I ran into an old supervisor from my Promptel (code for crap telephone company I used to work for) days. He asked me “who are you driving mad now?” Isn’t it sweet how people remember you? And, I must admit, I was a terrific pain in the bum when it came to him managing me – why he even tried I have no idea. He asked “Are you still playing ‘Who Wants to Be A Millionaire’ at the desk when you’re supposed to be working?” The answer is no, because I no longer have that as an email attachment.
I used to drive this manager, let’s call him Charlie, mad because towards the end of our Promptel time, we were all chucked into the call centre. This was done to break the weak ones so they would leave and then there would be less $$$ to pay out when they got rid of the rest of us. The hard nuts like me and my mates Ethel and Katie stuck it out to the end for our pay out. We did this by breaking the rules. Yes, I’m sure I’ll feel terrible about driving Promptel to distraction one day – remind me to apologise next year some time, will you? Anyway we used to take the odd call and then play games on the computer. One of our favorites was “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” We used to sit with customers, on hold – generally because they were yelling – and answer questions.
If you have worked in a call centre you would be aware of random call monitoring. Usually it’s really obvious because you hear ‘them’ click in and then you knew when to be good – or alternatively you would stand up and wave and let them
know you knew what they were doing to piss them off. Or in the case of answering thousands of “Millionaire” questions you would not hear them click in as you were busy doing other stuff and then they would hear you discussing the answers when you should have been working. It would drive Charlie mad. I would explain to Charlie that if he just came over and said he was call going to call monitor us then we wouldn’t answer questions for a couple of minutes.
C - It’s not random if you know!
A – Okay, so this is important to you I take it?
C – It’s for your development not mine, Amarinda
A – I’m developed enough
A – Okay, so this is important to you I take it?
C – It’s for your development not mine, Amarinda
A – I’m developed enough
C – Don’t you care about your call stats?
A – Oh, are they for me?
C – Yes, I know you bin them
A – I’m sure I never meant for you to see me do that
C – You’re a pain in the arse, Amarinda
A – Come on, you know I make your life more interesting
C – Piss off
A – Go home early you mean? Okay then…
C – Walking away from you…
See? Rules are easy to ignore.
A moment from Shades of Gray…
“Is Temperance home?”
“She went to get milk and my stash of jelly beans man.” Swerve invited him inside. That Asher said he was a policeman did not seem to penetrate into the weed-clouded mind of the good natured Swerve. “She is the only legal-to-drive if you know what I mean and I needed a sugar hit bad.”
“Yeah I do.” Asher laughed. He was not a cop tonight. If this guy wanted to get high as a kite it had nothing to do with him. Asher wanted one thing in this house—his woman. He looked around the home. It was cluttered with books and furniture and color. It looked lived in and crazy and he felt instantly at home. “So you share with Temperance?”
“I just visit man. And the Tempster doesn’t share anything,” Swerve responded looking at him in an unfocused way. “I am happy to service her sexual needs but the Tempster says she does not do threesomes. She is into the one on one commitment stuff.”
“Interesting.” That was exactly what Asher wanted to hear.
“Monogamy is boring.” Swerve was a man who believed in spreading the love.
“Temperance has a beautiful soul, a pure heart and a sensitive nurturing nature,” Cat told Asher.
“Fucking hell Swerve. Don’t leave your frigging skateboard out on the front porch. I nearly broke my bloody neck on it again.” Much cursing could be heard from outside the front door. “I am going to kick your lily-white ass if you leave it out there again.”
“So speaks the pure, nurturing soul,” murmured Asher in amusement.
“Is Temperance home?”
“She went to get milk and my stash of jelly beans man.” Swerve invited him inside. That Asher said he was a policeman did not seem to penetrate into the weed-clouded mind of the good natured Swerve. “She is the only legal-to-drive if you know what I mean and I needed a sugar hit bad.”
“Yeah I do.” Asher laughed. He was not a cop tonight. If this guy wanted to get high as a kite it had nothing to do with him. Asher wanted one thing in this house—his woman. He looked around the home. It was cluttered with books and furniture and color. It looked lived in and crazy and he felt instantly at home. “So you share with Temperance?”
“I just visit man. And the Tempster doesn’t share anything,” Swerve responded looking at him in an unfocused way. “I am happy to service her sexual needs but the Tempster says she does not do threesomes. She is into the one on one commitment stuff.”
“Interesting.” That was exactly what Asher wanted to hear.
“Monogamy is boring.” Swerve was a man who believed in spreading the love.
“Temperance has a beautiful soul, a pure heart and a sensitive nurturing nature,” Cat told Asher.
“Fucking hell Swerve. Don’t leave your frigging skateboard out on the front porch. I nearly broke my bloody neck on it again.” Much cursing could be heard from outside the front door. “I am going to kick your lily-white ass if you leave it out there again.”
“So speaks the pure, nurturing soul,” murmured Asher in amusement.
What could you spend an eternity doing?
What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.
The prizes –
1st prize--5 books
2nd prize--3 books
3rd prize--2 books
The books
Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Anny Cook Honeysuckle
Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.
The prizes –
1st prize--5 books
2nd prize--3 books
3rd prize--2 books
The books
Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Anny Cook Honeysuckle
Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.
Nope, not me today...check out the others
Anny is talking about the joy of dancing barefoot thought snakes on www.annycook.blogspot.com and Kelly is explained how rolling stones can gather moss, they just don’t want to on www.kkirch.blogspot.com
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?
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8 comments:
I am so incredibly tempted to behave that way at my current job. They would never fire me, I think I have learned that by now. And maybe my frustrations would not be so high if I took it out on others.
Try it out, Dakota, and let us know if it works.
Congratulations on your release, AJ! And thank you for posting that Indonesian sign. What a shock to see something in a foreign language which isn't one of the "big five".
I temped for 7 weeks at a company one summer, and my and I were the same age. He used to pretend to run me over with a forklift; I used to throw rivets at him to get his attention. One night he decided to sit on the sidetable to talk to me, and when he jumped off, all the rivets popped out (probably 15 minutes of work), and I flat out refused to redo what he had just detroyed. He looked at me; the other guys sucked in their breaths; I held my ground; he shook his head and them did it. Later I found out I could have been fired; when I asked why he didn't, he said, "I enjoyed having you around too much!"
Love the pics. I have no idea where you find such interesting pictures.
Shades of Gray was wonderful. I agree with "you know who"--it's a much deeper work than you usually write. Anxiously looking forward to Marlow's story.
Congratulations on the new release. I have to admit I come here almost every day to see what you have to say. It generally makes me smile.
This is better than reading my daily horoscope.
I used to work in a call centre for a rather large department store. Your story takes me back...
Love the excerpt - and the promptel stories always delight me.
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