May Flowers

I discovered this song last Sunday and I can't stop listening to it:



Things have been pretty busy but good!

My room-mate's sister came to visit over Patriot's Day weekend. I was a little nervous about making a good impression.  But all of us had a really nice time.  We introduced her to Mystery Science Theater with "I Accuse My Parents". I made my slow cooker brisket recipe for dinner and we got in a game of Monopoly. Pro-tip -  apparently drinking wine while playing guarantees a win!

I also went to the Boston marathon with a group of friends around mile 20 in Newton. That was a blast! The weather was gorgeous and everyone was so nice. We picked various ways to cheer runners.  I decided to yell at every red head runner, "Go gingers!" Afterwards, we grabbed drinks and lunch. We discovered Citizen Cider's The Dirty Mayor which is like cider champagne deliciousness.

Work has been pretty good. Super Boss and I are back to normal after a couple weeks of tentativeness. Those awkward tip-toeing days made me a little sad because I felt like I broke our rapport. But we settled back to our regular vibe but with better boundaries like I call with questions rather than constantly popping into his office. When I do poke my head in, I always ask if it's a good time and now he tells me that he is going to a meeting in 5 minutes. I also respect his closed office door.

He was training me on a reporting process the Tuesday after the marathon when I told him that I had been yelling "Go gingers!" to red head runners. He got really concerned and said very seriously that I should not have done that.  That ginger is really insulting that he and his buddies have gotten into bar fights over using that word. I took that in and scanned his deadpan face hoping for a hint of humor.  Nope.  He wasn't trying to put one over on me - he was dead serious. For the rest of the day, I was horrified that I had basically screamed the red head version of "nigger" at people in public. I was also confused how I had absolutely no idea how insulting the word is.  My room-mate came to the rescue in addition to several friends on Facebook. Look at my profile picture. I come from a family of red heads Scots/Irish.  Guess what? Me saying ginger isn't insulting because hello freckles, reddish hair, and ghostly skin. Super Boss with his olive skin and black hair from Italian/Russian roots - insulting!

This past week was our last week to fix 1095-Cs.  I worked last Sunday with the plan of checking the penultimate coding file for maybe an hour with only a couple tweaks.  Guess what? Within five minutes of opening the file, I found hundreds of coding issues. Super Boss came in and we were both so discouraged and stressed. He said the only thing that is helping him get through the day was the Game of Thrones premiere that night.  Ha!

We needed to get 8000 correct forms stuffed and to our mailing room by Friday at 3:00pm.  Monday to Wednesday we were still testing coding. Super Boss stayed until midnight two nights in a row.  We don't have a high speed printer so we kept getting jams trying to get the forms out - the forms that needed to be kept in order.  Thursday, I spent 6 hours stuffing envelopes with help from various people in our department. Worker Bee Analyst and I found an error on a couple of letters where the zip code was printed twice.  Worker Bee begged me not to tell Super Boss.  Knowing Super Boss' need for perfection, he would want to reprint everything - so yeah I kept my mouth shut. Also, Worker Bee gets a good read on situations.  I ignored his warnings a couple weeks ago which lead to that horrible blow up and broken clock.  The 6 hours of straight envelope stuffing did a number on my neck, arm and back (car accident residual injury). I got home after 8pm, got in my PJs, grunted at my room-mate, and went to bed.  We got all the forms out by the deadline Friday.

Stressed/ no sleep Super Boss has an awesome sense of humor. He kept me laughing the last couple of days. I got really excited that one of our interns' cousins went to Mount Holyoke and I was gushing about Happy Valley. Cue Super Boss commenting, "Oh that dump..." my face just had a second to get pouty and I took a breathe to launch into a defense when Super Boss laughed and nodded - letting me know he got me.  Another time I was in his office and I asked him a question about China. He made a really deadpan observation about Chyna then I was doubled over leaning on his desk laughing my ass off.  Two days of high stress and buckets of laughing wasn't too horrible!

This is my one free weekend for the next month.  Next weekend is a girls night and Mother's Day, the next is my cousin's wedding shower, the next is Cyndi Lauper and Boy George, and then Memorial Day weekend is a 3 day camping trip Friday to Monday with a group of 9 friends.