Addendum No. 1 to Report from Builder Mama Headquarters

I think I’m in love

Can I just say that I love, love, love Monkey Man’s pediatrician’s office?

Diagnosis: Sinus infection. Apparently the tree pollen count is higher than it’s been in ten years due to the overly warm winter that we had. Okay, I’m not sure what that has to do with tree pollen, but I’m going with it. So the allergies that he had have gotten so bad in the last few days that it turned into a sinus infection. She let me look at his tonsils and they were touching it was so bad in there…I will be having nightmares of being attacked by large goopy tonsils for weeks now. No wonder the poor kid was coughing so badly.

The good news? This is his first sinus infection since having his adenoids removed in August. That in itself is a major miracle.

The best part? The way the nurse practitioner kissed him on the forehead when she laid him down on the exam table to check his tummy, and then gave him a hug goodbye.

I just love the people at that office.

*****

Unrequited love

So the second interview went really well. As it turned out, the project manager that I would be reporting to got caught in the office and was 45 minutes late getting to the interview which was held at one of the company’s jobsites. This gave me a great opportunity to talk to the girl who is doing a similar position to the one I’m interviewing for. You know, the heh heh heh girl I talked about earlier?

It seems as though the job would be challenging but not too overwhelming. There is a lot of client contact throughout the process, which could be good or bad depending on how the rest of the project is going. But as it turns out, it seems like the owner of this particular project is being a tad bit difficult. It would be like walking into a hornet’s nest. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before, but I was interested to hear what the PM’s expectations would be.

So then the PM finally showed up. We clicked much better this time and it seems that we share a lot of the same philosophies about client relationships and subcontractor relationships. The following line of questioning took place about 10 minutes into our portion of the interview:

PM: So tell me, what do you think about architects?

Me: Well, I’ve had the privilege of working with some great architectural firms, and have maintained good relationships with all of them.

PM: Okay, so tell me what you think about owners?

Me: Again, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really wonderful clients, and I believe that any one of them would think that we did a good job for them. (snicker, snicker)

PM: So that brings me to this question…who are the subcontractors responsible to?

Me: Well, the subcontractors are directly responsible to the general contractor, but when you get right down to it, it's the general contractor’s responsibility to make sure that the subcontractors are performing the work to the owner’s satisfaction and delivering the best final product possible.

PM: (jumping out of chair) Goddamnit! That is the best goddamn answer I’ve ever heard to that question!

And it went on from there. The entire interview took two hours and I would like to think that it went well. The kicker is that the owner is saying that this position has to be onsite five days a week…so that makes it impossible for me to take the job if they offer it to me. A little disappointing, but I told Joey tonight that if nothing else I think that if things went well and PM has something available come open in a closer geographical area, I’ll hear from him again. My current company and my job at the mechanical contractor were both positions that were created for me after I went in to interview for other positions, so it’s not too far out of reach that the same could happen at this company or somewhere else.

And sweet irony…my friend told me today that Eeyore came into her office and when she asked where I was, he said, “She’s probably out on job interviews today.” Oh, bother.

*****

Love and hate

I know I forgot to mention this, but I signed up for another 10K race in late May. I must be freaking crazy to even think about this – is just living my normal life not torture enough?

I have been avoiding the treadmill like the plague, but I have got to get back on track. So far I’ve been keeping the weight off by just watching what I eat, but I don’t want to depend on just that. Not to mention the fact that I was planning on trying to run at least half of this 10K…that may not happen. We’ll see. Every time I look at the treadmill I appreciate all that it helped me do, but I think it mocks me secretly behind my back. That bitch.

*****

Have a good night, everyone. It is freaking pouring rain, thundering and lightening outside and I have a 45-pound corgi trying to climb up my ass. Time to get out the sedatives, and maybe if he’s lucky I’ll share one with him.