Connie, all kinds of good thoughts and well wishes headed your way. This is a stressful time. We are here for whatever you need.

Hey Todd, insent.

It's been my experience with medical crap, that if you can joke about it, it makes it less scarey/painful.

His preferred joke is to say that now he has had a port put in, he is now a harbor. I think I'm going to call him Harbormaster.

I keep reminding myself that this is short term. No one wants to leave that port in. I think. Hopefully the current discomfort is because it was just put in.

No, Tep, I agree. You give that name because you want someone to use it.(And for the record, that's why my name has no overt nickname) I think that I do call you Stepanie-from_Ohio to my mom, because I know a lot of Stephs and "Teppy" sounds Gatsby-ish or something.

I get snippy with people who nickname me. Only my friends call me Liz. Nobody calls me Beth. You only get to call me Lizzie if we've slept together at least twice. It's Elizabeth. If you don't like saying all those syllables, you can call me Ma'am.

I refuse to answer to Sue. My given game is Susan, pronounced Sus-san. I know people struggle with that so I've come to prefer Suzi. If you absolutely MUST shorten that, we better be friends and not acquaintances and you MUST include the z, pronounced Sooooz.

I have < 0 motivation today.

"What do people call you?"
"Susan."
"No, what do they scream when they see you coming? You know, 'Look out! Here comes--'"
"Susan."
"Suuu--ssaan. Wow, I scared myself."

I'm the exact opposite of Suzi. I was called Susan but named after a Sue, and that's what I mainly go by. I hate being called Susie. To the point I would throw tantrums when I was a child. I pretty much don't mind being called anything else. But I hate when people try to assume they know me well enough for a diminutive/pet name when they don't.

I get annoyed when people assume they can call me "Annie." That's reserved for a very few close relatives.

I try to call people by what they perfer. I have a co worker right now with a name I can't pronounce right, it sucks because I've heard her say her name but somehow I saw it wrong.

There was a little work drama today I wish I could have handled. They are letting the seasonal people know if they are being kept on or let go. A few people are staying on as occasional/seasonal but most are either being let go or given part time positions. Either in what they are doing or in a different department. One of the cashiers is being let go and she is NOT taking it well. She's complained to everyone who has listened about how unfair it is and next week is her last week and she deserves to stay. On top of that she's complained/whined to EVERY department manager AND the store manager.

I over heard her telling the store manager that he was going to regret letting her go because she was such a great employee and he said something, like if they were hiring again she was free to apply and she might be considered. So she told him "I'm holding you to that." He responded, very incredulously "You're holding me to a maybe?".

I really really wanted to pull her aside, and say. "Look, I know it sucks to work hard at something and then not picked when it's what you really want. But the professional thing to do is say, 'I really want to thank you for the chance to work here. I learned a lot and I enjoyed my time. I wish I could stay on, but I understand that there are a lot of factors involved in making these kinds of decisions. I hope that if I apply for a position here in the future you will consider me for it.'

Becuase what she's doing is just reinforcing their decision to let her go.

But I don't know her that well so I didn't say anything. Although she's also told a few people that she's applying to the open part time jobs and when I heard that I wanted to just pull her aside and go, "Oh, honey. No. You've done this all wrong and killed your chance to work here."

Unfortunately the really annoying co worker was just regular part time and they are keeping here.