I have become a total lameface in terms of posting. My most sincere apologies! I honestly don't have terribly much to write about, though, so for this post I will tell you about my adventure last Friday.
At my job, claims processors have two monitors. It's just the way it is. But when you're a temp you generally don't get two monitors (although the other two temps on my team had two...) so I still have one. And it's an ancient dino of a computer and monitor that I affectionately named Norman. On Thursday last week, someone from the Network Services Group (NSG) appeared looking for me to give me my new monitor! I was so stoked! They showed up just as my work day was ending so I made sure it was okay and then left.
Fast forward to Friday morning. I arrive to find... one monitor. A new, pretty flat screen monitor, but still only one. My dino was gone. So I go tell my coordinator, who tells the boss, who tells my coordinator to have me call my boss at a certain number. I do, and then my boss tells me to hike down to NSG and find some guy named Jason who is bald and supposed to give my monitor back. He gives me directions and off I go.
NSG is located on the far west side of the building on the third floor. I'm on the fourth floor on the eastern side of the middle section of the building... if that makes sense. So I hike down there with knees that are protesting loudly with each step and eventually find myself in a really sketch part of the building. It was dark down there, with no drop ceiling so you could see all the pipes and beams like you would in a warehouse. The walls of the cubicles are all taller than me and I have no idea if I'm even in the right place because we don't exactly label our departments.
So I'm standing there looking lost and confused and this girl is a few feet away from me holding a clipboard. She sees me and says, "Can I help you?" Not in a nice way, either, but rather with the look on her face that said "Who the heck are you?" I told her I was looking for Jason.
"Is he expecting you?"
Like he's the president or something. Seriously.
I tell her yes, because it's true, and she walks towards me and points down the aisle I'm standing partially in front of to a bald guy down the way. As I start walking down this dark aisle toward the four men sitting at the other end I take in my surroundings: there are computers and wires and techie stuff everywhere. Literally. But as I start walking down the guy called Jason looks over, points and says "You!" I'm startled, but just keep walking. "You're the monitor!" he says.
Why yes, Jason. Yes I am.
He gestures to the desk area to his left once I reach him. "There's your monitor." I look down to see a slightly older flat screen. My Norman was NOT a flat screen.
"Well, that's not my monitor," I stammer out. "I had an ancient big monitor, like from 1998. But I'll gladly take a flat screen."
He just sits and stares at the monitor for a moment, then asks "That's not your monitor? Was yours a flat screen?" I answer his questions and then he stands up, says something like "Hold on", and then walks away holding the monitor, leaving me alone in this big creepy aisle feeling awkward and trying to figure out if he wanted me to follow. A moment later he reappeared and motioned for me to follow.
So I follow him over toward the window where there is a huge cube of ancient monitors like Norman stacked on top of each other next to a stack of older flat screens, which is where he sets "my" monitor. Turning back toward me, he holds up one finger in the "one second" motion before disappearing into a room behind me.
Once again, me standing awkwardly where I clearly hear him having a perfectly normal and pleasant conversation with whoever was in that room. Seconds later he reappears holding a monitor identical to the one he had just tried to give me and says "Do you know how to hook it up?"
I stared at him stupidly. "I can't hook it up because I need a dual video card - "
"Yeah, but once you have that can you hook this up?"
"I think so - "
"Well if you need help just call down here and I'll come help."
And he walks away. Well, kind of. He takes a few steps and is then joined by the girl who was apparently an executive assistant in another life and they proceed to have some kind of conversation as they walk. stop. walk. stop. in front of me the whole way out of Mars - uh, I mean, NSG.
Then I made my escape before it became necessary to make like ET and phone home.
When I made it back to the comfort of claims-land, I went to talk to my coordinator.
Me: so, I went to NSG.
Her: What happened. (she said this very knowingly and somewhat cautiously...)
So I tell her the whole story and we laugh about how in NSG they apparently don't need to actually be able to talk. It was like being on a whole other planet.
And after all of this excitement I came to work on Tuesday and had to call NSG because for some ridiculous reason I couldn't log into my computer. It made me lose an hour of work as I sat on hold for almost a half hour playing games on my phone to pass the time. Thankfully the phone etiquette down in NSGland is significantly better than their in-person people skills.
I guess the moral to the story is, if you're getting your computer monitor back and they offer your a newer one, just take it and don't ask questions. Simple and classic.
So anyway, that was my adventure. Here's hoping sometime soon I get that dual video card so I can finally have two monitors! It'll make my day SO much easier.
Happy Belated 4th of July, folks!
Update: by the way, in reference to an earlier blog, Johnny's house now has water, thanks to Johnny and all of his hard labor. :)
