APRIL... More of the same (Part 128g)

APRIL... More of the same (Part 128g)

Life at home that week was less than idyllic. Even though Elle had been teaching full time for a few weeks she still hadn’t mastered getting her lesson plans done, correcting papers, recording all the information required by the school system and still caring for our kids and running the household. What made that week especially bad was that Elle had her period. As soon as the kids were in bed... so was she. I tried to help out where I could but I was a poor substitute for her. I remember having to answer the question ”What’s wrong with mommy?“ more than once. I was hoping that she’d recover somewhat over the weekend because I needed time to prepare for a ”Gift“ Committee meeting Monday morning. To make matters worse for me I got a call Saturday afternoon from the man in charge of the Vestry at the church that there was to be a special meeting following the 10am service. I hated the 10am service because it ended up taking so much time out of the day. I’d gotten out of the last Vestry meeting using the ”busy period“ at work as my excuse so knew I’d have to attend this one. I felt like I was being pulled in many directions all at once but I couldn’t complain to Elle because she was in the same situation.

We were both pretty grumpy Monday morning. On the bright side symptoms from Elle’s period were letting up so I was looking forward to some ”loving“ in the upcoming days. However, my frustration from work didn’t allow me to get too far ahead of myself. When I saw Gina as I walked across the lobby I remembered my last words to her and wondered what I’d find her wearing when I got over to my desk. All I can say is that she had really nice legs... and I could see a lot of them. I wasn’t sure if any of the Trustees had noticed her the previous week but was sure that some of them would be upset when they saw just what she was wearing.

I think this is when I came to realize that some people were born to wear certain types of clothes. Gina was born to wear a mini skirt. I’ll admit my first thought was in wondering how long it would take for me to get my first panty peek. Bret was a little late arriving that morning but when he saw Gina it made him shake his head. He then turned to me to ask if I’d seen her. I think I laughed but I know I smiled. The first comment came from Trish. As I’ve indicated in previous posts, Trish was very conservative. I don’t remember her words but it was the rolling of her eyes that said it all. I remember taking somewhat of a deep breath and shrugging my shoulders. She clearly let me know she didn’t approve.

I want to say Gina’s skirt was shorter than what Jerena was wearing but, and this is what I meant in my first sentence in the previous paragraph, on her it didn’t look out of place. Jerena was short and Gina was tall. Gina’s was a pleated plaid and Jerena’s was light gray and somewhat flared. With the two of them working side by side Gina looked like she should be wearing a short skirt and Jerena looked a bit ”dumpy”.
                                         

Similar to what Gina wore but without the belt

I’d spent more time surveying that situation than I’d wanted and had to hustle to get upstairs to my meeting. I hadn’t noticed if any of the three Trustees who made up the committee had stopped in the lobby and when I walked in I was truly waiting for comments about Gina. But the only comment had more to do with Donna now being in the mortgage department than Gina being her replacement on the teller line. I think I breathed a sigh of relief.

Another of the things that “bugged” me about the Board of Trustees and the committees they created was that, for the most part, the people on them knew little to nothing about the subject they were to make decisions on. I’ll admit that I knew very little about gift campaigns but we wasted almost an hour on mundane things and not on the important ones like getting an approval from the banking department to even offer one and the costs of running it. I remember listening to them discussing (arguing) the merits of one brand of product over another and not on weather the base product would be desired by the public. It was a long morning!

Leaving the meeting the last person I wanted to see or talk to at that moment was J J. Even though he’d just gotten a replacement for the retiring settlement clerk he had approached Bert, the president, and talked him into letting him hire a “floater“. I tried to escape from him but he followed me down the stairs. His reasoning was that with the growth of the bank (the last ”busy period” notwithstanding) and with Summer vacations almost upon us he felt he needed someone to fill in during that time.

I’ve commented on and made “asides” about J J throughout the postings here. From reading them it could be interpreted that I didn’t like him. That wasn’t the case. He was a “good guy” and would do anything to help just about anybody. (I won’t deny that I had no use for his wife though.) But, when it came to common sense... well there wasn’t very much there. Good at his job dealing with the public and mortgages, he had horrible timing with just about everything else. He’d get an idea, good or bad, and want it to be acted on immediately.

I sort of lost my composure and, still on the stairs, let him have it. Fortunately, there were only a few customers in the lobby so it wasn’t a big scene. One thing I said, and knew immediately that I shouldn’t have, was that I wasn’t his lackey and that just because he was an assistant vice president didn't make him my boss my. I can’t tell you what his reaction was because I continued on down the stairs and left him just standing there.

When I got a call later that afternoon to go to the president’s office I figured that was it and that I’d gone way too far. I couldn’t have been farther from the matter at hand. Bert greeted me and then proceeded to close the door. Definitely not a good sign. You probably could’ve heard my heart pounding. After a few pregnant seconds he asked about how did I come to hire Gina. It was like I hadn’t heard him because I didn’t utter a sound. The question came from so far out in left field I couldn’t process it. After he, very calmly, asked a second time I told him that she’d been a walk in. I didn’t know what else to say. He prodded a bit and mentioned Donna which gave me the opening to explain how the whole thing had gone down. I started with Mary’s retirement (and not mentioning that J J had forgotten to let me or anyone know it was coming up) and went to the fact that I’d pretty much determined that Donna, as good as she was technically and the public, was a distraction for the other tellers. I’d felt that she would work best in an environment that didn’t involve too much interaction with other staff and suggested her to J J. When he liked the idea I had to hire a replacement and Gina was the first to walk through the doors. Since she had both money handling experience and had dealt with the public it was a “no brainer” for me. I really didn’t know what he was looking for so just sat there. He never asked another question. When I walked out the door it was like I’d just taken a shower with my clothes on.

To be continued...