Living In the World, Not on It

I used to go to school with a Doug Brockman (I don't think that there is a second "n" on the end of that). I don't know what made me think of him... Especially since he is not someone worth thinking about. I suppose, in all fairness, I shouldn't say that. Maybe he has changed since high school (I don't mean in the obvious way, like gaining weight or going bald... or both... but the better ways). Maybe he is a whole different person. I don't know. I do know that if he were to show up on the opposite side of my desk, I would be hard pressed to hire him. He was an abusive wretch in high school. Why should I think any less (ha, ha) of him now? I think I saw a cake for him when I was working at Wyckoff Bakery. I should have been given a medal. I know this is going to sound awful, but I wanted to spit on the cake. And before you get all judgmental and think the worst of me, you need to know that this horse's ass (my apologies to equines everywhere) deserved ...

Happy Birthday to me! I'm just getting this in under the wire, I know. It has been a long day and now, finally, it is at a close. Next year, my birthday should fall on a Saturday... which will be a good thing! I know this. I am convinced of this. As much as I appreciated taking the day off from work, all I did was run around like a chicken with my head removed - not exactly how one should spend one's "special day". Still, it was a good birthday! Luis announced that after careful thought and checking, his birthday gift to me will be... drum roll, please... A laptop! Oh, my goodness! I was shocked and thrilled and I can't get over it! I am over the moon! And the timing is perfect. This computer seems to not be handling as well as it once did (I wanted Luis to buy and install memory in this machine as it is failing), and I really need a laptop for work. I tried to negotiate it into my package but that was the one thing no one would bend on - not that I was going to l...

Normally I don't send things like this out but I liked the sentiment. Thanks to all my sisters and may I add daughters to the younger crowd. SISTERS A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance upon her daughter. "Don't forget your Sisters," she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. "They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are still going to need sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then; do things with them. Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women... Your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. You'll need other women. Women a...

Some things do it to me every time. I cry almost anytime I hear "Nights In White Satin" by the Moody Blues. I remember that at the end of every year the radio (and I cannot remember which station[s]) would have a countdown (sometimes commercial-free!) of the top 100 songs in Rock of all times. I know that while Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" always won, somewhere in the top 10 or so would be the Moody Blue's "Nights in White Satin". I always loved this song. It is Rock but it is Classical, too. I appreciate Classical music as much as I do Rock music. It is just a completely different kind of sound. But listen to Beethoven and then listen to nearly any good musician drom the fifties. Can you hear it? Sometimes it is all the same chords. Change the tempo, change the accompaniment, you have something completely different... and yet, something completely the same. If you ever have the chance to watch "Mr. Holland's Opus", which is a ...

Okay, I take back all the worrying and complaining I did about the warm winter! It feels like winter now, all -4°C of it. It snowed Thursday night and yesterday. Not enough to really amount to anything but it has been white and pretty and then today... yikes! It has been very cold and very, very windy! Not at all a pleasant day. It is clear, but that is as far as pleasant can go. That is not saying much now. Tomorrow's forecast: clear, then becoming cloudy in the early evening. It may snow overnight but while it won't amount to anything, it may freeze and cause all sorts of problems for the morning commute. Wonderful . Just what we need. Nothing like starting a Monday off on that sort of note! As I have payroll to run and don't want to wait until 0930 to begin, I will have to brave the roads and hope that what is being predicted will not come to pass. I started this posting right before heading over the squadhouse. I am happy to say that we had a good night. Considering we ...

" Ten Ways to Know It's Time to Go A Job-Change Checklist By Caroline Levchuck No matter how much you love your job, you may not love it all the time. Folks with the most fulfilling of professions can still find themselves battling a case of the "Sunday Night Blues." And, from time to time, we may all feel a sense of disenchantment with our employer or our co-workers. But how can you know when it's really time to go? Here's a hint: If more than half of the following statements ring true for you, get your resume ready and start connecting with new opportunities today. 1. You start to dread Monday as soon as you leave work on Friday. 2. It becomes more and more difficult to get up for work each day, and tardiness becomes a way of life. 3. You cannot muster enthusiasm for anything related to work -- other than your paycheck. 4. You spend most of your time complaining to colleagues or about your colleagues. 5. You act defensive and even hostile in company meeting...

Everyone has been through trial by fire at some points in their lives. You don't get to go through childhood and have it be all roses and song. Growing up is not, by nature, painless. Would that it were, I used to think. But that trial by fire is what made that lonely, timid, frightned person come out and turn into the force to be reckoned with at work, on my first aid squad... pick your poison! But this posting, while it explores a large amount of childhood angst and issues, is really about what the root of my love of music did for me and how it shaped my love of it today. There are a massive mulitude of reasons for things to be as they were in my middle and high school years. There were no progressive schools that I could go to, where being socially inept was less egregious. Even if there was, my parents could likely have not afforded it. There was one young kids' school, one middle school and one high school in Wayne. Unlike anywhere else in the United States (which is proba...

I just howled when I read this. Thanks to TigerTrax for sending this to me as it was priceless. It might not have meant much if I weren't inundated with the same e-mails warning me about the rapists and robbers, and the phone calls to Uganda as well as the countless e-mails telling me that my life will be nothing but an endless parade of bad luck if I don't immediately send it out to the 144,216 friends in the next seven minutes... To THOSE Who Have Barraged Me With Those Countless Informative E-mail's, Thought I Would Show MyAppreciation With ..........A BIG THANKS!! To Whoever Sent Me the One about Rat Poop in the Glueon Envelopes because I Now Have To Use A Wet Towel with Every Envelope That Needs Sealing. Also, I Now Have To Scrub the Top of Every Can I open For the Same Reason. I No Longer Have Any Savings Because I Gave It To A Sick Girl (Penny Brown) Who Is About To Die In The Hospital For The 1,387,258th Time But That Will Change Once I Receive The $15,000 That Bil...

A newfound comet is about to loop around the Sun and might offer skywatchers a rare and fantastic view. But comets are unpredictable, and this one has a wide range of possible outcomes, experts say. When Australian astronomer Robert McNaught announced Aug. 7 that he had discovered a faint comet on a photograph taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, it was a distant and inconspicuous object. But its orbital motion at once made it clear that this comet, officially catalogued as C/2006 P1, might grow very bright right about now. Comet McNaught's orbit [ video ] indicates that it will sweep to within just 15.8 million miles (25.4 million kilometers) of the Sun on Jan. 12. This rather close approach-less than half the average distance of Mercury , the closest planet to the Sun-suggests the comet has the potential to briefly evolve into a bright object. The big question is, just how bright? Brighter than Venus? Recent estimates have ranged widely from magnitude ...

I'm not completely unhappy with the start of the new year! In fact, it is off to a very good start! I will admit that the first work day of the year did not start off that well. There were some issues brought to my attention and that is never a warm and fuzzy thing, but I see myself really taking aggressive steps to fix them. I also was very gently chastised by someone I work closely with and have a lot of respect for and immediately fixed the issue raised. So I am feeling very good about these things, not bad. I am stressing about them to some degree but stressing in the right way, if that makes sense. I'm feeling good about this year, though. Good in all ways. I think I will grow more as I usually try to and I think that medically this will be a better year as well. I feel confident and strong. I'm delighted with the possible astronomical events lined up, such as Uranus being very visible (as visible as a 4 billion mile away and low magnitude planet can be); Venus putting...