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What a Week
Nov. 13th, 2020 10:10 pmWoof.
What a week.
My workplace encountered some sort of catastrophic system failure. I'm not sure of the details, but it seems like possibly a cyberattack. Whatever caused it, our entire system has been down all week. I can't check email, monitor captionists, process timeclock punches, or do basically any aspect of my work that involves a computer. Heck, we're not even allowed to turn the computers ON.
The good news is that since our captioning stations aren't running on the same system, they are still operational. So captionists can still work. But we supervisors have no way to monitor them or help them if they need to be taken off a call. The only thing we can do is physically walk down the aisles at the call center every 5-10 minutes to see if anyone needs help.
So I've been getting a lot more cardio at work, which is nice. But what would be nicer is being able to do my job :(
It's really nerve-wracking, at a time when we are all already stressed out.
My biggest concern is how long it will take to get things back up and running. It's already been a week and we've had no indication that we'll be able to resume operations yet. I don't know how severe the problem is or whether it could affect our employment. It's just...stressful.
Again, trying to focus on the positives, we are at least getting paid this week although it'll be based on whatever we were paid last week so there are bound to be lots of inaccuracies. And since there's very little we can do at work I've had time to caption more, and to work on my stenography between calls, which is nice.
Anyway. I'm trying not to freak out, there's been no indication that this will affect anyone's jobs, but there's also been no indication that the problem is even close to being fixed. Good vibes, good thoughts, deep breaths.
As it happens, I took an extra day off this week for Jameson's birthday. I couldn't get his actual birthday off but did get the day before. Now that work is crazy I'm really grateful for the extra day.
But I'm also really stressed because none of the plans I made for Jameson's birthday are working out. I ordered his present more than a month in advance, knowing it was a custom item that might take a while to make, and we are three days away and I still haven't gotten a shipping notice. It's not going to be here on time. So I've had to scramble to make a card describing what it will be. Which I find really embarrassing.
I also had some custom desserts made for him by a friend who makes these beautiful cookies. Neither of us realized that the planned ship date, 11/11, was a federal holiday until it was too late. So those will likely be late as well.
Then I tried to order him a cake, just a small premade one, but with a few custom elements that I thought would be nice. And thus far I've had no order confirmation or indication that my cusomizations were done. I'm supposed to pick it up on Friday...I guess all I can do is hope it will be there.
If nothing else, I'm cooking him dinner on his birthday. But I always cook dinner on my days off, it's not special.
I'm just really disappointed and frustrated right now. With the cookies it's not really anyone's fault, just unfortunate timing I guess. But with the gift and the cake, I feel like why did I bother struggling to take care of them in advance? I may as well have just half-assed this whole thing and there would be no difference in the result. At this point there's nothing I can do but wait for things to show up.
Anyway, all of this has weighed on me all week. His birthday is Saturday and I've been dreading it...some birthday, with no gifts to open and "maybe" a cake! I just wanted to do something nice for the person I care about, guess that's far too much to ask in 2020. It's all I can do right now not to scream or cry. This may be the thing that finally cracks me for 2020.
Whatever, I guess I'm being a spoiled brat. Just truly thought it was a small ask.
On Wednesday I had a lot to do, starting with making blueberry scones in the air fryer. Jameson had shown interest in trying this so I figured it was a good week to give it a shot. He's got depression, you see, so part of the reason you see me making caramel from scratch and cooking elaborate meals and cleaning and doing chores and trying to grow fresh food and spending half my damn day in front of a stove is so that I can even slightly cheer him up, maybe get one small smile or one split second of eye contact. It's why it was so important to me to give him something special on his birthday. He's going to be one step closer to 40, and his depression has only gotten worse with covid and all of his Disney friends losing their jobs and two of his friends dying last week. I thought the least, the VERY LEAST I could do was make his birthday special.
Ok ok, you don't want to hear it, sorry. Scones. I made mini blueberry scones with orange zest. They were good, but they were not actually scones. They had a weird light fluffy texture...scones are supposed to be pretty dense and dry. The recipe had a lot of baking powder and baking soda in it, I think if I make these again I'll halve those ingredients. No reason for them to be so fluffy! Still, they did taste good and I'm glad I tried making them.
After that I had a few minutes to eat breakfast before driving 30 minutes to Whole Paycheck to pick up ingredients for dinner Thursday and wings for dinner Wednesday. Then I had to hit FedEx to pick up the slapdash card I'd made for Jameson's not-going-to-show-up gift. Then I drove another 20 minutes to Total Wine to find some of his favorite beers (he doesn't drink often and Total Wine is one of few places where you can buy single beers). Of course they didn't have what I needed--of course! Because this is what's going to happen when I put in an effort to make someone's day special, every single thing has to go wrong!--so I picked out two beers that I at least know he will drink. Then I drove aaaaaall the way to the nearest Publix for a six pack of Yuengling Hershey Porter because he mentioned wanting to try it but it's limited edition and selling out fast. I did at least manage to get that.
I made it home just in time to unload the groceries before tropical storm Eta dumped another zillion gallons of rain (it's been raining all week). It took me two hours to do all of this, leaving me with very little time for anything else but to start prepping for dinner. I made wings in the air fryer and ordered us a cheeseburger pizza from Domino's, another food Jameson was interested in trying. It was actually pretty good, by "good" I definitely don't mean healthy, but it did taste a lot like a cheeseburger!
After dinner I started writing a letter to my grandparents, but after seeing the time I had to stop halfway through to practice steno before bed. For a day off it felt like all I did was run around frantically. Not very relaxing, not helping my blood pressure any.
Thursday, kind of more of the same. I didn't have to go anywhere but I started my day with some homework and answering some questions for another steno student. When that was done I prepped some things for dinner while doing laundry. While Jameson was out getting groceries and running a few errands I assembled his birthday card and pulled weeds around the front and sides of the house. Back inside I dusted and cleaned up and ate lunch. Jameson came back with his groceries and some weights so he can work out at home. We both miss our gym memberships and while our weight hasn't fluxuated that much, personally I know my muscle mass is garbage right now. I'll probably pick up some weights too.
I made us some shrimp po' boys and fried green tomatoes for dinner. I've made the po' boys before, but haven't gotten it quite right. The first time I followed the recipe to a tee and was disappointed to end up with greasy, flavorless shrimp and baguettes that were so hard all the filling squashed out. The second time the rolls were too soft and got soggy inside, and the shrimp were overcooked. This time, instead of doing the "butter sauce" that the recipe calls for, I cooked the shrimp on the stove in some of the marinade and poured the marinade reduction over the shrimp after they were done. I got rolls that were crusty-but-not-hard and toasted them briefly in the oven. And I made the remoulade well in advance so the flavors would have time to permeate the mayo. The results were pretty excellent.
The green tomatoes were dipped in flour and spices, buttermilk and eggs, and panko and cornmeal, then air fried. They were awesome.
After dinner we tried to do some exercises...Jameson subscribed to a home workout program and we wanted to try it out. Um...after dinner is not a good time to work out :p For whatever reason this program started with burpees. I thought Jameson was gonna barf. He switched to yoga for a bit, then we quit early. I'm ashamed at being out of shape but also know it could be a lot worse. If I don't have to buy new clothes, I'm not doing all that bad.
Friday, it felt really weird to be home. But I'm so, so grateful for the extra sleep and the shorter work week. Although I've been stressed, I really am glad to have extra time to get things done this week.
My garden is doing well for the most part although the bugs are ravaging all of my plants much more than they did in the spring. I picked five armyworms off my tomatoes Friday morning. I picked my largest jalapeno, it's about four inches long! Not sure what to do with it but right now I'm thinking pico de gallo. The other jalapenos are growing in twos and threes, so I'll use them for larger projects like jalapeno cornbread, or I'll just pickle them. I've also started to get bunches of cherry tomatoes and three large tomatoes.
I was excited to see a zebra longwing butterfly in my pollinator garden this week! These are very spazzy butterflies and I've never had much luck getting footage of them.
After she left I was inspecting my passion vine when I noticed these tiny little eggs. She laid eggs! I didn't know that the passion vine was a host plant for both the gulf fritillary AND the zebra longwing...very cool! I will try to look out for her eggs as best I can.
The cranberry hibiscus has been blooming all week, and I've been cutting off the spent blossoms. Supposedly you can make a nice tea out of the flower petals (you can use the whole bud but it has some thorny parts and I'd rather not risk it) so I've been washing the buds, removing the stamens and calyxes, and laying the petals on paper towels on the counter to dry. When they've dried like that for 24 hours I put them on a sheet pan and cook them on low heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes to make them crispy. Since I'm paranoid about food safety I've been occasionally eating a petal here and there, dried or fresh, because I'm thinking of making teabags for gifts and don't want to poison anyone with mold or something! So far so good. When the hibiscus has stopped blooming I'll brew myself a cup and see how it tastes and decide what to do from there.
After that I once again spent most of my day in the kitchen, meal prepping for the week and prepping the enchiladas for Jameson's birthday dinner and prepping the filling for stuffed shells and packing my lunch for work. When that was done I had to clean up, that took forever. Jameson got some new games for himself for his birthday and spent some time enjoying those, and also doing a workout with his new set of weights. It looked fun, maybe I can join him next time.
In the afternoon I ran errands, picking up a few things at Target and picking up Jameson's ice cream cake. It looked fine, I shouldn't have worried, but not getting some sort of confirmation always freaks me out.
Back home I had a little time to chill before it was time to start making dinner. I actually made two dinners at once: the stuffed shells for tonight, and the enchiladas for tomorrow. While the shells cooked in the oven I made the enchilada filling and stuffed the tortillas, leaving the sauce off until tomorrow. This way when I get home from work they can go right in the oven, and all I'll have to do is prepare the garnishes (cut an avocado and some cilantro basically). The stuffed shells turned out awesome, creamy and delicious. I've made these before and this time they were much better (last time I overdid the nutmeg).
After dinner I got a huge surprise. A few days ago I had emailed the company that made Jameson's custom gift, begging for a tracking number, explaining that none of his gifts were going to show up on time and it would really help to at least be able to tell him when he could expect his gift. I felt bad to demand attention when it's clear that shipping was delayed due to covid-related reasons, but having had my plans for Jameson's birthday ruined from every direction I was feeling extremely frustrated and upset. I didn't want to hand him an empty card and a cheap cake. I had tried so hard to make his birthday more special than that, and nothing worked out. At the very least, a tracking number would be "something".
The company's response was completely unexpected. They sent a video that they made themselves, in which all of the employees wish Jameson a happy birthday! And they're sending an edible arrangement that will arrive ON his birthday!! This was just...I was shocked speechless. My first thought was that I must have made them feel REALLY bad! I didn't mean to do that, it's just truly the situation I was in where a tracking number was all I'd have to give him. I guess that upset someone over there just as much as it upset me. And while I feel guilty for making someone else feel that, their response has truly restored some of my faith in humanity.
Jameson and I both have gotten used to paying for a service, or scheduling a meeting, or sending an email, and having people back out or ghost or simply never respond. We have learned to grin and bear it when paying for expedited shipping, because we know that 90% of the time we're just throwing money away and the thing is still going to get here late. We know that when we write letters to our loved ones, or call them to see how they're doing, the majority of the time they're not going to respond. We know that scheduling an appointment or meeting means wasting that portion of the day waiting for the other party to never show up. So when I wrote to this company, although I was upset and tried to express how important Jameson's birthday was to me, and how much it would mean to get a tracking number for his late gift, I never actually expected a response. For them to not only respond, but to take time out of their day to basically singlehandedly make Jameson's birthday special, is something I cannot repay and will never forget.
I will at minimum send a thank you card. Maybe I can arrange for some cookies to be dropped off too, idk. I've got to repay them somehow.
So, that was my week. It's been a wild one.
Tomorrow is Jameson's birthday, and thanks to this company, I know there will be some truly special elements to the day. And now it's something I can look forward to. Extremely thankful.
What a week.
My workplace encountered some sort of catastrophic system failure. I'm not sure of the details, but it seems like possibly a cyberattack. Whatever caused it, our entire system has been down all week. I can't check email, monitor captionists, process timeclock punches, or do basically any aspect of my work that involves a computer. Heck, we're not even allowed to turn the computers ON.
The good news is that since our captioning stations aren't running on the same system, they are still operational. So captionists can still work. But we supervisors have no way to monitor them or help them if they need to be taken off a call. The only thing we can do is physically walk down the aisles at the call center every 5-10 minutes to see if anyone needs help.
So I've been getting a lot more cardio at work, which is nice. But what would be nicer is being able to do my job :(
It's really nerve-wracking, at a time when we are all already stressed out.
My biggest concern is how long it will take to get things back up and running. It's already been a week and we've had no indication that we'll be able to resume operations yet. I don't know how severe the problem is or whether it could affect our employment. It's just...stressful.
Again, trying to focus on the positives, we are at least getting paid this week although it'll be based on whatever we were paid last week so there are bound to be lots of inaccuracies. And since there's very little we can do at work I've had time to caption more, and to work on my stenography between calls, which is nice.
Anyway. I'm trying not to freak out, there's been no indication that this will affect anyone's jobs, but there's also been no indication that the problem is even close to being fixed. Good vibes, good thoughts, deep breaths.
As it happens, I took an extra day off this week for Jameson's birthday. I couldn't get his actual birthday off but did get the day before. Now that work is crazy I'm really grateful for the extra day.
But I'm also really stressed because none of the plans I made for Jameson's birthday are working out. I ordered his present more than a month in advance, knowing it was a custom item that might take a while to make, and we are three days away and I still haven't gotten a shipping notice. It's not going to be here on time. So I've had to scramble to make a card describing what it will be. Which I find really embarrassing.
I also had some custom desserts made for him by a friend who makes these beautiful cookies. Neither of us realized that the planned ship date, 11/11, was a federal holiday until it was too late. So those will likely be late as well.
Then I tried to order him a cake, just a small premade one, but with a few custom elements that I thought would be nice. And thus far I've had no order confirmation or indication that my cusomizations were done. I'm supposed to pick it up on Friday...I guess all I can do is hope it will be there.
If nothing else, I'm cooking him dinner on his birthday. But I always cook dinner on my days off, it's not special.
I'm just really disappointed and frustrated right now. With the cookies it's not really anyone's fault, just unfortunate timing I guess. But with the gift and the cake, I feel like why did I bother struggling to take care of them in advance? I may as well have just half-assed this whole thing and there would be no difference in the result. At this point there's nothing I can do but wait for things to show up.
Anyway, all of this has weighed on me all week. His birthday is Saturday and I've been dreading it...some birthday, with no gifts to open and "maybe" a cake! I just wanted to do something nice for the person I care about, guess that's far too much to ask in 2020. It's all I can do right now not to scream or cry. This may be the thing that finally cracks me for 2020.
Whatever, I guess I'm being a spoiled brat. Just truly thought it was a small ask.
On Wednesday I had a lot to do, starting with making blueberry scones in the air fryer. Jameson had shown interest in trying this so I figured it was a good week to give it a shot. He's got depression, you see, so part of the reason you see me making caramel from scratch and cooking elaborate meals and cleaning and doing chores and trying to grow fresh food and spending half my damn day in front of a stove is so that I can even slightly cheer him up, maybe get one small smile or one split second of eye contact. It's why it was so important to me to give him something special on his birthday. He's going to be one step closer to 40, and his depression has only gotten worse with covid and all of his Disney friends losing their jobs and two of his friends dying last week. I thought the least, the VERY LEAST I could do was make his birthday special.
Ok ok, you don't want to hear it, sorry. Scones. I made mini blueberry scones with orange zest. They were good, but they were not actually scones. They had a weird light fluffy texture...scones are supposed to be pretty dense and dry. The recipe had a lot of baking powder and baking soda in it, I think if I make these again I'll halve those ingredients. No reason for them to be so fluffy! Still, they did taste good and I'm glad I tried making them.
After that I had a few minutes to eat breakfast before driving 30 minutes to Whole Paycheck to pick up ingredients for dinner Thursday and wings for dinner Wednesday. Then I had to hit FedEx to pick up the slapdash card I'd made for Jameson's not-going-to-show-up gift. Then I drove another 20 minutes to Total Wine to find some of his favorite beers (he doesn't drink often and Total Wine is one of few places where you can buy single beers). Of course they didn't have what I needed--of course! Because this is what's going to happen when I put in an effort to make someone's day special, every single thing has to go wrong!--so I picked out two beers that I at least know he will drink. Then I drove aaaaaall the way to the nearest Publix for a six pack of Yuengling Hershey Porter because he mentioned wanting to try it but it's limited edition and selling out fast. I did at least manage to get that.
I made it home just in time to unload the groceries before tropical storm Eta dumped another zillion gallons of rain (it's been raining all week). It took me two hours to do all of this, leaving me with very little time for anything else but to start prepping for dinner. I made wings in the air fryer and ordered us a cheeseburger pizza from Domino's, another food Jameson was interested in trying. It was actually pretty good, by "good" I definitely don't mean healthy, but it did taste a lot like a cheeseburger!
After dinner I started writing a letter to my grandparents, but after seeing the time I had to stop halfway through to practice steno before bed. For a day off it felt like all I did was run around frantically. Not very relaxing, not helping my blood pressure any.
Thursday, kind of more of the same. I didn't have to go anywhere but I started my day with some homework and answering some questions for another steno student. When that was done I prepped some things for dinner while doing laundry. While Jameson was out getting groceries and running a few errands I assembled his birthday card and pulled weeds around the front and sides of the house. Back inside I dusted and cleaned up and ate lunch. Jameson came back with his groceries and some weights so he can work out at home. We both miss our gym memberships and while our weight hasn't fluxuated that much, personally I know my muscle mass is garbage right now. I'll probably pick up some weights too.
I made us some shrimp po' boys and fried green tomatoes for dinner. I've made the po' boys before, but haven't gotten it quite right. The first time I followed the recipe to a tee and was disappointed to end up with greasy, flavorless shrimp and baguettes that were so hard all the filling squashed out. The second time the rolls were too soft and got soggy inside, and the shrimp were overcooked. This time, instead of doing the "butter sauce" that the recipe calls for, I cooked the shrimp on the stove in some of the marinade and poured the marinade reduction over the shrimp after they were done. I got rolls that were crusty-but-not-hard and toasted them briefly in the oven. And I made the remoulade well in advance so the flavors would have time to permeate the mayo. The results were pretty excellent.
The green tomatoes were dipped in flour and spices, buttermilk and eggs, and panko and cornmeal, then air fried. They were awesome.
After dinner we tried to do some exercises...Jameson subscribed to a home workout program and we wanted to try it out. Um...after dinner is not a good time to work out :p For whatever reason this program started with burpees. I thought Jameson was gonna barf. He switched to yoga for a bit, then we quit early. I'm ashamed at being out of shape but also know it could be a lot worse. If I don't have to buy new clothes, I'm not doing all that bad.
Friday, it felt really weird to be home. But I'm so, so grateful for the extra sleep and the shorter work week. Although I've been stressed, I really am glad to have extra time to get things done this week.
My garden is doing well for the most part although the bugs are ravaging all of my plants much more than they did in the spring. I picked five armyworms off my tomatoes Friday morning. I picked my largest jalapeno, it's about four inches long! Not sure what to do with it but right now I'm thinking pico de gallo. The other jalapenos are growing in twos and threes, so I'll use them for larger projects like jalapeno cornbread, or I'll just pickle them. I've also started to get bunches of cherry tomatoes and three large tomatoes.
I was excited to see a zebra longwing butterfly in my pollinator garden this week! These are very spazzy butterflies and I've never had much luck getting footage of them.
https://instagram.com/p/CHdc0iQg2NJ
After she left I was inspecting my passion vine when I noticed these tiny little eggs. She laid eggs! I didn't know that the passion vine was a host plant for both the gulf fritillary AND the zebra longwing...very cool! I will try to look out for her eggs as best I can.
The cranberry hibiscus has been blooming all week, and I've been cutting off the spent blossoms. Supposedly you can make a nice tea out of the flower petals (you can use the whole bud but it has some thorny parts and I'd rather not risk it) so I've been washing the buds, removing the stamens and calyxes, and laying the petals on paper towels on the counter to dry. When they've dried like that for 24 hours I put them on a sheet pan and cook them on low heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes to make them crispy. Since I'm paranoid about food safety I've been occasionally eating a petal here and there, dried or fresh, because I'm thinking of making teabags for gifts and don't want to poison anyone with mold or something! So far so good. When the hibiscus has stopped blooming I'll brew myself a cup and see how it tastes and decide what to do from there.
After that I once again spent most of my day in the kitchen, meal prepping for the week and prepping the enchiladas for Jameson's birthday dinner and prepping the filling for stuffed shells and packing my lunch for work. When that was done I had to clean up, that took forever. Jameson got some new games for himself for his birthday and spent some time enjoying those, and also doing a workout with his new set of weights. It looked fun, maybe I can join him next time.
In the afternoon I ran errands, picking up a few things at Target and picking up Jameson's ice cream cake. It looked fine, I shouldn't have worried, but not getting some sort of confirmation always freaks me out.
Back home I had a little time to chill before it was time to start making dinner. I actually made two dinners at once: the stuffed shells for tonight, and the enchiladas for tomorrow. While the shells cooked in the oven I made the enchilada filling and stuffed the tortillas, leaving the sauce off until tomorrow. This way when I get home from work they can go right in the oven, and all I'll have to do is prepare the garnishes (cut an avocado and some cilantro basically). The stuffed shells turned out awesome, creamy and delicious. I've made these before and this time they were much better (last time I overdid the nutmeg).
After dinner I got a huge surprise. A few days ago I had emailed the company that made Jameson's custom gift, begging for a tracking number, explaining that none of his gifts were going to show up on time and it would really help to at least be able to tell him when he could expect his gift. I felt bad to demand attention when it's clear that shipping was delayed due to covid-related reasons, but having had my plans for Jameson's birthday ruined from every direction I was feeling extremely frustrated and upset. I didn't want to hand him an empty card and a cheap cake. I had tried so hard to make his birthday more special than that, and nothing worked out. At the very least, a tracking number would be "something".
The company's response was completely unexpected. They sent a video that they made themselves, in which all of the employees wish Jameson a happy birthday! And they're sending an edible arrangement that will arrive ON his birthday!! This was just...I was shocked speechless. My first thought was that I must have made them feel REALLY bad! I didn't mean to do that, it's just truly the situation I was in where a tracking number was all I'd have to give him. I guess that upset someone over there just as much as it upset me. And while I feel guilty for making someone else feel that, their response has truly restored some of my faith in humanity.
Jameson and I both have gotten used to paying for a service, or scheduling a meeting, or sending an email, and having people back out or ghost or simply never respond. We have learned to grin and bear it when paying for expedited shipping, because we know that 90% of the time we're just throwing money away and the thing is still going to get here late. We know that when we write letters to our loved ones, or call them to see how they're doing, the majority of the time they're not going to respond. We know that scheduling an appointment or meeting means wasting that portion of the day waiting for the other party to never show up. So when I wrote to this company, although I was upset and tried to express how important Jameson's birthday was to me, and how much it would mean to get a tracking number for his late gift, I never actually expected a response. For them to not only respond, but to take time out of their day to basically singlehandedly make Jameson's birthday special, is something I cannot repay and will never forget.
I will at minimum send a thank you card. Maybe I can arrange for some cookies to be dropped off too, idk. I've got to repay them somehow.
So, that was my week. It's been a wild one.
Tomorrow is Jameson's birthday, and thanks to this company, I know there will be some truly special elements to the day. And now it's something I can look forward to. Extremely thankful.
