March 26, 1992
Dear Everyone:
Nothing like a little interoffice recession to get
people interested in their boxes in the Records Center.
The word has come down from on high:
Economize, economize, economize.
Everyone is scrutinizing their
monthly billing statements, affectionately referred to as the "G&A",
looking for ways to cut costs. (No,
I have no idea what "G&A" stands for. Maybe
"General & Administrative". Maybe
"Gorillas & Antelopes". Whatever.)
People who only look at their G&A at budget time,
to figure out how much they spent last year so they can ask for 10% more
for next year, are now looking at them in March.
People who
never look at their G&A
before are now going over them with a magnifying glass.
And they all see "charges for box storage,
“Livermore” Records Center" and go "Huh? Do we have boxes in
“Livermore”?" So they called
“Livermore” and “Livermore” tells them, "Call ‘A’".
And they do.
Boy! do they ever!
People who couldn't care less about their boxes
when they weren't paying for them, can't wait to get that 38¢ per box
per month off their billing now.
Add to this the tremendous amount of restructuring
that's going on as departments, and whole companies, are disbanded,
reorganized, expanded or cut up into little pieces, and the fact that
people don't want to pay for boxes that aren't "theirs" anymore.
The moment they find out what
their new charge code is, they want it changed in CRMIS.
And they can't do that without
going through me.
Face it, folks I am Queen of the Charge Codes;
Empress of the Box Universe.
Snowed under is what I am. I've got Owner (charge)
Code Changes coming out my ears.
Not that this will prevent me from taking next
Monday off as a vacation day. By
"tradition" (or by "accident"), I usually take the last Monday in March
as a vacation day. It's the day
they present the
Academy Awards and, in times past, I've held small "Oscar Parties",
with a few friends over to watch the fun.
So, I need the day to clean house and get ready.
This year, only “Jeannie” is
coming over, so I won't feel compelled to wash off the top of the
refrigerator. Just lay out some
carrot sticks and dip chips and have fun.
Speaking of movies, “Jeannie” and I went back to
our favorite shopping mall and movie house in
Blackhawk.
This time, we went around to the
"back" of the shopping center, searching for a branch of “Jeannie's”
bank, which we found.
We also found the "Blackhawk Market".
Bear in mind that Blackhawk is
where rich people and professional athletes live.
This Market is all done up in
black and gold tile work. Even
the shopping carts are "gold"! I
didn't see any (it was Sunday morning, not a lot of shoppers), but I've
been told that, if you so require, they will bring a phone to your
shopping cart for you. Probably
have Fax-While-You-Shop soon, too.
The movie was
Noises Off!,
which is based on the same play that we saw in San Francisco some years
ago. It concerns a play (within a
play) and all the things that go wrong with the production.
Michael
Caine plays the director. Having
seen the original play, I recognized some of the jokes before they
arrived. Nevertheless, it was
quite funny and enjoyable, except for the second act, which was
HILARIOUS and beautifully
choreographed. Definitely worth
the price of (bargain) admission.
As for the Academy Awards, my money is on
Silence of the
Lambs, with
Beauty and the Beast
as a runner-up. Strange
bedfellows, when you stop to think about it.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |