A 3 Legged Dog

I went to downtown Plymouth to grab a sandwich for lunch and I saw an old man walking his 3 legged dog down the sidewalk.

The dog seemed to be getting along fine, so why did this make me feel so sad?

Lake Placid and Really Smart Sharks

Okay, first of all, I so do not feel like cooking dinner tonight. Like I am just sitting here wondering what to make and dreading it and wanting to go out to eat, but not wanting to take the time to go out to eat. Blah.

Second of all, Sam in 13 and he is really into campy horror movies right now. He keeps adding movies to my netflix queue like, "Dawn of the Dead" and "Night of the Living Dead" and "Rise of the Living Dead" you get my point, right? They're gross/funny. You know the kind of movie where the blood looks like red paint?

Well, since I am such a movie lover, I have been filling my queue up with my own favorite campy movies and today in the mail came "Lake Placid" and "Deep Blue Sea". Yes! I love the giant alligators and overly intelligent sharks and Samuel L. Jackson getting ripped in half by the overly intelligent sharks. I can't wait to share these obviously intellectually stimulating movies with Sam.

Do you have a favorite campy horror or cheesy action adventure flick that you love? I'm looking for suggestions that do not involve 70's era zombies!

Boldly Going Where No Woman Has Gone Before

Thanks again everyone for the words of encouragement regarding my life sucking job. I really appreciate it, and while I still bawled me eyes out this morning when my alarm went off, I'm learning to live with the pain ;)

But enough about work, there are other aspects of my life that are much more interesting.

So, let me talk about Star Trek.

Yes, I said Star Trek.

The Detroit Science Center is having a Star Trek exhibit right now. It started on Valentine's Day and they were having a drawing to win a Star Trek wedding package. Why didn't I think of having a Star Trek themed wedding when I was getting married? I can just see my mom's face upon learning that vulcan ears are a mandatory accessory for the mother of the bride (snicker).

We have always dreamed of going to the Star Trek convention that is held every year at the Las Vegas Hilton but have never been able to fit it in, we thought this would be the next best thing. We took the kids to see the exhibit last Tuesday while we were off from work and they were off from school. I was very excited because I was going to buy myself a comm badge and wear it to work. Then every time someone is annoying me I can hit my comm badge and ask Scotty to beam me the hell out of here.

They didn't have any comm badges for sale. In fact, the peeps who were working the exhibit didn't even have real comm badges. They just had a fake comm badge sewn into their uniform shirts. Rip off. Disappointment. I really wanted one of those comm badges. Rat bastard exhibit planners. They really didn't have any good loot to buy.

On to the exhibit itself. It was pretty cool. They had a replica of the bridge from the original series and you could sit in Captain Kirk's seat and have your picture taken. The pictures were $16 each so we abstained (at this point I was still saving my money for the comm badge that I thought I would find in the gift shop at the end of the tour). Also, the hallway that you walk through in the exhibit is a replica of the Next Generation Enterprise and it looks pretty real. They also had a replica of Captain Picard's ready room and a bunch of real props from the show, including Seven of Nine's uniform. She must be about 87 lbs to fit in that thing. [Side note: my husband, who is in love with Seven of Nine, dragged me over to said uniform and pointed out to me how small she must be, but I'm a secure woman and I can take it because I've got moves that Jeri Ryan has never even thought of. The only thing Seven of Nine has on me is the borg implant that allows her to function like a computer and a COMM BADGE]. They also had a mock transporter that you could stand on and then watch yourself on a tv screen where you were shown being "beamed" down to the surface. It was a little bit lame, but kind of nifty for the littler one. They were also selling photos for this (you were not allowed to bring your own camera in), but again, we abstained.

The culmination of the exhibit was a large room filled with scaled down models of the various Enterprise ships and a timeline of the "Star Fleet" program that begins with the launching of Apollo 11 and spans the original Star Trek series and all subsequent series and includes such events as, "James T. Kirk graduates from the Star Fleet" and "Jean Luc Picard is born".

It was a pretty cool exhibit and we found it to be a little better than the pirates exhibit they had last summer, except for the giant wind tunnel that you could stand in and experience hurricane force winds and the fact that I couldn't get a comm badge. I wonder if you can get them at the Las Vegas Hilton......

GUESS WHERE I AM

Bet you can't guess.

Go ahead.

Guess.

Give?

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Columbus, OH. By myself.

So much for being a stubborn bitch. I caved to the threat of ice and snow. I thought getting up at 4am and driving 200+ miles might be kind of sucky. And, since my real drive to work can stretch, in bad weather, from 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours, well, you do the math.

But I didn't tell any of the boys I was coming so I didn't have to go to dinner with them and instead when I got here I took myself to the big old mall across the street which is where I feel most at home when I'm not at my real home.

Now I'm watching an E True Hollywood Story on Jenna Jameson. I guess my job could be worse.

I'm sleepy and grossed out because I forgot to bring any Clorox wipes for the TV remote.

Good Night.

Tying it Up

Thank you for the kind comments about my stupid job. I really appreciate someone telling me that I am not just a whiner who must be lazy because I don't want to spend every waking hour at work.

I have actually not been to work since last Thursday afternoon when the flu started. I had the last three working days scheduled as vacation because of the kids winter break. Turned out to be a much needed break for me too. That doesn't mean that I am not crying right now because I have to go back tomorrow morning and start it all over again.

I also found out that I have to go to Columbus, OH for another meeting all day on Thursday. I am leaving Thursday morning and driving back Thursday evening, so that should be a fun day. In the company's defense, I could drive down tomorrow night and stay in a hotel, but that would mean 2 things. #1 I would have to go to dinner with all those guys I've been complaining about and I've had enough of them for now. And #2 I just did this last month and I'm not doing it again. I'm a stubborn bitch like that. I might be cutting off my nose to spite me face, but I'm just not up to hotel shit by myself this week.

So, I have decided that something has to give. I'm giving this another month and then I will reassess the situation. Then we'll see. I'm not going to put myself in a mental institution because of my stupid job.

Now on another note. Jro - For a minute I thought that the mayor of San Francisco was commenting on my blog. It was a very exciting moment. Okay, not really, I'm not a big fan of his. I'm glad it was you.

On another note - has anyone every seen View From the Top? I just was remembering it because the used the word "reassess". There is a scene where the Christina Applegate character is reading from the stewardess safety manual and it says to "Assess the situation" but she says, "Asses the situation". And Mike Meyers tells her she put the em-pha-sis on the wrong sy-llable. Ha. I have to see if I can find that clip on YouTube. It was funny.

If you've never seen that movie then you probably think that it's too late for me and I should call the Mental Hospital now.

Or if you have seen that movie, you might think that anyway!

The Reluctant Career Woman

So it turns out that I had the flu. That might be why I was feeling so tired or maybe because I was so tired is why I got the flu. Anyway, this was the worst flu I have had in years. I was actually running a fever and I'm sure I haven't had a fever since I was 12. This flu included the twin joys of the shivering chills and burning up hot flashes, as well as a crippling headache and the seal cough. Oh the joys of having kiddies in the house. I know they brought this home to me.

I had scheduled Friday off as a vacation day, but ended up spending it on the couch. Becca, was feeling back to normal and of course she couldn't understand why I didn't want to play with and entertain her. (The kids are on winter break and didn't have school Friday)

Thankfully, Annie (the original version with Carol Burnett) was one of the free movies being offered On Demand and she had never seen it. I put that on and she was happy and I could lay in misery without interruption for a couple hours. Then her "real" mother came to get her for the weekend and Dave came home from work feeling just as crappy and we spent the rest of the weekend in misery together.

But what I really want to talk about is work and why I think that my getting this flu is just a symptom of my exasperation and exhaustion associated with my "job". I put that in quotes because I think that my employer thinks it should instead be called my "life".

What started all this crap was a conversation I had with my boss about two weeks ago that has been nagging at me and I have been obsessing about ever since. Basically, what happened was that we had a meeting with one of my subordinates that took a lot longer than planned. By that I mean it was scheduled for two hours and it lasted about 8. So around 4:30 we are sitting in the conference room and he (my boss) and he (my subordinate) are dicking around checking their e-mails and some other shit and I am getting ancy because we have not even gotten to the meat of what we are supposed to be talking about.

And so I kind of snapped and said, "Look what are we doing here? Let's go over this stuff because I can't stay here all night."

And my boss said, "Why? Why can't you stay here all night? I stay here all night."

And that is where I break down and cease being able to verbalize this shit. I think it would take me a month of posts to unload everything from my brain into print.

In a nutshell, I work with all men. They all have wives who stay home or only work outside the home part time. They are in that office every second of every day. In fact, sometimes it seems like a competition. They like to talk about it like they are sharing war stories.

“Hey, I was here until midnight last night.”

“Yeah? Well I was in here on Saturday for 12 hours.”

And on and on and on it goes. If I am leaving at 5, they call me part-timer. I hate it. It makes me really mad.

I feel inadequate. I have never felt that way at a job before. But most of the time I brush it off. I use sarcasm which has always been my friend. When they make comments about me leaving “early” I ask them what they are planning to make for dinner. That usually shuts them up or solicits some sort of mumbled answer about how they cook on the weekends (yeah right).

But of late, I have noticed myself spending more time at work and less time at home. Even if I’m doing personal stuff at work, I’m there so they can see that I’m there. I leave my house at 6:50 every morning and usually am not home until 6:00 or later that evening. I feel compelled to check my e-mail at night. It's been bothering me for a while and the conversation with my boss is what pushed me over the edge. So they really think that I'm not working enough, huh?

I feel control slipping away. I feel trapped. The money is good, I don’t have to clip coupons to grocery shop (which is a good thing because I wouldn’t have time to anyway). [Side note: If I work the hours those guys are working then the money really isn’t all that good. Then I’m making .72 cents an hours] The economy sucks; everyone knows there are no jobs out there so I should be thankful that I have this one, right? I mean why am I being such a whiner, shouldn't’t I buck up and do what has to be done? I am good at my job. I feel like the fight is in my mind. It isn’t that I don’t want to work at all, I just want to have time to have a life.

Is it different for my colleagues because they are men? Don’t they want to see their kids or spouses? Do they feel as trapped as I do, but deal with it differently because of their gender or is it that they don’t want to go home?

I told Dave yesterday that I feel like a slave. I want to have a baby, but I don’t think my body is going to allow me to get pregnant when I am this stressed out. It does not seem conducive to conception or a healthy pregnancy, does it?

I. am. so. tired.

I want to blog about work and the machine men I work with, but every time I try to write about it, I get overwhelmed and erase everything I type.

The short version is that if I don't work 75 hours a week then I am a bad employee.

The long version is a lot longer than that.

On a happy note, my auger showed up today. I'm only minutes away from having ice in my glass again that has not been touched by human hands.

Appliance News

I got a new vacuum cleaner last night. I really loved my old vacuum cleaner, it was a Kenmore canister vac that I bought when I moved into my condo. But, alas, she was getting old and didn't seem to be sucking like she used to and Dave was starting to complain about his allergies more and more and I couldn't take it anymore so I went to Target last night and bought a new one (yes, that is what I do on Saturday nights. I go to Target. It's very exciting shut up.)

The new vac is a bagless cyclone so you can see the dirt and hair that it is sucking up. Oh Lord. I came home and vacuumed the living room carpet and the couches and now I know why Dave has been complaining about his allergies. The new Queen of my Double Wide Trailer sucked up about 6 lbs of junk, most of which was dog and cat hair. It was disgusting and I'm in love with my new vacuum. Plus it has purple on it so maybe I can sucker Becca into vacuuming with it. That will work for me at least once! I would also like to mention that I did not find 1 goldfish cracker or Scooby snack in the couch this time so I have to give a shout out to my kids for following the rules and not eating in the living room when I am not home. Or they are just getting better at hiding with when they do.

In other appliance news, I just spent $60 on the GE website ordering a new auger for my ice maker because I broke the one we have and now you can't get ice out through the trap door in the front which means you have to open it and put your grubby little hands into the ice to get some for your drink (you know who you are grubby hands). So how did I break the auger you ask? I think I teased you about this a while back and then forgot to tell you about it.

It was one weekend a few months (well probably about 6-8 months back) when I took Dave with me to do the grocery shopping which meant that we ended up buying a bunch of stuff that wasn't on my list and included a bag of frozen breaded smelt. When I got home and put the groceries away, the freezer was really full and I set the bag of frozen smelt on top of the ice maker because there was no where else to put it.

Now obviously (obviously) I do not eat frozen breaded smelt and so when the ice started to get low and the smelt bag fell into the bottom of the ice maker, I did not notice that it was missing. And then when little pieces of unidentified junk started showing up in the ice that came out of the ice maker, I had no idea what was going on and told Dave that something was wrong with the gd ice maker and could he look at it.

He was really happy when he looked in there and found his bag of frozen breaded smelt shredded along with little pieces of plastic which were the auger.

I'm still trying to live that one down.

Hats Off

My hat is off to Tom Daschle for doing the right thing by taking himself out of the running for the director of the Health and Human Services department.

A leader cannot lead if he is up to his eyeballs in controversy And a true leader is more concerned about the well-being of his people than himself. Unlike, someone else who I won't name that let his scandal drag on for a year to the detriment to his city, Tom Daschle showed some real class by bowing out even though he probably would have been confirmed.

I'm impressed.

Now for all you hooligans who publicly supported him saying that this was just all a mistake and misunderstanding, thanks for reinforcing my opinion that Washington DC is full of good old boys who would do anything to stay in the good graces of their party.

Buttheads.

These are the things I'm thinking about today.

My apologies, I did not sit down with the intent to write a post about any sort of politics, it just sort of evolved into that. But the more I think about this, the more I am mad about it. So I figured I'd let it rip......I'll try to be funny and witty again tomorrow.

Tom Daschle and Michael Phelps.

Let's start with Tom Daschle. Oops I forgot to pay my taxes? I want to know if that excuse would fly for me if I lied about my taxes. I mean, I would be sorry and embarrassed too, so would that make it okay? What if I just "forgot" to show up for work for a couple weeks? As long as I was sorry and promised to make it up by working double shifts, would they not fire me? Would I be deserving of a promotion?

And Michael Phelps. How stupid are you to let someone take your picture smoking a bong? But don't worry, you're still a cash cow so none of your endorsement deals will be cancelled. As long as you have lots of money, no one cares what you do. Of course, even stupider (it's a word okay?) would be to go and get fat like Jessica Simpson. Then you would lose your endorsement deals.

Okay, so as I'm writing this, I realize I am less concerned about Michael Phelps and his stupid bong and I want to talk about Tom Daschle. Well, all politicians, really. And I'm sorry for you Bill Clinton lovers, but I'm going to rip on him in a second. Am I the only one who is sick and freaking tired of our politicians being liars, cheats and sexual deviants? Let's see, Bill Clinton was getting blow jobs in the Oval Office from an INTERN, then there was Larry Craig cruising the bathroom for some gay sex, and Eliot Spizter banging high class hookers, and what's his face sending sex text messages to a 16 year old boy, and what's his face, I can't even remember his name, who was married to a woman but having anonymous gay sex at rest stops or sex clubs or something like that, and the mayor of Detroit using his city pager to send steamy sex text messages to his Chief of Staff while he was married and then using city money and resources to cover it up and there are probably 12 more I'm not thinking of. Oh! The mayor Portland who was getting it on with one of his male interns and then lied about it. Am I mistaken or is having sex with a subordinate not where the birth of sexual harassment occurred? Is no one else sick of this? I can't even have the news on in our house without feeling like I should shoo the kids out of the room because it's a sex scandal story and then a gruesome murder story and then another sex scandal story and another gruesome murder story. Over and over and over again.

Sexual deviants aside, what about the tax evaders? Tom Daschle is the second one I've heard in the news of late. Why is this okay? I'm sure he'll go on to be confirmed to be Health Secretary or whatever it is. Right, because he's sorry. Oh, and it was unintentional. Does it matter what his intentions were? HE DIDN'T"T PAY HIS TAXES. Let's give him a job overseeing one of the biggest cluster bleeps this country has ever seen, health care. Are you telling me there isn't someone else who is qualified that has paid all his taxes, the first time around?

Whatever happened to, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time?"

These are our politicians. They are the people who make the laws, but they can't follow them? They can't be faithful to one person or follow the laws regarding not having sex with a minor? Why is this okay? Doesn't this speak to a person's moral compass? Shouldn't they be the people who are held to the highest standards and beyond reproach? Piss on this. I'm so disgusted. This is why I hate politics. This is why I hate politicians. And if President Obama is serious about having a transparent administration, then he should make an example of these a-holes and nominate someone else.

I hold my kids to a higher standard than these guys are and they don't have anyone else's interests at heart.