Part 2: holidays at the office (cont.)

today's the day! the holiday luncheon is here.

wednesday is my early day so i'm here at 7:00am. i sit down and get myself ready to run reports and whatnot and i'm assaulted with the cackling laughter of two women near me. this begins a wave of other people talking loudly and laughing. at seven!! it's too early. it's still dark outside. i say my morning hello to jen next to me and then put in my headphones. to drown out the noise.

8:30am email from manager. gift bags available. yearly tradition of various themed paraphernalia. this year it's a coin bank with a special dollar coin in it, date book and a decent pen. i was hoping for another set of glass tumblers. coin bank is staying on my desk. i don't need that at home.

9:30am email from manager. gingerbread houses are on display and open for judging. i wander over and my favorite is the pub with a drunk santa passed out in front, surrounded by miniature beer bottles. genius. and my group was worrying about being offensive. please. i wanted to do an "inner city g-house" theme (m's idea) that would have lots of offensive ghetto stereotypes. instead my group did a half-built house with signs out front that said "habitat for humanity." the other houses look like typical gingerbread houses: the old lady's house from hansel and gretel on an acid sugar high.

meanwhile i've counted six christmas sweaters, one lady with jingle bells who might be walking a little more bouncy than usual to make them jingle, and one person with green and red striped tights. this office is really getting into the spirit. the christmas sweaters are my favorite. not really, i can't stand them because they're so tacky...but maybe that's why they are my favorite. the tackiness. especially the ones with sparkles or the cardigan-style. for the old lady on the go.

we have a raffle today for random things. one of these is a microwave which i'm totally putting my tickets in for. my house needs a microwave and if i could get one for free...i would be thrilled.

only a half hour left before we all get on the school buses. i have my "fun facts" packet ready to go but sadly, i did not bring anything to color with. i'm sure one of the ladies with the christmas sweaters will.

Part 1: holidays at the office

festive holiday activites at work:

1. during an all-team meeting, managers announce we’re creating gingerbread houses for each table at the holiday luncheon. it’s a “team-building” exercise. we are told we can use company time to create them as long as we track time accordingly.

2. when discussing aforementioned gingerbread houses my group is reprimanded for not working and told to get back to work because there’s production to do. weren’t we just told we could use company time to do this project?

3. another all-team meeting to discuss the luncheon. we’re told we get to play board games at our tables. that’s fun. i’m tempted to bring some apples to apples cards. we’re also told we have a “fun facts” packet to work on. this “fun facts” packet includes a questionnaire and eight pages of activities. these activities include: things to color, secret messages to decipher (with pictures of santa in various poses – also colorable), connect the dots, draw a snowman in the graph, word searches, and another secret message thing. the pages look like they came out of an activity book for ages 2-10.

4. the kicker. people are actually very concerned and confused about when they are to complete these “fun facts” packets. “do we do them before tomorrow? do we do them at the holiday luncheon? i didn’t hear!....” really? i also overheard other people talking about bringing their own crayons and colored pencils for the activity. they are so excited!

the luncheon itself should be amusing. i hope they don’t do bingo again this year.

kitty crack sparkles

*kitty crack sparkles*
that's what i see around my cat's head when he gallops crazily around the house, sounding like an animal three times his size. i don't think he's any more than 15lbs but i could be wrong. every time he walks on someone all i hear is "oomph, baxter! ouch!" i don't think he could be that fatty if he runs laps, right? he runs around more than any of the other cats...but he also eats more. he may have to go on a diet but it's cute when he sits like a little old man with his tummy all paunched-out.

Portland Protest: 11/15/08

I would like to begin with the Harvey Milk Speech...



Sam Adams! Our gay mayor!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQyJS4Wyakw




Portland Protest, Nov. 15th



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McDuBA-II9Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx7fDn9KEcQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2q4l9dRtzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTeyB_9dp1Q

National Protests. Nov. 15, 2008. Join the Impact

Nov. 15 Los Angeles City Hall Protest



Slideshow: National Protest Nov. 15, 2008.



Music Video: Prop 8 Protest Song



FRESNO! my hometown. Caesar Chavez's Granddaughter speaks against Prop.8!!!

No on Prop. 8 Rallies in CA!

Compilation:



West Hollywood
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-140872
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdvqkH5VGrI



San Francisco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVZK11Zdtrs



Sacramento
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWhWHjVIgJ8

i have so much to say about my disappointment and anger about Prop. 8 passing yesterday. i have been busy doing other things and haven't had time to write. now i'm at work and it would be unproductive of me to spend time to write out the rant that's spinning around in my head right now.

instead, i found this on sfgate.com and i liked it so much i wanted to share.

"And as the presidential gallery gained a face of color, who would have thought that 70% of people of color who voted, would support writing discrimination into a Constitution. ”

.

it's funny how that happened. oh, and that californians care more about the rights of chickens than they do other human beings. sure, i care deeply about the fair treatment of farm animals but COME ON people. seriously. ugh.

okay, back to work and more later.

.

good news is people are up for a fight on this. yeah! i'm happy to see that.

.

even better news - obama won! woohoo! that's something to look forward to. i have hope in this country and the government. i don't remember when i did last...maybe with clinton? i'm interested to see what obama does in office. what a monumental change our country has achieved.

=D

my night with the paco taco

last night tim called me with news alex was rear-ended and sent to the hospital. he asked if i could watch their baby while he went to the hospital was surprised when i offered use of my car to him. how else would you get to the hospital, buddy? poor thing was so worried and frazzled i think he forgot the about the small detail of transportation. i told him not to worry and i would stay with the paco taco [baby] as long as they needed me to.

alex is okay. she is in a lot of pain because of her pre-existing herniated disc and now the impact has caused her back to be strained and to feel like it went out. good news is the teenager who wasn’t paying attention and slammed into her is insured and has a rich daddy. they also seem really nice and have offered to help in any way possible. They even visited her at the hospital.

it was the first time it’s just been me and the baby since he was born four months ago. it wasn’t too bad. he’s an easy-going baby. he was sleeping when i arrived and woke up confused about a half hour later. he was threatening to cry until i picked him up and changed him. he was thrilled to be half naked. wee! babies love naked time. i re-dressed him and played with him until he started crying for food. this is the part i don’t like – the crying. it’s so noisy. i made up the formula and sat him down to eat it. when i finally had him to sucking on the bottle his eyes were rolling around in all directions under droopy eyelids. of course the phone rings in the middle of feeding and i suddenly fantasize about a third arm. i can’t hold him and the bottle and get the phone at the same time. if i remove the bottle he wails. i have no way of propping it anywhere and he’s too young to hold it. ugh! so i let him cry and bounce him around on my knee. luckily it’s Tim and he understands the noise. in time the baby chills out, call’s over and i can feed him again. the rest of the night was changing him, playtime and taking pictures. the little guy loves his picture taken! he should – alex and tim are both photography fiends. it makes sense.

my thoughts after the evening.
while he was crying and while i was fantasizing about a third arm i thought about single mothers and fathers. how do they do it? what a nightmare. i can’t imagine dealing with a baby alone. then i thought about community and what a dream having a close-knit group of people you could trust helping you and lived very close to you. it makes sense why people who decide to reproduce tend to stay close to home. of course, it would be best to have people of similar ideals and attitudes – like a group of friends. rather than only having your family. as much as it’s great to have family around i don’t know if i’d really want most of my extended family around that often. immediate family, definitely. i’ve had a few conversations with people about how it would be ideal to have a communal-type environment for that kind of thing. i know, very hippy of me to say this but it makes sense. is it realistic in our times and society? not really. we’re too independent for communal living. there are groups who succeed at it. quite a few in portland actually. speaking for myself i don’t know if i could really do it either. i love being available to help and share resources but i love my independence. it would be a big thing to commit to and i don’t do well with big commitments. or people dependent on me and sacrificing all those things you have to sacrifice when you have kids. it totally freaks me out. which is reason #1 i have a really hard time imagining myself with a kid.

so i’ll leave it to alex and tim and i’m happy being tia kelly for now. i do really love their son and i can't wait to watch him grow up.

(i'm sure those close to me, if you're reading this, are shaking your heads in surprise. me, goo'ing on about a baby. no, the world's not coming to an end)

*update: alex is okay but on disability because the injury to her back aggravated a pre-existing herniated disc and after x-rays the doctor informed her she also has a fracture in one of her bones in her neck. poor thing. :(

Congratulations Leanne!

Video of Leanne's portland crew watching her win Project Runway!

(i'm in there too)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cUrDvQ8YXA

...

the bins: what's the big deal?

this past weekend i finally went out to the infamous “bins” south of portland. my assumptions were correct about the place being piles of junk that bring the packrats of the world to tears of joy. i attempted to rummage through a pile of clothes but had to stop because i was starting to feel sick. the clothes smelled stale and unwashed; and there was a faint odor of poop that i couldn’t be sure was coming from the clothing or someone next to me. i didn't want to catch a creepy disease and there was nowhere to wash my hands. i decided to get away and find the books. books are relatively safe, right? for the most part. the only thing that was disgusting was an old dress-thing that reeked of mothballs someone left on a pile of books. maybe someone found it and decided against the baby blue crinoline on their way to the cashier.

as i was looking through the books, i was also people watching. there were some people smart enough to wear rubber gloves in their search for junk. gloves would be a good idea because i could almost visualize the disgusting microorganisms and bacteria swarming on my own hands from touching just a couple things. there were a few pinched-faced women with noisy kids. a woman walked into me that looked like she had been doing meth for the past five years. yes, i know. classy. there were couples and families with grocery carts full of things. almost every single cart had some kind of stuffed animal in it. there was a couple women excited about a stuffed dog puppet thing and taking turns doing their best “dog” voice while flapping its little mouth.

i found a couple books, one of them an old psychology textbook from the 1950s and the other, a wine book from 2007, which is cool because it makes it easier to choose wines. usually i go in to buy wine and not only am i indecisive but my eyes start glazing over. finally, i pick a bottle i am familiar with or get one that sounds good and has a good price. “sounds good” is something in the label that includes something about a cherry flavor. i’m a sucker for cherries. luckily, the wine is usually good but i don’t like pressing my luck.

so that was my experience at the bins. i don’t know why people make such a big deal of it. i found it disgusting. the clothes – forget it. i don’t care if it’s charged by the pound. i wouldn’t wear anything in those disgusting piles. the furniture all looked like they were missing parts and most of them were about to fall apart. the books were okay. there were some interesting titles in there and lots of christian god and jesus-related books. obviously there's not a big demand if that many of them end up in the bins. there was even a jahova’s witness book. maybe i should have picked that up and used it as a halloween costume prop. the “bins” is an outlet store for goodwill, so it makes sense that it’s piles of the rejected things not purchased in the stores. honestly i’ll pass. if i want thrift things i’d rather go to the stores. at least it’s organized.