The Week of Whine September 25, 2008

So I’m having a pretty bad week. It goes as follows:

• Monday was my fourth day at my second job. It really blows. Not only is this whole department and database completely unorganized, which drives me batty in any situation, the three people I work with are constantly disagree with each other about how I should do my work. So in the end, I really have no clue what the hell is going on.  My first day was just peachy, with me having to ask multiple times for someone to show me where a bathroom was. My co-worker, instead of possibly inviting me along, merely announced, “Well, lunch is at 11:30, so I’ll see you later.” Didn’t even bother to pass along info about where I might be able to find some for myself. I never did get a welcome from HR, and the safety session I had with some woman consisted of “Here’s a floor plan, the first aid kits are in the kitchen, and I guess I can show you the stair wells if you want me to.” As in, ask me to, and you’ll have an instant frenemy. And the thing I hate the most, when I ask the main guy who is training me a question, his response is very often, “OK, just relax, it’s fine.” I absolutely hate, I repeat, HATE being told to relax, in any context, but especially when I’m perfectly calm and just asking a simple question! Don’t make it sound like I’m some hysterical, clueless woman trying to bumble my way through this!  I never thought I’d say it, but it is at least making me appreciate my first job much more.

 

• At my main job, we are in our last week in our current location. I had to spend the whole day loading books and reports onto gigantic wooden library carts, which ended with me covered in bruises and splinters. Plus everyone is running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, asking us ridiculous questions, or trying to give us work, like archiving, that we have announced for weeks had to be at the end of last week.  And of course they get huffy when we tell them they’ll just have to pack it up and we’ll deal with it after the move. Plus, I was promised the opportunity to take home my office chair, which has a torn arm rest, if I work over the weekend setting up the new phone lines. I agreed to work, but when I brought up the chair, the facilities manager looked at me like I had three heads. So now I’m out a $200 comfy chair that they are just going to toss because it’s broken. Bah.

 

• I’ve been super nervous about starting classes this week, on Wednesday. Both are online, and I’ve never had online classes, so I was nervous about that too, because I hate not knowing what to expect.  I had all my books and software ready to go. I received an email on Tuesday saying that my classes were now up and available on the Blackboard interface. When I got home, I rushed to our PC to check it out. I managed to get to the first page, and then a problem. My freakin’ modem decided to blow up. I’m starting online classes, and now I have no way to get online, the day I can finally get started. I hate Murphy’s Law.

 

• The cold I’ve been trying to fight valiantly finally kicked my butt. I had to call in sick to my crap job yesterday, and again today. I don’t mind that part so much, actually.  But I to spend yesterday morning running around trying to find a new modem, and some other errands that I just haven’t had time for. Not really fun when you have a fever and your throat feels like it’s bleeding from thousands of tiny scratches.  Found a modem, and a router that my husband has been needing for his laptop. Add $120 more unto the $600 plus I’ve already had to spend for school equipment, just for this first quarter.  I think I may just be asking for cash for christmas.

 

• Kyle and I are both getting really stressed out about how busy we are, and barely have time to see each other. We’ve both been on edge and snapping at each other. Our 8 year anniversary is tomorrow, and he has to work on a group project. These next two to three years are going to suck.

 

• A ton of little things keep going wrong, which are almost worse. I had to send my swap partner package out this week, and wanted to take pictures of the bag I made. The camera battery died. Trying to ship this package turned into a three day ordeal, and went through three different packing boxes. I tried some new nail polish, which took three coats and 2 hours to fully apply, and it chipped horribly by morning. My cat threw up on the carpet I just vacuumed. I caved and ate a whole bag of pretzel/cheese combos for lunch yesterday.

OK, that last one was purely my fault.

I’ll be glad when this week is over.

Bah September 18, 2008

I’m having one of those days where I wish I could go back 10 or 12 years, and just try again.

This Really Happens September 15, 2008

My company’s office is getting ready to move building locations soon.  In fact, there is only a little under two weeks left. Moving three floors, 10+ years of accumulated items, and 300 or so people is no easy feat, and there has been a lot of questions and confusion.

In some instances though, I really I could just smack some people upside the head and say “Use some common sense!”  Here is one example of an actual email conversation that took place between a senior, yes senior, staff member and myself. It all started with a mass email that went to everyone in my group.

Oh, and please keep in mind, everyone has been hearing about the move for well over three months, so dates and most moving info has been plastered about and thrust down our throats accordingly. And  we had just had a mandatory “move fair”, where all moving boxes, crates, rules and regulations had been thoroughly covered:

---

Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 1:35 PM

Hi all,

 

The move crates are scheduled to be delivered on September 19th.  Also, we need to have all files for archiving for sending offsite by Sept 19th so please get any material that needs to be archived this week or early next week. 

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

---

From: Senior Staff Guy
To: Katherine
Subject: FW: Office Locations

 

Kat-

 

I’m not in the office today but could you have someone send by some more boxes – 3 or 4 should do – and labels too? Also, can you have them bring down the ____ stuff from the cube across from mine for archiving?

 

Thanks!

 

Senior Staff Guy

 

---

 

From: Katherine
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:24 AM
To: Senior Staff Guy

Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

SSG,

 

If you are going to be here during the week of the move, you’ll need to use the crates they will be providing, rather than the boxes.  I’ll move the ___ items. Thanks.

 

Kat

---

From: Senior Staff Guy 
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:34 AM
To: Katherine
Subject: RE: Office Locations

OK – but do the boxes fit into the crates?

 

---

From: Katherine/SCO
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:35 AM
To: Senior Staff Guy

Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

No, you’ll be using crates in lieu of boxes.

 

---

From: Senior Staff Guy

Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:36 AM
To: Katherine
Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

so everthing has to be transferred?

 

---

From: Katherine

Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:37 AM
To: Senior Staff Guy

Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

The items that I already packed into the moving boxes can stay in those boxes. Everything else will need to be put into crates the week of the move.

 

---

From: Senior Staff Guy 
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:45 AM
To: Katherine
Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

OK. I was going to finish packing tomorrow, since I will only be in on and off next week, so if you have any more of the boxes, please send along, or if the crates are here, I’ll use those.

 

thx

---

From: Katherine
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:18 AM
To: Senior Staff Guy
Subject: RE: Office Locations

 

We have been specifically told by ___ that if staff members are going to be here at all the week of the move, which is in two weeks (Sept. 22 – Sept. 26), we are not allowed to give out moving boxes, and they will have to wait and use the crates that week.  They will get the crates in on the 19th. The boxes are being reserved only for people that will not be here during any of the days of that last week we are in this location.

---

 

Yup, this conversation really took place. I think I pretty well had a brain hemorrhage with the “do the boxes fit into the crates” comment. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!? Are you even paying attention to what anyone, ANYONE!!! has been telling you, including me in the last email?!?!  You won’t even have boxes, BECAUSE YOU’LL HAVE CRATES!!!   I felt like going up there and screaming “FOR ALL THAT IS HOLY, THERE ARE NO BOXES FOR YOU!!!”

I suppose I should admire how tenacious he was. Even after all the that, in the last email he sent me, there is such a blatant disregard for the entire thread of emails that he had been party to over there last 30 minutes. It’s got to take some sort of skill to receive the same information that many times, and still not retain one iota.

 

Right?

 

I’m right, right?

 

Please tell me I’m right. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.

In Continuance… September 13, 2008

I have another article I would like to present, that goes hand in hand with my previous post concerning Bill O’Reilly. I came across this on the MSN Entertainment website, of all places, but found it to be so well written, and to mirror my own beliefs and thoughts so closely, that I wanted to post about it. So here it is (emphasis added to parts I find particular awesome):

 

“In Defense of Losing Your Virginity

Sept. 9, 2008, 3:19 PM EST

By Martha Brockenbrough
Special to MSN Entertainment

Comedian Russell Brand (above) got in a bit of trouble at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday after he made fun of the purity rings worn by young musicians the Jonas Brothers.

 

Singer Jordin Sparks zinged him thus: “Not everyone wants to be a slut.”

 

Oh, snap! Even so, I’m on Brand’s side, even though he missed easy jokes about Just Friends Buttons, First Base Bracelets, and Deep Kissing Toe Rings.

 

Purity Ring-wearer Jordin Sparks snaps back at Russell Brand while presenting with John Legend at the VMAs.

But seriously, folks. Purity rings do just one thing: They make people (especially parents) feel better about one of the scariest parts of life.

 

I suspect some of the young celebrities who wear them are also doing so to make themselves seem like palatable role models for kids.

 

Britney Spears might not have worn one, but she certainly made a big to-do about staying a virgin until marriage, even after she’d started having sex. Most likely that was a sham to make her sexy act seem acceptable to the parents of young girls who adored her.

 

The rings, though better-intentioned, are just as much of a sham. They won’t do a darned thing to keep teens from actually having sex. They certainly make public something that should be private. And the fixation on virginity could easily cause more harm than good.

 

The Jonas Brothers or Sparks didn’t invent purity rings, and, in fact, these talented kids were probably still in diapers when church-based sexual-abstinence groups started handing them out to celebrate and honor chastity.

 

As nice as it seems, this approach doesn’t work. Plenty of studies have shown that promoting abstinence fails, and that teens who try this route are less likely to use contraception, making them more likely to become pregnant or infected with preventable sexually transmitted diseases.

 

I’ve had some sad, personal experience with this. I wrote a book about pregnancy and parenting, and, years later, two 15-year-old girls searching the Internet for signs of pregnancy contacted me, eventually asking for help. Both were from nice, religious families. Both had planned to remain virginal until marriage. Both loved their boyfriends, got carried away, and got pregnant the first time they had sex.

 

I can see this story playing out in many of the unplanned teen pregnancy scenarios, including that of Bristol Palin, who has unfortunately had her private challenge made as public as possible. Come on, Jordin Sparks: Do you really want to be calling that girl a slut?

 

Having sex in a committed relationship does not make a person a slut. It makes a person human.

 

No doubt Bristol is a nice, loving girl who never planned to have sex, but did. Just like the kids I talked to, she didn’t think she’d need contraception. Nor did she think she needed to talk with her boyfriend about sex, because she wasn’t planning to have it.

 

The Palin people tried to write the pregnancy off as “life happens.” Um, yeah, it does, which is why it’s a good idea to be prepared for it, instead of relying on magic abstinence jewelry.

 

All three Jonas Brothers wear Purity Rings, here at the VMAs on Sunday night.

The fact is, once kids have sexually mature bodies, they’re going to want to have sex, even if that desire is on an unacknowledged, animal level. This is a terrifying thought for parents, but maybe not for teens, who tend not to fear much of anything.

 

It doesn’t mean you have to have sex. This is why God created headaches. But it is certainly an issue that can’t be ignored or solved with a piece of jewelry. This is where parents and society need to face the facts.

 

Virginity till marriage isn’t a solution, it’s a slogan. People should be free to make this choice, obviously. I’m not going to say they should be celebrated, because our sex lives are private. Neither side deserves cake and balloons.

 

But the idea of saving it for marriage is only so useful, and it’s the sort of thing that will no doubt lead to starter marriages between horny 18-year-olds who don’t have any idea what “till death do you part” really means.

 

Virginity itself is actually way less important than self respect, self control, and the ability to keep both intact in tough situations. Those are the lessons parents ought to teach. Ultimately, that’s what will keep our kids safer in a big, bad world.

 

Taken to an extreme, the creepy virginity obsession is the sort of thing that leads to the inspection of newlyweds’ sheets for telltale blood. This actually happens. In France a few months back, a groom cast aside his bride because she couldn’t prove her virginity.

 

We might not do the same sort of thing here, but the message is the same: A girl’s worth is tied to her virginity. Once that’s lost, she’s damaged goods. You’re either a virgin or you’re a slut.

 

When we internalize this attitude, what’s going to change it once we’re married? Pure, sparkly wedding magic? If that were the case, you could register for it at Target. On the contrary, I suspect that, for many people, guilt and sex remain bound together for life. That’s terribly sad.

 

A silver ring isn’t magic. It’s just a tacky public proclamation of something that could not be more private. Rather than hold these things up as solutions, parents need to do their jobs and make sure their kids are prepared for what lies ahead. Here, there are no shortcuts.”

 

To add a few of my own thoughts to this, I have always found it maddening how much some adults have fought sex ed in schools, and fought the sheer idea that teens *gasp* might have sex at all. I personally gave up on the whole ‘abstinence ’til marriage’ thing after I was 13 or so (aka: puberty). I could read my body, and felt it was no body’s business but my own what I did not did not do before or after I was married. Granted, some of that can be chalked up to mere teen defiance, but at least I was being realistic with myself. There are very, very few things that we as humans still have a basic, animal drive to do. Eat, sleep, sex. No matter how you try to quell that, it won’t be changing any time soon.

 

I also found the dichotomy between “Sex before marriage = bad, Sex after marriage = fabulous” a little trite and condecending. Not to mention the many people I know now that have had therapy to try and rid themselves of guilt surrounding sex that is so strong, even though now married, the act brings about nothing but shame. If you are taught from infancy that sex is something to be shunned and avoided at all costs, except under one circumstance, how in the world are you supposed to just magically forget those years of indoctrination in one evening?

 

Yes, a lot of teens probably aren’t emotionally ready for sex. I wasn’t, so I avoided it. Not all teens are quite as self-aware. And frankly, some teens are just going to be stupid. So yes, they need guidance. But guidance is not making them proclaim to the world that “no daddy, I would never let Jimmy touch me there!” in jewelry form, or any other terms. That’s a band-aid to make yourself feel better; that you as a parent have done something about it. I personally like what my husband’s dad told him. “Kyle, don’t be a dumbass.” I find this to be much more helpful and encompassing than thrusting a ring at someone and calling it a day. Why not try to teach them responsibility, rather than fear and denial?

 

So all you teens, and parents, out there. Seriously. Don’t be a dumbass.

I Feel an Aneurysm Coming On September 13, 2008

I usually don’t bother talking that much about politics. Most people that know me are fully aware that I am very liberal minded. I have no grand ideas that yelling or thrusting my views about will ever change any one’s mind. I will never really understand Republican thinking, merely because it goes so against my core believes and values about life and society. I know that no matter what someone says to me, you will never, ever get me to vote Republican, so I try and give the same courtesy to others, because I understand that it’s the same for them. I won’t back away from voicing my views if asked or provoked, but I don’t actively seek out a soap box.

 

With that being said, I have to say just how much I absolutely despise and abhor Bill O’Reilly. He is at least one human being who seems to embody everything I find to be evil and wrong about America, the world, and people in general. Granted, most of Fox News triggers this feeling, but he in particular makes me pray for the coming zombie apocalypse.

 

A few minutes ago I was perusing our new Time magazine, in which there is a section called “10 Questions.” This is where different people write in questions for one famous guest. This week it was Bill O’Reilly. As shown in the Daily Show clip I posted a few days ago about the double-speak of core Republicans in dealing with Sarah Palin, Bill flip-flopped quite grandly about teen pregnancy and the responsibility of parents in such matters. Low and behold, the very first question I read was as follows:

 

“Given your defense of Sarah Palin’s judgment on Bristol Palin, do you take back what you said about Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy – that her parents were to blame?”

His response:

 

“When I talked about the Spears parents, I said the parents were pinheads because they didn’t supervise their young daughters. I stand by that remark. There’s no evidence that the Palins did not supervise their daughter or their other children.”

Uh, what was that? I could NOT have read that correctly. Oh wait, I did. He really, truly, absolutely wrote that as a response.

 

I know I’m no Sherlock, or CSI superstar, but the evidence seems to be about the same in both cases. That little inconvenience called an embryo, embedded into both said young daughters’ uterus, would be your grand and ever swelling evidence. Are you suggesting that Bristol Palin’s boyfriend planted his ill-timed seed under the watchful eye of Mr. and Mrs. Palin?!? Would this picture not be 100 times more frightful than just admitting you were wrong, or that, god forbid, you just accept that teaching abstinence DOESN’T WORK?!?!

I swear to god, I really am going to have a freaking aneurysm before this election is over.

My Husband, the Wordsmith September 13, 2008

Just now, as I was looking over my blog page, I noticed that Kyle and I are 13 days away from having been together for 8 years. So I look over at him as he reads his school work on the couch and say “Hey, we’re 13 days away from having been together for 8 years.” He looks at me, I look at him, and we both say at the same time what our faces were saying. “Damn, that’s a long time.”

Then I elaborated with “It’s weird though, because it simultaneously feels like I’ve known you longer, but that I didn’t meet you that long ago.”

He nods in agreement, and pronounces, “Yes, it’s like a blackhole of commitment.”

Ah Kyle, you do know how to make me swoon.

 

ETA: Kyle would like to state, for the record, that he really meant wormhole, not blackhole. Not making it any better there, sweet cheeks.

Oh, bother. September 11, 2008

Here is a list of things that are bothering me today:

• I have developed a blister on one of my left toes from wearing a pair of shoes I’ve had for years, and have never inflicted such problems on me before, ever.
• Those horrible, awful, excruciating painful radio commercials for Fox TV shows that the stations play once every five minutes. You know, the ones where “regular people” call in to blather over themselves about the wonders of Fox? My daily commute is bad enough.
• Hearing my co-workers whine and throw temper tantrums now that they know where they are going to sit in the new office building. Seriously, grow up.
• That I keep waking up with at least three new bug bites upon my body, every night, for over a week. How are you supposed to fight mosquitoes, or fleas, or what ever the hell they are, in your sleep!?! Can’t leave a citronella candle burning all night!
• The fact that I seem unable to stop “Happiness is a Warm Gun” by the Beatles from playing continuously in my head since I woke up this morning. Read into that what you will.

My Achilles Heel September 9, 2008

Is sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. I keep attempting to not eat anything overtly sugar induced for a month (item #61). The longest I seem to be able to accomplish this is 10 days. A few days ago, I caught myself absent-mindedly putting a Jolly Rancher in my mouth, and quickly spit it out once I realized what I had done. Kyle agreed it wouldn’t count.

 

This month it ended at nine. We had our usual monthly workgroup Goodie Day this morning at work. Every single item was packed with sugar. I tried.  I really did.  I made it about 10 minutes in the same room with that food. I left that room having consumed one piece of pound cake, one slice of raspberry filled pastry, and four rice crispy treats.

 

I figured, hell, if I’m going to blow it, I might as well blow it big.

 

And yet I’m still surprised that I feel ill.

Nerves: The Best Diet Ever. Except Mono. September 8, 2008

I was supposed to start a new job in a new office today (in coordination with my current job, where I will still be working 2 days a week), but right when I was getting into my car, I received a call from the woman who has been helping set it up. The computer I was going to be using has not come in yet, so it will all be delayed until next Monday. Not a huge deal except that I get an uber-nervous stomach when starting something new, and adding in me starting school in two weeks, I’ve already lost three pounds in as many days. I was ready to just get it over with, meet the new boss and my new coworkers, and start the mental comparison of which job I dislike more. Now the nervousness continues for another week. Fingers crossed for losing all of the 7 pounds I was aiming to shed before Halloween.

Even though it is only one item on my list of 101, I am very excited by the fact that I just finished the last box of archiving that has been living in my cube for over a year (#85). Granted, there are two other cubes full of file boxes that still need attention before we move offices in three weeks, but the files that were exclusively my responsibility are hole-punched, labeled, and boxed, ready to be taken away and probably never seen again. I have so much open space now, I don’t know what to do with myself. Perhaps a game of ultimate frisbee.

Jon Stewart, How I Love Thee September 6, 2008

Just one more reason why I dream at night of the lovliness that is Jon Stewart:

 

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=184086

 

How do these people not burst into flames when they’re talking?