I'm baaa-aaaack...sorta

[K2!]

Yer late.

But better late than never!
Welcome back!

[SetsunaKou]

Wheeee!!! So glad to see (well, I guess technically, it's 'read from' ^^ ) you again!!! I always love your posts and thoughts!!! Your dolls and clothing are so beautiful!!!!!!! :hug:

Hope you get all that you listed & your deadline form done and ready on time!!!!!

God bless!!

~Setsuna

[arrowchild]

Nancy!!!!! Welcome back!!! You knwo we always miss you when you're gone...it just isn't the same without you here to keep all of us in line

[leopardessmoon]

HI! welcome back! I missed your rants!

[nancyskitties]

Things are heating up in my neck of the woods (i.e. at my job).

I finally got all 423 lbs of medical reports off to both Montgomery County Occupational Medicine AND Social Insecurity. I still have to finish my application, 'War & Peace', for Soc. Sec. (they must have nothing to do but read everybody's silly or exaggerated excuses & have good laughs) but otherwise all the paperwork w/those clowns is done. MCOM requires poor Mrs. Gunther to weed through the 8-1/2 inch high mess and arrange all the pages just SO before submitting them to the panel of three medical supposedly neutral experts who will then sift through & either thumbs up or thumbs down. IF they thumbs up, there are two ways it can go: #1 is Non-Work-Related Disability. $2000, taxable + you pays your own medical insurance, etc. OR - the JACKPOT, Work-Related Disability, which is tax-free, insurance fully paid for life - and worth about $3,600 a month. I confess, my greed runneth over.

Of course MY contention is that my cardiac condition and mental/emotional/work-connected ability to focus and avoid mistakes is the direct result of my supervisors over the past few years. Mostly this would be impossible to prove, except fortunately they were stupid enough to hand me proof just in the past month! Boy, talk about luck!

First off, every doctor I've got (6 specialists ranging from a bariatric surgeon - Cardiologist - #2 Cardiological Surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital #1 in the US of A) - Hematologist - Musculoskeletal surgeon- Neurologist/Sleep Disorders Specialist - Vascular Specialist (for my lymphodema) - my Primary of 14+ years, and finally, an entire flotilla - nay, a battalion of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other dissectors of the brain & what's in it that's gone wrong (I keep telling them my real problem is mine is a perfect vaccuum, but they don't seem convinced & keep looking on the theory that SOME cell must be there SOMEWHERE) -- anyway, every single one mentions (usually repeatedly) Patient's distress, severe depression, severe anxiety/panic attacks, etc. all related to work - or rather, to her supervisors at work, foul beasts that they are, who spend their time plotting, setting me up, blaming me for their own mistakes (which in fact they do, and have, and will continue to do so) despite the fact I have NO authority to authorize ANYTHING; I can't even ask the bank if a certain deposit has come in today, etc. They've sincerely & deliberately gone out of their way(s) to make my job impossible; they go over everything I do with a fine-toothed comb for 'errors' - even when the errors are non-existant, or of their own making, then make a huge hoo-hah about it and of COURSE it's MY fault for being inattentive & sloppy, etc.

20 years of constant denigration, criticism, taking the things I did do perfectly as a matter of course, and the things I did that were outstanding (like win them $140,000 + from FEMA for Gear. I didn't even get a 'thank you', let alone a letter of commendation for my personnel file...just one detail of one item I won for this place out a total of $237,855 over the past 21+ years. A QUARTER OF A MILLION, ALMOST - and not one damned Commendation or even 'thanks - job well done'.

I almost believed their brainwashing that I was fat, incompetent, near-unemployable, middle-aged, lucky to work for such a forebearing lot as they ... except for a few things that finally struggled to my mental surface:

There are at least two persons, neither of whom are dopes, both of whom deal with very challenging & complicated positions involving deadlines and lots of math, and BOTH have said that if they had any money to afford an assistant, I'd be #1 on their respective lists;

I routinely prepare from scratch, computer process, and submit a whole spectrum of reports, from budgets to projected financial shortfalls and capital repair costs to the county; DoE data reports on our Underground Tank daily readings, which involve some 20+ figures to get ONE DAY'S result, which must then be added & compared against the preceding numbers, then fit into an ongoing chart, so that involves higher algebra, statistics, as well as a good basic knowledge of Windows Powerpoint, among other things including setting up macros, et al - and being accurate - VERY accurate - as well; not to mention not quite half a dozen Federal agency reports that involve equally arcane uses of math, graphing, using charts, percentiles, projections, and stats, which also have to be accurate & 'work out' when I check them for accuracy before sending. Thus far no one has ever complained at any level except here at the firehouse.

I'm likewise well-known/famous/infamous?/notorious? throughout the county for routinely using $10 words (or what others consider $10 words; my friends & I consider them normal vocabulary) and spelling them correctly. Yesterday's word demon-strating my upper-strata, hoity-toity snobbery was "ancillary". I'm afraid to use 'parapatetic', 'voluminous', or 'contumatious' lest half the county government choke on these & die of indigestion. Ironically, 'hyperbole' also escapes them, even though I use it on them every day. A few months ago at a Big Dogs get-together, our Chief, Buddy, was in conversation with the Chevy Chase Chief, who remarked 'everybody knows Nancy wrote it; you don't even know those words." If he'd'a said it to ME, I'd'a popped him one in the family jewels for implying I'm an ignoramous. It IS amusing to know that when such memos arrive, everyone from the County Exec's office on down usually has to get out the ol' dictionary to figure out what the hell I'm talking about. I figure at least they MIGHT learn something. I don't mind asking if I don't know. I figure the only stupid question is the one not asked if you don't understand, and that you usually find afterwards that everybody else was just as lost, and TERRIBLY relieved and grateful that someone besides them did have the guts to ask.

I worked for the Smithsonian, FBI, and IRS - not exactly total sanctuaries for the sub-moronic. I like to do elaborate costume reproduction sewing on my dolls, equally elaborate 'lace' knitting or crocheting ditto which is not for dopes, either; AND I can even sit and listen to JanetT weave her plot spells for hours on end every Friday PM when we meet for dinner, and have enough comparative anthropology, ethnology, religion, literature, history, etc. to actually be able to follow her plots, characters, personalities, histories, motives, encompassing World and various mythologies which are VAST. Some of them I can even remember. Thus far my fave is ol' Windy Bones, the pirate in disfavor with the Silver Prince, who... well, never mind.

Anyway, back to business. They've spent 20+ years tearing down my fragile self-esteem, and it reached a new high when I'd had enough of their chicanery & fraud last fall, so when the auditors came I pointed out various features & accounting misfeasances in which I had been forced to pay for 'private' invoices out of county funds (a BIG no-no). Of course, Murphy the Firemens Fund treasurer (& villain of my entire employment here) kicked up a major fuss, but ended up having to repay the "mistakenly paid" monies anyway ("mistaken" my gluteus maximi; he's a thief, cheat, liar, conniver, sneak, and maggot. Not to mention malicious, cunning in a sort of Low way, selfish, secretive, suspicious, and possessive - especially of money or valuable properties). He's tried to set ME up twice - both times stymied because I'm an honest woman, and he always figures everyone thinks & acts with the same motives & standards HE does. Unfortunately for him, 'cause I GOT him at last-!!!!!

This really is turning into War & Peace, so I'll try to make it short, but you gotta admit it makes for good intrigue type stuff.

After filing for county disability retirement & Soc. Sec. ditto, I called EEO, who suggested I'd get more mileage out of filing a claim with Human Rights, because THEY send not one but TWO reports which must be answered: one to the State of MD Dept. of Human Rights, and the other to Mont. County EEO. Now, MC EEO has no clue how to handle this although they know they have to cough up an acceptable response & settlement to the state EEO, so they forward the Human Rights fndings report to the head of the division involved - in this case, Chief Bowers, head of the MC Division of Fire/Rescue personnel. All of it.

Here's where the skullduggery & intrigue come in: The county has for years been trying to get around or rid of the volunteer corporations, all of whom are independent, trucelent, unruly, and generally uncooperative, unable to see why on earth the Fire/Rescue Service can't go on as it has for the past 100+ years, which a) allows them to play with all the fun 'toys' and be Heroes, and b) means they get lots 'n lots of moola from the county for Operations and such, and if they don't spend all of, say, Medical Supplies on actual medical supplies, they can have themselves a bodacious big Xmas supper, or buy Station windbreakers for everybody, and so on. Problem is, the county is hardly ever able to catch them red-handed. The solution is that most of the stations are old. Very old, some dating from the early 1900s. So the county has been rebuilding (or rather, building) new state of the art buildings, then moving their vehicles, equipment, and personnel there, and telling the erstwhile volunteer stations that THIS is the 'new' station X now, and times being what they are, they really have no option but to discontinue to fund the volunteer fire companies ... altho the volunteers are always welcome to come by & volunteer at the new county station - on DFRS official terms, of course - unless they'd prefer to struggle along trying to support themselves by holding endless spaghetti suppers and All-U-Can-Eat breakfasts for the public. My station's demise is near & inexorable: the county has a large piece of land already purchased, permits are in the works, and my good friend June, the Director of DFRS Capital Projects tells me the groundbreaking is set for sometime in late spring 2012, with the new station finished by early fall of 2012. Then it's Hasta la Vista, Baby to the archaics at LDVFD. Oddly, most of them seem to be oblivious to the signs & implications - or maybe it's just denial.

Whatever, once ol' Chief Bowers gets this notice from Human Rights/EEO, it's going to give him the wedge he needs to hasten the demise of LVFD if he's smart.

Meanwhile, I also filed a grievance with the Labor Relations MC; so I've got Human Rights taking over stuff like cruelty and abuse, EEOC taking care of re-educating the officers of LVFD in Sensitivity Training, The Boundries of Discipline, Proper Use and Requirements of Counseling Employees, and the limits (and acceptable reasons) for issuing Letters of Reprimand - none of which include anything as picayune as misfiling an invoice, or correcting my own mistake, whilst Labor does their own take on limits, rules, boundaries, and the penalties of ignoring same. Becuz even if technically I'm employed by the FRD, all of their operating funds - including MY salary - are from the county, therefore they march to the county's tune and play by the county's rules. Or else.

Lessee, now. I figger the alimentary output should hit the fan in about, ohhhhhh .... two weeks, give or take a day or so.
BUT they won't be able to do a thing about it, or to me, because THAT would smack of RETALIATION, HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT, and HARRASSMENT - which wouldn't help their case at all, altho it would be very useful to mine. And if they don't think I won't report every time they look at me cross-eyed, they'd better think again.

FINALLY, I was cogitating on the law in general last night, and it occurred to me that Civil Law has much less stringent requirements for proof than Criminal law: 3rd party information is acceptable; indirect evidence is acceptable; hearsay is acceptable; the seperate documentation of 6 medical specialists none of whom have ever met the others yet all record the same stresses in their mutual patient, is most certainly admissable. Hmmmmmm ........

Y'know, once I get through with getting settled with Soc. Sec. & MC Disability Retirement, I just may get me a good lawyer with a taste for blood & file a tort against the individuals involved as well as the LFRD corporation for mental pain & anguish, & adverse effects on my physical and mental health bordering on malicious reckless behaviour if not outright Disregard for Human Life and Willful Mental Torture and Conspiracy. That's an awful lot of dolls.

Frankly tho, I'd be quite satisfied to see Murphy frogmarched out of the station & into a police cruiser in handcuffs. As he ducked in, I'd call out sympathetically, "I'll bake you a cake!"

My Dad once told me as I was starting out in the business world, "whatever you do, don't make enemies with the Secretary: she can bury you or make you - and besides, she knows where all the bodies are buried." That, and my all time favorite movie line: "You've F-d with the wrong Marine!"

Grey, TigerBabe, MayWong, Cirquemom (esp you), Arrowchild the enabler, and all the rest of you: I apologize for being away so long. For almost a year I've had a hard time sometimes just making it day to day, and even hour to hour; sometimes not even that, which has landed me in hospital for a period of surcease from the world outside - although if you pick the right hospital, it's like a spa, it really is! Those of you whose dolls I have, I shall return. Ditto those who've sent me fabric. I'm just not up to commissions, now or in the percievable future. If I do make something, I'll just put it up on evilbay & that's it. Vic the Bird Woman of Alcatraz, Oklahoma, I'll have to make it up to you with something else. Pandor, give His Universal Mightiness my most grovelling greetings. TB, your ears should have often been burning because I've spoken of you: whenever there's a contest of sorts about who has friends in the most exotic places, I always sweep the board with "Inuvik, north of the Artic Circle, NWT, Canada. She raises Musk Oxen for the quiviut." Haven't lost yet. You've all been in my thoughts; it's just that I've been trying to keep my head above water, let alone trying to actually swim. But now that I have an Evil Plot - and the delicious irony that it's ALL of THEIR OWN creation - I have quite a bit to look forward to, a light at the end of the very dark, far, close tunnel. I'll keep you all posted on how the plot progresses. It should be VERY amusing as well as (for me) personally gratifying to the nth degree.

Love you all for keeping me in mind. Even if I haven't posted, I've been thinking of all of you & your dolls, & wishing I had the energy to write. Hugs & kisses to all - and my deepest thanks to JanetT who has kept me going by playing Shaherazade, luring me on to continue one more week to hear the next installment. I do believe she can take some credit for saving my life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXs (one for each of you)

[Llwynog]

HUGS!!!!!!!!! Wow Nancy, I don't think I could've lasted long in a work place like that. I hope everyone get what they deserve.

[Itsaiya]

Welcome back to us, Nancy!

[nancyskitties]

Heh. They won't.

[maywong]

Hang in there Nancy. We are all pulling for you. Please keep us up to date.

[leopardessmoon]

sooo......who are you going to pick to play you in the "movie of the week" cause your life has got every bit of plot for it! and you know, the heroine ALWAYS wins in the end! so keep on going and we'll all be prayin' for ya.