the explosive rage has been nonstop

[magical thyme]

20. 2 days "out there"

Day before yesterday, the 3rd shift person arrived, yelling and slamming things around. Yelling about routine work that hasn't been done yet. She arrives this way all the time. Then a body fluid arrives, and I start to feel panicky. We don't get body fluids very often, there is no complete written procedure for them. You have to run around looking for each piece and just "kind of figure out" the holes.

She is now yelling some more, and I tell her to be careful because I'm about this close (fingers 1/2 inch part) to walking out. She yells at me to go ahead and leave then, everybody knows I don't like it here, everybody knows I want to leave so just get out. Just go home!!!!!

I yell back for her to STOP YELLING AT ME!!!! JUST STOP IT! YOU ALWAYS COME IN HERE YELLING AT ME! JUST STOP IT! I KNEW ABOUT THE ROUTINES! THEY WERE NOT FORGOTTEN. I SET THEM ASIDE BECAUSE I WAS RUNNING ED STATS ALL AFTERNOON AND THEN TOOK A DINNER BREAK!!!!

And then everything settled down, we raced through the work and she started talking to me instead of yelling at me. Turns out the lab manager and supervisor had stayed late and overheard the yelling. They slunk out and headed home. The lab manager -- this is the bully -- actually had a guilty look on her face as she told me to have a good evening.

Later that night, 3rd shift tech and I hugged. Air cleared.

Yesterday on my way to work, a semi pulling a load of porta-toilets tried to gun it out onto coastal 1. Somehow didn't see my bright red car until he'd lurched forward about 15 feet into the road and then slammed on his brakes. All I could do was swerve around him to be kept from being broadsided. And then slam on my brakes to keep from slamming into the little v.w. who saw the semi as *their* chance to race into traffic...right in front of me! About 100 feet later, as I was accelerating to try to catch up to traffic, another car gunned it onto the road from the opposite lane, in front of me. Slammed on the brakes again. Insanity continued for the rest of the trip with people weaving in and out while I cowered in the right hand and slow lanes; somehow I made it there in one piece.

Third shift person, this time the laid back guy, arrived in a worse mood than usual. Yelling every time I asked an innocent question (like, where did this specimen come from? when it magically appeared by the spinner, and I didn't know if it needed spinning or it was a spare to spec already spinning). He got into a phone yelling match with a doctor ("Why are you ordering a troponin again on xyz?!?!? I just did a trope 3 hours ago on xyz?!?!). But eventually he settled down too.

Thank dog I now have 7 days off in a row. Relief....