Living life a quarter mile at a time

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people. ~W.C. Fields


I spent an hour earlier this afternoon watching the Kentucky Derby pre-race coverage that involved constant cut-ins to interviews with "celebrities" walking a press juncit. The interviews consisted mainly of some annoying, condescending interviewer that reminded me of a slightly less gay Ryan Seacrest clone asking clueless people of dubious levels of fame about their hats or their race picks. An amazing number couldn't even name a single horse running today. (I'm personally pulling for the filly, Eight Belles.) Precious little time was spent actually profiling the horses and jockeys that would be participating in the race. Instead, we had constant pandering to America's national cultural obsession with celebrities, which caused me to reflexively change the channel. You'd have thought this was a crappy movie premier, not one of America's most historic horse races.

I'm also annoyed that the Derby seems to be sponsored by the Yum Brands fast food company. During one of the advertising breaks, they aired a commercial stating that KFC was the fastest growing restaurant chain in China. So, the West has finally found the way to defeat Communism, and it's not military might. It's actually obesity and type 2 diabetes. A few more years of subversively introducing the best (worst?) that capitalism has to offer, and maybe that old joke about having "more Chins than China" will have to be changed to "less chins than the Chinese".

Update: What a sad ending to that race. Really tragic, actually. She ran a good race.

On a brighter note, my son is much better after suffering from a virus late Thursday night into Friday. I had a really stressful day scheduled for yesterday, and waking up at 3 am (to take care of the kid, as well as clean and sanitize the bathroom), then again at 5:30 am, and again at around 6 am really took its toll. But at least my husband was willing to stay home, so that I could pick up the coffee I'd ordered and deliver the food that I'd bought on Thursday to the morning meeting that had been planned for weeks. A manager had the group thank me for making sure they got fed (and had the meeting at all - I planned the whole damn thing), but my boss didn't even acknowledge any of it. But he sure did eat the pastries and drink the coffee...
(Update: My boss sent me a thank-you letter for my part in organizing the meeting. I think the other supervisor may have initiated it, but my boss's signature is on it, and that's what counts.)

How apropos...

Against my better judgement I brought my co-workers some of the peanut butter cookies I made on Monday night. I shouldn't have. I should be boycotting doing anything remotely nice for them, since I discovered that the gifts I (and the other two members of the support pool - who happen to be temps) received for Administrative Professionals Day were on a list of things to be reimbursed that the manager in this office gave to our boss. And here I was, thinking they were doing this out of their own pockets from the kindness of their hearts. I'm freaking delusional, it would seem. Plus, to add insult to injury, I will be the one processing the reimbursement, so I get to see exactly how much those gifts cost.

So all the sugar and sugar substitute, creamer and half-and-half, giant containers of coffee from Costco, and various other odds and ends that I have stupidly supplied over the last several months just so that we'd have them...that ends. And when someone goes to get a cup of coffee and there are no supplies, they'd better not even look at me.

And I saw this on Overheard in the Office - it's like the hand of fate just gave me a high five:

5PM Anaphylactic Shock Isn't the Worst Way to Go

Cube monkey #1: I'm losing my will to live.
Cube monkey #2: Would a tiny peanut butter cookie help?

Calgary
Canada

via Overheard in the Office, Apr 29, 2008

Fetch my slippers and pipe

My husband is on to the fact that I've been bringing work home. I tried to keep it a secret, but he caught me before dinner last night. We had a brief, tense exchange of words where he basically reiterated his disapproval, and I established that while I was aware of and understood his feelings about the issue, it was my job - and I was doing what was needed to get it done in order to make sure I still have a job in the summer. He has a job that he walks away from every day at precisely five o'clock. I have a job where sometimes people ask me into meetings at 4:45 and I'm not walking out intil later in the evening, and from time to time eight hours is not enough to complete my daily assignments and take care of all of the little fires that pop up before they become infernos. This time of year is, in all honesty, the worst and most stressful time for this business. And it drives my husband nuts that sometimes I buy the break supplies, because I use them too and it's a nice gesture, regardless of whether or not it is noticed. (I'm not like some people: "Hey, boss, look! Look! I bought sugar! Praaaaise meeee!") I have a compatriot who picks up her boss' drycleaning, for cripes sake. It's apparently part of the "other duties as assigned" portion of her job description. And if the expectation is that I end up moving into the shark infested cubicles upstairs, the same could happen to me, too. I understand where he's coming from and why he's concerned, but the delivery could use a little work.

I weighed myself last night. I have lost five pounds since I weighed myself a couple months ago. I don't know how, since nothing has really changed. Is it stress? Hyperthyroid? Tapeworm? My husband is nagging me to see the doctor. But first he wants me to switch over to his doctor. Which requires paperwork, requesting records from my old doctor, calling the insurance company...so, where do I find this time? During my work day? I think not. Of course, he constantly gets on me about my weight and when I tell him that I seem to have lost a few pounds he doesn't have anything really positive or affirming to say. I guess maybe he's miffed that he's been trying to lose weight and it doesn't seem to be working. Whatever it is, the nagging about everything under the sun has got to stop or I'm going to start wearing a smoking jacket while I watch the game from my barkalounger grousing about how I need another martini and when the hell is dinner.

A plethora

Because Goblet of Fire is on...and I have nothing better to do (except the work I brought home, which I don't really feel like messing with):

Literary pursuits

I'm currently stalled in the reading of two books. One details how to endure (and maybe even succeed) while working with an idiot boss. I could have used this advice when dealing with the last two managers I had. The current boss I have mixed emotions about sometimes, but I know for sure he's not an idiot, at least in the sense of being clueless. The other book is about Queen Elizabeth I's business sense and leadership skills, which were considerable since she managed to remain an unmarried female monarch for a lifetime - an accomplisment for most kings of the time, let alone a woman whose paternity was often under question - while developing Britain's economic and military prowess into a powerful empire and force to be reckoned with on the world stage.

I've also got a growing list of "must reads" that includes my new favorite poets William Burroughs and Richard Brautigan, as well as 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, 'Apathy' by Paul Neilon and Heinlen's 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'.

I only mention this because I don't feel like talking about work...

But Lost last night (which I totally forgot about and missed the first ten minutes of, by the way) - insane! The death! The double dealing! Exploding houses and smoke monsters and late night b&e...Then I've got BSG tonight. I don't think my brain can take it.