Noti: you never replied to my email.  Where’re we meeting tonight.
me: THATS BECAUSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO USE A COMPUTER LETS MEET AT UR MOMS HOUSE HAHA I MEAN LETS MEET AT THE BIGGBY ON WAVERLY AT LANSING RD SEE YOU AT SIX
Noti: lol wow ur crazy, but I’ll be there.
me: I really do crack my shit up. and k.

Okay, not really. Verizon has always been extremely awesome for me and my family. Our favorite store is on the west side of Lansing, in front of the Lansing Mall. We’ve been with them since before they were Verizon, but today a lack of training lead to them screwing up royal, for the second time in our history with them.

The first time was right after my Grandmother passed on in 2005. My mom had a voicemail saved in her voicemail box from my before she’d died. Mom went in to get a new phone, and when they transffered the line, they deleted her entire voicemail box. Though it was an honest mistake, and the tech apologized profusely, we as a family no longer have any recordings of Gramma’s voice, and it was ENTIRELY the fault of that one tech.

Today’s incident was a bit less tragic, and had a happier ending, but was still the fault of a single tech not being trained properly.

My Mom got a new phone today. Like she usually does, she passed hers on to my sister. Before they left the store, the tech helped mom get her Google calender and contacts syncing to it, and copied my sisters contacts to the old phone, completely failing to remove the sync from the old phone.

Fast forward an hour, and my mom’s contacts are gone, both on her phone and in her gmail account, having been replaced by my sister’s. She calls Verizon, they tell her to go back to the store. We go back to the store, they tell her that they failed to remove the sync from the other phone, and then ask Google to restore her contacts.

… really? Fucking awesome.

As a SysAdmin, I know it’s likely that Google has backups, but .. it’s Google. It’s not like they have a tech support line.

First things first. We find my sister, delete mom’s account, and set it syncing to my sister’s gmail account, and then mom goes home. She pokes for an hour after she gets back to her house before she asks me for help. “I don’t have your aunt’s number anywhere else. It looks like I can’t talk to Google directly at all, and according to the GMail help I’m screwed.”

I poke around a little bit, and find the exact same thing. I am moments from trying to find someone at google through the twitter account (because Twitter is just that freaking powerful), when she sends me an “OMG” message.

Approximately ten minutes after she submitted her “No, your FAQ wasn’t helpful, because [insert story of the afternoon here]” her contacts magically reappeared.

Magic Google fairy? I’ll take it. So will Mom.

It occurred to me today that, were I not to work with a large number of my good friends, I would go crazy in very short order. Every day, all day long, when I find myself fussed by something or wanting to walk away from my desk for a break, I don’t have far to go to find someone to hug or pet or snuggle.

Some of my closest friends happen to be the people I work with. I’ve made some of my best new friends through LiquidWeb. I really do love my job, and the people in my department continue to amaze me. I have a closer relationship with my Mom than I ever have in my life.

I really am a lucky girl.

Time to share it, and bring back the free hugs.

Once or twice every year, a phenomenon that we (not so) affectionately call the plague sweeps through LiquidWeb. I’m sure it happens other places too, but it’s kind of insane to watch a single person walk in the door sick on a monday, and watch a third of the company drop by friday.

The problem? Dedication. Either to the company, or to the paycheck. Folks come in sick, and take other people down with them. I’ve been guilty of it before, and now I just try to avoid getting sick. I was only sick once last winter, not at all during the summer, and have avoided two rounds of the plague already this fall.

The secrets!

1. Sleep when I’m tired
   As silly as it sounds, with my lack of consistent sleep schedule, if I’m not at work and don’t have unbreakable plans, I’ll take the time to sleep the extra 2 or 3 hours.
2. Drink lots of OJ
   Vitamin C is my miracle drug. It helps me get better quickly, and helps fend off the icky.
3. Think positive!
   I know, it’s corny, but it works. If you feel like crap, go to sleep for 8 hours after loading up on vitamin c and symptom relievers, you’d be amazed at how much better you feel in the morning. If you do all of that, while knowing that you’re going to feel better in the morning, it never fails.

Letter list, round 3, and halloween edition.

This week was the first holiday edition of the letter list in years, and definitely the smallest.  The little cards were fun to make, and coming up with something witty for each person was a mental challenge I’d missed.  I already have an idea for end-of-the-year holiday cards which is going to be even more cool.

This round (3) there were three new people.  It’s weird and wonderful and intimidating to see it expanding without any effort from me, to people I have no way of knowing.  The internet is a scary and awesome place.  I should know. I work there.

This weekend I spent much of my time at work, or hanging out with folks that I miss, rather than dressing up and going to drink myself to oblivion.  Today is my ramp up to the week, and catching up on all of the things I haven’t gotten done from last week.  This is what I’ve been like at work, lately.  Nearly 100% focused, and ignoring everything that’s going on around me:

The consensus appears to be: I’d just finished lunch, and yes I do mumble to myself like that all the time.