Cha cha does dishes.

Cha cha doing her very first chore - holding the dishwasher door while we empty it. Already she looks a lil tired. Such drudgery.

GOSH I LOVE HER!!!

MISERABLE HATEFUL AWFUL ROTTEN NO GOOD VERY BAD PLACE!!

I so hate this place and its rules and regulations and processes and procedures and politics. I HATE IT. I am miserable every f-ing day that I have to come here. It just totally deflates me. It traps me and then it squeezes the very breath out of me. If I can’t find an escape from this place soon I think I will implode. I will be completely sucked into the black hole of despair with every ounce of energy and light being sucked from my very soul.

Can we not have a simple conversation without someone copping an attitude? Is there nothing I do that doesn’t require 3 signatures and a formal notification of intent to begin and equally formal notification of completion to 7 entities throughout the whole damn organization???

Who ever thought up these ridiculous rules? Who in their right mind would think that this was in any way conducive to efficiency, productivity, morale, or just general “employee” satisfaction????

Why don’t they realize that they are crushing people into little bits of corporate minutiae and taking away the very things that make us human? The ability to think, to reason, to empathize, to act, to exist.

What are they thinking when they create one more rule on top of another rule on top of another rule on top of another rule, with an extra process guideline, and a new written regulation, peppered with pc protocol just about every freaking week????

Where does this thought process come from?

When will I be rescued?

Stolen Idea

Took this from annieofbluegables blog and am posting it because I don't wnt to lose it:

Dish washing Powder.

In a plastic container with a firmly fitting lid, mix:1 cup borax (20-Mule-Team Borax, available in any supermarket)1 cup baking soda1/4 cup salt1/4 cup citric acid (available in brewing stores among other places--if you haven't tracked it down yet but must try this formula, use two packets of Lemonade-Flavored Kool-Aid, ONLY lemon, or you'll dye your dishwasher! and ONLY unsweetened Kool-Aid!)30 drops citrus essential oil--lemon, grapefruit, orange, tangerine, or a mixturePut all of it in the container, shake it up.To use, put a tablespoon or so into each cup of your dishwasher. I've found I no longer have to use the scrubbing cycle but can get by fine with the short cycle, thus saving even more money. On average, it looks like this is about 8 cents a load compared with Cascade at 22 cents a load. Compare it with EcoVer or Seventh Generation and it's a steal. I have also started putting some of this in a shaker canister--the one I have we got at a restaurant supply, it's aluminum and was made for popcorn salt. I use it to clean my sink and anything else that I'd normally use Bon Ami on. Works great, and the essential oil makes it smell fantastic.This is the site I found the above recipe on: home made cleaners

I Luvs Me Sum Gossip

Somehow lately I've become a gossip junky. I love E, The Insider, Celebrity Apprentice, and MSN Entertainment....all the latest gossip. Especially Britney.

GOD! I feel so sorry for her. She must truly be out of her mind, whether its on drugs or a chemical imbalance, it's such a tragedy for her to be so out of control. Other than her very immediate family I can't believe that there's a single soul in her life that can be trusted to be only about her and her well being. And, since she is the product of her family, maybe not even her immediate family.

Sometimes I wonder if you could go back in time and show some of these famous people what pathetic messes they are destined to become in the future, A. if they would even believe it, and B. if that would change the outcome for the better.

Granted all of the photogs literally mobbing Britney whenever she goes out in public are scary enough, have you ever seen her kids looking happy? They always look so fearful and anxious. When I see that look it just melts me ~ I think of my own kids and baby and know how I would react to seeing that in them. It would crush me and I would do all in my power to save them from whatever was causing them such angst. She doesn't even have that capability, or the recognition of what's going on.

I have to believe that there is some chemical imbalance at the root of it - it just can't be all drugs. The reason I think that is because it's something like that which would make it so impossible for her to recognize the reality going on around her. At least a drug addict knows she's doing something wrong - but with a mental illness you think you are right and everyone else is wrong.

I just hope and pray that she finds some peace in this world with herself and with her family. Really - isn't everyone at that stage of thought for her by now? I think so.

Random Thoughts Revisited (No. 9, 14, and 15)

As predicted H WAS home making dinner (BBQ ribs), a wonderful salad, all the fixins. Even made home made BBQ sauce! He set the table, served up dinner, cleared the table, and washed all the dishes. He changed the baby, bathed the baby, put the baby to bed, and got up with the baby in the night and in the morning!

Ok - so it was a one day event. But it was so nice to be on the other side for once.

WAY Too True!

From MSN Careers - Boss to Reality Translations (my paraphrased title)

• "Great job on the report!"Translation: "I'm taking credit for your work." (SOOO TRUE W/BOB and ED)
• "I have to attend an off-site meeting."Translation: "I'm having an affair."
• "Let me give you some broadstroke ideas and you can fill in the rest."Translation: "I still haven't learned how to create an Excel document."
• "Headquarters has assured me we will not be affected by the merger."Translation: "You are going to be fired."
• "I'm not sure if what you are suggesting is in alignment with our core competencies."Translation: "What exactly do we do again?"
• "This office is a family and my door is always open if you ever need to powwow with Papa Bear."Translation: "I am a tool."
• "I'll be out of the office for a couple hours with senior management, but you can reach me on my mobile."Translation: "I'm playing golf."
• "I'll be off-site and unreachable for the rest of the afternoon."Translation: "I'm playing golf and I expect to be very, very drunk."
• "I think we should order in some lunch for the team."Translation: "None of you are getting a raise. Enjoy your pizza." (ON THE MONEY!)
• "I don't want to have to micromanage this whole operation!"Translation: "I'm the boss because I made good business contacts at my Ivy League university; I don't know how to actually do things."
• "This came down from up top."Translation: "I have no real power." (SAD BUT TRUE)
• "I can't give you an answer at this moment. Let me survey the situation and see what we can leverage out of it."Translation: "Oh God, I wish I was still in sales!"
• "It's good to see you take such bold initiative!"Translation: "You are a threat to me. You will be fired the next time we so much as run out of coffee."
• "I'll think about it."Translation: "I'll tell you no in an e-mail, long after I've left the office." (BINGO!)
• "Did you finish those projections I asked you about on Friday?"Translation: "I completely forgot to ask you about the projections on Friday, and I'm hoping your memory is even worse than mine." (HAPPENED TOO MANY TIMES)
• "This is a very sensitive issue."Translation: "I may need you to shred some documents."
• "Let's push the boundaries on this one. We need something really innovative! Throw out the conventions, I want something edgy!"Translation: "Present only safe, traditional ideas to me. I wouldn't know what to do with innovation if my life depended on it."
• "We're going to be pulling some long hours and I'll be right here with the rest of you."Translation: "My home life is miserable."
• "I hate to be the bearer of bad news."Translation: "Disappointing you is the only pleasure I have left in my dead-end, crappy job."

Now tell me....can you relate????

Coincidences

Ever since reading Dirkin's posts on coincidences( www.stoneread.blogspot.com ) either I have experienced more coincidences, which is coincidental in itself, or I've just been more mindful of them.

Today for instance. MOB and I start talking - she's new...ish and I'm still getting to know her - and although I've already suspected it based on past convos, she confesses that she has a clutter issue in her personal life. Enough so that it is inhibiting her ability to list and sell her home, leaving her with a 1+ hour commute each way to and from this job.

My mother ...and now my sister also have this clutter issue. CHAOS - can't have anyone over syndrome ( www.flylady.net ). So we sort of compare notes. I told her about flylady and that it has helped my mom some. She was excited to hear it.

Told her that at one point we forcibly cleaned out my moms house - filling a dumpster under her pretended supervision. I say pretended because whenever she wasn't looking we threw out extra stuff. MOB says she WISHES someone would do that for her.

THEN...I pull up my browser on my way to a website ~ actually for work ~ and on the yahoo home page is a headline about how clutter can actually harm your health: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/01/health/01well.html?_r=1&no_interstitial&oref=slogin

How weird is this? So - is the meeting of MOB and I, our being brought together in life, pre-destined? Even if not forever were we meant to connect so that one might help the other and vice versa? She's been tons of help to me in being able to tolerate my job! Now I'm a little help to her here as I offer insights and possible resources that can help her conquer the clutter after she says that's what she is seeking.

Next - she is going to state X over the weekend to visit a friend and asks if I've ever been there. I reply that I have not but that I have relatives there and ask her if she knows city Z. YOU'RE KIDDING! She exclaims. That is the exact city she is going to. It's a tiny city. Of all the cities in state X how weird that she is going to the same place where I have relatives?!

Hmmmm......