August Already?!?!?!

So today was the last day of July...only one month to go...time really flew by this summer as it always has in the past. When I first started in May I didn't have very many duties and my days went by very slowly. Then in late June, the badges for student BSOs finally arrived and I was really busy distributing them across the prairies provinces. Then Kim got sick and I had to cover her position for 1.5 weeks and then after she came back we received the order to upgrade all BSOs to Secret. By Oct 1, 2008 every candidate must be at secret before going to Rigaud, QC which is where they receive their training. The difference in paper work between Secret and Reliability is tremendous and people don't follow instructions or refuse to provide certain pieces of information. So Kim and I have been dealing with three parties, the uncooperative candidates, HR who are desperate to sending people, and HQ which is backed up and can't keep up with the demand. That basically takes me until yesterday...when HQ very 'kindly' reminded us that we were supposed to provide the exact number of CBSA employees that require Designation and Authority Cards broken down into various categories by Friday August 1, 2008. Kim and I were completely confused we had no idea a 'date' was ever set out. We've known it was coming but our manager who is on holidays now never gave us the order to do it. The furthest he got was to ask us "Is this type of report easily prepared?" and nothing like "Richard and Kim do this by...." was given. Of course now people all over the region and HQ knows me, so I do feel more important and special! :) Upgrading the existing BSO's to secret will be another daunting task but HQ said the Oct 1 date applies to only new BSOs but we're thinking in the fall. There is still this other "BIG" project that I haven't even started yet and I was told about it on my first day of work. We're trying to merge all of our electronic records (numerous excel spreadsheets) into one Database. HQ is responsible for writing the program but it has taken them a long time and now that I think it is ready we're too occupied with the secret upgrades. Hopefully, next week we can begin to dedicate some time to that project....and you wonder why my manager doesn't want me to go ;)