Anywho, in a nutshell I’m overworked.

Guess what? I’m going on a 2 week vacation! Whoo hoo! In my  w orld
this is huge! Just wanted to share.

Of course he is freaked out but I said dude you’ll be on location and
don’t need me so i’ m going!!

Hope the job is there when I get back – ha!

The Mystery Bloggers are all celebrity personal assistants who prefer to not use their real names or to identify who they work for. That said, they do tell stories about what it’s like to be them — this is their forum — a safe place for them to vent, laugh, cry, whatever.

Scroll down and you will find headings like this:  MYSTERY BLOGGER for all the past blogs they have done. Some day I would love to take all their stories and put them in Book #2! They also have their own pull down tab (up top of the site).

Your comments are always welcome on any of the blog entries.

Thanks for visiting!

Not much to report EXCEPT that if you read my last entry from a few weeks ago I had to handle a flood in my boss’s house. Well, just before Christmas we had some heavy rain and then snow (didn’t everyone?!!) and of course WE get a leak in the roof.

It’s just so weird that anything having to do with water and my guy do not mix. Like oil and vinegar. Same principle. But we got it all patched up naturally.

Hope you had a good holiday. Here’s to a fun (and less water filled) 2010!

If you’ve read my past blogs (If not, why aren’t you reading them! They are funny and tragic at the same time.) If you’ve read my past blogs, you know that the boss has challenges with pools, ponds and technology.

And the universe conspires against me the second he leaves town, I swear to God!  So, of course he left town yesterday and today I got a panicked call from a neighbor who is watching over his summer home – big leak in the kitchen! Flood in the dining room!

Why am I surprised? Ha. Oh well, damage to the kitchen cabinets not too bad actually.

Just another day in the life of….

Here is my thing. I seem to always have to handle a disaster (or two) the minute my boss leaves town. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Karma? Maybe.

So, the boss is on vacation in the South of France for two weeks. YAY!

I promised to keep his two cars (both Lexus’s) happy by driving them while he was gone. The reason these fancy cars have to be driven weekly is because of all the computerized do-hickeys. They drain the batteries. So the minute he left for the airport earlier this week, I decided to leave the office and drive the SUV home. I actually had a yoga lesson so I turned off my cell phone (mistake!!!) and didn’t check it for hours. Happiness is blissful ignorance…

Of course there was a call from the housekeeper when I finally “woke up”, which was now hours old, telling me the other Lexus — a lovely convertible — looked like it had an inside light on in the car. I toyed with driving back to the office (45 minute drive) or staying home. I stayed home. Came in the next day, and viola! The car was fine. I was sooo sure I would have a dead battery. There is God!

A few minutes into work I realized that I had forgotten a USB that I needed the information off of, so I thought — I’ll take the little Lexus home to pick that up! It will be happy I am driving it. I go 10 miles and on comes the “check engine” light. Another few miles and the “tire pressure” light. I think it is talking to me. So I drive it straight to the Lexus dealer (which ironically is right by my house). it is 9:30 am and I have gotten nothing done yet.

Since the SUV is at my house anyway I drive it back to the office. Of course as I am driving it the tire pressure light comes on. Natch. I stop at a gas station fill up the tires with air and the light doesn’t go off. Whatever. I keep driving.

I get to work. Handle the USB info being transferred finish up my work day which includes almost 2 hours on the phone with a computer guy because my computer has crashed and decide: I am NOT going to drive this Lexus home. I am not going to tempt the Lexu goddess today.

I will drive my Volvo home.

I go to the garage and my car won’t start.

As I shake my fist to the heavens I realize something like this ALWAYS happens the second my boss steps on foreign soil. ALWAYS.

End of saga I drove the SUV home. It was fine. Picked up the convertible the next day from the dealer and oh yeah: the Volvo decides to run now. No problem.

Argh!!!!!!!!

At this point the boss had been out of town for only 36 hours. Oh goody. Only 12 more days to go before he returns.

PS  This story I notice isn’t nearly as funny as the pond project saga. I wish it was.

After reading all of this why would anyone want to be a celebrity personal assistant!!

Some of you may remember that a year ago (hard to believe it was that long ago) my boss went out of the country and left me with a nightmare project to handle because he didn’t handle it before he left. This was the pond project. I wrote extensively about my frustrations with the entire process (some of it was actually kind of funny) over the past year.

The pond was finally built.

it developed string algae.

A LOT of string algae.
Meanwhile, he has koia and goldfish. He asked his neighbors about their experiences with ponds. No one had anything good to say. One person told him that they finally had to take out the plants and fish and just dump chlorine in the pond and that it looks spectacular.

He — said boss — of course wants to keep the fish and the plants. Naturally.

So guess what? We had the entire pond power washed and it looks great.

I wonder how long that will last before the algae comes back?

Sigh.

The Mystery Bloggers are all celebrity personal assistants who prefer to not use their real names or to identify who they work for. That said, they do tell stories about what it’s like to be them — this is their forum — a safe place for them to vent, laugh, cry, whatever.

Scroll down and you will find headings like this:  MYSTERY BLOGGER for all the past blogs they have done. Some day I would love to take all their stories and put them in Book #2!

And your comments are always welcome on any of the blog entries.

Thanks for visiting!

PS  Don’t forget to follow me on twitter! (link in the right column)

I have been traveling so I apologize for not writing a blog in a while. Luckily Shelley still loves me no matter what!

I wanted to write a tribute to all the people who passed the last few weeks but my heart just isn’t in it.

Instead, a short blog about the boss man. For those who followed my exploits that began last summer with the pond blogs….all appears to be well with the pond as of today. Anything could happen tomorrow though!The latest thing is the boss man (who loves technology but has NO idea how to use it) has decided to have Tivo installed in the main house. Oh oh. I have a bad feeling about this. He is such a charmer but has challenges with how to use his TV remotes right now. So I am thinking this is one more thing to irritate him — actually, it is one more thing to irritate ME!

The Tivo guy tells me today, oh it will be easy. We will just give you new remotes.

I wanted to tell this guy — noooooo! Do you know how long it took me to train the boss man to use the two remotes we currently have?

The Tivo will be installed next week while boss man is away on vacation. By the time he returns I have to figure out how to “train” him all over again.

Sigh. A day in the life…

More later I am sure.

Gayle

Not much to say really. Work is same old, same old.  I do want to say how much I enjoy reading this blog and what the other “mystery” bloggers have to say about their jobs. It puts my job into perspective when I read about what they are going through.

So I hope you keep reading here. And Shelley’s e-zine is kinda fun too. Oh and I guess she is on tweeter now? I need to check that out.

More later…

Gayle

PS  For those who care, yes, the boss still has a pond and now it has koi in it.

i started working again.

for those who are pa’s, epa’s or estate managers, basically saying ‘i started working again’ explains everything. i am back to crazy hours, non stop phones, scheduling, fires to be put out, emails to respond… you get the idea.

plus the hardest part has been trying to figure out what i can actually write about that isn’t going to get me fired.what i can say is that having a ‘break’ between clients (almost a year to the day) has given me a lot of insight and strength.

the biggest factor is really being able to start in a new work/home office environment and realize how easy it was for me to suss out (or as i like to say perform ‘triage’) what was working and what wasn’t. it amazed me how all assistants that had worked prior to me basically had no clue to what was needed to keep a boss who has 4 business, 5 major properties, and an army of friends and family all over the place life in order.

the good thing was hearing; ‘wow, you’re amazing, i’m amazed how you get everything done.’ ‘my productivitiy has increased 300% since you’ve been here!’
admittidly, it does get a bit tiring to hear it, as my thoughts are ‘why didn’t you have someone like me, or even kinda like me before?’ and also, ‘i’m not getting paid enough.’

so clearly, i’m good at what i do. there have been a couple tasks that have challenged my abilities, but i have found i have been able to conquer any obsticle. that feels pretty damn good.

but, there is a flip side to all this.

it does wear on me of ‘why can’t these people take care of themselves and why do they keep making the same bad choices that complicate thier lives, over and over and over…’

that issue will ALWAYS be there, and the best and only way, and i’m more than happy to get advise from you dear blog reader, but the bottom line is I do this over and over and over because it’s my job and i get paid for it.

and there ain’t nothin’ going on but the rent.

or the mortgage.

–jdubz