Bunn Memories Part One

So I've compiled a list of amusing/interesting things from my summer working at Bunn.  There are a lot, so I'm going to do it in installments.  Hopefully these make sense to you guys.
 
- Mr. Bunn is a U of I grad, and he even has an Animal Science degree just like me.  (And yet he's rolling in cash while I'm the mailroom clerk...  hmmmm...)  I often sort U of I Alumni and Illini Sports mail for him.
- We deal with a coffee shop called "Ugly Mug"  (There are some other really fun names too, I just can't recall them)
- You can hear people talking across their cubicles all the time.  They are pretty much never talking about work.  Politics, personal lives, jokes, e-mail viruses....  but not work.
- There is a lady in Commercial Orders that doesn't laugh - she cackles.  It's ridiculously funny, as you can also hear that across the whole office of cubicles.
- I have about 5 near-collisions with other employees every day because they need mirrors at several of the "high-traffic intersections" in the office.
- Some of the guys call me "Ma'am" and it just seems wierd.
- There have been lous power tools used in all the restrooms, and I have no idea why...
- One of the guys in Fabrication calls the mailroom my cage and insists on making me talk when I deliver their mail (I'm usually very quiet at work).
- Barb and I have decided that people are either selling Kleenex on the black market or eating them, because the supply of them (which is in the mailroom with me) disappears at an insanely fast pace and in spurts.
- Mr. Bunn gets magazines for his daughters and wife, including many catalogs for women's clothing.  However, the Victoria's Secret catalog has HIS name on it, not theirs.
 
Well, that's enough for this batch.
 
P.S. - The "noise" in my room has stopped for a few days now, so hopefully there will be no problems in the future.
 
P.P.S. - If you want to see your parents act like kids, take them to an office store and have them roll around the display chairs.  It worked for mine, anyway, and it was hillarious!

Invasion?!

Something is trying to eat me!  ...Or at least my bedroom wall.  I was just sitting at my computer today after work and suddenly I heard this rustling/chewing sound.  I thought maybe a mouse was in this box at the head of my bed, so I went to investigate.  All I was able to do was locate the general area the noise was coming from - the outside wall above my bed and window.  I'm extremely wierded out, because the mice usually stay in the basement.  Maybe it's a wasp nest, but I didn't see any when I checked the outside of the house.  I don't want to be laying in bed unable to sleep because of this eerie chewing noise...  Hopefully we can find some way to get rid of it soon!  Creepy!

I tried...

Okay, home dial-up is officially my nemesis.  I just tried to publish a post that I'd worked on for at least 30 minutes, and I LOST EVERYTHING I HAD TYPED because I keep getting booted.  (Usually I know and can copy my text because AIM goes first, but that wasn't the case this time, so I think it was just Net Zero being crappy.)  I am SOOSOOOSOSSOOOO sick of this!  My Dad's computer never gets booted.  It's only my line.  And I changed the cord, so it's not that.  The modem is only 1 year old, so it's not that either.  GRR!
 
Here's what I said in a nutshell, since I don't feel like re-typing the whole thing.
 
West Lake Animal Hospital wants me to work there full-time.  As in quit at Bunn.  Part of me wants to since it's a much better, more relevant job.  But part of me doesn't feel right about ditching Bunn, which has been very good to me.  On top of that, I don't even know if it's possible for me to leave Bunn early since I have to train my replacement, who hasn't been found yet.  But I like working with the animals so much more!!  And Dr. Hill says she wishes she'd had me working full-time all along, but she had no idea Mara was quitting (I don't think Mara knew either).  Then again, can I really trust Dr. Hill to deliver decent hours?  That hasn't been the case in the past.  I also make more per hour at Bunn.  What would you guys do?
 
I got to see the end of a dachschund's emergency exploratory surgery.  That was pretty cool.  And my kitty isn't doing as poorly as I was expecting - Dr. Lutz says her heart murmur is more pronounced than last year, but not majorly, and otherwise she looks good.
 
Dad is getting on my nerves.  He thinks it's really a terrible sign that I'm not already studying for vet school.  He's also being possessive of MY hard-earned money.  He was not happy after Mom and I went shopping over the weekend.  Is anyone else's Dad like this?!  With luck, I may get a cell-phone tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
I got to see Ashley last night and I will go to the Muni with Amanda U. on Saturday.  Yay for getting out of the house a bit for something other than work!  I'm REALLY looking forward to my b-day party.  It's gonna be super-fun!  Are you coming?!  I hope so!  Let me know!  ;-)  :-D
 
Well, I should get going.

Strange Lifesaver

I often have a lot of time to kill at work. I've become quite creative in finding things to do, but sometimes there just isn't much of an option but to just waste time doing very little. During one such episode, I was observing some of the frames on the wall down in Tech Services and came upon something very interesting. There was a framed envelope, and in separate frames, its former contents, as well as several photos of a guy and a Bunn coffee maker - a damaged one. I'd walked by it at least twice a day and never really bothered to look at it and figure it out. As it turns out, the letter was from a man who had a Bunn coffee machine in his Florida convenience store. One day, there was a hold-up and the theif tried to shoot the man. The bullet, however, hit the coffee maker on its way towards him. Normally, this wouldn't have mattered - it would go right through and still hit later targets. Bunn, however, uses some really strong steel in the panels of its coffee makers. The machine, in effect, simply caught the bullet and saved the man's life. The photos show the smiling saved man with his arm around the machine, which bears a bullet hole on one side (in a plastic part) and the dent on the other side (steel) where it stopped the bullet. How randomly neat is that?!

Just thought I'd share that. Are you coming to my party?

It Was A Monday, Alright

Today at work was the hectic day I was expecting Tuesday last week after the holiday. And people were really getting on my nerves, too. First, mail arrived late. This is never good on a Monday. Second, I discovered that I had been trained wrong on what mail goes to Purchasing because the lady who picks up their mail complained about it to SOMEONE ELSE even though she had already been in the mailroom with me and could have told me then. Then we got a ton of statements for the company credit cards, which I carefully took eons to sort out by the cardholder names, only to discover AFTER delivering some that they all go to A/P first! Honestly, I've been working there for like a month now and they still haven't told me these important things??!! Also, we keep getting mail for "Raw Materials Warehouse" that doesn't go to the Warehouse so I just have to guess who gets it. (Is is Fabrication? Engineering? Purchasing?) One of my supervisors was being a bit condescending (probably unintentionally) about my mistakes, too. And then she tried to do some "fixing" (re-sorting the mail so it was "correct") and she put stuff in the wrong slots!! I wanted to tell her not to touch my stuff. I was further annoyed by Fabrication, which has lazy foremen who like to not list where their outgoing inter-office mail goes. They also put envelopes for people IN FABRICATION in their outbox instead of in the respective mail slots next to the outbox. Of course, I don't realize this til I'm all the way back at my mail room... I would like to "damage them severely about the head and neck," as my Grandpa would say, but I don't know who is doing it. Oh well, tomorrow has to be better, now that I'm better informed.

Here's something that I keep forgetting to put in here: I got my diploma in the mail. According to this official document, I graduated with "High Honors". How this is the case, I have NO clue whatsoever. My guess: it's a big U mistake. However, I'm not going to correct it. I rather like it. Yeesh, only at U of I could this happen... (Come to U of I and be a number - and an inaccurate one at that!) I know this for sure, when the mistake is in my favor, I'm gonna TAKE IT!! :-D

Here's something odd I found on the Blogger announcements: Try singing Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligan's Island. It's a big hit at parties. (It wierds me out that the words really do work with the rhythm!!)

Grandma had another surgery to put a pacemaker in this morning and she's doing well. They were supposed to move her to a regular room today. She really wants to go home soon, but I'd think they'd monitor her for a couple days first. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Well, I should get to bed. People, PLEASE put comments on here!! Tell me if you're coming to my party! Tell me if I forgot to invite you!

Tired and Such

I'm feeling worn out. I was up a bit late all week and work was a bit more busy since it was a short week. I also had a "long" week because I also worked today. You're thinking "Wait, Beth's job is only a Monday through Friday thing, so why would she work on Saturday?" Well, yes, you're right - and yet I worked today. No, not at Bunn-o-Matic. And no, not around the house or in the yard (it absolutely POURED for the latter half of the day). Guess who called me needing help: Dr. Hill. She called me earlier in the week informing me that not only with Mareca be going on maternity leave any day now, but Mara also has to quit at the end of the month. Once again, she is in desperate last-minute training mode with new people. I totally saw it coming. I'm really interested in going straight from Bunn to closing at the vet clinic (I'd like to get off my feet and do my workouts and have a bit of a life and such), but I did tell her I could work Saturdays. She put me down for a couple Saturday mornings in a few weeks. Apparently she also put me on the "call if you need someone to take your Saturday hours" list, because one of the new girls called me on Thursday to work for her today in the kennels. So I worked from 7:45 to 12:30 today, and was quite busy. Every cat cage was occupied and all the dog runs were full, plus we had two collapsible crates set up with dogs in them by the time I left. Oh, and three of the dog runs had two occupants (dogs from the same family). Usually this is a mild nightmare when trying to corral and let them outside and bring them back in, especially if one needs medication. (They avoid the leash bad enough when it's just one flying out of the run at a time...) Luckily, my canine charges were pretty well-behaved today, so I was able to get them in and out and medicated with little trouble. None of them were unfriendly or overly shy or trying to drag me away. Some of the cats, however, were in quite nasty moods. I'm used to that, however - in my experience, about 33% of boarding cats are really grouchy, 33% don't care, and 33% are total sweethearts. I felt really bad for one cat, though. She was so upset that she hissed and got super-stressed anytime you even went near her cage. She looked totally exhausted from being so worked up, and there was no consoling her at all. But overall, I was busy and worked hard, so I'm quite tired.

Also, I've irritated a muscle in my left shoulder. I think I might have done it hauling around some especially heavy bins of mail this week, but I'm really not sure. Dad tried to do some therapy on me to fix it, but it hurts worse than before right now. I just hope I haven't stirred up my old rotator cuff injury, because that thing took forever to heal.

Phones can be complex, confusing, and trying beasts. Our land line, for example, doesn't like my computer being on the internet this summer and causes me to be booted a lot. Then, on Friday, our line was crackling and very unstable for no apparent reason. And then there's cell phones. First Dad said he was going to get me one when I got my driver's license. That, as we all know, never happened. Then, he was going to get me one for school in Iowa through a FamilyTalk Plan. Then he decided that was too expensive (he'd have to get a more pricey plan to do it), but he still wanted me to get a pay-as-you-go phone for emergency use. I found out that wasn't a very good deal, so we were back to the original plan. Then we found out the original plan didn't cover Ames, IA (which made Dad mad because he also found out his current plan doesn't work there when he was under the impression that it did, just like his old plan, because that's what the sales people told him). We shopped around at the various carriers and found that they, too, were pricey. So Dad wasn't going to budge on his limit and said I'd have to live without. Then, we discovered a better priced FamilyTalk plan on the Cingular website that the clerks and plan pamphlets hadn't mentioned. (It should include Ames, although the coverage maps online don't work to prove it.) We called customer service about it, and it turns out that Dad would have to get a different phone for the good plan. But that would require him getting the people who misled him before to take his old one back. And we couldn't take care of that today because Mom has the phone with her in Rockford. Oh - and get this: I saw a Cingular store in Ames, but if you search for one on their website they say it doesn't exist! In fact, they don't find ANY in Iowa! What a mess!! Who would have thought getting a cell phone could be that complicated... Hopefully I'll have a new phone within the next week, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, I think it's about bedtime.

So far, so good

Mom called to update me on Grandma. Her surgery took longer than expected, but she's doing great according to the doctors. They said she's been a "textbook case". She'll be in the ICU for a couple days, then in a regular hospital room for 4 or 5 days. Grandma has always been very confident in modern medicine, so I'm sure she'll be in a good recovery mindset. Thanks for your continuing prayers.

News About Grandma

Okay, so we now know what's been going on with Grandma. A mitral valve in her heart has been deteriorating over the years and its lack of function has finally started to show (thus the heart attack-like episodes and weakness). They're doing open-heart surgery to replace the valve tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 7am. While they're in there, they're going to remove a 50% blockage in an artery. Mom went up to Rockford tonight so she could be there with grandma and the family. Please pray for the surgery and our family. Also, pray for me, since I'm switching into "Mom-mode" while she's gone and have some extra responsibilities. Well, I need to get to bed.

Update since the 4th of July weekend

So I had a really good time visiting Ryan over the long weekend. The drive up went pretty well, and I got there about 8:30 Friday night. (For no apparent reason, my "service engine soon" light came on about halfway there.) Ryan and I did a lot of fun stuff. We went and got pictures taken, saw Spiderman 2 (which had a MUCH better script, etc. than the first one), partied with some IV friends (Ryan and I won at Cranium), got rained on at the parade (Karen, his sister, was in the parade for cheerleading), saw some nifterly fireworks, went mini-putting (we tied!), and went to Brookfield Zoo (it was crowded, but the polar bear Mom and baby alone were worth the admission/parking fees), and lots of other things. It was really good to spend some quality time with my guy and just get out of Springfield for awhile. We also found out that Isaac and Lauren, two IV friends, got engaged on the 3rd. Yay! We're excited for them. (And just when I thought the engagement disease had finally stopped spreading... Tee hee!) I left for home from the zoo, and I felt really bummed out about leaving Ryan. It hasn't been this difficult in the past, but this time as I drove away, I cried. I couldn't seem to cheer myself up, so God did it for me when I suddenly noticed that my "service engine soon" light wasn't on anymore! Also, the rain I had been driving in stopped. I felt so much better! So I made it home fine and the car is fine.

I came home to some unhappy news. My grandma is in the hospital in Rockford. They think she had a minor heart attack. She's stable and comfortable, but very weak. Heart disease runs in her family - she has two siblings with pacemakers. Yesterday she was getting a lot of crazy conflicting information, so hopefully we'll have a better idea of what's going on soon. Prayers are appreciated for her health both physically and mentally, as she gets stressed out very easily.

I was expecting work on Tuesday to be insanely busy because Monday is usually crazy and I'd have an extra day of mail to sort. It ended up not being too bad, just very steadily busy. Today was just right in the morning, but slow in the afternoon, so they let me take the late mail over to the warehouse and Bunn Capitol (our sister company next door). Oh! Get this! I always have trouble getting my big lunch cooler to fit into the fridge at work. I've had times when I come in at lunch and find it on top of the fridge because people move it to get theirs and leave mine out (I assume accidentally). Today was especially bad, but I finally got it squeezed onto the top shelf. So at lunch, I try to pull it out, and it's stuck. Why? Because the light bulb at the top of the fridge MELTED my soft-sided cooler where they touched!! :-( Luckily it peeled off with no mess, but now it's ruined, because it melted a hole all the way through the top. I just bought it at the beginning of the summer, too! Guess I'm buying another... So here's my big question - how on earth was that light on long enough to get that hot?! It's a fridge light - it's low wattage, it's supposed to be off unless the door is open, plus it should be cooled by the refrigeration! I'm quite baffled. Anywho, I should go bike now. Hope your weekend was great!

Statement Day and Transplant Wierdness

I truly feel like Queen of the Mailroom today. That is because I have conquered my first Statement Day. At the beginning of each month, the credit departments send out a statement to every client with an active account. Since Bunn deals with TONS of accounts, that's a whole lot of statements. And I get to stamp and mail them all. At 37 cents each, it came out to at least $800 just for the statements today, perhaps another hundred, I'm not sure. It filled up four tightly-packed letter trays (which are about three feet long each). And I didn't even get behind with all the extra stamping work (yeah, Thursdays can be very slow). I am eternally grateful for the stamping/sealing machine, though. I couldn't have done it without my machine, that's for sure. And I'm grateful to God that the zillions of envelopes flying through the machine didn't cause it to catch on fire, or something... ;-)

Now tell me if this doesn't seem wierd to you. I read on Yahoo news that three people died after getting organ transplants from a guy who had rabies. YUCK!! Apparently, he showed no signs of rabies prior to his death, and they don't screen for it since it's so rare. My thoughts: rabies is usually spread by a bite wound, right? So it turns out that the guy was from Arkansas, and I'm thinking all sorts of stereotypical things about him... ("Why didn't the darn backwoods hick go to the doctor when he got bit??!" and "Don't they know about rabies in Arkansas??!") Then, I read at the end of the article that a handful of people have gotten rabies through cornea transplants!! EEEW! That would be monstrously bad, because rabies becomes lethal when it reaches the brain, and it could get there really quickly from the eye... Wierd and disturbing, no?

Well, this will probably be my last post til after the 5th, when I get back from visiting Ryan. Take care, and leave me some commentary til then! Happy 4th of July, everyone!

P.S. My car now has 3 coats of wax on it. Does yours?