While at work, I decided to walk to Farragut Square for lunch the other day and found myself missing Prince Charming terribly. I have no idea why…maybe because it was a beautiful day and I saw the folks having lunchtime picnics and enjoying the Outdoor Office the park has set up for the summer. Maybe it was because I passed (for the umpteenth time) the Subway he bought his lunch from every day for months on end. Maybe because I work pretty close to the office he worked at before things went south between us and he moved west. Side note: I also work practically next door to the hair salon Him went to for his haircuts and I feel/think absolutely nothing. However, I did not miss the Prince long…remember, this is the same guy who could not even meet at Metro Center to ride the train home. I guess The Mormon was always lurking just below the surface. Chalking it up to missing someone being part of the process. And even though I am masturdating’s biggest fan, companionship and attention are natural, normal things I miss from time to time.
But now that I have had time to think about it, I missed Prince Charming because I miss sharing my day with him and this was a week to share with that special someone (other than yourself) and he was the closest I have had to a special someone. It’s been an interesting time at Seattle Grace…surprisingly, I have been bonding with the male Meredith…he and I talk a lot (usually after hours) and not just about work; Lexie has been a little distant but thinking she misses the OR Nurse. Karev is flat out weird, Arizona is getting frazzled bit still cheerful and George is just George. The biggest surprise is Yang and I are bonding (I will probably never be her person but I am becoming her go-to girl) and all it took was a major mistake to bring about both a peculiar and amazing turn of events.
At work, I am a loner….Meredith and Lexie share an office so they are always together, laughing and talking; Arizona and George have their work spouse relationship. I sit in the middle of the office, surrounded by folks wrapped in their own little bubbles. Karev is in the Office No One Knows Exists (the light switch for that office is in another office, that is how much of an afterthought it is). Yang is in her office separated from the others by walls and a door. But I see things, I hear things….everyone is scared of Yang because of her diffident attitude, bipolar personality and when she is displeased, she can be quite scathing. There are a lot of eyes and hands on simple documents because everyone is deathly afraid of making a mistake; there is a lot of throwing folks under the bus for the same reason. Also, Yang waits until the day of to meet any deadline, so there is that pressure. And Seattle Grace is preparing for their Annual Conference, which means a lot of deadlines and frazzled nerves.
At this conference, the Hospital gives out awards (a lot of them), so the first order of business is to determine award winners. Which Arizona and Meredith had done; Yang compiled a list of them all and instructed me to break down said list and add on some informative details: nominee, nominator, organization, award they were receiving, etc. And I did so….except somewhere along the line, a mistake was made and the award winner in one of the categories got mixed up. Which was embarrassing and as Yang put it: a VERY serious mistake. The woman ranted, raved, yelled and was determined to get to the bottom of it…except instead of tracing the timeline of events, instead of asking had the person we mistakenly sent the announcement to ever been placed in the winner’s column at one point (the sheet had had multiple edits) she accused of Meredith and Arizona of being sloppy and careless.
I stepped in and told Yang it was all my fault; if there was any way to make this right, please tell me. I was her assistant and as such, her eyes and ears. If anyone was to blame, it was me for not double checking my work and if she wanted to terminate the agreement with the agency, I understood. And I meant it. I felt so badly because it meant: 1. I would be out of a job due to incompetence; 2. Yang had embarrassed herself in front of her peers (the man she snatched the award from was a Judge) and 3. The Judge was probably PISSED. So yes, I owned it because at the end of the day, it left my desk on Yang’s behalf and I was not a good pair of eyes and ears. You know me…. I have no problem (eventually) owning my shit and have been known to own other folks’ shit too. Well, no one knew what to do with my admittance; everyone just kind of looked at me, each other and the floor…not necessarily in that order. Yang finally spoke up and said it was an “unfortunate incident” but mistakes happen. Best thing to do is to learn from them and move forward. Just proof that the Hospital had to step up their quality control practices. And then she extended my contract until the end of the year!
Well, I was on Cloud 10 after that….yes, still felt badly about the mistake but felt better that Yang was not as unreasonable as one perceived her to be. And I would have a steady income for the next 3 ½ months…whatever happened after that, I would deal with it then. So I come into work the next day and by some weird twist, Yang and I were the only ones in the office that day. She calls me back into her office and tells me that she is giving me more responsibility: invoicing/bill paying and HR related tasks. In fact, she had some HR stuff for me to do RIGHT NOW and it was best to stay in her office to do it. So it’s a beautiful Friday morning and Yang and I are in her office, working together in comfortable silence when she starts talking to me.
She asks me about the agency, my work history and says she took a good look at my resume the night before. Then she asks about various assignments, the recent gap in employment and was I even looking for something permanent. Not sure about you, but this was sounding an awful lot like an interview, so my answer was carefully worded. Of course I want permanent…stability and consistency are important to me. It just has not happened yet, but I was content to ride the contract out, learn as much as I can seeing as I have never supported an executive of her caliber before. Yang’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree! She got all excited and told me she wanted to bring me onboard permanently!! (I fainted inside) That’s right…Yang wants to put a ring on it!! She likes my punctuality, dependability, my attention to details, that I was smart and caught on quickly and that I was trustworthy. It is beyond important to her that she can trust the ones around her. And I would not regret becoming a member of the Seattle Grace staff.
Her benefits include: an excellent/competitive starting salary; health/vision/dental/long & short term disability/life insurance 100% employer paid (or a monthly stipend in lieu of health benefits); 401K 100% employer matched up to 6% of my annual salary. 14 days of paid time off not including all federal holidays, Black Friday and the week between Christmas and New Year’s off with pay! AND, I get to travel (all expenses paid) to the Annual Convention which is held in a different city each year.
Outwardly I was calm, but inside I was jumping up and down, screaming OMG! OMG! OMG! BUT (and you know there is a but), she had just signed the contract to extend me the day before. Buying me out of the agency contract would be expensive, so we had two options: stay onboard until the contract had run down some; I can stay and we consider this time a probationary period where I would learn, train and we build a solid working relationship. Or I could go elsewhere where I would get more of a salary (the agency isn’t paying a whole lot) and come back to her in 6 months (if I quit, she cannot hire me for 6 months). Well, no way in hell am I leaving for her to find someone else to make permanent, so Option 1 it is. And we shook on it…since then, I have had to create my HR folder, she has given me a key to the office, the office celebrated my birthday (card and cake) and I sat in on my first staff meeting!
Naturally, all the important people in my life know about this incredible, prayer answering development and I am so happy it is unbelievable how happy I am….THIS is better than having a boyfriend! THIS is joy!! And yes, it would be nice to have a special someone to share this news with…Lord knows, it has been a long time coming. A celebratory dinner followed by a special dessert with someone who gives me butterflies and has stars in their eyes when they look at me sounds great but let’s handle one area of life at a time. For now, it is the professional which finally may be falling back into place. I will admit, it felt weird to miss Prince Charming because indifference is creeping in. When I do Facebook stalk him now (it is more the exception than the rule nowadays), I don’t feel anything. He is not as cute, there are no rocks in the tummy, there is no wondering why. It is just me looking at a picture of a man I used to know and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
So this has been my week…a surprising one to be sure. Now time to get ready for a short work week (heading to NC Thursday night to spend the long weekend with family and Tiny Human). I will be back soon with updates and new posts. As always, thanks for stopping past and reading and as usual….enjoy your day!