Thinking and Driving, Ep. 6

Random: Carrie Underwood's "Before he cheats" came on the radio as I was passing a sign for a Carrie Underwood show.

Things my parents say, take 1

Mom, referring to my cousin's baby:

I gotta be honest, that's a beautiful baby. And I've seen a lot of UGLY babies lately.

Where's the holiday spirit?

I was slightly happy to hear my mother say that she wasn't really in the Christmas spirit as much this year, because it made me feel a little more normal.

I don't know what's with me. Christmas is usually my favorite time of year. I'm not in a "bah humbug" kind of way, I'm just not my usual overly excited self. I really didn't enjoy shopping this year, and even found myself stretching to find gifts for my family. Heck, I didn't even buy gifts for my friends (I opted for buying 2 of them a lunch of City BBQ).

Maybe it was the weather. Possibly it was the state of the economy (though I am blessed to have a good job and the ability to spend no less than I have in years past).

I don't know. But in any case, Merry 4 days until Christmas.

An exercise in Classical Conditioning

I am very blessed to have my own office at work. However, it does not come without a few complaints...

1. I am one of only two people not to have a window. Reason: I was the second to last person hired. The person hired after me is the only other person not to have a window, and she got stuck right next door to the bathroom. However, I have learned that not having a window can be a blessing in disguise, as everyone who does have a window has no control over the temperature of their offices. All I have to do is adjust how open my door is to control the temp of my office, and usually, I don't even have to go that far.

2. I am directly across the hall from one of the managers in the office. He is in his mid forties, but I am pretty sure that his hearing is going! The sound on his computer is SO high as is the ringer on his phone. We have multi-line phones in every office. Therefore, whenever someone else's phone rings, the little red light on my phone illuminates. Combine that with the volume of the afore mentioned manager's phone and sometimes I mistake his ring for my own line ringing.

I can't fix issue number 1, but I am slowly fixing issue number 2. Once a week, when the manager is out of his office, and his phone rings, I quickly run across the hall and turn it down a notch. I have been keeping track of the volume. It started on a "9" and I got it down to a "6" without him noticing. Then we lost power in the building which somehow reset the ringers on all the phones - to LOUD. He did notice that the phone was entirely too loud and turned it down to about an "8." Now I am just waiting for him to be out of his office over the holidays so I can begin my Pavlovian experiment once more... bwahahahaha! My goal is to get it down to a "5" (for reference, mine is on a "3" and I even turn that down when I'm not listening to the radio).

What feels worse...?

This morning Chris Henry died at the age of 26. That's as old as my brother! But anyway, typically when someone is in a condition to potentially pass away, no matter how much you may not like him/her, you live by the rule that if you don't have anything nice to say, you don't say anything at all.

Some people don't subscribe to this. A friend of mine spoke on her Facebook page of how much she didn't like Chris Henry and how he doesn't contribute to the team anyway and they should release him... all this while the man struggled on life support in a Charlotte hospital. It is really easy to say less-than-nice things about someone you don't know, but do you want those to be your last words before finding out that he has died?

I have always had a terribly horrible feeling in my heart knowing that I was one of the last people in my family to see my grandfather before he passed, and I didn't take the time to tell him I loved him or say any of the things people wish they could say if they thought that it was the last time that they saw someone.

But honestly - stranger, relative, or friend - I would have a much heavier heart knowing that the last words I said to, or even about, someone were essentially defaming his or her character.

Thinking and Driving Ep. 5

Dear dude that went on the hunt for the Q102 gift box, only to win TSO tickets... sorry about your luck!

Maybe next year champ!

Dinner Epiphany

Well, I actually realized this a few days ago, but brought it up last night at dinner...

I am getting married in less than four months. Jerry has asked his brother-in-law, Mike, to be his best man and my brother, Mike, to be a groomsman.

If you assume that the wedding party also includes the parents, you add Jerry's father, Jerry, and my father, Mike, into the mix.

The male side of our wedding party is 3 Mikes and 2 Jerrys. Will there be an epic battle royale?

In case you're wondering, the female side consists of no repeat names: Carla, Lela, Mindy, Regina, and Sharon.

By the way, speaking of dinner, I truly enjoyed dinner with Jerry and my sister last night. Maybe I finally found my happy-smiley Christmas spirit (I've been a little lethargic toward Christmas and shopping lately - a rarity for me). Merry 9 days until Christmas!

Thinking and Driving - Ep. 4

Does the Meijer Holiday help line really exist?

And if so, are they ONLY allowed to tell you to buy a Meijer gift card?

Yes, you can get anything that you want, but isn't it such a better feeling to buy someone something they truly want/need but (for whatever reason) won't get for themselves? Kinda kills the spirit of giving there.

On that note, I think my mother is going to LOVE the gift I got her for our family exchange. Hahahaha... is it time to give gifts yet? I feel like the lady in the radio commercial who wakes her kids up at 12:01 on Christmas morning to open gifts and then blurts out everything that she bought them before they can open it.

What do I hate?

People who CANNOT be on time!

I work with someone who feels that our director's somewhat lax attitude toward timeliness means that she can show up to work around 9 and leave well before 5. To put that in perspective, a few co-workers and I get to work by 7:30 and leave no earlier than 4:00. Said co-worker was reported in the past for the hours that she kept. And for a while she was showing up around 8:30 and leaving around 5:00. Then we got busy and our director was often out of the office for early or late meetings. And that soon led to this co-worker going back to her 9 to about 4:30 schedule.

Yesterday, she got COMPLETELY busted when she strolled into the office around 8:50 - 20 minutes after our all-staff meeting began. And it was brought to the director's attention that this was not a unique occurance.

So, she was counselled AGAIN about this issue. I sincerely hope that this is going on record somewhere and that it hurts her annual review. Because she and I have the same title and were bumped to the bottom of a new pay-scale at the same time... which means that I make just as much money as she does! And considering that I work anywhere from 2.5 - 5 hours longer than her in a given week, that's not cool!

Moral of the story... timeliness matters!