What I thought was allergies over the weekend fucking with my head has culminated into something more sinister. My stomach feels to be in knots, or having difficulty passing a bowling ball through my intestines or something. By gum, this is WORSE THAN MENSTRUAL CRAMPS, and that’s something, oh boy. I once described cramps to my husband as feeling like someone grabbed my insides, just behind the naval, with needle-nose pliers and was twisting for hours.
I truly despise being ill. Not only am I going to miss a day of work, I am mostly incapable of doing anything around the house. Back when I worked as a wage-slave drone at a grocery store, I was thankful of days I was really sick. I have problems lying just to get a day off. Now that I work somewhere that actually benefits from my attendance and productivity at work, I feel terrible missing a day.
They hired me on the lowest level and expected me to just answer phones. My technician training was meant to be a formality for when they eventually eliminated the Customer Service Representative position. When they realized that I actually retained and understood what they were telling me, they took me off their list of over-paid receptionists and gave me the title of Tech I and set me on my way. When they realized that the other Tech Is that were hired at the same time were incapable of doing as much as I did (I didn’t even try to over-achieve, and I certainly didn’t feel stressed over the amount of work I was doing and how much I was learning), they fast-tracked my Tech II training. The official promotion comes next April, but they have already moved the majority of my Tech I responsibilities to others. I’ve been in charge of training new Tech Is since February. I was hired in December. I had NO prior HVAC/R knowledge; I couldn’t even tell you how an air conditioner worked. Now I’m helping large retail companies save money on their energy bills by monitoring and managing their usage.
The CEO of the company that owns my company is coming to visit today. I was asked to go along with four people who volunteered to go to represent my department at the meeting. I didn’t want to go at all. It’s flattering to be selected to go, but I hate meetings like this. I hate things that prevent me from working. I like working, I like accomplishing things. Meetings with coworkers about the state of a big-box retail chain’s energy usage and how we can get them to save more is capable of accomplishing a hell of a lot (but not often). Meetings like today’s accomplish nothing in my immediate occupation.
And now I’ve been up all night, evacuating my innards at either end. The good news is that I don’t have to go to that stupid meeting.