Hell's a poppin'!

Well, we all got meeting invites and phone calls in the last 24 hours to tell us what our new jobs were. I heard about my new job while at an optometrist appointment. My boss was traveling on business so she couldn't tell me in person. She didn't want me hearing it from someone else so she called as I had my chin in the chin rest ready to get that terrible glaucoma test (you know, that annoying "puff" of air the they blast into your innocent eye). I apologized to the Physician's Assistant and asked "Do you mind if I take this call? I've been waiting to find out what my new job is." Luckily she didn't mind and was quiet nice about it. Good thing too, it's not like I would have ignored that call.

I'm very happy with where I landed but disappointed that I'm losing my current boss. My new boss and I have been acquaintances for a while now and she's very well liked so I have faith that we will be a good match. Still, I'll miss my current boss. We're an awfully good pair. Apparently we were supposed to stay together up until a week ago when they slid her into so other random role. Weird.

Fortunately, I was in a happy, happy, joy, joy meeting on a kids character line (that all of you with children know well) so I didn't get caught up in the rumor mill in the office today. We had a big kick-off meeting from 11:00 -4:00. All day long I was getting frantic emails from colleagues and partners asking what was going on with our jobs. I ignored them and tried to focus on the meeting at hand. We heard from the creator of the characters and learned lots of fun facts. We then had a "fiesta" lunch" followed by some time in a skating rink (don't ask). I have a tendency to trip in flip flops so I passed on the idea of strapping blades to my feet. I did, however, watch as other experts with trainers practiced. One little girl waved to us as she skated by. I guessed she had dreams of becoming an Olympiad. Later we broke out into smaller groups for a brain storm. Candy and toys had been tossed all over our tables as party favors. A couple of my friends soon got into a heated bubblegum chewing contest. While another poor friend made his presentation up front, we sat in the back frantically unwrapping foil bubble gum coins for the two contestants. We wanted to know how many pieces they could cram into their mouths. We never found out because at 16 pieces each our contestants stopped cold and and turned green. I jumped up for napkins, for the gum wads, and some ice water to help alleviate the terrible sugar rush. I knew that look. My brother had look on his face once in the car after he shoved an entire pack of Bubble Yum in his mouth, turned green and barfed it all up. I didn't want to take any chances. Still, I highly recommend this fun game next time your in a meeting with friends. Just don't offer to be a contestant.

I got back to the office at 4:00 and made a lap around the office. I had been told to tell NOBODY about my new job so imagine how surprised I was to find that SO MANY people already knew about it. I knew very little about the new organization when I got back to the office but I pretty much knew everyones new jobs by the time I finished my lap and got to my desk. It's amazing how quickly news spreads when you're gone for a few hours. Many friends got screwed. Herr Boss (the big German boss) was among the most disappointed. He was apparently quiet vocal about his dissatisfaction with his new role. Some friends told me he was down right hostile about it. I've never seen him angry. Have you ever heard a German man shout and curse? Well, I can tell you from experience that it's terrifying. Soon after hearing all about how upset he was I heard him shout from his office "FUCK IT TO HELL! SCHEISSE!" I had been chatting with my former boss and literally RAN from her doorway into her office to take cover. Turns out he was just responding to the realization that he'd managed to lose an Excel document he'd spent hours building. Phew! I thought we were all toast. I did learn a new word though. Scheisse! I like it!

Tomorrow, upper management officially unveils the new organization. There will be org charts and HR folks and a hot breakfast. (I hope theres lots of bubblegum! ) We enjoy Summer hours this time of year and it happens to be my half day. I'm shooting for a 1:00 departure. It should be interesting.