things are weird and interesting

some of this is old news to those who follow my gchat statii.

first things first, though.

yesterday=yelling catfight between poppy and stacy in front of everyone, over color copies. poppy and stacy both look to me for comfort/solidarity.

this morning, stacy sends me the following email:

Hey Megan well I had a talk with Keren ( about the poppy incident )this morning and apparently could you spread the word that I am not an unfriendly or mean person and the reason I have my door closed is because of the radio and the heater….. I am dead serious Keren asked me to ask you to spread the word until I leave… Megan I know you have experienced what I have so I know I am not crazy but I felt as if I was in trouble….

Thanks stace

as you know, keren is my boss. so apparently keren wants me to go to poppy and patience and spread good will toward stacy. which is awkward to say the least. and has already been tried.

ok.

so then also, today i had a 6-month review with my boss. i got a 6% raise which is like $1620 a year which is a laptop.

but keren identified a few areas for improvement, two of which were: appearance. what should we do about this? she asked. we can work on this together. perhaps some lipstick, and a headband. not the stretchy kind; only the hard kind. blouses and button up shirts would also be good. her elderly slightly crazy sister would be ecstatic about taking me shopping. and this is not a joke. keren is suggesting that i go shopping at the goodwill with her sister donna. which i might have to do as part of my general policy of maximizing my collection of life experiences.

another area for improvement was in my "verbal skills." which i was confused about at first because certainly i am more articulate than my officemates; also i do endeavor to sound professionalish. but it turns out that i have a "reed style" of addressing superiors or people just older than me, that involves me probing them for the information i want, contradicting them when i think they are wrong, and generally not being deferential enough. keren kindly described people who might have a problem with this as "stuffy." i'm pretty sure she's talking about this one lady at PSU whom i interrupted when she was going on and on... because this woman got annoyed at me.

in any case....

it was a funny meeting with keren and her perception of me is hilarious, though maybe accurate (ish)- which is that i am smart and effective and a good team player, but young and generally green behind the ears and having many lessons to learn. she says i have "great potential." like, as a person.

moving quickly ahead--

today i got an email from some kid from PSU that said he was interested in our study abroad program. i do not remember him, though i'm sure i talked to him for a minute or so while tabling. this is his weird email to me, followed by a perfectly normal email i had sent him:

Megan, thanks for the phone call reminding me of my application deadline. I beat you to the punch yesterday and turned the thing over to the Education Abroad office, so now you can sleep soundly knowing that I still have a semblance of a chance of partcipation in the program. Recent reflection makes me think that I alone did not receive your helpful telephone reminder. Oh, such vanity and sadness.

Well, anyhoo, have a fun day,
Wyatt

Megan Harrington wrote:
Don’t forget!

Program application deadline for the service-learning course “Global Aging and Health: Focus on Nicaragua”:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10
Submit to the Education Abroad office.

Applications are available online at Education Abroad’s website: http://www.intl.pdx.edu/EdAbroad/Aging.htm and at the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation’s website: www.jfrfoundation.org.

Please contact me with your questions! We hope to review your application soon.

Cheers,

Megan Harrington Wilson
Jessie F. Richardson Foundation
15900 SE 82nd Drive, Clackamas, OR 97015
mharrington@jfrfoundation.org
Ph: 503.408.4754 F: 503.255.5929

i guess... maybe none of this is particularly interesting. but everyone seems so weird and crazy to me, is all i'm saying.