I just had a beautiful two days--in a row--off with my honey. He has this week off from work (we won't discuss the enviousness I feel about this), and I somehow got Monday and Tuesday off, so after months of living the "two ships that pass in the night" life, we actually got to hang out. It was GREAT. We played WoW (of course), went shopping for a new office chair for me (one of my Christmas presents--woohoo!), took Bucket to the dog park that we accidentally discovered and which happens to be pretty damn close to the house, went grocery shopping--all the stuff that we used to do. We watched a couple episodes of "Arrested Development" (the first season DVD was another of my gifts), ate a bunch of junk food (New Years is just around the corner and we're bingeing before the Resolutions begin!), and just enjoyed our time together.
And now it's Wednesday and I have to be at work in just over an hour. And I feel sick. Not really physically sick, you know? It's all psychological. I DON'T want to go to work. I dread it. It's a long story, but there is a lot of bad feeling going around right now about certain people being played favourites to. There is also the non-suportive/non-communicative GM made *more* frustrating by the fact that the AGM is out of town this week. She is amazing and supportive and communicative and fun...and she's been gone since last Thursday. It's been very tough without her.
Anyway. It's time to start thinking very seriously about how to approach yet another job hunt. I would love to quit cold turkey, but the responsible side of me says "Wait until you've found something else!". So that's probably what I'll do. Sort of depends on how things work out for this Saturday. That's another long story (and ties in with the favouritism mentioned above)...I'll let you know how it turns out, at least.
later.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
A Long Time Ago
Churches were the center of any town or community. The buildings were not merely used for religious practice; they were meeting halls and schools and, sometimes, centers of defense in times of need. They had very tall spires or towers so that people could locate them easily from miles around.
Yesterday morning I drove East on the 101 at 6:30 in the morning. In the distance I saw, to my horror, the giant blue spire that sits at the corner of the shopping district where I work. I had never realised that at night it is lit up and visible for miles and miles. So are shopping centers the new churches? Do they now give our cities their sense of self? "Here is Our Shopping Center! Behold its Majesty! Revel in its Importance to our Community!"
It kinda seems that way as the holiday approaches and there are so many thousands of people out fighting traffic and lines in order to gift family and friends with lots of "things". More than once as I have rung up a harried shopper's purchase at the store I have wondered when, if ever, these folks think about why Christmas even exists as a holiday. Pagan and Christian, there are pretty deep roots to all this "celebration", and I think all or most of it has been lost to the monsters of marketing.
So. Here's my challenge to you: if you are celebrating some sort of winter festival this year, be it Hannuka, Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, or whatever...take a moment or two to stop and think about it. Give the season a little bit of reverence amidst the shopping and spending and wrapping and baking and eating. I'm not saying that all that stuff is wrong; I'd be a hypocrite to do so (I'm going out to finish my holiday shopping as soon as I'm done here)--I'm just saying that regrounding ourselves from time to time and remembering to be thankful and reverent (to Mother Nature or Jesus or, heck, yourself and your family--whomever floats yer boat) is a needed activity.
That said, I'm off to see the wizard... ;)
Yesterday morning I drove East on the 101 at 6:30 in the morning. In the distance I saw, to my horror, the giant blue spire that sits at the corner of the shopping district where I work. I had never realised that at night it is lit up and visible for miles and miles. So are shopping centers the new churches? Do they now give our cities their sense of self? "Here is Our Shopping Center! Behold its Majesty! Revel in its Importance to our Community!"
It kinda seems that way as the holiday approaches and there are so many thousands of people out fighting traffic and lines in order to gift family and friends with lots of "things". More than once as I have rung up a harried shopper's purchase at the store I have wondered when, if ever, these folks think about why Christmas even exists as a holiday. Pagan and Christian, there are pretty deep roots to all this "celebration", and I think all or most of it has been lost to the monsters of marketing.
So. Here's my challenge to you: if you are celebrating some sort of winter festival this year, be it Hannuka, Christmas, Solstice, Kwanzaa, or whatever...take a moment or two to stop and think about it. Give the season a little bit of reverence amidst the shopping and spending and wrapping and baking and eating. I'm not saying that all that stuff is wrong; I'd be a hypocrite to do so (I'm going out to finish my holiday shopping as soon as I'm done here)--I'm just saying that regrounding ourselves from time to time and remembering to be thankful and reverent (to Mother Nature or Jesus or, heck, yourself and your family--whomever floats yer boat) is a needed activity.
That said, I'm off to see the wizard... ;)
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
A Few Things. . .
If the hot cocoa cannister says "mix with 8oz warm milk..." don't imagine that substituting water will be a nice alternative. The cocoa folks know what they are talking about.
If you are holding a tube of pre-mixed pesto sauce and need to cut the top off for serving purposes, HOLD THE BOTTOM OF THE TUBE...not the top bit you are cutting off.
Guys: Soaking your dishes will win you points EVERY TIME. Leaving pizza sauce and cheese crusty plates in the sink to be washed will not.
If you are holding a tube of pre-mixed pesto sauce and need to cut the top off for serving purposes, HOLD THE BOTTOM OF THE TUBE...not the top bit you are cutting off.
Guys: Soaking your dishes will win you points EVERY TIME. Leaving pizza sauce and cheese crusty plates in the sink to be washed will not.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Countdown
The desert is not a good place to have a holiday like Christmas. I'm having a hard enough time adjusting to the no-cold-no-green aspect; the lack of snow or even frost on my windshield just throws me completely off kilter. It doesn't seem possible that Christmas is 11 days away. I started shopping *yesterday* after a chat with my mom on the phone gave me the appropriate "D'OH" response.
On the up side, real trees are much less expensive here. Proximity to the mountains and all, I guess.
Another odd thing about this place is that there are trucks that hose down the desert. That's right. Any desert that encroaches on civilization (read that again and THINK about it...) is given a good water bath on a regular basis to keep the dust down. There is actually a sign in our neighbourhood that lists a toll-free number that residents can call if they feel the dust is not being appropriately nullified. Last night on my way home I found myself behind a big water truck that was spewing out thousands of gallons of water onto the side of the road.
*sigh*
On the up side, real trees are much less expensive here. Proximity to the mountains and all, I guess.
Another odd thing about this place is that there are trucks that hose down the desert. That's right. Any desert that encroaches on civilization (read that again and THINK about it...) is given a good water bath on a regular basis to keep the dust down. There is actually a sign in our neighbourhood that lists a toll-free number that residents can call if they feel the dust is not being appropriately nullified. Last night on my way home I found myself behind a big water truck that was spewing out thousands of gallons of water onto the side of the road.
*sigh*
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Okaaaaaaaay!
I've gotten more comments from *not* writing than when I was making a concerted effort. So while I wait for my mud mask to dry, I guess I can jot a few words (do we "jot" any more? sometimes pens feel so foreign in my hand) to my bereft readers.
You may have noticed that my last entry was November 21st. World of Warcraft came out on the 23rd. Hence my absence from most things resembling real life. WoW is the reason there is a layer of dogfur 1/4 inch thick covering every surface of the house. WoW is the reason frozen dinners are the meal of choice (well, that and the fact that I've been getting home from work at 12am and who wants to fire up the stove at that time of night?). The game consumes us as we try to attain levels and gear and OMG we are such geeks!
There are worse habits, you know. We are not drug addicts or gamblers. Neither of us smokes, robs liquor stores, or engages in kiddie porn. We pay roughly $30 a month to play a video game during most of our waking moments. There *ARE* worse habits.
So now that that has been loosed upon you, I'll return to matters more mundane, such as the fact that I have the next day and 1/2 off. What a welcome respite from the Wild World of Retail. I have promised myself for the past few days that I would spend my weekend looking for another job. I should hold myself to that. I've decided that a boring M-F 8-5 job might not be so bad after all. It's a trade off really... Do a job I enjoy during the worst possible hours, or do a job I can tolerate and have evenings and weekends to see my honey and have a life? I'd like to make my life and my job two separate entities, and right now that's just not happening. Who wants to socialise or shop or go for mt. bike rides at 2am? So maybe there are a few people, but I suspect they are a select group and not at all easy to hook up with. Thank you, but I'll take the travelled road on this one.
And then there is this. Totally unrelated, but something that has stuck with me for over a week now. I was driving to Mesa to deliver our rent check and I drove past what appeared to be a cotton field. Not sure that's what it was, as it seems unlikely that such a crop would grow in Arizona, but that's what it looked like. Big billowy tufts of white all dotting this huge field. And suddenly there I was, getting all verklempt thinking that it looked like snow and missing Oklahoma of all things! It's been raining here for days but we will not see snow unless we travel to the mountains. I miss winter.
Anyway. There you go.
You may have noticed that my last entry was November 21st. World of Warcraft came out on the 23rd. Hence my absence from most things resembling real life. WoW is the reason there is a layer of dogfur 1/4 inch thick covering every surface of the house. WoW is the reason frozen dinners are the meal of choice (well, that and the fact that I've been getting home from work at 12am and who wants to fire up the stove at that time of night?). The game consumes us as we try to attain levels and gear and OMG we are such geeks!
There are worse habits, you know. We are not drug addicts or gamblers. Neither of us smokes, robs liquor stores, or engages in kiddie porn. We pay roughly $30 a month to play a video game during most of our waking moments. There *ARE* worse habits.
So now that that has been loosed upon you, I'll return to matters more mundane, such as the fact that I have the next day and 1/2 off. What a welcome respite from the Wild World of Retail. I have promised myself for the past few days that I would spend my weekend looking for another job. I should hold myself to that. I've decided that a boring M-F 8-5 job might not be so bad after all. It's a trade off really... Do a job I enjoy during the worst possible hours, or do a job I can tolerate and have evenings and weekends to see my honey and have a life? I'd like to make my life and my job two separate entities, and right now that's just not happening. Who wants to socialise or shop or go for mt. bike rides at 2am? So maybe there are a few people, but I suspect they are a select group and not at all easy to hook up with. Thank you, but I'll take the travelled road on this one.
And then there is this. Totally unrelated, but something that has stuck with me for over a week now. I was driving to Mesa to deliver our rent check and I drove past what appeared to be a cotton field. Not sure that's what it was, as it seems unlikely that such a crop would grow in Arizona, but that's what it looked like. Big billowy tufts of white all dotting this huge field. And suddenly there I was, getting all verklempt thinking that it looked like snow and missing Oklahoma of all things! It's been raining here for days but we will not see snow unless we travel to the mountains. I miss winter.
Anyway. There you go.
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