Good luck, Susan! I'm sticking with the theory that it's all about your new boss being sensitive to (a) her blunder and (b) wanting to work out with you a way that's good for everyone. Nothing bad there.

Boss~ma to you, Susan.

And, Tep, everyone else has already said everything I would've, so I'll just throw my punctuation on the pile. ((())) with a side of {{{}}}

good luck Susan!

Teppy, I'm sorry your dad is in the hospital. And, you're not evil. You're scared and stressed and I wish I were there to take you to lunch!

Since I'm not, my advice is to go home for lunch and get your Ativan. Do it for us both!

Oh, how much do I love Fay? An awful lot.

Congratulations, Jars! A thing with your name on it! Awesome!

Oh, Tep, I'm so sorry. I hope your co-workers are trying to give you space and just being kind of clueless rather than heartless beasts, but either way it's tough on you. Whatever their motivation, you are not to be blamed for being ticked. The next person who gives you a casual "Hey, how ya doing?" can be unloaded upon with any emotional release you want - they asked. There's no overreacting when your dad's in the hospital again - your reaction is yours and as powerful as it needs to be.

Good meeting, Susan!

I generally don't mind people asking after Hubby--though I tend to the "I'd rather not discuss this" end--but I do object when people not in my supervisory chain and whom I've not told anything to come up and say, "And how's your husband?" This indicates that me and mine are the subject of gossip, which enrages me. If you're not someone I normally talk to, I don't want to know that you think my life is any of your business.

And I feel like a big baby and hugely self-entitled bitch from hell for being annoyed and a little hurt that nobody said anything when I'm obviously upset.

You're not a big baby, nor is it entitlement to expect that people you've worked with for years, in your small office, would say something, or even just silently bring you a box of Kleenex.

I would totally silently bring you a box of Kleenex, btw.

{{Tep}}

I'm meeting #5 tonight. Turns out she likes Heroes. Or, as she called it, Hero's.

(((Teppy))) You're so not evil. Much -ma to you and your dad.

Turns out she likes Heroes. Or, as she called it, Hero's.

Oh. Dear.

Someone remind me that I cannot wait until after I've been up for 7 hours, had an exam, and worked with two tutees before I eat anything. I know I my stomach wasn't happy this morning with the migraine, but I should have at least had some toast or something.

Meeting went OK, I think. I was able to explain the difference in my role and an admin role by saying that if I were an admin, my long-term goal would be to move into an upper-level exec assistant type position, but I very much DON'T want that path, and that I'm in the position I am because in a few years, I'm thinking of something like a nonprofit management MBA program so I can move up into administrator-type roles. (All that is something I'm only vaguely thinking about, and hopefully I'll sell my first novel in the next few years and can think instead about building my writing career in such a way that I can dial back to part-time and eventually meet my REAL long-term goal of quitting my day job altogether, but that's more than she needs to know at this point.)

Anyway, she's on board with that, though I think she's going to take it further than I intended--she wants me to get involved in the budgeting process, and she's issued a challenge to me to go meet three other people in similar roles within the hospital within the next month so I'll have contacts to help me navigate the somewhat byzantine systems in this place. (We kinda bonded over the craziness of how things operate and how hard it is to find someone who actually knows the answers to what should be simple questions.)