Vacation

So, I talked myself out of actually going away somewhere next week. I overthink things too much. While I can afford to go where I was planning to go, it just seemed...frivolous to me. I guess that's what happens when you don't go on a single vacation from the time you were 5 until the time you were 33. I can't bring myself to waste the money.

 

But I am contemplating treating myself to a spa day here at home. Only problem is, I can't convince myself to spend the money for that either. My little voice (and I can't decide if it sounds more like my dad or my mom or Suze Orman) says that it isn't worth spending the money on.

 

But I haven't had a whole week off in two years (since I started at this company, which was almost exactly 2 years ago). I want to pamper myself a little bit.

 

I'm also more than a little intimidated by the whole spa experience. Do I really have to change into a robe for a manicure, pedicure, and facial? I'm not skinny or pretty like all of the women on the websites (I know, I know - they are just models in stock photos for the most part). I'm self-conscious, and working class (despite my college degree and nice, new salary increase), and what if I don't fit in?

 

So, if you read this, convince me to spend a little money on something completely frivolous. And convince me that the ladies at the spa won't look at me with contempt.

 

(I know, I know. The therapy thing helped a lot, but I have a lot of issues from a whole lot of years. I'm working on it).

Hello Universe

I would just like to gloat about the fact that yours truly got a 15% raise today.

I am now making twice as much as my parents ever did - combined.

That is scary.

Oh, I would also like to say that if you are looking for ink cartridges, LaserMonks has a 25% off sale going on now on remanufactured cartridges. I've bought those from them before (back when I still had a functioning printer), and they work wonderfully. Plus the brothers give whatever profits they have beyond what they need to sustain their community to charity. The link to their site is on my sidebar, and if you would like the code for the sale, let me know.

I'm going to go bask in the glory of the wonderfully successful performance evaluation (which was a treat after being convinced I was going to be fired or demoted - my brain is funny that way).

This is the best company I have ever worked for, and I would probably stand on my head naked if it would please my boss. Of course, he swings the other way, so it probably wouldn't.

Political Quiz

Found this quiz courtesy of LP. It will shock none of you who read this blog regularly or who know me in real life, that I score Social Progressive/Social Capitalist/Libertarian/Pacifist. According to the makers of the quiz, that makes me most likely a hardcore Democrat. While I am a Democrat, hardcore might be pushing it. I vote Republican occassionally, and I don't think either party has all the answers. My opinion is that politicians in general just suck, and that none of them have genuinely altruistic reasons for deciding on public service. It's just an ego stroke for all of them.

Oh, and just for kicks, I put my scores in the candidate finder they have. Like every other one of these I've ever done, Chris Dodd comes out on top for me (they obviously haven't updated that thing since the primaries). I buy that. I was impressed with what I read and saw of him in the early going, and if he were still on the ticket when the Louisiana primaries rolled around, I probably would have voted for him.

Sigh

I think I need to have a kid, so I have an excuse to take two hour lunches, to leave whenever I feel like it, and to "work" from home whenever I want to. That is the only reason I can see that office mate K can get away with that.

 

Sorry to all you parents out there. It just ticks me off that he can do that, and have no problems, when I get "gently scolded" if I come in later than 10 one day a month.

 

I don't mind parents working flexible schedules, or even telecommunting every now and then. It's when people take advantage of the system, and when they don't accomplish what they are supposed to accomplish while they are here that I get ticked.

 

Sigh.

Hey, all. If any of you out there who are parents have kids who are having problems with language arts, especially grammar, usage, and mechanics, and you would like a book to use for working with them at home, I have a copy of Jane Bell Kiester's Grammar with a Giggle that I bought for a coworker. The problem is that she changed the format, and it makes it impractical for him to use on his own. But a parent working with a child (or children) could totally make use of this.

Likewise, if any of you are teachers (especially elementary or middle school language arts), this is a fantastic book to supplement whatever you are doing already in the classroom.

To the first person who responds with their e-mail addy, I'll sell it to you for half what I paid ($6) and I'll ship it for free if you don't mind it being shipped book rate.

So I didn't make it to church again this week. In my defense, I am still recovering from the marathon last week. Although I do have to say that if we hadn't consolidated services into one for the summer (and at 9:30!), I wouldn't have missed at all.

I'm going to have to hold off on the churchy post. I'm at the laundromat. It is crowded and it is hot. I think I'm going to the coffee house again after this, though, so I'll try from there.

On the plus side, I actually made actual progress on the Great American Novel yesterday. Real progress - not just a few words but a few pages. Something about the coffee house must inspire me.

Well, I survived helping on the project from hell without killing anyone, and now I just have my own two proposals to do.

Why was I on the verge of homicide? So glad you asked. Over the month long duration of the hellacious proposal, three people were working on resumes, and doing nothing but working on resumes for that project. Boy, did they screw things up. We had set up a spreadsheet to track progress, in a very simple way, and went over it in a meeting. Did they use the damn thing correctly? Nope. Did they take direction when they were told they weren't using it correctly? Nope. Were the resumes that were put in the folder that was created only to hold final versions actually final versions? Nope. Were the ones that were really final version in the correct format? For the most part, nope. Did they do things like correct spelling and grammar when copying from someone's original resume into the new format? Nope.

I had to stop working on my own projects (which I anticipated) and spend two 16 hour days just trying to sort through and correct resumes. It was horrible. I never want to do that again.

And do I get help getting my two things out this week? Nope. It's a good thing I got an extension on the one. TweedleDee and TweedleDum (the two coworkers who screwed up the resumes) were just too tired to work on Thursday and Friday. I put in two all nighters in three days and late nights two days before and I was there. Boss says I can get them to help me on my things, but I don't know that I trust them firstly, and secondly, I don't know that they will actually be willing to or if they will be too tired.

Sigh. Sorry for being sarcastic and bitchy. I just feel like if you are going to be part of a team, you have to give the team your best effort. That doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your personal life or your family, but when you are present, you need to be really present. And sometimes, you need to sacrifice your weekend plans, or not make them when you know you need to work in the first place.

Part of it is a generational thing. TweedleDee is pretty young. As is the one of the other guys (who does have an excuse for not working this past weekend - he was getting married). I think the kind of work ethic I was raised with, where you owe your company your job and your best effort, isn't really present in the millenials.

TweedleDum, on the other hand, I don't know what his deal is. He just disappears for long stretches. We presumed he was back working with TweedleDee and other new guy (guess he needs a name, too), but the amount of work that was being produced didn't seem to bear that out.

I don't know. It was just a frustrating mess. It didn't help that I got my period (sorry, gentlemen) right at crunch time, either. That made me crankier than I might have been otherwise.

Tomorrow, I intend to write about church stuff from the laundromat (as opposed to work stuff from the coffee house, which is where I am now. Yes, the person who didn't protect their wireless network, thus enabling me to steal his bandwidth, moved out.).

To make up for my earlier talk of homicide, go read this article for something uplifting.

If I get arrested for homicide of a coworker, know that it was completely justified and that I feel no remorse. He deserves it.

I bought an iPod

An 8GB Nano, refurbished.

 

I've finally arrived at five years ago.

Sigh

I'm pretty sure I'm hypothyroid again. I haven't been able to get in teh balanced range since my surgery. Am I doomed to either having a pulse rate over 100 (not even remotely healthy) or to being incredibly fatigued all the time?

 

Sigh.