunch karate workout in jeans and a tshirt covered in cat hair. He then spends the rest of the work day making us cringe with embarassment.

They say we might be in these trailers for 6 weeks. How am I going to do this????

Chaos

Written August 31, 2007



If nobody in my office commits a violent felony towards another staff member in the coming months, I'll eat my Prada purse. We had to move into our modular (aka trashy trailer) today. Of course, today of all days, our office manager, who's been more absent than not these past two weeks anyways, decides she needs to take a vacation today and all of next week. Nevermind the fact that we haven't had phones for a week and a half, or that nobody knows what the hell's going on in regards to our future or how we're going to be operating. Nevermind that she's the backup to CPD, who's so inept that he needs a multitude of people to clean up the mess he always leaves behind. Nevermind the fact that IT'S HER JOB TO MANAGE AND FIX ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS!!!

This morning the commissioner showed up and told us that we would all be moving into the modular TODAY because as it is, they would have phone and computer service before our office will. Plus the health hazards post-flood make the building an iffy safety issue at best. Within 2 minutes inmates are walking through our door ready to move all of our things over, with myself, the other secretary whom I'll call Kate, Pat and the Juvenile Court attorney "Abe" all staring at each other with a "what the @&^% do we do now!?" look on our faces.

Our entire system is about to be shut down, so I'll update later