Like the sand through the hourglass..

Worker Bee had a joke when he was here that some employees bring so much drama to us, that it's like a novela, a Spanish language soap opera. I think I'm living one right now.

In a previous episode, Worker Bee resigned, so Thing One was learning to take over most of his duties. (She took the accounting side, I took the safety side.) Then, Thing Two stopped coming to work, with flimsy, infrequent e-mails to Boss as her excuses, so I took over her duties (telephone calls and tracking and verifying of payments; I already was doing timesheets). During Thanksgiving weekend, Thing One phoned to say that her rash was diagnosed as a particular illness, and she recommended that I get vaccinated. (Note: I didn't need to, and I still am well.) I figured she'd be out all last week. Tuesday, her mother phoned to say they were checking her into the hospital. Naturally, I am glad that I am not the one in the hospital, but it doesn't do me much good that she isn't here because I have to do my job and hers and Worker Bee's and Thing Two's. Boss brought in someone from a temp. agency to answer the phones and handle timesheets and other light paperwork (Thing Two's tasks). Now I have to verify Temp's work, as well as figure out what to have her do next because she's remarkably faster than Thing Two was (or Thing Two was remarkably slower; take your pick). Now comes the true novela part. On Thursday, Tweety walked into Boss's office as I was speaking with him, shook our hands rather formally (if you knew her, you'd know how unusual the word "formal" is around her), said it was a pleasure working with us, and, "See you."

"Well," I told Boss, "that didn't take long." Yes, Ob had finally ticked her off so much that she was quitting. (We should've had a pool to bet how long it would take.)

Boss gave Tweety some time to calm down then phoned her and persuaded her to work in our office on Friday (and, presumably, this week as well). I decided to team up Temp and Tweety to work on the plans for our office holiday party, which worked brilliantly, as it slowed them down enough that I could get some work done, rather than pondering what to have them do next.

I came in this weekend so Worker Bee could train me on what reports really really really had to be submitted to corporate and how and on which days of the week, so our operation doesn't fall apart utterly while Thing One is away. I visited Thing One in the hospital that afternoon (and took her an anthurium) and determined that she might be back to work late this week.

The bright side is that Sub was out sick (or claimed sickness) about half of last week, and he's off on annual leave (vacation) this week, so I don't have to worry about his drama. Boss showed up while Worker Bee was training me, so we got done only half of what we had intended, but Boss is smart enough to stay out of my way during the week. Besides, I got his expense reports finished on Friday, so he'll get some large checks coming back to him, so he owes me at least that much.

Who do you think should play me in the TV version? Can we cast some attractive guy with muscles? What should we call it: Life with Chlorophyll, Bringing up Chlorophyll, All My Chlorophyll?