Monday, November 24, 2008

Thanksgiving First



Somewhere in edit land I have the beginnings of some long rambling post about this, but I just read it and I have NO idea where I was going with it, so I'm just starting over.

I just saw a Kmart commercial that was proclaiming that they were "saving Christmas!!" And how were they doing this? By being open all day long on Thanksgiving. Nice!

Okay, I broke out the decorations a bit early this year, but I had a good reason. On the whole, however, I wish people would just slow down. I don't have particularly religious reasons for it or anything. I just remember the holiday season as being a magical time, and it isn't anymore. Yeah, some of it is undoubtedly that I was a child and didn't have anywhere the same stresses or pressures but I think a lot of it is that Christmas has just gotten diluted.

Human nature being what it is, the more you can have something, the less special it becomes. I'm already sick of carols because they've been playing in our stores for more than 2 weeks. I don't want to be assaulted by red and green lights and bells and trees and sound when I walk into a store at Halloween. I resent having to root through santa hats to find stuff for "Talk Like A Pirate" day. (Okay, exaggeration. But only just.)

Maybe I'm just being a grouch, but by the time Christmas eve rolls around anymore, I'm just ready for it to be over and I think that's just tragic. Please, folks, give Thanksgiving time before the Christmas season comes roaring in to take over.

Also, I like Thanksgiving. I like the idea that at least once a year, we specifically set aside time to look at how lucky we are. Every now and then, it occurs to me just how truly blessed I am to be me. I live in one of the few countries in the world where I, as a woman, am free to be whatever I want to be and I'm happy to be when I am too. The technology, the medical care, the education, the sheer knowledge - it's a good time to be here. My parents, after 40+ years, not only still like each other, they still chase each other around the kitchen. I've never seriously wanted for anything, and I am very aware that as a college educated individual, I'm more fortunate than most of the rest of the world. In the hustle and bustle of daily life, sometimes that gets... not forgotten exactly, or taken for granted, but set to the side, to be noticed later. So I'm glad that we've made it a holiday to give thanks, to whomever may be listening.

I'm not into the current attitude about it either. Stuffing ourselves stupid and then collapsing in front of football is not wrong, but it isn't the point either. Take a moment to appreciate how very lucky you are to be you, living where and when you are. And put Thanksgiving First.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Like That's Going to Stop Me...

My toes are cold. Also, my nose. Cold, cold, cold.

And even though it was 76 and sunny here yesterday and my parents have already experienced snow (bwahahahahaha!), I'm still going to whine 'cause I'm cold.

Someone told me that it's supposed to drop down into the 20s next week. I hope they were confused and didn't actually mean around here. If so, I'm really going to b*tch and moan! The mild weather is about the only perk this pit offers so I'm not going to be happy if winter actually hits here too!

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In other news, I found the idiot last Monday. (He'd been hunting me on Friday.) He pulled me into a conference room and shut the door and I thought, "Sh*t. Here we go again." (Our relationship is rocky at best.) And he apologized for the email he sent that had me so pissed off for 2 days, and told me again what an excellent job I'm doing and how I'm such an important and valuable member of the team. This is the second time he's done this now. He's a two-faced jackass, in addition to being an idiot, so I take this with a grain of salt, but it is interesting.

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On a somewhat related note, I've decided that now is not the time to be the last person into a company, so I've slowed the job search way down. If I find something that is exactly what I want exactly where I want it, then we'll see. But I've stopped looking too hard or talking to recruiters, 'cause they're scum. So for the time being, I remain trapped in the pit. Yay.

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I had myself all set to make potato chowder today and I discovered that I'm out of onions. How can this be?!? So I put everything away and ordered a pizza. Screw it. I'll go to the store tomorrow.

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I spent five hours on Friday basically working on the assembly line. We had a prepilot build of our spiffy new product. It was cool, 'cause I learned a lot about where my parts fit into the machine, and at the end of the day, I could see that I had actually accomplished something, which is a rare thing indeed in my world these days. But my feet were sore, and my thumbs hurt from connecting those devilish connectors (owie!). I called my parents Friday night to thank them for the whole college education thing 'cause I do not know how people manage on an assembly line doing the same thing every day. Five hours, and I had different things to do 'cause we were forcing these things to come together, and I was DONE.

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That's about it in my world. I need to go find a sweater or something. Brrrr!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Test Taking... How Not To Make Honor Roll

The one with the elephant just makes me laugh and laugh. Enjoy!







Saturday, November 08, 2008

Ahhhh Weekends...

Last Monday, at 9:30 am, after being hit with yet another sh*tstorm, I looked around and thought, "This week is going to suck." Just once, I'd like to be wrong about these things. Friday, while dealing with a supplier, the idiot (my boss' boss) popped in to say he needed to talk to me for a couple of minutes and to find him when I was done. I went looking for him after, but he'd escaped for the day, so next week is going to start out well. He never wants anything good.

So I left work yesterday, went over to a friend's house and then we went to some little Irish bar here. It was mostly deserted, which I think is perfect. I sucked back a shot of cuevo (ahhh) and then we played darts and then pool. I really like pool, and wish I didn't totally suck at it. *sigh* I'm actually not completely terrible at darts. Aside from a small difficulty removing the darts from the board - I had some aggression to work through and the poor little things ended up embedded to the point that the whole tip was buried, and the rounded part made a bit of a dip in the board - it was good. We played a bastardized form of cricket and I actually won two games! Go me!

Today, I hit the bookstore pretty hard, and found several new books by some favorite authors, which makes me very happy. Then I went to the local art supply store for a clay date with the same friend as friday. We spent two hours playing in the mud - learning to use a wheel. I made two lopsided bowls, she made three. The class was $35 for both of us, and includes everything - the class time, the clay, and the after stuff - once the clay dries, they'll trim and fire the pieces then call us and we can go glaze them for refiring. (They'll glaze for you too if you want.) After they're done, we can go pick them up again. Pretty cool. They offer classes, and now that we (sorta) know what we're doing, we can just rent studio space from them too.

Now I'm home again, and have most of the clay cleaned off - except for the stuff in my hair - and I've got candles burning and music playing and fresh hazelnut coffee by my side and I'm about to dive happily into my new books. Ahhhh. I love weekends!

Hope yours goes as well as mine has!

Monday, November 03, 2008

Unusually Erudite Graffiti

Seen on a walk last week...