And More Reasons Why I Love Where I Work

I am fortunate to be employed in a place that has some spectacular views. (Plus, it's nice to be able to look out the window and judge rush hour traffic from the same height as a helicopter.)


"Where the Mountains Touch the Sky"

True Friendship

You can only park this close to your really good friends . . . REALLY good friends.

(No, I didn't bump her . . . :P :P :P)

Twitterfied

I have officially joined Twitter (Facebook is around the corner . . . if I ever get over my insecurities from highschool and my fear of stalker retribution) . . . but in the meantime, there is an elusive peacock on Twitter.

Which begs the question . . . what am I doing? Right now?

Being good. Being very very good.

::sigh::

Universal Band-Aid

I'm all better now. See? Okay - really I was better about four days ago, but didn't take the time to update my blog. In a nutshell, Alex is registered for school, and I'm opening a lemonade stand (I hear it's a great way to defray costs from the recent downturn in the economy).

I also joined a new RPG ("role-playing game" for the unitiated) based off of Joss Whedon's series Firefly.

I have a whole new respect for Joss Whedon's creations . . . and dang - it was FUN! When the gun battle broke out, my character went inside and made tea.

I found it amusing.

At any rate - all is well in the world, and I just wanted to reassure those of you who keep up with me through my blog that Life is progressing in its usual unpredicatable way. Whee!

Lemonade

Unfortunately, my son was not accepted into the Charter school I had applied to. I know that when Life hand you lemons, you make lemonade. Unfortunately, I'm still in the sour part, and not all that interested in adding sugar yet.

I'm slowly coming to grips with it, but most of my frustration is not at the school itself - but at the actual mechanics of the universe. I understand why the school holds a lottery for extra slots, I understand that my child is "out of district" - which technically puts him at the end of the list. What I don't understand is why I'm continually haunted by bad luck.

When my husband toured the school, they told him we were 99.9% in - that they had never had enough applicants to even hold a lottery. So of course, the year we apply, someone found out that the school offered free all day Kindergarten - and voila! They had over 50 "in-district" applicants from the same community - of which, I can guarantee, 99% applied solely to reduce their daycare costs and not because they are interested in having their child attend the school. (The community has several of its own high quality schools - they just aren't cheap.)

Here's the best part - in the lottery side of things, my son's name came up first - which means had even ONE slot been open, he would have been a shoe-in. Instead, thanks to the influx of "in-district" kids, he's 24th on the list with no chance in hell of making it in. Which means he gets to attend our districted school, which is a known problem school which is currently undergoing a "salvage" operation to try and restore its reputation. I am fully cognizant that a school's government rating does not necessarily reflect the quality of its teachers - factors outside of the school's control can (and do) bring down it's rating . . . but that doesn't change the fact that the school is considered "poor" and a lot of the benefits it has are an attempt to attract new students since every family that can has fled the district.

(Note: my neighborhood is 95% hispanic. For the record, I have nothing against hispanics - even illegal immigrants. Just pay your taxes.)

See the lemons.

When I called my mother to complain, she tried to toss in some sugar with a comment along the lines of "Look at the bright side, if A. is the only non-hispanic kid in the school, he is the right age to pick up languages and he'll be bi-lingual." Not what I needed at the moment.

So my three day spat of hysterics has nothing to do with the school issue really . . . and more to do with the fact that I feel like Job. I feel like God has killed my family, razed my house, murdered my livestock, and burned my crops . . . for no apparent reason. I'm 31, and I'm tired.

So I'm almost ready to add the sugar, and scrape up the pieces once again. I know it's not the end of the World. I'm just tired. And it may take a few days to regain my optimistic outlook. I'm not so far gone that I can't count my blessings. . . and I'm very very greatful to all my friends - especially those who are letting me cry on their shoulder. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Fetusmart!

Because every once in a while, you just have to adopt a fetus.


I adopted a cute lil' cow fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!

Invasion of Privacy . . .

Politics and religion. Most folks know better than to stray onto those two topics - though with my family, we have an extra explosive mix of 'Politics In a Can' - add in a dusting of insanity and conspiracy theory from my father's side, a pinch of VERY conservative Republicanism from my mother's side, and you'll understand why I considered not voting a form of self defense for many years.

I don't understand why people get so riled up about these two topics. But they do. In a frightening rabid dog kind of way. And we're fortunate enough to live in a country where people can rim their lips with Cool Whip (TM) (:P :P :P) and demonstrate in the streets. In many another country, all supporters of the losing side, and most especially the candidate, get shot!!! People don't appreciate that the freedom to whine is a FREEDOM. (Though Spandex are still a privilege, and not a right.)

In addition to being leery of politics and religion, I'm aware of the increasing globalization of the world, and the way the Internet has made the World a very close space. So close, in fact, that it is a common practice for employers to "Google" employees ("Google" not "goggle" - which is entirely inappropriate and punishable by a slew of arbitrary lawsuits from folks who just can't pull the stick out of their bum and get on with Life). In case you are wondering, Andrea Peach is not my real name. While I do admit to having multiple reasons for an alias (including several old high school "buddies" a/k/a stalkers), my main reason for blogging under a false name is simply a small sense of privacy . . . in that I'm not sure I want a prospective employer reading my on-line journal before a job interview.

Of course, you can argue that I'm blogging to the Internet . . . so really, where is the privacy? I constantly crack up when friends ask if they can share a particular entry with someone else. My standard answer goes something like: "No. I'm sharing it with every mook within a planetary radius who has some form of Internet access - except your friend. I have specifically coded my site to deny access to them on an individual basis." Of course it can be shared! Maybe I'm blogging because I've been bitten by the same bug as a professional singer who hangs out at a karaoke parlor. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . one person with an appreciation for my writing will happen to pull my blog out of the vast sea of inane babble on the Internet . . .

While I'm dreaming, anyone want a pony?

So given the above, imagine my surprise when I log onto my Comcast account, only to see an email with the subject line: "Reply to Your YouTube Comment on Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue." First off, I've never clicked on any of Toby Keith's music videos on YouTube . . . which, following the straight and logical line of deduction, means I never posted a comment.

Uh oh.

Apparently my husband did. It appears he commandeered my YouTube account and posted a comment, to which the reply is the ever-bland and innocuous:

"Because this is my country. The liberals, the jews are the ones who destroyed it. half of this country is not the country my grandfather fought the japs for. i promise you PROMISE you if you went back in time and showed all those marines who hit Normandy and Guadacanal what America would look like today they would have switched sides in a heartbeat. in a heartbeat."

I'm not touching that one with a fourteen foot pole. In fact, I'm mortified. And I'm even more moritifed that my name is tied to whatever comment prompted the response. Gee golly whiz, Beaver, I'm so glad I worked so hard to keep a PG-rating on all my on-line personalities.

Se la vi. How many people actually look at YouTube anyway? If anyone comes after me to break my kneecaps over my apparent bi-polar political beliefs, I'm sure they'll swallow my story that it was identity theft. Not me officer . . . I don't know why my Uncle keeps a fully functioning chem lab in a broken down van . . . and no, sir, I don't know where he purchased arsenic. The bomb squad's already been out three times this year, so I'm sure if there was anything to be worried about, they would have sniffed it out already. Really. :P :P :P