Politics -- Yech!!!

I think Congress should pass a law that politicians can be removed from office if they act like politicians. It's okay to act like a politician while you're trying to get elected, but after you're in office you've got a job to do. And all this posturing, calling of names, placing blame, etc. does nothing to help the hundreds of thousands of people who are out of work, don't have health insurance, and are threatened with homelessness or bankruptcy.

Mister Congressman, I don't care whether you're Republican or Democrat, sit your butt down and work out some solutions. Find some common ground and get something done.

Blog from 09/12/07 - moved from Yahoo

Spam Mail - Hmmmmm
I get tons of spam every morning that I routinely delete without a thought. The subject line makes it obvious it's junk, so I don't waste any time with it. But this morning there was one that made me stop and think. The subject line was

"Now you can have sex ten times a day."

All of a sudden I was thinking about the chiropractor bills for my back. The orthopedist bills for the tendinitis in my wrist and elbow. And the lawyer fees from my divorce.

It just didn't seem worth the trouble.

Blog from 9/07 - moved from Yahoo

Love - What Does It Mean?
A friend asked, "What would we do without the word love?" INDEED! What would we do?

This has been a minor peeve of mine for some time. And I am just as guilty of it as anyone else. We overuse the word and thereby cheapen it's meaning. Many cultures have multiple words to convey different types of love; to define the depth of feeling, whether it is personal or familial, spiritual or sexual. We use one word to cover a huge range of emotional feelings.

I love my job (You don't hear this one very often)
I love my boyfriend/girlfriend
I love carrots and peas
I love God

We are far too quick to tell someone we love them when we start a new, emotionally charged relationship. When in reality what we are feeling is euphoria brought on by a surge of hormones. We should be saying something like "I am really turned on by you, I enjoy your company, our conversations, and I really like being around you. But I don't know if I love you yet."

When the hormones slow down, when the relationship cools, when the conversation has turned into how your day at work went, if you can still say "love" and actually mean it then you are approaching the true meaning of the word. The true meaning should imply a sense of oneness. A feeling of being less complete without the other person. Perhaps we should reserve using the word love until we feel those types of feelings, and we would all hear much less of it.

I enjoy my job
I really like being with my new boyfriend/girlfriend
Carrots and peas are one of my favorite foods
I love God

Save it for when it really means something.

Climbing down from my soapbox.

Blog from 12/14/07 - moved from Yahoo

Never Too Late
��� I work for a non-profit that raises funds through the efforts of volunteers in chapters all over the country. They have to pay dues and other invoices to us and some are better than others about getting their money to us in a timely manner. Almost invariably the excuse they use when we call them about past due amounts is "but we're just volunteers". Up until now I've had to accept that gracefully and ask them to do better.

But now I'm a short-timer. I am leaving this job in less than three weeks. WTH do I care whether I massage their egos anymore. So this guy calls me today and goes off on me as soon as I answer the phone. "what are you doing charging us finance charges, don't you know we are volunteers and they have to take care of their REAL jobs before they take care of paying us." When I try to answer him and explain that the finance charges accrue automatically and that I can credit them off he interrupts me and continues to bitch about how we are stealing charitable money by charging them finance charges.

Well, he picked the wrong day. I just buried my uncle yesterday, I have another job waiting for me, and I don't have to take this sh!t anymore. I said his name over and over until he finally stopped talking and said "What?" I told him that they probably shouldn't volunteer to do a job if they didn't have time to do it. I told him that the finance charges have been on his statements since June (its now December) so why is he just now noticing them. And I told him I didn't appreciate him calling me up and yelling at me without even waiting for me to explain the situation to him. He just said "OK" and hung up. So I figured the next call would be to my boss.

Instead he called back about five minutes later and apologized for calling and going off on me. He asked me if we could do something about the charges if he mailed a check today and I told him we would. He said goodbye and we both hung up.

I should have done that a loooooong time ago.