In which I rant about my co-workers and a Philosopher gives me a pep talk about my knitting.

Today I received my Color Your Own kit from Philosophers Wool Company. I was so excited when I got the box I couldn't wait to open it. When I did, I was a little let down. The kit they sent me was for this:



What I ordered was this: I know you may not be able to tell the difference in these two patterns but let me tell you what it is. Yellow. The kit I received was the Fire colorway. The kit I ordered was the Fire - with Yellow. That color that looks almost like white in the second picture...that's the yellow. At first I thought about just letting it go. I told myself that it's just one color so I should just not worry about it. But as the afternoon went on, I just kept looking at the pictures and it just wasn't going to happen. I had my heart set on the sweater with the yellow. Both are beautiful, but I really wanted that yellow. Heart in the basement thinking I would have to send the kit I'd waited so long for back, I picked up the phone and dialed Philosophers Wool. A very pleasant man answered the phone. When I explained the problem he replied, "Oh shoot! Well, so then let's see, what you need is the yellow." He said he'd call Sue and get it right out to me. I asked if I could also get a new color key as the one I had was just for the Fire colorway without the yellow and he said that wouldn't be a problem but then went on to tell me that I could go ahead and start the sweater anyway b/c I wouldn't use the yellow for awhile and really, I didn't need the color key at all. He said that was the beauty of the Color Your Own, you could decided where you put what color and it always comes out great. "On my sweater the sleeves don't even match up but it still looks great." (This should have been a clue.) As we concluded our business I asked whom I was speaking with (I'm in medicine, I always get the name of who I spoke with.) It was Eugene himself! I'd been chatting with Eugene Bourgeois. Awesome. So, if you ever want to order from a great company who makes great wool in fabulous colors and contribute to keeping up conscientious buying practices, go to http://www.philosopherswool.com/ They are great and the customer service can't be beat. Who knows....Eugene may just be the one who answers the phone. Or Anne.

Now, on to my rant about my co-workers. I don't engage in workplace gossip, much. On occasion I find that I need to vent about certain things or certain people. I work in a good size office. On my team are 4 MAs, 2 LPNs, and 3 RNs. I am one of the MAs. It is a point of contention in the office as to what your "rank" is as far as your schooling despite the only difference in our jobs being that the RNs are the only ones who do IV therapy (LPNs can D/C an IV, but can do little else with them in our office.) We give allergy shots and do allergy testing. We call in prescriptions and we assist the physicians when they need us. The MAs are trained phlebotomists (one of our RNs is too as that is what she did while going to school) the others are not. The MAs are also trained to do a few more procedures than the LPNs are. MAs however, are not licensed. MAs can be certified but this is not important. LPNs (at least in my office) are a bit snooty about the licensing part of their titles. They are essentially MAs with a license. They go to school for the same amount of time, do the same kinds of clinicals and do almost the same jobs. And you can't tell them that an MA is not their peon on the work ladder. One LPN in my office is really bad about this. She tends to piss me off more than the rest but I keep it to myself b/c I don't want to make her feel bad. It is a bit cathartic to be able to write it down here though, especially after a day of her primping and driving me crazy with the "Princess" act she pulls. I actually had to spend almost an entire afternoon the other day listening to a discussion between her, the other LPN, and the new girl discussing the virtues of beige vs. white underwear (we have to wear white pants Mon-Fri), and how you can never find any cute work pants at Wal-Mart b/c they were all elastic waist and straight leg instead of the trendy kind. I bit my tongue from saying, "I buy my work pants at Wal-Mart b/c they are cheap, good quality, not see through (another point they were discussing, hence the underwear debate), and comfortable. And I'm not concerned with impressing anyone while I'm at work. " As long as my uniforms are clean, pressed, and professional looking who cares if they're trendy? Who the hell exactly are they trying to impress. They did ask me about the underwear and I replied, "Frankly I don't spend any time looking at any of your butts so I assume you don't look at mine. I wear white briefs and I buy them at Wal-Mart in the six pack b/c I prefer to spend my money on more important things." They actually admitted that they bought their work underwear at Victoria's Secret and thought it was a good deal to get five pair for twenty-five dollars! You could make an entire sweater for that much. Why on earth would you spend that much money on stuff you're going to fart on? Frankly even when I was skinny I never shopped at VS (except for once when I had a gift card) for underwear. I buy their perfume and sometimes their lip gloss but my fun panties come from Target or Wal - Mart. Maybe I was raised with more sense. Or maybe I'm just more secure with myself and therefore don't need to impress people by spending too much money on work uniforms and underwear. Well, to each their own. It's crazy to spend twenty-five dollars on a skein of hand-dyed sock yarn to these people (not that I tell them I spend this much) but honestly, it takes me about two to three weeks to make a pair of socks and that's when I'm not in school so I get a lot of mileage out of those twenty-five dollars. These are the same people whose lives revolve around the TV, use their treadmills as a clothes rack but spend thirty dollars a month tanning and on a gym membership they rarely use, and if they see the inside of a church spend the service thinking about themselves and/or what they plan to do after the service. Am I better? No, of course not. I have my many faults too. I just needed to rant a bit.