Busy Day at the WAU

[dawn_felagund]

ssotknapsack, you should be happy! NaNo's over and, look, I'm LJing again!


Today's been a busy day at Teh Warrant Unit. I got 28 new warrants yesterday and saved entering them into the database and sending contact emails to the agents until today. Shame on me. But it's also been a nice kind of busy, where I actually feel proactive and slightly important rather than merely a vessel for ten super-fast fingers that can run warrants at blinding speed.

The unit that enters our warrants into MILES/NCIC is headed up by a lady named Sharon who is a terror to behold. She hated me from day one because I came onto the unit and no one told her that a new clerical person had been hired. Yes, she was nasty to me in my early days here. But if I learned one valuable thing in my years at The Piece, it is that nothing irritates a bitchy person more than to be unfailingly nice to them no matter what they say to you. So that's what I did and *gasp* guess what? Sharon and I get along fine now.

But she still has a grudge against my boss, and the funny thing is that whenever we need to call her for something, he gets me to do it. I suspect that he's a little afraid of her. Today, we had an issue with a warrant and a statement of charges that did not match, requiring that we call Sharon. "So which of us is going to do it?" Johnny asked me, and I said, "I don't care. She doesn't bother me any." He claimed not to be afraid of her, but guess who made the call?

The bosses were discussing this new gig with Central Home Detention before, and I was trying so hard to listen in, but I think Johnny suspected that I would be listening in because he started speaking very quietly. I did hear Vernon say that he wants to take me along. Okay, so that's a good thing. After that, though, with regard to classification and pay grades, the voices went way down. Well, best that I don't get my hopes up and wind up disapppointed. This is State government, after all, and they haven't realized that having people to do jobs generally makes the jobs go faster. Yes, we are on a hiring freeze for like four years now despite the fact that we have a major budget surplus. But our governor doesn't think that this should be used to, like, hire people or anything. Or give people, like, raises. But guess what he does say: tax cuts! Oh, yay! So while all the rich businessmen are getting richer, I can keep them from getting robbed or murdered for their Rolexes (Roleces? ;-P) for the same peanut wage as ever. (Anyone want to guess our governor's political affiliation?) So we're still on a hiring freeze. Actually, it's been made worse. Now, a position must be vacant for one year before a waiver to fill it can be submitted. So if I were to quit right now, it'd be another year before Johnny could even start the process to hire another me.

Okay, enough about work. Last night, I went buck-wild making candy. I improvised a recipe for creamy mint filling since my recipe went the way of the dodo, and it turned out fine. Creme fillings are cool because you can literally flavor them with anything that comes in an extract. So the base for a mint filling is the same for a strawberry is the same for a butter rum...you get the point. The flavorings come in these wee bottles. To flavor about one pound of creme filling last night, I literally touched two fingers to the mouth of the bottle, tapped them on the plain filling, and that was enough to flavor it. I sometimes wonder what would happen if you drank a whole bottle of the stuff. It is strong. One year, I had to throw out two pounds of sealed chocolate because I stored it with a sealed bottle of flavoring, and the chocolate turned out tasting like mint. I won't even store my flavor bottles in the cabinet that Bobby dedicated just for candy and ice cream supplies. I am afraid that everything is going to taste like mint if I do, and I'd be pissed if I had to spring for another eight pounds of chocolate and various other supplies.

Later: Okay, eavesdropping was unnecessary. Vernon wasn't a minute out the door and Johnny was in my office recounting the entire conversation. Things are looking good. Whee. The "whee" had no exclamation point because I don't want to get my hopes up. :-P

Still later yet: Johnny also informed me that, once we moved to Central Home Detention, Vernon will be Sharon's boss. And Vernon told him that he would delegate being Sharon's boss to Johnny.

Which made Johnny say: "So guess who's going to be Sharon's boss?"

(I'll give you a hint: She has very long dark blond hair, a penchant for Elves, and a habit of writing overlong LJ entries. *whistles innocently*)

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

I just got this comment today, December 5! :^O

That's okay; it's not like *you* have anything to prove! :)

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Same here: I wake up to almost 30 mails, most of them lj comments, most of them *weeks* old. But I am glad to say that I caught most without notification. Whee!

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Oh. and thanks & *hugs*. Well, you know that, don't you?