Kate’s Rants

i have a problem with being the middle man. and here in scotland, they seem to LOVE using the “middle man” way of doing things.

my job, for instance, is all about being the middle man. it drives me crazy because if you simply ELMINATE the middle man, it would make things so much better. but no. they use the middle man. they even use several middle men. how rediculous?!

another example i encountered today. the hostel is making everyone buy a hogmenay street pass in order to save their bed. i wasn’t going to buy one because i already have one. i TOLD them i already have one, so why should i buy another one? and they said it’s just the way they are doing things. then they told me lots of people are still looking for party passes, so i could easily sell it to someone, and probably even sell it for more money so i’d make a few quid. but my question now is, why don’t THEY just sell the extra ones and make some money for the hostel?!? does this make ANY SENSE?? gah. now i have to worry about selling a stupid ticket that i shouldnt have had to buy in the first place.

sometimes i just dont understand peoples logic.

anyway. right now i am feeling very heavy. like, tired and full heavy. why? because i stayed up late again last night so i slept until 2pm today and then i went to the store, braving the crowds of people, and then i came back and ate a HUGE plate of totellini and now i’m incredibly full and satisfied, and maybe a tad bit lethargic.

and even though i feel this way, i’m still mad i had to buy a party pass because i think it’s just stupid.

well anyway. hopefully the street party will be worth it and won’t shut down. (i heard rumors that it might be shut down due to HIGH WINDS. seriously. wind. these people are c.r.a.z.y.)

well that’s all i have for now folks. and honestly, i thought the videos and pictures would bring in a lot more comments. i’m dissapointed. pah.

so this was definitely the most unusual christmas i’ve ever had. most christmases are filled with traditions, family, and…. well thats about it. but this christmas lacked tradition AND family, and was therefore highly unusual. but since a bunch of random people who were without their traditions and without their families came together, we formed a new family with a motley of traditions all stirred together. and it turned out pretty cool.

i joined the christmas dinner cooking staff. by helping cook the feast, i was given hours in the hostel, which means free nights! i also got to eat for free. it turned out to be pretty easy, as far as work goes. the hardest part was getting people motivated, but that wasn’t my job haha. i felt a bit sorry for carol, who was in charge, because there were some people who just didn’t care. but that’s their personalities, and she dealt with it with and was able to keep smiling, so that’s good.

we started cooking on sunday evening, making desserts and chopping veggies. the best part about the cooking was the hilarious pots: they were HUGE! i felt like a witch, stirring potions. haha. i got to help a lot with the desserts which was fun because i like baking. i had to empty 2 boxes of digestive biscuits (which are similar to graham crackers) into a triple-layered garbage bag, and then stomp on it to crumble the cookies. then i got to mix them with butter in one of the giant pots, and press them into about 20 pie pans. after that i had to break lots and lots of chocolate bars into pieces and throw them into a pot filled with creamy stuff. sooo much chocolate. (the picture of me holding the giant pot with my mouth open is the giant pot filled with chocolate pieces, in case you are wondering.) so there was a lot of cooking. we got up at 8am on monday (christmas) and started cooking again. we ended up making: turkey, boiled new potatoes cooked with butter and chives, veggie medley (carrots, bell peppers, zucchini cooked in another giant pot, mixed with honey and sesame seeds), tomato soup (which tasted cheesy, and was AWESOME!), cranberry sauce, mushrooms, bell peppers stuffed with rizotto topped with melted riccotta cheese (for the vegetarians), gravy (which we did twice because the first time it got messed up and had to get tossed…), stuffing balls, chocolate cheesecake, and banoffe pie (caramel topped with bananas and whipped cream). there was SOOOO much food. but we had to feed a lot of people so we figured it would be enough. and there were leftovers.

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after dinner everyone helped clean up and then everyone passed out for awhile. and then at about 7pm, the drinking began! (there had been small amounts of drinking all day, but the REAL drinking began at 7.) mostly everyone got really drunk. i didnt feel much like drinking, so i was content watching everyone else get pissed and sing along with the karaoke machine. it was quite entertaining.

all in all a good time was had.

what is brown sauce? this is the question i posed to my coworkers, to which they retaliated “what is barbeque sauce?” which i’m not 100% sure of soooo yeah i couldnt really answer them. and they couldn’t really answer me. until i asked lynsay again, and she decided to demonstrate.

i hope this clears up and brown sauce questions you may have had. if you are still confused, don’t ask me because i’m still confused as to why people like this stuff.

Hey Carla Hanson!

i know you worked with my dad. i’ll never forget you. i’ve known you since…. i was little. you guys worked together at tracy high. when i went to visit my dad there, my brothers and i would play tag around those planters with trees in them. also tommy would wheel brett and i around on dollies. that was amazing fun.

you also did the whole senior english class thing…. senior oddessy. that was after my time in high school (sadly) but my dad would tell me all about it.

i never had you for a teacher, but i felt like i did so it’s all good.

leave me comments any time. i love when people leave me comments. especially the good ones!

ps: the awkward guy continues to talk to me. because of the whole incident with john and the first aid, steve (the awkward guy) thinks he and i are really good friends now and always talks to me. the way our desks are positioned, our backs are to each other. well, his back is facing my side/back. but i can always see him swivel around to face me out of the corner of my eye. when he does that i pretend that i’m incredibly busy (when i’m actually just emailing someone or instant messaging my work friends). poor steve the awkward guy. he just doesnt have the social skillz.

pps: i think my ps was longer than my actual message. love it.

i would talk about the hostel people but i’m not sure who everyone is yet. i don’t know many names, so it would be a post about people with nicknames and meh. i think i might wait a week or so. maybe i’ll get to know more people.

i can talk about the work folks though.

you all got introduced to john through the video a couple of posts ago. john works in the southeast sector. he is an organizer. THE ONLY male organizer. and probably the youngest one too. he’s 25. i dont know a whole lot about john. when i first started working there, i sat near him, but i could barely understand what he was saying most of the time. but he’s actually a pretty funny guy. on the work night out, there was this really awkward fellow who has strange social skills: he kept talking about yoda and stuff.. anyway, nobody really wanted to talk to the awkward guy because it’s a little bit painful. but his jacket happened to be hanging on the back of the chair i was sitting in, and john happened to be sitting next to me. and the awkward guy came over to get some stuff out of his pocket of his jacket. he kept pulling random stuff out. and john and i started making jokes like “it’s the endless pocket of stuff.” john said the guy was like batman, full of gadgets. then i said more like inspector gadget. and then i said his pocket was like mary poppins’ bag. we were all laughing, including the awkward guy. but then he started talking about first aid, because he volunteers for the red cross. he’s very proud of this. i agree, it’s something to be proud of. but he was REALLY proud of it. and he went on and on and on about it. john kept giving me exhausted looks. finally he said to the awkward guy “kate here LOVES first aid. she told me the other day.” and i was like “no… he’s kidding. i don’t even know anything about first aid…” and john said “don’t be modest! you were telling me just the other day! when you came over with your list of overdue clients! remember?” and i said “no john. i DONT remember. i bring you a list of overdue clients every day.” and john turned to the awkward guy and said “she really likes it. i’m telling you.” and then the awkward guy looked at me with this glee in his face and started talking about first aid some more, and john smirked at me and turned around to talk to someone else. so i was stuck there, discussing first aid for about 10 minutes. finally the awkward guy left and i hit john. and he just laughed and laughed.

other than that i learned that john worked in a fire brigade thing (i think… he could have been saying something completely different…) but he was offered a promotion somewhere else, so he took that. however, he ended up HATING that job, and then he went into the homecare thing. which isn’t very great, but whatev. he said he applied for a team leader position and if he doesnt get that, he’ll probably leave. but he’s a pretty dedicated worker and knows his stuff and he seems like a good leader so i think he’ll probably get it. that’s all i know about john.

actually i should wait to post about more people until i can post interesting things about them. otherwise it will be a whole lot of “i think this” or “maybe they do this… i’m not sure” which is just dumb.

i also learned that luca (his name is actually spelled lucas, but the s is silent) does not really like any meat at all. well, no. he likes it sometimes. i asked him if he’d eat a steak and he said yes. a burger, sometimes. not a lot though. and this includes chicken, despite what i said before.

actually, i can talk about helen. i sit next to helen. she is one of the northwest organizers. she’s probably the nicest one. she always calls everyone “hen”. i thought she was saying “hun” but no, it’s “hen”. dont ask me why. she calls men and women hen. it’s just a pet name. anyway, she’s pretty nice. she talks to me and asks me about myself and seems interested. (nobody else in northwest cares about anyone except themselves.) the funniest thing is she has a really high voice, and talks super fast. and sometimes she has temper tantrums and starts cussing. which to me is quite funny because of her voice, her accent, and the fact that she’s this little older lady. (she’s not exactly OLD but she does have at least one grandchild.) she’s got really short brown hair, but i’m pretty sure she dyes it. and she always wears low cut tops. she likes to travel, but hates “beasties” (bugs) and doesnt want to go to anyplace with huge beasties. she’s going to New York on her next vacation with her husband.

well it’s getting late and i have to get up early for work tomorrow so the end.

inside the toasty warm homecare office, amongst the maze of cubicles, a silent war wages.

it’s the war of christmas spirit.

the northwest organizers struck first, by putting up a miniature christmas tree. it was joined by a second miniature, put up by the southwest team. southwest was forced to join the northwest team in its endeavors, simply because soutwest is weak and cowers under the viking-like stares of northwest. it’s safer for southwest to join in, rather than perish under the northwest’s power. they know it. i know it. everyone knows it.

northwest thought they were sitting pretty, confident they had already won. those cocky old crones didn’t believe the younger, therefore lazier (in their eyes) admin area had any motivation at all to display their christmas spirit.
the admins realized the power of the situation they were sitting in, and one day they STRUCK! and put up a BIG christmas tree, with actual decorations. the northwests were sore from this blow, but were not so easily defeated. however, the admins realized the potential for retaliation, and added ceiling decorations to complete their look.

however, the rage was brewing in the northwest sector, and they felt this last blow was a blow to their dignity. adding to their pathetic christmas trees, they started throwing anything green or red or gold and sparkly onto the walls and ceiling. tacky hanging santas attached to snowflakes adorn the areas above the organizers heads, soon to be joined by random accordian-style strings of decorations, swooping over their heads. (if they stand up suddenly, they could knock the whole contraption down…) sparkly tinsle is draped across the tops of the computer screens. garland is strewn about, no cares about taste or symmetry taken into account. now it’s personal. now it’s simply about getting the most decorations up. its about winning that christmas spirit award.

the battle continues. who will back down first? or will we all end up burried under a mass of green and red tinsle and sparkling lights?

************

i wrote this story at work one day because i was bored, and they recently blocked the internet. sad times. so i just wrote it instead. i showed it to my admin friends, who laughed. after this, the decorating battle continued. the admin side at least looks neat. (i also made an angel out of paper and tissues to top their christmas tree, because i like them better.) meanwhile northwest keeps taking this personally, and keeps adding decorations. but they are not in any order, nor do they look neat or good. seriously, even taking a step back from being biased on the basis of friendship, the admin side looks neater. the northwests are trying too hard. and it shows, because their decorations started falling down.

hahahaha. my story came true. “burried under a mass of green and red tinsle and sparkling lights”. wow, that’s crazy.

one week left of work! (until christmas) how many more decorations will be put up??

i got some requests to hear some scottish accents. well, on the christmas night out, i happened to catch some. can you understand what john is saying?

i also caught Alyson singing.

all in all, it was a fun night out. i’ll have to catch these people under normal, non drunk circumstances.

maybe i’ll get some scottish phrases on video and translate them into american english for you all. i think that’s a good project. hehehe.

so far, i’ve been asked out twice.

nobody ever really asked me out before. instead, boys at home would play long drawn-out mind games with me. and i played right back. i understood that game. i actually enjoyed it, even if i said i hated it. (sometimes it got old, but that’s the whole point of the game i guess…)

anyway, here it’s weird.

don’t worry, i already told brad about both incidents. and it’s not like i said i’d go out with these guys. actually i suppose i said yes to one, but that was because i didn’t really KNOW he was “asking me out”. he was so casual about it. “come by sometime and we’ll have coffee”. (he works with brianne in a COFFEE SHOP. i thought he was just being nice.) anyway, i thought he was gay. he was just really easy to talk to haha. but the second guy was a creepy old dude, who was talking to me about travelling. i like talking about travelling though, so i kept talking to him. but at one point i said “this summer, i’m going travelling with my BOYFRIEND. we want to go to such and such a place.” and like 5 minutes later he was like “so do you want to go get a drink?” i was like umm….. no i have to work tomorrow. so he said “well what are you doing tomorrow?” um….. working. “meet me here at 8, we’ll go to a pub.” um…. maybe….

yeah right. after that i went “well i have to email some people.” and he was like oh ok.

when i got home from work today he was using the payphone right by the staircase. i ran up those stairs. he didnt see me because he was facing the wall. phew!

anyway, weird. some guy asked brianne out like that too. just “hey do you want to go for a drink?” she was like uh… no thanks…. i guess boys are just really bold here or something.

hey! they put up a HUGE christmas tree in the lounge/dining room area. it’s so big, i have no idea how they got it in here!! and some of the hostellers pulled out a huge ladder and decorated it. it’s pretty messy, but hey, it’s a hostel. basically there’s a lot of tinsel thrown onto it. i think grandpa would faint if he saw it. haha. (my grandpa puts his tinsel on his tree piece by piece… practially. no throwing onto the tree allowed.)

anyway, there’s lots of decorations up. lights in the lobby, and garland draped around. the windows on all the doors have that fake snow stuff. it’s nice. i’m glad they are getting into the spirit, it’s making me get into the spirit.

work is hilarious. but i have a whole post about that for later.

i’m reading cat’s cradle by kurt vonnegut, because brianne lent it to me. she checked it out from the library. we also recently watched I Heart Huckabees, which has striking similarities to this book. once bri told me it’s just like i heart huckabees, i’ve started noticing tons of similiarities, and i’m finding the book a lot funnier. i also definitely read this book before, but i cant remember what happens at all. but as i read, i remember. it’s a very strange sensation actually. i usually remember if i read a book or not.

right now i’m sitting on a bench (because the comfy chair is next to the outlets that are all full of plugs, and the bench is next to an empty outlet that i could use to plug my computer in) so it’s not super comfortable. however, i’m also sitting right next to the radiator, which is nice and toasty. plus my computer is warm on my lap. ahhhh. feels good. and i can lean against the wall, so everything is happy.

well. i dont have a whole lot more to say. so… the end.

today at work, we could hear the rain pounding on the roof. it was also leaking through the celing onto Liz.

from the time i stepped outside until i got to the covered bus stop (about 20 yards away from the front door) i got pretty wet.

umbrellas are useless here. sure, they protect your face. that is, if they don’t turn inside out from the gusty winds. but even still, the rest of you gets soaked because the wind is causing the rain to fall sideways.

despite all of this gloom, it’s not really all that bad. in fact, i find it humerous sometimes. like today. i went to the grocery store, and walked back to the hostel. it’s about a 10 minute walk to the hostel from the store. ok, so i’m walking, and the wind is pushing against my back one minute, causing me to almost run, the rain pelting the back of my head. the next second, the wind swirls around, and starts blowing my face, causing me to walk slower and also causing the rain to soak my face. then the wind changes AGAIN, and blows from the side, almost pushing me over. so i’m walking down the street, looking like a very drunk person stumbling from side to side, with my hair going every which way, an meanwhile my scarf is slowly getting blown off. with the wind changing directions every few seconds, it’s getting unwrapped from around my neck. i finally had to take it off and hold it in my hand because it would blow into my face and i couldn’t see anything. and then it almost flew away, and i didnt really want to lose my scarf. meanwhile, i had a phrase going through my head. i had lynsay’s voice, scottish accent included, running through my head saying “this weather is BRUTAL, eh?”

so besides just stumbling down the road with my hair all crazy and my scarf blowing off, i’m also laughing.

yep. this weather is quite hilarious.

ps: just a side note- tic tac toe is called “crosses and knots” over here in scotland. and they think it’s really weird that we call it tic tac toe. i didn’t demonstrate the jingle that goes along with it though: “tic tac toe, three in a row!” that might have explained it better, but it also would have caused more teasing of me. i can only handle so much per day.

well, it doesnt really shut down. it shuts down in regards to doing crappy data entry. i just can’t handle it anymore!!! i already emailed some people, and checked out the for better or for worse website, sent luca a message, and checked out some internet sits about movies. so now i’m posting. i could do another description post, but i like doing those at the hostel better. or in the morning. i dunno. meh.

today i’m staying later to volunteer my time to help raise money for poor kids in africa. i work in a call center, so this building has volunteered it’s phones for this purpose. they just needed people to answer the phones, so i signed up. hey, its a good cause. i just hope people phone in and donate money.

i’m tucked away in my little corner, with nothing behind me except the little christmas tree. nobody can see what i’m doing. for all they know, i’m working incredibly hard, staring at the computer screen.

actually, most people in this office don’t even know what my job IS. which cracks me up. a lot of people think i have a lot more power than i actually do. this has it’s down points. for instance, last week i got blamed for matching a care plan that was not acceptable. how did i get blamed for this? well, SOMEONE (one of the organizers) told me that it was matched, and i just emailed it off saying “matched!” and i signed my name on the email. then this email got passed down the line, and someone called up saying “someone named Kate signed the careplan, and it’s not right.” well. i never signed any careplan. i signed an email. and that is very very different. but these people just like to pass the blame, and it landed on me, the lowly temp. whatever. i just said “i’m not allowed to match careplans. i don’t know how to do it.” and they went searching somewhere else for someone else to blame. oh silly organizers.

well. i’ve wasted enough time i might have to go back to work for 20 minutes… bah.