Conundrum, dum-dum...

Things are about to get...interesting. I won't delve too much or linger on the needless details here, but I'll just say I had a completely unproductive meeting with HR just a little bit ago about the position I hold and the duties and level of responsibility inherant to said position. What it seems to boil down to is...
A) I have the same work load and level of responsibility as several people in higher level positions but make at least $10,000 a year less on average
B) I have been doing this work - and then some - for a year, and the skills that allow me to do this job (which few people here are either interested in or remotely qualified to do without a lot of training) have been largely self-taught (formal training is almost non-existant here)
C) I can't expect a "promotion" into the job I am technically doing now until I have been doing this same job for at least six more years OR I get a four year degree

I do not posess a Bachelor's degree. I have no interest in sacrificing what little time I have available to spend with my young son in order to struggle for the next several years to attain a Bachelor's degree. The equivalent in work experience in order to qualify for the title of this higher level position that most closely associates with the duties and work I am currently performing - according to HR - is about 6 or 7 years (six months of experience subsituting for every year of the 4 year degree, plus at least three years "equivalent work experience").

I am being told that potentially, there is nothing anyone can do about the "system" that has caused this.

Yet somehow, someone who used to work in my area recently got a promotion and signifigant pay raise for a position that wasn't even advertised and that they don't even have the required work experience for.

From now on:

In honor of the debate tonight (live from my back yard!), I've been listening to politically themed music all day. I must have heard "James K. Polk" by They Might Be Giants about twenty times today.

I'm watching the debate. So far Guiliani and Thompson are complete and utter fail. Romney is kind of smug, so I'm not sure how I feel about his points (plus - he's rabidly anti-abortion). McCain is relying on Republican's nationalistic bent to secure votes....booo. So who is left - Paul and Huckabee?? Paul just said he'd consider reforming the DOE and IRS. Has Huckabee even fielded a question. I HATE the YouTube format. Hate hate hate!

Edgy like a suburban mallrat

I got a phone call from my sister this evening. She'll be 14 next month. She called to tell me what she wanted to get my son for Christmas. The she proceeded to talk to me for a while about a bunch of things that I can barely remember...her friend who shops at Hot Topic and listens to Panic! At the Disco and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and various and sundry other bands on heavy rotation on Steven's Untitled Rock Show...Some book she saw in a Books A Million in Tennessee that she couldn't even remember what it was about by the time she went to tell me about it (you should ask her to tell you a joke sometime)...What kinds of chores she'll have to do to earn the money to buy her nephew a Christmas present. You know what sticks out the most, though? The fact that she shops at Wet Seal and wears a size 1. I never fit into the clothes at Wet Seal at age 14, let alone fit into anything with a tag reflecting a number that low. The last time I could wear a size 1 from any store? Elementary school - maybe. At least she finds the proposition of shopping at Hot Topic abhorrant and thinks her friend's "screamo" bands are loud and annoying. This means she's nothing like me at her age. My mother can consider that a dodged bullet.

There is a Republican debate scheduled for tomorrow about a block from where I work. They had this CNN outfit staked out in our visitor parking all day to get "voter reaction" to all of the "issues" facing voters in the upcoming election. Never saw more than two people talking to all the young, energized CNN staffers skulking around looking like flesh-starved beasts ready to pounce on the first meaty disenfranchised, apathetic non-voter to make the mistake of looking them in the eye.
There's been a little bit of controversy locally, because there were advocates for the local homeless population that wanted to protest the debate, and they were encouraged to move to a location that was not on city property. The protest is actually to bring attention to whatever their issue with the services the city and county government might be providing that doesn't meet their needs or expectations - this time it seems to be that the shelter being built is not located in the proverbial "heart" of town and the homeless population (or rather, their politically motivated "advocates") believes this will render the local homeless population "invisible".

The city put barracades up and have police standing by to make sure no one crosses the barricades. Now the protestors (made up of what looks to mostly be homeless people from downtown) are camped out across the street. In front of the Barnes & Noble. Which is next door to the Hilton.

So if you watch the debate, that's my town...in all its dubious glory.

Do svidaniya

The remains of the last members of the Russian Romanov family may have been discovered.

From an article posted on AOL News:

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Nov. 25) -- On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land -- here unfolded the final act of one of the last century’s most momentous events. A short way through a clearing, toward a cluster of birch trees, the killers deposited their victims’ bodies, which had been mutilated, burned and doused with acid to mask their origins...
Eleven people were said to have been killed that day in July 1918 on Lenin’s orders. Just nine sets of remains were dug up here and then authenticated using DNA. The remains of the czar’s son and heir, Aleksei, and one daughter, whose identity is still not absolutely clear, were missing.

(Read the rest of the story...)

The identity of the mystery daughter, as has always been speculated, might be that of youngest daughter Anastasia. There have been countless women claiming to be Princess Anastasia - none was ever confirmed. It was doubtful, despite romantic rumors, that fragile Prince Alexei - being afflicted with hemophilia - would have survived. The remains of the previously confirmed members of the royal family were buried at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg in 1998.

(Photo by Sisse Brimberg from National Geographic.com)

On a barely related note (barely meaning "hardly at all"), if fashion and "lifestyle" magazines are to be believed, it looks like matroishka dolls and Russian folk art (think black lacquer and faberge) are the next hot thing in home decor...and I couldn't be more excited. Just remember - you heard it here first. Unless you read In Style. In which case, you just got confirmation of a pending design trend here...first.

Terminal velocity increases with mass

I can't believe how long it has been since I updated this thing...

What have I been up to? Lets see...

I had a sick child for the span of a long weekend.

Went to a PirateFest (like a RenFair, except more gay - and less pirate than assorted Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves). M and I battled to the death via some swordplay. I lost. Short people never win at anything that requires reach and dexterity.

M and I saw Tori Amos in concert - expensive tickets, but worth it due to the amazing light show and incredible atmosphere. There were two seperate sets that required a costume change. During the first set, which Tori performed as one of her alter-egos, she unexpectedly humped the stage and flicked off the audience. Things settled down for the second part of the show. Of course, half the douchebags in the theater - and especially in my row for whatever reason - didn't seem to give a flying crap about how much the tickets cost or the possibility that others might have wanted to actually see what was happening on stage, since they were constantly getting up and getting drinks, or just disappearing altogether after they obstructed my view and stepped on my feet for the fourth freaking time in half an hour. It's a sit-down show, people! Have a little courtesy for the people who came to actually SEE THE SHOW! Also, the ass who decided to wear the ever-classy "MILF Hunter" shirt to the show...I wish the Earth would just swallow you up to spare the rest of humanity your ridiculous hipster sense of retarded "irony". Stupid is not the same as clever. You get no points. This goes double for the idiot girl accompanying you to the show who obviously didn't have a problem with you leaving the house looking like an adolescent.

Thanksgiving was spent with the in-laws. It was relatively drama free. I made the turnips. My sister-in-law taught my son about gravity by showing him how what goes up must come down. I introduced him to velocity by explaining that if what went up came down through Grandpa's car window, someone's hand would be making contact with his hiney.

(....................Caught red handed!)

I got whatever my son had last weekend, but to a lesser degree. I've been feeling like dreck for days.

I've been reading a lot, and avoiding the internet. Yesterday I finished A Christmas Caroline by Kyle Smith. Last week I finished Capital Crimes by Jonathan & Faye Kellerman. Tonight I am working my way through Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (I've been working on this one a while - keep picking it up and putting it down).

Last week I *finally* watched the fourth Harry Potter movie. Didn't care for it, except that there was a decent amount of Fred and George. Hermoine and Ron were especially annoying, which was...annoying.

I watched Children of Men earlier tonight. I always meant to read the book before I saw the movie, and I'm now glad I didn't see this in the theater. Don't get me wrong - I really think this is a great movie (and - it has Clive Owen in it!). But the bulk of the story is incredibly bleak and dystopian and I would have left the theater pretty depressed because of the ending. I still might read the book, just to have read it.

I refuse to talk about work. I refuse to acknowledge that there even is a work until Monday morning.

Coming up is the annual SnowFest (as close as we get to the stuff is having shaved ice trucked in), and I venture to M's neighborhood to see Colin Mochrie (from the improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?). Two days after that I get a root canal and crown. So, uh, yaaaay?

Step lively! We can't afford to dilly-dally, we're on a tight schedule

The end of my week has been a real pisser. Between the news of necessary tooth pulling and the non-stop drama and scheming that's been going down at work the last couple of days, I just feel like turning my back on all unwanted annoyances and trying to get past the static. Unfortuately, the biggest unwanted annoyance pays my bills, and I like having a roof over my head. To add to all of my anxiety over my workload, and my pending tooth surgery, and my fianances, this morning as I was walking out the door to go to work I got a phone call from my son's before & after school program saying that he had just thrown up all over himself. Christ on a stick - his dad had just dropped him off no more than twenty minutes before. So now, I'm at home with a kid who thinks that he feels so much better (of course!) and now it is time to play, and I'm thinking about all the work that is now backlogged and all of the demands that have been coming before the things I really need to do. I am supposed to have a very important meeting later this afternoon, and I needed this morning to prepare for the meeting. So I'm screwed. Frustrating. I may even have to go in on Sunday (man, my husband is going to kill me for even entertaining that thought), just to catch up.

This weeks motto has been: The work keeps piling up and survivors are aimlessly wandering about...Oh, the HUMANITY!

Pictures with Santa and plans with M are what's on tap for tomorrow. She bought the little guy some costuming elements in the theme of the event we're going to as a surprise, and I greatly appreciate that. We've got the Tori Amos show next week (and I apologize for not being more hyped up about this, by the way). And I've got five days off coming up (not that I can really afford to take the time after the week I've had...). So for now, I'll focus on the holiday break to get me through. Deep breaths. Deeeep breaths.

No thanks, I'm trying to quit

Today I went to the dentist. Would you like to know exactly how long it has been since I've been to the dentist? Well, then...let me tell you: ten years. The last time I went to have my gaping maw poked with sharp instruments and prodded by latex-clad fingers was when I still lived at home with mom and dad. Before you silently judge me and internally go "erwwwww" over my lack of regular tooth maintenance, understand that for a very long time I did not have dental insurance coverage. And now that I do have coverage, I have decided that some things just cannot be put off any longer out of fear of discomfort and pain. And boy is there going to be pain. It seems that a root canal is in order. Several years ago I managed to break a molar on a singularly damnable Skittle (and Skittles have been banned from my candy consumption repetoire ever since). The filling in that molar stayed intact, but the broken part created a space ripe for the development of a new cavity, which seems to be getting mighty too close to the nerve. Hence, the need for an insanely expensive (even WITH dental coverage) root canal and crown. Add to that the fact that my wisdom teeth - that a dentist back those many years ago told me would probably never be a problem for me - have "erupted through the soft tissue" (sounds sexy, eh?), so now it looks like I will be having surgery to have them extracted. The dentist says they'll probably have to surgically remove bone in addition (!). I got the referral paperwork today, but I was told it can be deferred a little bit in order to take care of the broken tooth situation...and reassess my finances to figure out how to pay for it without having to sell a kidney. Other than those two things, the dentist said everything else looked fine for being a dumbass and totally ignoring my oral health. There's a nugget of a cautionary tale hidden in that story somewhere. I'd point it out to you if my mouth didn't hurt so bad.

So as if my day wasn't bad enough, when we got home this evening the cat had puked all over the den. I swear she's the Paris Hilton of the cat world: demanding and bitchy, acting like the world revolves around her every whim and desire, and totally unable to keep from purging her dinner. Actually I think she's a little smarter than her human counterpart, though. And not nearly as slutty, either.

Dropping the Hobbit like a bad habit

Okay. That was shamelessly awful headline composing, but I just couldn't help myself. According to the NY Post's Page Six (no mere grain of salt needed here), Evangeline Lilly (also known as the often semi-clothed Kate - aka"Freckles" - from Lost) and Dominic Monaghan (Charlie, the formerly kind of annoying ex-junkie rocker with a heart of gold, known to many Lost fans as "The Hobbit") are done. This has been reported before. It is also totally irrelevant to anything important. I just figured I'd take the opportunity for M and myself to make hobbit jokes.

Annnd...GO!

An open letter to Shia LaBeouf

Oh, Shia, Shia, Shia...Once upon a time, you were all over the glossies stating how you were above all of that drunken party-going that the skanky starlet set has made pretty much the standard over the last few years. You acted as if you were more level-headed and adult and played up how average and boring your life was and how you just liked to stay home for a lovely night in with friends rather than wallowing in your own fluids in some back alley in The Valley. But then, news of your arrest for late-night trespassing in a Walgreens bursts forth from the internet. For shame, Shia. For shame! Under the influence and belligerent - at a Walgreens? Of all the places to be proven to be a hypocrite (or to pull a stunt to make sure the new Indiana Jones movie you'll probably have sullied with your mere presence gets some free publicity). Did you really need this kind of press? Were you just not getting enough scripts thrown in your direction...I mean, how many movies were you in last year? It was about twenty or so, wasn't it? If it wasn't it sure as hell felt like it. Thanks for living down to my expectations and confirming my opinion of everything that's wrong with "young Hollywood". So stay the course, Shia. It's all downhill from here. I can't wait to read about your failed stint in rehab.

Sincerely,

Not Much of a Fan Anyway So No Big Loss, Probably

P.S.: I love your mugshot on The Smoking Gun, by the way! You look like I felt when I read about your arrest. And you have the second most annoying name of actors in the news recently. But if you decide to hit someone with your car (and preferably that someone would be holding a camera at the time), you'd jump to the number one spot above Keanu Reeves. We all need goals, so there you go.

Killing me not so softly

I hope everyone's Halloween was a blast and I'm really looking forward to the upcoming holidays, but I just have to ask: Is this year over yet? It's just dragging in some spots, then in others it zooms right by me. I'm tired of marking time using employment milestones. I've started to think of them more as millstones, anyway. My job just gets more choc-full-o-crap with every day that passes. Last week there was an article in the paper that threw a big, shiny spotlight on the inequitable hiring and salary practices here, and yet it seems to be a hush-hush event. Lots of whispering and furtive glances around corners, but no forthright information from the higher-ups. It would be nice if someone would at least try to allay our concerns. But I guess pretending that no one has concerns seems to be working just fine for our management. Their mindset seems to be the old standard "The beatings will continue until morale improves" routine. Meanwhile, my boss's door is closed for the majority of the time he is even occupying it and I don't find him approachable or supportive in the least...I have someone who is not my boss (and who is kind of annoyingly clueless yet acts like the authority in everything) deciding what my job is or will be (whatever it is, it certainly IS NOT what I have been doing for the last nine months with no compensation, that's for sure)...and one of the other grunts called me yesterday to discuss the fact that his workload doesn't match his pay (Ha! Join the club, sport!!), since someone who does considerably less than he does just got promoted with an accompanying raise as "a gesture" as my boss put it (the person who got the unwarranted promotion had threatened to quit before - actually followed through with it once than came running back days later to ask for the job back, and isn't even that good at their job...hey, speak of the devil - probably calling to ask how to place an on-line order with a credit card - AGAIN!). Some days it just doesn't pay to be Answer Girl. And on Monday our new "receptionist" came to ask me why it seemed like the old "receptionist" (now working in another department) didn't like her. We had to have a little sit-down so that I could explain that our former co-worker was an overly-ambitious child who didn't have time for peons such as us since we were of very little use or consequence to someone of her status. It goes doubly because we're not men and can't be manipulated through flirting. I think I probably put it more nicely than that, but that's the gist.