2 1/2 weeks of vacation and holiday time is a wonderful thing. I must apologize but this ended up a little out of order. TIA #2 occurs between my Christmas Vacation and this entry. Details of this TIA were posted previously.

Back to the topic at hand. I did remember where my job was located. The date is now 1/10/05. I found my cubicle (just where I left it) and I found a 3 ring binder with a title of "Engineering Work Management Liason" on it. There was also a handwritten note stating, "I am sorry I was not able to give you a verbal turnover." I am thinking, 'What have these idiots done?' I put that aside and start the mundane task of checking email. There are 300 emails in my Inbox!!!!!! After clearing out emails telling me my prescription for Viagara was ready, how some really hot babes were ready to do my bidding (yeah right, maybe if I use a Credit Card) and that my mortgage application was pre-approved, I was down to 85 real emails in my Inbox.

I see my supervisor. He was supposed to be on vacation today so you can imagine my suprise at seeing him. "Step into my cublcie", he says. I think to myself, 'Most of the time, this isn't good.' First he asks about how my vacation was. I relate about my dad, visiting my father-in-law, visiting the Emergency Room to bring in New Years. He tells me, "I have decided you were going to be the 'Engineering Work Management Liason'."

"I was right. This wasn't good.", I thought. This task's main function is to be a pest to the entire Engineering organization. This person fulfilling this role ranks right up there with Osama Bin Ladin with how much they are reviled. They are basically a nag. There are three meetings that need to be attended and many pages of reports to be compiled each week. It also involves doing a lot of walking around and talking with people. In other words, if a job or task is on hold for any reason due to the Engineering organization, I need to know who the responsible person is, the reason for the hold, and when it will be cleared. Couple that with the fact that my short term memory, to quote my wife, was "as sharp as a shovel", I knew that this was going to be not a good thing.

It took 3 hours to compile the applicable reports and make 16 copies of a particular report to distribute (Read hand deliver because I got this task to allow me to interface with more people). Luckily, I had a doctor appointment at noon, so I delivered these reports and took off.

My plan was to come in on Tuesday, 1/11/2005 and review the data for my first meeting scheduled for 1:00pm.

It was not to be. You see, I happened to have TIA#3 the morning of 1/11/2005.

This was the only time I was ever thankful for a TIA.

Charles Ramsey