This week has been just a little crazy at work. Like, students returning to school crazy. Like, hours and hours of appointments and answering questions and standing at the front desk like a secretary in inappropriate shoes crazy. So I have not blogged. Which, if you'll remember, I warned you might happen.
I keep forgetting that I'm blogging again--it was so easy to fall out of the habit--and so I never have that much to say. I used to notice things and record them in my head ("I am going to blog that so hard!") but I don't anymore, I just note things and grumble about them and move on to the next frustration or observation or amusement.
But a few things:
1. It is freaking cold outside. How did this happen? I was so thrown off by the global warming we were experiencing, so grumpy about the Christmas in Miami situation we had going on, that I completely flaked on remembering that it would, eventually, get cold. And it did, all at once and overnight. Fortunately, I have never been so prepared for the cold weather: I have my winter coats hanging on the peg by the door, my gloves and scarves organized by color in the foyer. By COLOR, people. I am going to kick winter's ASS this year!
Except that this morning I ran out the door half barefoot and left my gloves on the shelf. It was a damn cold morning, y'all, and it's hard to kick winter's ass when you have a quarter-share in flakiness and a half-ownership in sleep-deprived.
2. I have worn jeans to work every day since I got my "raise." There is no stated dress code in my office, but for the past two and a half years I have done my best to be pretty and professional and sharp (without wearing skirts). I have watched with interest as others in my office, those of the older ilk, have shown up in jeans, in sweats, in shorts, in ratty t-shirts and never received a sideways glance. I have watched with concern as my younger coworkers have worn tailored, attractive denim and been chastised and slammed with passive-aggressive snide remarks. And now that I'm doing my best to be on my way out, I'm going to challenge the status quo and wear jeans until someone says something.
Besides, they say you should dress for the job that you want, not the job that you have. And that's what I'm doing.
3. Eleanor is going to teach me to knit on Saturday, since my massive intellect and multiple degrees have proven inadequate in conquering that particular learning objective. I will finally have a reason to sit upright while watching TV! New Years Resolutions all over the place!
Did I ever tell y'all that I read in a magazine that when you watch TV, you are one step away from death, metabolically speaking? Seriously, like with only sleeping in between the two. I am going to learn to knit and then watch those calories torch!
4. Today I had to stand at the front desk, helping students, for three straight hours. For two of those hours there was a box of Entenmann's doughnuts six inches from my hand. I didn't eat a single one. Not even half of one. Give me a medal.
Showing posts with label the everlasting struggle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the everlasting struggle. Show all posts
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
old lame song
I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who are unique, different, renegade even. I want to go against the grain, do my own thing, raise my beer and yell out “It’s My Life” at a Bon Jovi concert and actually mean it. But at the end of the day, I’m not really all that different than any other married twenty-something professional woman trying to make a go of it in this rat-race, expensive little metro I reluctantly call home.
In that vein, instead of a self-righteous and high-minded blog about how New Years resolutions are passe and trite, how self-improvement should be a constant and it’s irrational and arbitrary to pick the first of the year to make a fresh start, I’ll start off my blogging re-entry with a long and boring post about my run-of-the-mill and ever-so-common resolutions.
1. Get a job. A new one, that is. One that doesn’t make me grit my teeth in boredom and frustration; one where I’m appreciated either by the people for whom I work or by the constituency I serve, be that people or animals or the environment or social justice or bookstore customers. I’ve decided that thankless jobs can be rewarding if your supervisors appreciate your efforts, and jobs in which your supervisors ignore or (worse) deride you can still be enjoyable if you’re working for something that matters to you. My current job fits neither of these descriptions, and it’s time to buckle down and make a change. Enough of the bitching already. Get ready, world—here comes my resume.
2. Reduce my enviromental footprint. I did an online quiz recently (www.myfootprint.org) and learned that if everyone lived like I do, we would need 4.5 planet earths. I’m pretty sure this is a lower number than average given that I take public transportation daily, but there also wasn’t an element that factored in my bizarrely high level of garbage production. I do not know WHY we fill up our gigantic trash can every week. I do not know HOW we manage to produce such a freakishly large amount of crap every day. What I do know is that everything, everything we depend on is a finite resource and if the annoyingly warm winter we’re experiencing is any indication we are causing environmental chaos at an alarming rate. I do not wish to have to move to Canada just to escape tropical Christmas weather, so I am going to do whatever little tiny things that I can to try to stem the tide of ecological destruction that our country seems so intent on pursuing. I will begin with a more consistent recycling effort, swing through some of those fancy flourescent light-bulbs that last a million hours, and perhaps end up with all-natural home cleaning products. I have more research to do. But perhaps I will save one or two trees for your children to enjoy.
3. Save money. I have never suffered any delusions that I am anything other than white trash with money—thanks to my hard-working husband I live in a tax bracket far removed from where I would be if I depended on my own dumbass choices. Because we are comfortable, it is easy to get TOO comfortable and forget that the gravy train may not always run on time. This year alone I’ve gone to some 20 concerts (Bob Dylan being the high point, Rascal Flatts being the low), fled the country twice, bought a massive TV, and developed a first-name relationship with the friendly Lebanese Taverna takeout people. However, given that I’m looking for jobs in non-profits, our poverty alert is constantly at Orange and (cross your fingers for me!) right now is hovering at Red. It’s time to start acting like a grownup and begin socking it away for that day hopefully soon when I make absolute crap money and love it.
4. Learn to dance. I do not know how to make this happen. But if anyone has any ideas, I’m open to anything that will allow me to get through the Summer 2007 wedding gauntlet (five and counting!) with at least a little flair.
There are others, of course, too personal for the internets, but that’s a start. Maybe by the end of this year I will be someone entirely new—a hippie, a vegan, a lobbyist, a student. Maybe I’ll be all kinds of broke. Maybe I’ll be lighting candles with rolled up dollar bills. Sometimes I wish I could see into the future: maybe I’d’ve worked a bit harder on my 2006 resolutions if I could look ahead and see that I’d be the same person, sitting on the same couch, bitching about the same problems, one year in the future.
Probably not.
At any rate, here we go…
In that vein, instead of a self-righteous and high-minded blog about how New Years resolutions are passe and trite, how self-improvement should be a constant and it’s irrational and arbitrary to pick the first of the year to make a fresh start, I’ll start off my blogging re-entry with a long and boring post about my run-of-the-mill and ever-so-common resolutions.
1. Get a job. A new one, that is. One that doesn’t make me grit my teeth in boredom and frustration; one where I’m appreciated either by the people for whom I work or by the constituency I serve, be that people or animals or the environment or social justice or bookstore customers. I’ve decided that thankless jobs can be rewarding if your supervisors appreciate your efforts, and jobs in which your supervisors ignore or (worse) deride you can still be enjoyable if you’re working for something that matters to you. My current job fits neither of these descriptions, and it’s time to buckle down and make a change. Enough of the bitching already. Get ready, world—here comes my resume.
2. Reduce my enviromental footprint. I did an online quiz recently (www.myfootprint.org) and learned that if everyone lived like I do, we would need 4.5 planet earths. I’m pretty sure this is a lower number than average given that I take public transportation daily, but there also wasn’t an element that factored in my bizarrely high level of garbage production. I do not know WHY we fill up our gigantic trash can every week. I do not know HOW we manage to produce such a freakishly large amount of crap every day. What I do know is that everything, everything we depend on is a finite resource and if the annoyingly warm winter we’re experiencing is any indication we are causing environmental chaos at an alarming rate. I do not wish to have to move to Canada just to escape tropical Christmas weather, so I am going to do whatever little tiny things that I can to try to stem the tide of ecological destruction that our country seems so intent on pursuing. I will begin with a more consistent recycling effort, swing through some of those fancy flourescent light-bulbs that last a million hours, and perhaps end up with all-natural home cleaning products. I have more research to do. But perhaps I will save one or two trees for your children to enjoy.
3. Save money. I have never suffered any delusions that I am anything other than white trash with money—thanks to my hard-working husband I live in a tax bracket far removed from where I would be if I depended on my own dumbass choices. Because we are comfortable, it is easy to get TOO comfortable and forget that the gravy train may not always run on time. This year alone I’ve gone to some 20 concerts (Bob Dylan being the high point, Rascal Flatts being the low), fled the country twice, bought a massive TV, and developed a first-name relationship with the friendly Lebanese Taverna takeout people. However, given that I’m looking for jobs in non-profits, our poverty alert is constantly at Orange and (cross your fingers for me!) right now is hovering at Red. It’s time to start acting like a grownup and begin socking it away for that day hopefully soon when I make absolute crap money and love it.
4. Learn to dance. I do not know how to make this happen. But if anyone has any ideas, I’m open to anything that will allow me to get through the Summer 2007 wedding gauntlet (five and counting!) with at least a little flair.
There are others, of course, too personal for the internets, but that’s a start. Maybe by the end of this year I will be someone entirely new—a hippie, a vegan, a lobbyist, a student. Maybe I’ll be all kinds of broke. Maybe I’ll be lighting candles with rolled up dollar bills. Sometimes I wish I could see into the future: maybe I’d’ve worked a bit harder on my 2006 resolutions if I could look ahead and see that I’d be the same person, sitting on the same couch, bitching about the same problems, one year in the future.
Probably not.
At any rate, here we go…
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