Rice-Ghadaffi.

This sounds like a casserole!

Also, the photobook is soooo funny!

I think the Condi photos are creepy, full stop.

What is it about her? First George Bush seemed a little too interested in her, and now Ghadaffi? I suddenly feel really sorry for her.

Whoa, that's really disturbing.

I have a coat problem. I have too many of them, and too many of them are leather. I mean, I'm looking at this and there's nothing special about it. It doesn't snap or pop or have coolness, but I still want it. I need help.

Speaking of help, I wonder if my new cravings are affected to my anti-depressants. To be honest, I'm feeling kind of manic. And I think I'm freaking people out, because I keep trying to drag them into what I want. I don't want to be manic, seriously.

eta: We've just been informed we have to start our emails with "Dear Recipient". Didn't that go the way of the dodo if you're not on paper? I need to send an email to the CIO, and I'll feel like a tool if I do it, but I'll obviously be flaunting yesterday's quick tip if I don't.

In "Should I be worried?" news-

My new boss starts September 1. I met with her and liked her, and she seemed to value my opinion. My dean loves her because she is smart and accurate. She does not have a customer service, marketing, or business background, and was told that she didn't need one. Customer service and marketing and event planning sorts of things are about 75% of what I do currently, although I am technically an admin assist. 3% of my job is admin support to the director, and the other 23% is class preparation for instructors.

Her background is in developing educational programs, and the reason she is chosen (over someone who had lots of ideas, and has a marketing and business background) is because they really want clearly defined, non-monetary goals for our program.

I feel like it can go 2 ways- I sort of completely take over the marketing/customer service aspects of the job while she develops new initiatives or we sort of stop marketing and servicing, and I do what the other AA's do, which is what their boss tells them to.

The worrying aspect is that TWO professors I REALLY like and get along with have told me that while nice and smart, she is (in their words) "incredibly anal and they could not work with her". I am SUPER prone to make small mistakes (typos, etc)and I am super messy, but with my last boss, the good qualities that I have made up for it.

The non-worrying thing is that another AA (who is similar in temperament to me, in terms of having an opinion on what we do) said she was wonderful!

Sophia - it is so hard to tell until you have worked together for a bit. Hopefully you won't have to drop the marketing/customer service aspects - sounds like that is what you like to do.

ita ! - we aren't required to specifically state "Dear Recipient" but are encouraged to have some kind of greeting first. I typically start with "Good Morning" or "Good Afternoon". If I know the person, I might add their first name also.

I think the Condi photos are creepy, full stop.

Agreed. Though I think the idea of him having a Condi Crush Book is hilarious. In practical application -- creepy.

Sophia, the question you seem to be dancing with is how might you respond if things with the new boss go pear shaped? What options do you see yourself as having?

We've just been informed we have to start our emails with "Dear Recipient".

Okay, for a moment I thought you meant actually "Dear Recipient" and not "Dear Bob" or whatever.

That is strangely restrictive. Is yours a very hierarchical, rules-based workplace? I mean, you know where I work, and even they don't require that sort of thing.

ION, I have a cold settled into my sinuses. So I am taking today off to pound tea and edit a medical textbook chapter my brother sent me. Anyone want to learn about how you tell the difference between heat stroke and heat exhaustion?

One small (very small) achievement on my job - I have, for some obscure reason, become responsible for creating graphics of maps for our lobbying section. It was originally one, showing the status of state laws in respect to their main focus, done by color. They've expanded to a bunch of other maps, but with a blank master, making new ones isn't much of a problem. We have, however, had a long-running argument because they want to go back and change maps from earlier years to reflect the current person's take on what the status was at that time. I've maintained that it's wrong, unethical, and kind of pointless to go back and rewrite history. They insist that the previous people got it wrong and that it has to be changed to accurately reflect the status at that time.

Well, in our Death by Meeting meeting, our head person said that we (i.e., I) shouldn't go back and change maps from past years. yay?

Is yours a very hierarchical, rules-based workplace?

I think they're trying to make it into one. And they're starting with the assumption that we might as well all be in sales, and that every communication has to be polished like an initial pitch in a cold call.

Quite frankly, my emails are going to stay like "Here are the figures we discussed" and "About that open question from the Monday meeting..." Otherwise they just sound awkward and weird.

One of my co-workers is currently pushing back on some of the simplest most obvious things, and I'm tempted to "Dear Recipient" him into the next century. "Dear Recipient, we have in fact already gotten that requirement explicitly from Compliance." "Dear Recipient, the company requires that file because THEY JUST DO, and you being new to the project doesn't change things."

Oh, for the record, I am so in love with Traneto (search on that and Michael Fassbender for pictures).