Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

When used in certain circumstances, FANTASTIC actually means the opposite. It means horrible, awful, shitty... as in fan-fucking-tastic. This was put into popular use by my entire staff in Tazewell, VA at ASP during the summer of 1998. Started by Emily, I believe in response to our truck breaking one of its belts at a job site.

• The T
• Syska's New York Office
• The village of Doylestown, Ohio
• Volkswagen
• Papa John's (they don't deliver in our neck of the woods)
• The Republican Party
• Minivans
• GWB
• Tufts University
• The USPS
• John Kerry
• Mumbles Menino
• Comcast
• My slumlord landlord from Somerville
• My slumlord landlord from Charlestown
• These idiots
• Best Buy

Thanks to my parents and my family.

Thanks to my friends, including but not limited to AJPP, Priscilla, Pauline, Elaine, Jodi, Deirdre, Sheilagh and Heather Rose.

Thanks to my boyfriend Rob Reed.

Oh my God, do I have a story to tell. This is actually from the other day... Monday I think - not today, but I can't believe I didn't remember to post it. It was so ridiculous.

So I was covering reception at work and I get a call that says it's coming from an internal number (3rd floor central conference room) but that also happens if an outside line calls in and no one answers - some lines forward back to reception. So I answer the phone, using the standard greeting, which is "Good afternoon, Payette Associates." Then the conversation goes something like this:

Caller: "Hello, I'm calling about Ms. _ and that case on the cape."
Me: "I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number. This is an architecture firm."
Caller: (presumably to someone in her office)"Bruce! Bruce!..." then proceeds to have a conversation with this other person without saying a word to me. Not, "hold on" not, "let me check". Nothing. So I sit there in disbelief for a minute, then hang up. She calls right back.

Me: "Good afternoon, Payette Associates."
Caller: "Hello, I'm calling about Revere Transportation something-or-other about that case where they couldn't take her because they didn't have a car seat."
Me: "I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong number. This is an architecture firm. Payette Associates."
Caller: "No, I'm calling from such-and-such about that case with Revere Transportation Department."
Me: "I don't know anything about that. I am pretty sure you must have the wrong number."
Caller: "Oh, they gave me this number."
Me: "Well it's a wrong number."

She hangs up. She immediately calls back.

Me: "Good afternoon, Payette Associates."
Caller: "Hello. I'm so-and-so calling from such-and-such about Ms. __ and the Revere Transportation Department case."
Me: "We don't have anyone by that name in this office."
Caller: (annoyed) "No, you're not listening to me. I'm not calling for her I'm calling about her case. My boss, Mr. So-and-so needs to contact you about this case."
Me: "This is an architecture firm. The name of the firm is Payette Associates. I've talked to you before. You have the wrong number. There is no case with Revere Transportation Department here."
Caller: (disbelievingly) "This isn't __ Transportation?"
Me: (more disbelievingly) "No. This is Payette Associates."
Caller: "Oh, I must have the wrong number. Sorry." Hangs up. Mercifully, this was her last call.

I can imagine how annoying the story is to read. Imagine how annoying it was to live through. Why did it take her 4 phone calls to figure out what I told her after her first sentence - that she had a wrong number? Most importantly, why did she keep calling it over and over? People are so stupid it almost makes my brain explode. It's like that episode of the Simpsons where they discover that the reason Homer is such an idiot is that he has a crayon shoved up his nose into his brain. When they pull it out he becomes so smart that he can't stand to be around normal people or watch a movie in the theater, etc. He stands up and shouts, "Is there no place in the world for the man with the hundred and ten IQ?" (For reference, an IQ of 110 is slightly above average, but certainly not genius level.)

So my friend Claire has finally launched her long-awaited webpage! Just in time for the holidays, she has a set of holiday cards up for sale. Go check them out because I think they're pretty swell.

Also, my latest way to spend my time on my commute and while covering short breaks at reception at work, and when I have a spare 10 minutes and nothing else to do, is with knitting. I started learning to knit from Amy in the spring, but over the summer barely picked it up... hot weather deterred me. Once it got cool again though, I was all over it. I still have my initial scarf to finish in the original wool I bought. I ripped it out about 3 times and started over. First because it was too wide, then a couple of other times for just screwing up. I might keep it or make it a gift for someone. I have finished my first hat, a pink one for Heather even though she doesn't deserve it since she made fun of me for knitting. I even put a little pom-pom on top, which I made. It was very fun! Hats are faster than scarves, though more complicated. But I'm sure I'll be whipping them out in no time now. Thanks to "AJPP" and "Priscilla" for all their help and pointers! Visions of my very own hand-knit sweaters and wraps and afghans dance through my head...

So as I finish projects I'll take photos and post them. I'm going to add a special "knitting" bubble on the right hand side and try to keep up with it. Oh, I'm making Heather a scarf to match her hat too. And I have a bunch more yarn lined up for more projects. I don't know what or for whom yet, but if you're lucky maybe you'll get something as a gift!

Learn fun facts about me. Also, enjoy a Which Way story courtesy of Dan and "Bubz".

My big news this week is that I'm leaving Payette to go and work at Shawmut. I'll definitely miss a lot of people at Payette, but it will be nice to have a change and learn about a new office and a new part of the design/construction business. I've now worked at an "MEP" firm, an architecture firm, and now a construction management/building firm.

My last day at Payette is this Friday, November 21.

Rob Reed is so annoying! He's on the phone to Heather telling her how I need "a lot of structure" to get stuff done, like he's my kindergarten teacher. Shut up, Rob Reed!

Time to make some Christmas cards.

Holy crap I have a lot of knitting sites I wanted to link to. But a lot of stuff is going on with my page right now so I'm just going to throw them up on a separate story page, "Knitting Sites".

Not much time to update really tonight... we need to get to bed. But I just wanted to post something since it's been so long. The reason is that we sold our laptop and bought a new one. But fear not, we didn't spend any money, thanks to the super powers of Rob Reed, computer super-genius. We sold our Powerbook and bought the newer version, but with a combo drive instead of a super drive... in other words, the drive reads and writes CDs and reads DVDs but doesn't burn DVDs which the old one did. We never used the DVD burning feature. So aren't we clever?

This weekend Heather is coming to town for her fall break. Her favorite band The Sheila Divine is having their last performance ever this weekend (or their last one in Boston?) so that was her excuse to come. But we all know she just can't stay away from Boston. Ha ha.

Oh! And the big excitement today was that I got a present in the mail from my friend Sheilagh! The other day she was telling me she was sad because she saw some fleece pajamas she wanted in an Eddie Bauer store but then when she tried to find and order them online they didn't have any fleece on their site. So I found her some fleece PJs at Lands End and sent her a link. So as a thank you she bought me some too! Thanks, Sheilagh! I'm wearing them now of course.

Goodnight.