Mama Bear

Lately, at my job, I've felt like a bit of a Mama Bear (Rawr!). My company's facility managers (who are all male) are from and work all over the East Coast. I'm often included on phone calls with all of them (because my boss is their boss, and, I'm transitioning into a role where I'll be taking care of issues at their respective locations), and I bring some different perspectives to the table then they do. The first one is the young perspective (I'm younger than everyone else... I suppose this is contradictory to the whole "Mama Bear" thing, but it does feel that way!), but the most obvious thing is that I'm the lone female (don't let my name fool you!)

For example, we were discussing the best way to keep our dumpsters (remember, I'm in the grease biz!) clean... when they get really gross, we pull them from the field and try to get them tidied up as best we can. Apparently, even a power washing doesn't quite do it, so the guys were talking about buying a sandblaster and trying that. I knew they were all thinking about how much fun it would be to play with a sandblaster, meanwhile, I shoot them all an email with safety measures to consider when using a sandblaster... perhaps a bit of a kill-joy, but, whatever, people have died from that shit, yo! And they all laughed at me (and then asked me if I was a sandblasting expert...).

Today, we had all the facility managers come in to town for an all-day meeting (which was the first time I'd met most of them in person!), and I was in charge of things like booking their hotel rooms, making dinner and lunch reservations, and picking up breakfast for all of them. So, that domestic, nurturing side of me kicked in (who knew it was there?) and I overdid things a bit. Like, I made hotel reservations and emailed each one of the guys directions there, tailored from his specific location (because I didn't want them to get lost!). And I made dinner reservations at a restaurant they could walk to from the hotel. And I got up at 6:30 this morning to get fresh bagels, doughnuts, and fruit, and to make a giant pot of coffee before the guys got to the office at 8:00 for our all-day meeting (btw, I'm exhausted). I guess I just felt personally responsible for their well-being and comfort while they were in my town and at my office.

Rawr!

Poor Chris... Between work and Coltrane (who, incidentally, has pink-eye or something... his eye is goopy and weepy...poor, poor bun!), he doesn't get very much of Nurturing Me (Although, it is quite possible he thinks this is a good thing). I guess I need to try to channel my "care-taking" tendencies towards him a little more (though, I cook him a brand new meal once-a-week and I... wait, no. Well, I do... no, he does that... and I give him... hmmm......... RAWR!)...

On a similar note, my company has started its own blog, so I thought I'd link to it in case you all are interested in biodiesel and/or the oil crisis: http://greenlightbiofuels.wordpress.com/