Coronation Day!

Today was my coronation day.  I am now a queen.

I went back to the dentist and got my crowns.  Tomorrow, I will show you a before and after picture.  Right now, my top lip is still numb, and I can't quite smile.  The dentist said it would take a couple of days to get used to my new teeth, and I haven't quite figured out how to chew yet.  This will be interesting. 

Note to self:  When someone says I have a nice smile, the correct response is, "Thank you", not, "It ought to be, as much as it cost."

As for today, my nerves are absolutely shot.   I've said for a while now that my group leader depends on me too much, and it's the truth.  Every so often, she pushes me just a little too far, and let's just say it's not pretty.  Today was one such day.  And it was not pretty.

After work, my supervisor and I discussed things.  I told him it's the little things.  I'm not an assistant group leader.  If I'd wanted to be a group leader, I'd have applied for the position when it came open.  I'm not her fetch and carry do-girl, or her personal servant.  I'm not her special helper, but that's what she treats me as.  I'm a sub-brazer, and that's all I want to be.  There is so much she could be doing herself that she's passing on to me.

Take this morning.  I told my supervisor that I knew we had a lot of partial orders to complete, and I was prepared to deal with that.  What set me off, though, was this.  Group Leader and [Other Coworker] were about halfway down the line.  Now, for those of you who work there, they were by the blower.  For those of you who don't, they were about halfway down the line.

Let me step out of my story for a moment to tell you that when need parts for something, we put in a request to the dispatcher.  He's the one who puts the work into the system, and assigns it to whatever machine/department/process is the one who makes those parts.  The dispatcher's desk is across the aisle from my line, about half way down.

Group Leader and Other Coworker were standing about halfway down the line, just a few steps away from the dispatcher's desk.  Group Leader gave Other Coworker a paper, and told her to bring it to me and tell me to request those parts from the dispatcher.  Other Coworker then walked right past the dispatcher's desk -- with the dispatcher sitting right there in his chair -- and brought the paper to me, saying, "[Group Leader] said for you to order these parts."

As I said to my supervisor, there was no reason that either one of them couldn't give that paper to the dispatcher.  Yet, they are so helpless and dependent on me that they had to interrupt my work and get me to do something they could have easily done.  It's almost like they forget I have work of my own to do.

What I didn't tell my supervisor is that even if one of them had given the paper to the dispatcher, he wouldn't have put it into the system without checking with me first.  "Do I really need to put this in, or are these parts laying around on the line somewhere?"  Which means, I still would have had interrupt my work, and walk all over the line hunting for those parts before he put them into the system.

I didn't sign up for this.

My supervisor said he's working on her not being so dependent on me.  I told him in the morning, I'm putting in for a vacation day.  He asked which day I wanted, and I said, "The first one that is open."  And this time, I'm not going to spend the day at the dentist!

My friend Ann posted a picture of her sock yarn blanket on Facebook.  She's sent me yarn for my blanket, too.  I thought it was time to post a new picture of mine.  This is the one I'm supposedly making for my sister.

I say supposedly, because at this point, I'm not sure it's ever going to be finished.  Well, maybe when she is old, she can cover her lap with it as she sits in her wheelchair.

I'll post a picture of mine another time.