Trial by Fire
I know this is how we learn fastest and usually best, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. At work, I am learning another branch of annuity products, those that come from kind of a sister company we will now help field on the phone. This means learning new products, different rules, and facing changes in the evaluation of my service. Altogether, I would explain it as “blech”.
Actually, I have technically
already learned (note the past tense) the information for these new calls, which means I am currently taking them. Very yuck. My FIRST CALL this morning was on a new contract (new
to me) and I got a question which I, of course, was unable to answer. I had to try to locate my resources – both paper and people – and try not to lose too much credibility with the client while I searched, put them on hold, and searched some more. Ugh. I had forgotten how miserable it is not to know what you’re doing! One of my greatest satisfactions is conquering a skill and then just enjoying the comfort that comes in utilizing that skill with ease. Now I’m back to feeling like a Know-Nothing.
*sigh*I tell myself that this is good for me. I know this to be true… but it doesn’t make it any more fun. I find myself praying that the next call NOT be a “new” one but one of the “old” ones I’ve been getting for over a year now. And yet I appreciate the fact that the longer I postpone getting many of these “new” calls, the longer I will remain in ignorance of how to handle them. Ugh. Better to bite the bullet and learn one hard call at a time, because then at least I can become comfortable and return to my preferred level of confidence. Ha.
It’s good to be reminded every now and again that I, too, am a wuss that fights change. I tend to think of myself as someone with a "pioneer spirit" which, though often the case, is not universally true. Apparently. :oP
Bless Anne and Her Theory
Anne, BHH*, decided one day that listening to the dreams that someone wants to share in their still-foggy state is Important. The commitment not having originated with me, I can't really comment as to whether it was the result of her frustration one day at not being able to have her groggy say, or if she just came to that conclusion through observation and reflection. Either way, I've been thankful for her philosophy more than once.
I mention this because yesterday I actually found time for a Sunday nap(!) and woke up to the late afternoon living room chatter of my siblings and father. I had a burden to share my dreams, and, as is often the case, would have been prevented from doing so had Anne not firmly encouraged, "Let's listen to Kate's dream. I think it's important." I shared the part that I considered the most entertaining, but it's just so hard to communicate well when you're still waking up. I got a little frustrated at not being able to articulate myself, but even more so by the growing realization that they were all just humoring me. I probably could have remembered more of the dream, but quit early since circumstances were not ideal. Now I only have the memory of the part I shared with them. The rest of the dream is lost.
Part of my personal burden to share dreams is because I hardly ever
get to. I very rarely remember my dreams, and even more rarely are they anything but
b o r i n g. I dream things like checking something off my To Do list, or forgetting to close a software program at work. *sigh*
This dream was actually interesting -- at least somewhat so.
Just to satisfy what I'm sure is now a nagging curiosity in your minds, what I had was a little dream about time travel. The gist was that I went to a restaurant with Anne after which we had to travel back to the near past. As a part of our recon we decided I needed to go to that same restaurant and ask them a question. I did so, and as I was leaving a waiter asked me if I wanted a table. I smiled and replied that I had just eaten, enjoying the irony that it hadn't actually happened yet. After leaving the restaurant, I further chuckled at myself when I realized that that same waiter was the one who would be serving Past Anne and Past Kate when we entered the restaurant 10 minutes later. Ha. Yeah, only mildly interesting, I know.
So that's that. And in case any of you were wondering, I did post my
Card Collection on Flickr. I'll be adding card decks to it from time to time (I have more than 60 in all), so if that kind of thing interests you, you may want to keep track of that set.
*Bless Her Heart
I Really Love You Guys.
No, really, I do!
To explain the unfriendly "This blog is open to invited readers only" which has plagued potential PontifiKate perusers for the past few months, I must divulge my reasons. First, I pulled the plug on it rather suddenly because I reached a point at work when I started to feel uneasy about having this kind of intimate access to what makes Kate G-- tick (I am constantly giving out both my first and last name, and people are resourceful, let me tell ya!). Pontifikate was the first Google hit for my first and last name, and though I took pride in that for a long while, I ended up blocking it as a knee-jerk reaction to a specific case... but didn't erase it completely because I am a self-proclaimed packrat, and my weblog is definitely worth keeping a record of for posterity, right? ;o)
So anyway, please forgive the rude snatching away of my blog, though it's not like I was using it regularly, anyway. I'm not even promising to renew my efforts (I'm very fickle, you know), but wanted to have it available for historical purposes, if nothing else. Ha!
Maybe I'll post a photo album of my card collection as a Welcome-Me-Back post...
