Work related....

One of the things I need to do to keep up with the business world, is work on my professionalism. It used to be up, but really has slipped in the last two years or so. I need to get back in the habit again.

Things are no hold barred in the business world, so you have to have some pretty thick skin to make it. I really need to get my act together here and not let the negative situations bring me down. I’ve been taking things personally and that really shouldn’t be happening. I can’t be sucked into things that I really don’t believe in doing and I usually let myself anyhow.

Last week, something happened where someone blamed something on me. I took it, then later felt really deceived. Then I felt revengeful, like that was going to fix the problem. I need to make sure that even though I truly believe in fairness, I can’t let myself sink to that level. I need to rise above it and remember where I came from in all of this. I think I’m letting school get to my head. I have to remember to work smarter not harder, and fight the fights worth fighting (blah...).

Blah day. Nothing going on. Quinn’s home with my mom on Thursday’s so I get to sleep in a whole half hour later.

Remember the Jetson’s? I think that should be the name in the “catching up with the Jones’” phrase. It should be “catching up with the Jetson’s” phrase. After all they are the ones that had all of the super-electronic-dress yourself-fly through the air-dinner in a pill-robot cleaning-moving walkway-devices. We need to get ourselves that stuff. How cool would it be to fly to work? Or have the robot clean the house? Or even the dehydrated food in pill form that instantly makes you full? That would be so cool…I think we’ll have that crap when we are 80 and too slow to enjoy it. Hell I’ll have my super hydrolic corvette or whatever still.

And that’s all I got for today.

Groups are picked...

Yesterday we had to pick our groups for school. That’s it. One shot and this is your group. We had to “sell” ourselves briefly before the picking process. I was nervous it would bring back bad middle school gym class memories, when no one wanted me on their baseball team. We do the selling, then on our break we are to get together with each other and find our teams. How did it end up? I went to the vending machine to get some water, and on my way back a few of us stopped in the hallway and started talking, and I was like, “um, there is 4 of us right here talking, why don’t we become a group?”. And we did. Outside were the smokers, and you guessed, they are a team now. Two people just sat there in the room, instead of trying to find out who they should be with, so they are a group along with one other stray person, and the people who were left, well they are a group now too. When we sat down after it was all finalized, it looked strange. I felt bad. I felt as if the older crowd felt weird that the younger crowd didn’t pick them. It didn’t happen that way on purpose. It all just fell into place that way. One team is a mixture of both age groups, so I guess that it doesn’t look so bad. I was then nominated as the class representative. I felt pretty good about that. I think I’ll take it! It is such a switch from high school where I probably wouldn’t even have been nominated to slap the erasers together. College has given me a whole new confidence level!

Baby is good. I did miss him last night. One of my favorite things is getting him ready for bed. He gets all snuggly in his pj’s! And that fresh bathed baby smell…ooo soo good!! This morning was the first morning since he found his new separation anxiety feeling, that he didn’t scream when I dropped him off at school. That just breaks my heart when he does that. So we distracted him by asking him who is on his shirt. “Pooh” he says in that cute little voice!!

I got nothing...

Weekend was alright. Friday I went to a chowder party at the in-laws. That was fun, and Quinn loved running in the wet grass. His pants were so dirty at the end of the night. Bro in law was there with his pathelogical liar wife. I would post about her more, but I think it would make me dizzy righting about it.

Saturday I sacrificed three hours in the morning to come here to work and paint my office. It went smooth. I think it looks nice today. So fresh and clean. After that and into Sunday we just spent time at home. Even grocery shopping on Sunday morning. Wow you're all jealous.

Papa is good and went home today. He's still a little confused about some things, as he lost a week of time spending it in the hospital.

Turning around

Papa is coming out of the woods. His sodium is coming up and blood pressure is coming down. So now his mind is easing and unscrambling and he's starting to put two and two together. Only problem is he started swearing like a sailor when this was happening and he doesn't normally do that. I'm sure the staff is openminded about it and realize he's just coming out of it.

Class on Tuesday was interesting. We had a two hour discussion on The Great Gatsby (which I finished on Satuday). When I say discussion, I mean we asked the questions and the teacher answered them. One of our assignments as a group was to put together questions for class discussion. Not for "stump the teacher". The point was to show how much we have learned from the book not how much she know's about it from the last 20 years of teaching it. Sometimes I really hate that. We know she knows the stuff, that is why she is up there.

"Santa" got Quinn a radio for Christmas last year. He absolutely loves that thing. He even calls it a "ray-e-o". Last night he wanted to play with it, so we spent some time dancing to Mickey Mouse and friends. We were marching up and down the hall to m-i-c-k-e-y-m-o-u-s-e. It's ok to look like an idiot in front of your toddler! They don't care. Then we would dance together, or him and Jay did "ring around the rosie" (which by the way the words never made sense to me). Pocket full of posies; ashes, ashes; we all fall down....what is that? Oh well the kids love it!

It is sad, but it is part of life

Everyone I know laughs at me because I read the Obituaries in the paper. Maybe about every other day I check it out. Hey you never know who you'll find in there. Maybe a friend's parent or sibling, maybe an old love or maybe an old enemy. Maybe even an old classmate. You would never expect to look in the paper and find the name of a little girl you used to babysit. What? What is that? Apparently she had leukemia. She was only 22. I feel so bad for that family right now. That just breaks my heart.

No word on Papa yet. Quinn learned how to say "oh no" so he's now walking around saying that!

I got my laptop yesterday, so now I need to learn the laptop etiquette. Is there one? Where are the best places for wireless?

Papa's sick

My papa's sick. He's been acting strange since Wednesday. He was sitting in his chair telling my Grandma not to worry because the cops will be there soon. He thinks that he's being taperecorded and people are out to get him. Thurday they took him to the hospital and thought he had an infection and sent him home. Friday he was back to normal, and watched a movie with my Grandma that night. Later on that night he started acting paranoid and saying the cops were coming for him again. Saturday they took him back to a hospital and ran more tests. Now they are saying that he has low sodium and high blood pressure. They did a cat scan and found he had a mini stroke a long time ago. He's been diabetic for 60 years and he also still could have an infection. They have no idea at this point what is causing the paranoia. Hopefully they will come back with something this afternoon.

Trust me, the internet is not a good tool for diagnosing your Papa.

Fall line up...

First I would like to start off by saying that I am really getting sick of living in the past here. You know the phrase "Well that's not how we used to do it". So I say just change it. To the city of Buffalo, if you want to make high rise buildings, shops, theaters, casinos or restaurants along the waterfront then DO IT....stop asking people's opinions. Or how about 800 bridges into Canada, go for it. Preservationalists please stop caring about the crappy busted down buildings, go worry about the art gallery or something. They had yet another segment yesterday on the news about the water front showing what it would look like, but why aren't they starting. Too many people complaining about well "that's not how it used to be". I appreciate history, I really do, and I think if there is something historic here to keep around than preserve it, but if it looks like crap and we can make this city into something, please just do it. Ok I'm rambling, but how can we make our own history if we are trying to hang on to our grandparents' histories.

Tonight: How I met your mother - NBC 8:30
New Adventures of Old Christine - NBC 9:30

Tomorrow: taping According to Jim - ABC 8:00

Wednesday: America's Next Top Model on some new station, CW or something...gotta check the listings, but it is at 8:00.

Thursday: My name is Earl - NBC 8:00
The Office - NBC 8:30

Sunday: Cold Case - CBS 9:00 (or 9:15, when ever 60 minutes can go off the air)

Windfall is gone, they cancelled it. Loved that show. You can't have a good drama air during the summer and expect ratings. No one is watching TV, well except me on Thursdays at 10. I was tuning into that.

I'm sure I'll see Howie's bald head at somepoint during the week. Man what was that guy thinking? Someone told him that looked good? Well I guess not as bad as Joey "woah" Lawrence.

It's Friday!

The office is one of the best shows going right now! Here is a clip from last season!

FYI

Paperclips help open pastacio nuts. Those sons of bitches are hard to open.

Quinn learned a new word: SUN! Too cute!

Drinking on lunch hour would help me through the afternoon. One can only wish.
I went home on lunch and saw my open bottle of Chardonney that I decided to indulge in last night. I wanted a glass so bad with lunch. Would it have hurt? I can mask the smell, I was a pro at hiding cigarette smoke from my mom. I could do it.

Ah well maybe someother time.

I have to finish reading “The Great Gatsby” by Saturday for school. Why are we reading this? Well because I am taking a critical thinking course and we have to put together a thesis on what Gatsby’s American Dream was. I enjoy the reading, and the storyline, but these characters keep popping up out of nowhere in the story.

I decided my hour lunch hour would be well spent reading and getting a few pages closer to the end. I went to the Royal right down the street. I didn’t want to loose time for driving or time for waiting for my food to take out, so I went close and ate in. Eat in by myself? Ah facing the insecurities I guess. I survived it! The owner and the waitress both checked on my 3 times each as if I was lost. “Are you ok?” they would ask. “Yes, I’m fine thank you”. Why the concern? Did I look like a book worm? Or a loner? Do you not have any friends ma’am?

I thought it was funny. I was tucked away at this small little table for 2 with Gatsby as my lunch date.

Weekend recap...

I spent some of the weekend with mom this weekend. It was nice to have someone to help me watch the baby so I could get some homework done.

I had to meet with my study group on Sunday. We clicked very well and were able to work together equally and feed off of each other’s ideas. The group I’m in now, I already feel like I’m dominating the group. Not because I’m bossy or anything, but because I feel like I had to drag information out of them. Instead of them offering any input. Over all things are still going well in this class. I have a book to finish by Saturday night.

The 5th anniversary of 9/11 came and went. I watched a few specials this weekend that had survivors tell their stories. That was heart wrenching to see what they went through, especially the ones who tried to save other’s lives but they didn’t make it. One guy actually survived the second plane that hit by diving under his desk. I couldn’t believe he lived through that.

Hubby’s weekend was fun for him. He still holds the John “Happy Gilmore” McEnroe title for the second year in a row!! I’m glad he’s home and things are back to normal. I’m still working on the money thing and I really need to stay home with Quinn a few days a week and work evenings. That will really cut down on the daycare costs.

Today has been a great day so far. I was 7 minutes late this morning because of course I had to stop for some Timmy’s and that took 4 minutes out of my driving schedule, and I was coming from my mom’s house and am not used to that drive anymore. I’m used to my 10 minute drive from the daycare. Which of course I usually leave at 10 after 7 giving me 20 minutes to drop off Quinn and get to work. It takes 12 minutes to drive there, 5 minutes to shove him in the door and 10 minutes to get to work, by 7:37. So needless to say, they are used to me being 7 minutes late.

Then around 10 this morning I was heading to the water cooler for a refill, and I noticed a piece of paper in an inbox that I normally handle. Hmm…interesting. I’ll just grab this since this inbox hasn’t been looked at since, um, I’d say April. I take it off the top. I reveal another one….another one…..another one…..I keep going and there are about 20 of them. This means that they haven’t been entered yet since April. This is how I’ve been spending my morning. Entering something that I’m supposed to enter, but haven’t seen, because I’m sure that person just said, “Uh, yeah, just make sure I get those. I’ll handle it.” Famous last words…”I’ll handle it”.

Then the girl who sits next to me, called another co-worker to refer some repairs to them and he lashed out on her and said he’s too busy to handle anything else. Um, yeah, that’s your job….

So this has been my day so far. I hope it gets better. After all it is Friday and the start of the weekend and I'm with out a husband so I get to SMOOCH and SQUISH my punkin all by myself tonight!!!

Will work for food

Today is the day. Hubby is going on his once a year golf trip. Which is also how much he golfs each year, which goes to show that golfing is not his hobby, drinking is. I guess we could call it the “hang with the guys,drink till you puke” trip. Go here to see how I really feel about it.

I just found out that the life insurance policy that my parents bought for me when I was born (29 1/2 ) years ago is worth a whopping $149.56 cash value (alive) and $4695.00 (dead). That would pay for my hole in the ground or my Ipod that I want. Quite a toss up. I figure I’ll leave it alone seeing as I need a hole in the ground, and the Ipod isn’t necessarily a necessity…?

I called to borrow against it so we can get through the holiday season and wait for our taxes, because as of now our financial situation is nothing to write home about. Maybe this is because I have my degree now and that means no success once you get it? Or maybe this is because my karma has pretty much sucked since December? Or MAYBE it has something to do with my darling husband not being able to work overtime so he can afford said drinking weekend? Whatever the reason, I need some moola. HELP!

Labor day should be renamed to

No-labor day. Because that is what I did. No labor. We went to Chautauqua for the weekend and relaxed (well as much as we could chasing a toddler and keeping him away from the water).

Monday, Quinn turned 18 months old, and on that day he learned how to open the screen door and walk down the porch stairs carefully with the railing (with supervision of course)! He’s almost tall enough to reach the basement door so I’ll have to child proof it before he shows interest in it.

Yesterday was the second day of school. The work load is heavy, but I’ll get used to it. I have a lot of reading and a few writing assignments to do, which means most of my free time will be dedicated to that. By free time I mean lunch hours, after the baby goes to bed, and nap times. Saturday will be dedicated to limited homework, because after all, I need a minute to take it easy, and do housework of course! Lucky for me, I have a husband who does his share, so it isn’t all on my shoulders (girls, I can not tell you my secret!)

Just rambling!

The story starts out with me, on Tuesday, losing the setting to my wedding ring. I bumped my left hand on my keyboard here at work, looked down, and OMG no diamond! I immediately get down on my hands and knees and start the hopeless search for my trillion. Of course this then prompts people to say…um, Rachele, are you ok? No, I lost my setting to my ring…..then we have about 5 people on their hands and knees. Even a flashlight was here to help! It’s not here…do not freak out. Check under the desk, nope. Check the garbage, nope. Check the rugs, Nope. Ok, where have I been in the last ½ hour I’ve been back from lunch? Let’s retrace our steps here. Go out to the car, nope. Walk with my eyes glued to the floor on my path down and back, nope. Ah I threw something out on my way up….check garbage, nope. Check surrounding floors and rugs….what’s that….OMG….It’s the shiniest piece of dirt I’ve ever seen…THAT’S IT!!! I couldn’t believe I found it

Flash forward to Thursday. I have my diamond and my ring on my dresser in a baggie waiting for the trip to the jewelers, so I haven’t been wearing anything on my finger. I feel naked. Well let me tell you the looks that I get when I go places without my ring on. It is the “ohmygodIcan’tbelievesheisn’tmarriedandhasababy” look. I just want to yell back to these people after said look and say “Um, I have a husband at home….” Do I really need to explain? Then I remember for a second how I have been that judgmental on a few occasions and jump to conclusions, but if I were a Carrie Bradshaw, this would truly be my journalistic experiment.

Yesterday night my television choices were Urban Legends, and later Windfall. One of the urban legends they were talking about, was how this couple brought their dog to a Chinese restaurant and did not know the language. They sat down to order and motioned that they would like her to watch the dog, to please go ahead and feed it. You know what is next. They have the best meals of their life, and when she brings the check, she has the dog collar on top of it and they realize that they’ve eaten their dog. Gross, yes. It is not true though. Although people from that part of the world do enjoy the canine, they do not accept your dog you bring with you….I am enjoying some orange beagle right now! Hmmm, this place isn't very far from the SPCA.

Windfall was great, but my only complaint is why haven’t they introduced Ethan’s dad sooner? YUMMY!