I think I can now safely write about the work thing that I was scared to write about before.

The deal is, my contract ends on June 30th. I’ve known it was coming since I started here, so it’s not a shock. There was a possibility that this group could extend my contract and keep me around until late November (at which point I would’ve been here a year, and then I’d have to take another 100 days off, because those are the crazy laws of the Giant Software Company). Problem is, I didn’t really want to stick around for another six months, because… um, well… I just don’t like some of the people I work with. I don’t really want to get into specifics about that, I think that the less said about it, the better. I don’t want to be mean and snarky, and more importantly, I don’t want to potentially make things awkward for myself later on down the road.

So, I met with my rep (since I work for an agency, I have someone to whom I can complain about such things), and she was going to help me figure out a way to gracefully end my contract on June 30th rather than extend it. But it turns out? July 1st marks the start of a new fiscal year, and apparently our team’s budget has been frozen for the new fiscal year.

Long story short: they wouldn’t be able to extend my contract even if they wanted to! Ha! So I don’t have to have the uncomfortable “gee, you really need to find someone to replace me because I don’t like it here” conversation. They solved the problem for me, which is kind of a huge relief.

Of course, now comes the scary part of realizing that I have six weeks to find myself a new job. Fun! I’m not that stressed about it yet, but I’m sure I will be as July approaches.

This morning, I had an interview, and the hiring manager seemed really interested in me, but I left feeling sort of “meh” about it. It’s a permanent job, which I would like because I’m a little tired of bouncing from job to job every 6 months to a year. But the job itself doesn’t sound all that appealing. It’s a pretty high-stress environment, it requires a lot of hours, and there’s a huge financial aspect to it that’s kind of scary to me. (You want to put me in charge of a budget? HA! Oh how you make me laugh. Have you seen my checkbook? Oh that’s right, I don’t have one. I do all of my banking online. And I don’t write down or print out anything on paper. Fiscally responsible me! Woo!)

I generally believe that if I don’t leave the interview totally fired up about the job, it’s probably a sign that the job isn’t for me.

Ideally, I’d like to find something that’s either part-time, or that at least allows me to telecommute part-time. I know it’s early to plan for it since I’m not even pregnant yet, but I really don’t want to be in an office 40 hours a week after we have kids. Dave pointed out that if I could get a full-time permanent job at the Giant Software Company, it’d be easier to transition into more of a part-time role once I’m there. The company is creating a lot more work-from-home and job-share positions to improve on their “family friendly” image. But those spots usually get grabbed by their current employees the minute that they become available. So I’m looking into it.

Anyway, that’s the latest. Brace yourselves for many boring posts about bad job interviews. The fun never stops around here.

I bring my lunch to work every day. Mostly because it’s cheaper, but also because it gives me the feeling that I have some control over my diet. I usually bring a Lean Cuisine-type frozen lunch, because I’m lazy and that way I don’t have to think about it in the morning.

Today, however, I went to the kitchen to microwave my lunch, and… it wasn’t there. Someone ate my Lean Cuisine. The hell? Who does something like that?? There was another Lean Cuisine in the freezer, so I’m guessing that someone just forgot which one they brought and ate mine by mistake. I briefly considered eating the Lean Cuisine that was still in the freezer, but it was a lemongrass chicken, which I think is gross. (For the record, I had brought the roasted garlic chicken, which is one of my favorites.)

I just stood there at the freezer for a couple of minutes, staring in shock, waiting for my lunch to magically re-appear or something. One of the guys I work with walked in and asked how I was doing. Dumbly, I blurt out, “Someone ate my lunch!” He was all, “wha?” So I explained that my frozen entree had disappeared. He laughed and said, “Wow, I thought that stuff only happened in Dilbert cartoons.” Um, yeah. Me too.

When I recovered, I went to the cafeteria to buy my stupid lunch. The cafeteria here does have a pretty kick-ass salad bar, it’s just a bit too expensive to eat there every day.

But I keep coming back to wonder who on earth would take someone else’s lunch. Even if it was an accident, how do you confuse what you brought for yourself with someone else’s food? What the freakin’ hell?!

I know I have a self-imposed restriction on blogging about my job, but there are a few things that I think I can say without getting dooced.

1) I was in a meeting today with a lot of people that I don’t really know. This is not at all uncommon at my job. Since I am but a lowly temp, most people don’t bother introducing themselves to me unless they need something from me. And as loud and boisterous as I might be in my personal life, I’m sort of quiet at work and try as I might, I am just not the girl who’s going to be all, “Hi, I’m Cindy, who are you?”

Anyway, back to the meeting. Blah blah standard monthly reviewcakes. (I’ve obviously been reading way too many TwoP recaps lately.) Afterward, this girl who was in the meeting came up to me, introduced herself, and asked what I do. Just like that, “So what’s your role here?” Um, ok. Does that seem strange to anyone else? I can’t really imagine striking up a conversation with someone at work by asking them what they do. So I told her, and of course she has no idea what any of my stuff means, the same way I have no idea what any of her stuff means. She doesn’t even know who my boss is. There was really no point to the conversation at all. It was so strange.

2) About an hour ago, I was sent out to go retrieve the ID card of my boss’s boss, who it seems had left it in a conference room two buildings away. Our ID cards are what let us in the building, so it’s sort of important to have. It was odd that I was asked to go get it, because it’s essentially a personal errand, and I’ve never been asked to do something like that before. The whole thing was sort of anti-climactic – I walked over there and stopped by the receptionist’s desk first, because I thought maybe someone would have already found it and turned it in. And of course, someone had, so there were no real investigative skills required on my part. But I got to come back and be all like, “hey, I heard you were looking for this,” and be the big hero for the afternoon, so that’s cool. (Especially since I am terrified of my boss’s boss, because I am convinced that he doesn’t like me, but that’s a whole different story.)

3) This is the only part of the work-related post that might be dooce-able. There is someone I work with who absolutely drives me insane. I’m not saying who it is, or what this person does in relation to me. But this is one of those situations where because I am a temp and this other person is a full-time employee, the person assumes that he/she is my boss, when in fact he/she is not. And there is something about his/her personality and the way that he/she approaches me that totally rubs me the wrong way. I had to work with this person for a few hours yesterday afternoon, and I went home last night with a pounding headache behind my right eye. (It was still twitching when I went to bed.) It has gotten to the point where I can hear this person talking to someone else in the hall, and just the sound of his/her voice makes me want to hide under my desk. That’s not good.

(Think they can fire me for writing that? I wonder…)

Not much else going on here. I just keep re-reading this and giggling. Will someone get me a subscription to All You magazine? Pretty please?

I didn’t mean to be all mysterious with that last post (although I can tell by the number of comments that everyone was really concerned), I was just a bit tipsy (to put it delicately) and about to fall over asleep. So, the story: A couple of weeks ago, my boss got an email that said I was due for my 100-day break soon. (For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, this explains it pretty well. I’m being vague on purpose so I don’t get dooced.) My boss asked me about it, and I said that was weird because I had just taken my 100-day break. She forwarded the email to my rep at the contracting agency, and left it at that.

My rep and I exchanged a couple of emails and voicemails about it, and it turns out? Apparently I can’t do math, because I was off by one week. When I started this job, I thought that I was on day 102 of my break, and actually, it was day 95. And since the 100 days have to be continuous, it means that as of March 31st, I have to take another 100 days off. This is not as fun as it sounds, since it means going over 3 months with no paycheck. Plus, the whole being-bored-out-of-my-mind-all-day thing. Not to mention that I just really, really like this job. It’s a good team, the people are nice, I like my boss a lot, and I’ve learned a lot about a side of the IT industry that I had never been exposed to before. Obviously, the thought of having to leave in the next two months upset me greatly.

So! I somehow managed to keep myself from completely breaking down & sobbing at my desk, although I’m still not sure how I pulled that off. After I got home, Dave, The Boy Davis and I hit our local family Mexican restaurant so I could order myself a very large, very fruity drink. I had two. On an empty stomach. After that, there was no way I was going to be able to eat the meal I had ordered, so guess what I’m having for lunch today? (Mmmm… Mexican leftovers.) The drinks did succeed in making me feel better, but after that, I was scared to take anything to help me sleep (bad to mix sleep aids with alcohol, right?), so I tossed and turned and slept horribly. Surprisingly, I’m not hungover today, just tired.

I had a chat with my boss this morning, and she seems to think that we should be able to work around it since it’s only 5 days difference. (Have I mentioned that I adore her? She’s the first female boss I’ve had in years, so I was initially nervous about working with her, but she is Awesome, with a capital A.) Also, there are some full-time spots opening up on this team, and she told me that she talked to her boss about considering me. She said that she thinks I would be qualified for at least 2 or 3 of the open spots, and that I’m “good FTE material” (FTE = full-time employee). Honestly, going full-time at this company is my ultimate goal, and since I already know that I like this team, that would be perfect. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed, saying my prayers, lighting candles, wishing on stars and everything else I can think of that that happens.