Busy weekend! Today I went back to work for a couple of hours. Managed to work on some projects I've been avoiding, and to make sense of what I have to get done this week. I'm re-doing some forms, and I've been using Adobe Designer kind of blindly: I can do some things but I feel like I'm totally making it up as I go along, and that I'm missing out on something. I know there's more to it, and I need training. That's one of the biggest things I've got to work on. I'm making a ton of new forms for our department, and while I think I have good innate design sense, I really wish I *knew* what I was doing.
Oh, and one of my boss's staff people: someone who reports directly to her? On Friday, this person left an "assignment" in my in-box. For me. Not only was it an assignment, but a crazy one at that. I read their instructions and looked at what was given to me for a long time, and I just couldn't figure it out. Besides the fact that my head was about to explode: the only person who can give me an assignment is my boss. If her people want me to do stuff, they gotta ask her first. It's just not cool to be giving me stuff to do as an assignment. They can ask me to do stuff and I will always say yes, but it has to be with the understanding that my boss knows about it. Because I do not work for her people. Oh, and to top it all off, this person ripped off the assignment sheet I use when I do assignments for my boss to people like this! My beautifully crafted assignment sheet: bastardized like a cheap knock off Coach bag.
Yes, my assignment sheet is lovely. Don't go making your own cheap-ass version of it and then giving me your WORK to do. Sheesh!
Anyway, after I got home, I practiced for a little while (the flute choir's next concert is going to be a retrospective of our past 20 years, so we're playing all stuff we've played at past concerts. One of them is this totally awesome piece called "Blue Train." Last time we played it, I was on piccolo, and the flute one part was covered by these two powerhouse flutists we had at the time. This year I'm playing flute one with my favorite high school flutist, this young kid named Greg. I like playing with him, because he's totally mellow in person, but he really goes for it when he's playing. Nothing seems to intimidate him. He plays so well, he makes me want to be better. It's a good feeling. We have a lot of work to do! It's a tough piece, but I love it: really cool. Needs work!), and then we went to dinner at El Tepayac again.
This is our second trip out there, and it doesn't disappoint. We've been looking for a good Mexican place: our favorite place in Culver City, Cora's, moved locations and changed completely (gone is the home-y atmosphere and free guacamole we used to enjoy so much [my parents used to eat there almost every Friday night; they knew us and we thought they liked us]! The last few times I've eaten there, the food was so-so and expensive, and the service was rotten). We haven't found a Mexican place in LB that lives up to the old Cora's. But I think El Tepayac is pretty darn good. Portions are a bit too big (even the regular plates, not just the Hollenbeck burrito!), but the flavors are dead on. Tonight Patrick had enchiladas with two eggs - I was totally jealous, but my taco and enchilada (no eggs) was really yummy.
Oh, and one more thing about my friend Greg from flute choir: last week, when we were getting ready to work on "Blue Train" (by the way, our version is composed by a Japanese person named R. Hirose; it's not a flute choir arrangement of the John Coltrane song with the same name!), when I went over to stand with him, I asked him something... I forget what, but it was a yes or no question. He answered me with "Yes, ma'am."
I said, hey man, don't call me "ma'am!
He goes, "Oh, does it make you feel old?" (I know this exchange makes him look like a smarty-pants and me like a stoner, but for real, this is how it went. And he's not a smart-ass, he's a good kid.)
And I said, "No! [Of course it does.] Just don't do it!" We laughed about it, and were setting up the music, and a few minutes passed. And I was looking at the music, which has some divisi parts in it, and since I was on the right, it's a given that I would be playing the top line and he would be playing the bottom (and turning the pages!) but I wasn't sure if he knew that. This is his first stint in flute choir. So I said, "Wait a second. If I let you call me 'ma'am' does that mean I get to tell you what to do?"
And he goes, with a big smile on his cute little face, "Sure."
Kids can be fun. It makes me remember how ancient and old and decrepit someone my age seemed to me when I was his age; but I don't feel ancient or decrepit. I feel just the same way I did when I was 16, for the most part, with possibly a better haircut.
Ah: food!
