I went home sick yesterday. But I had to return to work at 2:00 for a 30 minute mandatory meeting. So I did. With a scowl on my face, but I did. In the meeting was P, the guy I went out with a couple of times a year ago. I knew he was still working in the building, but this was the first time I had been in the same room with him, so I did what any mature person would do when they run into someone they dated in the past: I ignored him.
To be fair, he ignored me too, but alas, this happy circumstance cannot continue. I will during the session have to interact with him at some point, so I guess tomorrow I'll send him an email to the effect of: "Sorry I didn't say hi the other day. I was feeling under the weather and wasn't in the mood to deal with people. Still, it was good to see you again. We'll have to catch up sometime."
What do you think? Sound mature enough? I don't hate him; I just squirm at the thought of him. He did, after all, practically smother me, both emotionally and physically. He was on the second date talking about having children and buying a house together, etc. A month after I dumped him, he sent me an email to tell me he was now dating a girl at work and they were talking about buying a condo together. So I was mildly surprised to see that he wasn't wearing a wedding ring yet. Of course, in his mind, "they" could have been talking about buying a condo when in reality he was talking and she was cringing, as was the case with us.
At any rate, he's not the worst guy from my past to have to work with. That would be a tie between Crazy Andy and the Big X.
And I'm home sick again today. It's either a cold or a sinus infection; whatever it is, the cough syrup with vicodin sure is doing the trick!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Days Since Mission Accomplished--1734; Days Before Mister Accomplished Leaves the White House--365
(I got that title from DailyKos; I'm not clever enough to think of it myself.)
Stacy called me last night around 9:30 and when I said hello, she said, "Are you listening to this bullshit??" I thought she was calling because something horrible had happened to her at work and she wanted to rant, so I told her to go ahead and tell me about it. Turns out she was listening to the State of the Union and was assuming I was too, which I normally would have been except I had my niece last night and I chose not to subject her to such drivel.
Stacy was calling me because she knew that whatever Bush was saying, he was either lying or there was another side to it, and she always relies on me to explain anything political to her. Unfortunately for her, this one time, I was not up on the most current goings-on, so I promised to learn about the SOTUS today and give her a call tonight so I can explain why her outrage was justified.
So far I've come up with:
Stacy called me last night around 9:30 and when I said hello, she said, "Are you listening to this bullshit??" I thought she was calling because something horrible had happened to her at work and she wanted to rant, so I told her to go ahead and tell me about it. Turns out she was listening to the State of the Union and was assuming I was too, which I normally would have been except I had my niece last night and I chose not to subject her to such drivel.
Stacy was calling me because she knew that whatever Bush was saying, he was either lying or there was another side to it, and she always relies on me to explain anything political to her. Unfortunately for her, this one time, I was not up on the most current goings-on, so I promised to learn about the SOTUS today and give her a call tonight so I can explain why her outrage was justified.
So far I've come up with:
- The "economic stimulus" of giving every American a one-time check for approximately $500 is like putting a band aid on a stab wound to the stomach--sure, it might look like it's helping for about 2 seconds, but meanwhile, you're still bleeding to death. But at least you'll have $500 to buy a new Wii or iPhone this Summer.
- The quote about why we need to go to war with Iran is virtually word for word what he said a few years back about why we needed to go to war with Iraq. Nuclear capabilities, supporting terrorists, blah blah blah, I don't have any more troops and I'm calling back 50-year-old fat guys who've been out of the Army for 20 years to serve again and I'm using the National Guard to fight in Iraq so they aren't available to help with national crises like Kansas's tornado devastation last year. Yeah, let's go to war with Iran too.
- No Child Left Behind (aka No School Board Left Standing, about which W said, "No one can deny its results" and there was audible laughter from the audience in response to this line)
- Health Savings Accounts as a solution to our national health care crisis (because the reason no one has health insurance is because no one ever told them to save money before, not because they don't have the money to save...and don't get me started on how we're the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have some form of universal health care)
- But here's something I actually sort of agreed with him about: We do have to cut pork barrel spending. For those of you who don't live and breathe politics, this is when Congressmen (women) add line items to bills, the purpose of said line items being to bring back (usually) one-time cash grants to states or local governments, usually for capital improvement projects, such as paving roads or building schools. People get upset about this because federal money goes to something that is not of national benefit. In its worst form, things like the Bridge to Nowhere result. I don't think pork barrel spending in and of itself is bad, but it is too often abused.
Sigh...okay, enough about politics. I know I rarely venture into them here, but sometimes I just can't help it. I promise tomorrow to write something completely personal, as usual.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Misc. Monday Thoughts
I had a nice weekend. Friday I went out with Rose, and I spent Saturday and Sunday with the MF. Mike and I made up too; I made him promise never to pull that crap again, and I think I'm also getting a free dinner out of the deal.
Mike read one of my posts here about the MF and his response to me was that it's a good thing the MF doesn't read this thing, because if it was him, he'd be pretty mad at being referred to as MF. Apparently, Mike had not read the first couple of posts in which I shortened Man Friend to MF and he thought it was an abbreviation for motherfucker. He agreed after I explained, that Man Friend was not such a bad thing to be called.
Today my friend Raquel started work in my building. She works in a different department on a different floor, but it is still very exciting to have a good friend in the building. We've made plans to eat lunch outdoors in the Springtime, and to go over to Bushnell Park after work in the Summer to hear the free concerts and have some wine. Sadly, there is nothing much fun to do when there is snow on the ground in Hartford so all my happy daydreams must wait until the weather turns warmer.
Mike read one of my posts here about the MF and his response to me was that it's a good thing the MF doesn't read this thing, because if it was him, he'd be pretty mad at being referred to as MF. Apparently, Mike had not read the first couple of posts in which I shortened Man Friend to MF and he thought it was an abbreviation for motherfucker. He agreed after I explained, that Man Friend was not such a bad thing to be called.
Today my friend Raquel started work in my building. She works in a different department on a different floor, but it is still very exciting to have a good friend in the building. We've made plans to eat lunch outdoors in the Springtime, and to go over to Bushnell Park after work in the Summer to hear the free concerts and have some wine. Sadly, there is nothing much fun to do when there is snow on the ground in Hartford so all my happy daydreams must wait until the weather turns warmer.
Friday, January 25, 2008
I'll Think of a Clever Title When I'm Not So Tired...
Mike got really, really drunk last night and texted me like 18 times. I was on the phone with him I think 3 times. I believe the last communication was around 2:30 AM. Meanwhile, I was in bed with the MF...and had work in the AM. I was not happy. . The MF was not happy.
Details later.
Details later.
Monday, January 21, 2008
I Get Gradually More Angry Because It's MLK Day
So oh boy was probably a bit of an exaggeration in hindsight; I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Two of my friends are in serious need of help all of a sudden, in a way in which I can't do much but encourage them to get it. They both are suddenly very much in the middle of some serious depression. They both have completely different lives but the reasons for their depression I think are actually quite similar.
They've both been isolating themselves and have developed very low self-esteem, a lot of which has to do with feeling completely alone. They've been wanting and (to different degrees) pursuing a relationship with people of the opposite sex but it has not been working out.
(Okay, I am sitting in a local cafe writing this while doing my laundry, and this is the first time I've been in here when a child has also been here. I like kids as a rule but this girl has started throwing one of those screaming, stomping, all-out tantrums that so many parents think it is perfectly acceptable nowadays to allow them to have in public. If I pulled that shit when I was a kid, my mom would have dragged me out of the restaurant kicking and screaming and dealt with me in the privacy of the car or something, so as not to disturb the other diners. This mother, however, like so many nowadays, just sat there and tried using her nicey-nice voice to calm the girl down, which was so not working, so then she just continued her adult conversation while the kid screamed herself out for another couple of minutes. My mom would not have allowed me to walk all over her like that and her reaction to such a fit on my part would be the complete opposite of nicey-nice. She would have scared the crap out of me so I'd stop and then she would have yelled at me for acting like a jackass in public. But lately moms seem too caught up in making their kids like them and not doing anything that might upset the kids any more than they might already be. And this is why the world is full of brats right now.)
But I digress...
The friends. Anyway, whatever some of the immediate causes of their depression, it is a vicious circle where they don't feel up to going out and seeing people so they sit on the couch and mope in front of the tv, because of which they feel worthless and upset because they never go out. I know. I was there before. There are undoubtedly several other underlying reasons why they got to this point which will require a shrink to figure out, and (as is so often the case) by the time it's gotten to this point where they and the people around them recognize what is going on, it's pretty damn bad.
Okay, I just went across the way to move my clothes from the washers to the dryers, and I left my purse directly behind me because my washers were on opposite sides of the aisle so I was between them and some dude that works there came up and started yelling at me because someone could come by and snatch my bag. Was he right? Yes. I was turning around every time someone approached to keep an eye on it but yes, if it wasn't actually being held in my hands I suppose I could have had it stolen. Did I need the public embarrassment of him screaming at me about it in front of everyone in the laundromat? Fuck no. Then as I was getting change out of the change machine, he started screaming at some dude to get the hell out of the store before he called the cops. At this point, some other white girl was leaving and she turned to me and said, "See, that's why you hold tight to your purse at all times." I was so incredibly pissed. I'm not some fucking idiot. I was quite aware of my purse and anyone who approached it. HOWEVER, it was impossible for me to hold onto the purse while reaching into the gigantor washer and pulling out the wet clothes into the basket. I am an adult who has somehow managed to live in the city this long without ever having my purse snatched, and maybe it's because I actually know what I'm doing or maybe it's because I'm lucky but either way, I am thirty fucking two years old and don't need to be yelled at by some laundromat attendant.
Phew. Deep breath. Digressing again. Suffice it to say, I miss when I was unemployed and could do my laundry at 2 in the afternoon on a weekday that everyone else didn't have off so no one but me and 3 other people were in the place. And when I came over to Tisane to sit and have coffee or a drink while my clothes dried, there wasn't a screaming two-year-old giving me a headache. Basically, my life would be so much nicer at this particular moment if I was still unemployed and didn't have to do my laundry on a holiday when everyone else has the day off too.
The depressed friends...I wish there was more I could do to help them besides just listen and tell them to get help, but there really isn't. I'm not smart enough to be their therapist. Too frustrated with the world right now to think any more on the nuances of the situation. I think I need to switch from coffee to wine right now and try to calm down, because now the yuppie couple sitting next to me is annoying the shit out of me and that is just stupid on my part because this place is full of yuppies; that's half the reason I come here.
They've both been isolating themselves and have developed very low self-esteem, a lot of which has to do with feeling completely alone. They've been wanting and (to different degrees) pursuing a relationship with people of the opposite sex but it has not been working out.
(Okay, I am sitting in a local cafe writing this while doing my laundry, and this is the first time I've been in here when a child has also been here. I like kids as a rule but this girl has started throwing one of those screaming, stomping, all-out tantrums that so many parents think it is perfectly acceptable nowadays to allow them to have in public. If I pulled that shit when I was a kid, my mom would have dragged me out of the restaurant kicking and screaming and dealt with me in the privacy of the car or something, so as not to disturb the other diners. This mother, however, like so many nowadays, just sat there and tried using her nicey-nice voice to calm the girl down, which was so not working, so then she just continued her adult conversation while the kid screamed herself out for another couple of minutes. My mom would not have allowed me to walk all over her like that and her reaction to such a fit on my part would be the complete opposite of nicey-nice. She would have scared the crap out of me so I'd stop and then she would have yelled at me for acting like a jackass in public. But lately moms seem too caught up in making their kids like them and not doing anything that might upset the kids any more than they might already be. And this is why the world is full of brats right now.)
But I digress...
The friends. Anyway, whatever some of the immediate causes of their depression, it is a vicious circle where they don't feel up to going out and seeing people so they sit on the couch and mope in front of the tv, because of which they feel worthless and upset because they never go out. I know. I was there before. There are undoubtedly several other underlying reasons why they got to this point which will require a shrink to figure out, and (as is so often the case) by the time it's gotten to this point where they and the people around them recognize what is going on, it's pretty damn bad.
Okay, I just went across the way to move my clothes from the washers to the dryers, and I left my purse directly behind me because my washers were on opposite sides of the aisle so I was between them and some dude that works there came up and started yelling at me because someone could come by and snatch my bag. Was he right? Yes. I was turning around every time someone approached to keep an eye on it but yes, if it wasn't actually being held in my hands I suppose I could have had it stolen. Did I need the public embarrassment of him screaming at me about it in front of everyone in the laundromat? Fuck no. Then as I was getting change out of the change machine, he started screaming at some dude to get the hell out of the store before he called the cops. At this point, some other white girl was leaving and she turned to me and said, "See, that's why you hold tight to your purse at all times." I was so incredibly pissed. I'm not some fucking idiot. I was quite aware of my purse and anyone who approached it. HOWEVER, it was impossible for me to hold onto the purse while reaching into the gigantor washer and pulling out the wet clothes into the basket. I am an adult who has somehow managed to live in the city this long without ever having my purse snatched, and maybe it's because I actually know what I'm doing or maybe it's because I'm lucky but either way, I am thirty fucking two years old and don't need to be yelled at by some laundromat attendant.
Phew. Deep breath. Digressing again. Suffice it to say, I miss when I was unemployed and could do my laundry at 2 in the afternoon on a weekday that everyone else didn't have off so no one but me and 3 other people were in the place. And when I came over to Tisane to sit and have coffee or a drink while my clothes dried, there wasn't a screaming two-year-old giving me a headache. Basically, my life would be so much nicer at this particular moment if I was still unemployed and didn't have to do my laundry on a holiday when everyone else has the day off too.
The depressed friends...I wish there was more I could do to help them besides just listen and tell them to get help, but there really isn't. I'm not smart enough to be their therapist. Too frustrated with the world right now to think any more on the nuances of the situation. I think I need to switch from coffee to wine right now and try to calm down, because now the yuppie couple sitting next to me is annoying the shit out of me and that is just stupid on my part because this place is full of yuppies; that's half the reason I come here.
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