Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!

Hopefully I am not alone in this, but I am severely worried about the state of Diyarbakir (Amed)....violence has increased in the region and the PKK (or whatever their name is this week) is more active and causing "problems". Here are just a few of the most recent headlines:

Kurdish rebels take police officer hostage, rob motorists

Kurdish rebel killed in eastern Turkey while placing bomb

Bomb blast at Turkish resort leaves 20 injured

Five civilians, three police hurt in Kurdish unrest

Three Turkish soldiers killed in landmine blast

The scary thing is that all of these are from this weekend, only this weekend! I admit that I am a hard-core pacifist (and I realize how oxymoronic that statement is), but I think that the 1980's in Turkey proved one thing...that violence in trying to promote Kurdish rights does not work.

This begs the question...why then is the PKK active again? Why is the violence starting again? The answer is that the Kurds in Turkey are backed against a wall...they see their brothers to the South gaining more independence and noteworthiness in the world media, they have the government of Turkey making ridiculous "concessions" of cultural rights which make little or no difference in the grand scheme of things, and they have a younger generation growing up with the belief that no matter what they do they will fail...and so they do nothing and just stay angry...they are trapped in a corner and believe that they have no other outlet then to resort to violence. It appears faster and more affective than diplomacy, but if my Kurdish brothers and sisters want any long-term change they have to use the diplomatic route. Yes, it is a long road, and patience is very hard to keep in those types of circumstances, but it is the only sure-fire way of achieveing independence.

What needs to be done is a region-wide campaign of empowerment to the Kurds of Turkey. They need to know exactly what their rights are according to Turkish law, they need to learn how to operate within that system...They need to educate themselves, they need to educate the village women who raise their children to believe that they have no rights because that is what they have been told when they were young...lack of education is "keeping them down". The Kurds need to unify themselves in what they want (if we were unified in the aftermath of WWI, imagine what could have been done)...there are too many groups off doing their own thing (the PKK is fighting the Turkish Army and TAK is supposedly wounding tourists), without a unified path of resistance nothing can be accomplished. The Turkish government lumps all Kurdish groups into the same category as the PKK...let's look at Leyla Zana, nothing to do at all with the PKK, yet for her belief in a diplomatic approach to gaining more rights for the Kurds she was still tried and imprisoned for being a PKK sympathizer...How much could have been accomplished in the name of diplomacy if the PKK did not exist? In my opinion, a hell of a lot more than what could have ever been imagined.

I can only with certainity speak for myself, but I believe that all Kurds should condemn any and all violence committed in their name. Violence is not nor ever will be the answer to our freedom.

New levels of domesticity!

I took yesterday off from work, partly because I didn't want to go but mainly because things have been so stressful as of late that if I stayed home and worked in the house I wouldn't be climbing the walls nearly as much if I was bored at work.

I almost called in this morning as well, but I had figured with the beheading of the Egyptian ambassador that we would have gotten a lot of press calls in the office. Oddly enough, not one...London has overshadowed all. Which I must say is some pretty poor planning on Al Qaida's part...the 2 things overshadowed each other...a week wait time would have been more effective for their statement...like anyone really knows what that is..Zarqawi is off in la la land doing God knows what...and you know it is a stupid move when all of the Arabs look at his actions and go "you know before I understood what you were doing and could see why but now, dude, what the fuck?" Al Qaida has seriously misunderstood what international reaction would be to recent events...the Egyptians are going to take no prisoners and the Brits have a deep memory and a history of removing problems. Hell, you know it is bad when the ultra liberal British press calls out for Arab blood.

Oh look at me, I've gotten off topic. Yesterday our washer, dryer and new freezer were delivered to the new apartment, elevating Mr.3 and I to the ranks of super couple! Able to do their own laundry with their very own washing machine and dryer...no more borrowing, no more laundramats...these babies are ours...and it is damn cool. Plus, the cable got hooked up as well as our internet connection, so no more wardriving the coffee shop and Mr.3 can get his news fixes. And last but not least, today was my LAST physical theraphy appointment! The doctor gave me a clear bill of health! Yippee!!!! That is all for the moment, till later my darlings!

Haunting the internet...

I feel like a goof lately with these Kurdish forum thingys...they provide a fairly decent distraction during the day as I seem to check them every five to ten minutes...yeah, it is silly.

Unfortuately there is not too much to report on besides that. I am in the planning stages of a massive blog about the current violence in Diyarbakir and Batman...but that is a ways away.

Oh! Tomorrow we get both cable and a washing machine! Now that is something!

Wardriving from our new place

Well after talking with the cable company we found out that we wouldn't be able to have service until Thursday...so I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that there would be no internet until Thursday while I was not at work. 2 doors down from us, and I mean that literally,is a coffee shop with free wireless service. Mr.3 and I used it on the first day that we moved in. Yesterday while using the grill Mr.3 noticed that the back of the coffee shop was literally 50 feet away from where we are, and lo-and-behold we can actually pick up their wireless connection from inside our new house. This is an excellent solution for the Thursday problem and hopefully will keep Mr.3 distracted enough not to pine for having cable TV as well.

As for the new place, it is wonderful. There is still a lot of unpacking to do, and I find myself constantly sweeping the floors with this endust floor sweeper thing...still our feet are black with all of the dirt that has been tracked in. I guess that is going to the case here with our hardwood floors until I can get the dust down and the carpets out.

Meanwhile,as I was writing this, Mr.3 finished his shower and began to read over my shoulder....apparently the internet access will not be enough to distract him from his need of cable...but maybe I can keep him busy with unpacking and all of that.

Later today we plan to go down to RCWilley's and buy a washer, dryer and a small freezer...everything that we want is on sale and we can get it all for around $700. Quite the deal if you ask me.

Tomorrow my Mom will be in town with Kelly and we will have our first houseguests, so that is a priority unpacking issue for today...actually I would like to have it all done today, but that will not happen, but I should get a majority of it finished.

Moving Weekend

So this weekend we will begin the big move from the condo to our new apartment. There is so much left to do and just sitting here at work where I can't tackle any of the stuff that needs to be done is driving me CRAZY! I will be leaving at noon today, but I am just going out of my mind with the boredom/anxiety of things and there is only an hour and 20 minutes left of my short day today.

Plus, I made a stupid call that I shouldn't have....it was on a whim and while I was dialing it I changed my mind but they had picked up with it and I had to go on with it and I felt super stupid and I feel that I should apologize for it because I stepped out of bounds that I shouldn't have but apologizing isn't really nessacary but I don't know how else to handle my stupid guilt for making a call that I shouldn't have and I know that I am rambling but I must get this out somehow....ugh. I annoy myself way too often for my own comfort. Maybe I should just chalk it all up to being overly emotional today and leave it there.

the inner me

I think that ultimately I am an incredibly impatient person, I don't think that I show it, but I know that I am. I send an email and I want an immediate response...I post on the KBU forum or blog and I am constantly checking to see if I have a reply or not...this impatience can be quite exhausting. I get bored easily and that stresses me, I get impatient with myself...ugh...wow, it is really hard to deal with myself sometimes.

oh so hungry...

man, I have been so incredibly tired lately and I really don't know why.
the past two nights I have some home from work and just collasped...even though the other thing that happened at work was that I was bored all day.
I should have packed last night, but I didn't. I did manage to make a moving list of things that we need to do to be ready for the movers on Saturday morning...yes, I am that anal...Mr.3 hasn't seen the list yet, but he saw me writing the list yesterday and is probably a little suspicious. Can I help it if I find writing lists comforting?

in other news, the physical therapist really killed me yesterday...my calf has completely cramped up and I am limping today and my knee ached last night...plus I guess I was swinging my arm too much yesterday as I was walking and I slammed my hand into the metal track on the garage door opener thingy...it was like I had punched it...so my hand wouldn't function very well last night either. It is fine now, but my klutzyness is going to get me killed one day.

so now, I am bored at work...nothing new there...and unusually I am considering reading a book and it is only 11:30 in the morning...normally I get around to reading later in the afternoon.

Yeah, I am a work-aholic...

I have managed to do 3 things that are work related today.
1-Answer phones
2-a 5 minute task involving visitor tracking on the center's website, and
most importantly

3-show up.


I have spent the better part of an 8-hour day dealing with the problem with the KBU Forum...the good thing that we are making a bunch of progress.

2 lives

It is amazing sometimes when you step back and realize that you have 2 lives: one, the life you live in, work, home, etc, and two, your cyberlife. Friendships and the daily drama are very different in both worlds...but every once in a while they seem to converge.

Life on the Kurdistan Bloggers Union, and specifically the "forum" that was set up which says that it is a part of the Union but shouldn't be, has been incredibly difficult as of late. I made the comment that I felt the blog had been hijacked ideaologically by those that are much more radical than what the united face we want to project is. And on the forum (bought and paid for by Medya--something I highly object to) I have been dragged through the mud by this incredibly childish man. I could try to go into the whole thing into more detail but the long end of it is that I feel Medya is untrustworthy and a meglomanic. This guy actually called me some names that I would never call anyone else. It was sort of cute because when I told Mr.3 (who has been very patient listening to me whine about the situation) he sort of got protective, and went and did a little searching on this guy online...needless to say, we both smell a rat. (Which sounds odd to say in light of the fact that I am currently reading a book on the social history of rats in New York.) Hopefully we will be able to hash out some of the problems we have been having on KBU and get everything resolved.

Now in the real world....we got an apartment (oh my gosh it is so totally cute!!!) and we have movers coming this weekend (a stroke of luck at such short notice), now I just need to set about calling the cable guys and seeing about a washer/dryer after that so that we can have everything moved.
I'll wait on the mail, the DMV, and the power and light company until after we move...maybe I can get Mr.3 to handle the light people for me...

Longing for editorials

So lately on the Kurdistan Bloggers Union there has been a lot of rhetoric that I have strongly disagreed with, and so I have stayed silent. I tried to get into the new forums and make friends but it seems that there is no place for the moderates anymore. Some of the "older bloggers" have spoken and to some degree we are all agreed in our silence..today however I spoke out. And to be honest, I was quite surprised and proud of what I had to say. I long for the days when the Kurdistan Bloggers Union was about editorials and not throwing anger at everyone...maybe we can step back and be effective again...

to read my post for today, check here for the June 26th post

In search of lewd behavior

Following a tip from Jason I have begun looking for further evidence of peeping toms in the men's restroom. part of this has been reviewing the police reports for the campus, which are pretty funny.

This was by far the best:
2005-9143 Keep the Peace
Police were called to Orson Spencer Hall to mediate a dispute over a dime. The argument was over whether the dime had been loaned or stolen. The responding officer settled the dispute by giving the aggrieved party a dime.

The Student Services Building has a flasher and the Library gets its share of streakers.

Last March, one of the janitors (who normally are mentally disabled in some way) reported that he was sexually molested in the men's room in the building. Which is awfully sad because of his ability.
and I have found this tid-bit from 2003:
UUPD received a call from a man who was following another man whom he had seen peeking under Orson Spencer Hall restroom doors and exposing himself. Officers located the suspect on campus and detained him until the witness could identify him. The suspect was arrested and booked into jail after he was found to have several outstanding warrants.

I am going to keep looking, one because it is interesting, and two, it is only 10 am here and I have finished my work list for the week and have nothing better to do. It is strange but goofing off on the computer makes you look a lot busier than if you are reading a book at your desk.




about 10 minutes later...
ahh...nevermind, I was just on a website that had an ad for requesting a "bear" (or hairy man") for a personal home visit...perhaps I shouldn't be looking at this stuff, especially at work and also because well, I think that it is way more information that I think I want to see at the moment. But I did find that there are personal ads for anomymous sex in restrooms...which could be going a little out there on their own personal security if you ask me.

OSH the new gay man pick up joint?

So the men's bathroom at the end of the hall has been seeing some strange activity as of late. Granted our building is home to many strange visitors...we have many campus lemmings that walk our halls (being homeless offers them lots of oppurtunities to have plenty of time for low-impact exercise in an air-conditioned environment). However, with the summer semester there has been some new people haunting the end of the hallway and the men's bathroom(including a much older guy wearing a rainbow belt who gives me the creeps).

Now, you wonder, how do I suspect this...well Mr.3 (my men's room spy) has informed me of some highly strange activity...including 2 different men looking either under or above the stall at him while he is taking a dump. Today there was a young man (who yes, fit all of the gay stereotypes) pacing back and forth in front of the stalls in the men's room, looking into them periodically. When Mr.3 went into one of the stalls he pretended to pee for 10 seconds and then left the room.

Could it be that these potty prowlers (how is that for alleration?) are stalking the stalls looking for a piece of tail? It is a mystery that does need to be explored...but I really don't want to know if that means Mr.3 is going to be continually peeped upon in the men's room, because one of these days he will hit one of them...perhaps Mr.3 should start using the faculty men's room from now on. At least then he would be getting peeped at by someone with tenure.

No idea of what to say....

I am irresistably drawn to blog yet I have nothing of importance or any value (however slight) to comment upon...

Today I was going through a drawer and we found a label maker...and I then spent the better part of an hour making new shiny labels for my hand written labels that I had put in the Zucker Room. and yes, I know I said that I wasn't going to do anything in that room, but I was bored and playing with the label maker was fun...besides if my effienctecy annoys Harris now, just imagine what hand pressed labels are going to do to him?

In other news...and I have been trying really hard not harp on anything with the bug -which I am sure has made me less interesting...my readership has gone down-anyway, there have been 2 students today who have needed to talk to her because there was a problem with their graduation status...as the registrar told them that it had been rejected because of the department...which according to my eavesdropping was a mistake that she admitted to, but you wonder how many students have been denied graduation and don't know it yet...hummmm...

I wonder sometimes if happiness is boring to others...not much seems to go on in my life but I am so happy that I don't really notice that much...is that weird? And I haven't been stressed about money lately either...that is odd as well..I think that I have gotten back to the point where if I can pay my bills then I don't care how much money I have left in the bank...or it is probably more to the fact that I have come to terms with the fact that as long as I have Mr.3 I can handle anything...maybe that is just a psycho statement and I hope that I don't freak him out or anything..I am just so completely happy that when I try to put it into words I just sound like some crazy hormonally whacked out woman or just sickly sentimental.

A summer job I could do without

two or three people in my position ago there was a burn mark made into the conference table made by an iron. I have a goofy cloth that I put on the table to hid the mark. Well today the bug suggested that one of my summer jobs could be sanding down the table and refinishing it...sorry but that would involve power tools of some sort which I do not have in my possession...nor is that something I would ever want to do myself...I think that there needs to be some definite limits on my 'extra' jobs. I have really disolutioned myself with the Zucker Room....and I am definitely not paid to do handyman jobs.

The sad thing is, and people who know me well know this to be true, I have already considered doing it but haven't because of lack of tools...I am actually more annoyed at the suggestion that I do it from someone else.

ridiculous

So I go into the bathroom and there is this girl in there attempting to flush the toilet with her foot...does this seem to defeat the purpose to anyone else but me? I remember, way back when I worked for Discover Card, that there was this lady who would, after using the bathroom, get a paper towel (using the little pull button with her bare hand) to turn on the sink. Then she would wash her hands and use the paper towel to use the dispensor again to get a clean paper towel to dry her hands off with.
problem 1#: The woman in her (oh my god germs thing) manage to contaminate the towel dispenser for all the normal people who clean their hands FIRST before touching the dispenser.
problem 2#: Why the hell would it really matter if your hands touched for a second something that obviously had germs on it if you were then going to immediately wash your hands afterwards...these strange people take a rather straightforward system and ruin it. Idiots!

The Satisfaction of finishing...

well, honestly, the Zucker Room will never really be finished, but for the moment and for my part in it, it is. And it feels wonderful!

I went to physical therapy first thing this morning and I brought extra clothes to work.(Which was smart on my part because I was really sweating!) While I was completely wiped afterwards I still went into the Zucker room to work. I wouldn't sit for more than 30 seconds to do any task, because if I sat I wouldn't get up again. But I finished sorting the books and getting them onto the shelves. All of the reel to reel tapes and stupid class stuff for Hebrew that the Hebrew professor feels that we should store for him was all packed into boxes, clearly marked and put into the storage room. I am not too happy that I had to put stuff back into the storage closet, but since I had recently cleared it all out of crap there was at least some storage space to use. Then I cleaned all the crap off the floor and broke down all of the boxes...it looks great, and if I can only remember to bring my camera to work I can take pictures of it to put up on the web and to send to the Zucker family.

Here is the thing that pissed me off though and also the reason why I am done with the Zucker Room...Harris came in, asks if I had gotten to those 12 boxes of books that he ever so nicely junked up my office with. I told him that they had been incorporated into the book stacks already and that I was almost finished. Then he starts talking about how he is going to need to find all of those books because he wanted to go through them first. Yeah, well, when in the hell is he going to do that?! I am the first person in a long time that has done anything in that room, let alone move the damn room and reorganize the books--all of the books--nothing in storage somewhere...everything is out and in some sort of order, and he has the gall to tell me that I shouldn't have organized them in when that is why he brought all of those books in the office in the first place! Jerk! So the reason why the Zucker Room is finished is because I have done a ton of work in there...work that is "not my job, or anywhere close to being in my job description". And after all of my work I get a comment like that...fuck it! All of the Jewish studies books are in one section of the room but there is no order to them, I had entended to organize those later but I have half a mind to never touch them again...if someone wants them ordered, they can do it themselves! I had also intended to make a database and catalog all of the books, and I had even been in contact with the guy from the College of Humanities to make it a searchable database on the web, but sod that...there are better uses of my time, even if those are doing absolutely nothing.

What I find strange is that trying to keep this place clean is a never-ending task, as soon as I get rid of a bunch of stuff, more of it shows up. It is making me seriously rethink archiving the files because as soon as I clear out space it will fill up again. But I would need to find a task that would really occupy me and I am not sure that I will be able to find one...it is hopeless.

the plight of the Zucker Room

Today I love and hate the Zucker Room. Instead of just doing little things to organize in there I thought that since it is pretty dead in the office that I would just do a BIG reorganization thing in there. And so this is day 2, and I have finished sorting through all of the current books. Harris came in and brought more...now I know that these books have been supposed to have been delivered up here ages ago...and I guess that since I am going through everything, that I might as well go through those at the same time...but I am super pooped and 10 more boxes of books was not what I had in mind.

in other news, I got the results of my cholesterol test back and I am two points into the "high" range. Which is a little depressing...my good cholesterol is high (as it should be) I just need to work on my bad cholesterol which really means that I need to lose weight, big surprise.

the mormons are coming

so in April my boss thought that it would be kind of cool (while he and one of our speakers were sightseeing downtown) to order a Book of Mormon in Arabic...we kept telling him that it was a bad idea but he wouldn't listen. His book is now in and Elder Tyler and Elder Lyle called yesterday so that they can deliver the book to him and "speak to him a moment about God". The last thing we need is missionaries in the office, but if he does set up an appointment for them to come down, I am going to wear by chador to work.

another journey on the path to enlightenment

so either because Katie Holmes is converting or because I was sooo incredibly bored at work today I thought that I would check out the scientology website. I had and still have no clue what it all was about, I might read Dianetics, but that is only partly because Kate said something about them believing about having aliens inside them...not that I want to believe that, but I am willing to make fun of those that do. Anyway, on their website they have this personality test and of course for a full explanation of the results I can always go and visit one of their centers/churches in the local area...according to my preliminary results either they think that (or I think subconsciously) that I am not appreciative of other people...which I don't think is the case, but I think that they make the test results so that you will become worried that you aren't doing something well that you think that you are doing well and come in to visit them....then bam! you and your wallet are sucked into their vortex.

The entire time I was on their website I kept thinking about all of the Kabbalah stuff I have been researching and it goes along with that a bunch of these groups are just giving very rich people excuses to feel good about being rich. Apparently someone, somewhere said that all money was bad, but I do think that it is entirely possible to be a good person and have money at the same time, it is just how you expend your resources....but if Kabbalah is telling you that by just talking to people you don't know (re: any person wanting your autograph or the paparazzi saying look here look here!) you can become a "being of sharing" and a better person, then that is much easier than trying to be a good person...or in scientology were you buy your way to the top...if you make spirituallity too simple, it loses all semblence of purpose....maybe I should write all of this down and make a couple of million dollars being a self-help guru as well.

PT

I went to my second appointment of physical therapy today and all I can say is that I hurt and am extremely tired...I could take a nap right now at my desk. The exercises that they have me do aren't that bad but they add up and up...enough though it was just streaches and stuff I feel like I did an hour workout...which I kind of did...with my co-pay each appointment is only $15 so 15 for an hour with a personal trainer isn't too bad, right?

Yesterday I really wanted mashed potatoes, but the kitchen was dirty and it took me something like 2 hours to clean it, granted I cleaned the Florida room while I was at it, which I didn't do last week... Mr.3 and I ate so many mashed potatoes in the process of making dinner by the time we sat down to eat we were so stuffed we could hardly move...it was rather amusing.

We drove around looking for places to live on Saturday, we saw one place that was lovely and quite upscale...we could afford it if we lived frugally and it is super close to campus so I could walk to work everyday and maybe lose some weight (although when I talked to the therapist about this she looked really worried...maybe my knees are worse than I thought..oh well). But even after seeing the place and waiting and thinking about it, I would be all right living there, but if we didn't it wouldn't break my heart...I might pine for the apartment every once in a while...but all that really matters is if the place is clean and (most importantly!) that I am with Mr. 3.

News...

Well after less than 2 weeks of being on the market the condo was sold yesterday. We have until july 15 to leave. And I think that with all of the anxiety that I had before...I am alright with this. What was giving me the most problems I think was the uncertainty of the situation, but now that I know we have to leave at a certain time, a goal to plan for and around and such, I am much more calm.

I was pretty surprised that it went as fast as it did. The next door neighbor who has been trying to sell his place (the same floorplan as ours) for a year is going to be pissed. And we are already planning goodbye pranks for the complex...it mostly involves leaving a bunch of duck food in specific places. Well, humor is where you find it...

humm...

I feel like I should blog something but I have no idea what, or maybe it is merely that there are so many little things running around my head that I can't pin anything down.

I went to physical therapy for my knees...it wasn't too bad. I would be a hell of a lot healthier if I wasn't a klutz, but I don't think that would help too much at this point.

Jill the realtor called, there will more than likely be an offer on the condo today...and I feel a lot of ambilivence about the situation. On one hand it is the moving panic (packing, moving, the cost, finding a place, affording a place) and then on the other hand I keep trying to tell myself that I need to be calm, closing will take a while and we have 30 days after the close before they can move in and la de da...I know that the ghost of an offer shouldn't panic me, but also I need to focus on the immediate future and plan for it, the last thing that I want to do is move in the beginning of school again, but that looks like what will more than likely happen.

Mr.3 and I went to a lot of different bookstores yesterday and then later in the evening I watched Kill Bill Vol 1 for the first time, so I dreamt last night that we kept looking at books that were getting continually chopped up by samuri swords. odd.

Just when I thought we were doing so good...

I was in the bathroom when the bug came in to find me today because I had a phone call. On the can...in the middle of things...it is a little above and beyound the call of duty (no pun intended) if you ask me.

Missionary Call

Would you believe it? I got a frickin' missionary call from the Kabbalah Center yesterday. For those of you who don't know, I have been writing a paper for a class on pop Kabbalah, and I have been using their website as a resource. So my "student study counselor" yehuda calls yesterday, noting that I had been on their website a lot recently, and had purchased a book or two, and wanted to know if I had any other spiritual questions that I needed help with. So I explained the situation about the paper to him and told him some of my philiosophical problems that I had with their website information...and he then recommended some more books. Which wouldn't be that bad it all of the books weren't trite little things with inadequate explainations of deeply philosophical points. According to him, I would be an advanced Kabbalah student in light of the questions that I was asking...wow...advanced, I am...well...not impressed in the least.

In other news...I have been on a Patrica Cormwell Crime Novel reading spree lately and I was home alone last night finishing the book From Potter's Field. Which was excellent to say the least. When I came home I felt odd to begin with the ability of a realtor maybe or maybe not being in the house...so you never know if someone is still there. Anyway, the combination of the book, the quiet house, and swearing that I heard the upstairs toilet flush (it was probably just the neighbors flushing theirs)...I freaked out. I did a sweep of the house while holding my rolling pin. I didn't grab a knife because if someone was in fact in the house and managed to take the weapon away from me, I think that I would rather be beaten to death then stabbed...a better survivor ratio maybe...

Oh Dear God NO!

So Kate just came back from lunch with "I" to tell me that JB was not only on campus but in the building. She apparently followed them from the Union and into OSH. They think that she went up to the Political Science Department, and it is not known whether or not she will be coming down for a "visit". Either way, my entire system is in a flight or fight response mode right now and I am worried that any second her evil little head might appear in the doorway...

I no like the realtor lady

So this weekend our realtor was driving me crazy! On Friday afternoon she calls wanting to know if it would be alright if we had an open house on Saturday from 1:30-3:30...so besides the short notice, I tell her that my family is coming down, the house will be a mess because of it, and that we will not be able to do it. Her response: Well do you want me to call Linda and see what she says? Ahh...excuse me, I live her, not my landlord and I haven't had any problems in the past with you calling a hour before hand to show the house, one weekend isn't much to ask for...and besides Linda would only tell her that she would have to deal with me anyway...but what upset me was the gall this woman had to even ask that question. I wonder if I am acting or looking younger lately because these types of situations keep arising this week, and it is ticking me off!
But back to the realtor lady she calls again on Saturday morning at 12:30 and asks if we are sure that she can't show the house...ah, the answer still was no. Geez! But of course I have to pump her for information on whether or not she is going to bring a truckload of people through the house or not. Call me crazy but as things keep getting moved about when only one or two people are being shown the house I am a little leary of 20 or 30. I know, it's a thing..but anyway, there it is.

New Blog

The ever so sexy Mr.3 has started a blog, here is the link to A Spook's Corner Barstool

A bit of stress

So yesterday Rebecca asked me what my blog address was in front of June and in the situation I couldn't just not tell her..so both of them heard the address. Part of me really really hopes that she doesn't come and look at the site as I don't want her to be mad about items that I now see as "under the bridge"...I don't want to have to start over, we have made so much progress up until now.

I find that my lack of work to completely occupy my time is causing me a bit of stress...I am not sure if it is because it allows me to think on things or that it makes me feel guilty getting a paycheck for nothing.

We got a much needed check last Friday but the bank has put a hold on the funds until next Monday...the bank verbally told us 2-3 days on the check but the form that they gave us said the 6th. either way we have needed to spend against the check...there is just no way around it. this morning my Mom sent me an email saying that my account was in the red and that I have $40+ in fees. I expected this because I had to deal with it last time. But when others are concerned about it, I guess that I need to be as well.

The realtor thing is bugging me a little...and yes part of it is my absolutely hatred of moving, and while I like the house being clean, it doesn't feel like we live there at all anymore...and this is only after the first few days. to my credit though I did do my cleaning chores last night, so I have managed to keep the place up...if only I could get all of the laundry done.

and lastly my body. I worked out a bit last night and while I have been happy the entire time that I have been gaining the weight, I am not happy with the end result. And my knees won't last much longer if I stay at this weight anyway...so something must be done...if I can just keep it regular I should be ok..and if we ever get the key to the pool I will start swimming more...it is amazing the amount of weight Jimmy has lost because of swimteam, maybe I can hop on that bandwagon.

Mysterious Food on my Desk

Perhaps the easiest way to poison an office would be to leave food on the main desk. After being out of the office for a few hours getting items for Roberta's farewell party tonight, I come back to find a Russian chocolate bar, a box of key lime cookies, a bag of orange cremesicle crunch, and a sucker that says Moab UT on it. I have no idea who gave it to me, and no one in the office knows either...but they were placed in a way that it could only be seen that they were for me...
Strange...but I am going to try the orange cremesicle crunch things anyway... They look like they have been factory sealed at any rate.

Low self-esteem altoid brownies

It has been a week since the meeting with the bug and the AA, and I know that I have been remiss in letting everyone know what happened. Even a week later it is really hard to tell anyone what actually happened. I could tell you the exact word by word blow of the situation, but even that wouldn't quite nail it down.

The important thing is that I did not cry at any moment, but the bug did at least 3 times. She had no idea that she was upsetting me like she was (no surprise) and she really didn't know why I was being so mean to her...and there gets to be this level of how much do you believe that someone is truly oblivious to their behavior and what they do out of spite. Take JB for example...she truly did not care about anyone or anything that couldn't get her ahead in some way. The bug on the otherhand legitimately wants to try to do good, but is misguided in her approach.

2 things really came out in this meeting that surprised me: One, she really likes me, and two, the bug has the lowest self-esteem that I have ever seen in a human being. The pity I feel for her now vastly overshadows any annoyance that she could have cost me.

Her giving me a pet name, hanging over my computer, and all of the things that she does that drives me nuts are her attempts to get close to me. She feels very maturnal towards me and she likes me above everyone in the office, in fact she felt that I was the closest to a friend/family that she has had here. I explained to her that she doesn't need to mother me, we don't need to try to be friends, I just want her to be herself. In the meeting I even gave examples of when she was truly herself and it showed, and that I really like those moments with her. But this comes to another issue, that of after 62+ years, she has absolutely no sense of her own identity. She has always been June the mother, June Barry's wife, June the one in Outreach, June the Advisor...she has never been just June. She worries about her job performace, why people don't like her, why she doesn't fit in, why is she unhappy...she doesn't understand that she needs to go out and find that happiness for herself, it doesn't just fall into your lap. And there is no easy way of finding it. In her mind she has done everything that is expected of her, she got married and stayed married, she raised her children, she helps the household by trying to keep it financially sound, she was a dutiful daughter...and yet she isn't happy. There is nothing in the bible about doing the right things in life and still being happy in the here and now. She needs to divorce her husband. He makes her unhappy and she does the same to him. He manipulates her, he lies to her, and leaves her behind to pick up the pieces of respectability. She needs to leave him, sell their house, and she needs to start out on her own. And while it is easy to tell her these things, ultimately, she needs to find the strength to do it on her own.

This meeting felt very much like a therapy session, and it was focused very heavily on her. That is probably why I am not sure how to feel about the whole thing. Since the meeting we have been on the best of terms, better than we have ever been. I, yes me, have even been defending her to others in the office. She not only let down her guard but she showed me her core. It is a place that I would never want to be in. I have to respect her just for showing me that side of her...and it is really strange when you are let that deep into someones psyche how everything can be forgiven.

Last night, Mr.3, Jason and I gave a short presentation about the Model Arab League to the United Nations Association of Utah. Even though she had told me she would be unable to attend, she showed up anyway...and I guess that now I know how much I mean to her I really appreicate the gesture.

This is not to say in the least that she is serving as a replacement for family in my life. I know that my Mom was worried about that a bit. Rather, my anger has turned to pity and I am allowing her to , well..for lack of a better word, love me. I am sure that this confuses everyone..but I myself still feel in shock about the situation on the whole.

I guess though that I should quickly explain the title...the bug made brownies the other day for the office...an attempt on her part to show regard...anyway she used peppermint oil instead of extract in the frosting mixture and the frosting tastes like altoids...if you eat the frosting first and then the brownie it is pretty good and a little on the adicting side.

A blast from the "Crazies" Past

Ok, some of you might remember a lady that came into the office last year (look at the 7/14/04 post) claiming that her identity was stolen and that the woman impersonating her was out and about on campus...and well anyway, we needed to know that she is the real CIA agent and not this woman. And at the time the story was ridulous and you know, it still is.
So today she comes in, burdened with 3 carry-on luggage cases as opposed to the 2 of last year. Reintroduces herself and asks if we will be having any lectures or conferences this summer. This is the same question that she asked last year, and like last year the answer is the same, no. But she continued on talking about random things about the office (if we had any literature she could take, interesting pamphlets, etc.) and about the Middle East on the whole (oh, isn't just awful about the soldier dying in Iraq...if only we could find a way to leave...), after a few minutes of her talking she gives me this comment that some of the old timers in the office (trust me...they ain't here anymore) would remember her name. And she says this is the way of "don't you know who I am?" Unfortuately, I do remember who she is, she is one of the best all-time crazies that have come into the office...and while she had quite the audience last year (several people heard her speech) I think that she was a little disappointed that only one person was in here today. Well, Ms. Goldstein, you are remembered, but probably not what you have wanted to be for.

hostile work environment

This is mainly in response to a comment on a previous post...I wouldn't say that the work environment at the university is hostile on the whole, I actually love my job and the other people in the office...but it is amazing how one person can affect your entire outlook on work. I hear her door open down the hall and I tense up, my breathing becomes irregular and when she speaks to me it takes a tremedous amount of control to not lash out to defend myself in some way.

Earlier this week when I was talking to our AA, we discussed that it is in both of our natures not to react to conflict...and so nothing becomes resolved. That is why they are forcing this meeting upon us to that hopefully something will be resolved. However, I really don't think anything will come of it, the bug will pretend to listen and take everything to heart, and things might be fine for a week or so and then they will go right back to normal and I will have to be the one to "learn to deal".

I have a little over an hour to prepare for the meeting. Our AA advised us to make notes of what we wanted to say for the meeting and what started as a couple of lines that I thought would only deal with the personal issues I have and not the professional ones that I should be dealing with...it has turned into a mini-epic. But I think that I have it centralized along the same basic theme...it all comes down to respect and truth. Her behavior towards me (the baby talk, the constant looking at my computer screen to watch what I am doing, the lack of listening to me so that I have to tell her something a million times) all shows a lack of respect for me. How can I respect someone who doesn't respect me? And I know that I should try to be above all of that--putting your bias behind and being forgiving and all of that---but I can't anymore. Isil told me once that for someone who annoyed me so much it must mean that I care about her. And maybe that is true on some level...maybe if I didn't care about my job or my fellow human beings that do have some impact on my job...I wouldn't care and I wouldn't be so annoyed. The fact remains however that I am annoyed and I really don't like being as upset as I have been lately.
Back to the respect thing...if I can't respect someone I can't really trust them as well, and I see her doing a lot of things that she shouldn't and in an effort to save my ass, I am defensive about it.

Well I better go and ready myself. The goal is to get all that I have to say out and not cry. I will keep everyone posted.

Dammit!

I am getting sick and tired of dealing with all the bug's shit.
This morning she made a comment to Mr.3 about a problem she was having a student's grade not being posted...Mr.3 not me..I work there, and we are separate people, but she doesn't seem to see it that way. I interrupted their conversation and answered the question for her and she left off on her merry way.
E-grading is my job and last semester we went through this whole thing about it and we are going over it again. Later I sent her an email reminding her that if she had gotten any other questions about e-grading that they should be directed to me, as I am the department representative. It was a calm and professional email. Then she spouts off with this email that was super hostile claiming that she wasn't trying to take my job....but she was! and I have to keep having to remind her about it!!!! I sent her an email back telling her that I was not trying to solict such a hostile email and that I had sent her the email as a follow-up.

I ended talking to our AA twice today and now she wants an meeting to "mediate" between us. Ugh, I know that the bug and I are going to have to confront each other one of these days but I don't want to be forced into it. We are supposed to make notes so that we have something to talk about, where the hell do I start, it will be a fucking novel! So now I still feel super stressed, even though I would like to calm down.

I was really fairly well until I got the AA's email about wanting a meeting.
I met with the grad advisor for lingustics and he doesn't seem to think that it will be difficult at all to get me into the program. So I was in a better mood, now I just want to body slam the bug on her stupid pig-headed head.

Wow and Ouch!

I meant to blog on Friday but when I went on there was scheduled maintainace, and for the rest of the weekend the family was done...plus Saturday I had this whole sinus thing that about killed me.

Well I finally finished my Kabbalah paper, yeah! But Harris said that is "was not a fair reflection of my intelligence" and was going to recommend that Sluglett give me an "I" and that we work on it over the summer. So it was a partly a "wow" he thinks that I am really smart kind of compliment, and then it is also an "ouch" the paper is crap and you should have done better compliment. I thought it was pretty decent, especially as it was a subject that I know nothing about and had to pull 20 pages of it out of my ass in 3 weeks. I don't want an I grade, I really don't. I just want this all to be over with.

Today I meet with the grad advisor in Lingusitcs to discuss my transfer over, I hope that this goes smoothly...

in other news I am just going to smack the bug. The meeting on Wednesday was to establish the "new rules" so to speak. And basically she is to only contact me for stuff by email, but she keeps coming over and asking me to do stuff and then hovering over me while I do it. Like that meeting helped...I keep trying to drop hints as to her send me an email, but it doesn't seem to work.

today is the first day of summer semester and Mr. 3 has a class until 12:05...I have gotten so used to eating lunch at 11am, that I am dying at the moment and feel like I am going to be sick...but that could just be having to deal with the bug today...

My brain is melting...

Ugh, I am trying to finish this paper, but I have need a break in a bad way. I know what I want to say, it is only a matter of putting it on paper. And while I have been able to work a lot on the paper at work today, I haven't gotten nearly as far along as I have wanted to. I hope (fingers crossed) that I can get the writing of it done today and then just work on the revisions for tomorrow and get it sent off to the teacher. But I will by no means stay up any later than midnight to finish this thing tonight. I would like to just go to bed at the normal time, let's hope that works.

I feel a little better today, the previous 2 days I have felt like crud, and have missed work because of it. I hardly worked on my paper at all. And now I just want to finish it and be done, but that's hard when you are a perfectionist.

in other news, I received notice that I will be involved in a ketchup study...they are going to send me 2 bottles of ketchup to sample for the next month and then answer questions about them..I'm kinda excited.

I am the master slacker!!

So I had nothing to do at all today at work, and did I work on my paper...no. Did I think about it...yeah, but I still did not lift a finger, I really need to write but I don't want to...and I still haven't sent a rough draft to Lenowitz. Part of me is considering asking for an extention until Friday (it's due Wednesday) but I wonder if that will make me procasinate longer? Couldn't hurt, could it? I'll see how far I get tonight and make a decision in the morning.

and there was something else that I was going to tell you but I can't remember...it was probably about me procastinating anyway.

Mayonaise Haze

So I made Ranch dressing to put onto my baked potatoes for lunch this afternoon, only to find out that the mayonaise was at least 2 months out of date, leaving me with a tummy ache. For a while I couldn't decide if I was going to be sick or not but taking a nap seemed to help. I had super weird and vivid dreams. We were in a house that was much larger than what we had expected it to be...only a few rooms but it had huge elegant staircases and a couple floors of huge ballrooms. Even though no one had been in the rooms for years, there was no dust and the wooden floors looked like they had just been polished. There was an elevator that looked..

- sorry nookie break -

like a fireman's pole instead of an elevator. I had wrapped myself around the pole but had started to fall and was caught between the floors (between the top floor ballroom and another one that was fifty feet below me), you were able to see the sub flooring which was unusual as it looked like they had a level that they had built on top of. You could see 6 inches of the floor space, and the chairs legs that were there that they just chopped off at the 6 inch mark exactly where the chair had stood. They same went for the other furniture that was in the room. It was very strange...so I woke up from the nap with a horrific headache, dizzy, a stomach that has felt like it has done a thousand sit-ups, and randy as all get out. Strange, but rememdied...

I forgot to tell you something from before...Mr.3 and I hit a new mark in our relationship today...I ran the Mr. Coffee machine this morning, without having him do it, or tell me how much coffee to put into it. Turkish coffee, I have no problem with- as that is really the only type of coffee that I drink on a regular basis- but the coffee machine petrifies me and I think that I overcame it today.

Sunday morning...

So I just sent Mr.3 across the street to go and get a haircut, and I think that this might have been the first time that I have been in the house without him here...well maybe when we first moved in, but either way it has been the first time in months...it is strange, I fell like I should do something rash or silly or whatever as I am in a moment where he isn't around...oddly enough I can't think of anything except making lunch for myself.

So I have done some reading for my Kabbalah paper but have only written a paragraph...I think that I am forming everything in my head. It is such a nice day outside though that I think that I would like to move the whole operation to the back porch, which I might do...except I can't tell if the bugs out there are gnats or mosquitos. It would seem to be an odd time for the mosquitos to be out, but you never know.

Finished!!! For a brief moment...

So I have been working madly on my Turkish paper and I have finally finished and sent it off to my teacher...thank goodness she gave me some extra time. I hope that it is decent, after a while you begin to delude yourself into thinking that you actually have all of the grammar correct, but I am sure that I made a ton of mistakes....

Now, tomorrow, I will begin working on the Kabbalah paper, which I am supposed to have a rough draft into Harris by tomorrow evening...I would work on it tonight but I need a break and want to spend some time with Mr.3 who has been bored most of today, waiting for me to finish. But a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders finishing that goofy turkish thing...if only I could now lose all the knots in my back from hunching over all day...

So I talked to my mom late last night and apparently my little brother has taken a clay snowman that me made for my mom ten years ago and done something with it. He insists that he hasn't touched it, but then as he is denying everything he will give some statement that he knows what happened to it. So my mom was pretty upset and she has devised a plan to punish. She can't charge him for an item of sentimental value but she can charge him for some property damage that he did before we sent him off to "camp" a year or so ago. He has gotten a job for the summer and he won't get to see a cent of it.

In other news, there is currently an Amber alert going on...A mother was letting her fiance babysit her little 3 year old, and apparently the fiance has "relapsed" and started to take heroin again. He apparently was trying to cash forged checks for money earlier today. I know that the mother is having enough worry right now as it is, but what type of mother lets her druggie boyfriend babysit? They is a definite lack of common sense. Let's just hope that the little girl is alright and hasn't been sold for heroin money. What a great mother's day that woman will be having..

Your Birthdate: July 30

Your birthday on the 30th day of the month shows individual self-expression is necessary for your happiness. You tend to have a good way of expressing yourself with words, certainly in a manner that is clear and understandable. You have a good chance of success in fields requiring skill with words. You can be very dramatic in your presentation and you may be a good actor or a natural mimic. You have a vivid imagination that can assist you in becoming a good writer or story-teller. Strong in your opinions, you always tend to think you are on the right side of an issue. There may be a tendency to scatter your energies and have a lot of loose ends in your work. You may have significant artistic talent and be very creative.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Oh so tired...

and I am blogging this morning so that I can keep myself a little active to stay awake.

Mr.3 and I were up late last night, till 2 am, he was working on his paper and I was serving as his uber-picky editor. Today I need to finish my Turkish paper, which I more or less have written in the English, I just need to translate it all over...I haven't started yet, and I really hope that my head will be able to wrap around the grammar.

I have also found that I don't even have the energy to be annoyed with the bug, I think that I have spoken to her, but I am not sure. It's only 9:30 so I am sure that something will change and she will ignite some spark of anger...that might actually keep me going today....

anyway, I am sure that I will be blogging nonsense today so I can keep myself busy, till next time, I'm out.

Curiousity is killing the cat

Well...so far this morning the bug has been doing everything to be the biggest busybody imaginable...even though I have sent her emails (through gritted teeth) that the boss has asked me to send to "keep her informed"...she will call me several times about the same email so that she can check up on me...I keep telling myself to calm down and breathe, but it helps, only a very little...

The bug had her meeting this morning at 10am and it lasted a little longer than mine did. I can't hear very much at all from where my desk is, only when voices were raised, but Mr.3 was working on his paper in the Zucker room and could hear better. The only times I could distinctly hear her voice is when she would pipe up "Well, she did this...and she did that..." and according to Mr.3 it would always be followed by the director or the associate director going "now, hold on a minute, that is not the case..." Mr.3 thinks that it went alright, I am just hoping that it went all right.

There is a student having his oral comps today and of course the bug is making huge overtures to be perfect by bringing expensive treats and such (eventually she will charge this all back to the center anyway). Well she had set up as much as she could before her meeting, and it was about 20 minutes to noon (when the comps were scheduled) and I thought that I would be "nice" and turn on the coffee maker for her...as I said I am trying, I really am. When she came out of the office she wouldn't look at me and wouldn't acknowledge me when I told her that i turned on the coffee for her so that it would be ready...

part of me really hopes that her meeting was a true "come to jesus" meeting (since i have my own cult I don't need to worry), but if I have to deal with the humiliation of being nice to her she should have to be nice to me as well. And I guess that she has probably has taken my "helpfulness" as a sign that that she has "won", but I guess this meeting turned her straight.

Either way, I am annoyed that she isn't "trying" as well...life sucks sweetie, get over it. The curiosity is killing me about what was said in that meeting, and finally I really want to know what she was blaming me with besides the matters that she came to me with...there must have been more because she was in there a long time...and honestly my ego does have a hard time when I find out that someone has issues with me and won't let me know so that I can change them...who knows those issues might be something that I can't really ever change (like the whole being more popular thing)...God I hate this middle school shit...

It's 9:30 in the morning, & I am ready for a drink

So I came to work this morning with every intention of "trying" to be nice to the bug. I was pleasant to her, said good morning and all of that jazz...yada yada yada
And then...

I overhear her in the hallway, complaining to Kate that "someone was in her office and left something on her desk" and she was upset. I was the one who put the "something" on her desk (and it wasn't a pile of poo) which was the STUDENT FILE that she had a student sign and leave for her and a certificate that SHE HAD ASKED ME TO MAKE! And if the stupid cunt had checked her email BEFORE she started to bitch she would have seen that I had told her that I did it...but I think that she would have complained to Kate, just for the sake of complaining, even if she had read the email first.

So now her new issue is "file security" and her implication that by someone (that person being me) that her files are being "violated"....JB pulled this same shit last summer...and the reason is that she feels threatened by me and it trying to start something, anything, to prove that she is morally superior in this situation. The only reason why she is worried about someone being in her office is that they might find her supply of booze and drink it.

When she told Kate this, she just rolled her eyes and told her that if she was worried about the security of her files just to make sure that she locks the file cabinets.

What upsets me is that this was the first thing this morning, and I am finding it extremely hard to be "nice" for the rest of the day. I think that our working relationship would be much better if she just cut the crap and said that she didn't like me being better than her.

The Cult of Delal

So today was the "meeting" between Kate, the boss, and I to discuss the email that I sent on Thursday to the bug...here is the basic gist of the meeting:

1. I apparently am not out of line, but as long as I am willing to be flexible and "try" to work with her, everything should be alright..."I" described this as "incremental diplomacy".
2. I am appreciated at work (not something that I was worried about, but they were worried that I didn't know...please my ego is large enough that I know how I am needed there) but my effeciency is frightening to those who can not compete with me...or rather people like the bug who try to compete with my efficency will fail everytime and be resentful..
and finally the most disturbing...
3. The bug apparently wants to be like me and that all of her annoying traits are just attempts on her side to "soften up" and relate to me. She also just wants me to "like" her. This is something that I might buy if I was a five-year old, but the reality is that you need to add twenty more years to that mentality. Kate gave the metaphor that my desk is the "watercooler" of the office. That I buy. Everyone and everything literally revolves around me in the office and the bug is jealous of that, and is trying to be a part of it.

So what they were basically saying was that I am popular and she isn't and I should put up with her so that I don't crush her fragile ego...all of a sudden I have been pushed back into middle school with a 62 year old dweeb. Of course in Middle and High School I was part of the anti-popular pack -that pack including the jocks and cheerleaders- and was quite active in a multitude of various cliches, but I would have never described myself as "popular" by any means. And here I am, now popular and way too egotisical in my self-reliant "shame" to truely appreicate the precious gift that has been bestowed upon me. It apparently has nothing to do with being a good person, or being natuarally caring, something beyound that leads me to this higher calling...

or, its called being a Leo.

The situation is almost too sickening to be true. Ugh. However I am accepting applications for new priests and converts to the cult of me..

el week-o from hell-o

Where oh where do I begin?

Last weekend the family, Mr.3 and I all went down to Moab, which wasn't hellish at all but a lot of fun, even if my calf muscles were cramped for the next two days and I waddled around like an old person who had soiled their diapers....

Monday and Tuesday can be lumped together, beginning of the last week of classes, and the start of something seriously wrong with scheduling. The bug asked me how easy it was to schedule things (classes) and actually it is very easy, I send an email to the scheduling department and boom, class created. However you can't just schedule a class without some backup information. This summer there was to be a colloquial Arabic intensive course to be offered, however the individual teaching the course got a better summer job, and while the departments were able to get a replacement, the replacement can not teach graduate students. This put out a lot of graduate students. So the bug "apparently" asked one of the senior Arabic professors if he would be willing to offer an independent study course for a couple of the advanced Arabic students...this was approved (or so she told me) and I scheduled it. Next, Tuesday morning, she comes to me and sets up 2 directed reading courses for an undergrad, a total of 6 credit hours, and in the process she mentions that she will change his record so that it counts for a year of Arabic...at this point I am beginning to worry that she is just allowing students buy credits, but she says that it is approved by the professor, so I am ok as I can be. Later that day she calls me on the intercom stating that a student needs thesis hours and we have to set them up right now, with the same professor that she has been scheduling everything else with. At this point I ask her if she has asked the professor, at which point she remarks that the professor doesn't need to know. Wait a sec....he does, even though she insists that thesis's don't get a grade until they are finished, that professor still needs to give the "T" to that student...so I tell her that I will not schedule anything else for her until she really talks to the said professor. Tuesday evening I worried about it and determined that I needed to talk to Kate about the situation.

Wednesday was also the year end awards party for the center...it was crazy in the morning and I had planned on talking to Kate later, however due to a specific event with the bug I couldn't, for fear of crying unnessacarily. There is a paper contest within the department that I entered, I entered it last year as well, and while my position makes the awards for the language awards, I had never had to make any sort of awards for the paper contest. Well, at the last minute the bug decides that we do need to have awards for the contest and that I should make them. Not only didn't I win, but to add salt to the wounds, I had to make the awards. And yes, I know that is small of me to be upset that I didn't win, but she did take delight in making me make the awards..so I was upset about that and instead of talking to Kate about the scheduling problem I wrote her a long email about it.

Thursday: The email proved to be a good thing because it was something that she could take to our boss, and we are going to make a standardized policy about scheduling. I also told her about the bug insensitivites, something that will never change.

So in my position I get to handle all the people who come into the center, all the students, faculty and resident crazies that visit from time to time. The rest of the center is extremely limited in its exposure to the public and I see myself as the primary "customer service representative" of the center. So a little later in the morning, while I was being tortured by some story the bug was telling me, I was happily interrupted by a student coming in to ask questions about the program. The kid introduces himself, has just graduated from BYU and is interested in ancient middle eastern history. I tell him that the bug (standing right there) was the person to talk to about the program, but also that I know from my own experience in the history department (where I got my BA in History with an Ancient Middle East emphasis)that there is not an established program only an emphasis, and then I tell him that the bug will have much more information about the Middle East program for him. She then takes him away. After she is done with him she comes back into my office and accuses me of "advising" him. I tell her that I offered him as much information as I would have offered anyone else, regardless of whether or not she is in the room, and that I was telling him what the HISTORY department does from my own knowledge, she then says that she should be the one to direct him to the history department. Fuck that, and besides she didn't know about the Ancient Middle East Emphasis anyway. But she can't leave it at that, she then accuses me of making her miss deadlines for vital paperwork by scheduling meetings for grad students. These meetings I scheduled were in the capacity of scheduling meetings for our director and scheduling department space...both my jobs, and nothing to do with babysitting her in her job. Apparently the students aren't letting her know when they are having meetings and that is somehow my fault. She actually told me that I do not schedule those meetings, but have to come to her first and that she makes sure that they are done...whoa honey...I don't think so.. She has recently been making students reschedule their oral comps (which are hard enough to get all of the professors schedules to match up as it is) so that she can be there...Which is something that shouldn't be done, it is the students responsiblity to make sure that all of their paperwork is signed, she facilitates that but is not responsible for it. But according to her, I should be responsible if it doesn't happen and that I should coordinate all of my scheduling with her first...she said "I need a secretary here in this office to ensure that my paperwork gets done correctly." And of course after she is done with the inital chew out, she continues to lecture on and on and on. The entire time I keep saying "fine", "fine", "FINE" hoping that she will take the hint and leave before I become overcome with rage and beat her forehead into tabletop. She wound the lecture down with the statement "the problem is that you are just too darn efficient". Is that a problem for anyone but her? It just makes her look bad, but it isn't a problem by any stance.
After she finally left I was holding back tears of rage. I decided that the best thing to do was to write her an email letting her know how things really are. Basically that one, I didn't advise anyone and she knows that, two, I will continue to schedule as my job befits but I will under no circumstances be held accountable for her messing up, and 3 that I am in no way her secretary or subservient, but rather we are equal on the office hierarchy and I resent her condesending attitude and lack of respect for me. I wasn't angry in the letter but straightforward. My mom and Mr.3 said that it was a very proffessional letter, even Kate agreed, as I sent a copy to her before I sent it to the bug.
Once the emails were sent I went to lunch, I thought that I was calmed down but I wasn't, which became apparent when I talked to Kate afterwards and started to cry again. Kate understood and let me go home paid for the rest of the day.

Friday: I worried for most of the night before of the office terror I was causing, but I was reassured by Kate that I had done the right thing and she could tell that it was all coming to a head soon anyway. I assume that "I" was ok with the situation as well, he- a little out of boss character but in line with the fatherfigure characther- gave me a hug before he left for the day. I have a meeting with him and Kate on Monday afternoon and the bug has one on the next wednesday. But that was not what was bad about Friday...Roberta told me that she had accepted a new job at another university, and as she is the only Turkish professor on staff, it basically means that my MA program is all shot to hell.

So there has been a lot of introspection on what I am going to do with my MA program this weekend, introspection and a break-down of sorts that resulted in balling and wailing that should have discouraged Mr.3 but surprisingly didn't....which leads me to the short but good list of things of what went alright/great with this week...

1. Mr.3 still manages to love me even after seeing be completely break down for stupid reasons.
2. I had my Linguistics final and that class is over.
3. I made cookies with Libby today.
4. Saw the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy on Friday evening.
5. Got to feed baby geese as well today.
6. And gave the turtles a bath...

Well now that I have written a novel for you I am going to go back to what I was doing before: trying to figure out how I can get Douglas Adams quotes into my Kabbalah paper. More hopefully tomorrow.

Pee and Coffee

But not in that order.

Last night I went out to coffee with Steph. She and her husband have been having problems, and it was nice to talk. I was hoping that I would be some sort of solace for her, but I think that I was crap at it...I felt like I talked a lot about myself last night and didn't focus enough on her. But I am going to try to spend more time with her.

While I throughly enjoyed the coffee that I did have, my stomach was agrueing with me later that night. I felt kinda sick when I went to bed, but I didn't upchuck or anything.

At about 3:30 Mr.3 got up to go to the restroom, and I thought that it sounded like a good idea so I did the same when he got back to bed. Now I remember thinking to myself that I thought that I had heard him flush the toilet, and thought it was odd that there looked like there was pee still in there. But I went anyway, and then flushed...only to have all of the pee water rush all over my feet. In panic mode I start to dismantle the top of the toilet and get the water to stop, but by then there is pee all over the floor (soaking the bathmat) and the puddle was beginning to rush towards the carpet.

Now amatuer plumbing at any time of night is not fun, but since Mr.3 and I sleep naked this added an extra gross factor to it all. We haven't been able to find a plunger in the house and Mr.3 was using some sort of coathanger apparatus which wasn't working very well...he finally got dressed to go and search in the garage for one...and he did find one, which helped a lot. Meanwhile, I am mopping the pee off the floor, and trying to get all of the pee out of the bathmat in the shower by running water through it. Then there was this horrifying run with the wet bathmat down the hall to the washing machine, at which point I was just covered with pee water. the nausous level was extremely high at this point.

To some extent I was really proud of myself, because I wanted to freak out because I was covered with pee, I wanted to freak out about cleaning up the floor and the carpet, I wanted to yell and blame someone, anyone for the whole situation...but I didn't. I kept it all in, I didn't yell, we didn't fight (and it would have been easy to do so), I didn't freak or throw up (a huge feat in itself)...I did cry a little after everything was cleaned up and we were back in bed, but only a little...and I don't think Mr.3 noticed...he might have, but he did the right thing by not mentioning it. I don't want to be reminded that I am emotional and crying. He did everything right.

After the bathroom was cleaned up (the pee rags in a garbage bag and out of the room, the floor disinfested and cleaned) it was time to clean me. I took a very hot shower and washed with 3 different soaps...and even though I knew that I was clean, I still felt gross and as if I was going to throw up.

Neither of us managed to sleep but between the 4:30 time I got to bed and the 6am alarm clock. I am really out of sorts today, and I still feel sick. I dont' think that it is from this mornings events or the lack of sleep, but due to the amount of stress that I am feeling from school and my stomach from last night.

School wise, we are in the last week until classes end, and I can feel myself shutting down. Not knowing the exact date of when my paper is due, is not helping the situation, because if I knew I would feel like I could plan better, which I really need to do, especially as we and the rest of my wacky family are going to Moab this weekend and I know that I won't get any homework done, nor do I want to. A little rest before the storm should be good for both Mr.3 and I.

And of course...when something interesting happens to you, you tell your friends in the office, which unfortuatley means that someone will overhear...in this case the bug...who has been dropping "I smell urine, do you smell urine" jokes all afternoon. If I wasn't so tired I would smack the smirk off of her face...the urine would still smell better than the perfume she uses to cover up the alcohol when she has her "luncheons".

The height of laziness

I wasn't going to blog about this, but since I have 3 examples of the bug's lazy behavior that have happened in less than 12 hours, I just had to list them.

1. Yesterday while I was at Linguistics class, the bug came and found Mr.3 and asked for help....with removing the spider webs from an office that one of the professors had asked her to do. These spider webs weren't high or out of her reach, just something that she didn't want to do. Now I have to go and talk to her about it. Mr.3 doesn't work there and she has no place asking him to do her work. She has in the past gotten him out of the computer lab to change the water in the cooler, even though I was sitting at my desk and capable of doing it.

2. She comes in this morning wanting to know if we have a class set up and if it isn't she wanted the withheld numbers for it. She keeps ALL of the withheld numbers. Not only was the course set up, but she had already had all of the numbers she needed. So instead of looking in her own office for the information that she needed, she walked all the way down the hall to ask me, just so she could dictate to someone. Good thing that I made a copy of those numbers because she probably has lost them.

3. She also came to me today (a separate trip mind you) to ask for a student's email...SHE KEEPS ALL OF THE STUDENT RECORDS AND THEIR INFO!!! The extra annoying thing was that the student she asked for the information for was the same kid who was taken ill after model arab league...the same kid that she threw a fit about in Kate's office because she felt that we were holding back information on his condition to her. Her reasoning was that he "was her student" and that she is entitled to know everything. Well I am sorry but if you can't even handle the records that you are paid to handle...are you entitled to the information?


Additionally, she keeps coming in here asking if I have seen this professor or the other, which is fine, but when she comes in every 5 minutes for the last hour, it starts to grate on the nerves.

Yesterday there was an article slamming the academic advisors at the university and how bad they are at their jobs. She saw it and told me later that she hoped no one would write about her because in the first couple of months she didn't know her job very well...hate to burst her bubble...but she still doesn't.

Sun Maid Raisins advocating masturbation

Sometimes I really wish that I had the creativity to make stuff up, but the real world is so much more amusing.

On every box of SunMaid raisins is a little saying on the flap--a little like a fortune cookie-- and on my box today was the following (including the italics):

Be yourself;
nobody does you better.

Ok, so maybe I am the only one who sees it. But the second I read it, I immediately started to sing "Nobody does it better" from the James Bond Movie, and one train of thought leading to the other....

the sad thing is that I had to look up masturbation to make sure that I was spelling it correctly, you would think that I would know how to spell that.

Exciting rocket weekend

Yesterday was a rocket weekend. It was Mr.3's first time and of course, on his first time something awful had to happen...my Dad suggested that he might be a jink, but more to the point the fat bastard in the green shirt was his own jink.

Model Rocket engines are explosives, and they range in lettering from A-N. A's are the smallest engines, B have twice the power of an A, C have twice the power of a B and so on and so forth. Well obviously with this amount of power buildup you have to have some form of checks on the system, so once you get up to an H, you have to be qualified. My Dad is a level one (he can shoot H's and I's). There are a total of three levels. Once you get up into the third level you are allowed to do experimental rocket engines, and for this I think that more should be done to qualify these guys...a remedial phyisics class might be a good start. So yesterday this fat green shirted guy had 4 launches, out of those 4, 3 misfired in some ways. 2 of those misfires were with using experimental liguid fuel, and one of those misfires almost killed someone.

With this particular rocket, it had a liguid gas tank, so they had to wait for it to fill and then it would go off. You could tell when the rocket was ready to launch because he would begin waddling very fast away from it. So the rocket goes off, between 200 and 500 feet up, the nosecone explodes off and the rest of the rocket begins to barrel towards the ground like it's a projectile missle, towards the cars. Specifically towards my car, when it got close I closed my eyes, so I didn't see it land, but I definitely saw the aftermath. It didn't hit my car, but the one next to it, a suburban, and it hit straight through the windshield into the driver's side window. Once everyone got past the "whoa" factor of it, they went to the "oh shit" factor as there were people in the car, in the front seat. The boy sitting in the front seat, which the rocket went through, was luckily turned to the side playing on a game boy. If he had been sitting normally, the rocket would have taken off his leg. The dash board was ripped off, the carframe was bent because of the shock, and they had to disengage all of the electronics (that still worked) in the engine as the stupid rocket still had some of the hydrogen fuel in it.

Unfortuately, this was the one time that I didn't bring my digital camera, but when I get the photos from Mr.3 or my mom, I will post them. The suburban was completely totalled. Thank goodness that it didn't hit my car, as it would have impaled it to the ground. Luckily the boy and his mother who were in the front seat were all right but it could have been much worse.

The fat bastard did do the right thing in the end as he gave the rocket to the family. That is only fair, you destroy a car with a rocket, the owner of that car should get to keep it. Of course, this didn't dissauge the guy from trying another rocket with the experimental fuel...this one went up a 100 feet, misfired, took a sharp right turn, again heading towards the cars but went past them towards the highway. Somewhere between the cars and the road it exploded and no one was hurt and thankfully no more property damage.

The family whose car was destroyed were pretty cool about the whole thing. The father had quite the time explaining to his insurance agent that a six foot rocket had destroyed his car, but there are plenty of pictures and video of the incident to back him up. The Model Rocketry Club HAD prided themselves on not having any accidents...well I guess this messes up their perfect record didn't it?

Gaying up Elmo

So, oddly enough, there were several stories about Sesame Street in today’s news.

Item #1: Elmo in Japan is all about “emotions”. Wasn’t tickle me Elmo touchy feely enough? Apparently, since literacy rates in Japan are at 100%, they decided that Elmo needs to teach little Japanese children how to cry. Which I guess is good since they have a habit of being emotionally remote with all of the Japanimation stuff that they watch. They have a whole generation of children killing children , I doubt that making them learn to cry is going to be that much of a preventative measure...a lot more would need to be done.

Item #2: The above article mentions the great strides that the Sesame Street in the Palestinian/Israeli areas have been making. I find it odd that they sort of forgot to mention the latest upcry on the segment recently where a little muppet character was saying that he wanted to kill the Israeli’s with an AK-47. I am still trying to find the clip for you, but that is good family fun, I tell you.

Item #3: I have been hearing about this for a while, but it sickens me just the same. They are going to make the cookie monster push healthier foods. Come on! He is the COOKIE MONSTER! He eats cookies uncontrollably, that is his function. I don’t care that the obesity rates for children are increasing, it is probably because they are watching too much television programming that is educational in nature. When I was little, I went outside to play because I didn’t want to watch the soap operas with my Mom when all of the educational children’s programming was over. But now with 24-hour cartoon networks—which I personally love—kids don’t have the impetus to leave the couch and it doesn’t sound like parents are making them. It is the parent’s fault, why are they punishing the cookie monster? Does this mean that next they are going to try to get Oscar the Grouch a respectable job and shower because he lives in the garbage like a bum?

And lastly, but not in the news, why is Sesame Street on at midnight on Sundays on the BYU run PBS station? Can’t they just run more re-runs of Laurence Welk or Perry Mason to make up the space…that is unless they are trying to cater to the druggie crowd who would be fascinated by the show at that time of night.

So now, I am a bathroom attendent

apparently.
The bug came in a few minutes ago to let me know that the third stall in from the left is without toilet paper. This is definitely not my job.

In other news, a couple of professors have brought in entire books that they would like copied. I have one left, but still 240 pages left to go. And the book was originally typed on onion paper and the ink keeps staining my fingers. So in order to stave off boredom and not get too dirty, I have been copying for a half hour, then taking a break to answer email or in this case blog. I think that I will be able to get it finished by today.

Oddly enough it really feels like Friday.

Best quote of the day from a prof. "Do you have any pasties, I mean post it thingys?"

Ants, like terrorists, are everywhere.

Recently at the office we have developed an ant problem, a problem that marches from down the hall and around the corner.

Last week we, scratch that, I called facilities and maintainance to come down and stop them. At first they tried to tell me that it was a "department matter" and that we had to handle it on our own. They pull the "department matter" all the time on us, mice I can sort of understand, ants on the otherhand, especially when a trail of them can be followed through multiple department spaces is not a department matter but a building. So the head of custodial, Alex--a really nice guy, came down and vaccumed up the ants (they make a funny little thwack sound when they hit the hose) and mopped a solution of amonia to throw them off of there own scent. I guess that worked for only a couple of days because yesterday they were back. Now I didn't see them, but the bug did, and was freaking out. But freaking out in that way that you know she will never handle it on her own because one: she's too lazy to, two: she's too lazy to, three: if she did something productive for once the earth would implode in on itself, four: it gives an opportunity to attempt to boss someone around-mainly me-which she lives for, and lastly five: she's too lazy to. So I went out an bought a can of Raid.

this morning Alex came back, having seen them in the hallway, and vacuumed them up (thwack, thwack, thwack again) and then I sprayed after. Thank heavens that I got the unscented type, because otherwise I would be really dying, as it is all the doors are open and I am wishing that I had a fan. I am hoping that I will not have to keep on the ant prowl, but I suspect that there is a huge colony in the courtyard outside and that they are infiltrating the building through the foundation.


I sent out an email to everyone in the center warning them about the ants. Mr. 3 said that the "stay vigilant" email sounded like a Tom Ridge ad, but it was an oppurtunity to write the word "doom" in an office email in a context that would not raise any eyebrows. Which any day that you can legitmately do that, it a good day.

Staff Cafe

Every month a different department in the Huamnities college puts on this thing called "Staff Cafe" where they bring treats/breakfast for all of the office staff of the various departments. This month was our turn, and Kate put me in charge before I left for Nationals. I sent out an email asking for ideas, and got little. Last Friday, however, as I am working on a menu and the "activity" that somehow seems required, the bug calls me and begins to tell me all of this stuff she was getting ready for Staff Cafe to hold a Persian New Year thing. At that time I told her that "as the organizer this is news to me." Which promptly spawned an "oh." from her and I thought that was that. I told her that I appreciated her idea, but to hold off on doing anything until Monday when I will have decided what we were going to do.

Monday comes, and I get this great idea from my Mom. And basically it was a dress-up type of thing with a traditional middle eastern breakfast. It worked really well, watching Rebecca running around in my abiya was very amusing, and everyone liked the food. However, back to Monday, the bug came up to me and told me how she was contiueing to work on the Persian Neu Roz thingy. At that point I flat out told her that I didn't like the idea and we weren't going to do it. I did justify myself, I told her that if we had Persian new year that I would want to do Kurdish new year, and then I would want to research other new year's celebrations so that we wouldn't leave anyone out and that would make it too big. She was angry and stomped off in a huff. She later told Kate that she felt she had "stepped on my toes", really...rocket surgeon that one.

But as today was such a wonderful sucess, there is an added aura of accomplishment of letting the bug know that we/ I can handle things just fine without her interfereing.

mama quacking orders 

being herded by mama 

coming out from their hiding places 

Duckies!!!!

Wow, last one for today and I think that I am caught up.

The ponds in the condo complex that I live in have now gotten BABY DUCKS!! and they are the cutest things in the world to watch. I am going to post a few pictures of them so you can goosh over them too.

Baby talking bugs

On Friday I bought bagels for the office. The bug comes in, late, as usual, and sees me eating a bagel. At which she replies "so ewe got a widdle bagel?" I guess that I haven't noticed it, but she baby talks to me all the time. She even calls me (give me a second, my stomach just lerched) "debbydo" (shudder, ugh). She was excited when I told her that there was some for all in the break room, but I really really resent the fact that if I eat anything at my desk (and seeing that to make up for classes the majority of my lunched are at my desk) that I should be made to feel guilty that I am not "sharing" with her. I am not in fucking kindergarten and thankfully she is not my mom.

Another thing that she did on Friday, besides not understanding that we do not have the authority to kick people out of the computer lab, was that she wanted to know if my computer had a floppy disk. Rather than listening to me, she comes BEHIND my desk (the tower is at my feet) to check. Not once but twice....hello personal space.

But apparently the husband is back again and won't talk to her to let her know if they are going to get any money from this "deal" that he has been working on for months...it is good to know that her husband is punishing her with his presence. There is justice.

Orange Pee Stains

There is a lot to catch up on since I haven't blogged in 2 weeks.

A fallout that resulted from National MAL is that one of our delegates became sick, really sick. Let's refer to him as "L". Anyway "L" doesn't fly very well. On the way to DC I held his hand to calm him down. And he has a history of becoming really ill on flights, so ill once that they had to do an emergency laid. Well on the way back he was taken ill on his layover in Detroit with a 104 fever, I am not sure of the details surrounding it, but somehow he was taken to the emergency room in Detroit.

It took a few days to find out what he finally had (and consequently a lot of phone calls with the DC dept. of public health, the Detroit dept. of public health and the Utah dept. of public health--yes, besides being team mom, I also got to be the public health coordinator). His disnogisis was (and I will spell it wrong) meningicoccle meninigitsis. We still don't know if he is going to pull out of it, but he has survived some of the basis time-lines that doctors didn't think that he would pass, so it is looking up.

Now, here's the rub, with a contagious diease such as this, making sure that everyone who needs to know about it know and those that don't (like the press) don't is a very difficult job. The Chrony (the school paper) picked up on the rumors and published them (even without being able to verify their facts). They had him with the wrong dianogsis, the wrong hospital...they even made up quotes from the Dean of Students who had told them "no comment"...he is a little mad. The papers have picked it up as well as some of the local stations now, all using the same information from the Chrony. And all I want to do is write a letter to the editor (who incidently was the one who wrote the article in the first place) condemning them for disgraceful reporting. Kate won't let me, but that doesn't supress the desire to do so.

So most of the team got put on preventative antibiotics, which were kinda fun..they turned all secretions orange...pee, tears, spit...you name it. They told people that if they wore contacts that they should not wear them for a while as the antibiotics would stain them orange. So it was kinda neat...but the really good thing is that both Mr.3 and I are safe. When I hear more about "L" I'll let you know.

MAL Nationals

So the last week of March/first of April I was in DC for the National Model Arab League Competition. The short version of the story was that we won, the long...we won big time! 3 Outstanding delegation individual awards, 1 honorable mention delegation award, and overall Outstanding Delegation award for the school on a whole. If I hadn't been so caught up in the politics of what was going on I would have been crying for my babies.

The politics this year were horrible. The southeast regional was 2 weeks prior and apparently it was hell, so everyone who had gone to that one came to this one hostile, and it infected the whole model.

As Chief of Staff I got the bums rush so to speak. When they introduced the "senior secretariat" I was never mentioned, which meant that a lot of people didn't know that there was someone legitimately in charge of the copy room. The copy machine itself was incredibily slow, as it wasn't really a copy machine but one of those copy, print and scan things. It was very high quality, but not meant to handle the volume of copies that it needed to. I was also in charge of resolution packets, which under normal circumstances is alright, but the National council took away my Vice-Chairs, leaving me to format all of the resolutions and admendments. I managed to keep up until Friday till almost 4pm (please note that the model sessions ended that day at 5pm and that was when everyone was supposed to help me put packets together) and of course, every council decided that they needed to railroad as many resolutions as possible into that last hour. At 5pm it hit me that I wasn't going to be ready and I cracked, discretely excusing myself to cry in one of the vacant council rooms. Part of the problem was that I was exhausted, hadn't eaten enough, etc. The day prior I worked with no lunch/dinner breaks etc from 9:30 am to 2:00 am, and starting again on that Friday morning at 8:30 working still with no breaks until almost 8:30 that night.

One thing that I did enjoy was that Mr. 3 and I spared no expense for whatever we had time to do. There were several nights just hanging out in the Watergate Lobby drinking heavily. It was expensive (over $100 in alcohol alone) but worth it.

While I still feel sick at all of the politics that happened (and I am only mentioning a faction of the crap that happened) I am optimistic for next year. And I was named as Assistant Secretary General for Nationals. A lot of the things that I had issues with this year will be changed, I guarentee that.

A lament for the cent symbol...

Where or where did the cent symbol go on the keyboard? I suspect that the sneaky @ sign took it's place...but it is even gone from the insert symbol menu! Was this a case of puncuation extermination? What has the world gone to? Does no one value the importance of a single penny!!!???

It's a sad sad day for the keyboard.

Another thing that was sad today was that the bug decided to give everyone "Spring" gifts. She planted hyacnith blubs in those large coffee mugs to be cute. But the reality was that it gave her something to do to avoid her husband. And of course, you must accept..there is no way out of it...a deal from the devil that proper office ettique forces you to subject yourself to. I have no idea what to do with this thing. Transporting it home is going to be a pain.

And yet another sad sad thing is that today being Good Friday, and in the bugs attempt at being a 'good Catholic', she is fasting and abstaining for today. And while that has prevented her from eating any food off of my desk, it still hasn't prevented her from reaching for the said food, remember that she is supposed to be fasting, and complain about it. And the worst amount of complaining was at 10 in the morning. She must have given up because I saw her eating a cookie and drinking some tea a little while ago. Anyone who has survived multiple Ramadans understands how difficult it is to fast and that anyone who is complaining that early in the day needs to be smacked. But of course this is the same woman who leaned on my shoulder last Ramadan, asked me about it while eating a doughnut; the crumbs of which landing on my face and shoulders.

Do you know YOUR mom's name?

So yesterday I was at a lunchoen for Judith Kipper, who spoke at our lecture series, and the bug took a message for me while I was gone. On the message it read "Your Mom called, change on plans, call her at home". Simple message right? Well apparently she didn't think that it was because she wrote my Mom's name down just underneath the message and drew an arrow from her name to the word "mom". Like I don't know what my own Mom's name is. Come on, really, I ask you.