Okay, this is so not me, but it made me laugh when I saw it. Today it’s very warm and very muggy, but it was also very much about to rain like hell. So the thought of this imaginary me prancing around in a bikini is just ludicrous. Or maybe it’s lewdicrous; could be. However, it’s cute and of course the kitty is in it. Hi, kitty! And by the way, by the time I got home, the heavens burst open and I had to run around outside trying to cover up the one flower bed and protect it from the large chunks of hail thumping down all around – a swimsuit would have been a good idea. Except for the hail part, that is.

I spent all day at work doing my new job. Actually, my new job started on Monday, my first day back from vacation, and also I’m acting team leader this week. However, I’m now the sole international agent, not the backup; something I’ve been trying to avoid getting saddled with for about 5 years now (I’ve been backup international agent all that time). I thought I was safe about 3 years ago when I successfully managed to convince my supervisor that just because I was backup international agent, that didn’t mean that I would automatically slide into the hot seat when the previous person left to become a team leader for another account (there was some screaming involved in the convincing process, as in “hell no!”).

I thought I was safe because with the previous person I trained two domestic agents from our team in the Way of International; I continued as their backup, but I hardly ever had to back either of them up because, you see, of the twoness of them. I went on my merry way rejoicing and continued to be the resource person for the confused and cluefree on my team, along with a raft of other duties. However, it seemed like neither one of the two agents ever really got comfortable with being on the international side – it’s a job that requires a certain je ne sais quois (spelling?), not to mention familiarity with concepts like, oh, world geography and the ability to make sure that stuff that needs to happen happens when it’s supposed to happen… like getting fares from the rate desk BEFORE you absolutely have to ticket, or making sure there are prereserved seats confirmed for a fusspot at the time of booking and not two days before he departs on a twelve-hour flight and he calls screaming his head off. Things seemed to go more or less smoothly after the first couple of months for the two agents, and they had plenty of work to do at first. A couple of years go by.

One of them recently decided to relocate to Florida – can’t blame him – and after a couple of months as a solo (with me backing up on her Tuesdays off), the other one decided that it’s really not that fun being an international agent if you’re not really into the geographic pro-active documentarian fare-wonkness of it all.

Also there are frustrations with the job that are totally justified from any point of view – the international travelers are a demanding, rather imperious lot; they need visas and passports but almost never file their paperwork far enough in advance – and then it’s wrong, incomplete, and nobody documented that they were advised as to the correct procedure. Also, they change their plans constantly – because they can, because the fares are refundable, because they’re either in business class or full coach, and if they’re not in business class, they’ll whine about an upgrade. Our account specs say that travelers are responsible for their own upgrades and mileage perks (other accounts pay more for services, and get more services in return). However, for some people we have a limited number of these horrible crappy unfun upgrade certificates to use, which I will now have to learn how to apply. For most other people, I’ll have to listen to them whine. Blech.

We had posted for a new international agent, hoping to fill the position with one of several people who used to work on our team who got laid off a couple of years back. We did get a new domestic agent (and whoa, she is good), but TPTB decreed that only the one position would be filled. Which left my supervisor stuck for an international agent; either the current one would have to suck it up and like it, or I’d have to relent in my “hell, no!” position.

Well, for several reasons, I relented. It’s a lot of responsibility, and the chances that someone will call up, screaming, from the ticket counter in Abu Dhabi are now higher. However, I’ve technically got more experience (okay, I’ve got a hell of a lot more experience) doing it than the current agent (actually the immediate past current agent?), and I’ve always been more comfortable (and more pro-active) about things like international fare requests and visa applications. And also because of the downturn in things travel, the volume of calls has dropped dramatically, although there will still be seasonal “flaps” when a bunch of buyers have to go to a show somewhere in the fall and spring.

Yesterday I took 2 international calls, today I took 2, but made several (it’s that proactive thing). It’s not an onerous duty now that all the China-visiting buyers are out of our hair with their multi-entry visas in hand (nightmares, multi-entries! Nightmares!). The spring flap was over a while ago, my job right now is essentially a caretaker position, riding herd on the few outstanding unticketed records in the system.

Although, gawdammit, can’t these people learn to pick up the phone and call in the morning instead of at 430pm, or gawdelpus, 10 minutes to quitting time?? It’s soooo annoying to be “caught” just before logout and have to spend 45 minutes booking somebody RTW and make sure it’s all set up right and queued for fare and tickle dates set and documented with whatever passport/visa crap you’ll need from them. Not to mention the infamous “fares are subject to change without notice, and you must ticket by [date} to avoid autocancellation of the reservation by the airline(s)” disclaimer. Can’t forget that one now, there’ve been some epic screamfests because nobody noticed the tickle date was after the drop-date date on a few records…

Plus today I was a nice kid and let the ticket agent take off at 4pm, and of course that left me as sole ticketer (not usually a big problem, the system auto-tickets 85-90% of our stuff, except for Southwest and exchanges). And of course there were balky records that would NOT autoticket. Grr. Plus someone whined at me, and I don’t do whiners. I complained about it to a buddy, using no names; I should have just said “Oh, one of the whiners got up my nose today – there are several on this team, take your pick” but unfortunately this excellent jest didn’t occur to me until just now. My supervisor is on vacation this week, so I’m wearing her hat in addition to all my other hats. And frankly, I’m just no damn good at remembering who’s supposed to be in, and when. It amazes me that my cow-orkers have to remind me that someone’s absent; I just don’t notice. I guess I’m not cut out to be a supervisor for real, and that’s fer damn sure.

So here’s what I really look like at work; this is in “Casual Friday” mode because, tomorrow being Friday, we must all Thank God.

It’s just another of the many hats I wear on the job.