PejmanPundit’s reflections on the end of the cleanup effort at the WTC. I should read Pejman more often. I’ll probably expound on this a little more later, maybe even at Quibbling (gasp!), but I need to get some real work done right now.
I just had to call Cav this morning and harrass her. I missed it when she called my cell last night because I had left it at the office. So I called her this morning at her desk and of course she couldn’t talk too much- I’ll have to corner her tonight at happy hour.
Went out last night with my little brother and Cory for alcohol and fried food. I think I am going to gain 5 pounds just from that little outing. Ugh. But it was fun- we discussed AotC, Spider-Man, LOTR, and the upcoming Matrix sequel. Oh yes, we’re geek culture whores.
Funny moment of the evening:
My brother turns to me and says, “Tiffany, cover your ears.”
I say, “Why?”
“You’ll wince.”
“Why?”
“OK, you asked for it.” He turns to Cory, “Dude, when they showed the Matrix teaser, I got a chubby! I was so excited!!”
Some guys have sentimental pr0n. My brother has The Matrix.
In a written reponse to a question about how she would work to resolve an issue in her department, Training Directrix said:
“To increase the awareness of the importance of the job functionalities within TECD and the entire agency.”
Hah.
“What little pr0n I do have has sentimental value.”
– [name withheld for obvious reasons 
]
(for those of you non-geeks out there, I’m trying to prevent my blog showing up in web searches for pictures of nekkid people)
I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m not a guy, I just can’t imagine getting a warm fuzzy nostagic feeling from pr0n. I mean, I can’t imagine keeping that stuff around because it reminds me of a happy time in my life. I mean, come on, “Wow! This is the magazine I had when I first learned how to gratify myself! I wonder if I could sell it on eBay?” or “Oh look!! This is the magazine I used to look at while I was really thinking about the cute girl who lived two houses down from me!! I can’t believe I still have this thing!! Ah, happy times indeed…” or worse, “Oh hey!! This centerfold IS the cute girl who lived two houses down from me… I had such a crush on her.”
Right there on the shelf, between yearbooks, scrapbooks, photo albums, is somebody’s warped, sticky, dog-eared copy of Penthouse. Hah.
I’m not laughing *at*, I’m laughing *with*, really.
Had a terrific meeting with the Victory guys this morning. After wandering around the Robinson Twp consumerism extravaganza (I counted no less than 5 distinct malls in a 3 square mile area) for a while because Rich told me the Eat’n'Park where we were going to meet was at The Pointe when it was actually at The Plaza, I got there a little before Rich did. The three of us spent probably 45 minutes just chatting and catching up with each other- I haven’t seen either of them since December. Then we got down to the real purpose of the meeting.
I think they had kind of sensed my growing discontent with the way things were going, and with being out of the loop, etc. So the tone of the discussion was very much, “What responsibilities can we give you that will fit into your schedule and still keep you interested and involved with the company?” That was cool; I walked out of there feeling a lot better about continuing to work with them than I have for a while. I may get to do some banner ad design for them as well since Jonathan is so busy with assembling the magazine itself. That would be way cool.
Then of course I left the restaurant in Robinson (northwest of the city) 5 minutes before I had to be in East Liberty (southeast of the city), and had to drive through downtown Pittsburgh at lunchtime. So I got to work an hour late.
But I am in a terrific mood, so all is well. 
This is just too funny. First of all, I can’t believe people are out there doing studies on this (unless they’re bra manufacturers trying to make more ergonomic lingerie), and secondly…. 20 minutes?!?! It took a guy 20 minutes to unhook a bra? Dude, ask the woman to unhook herself- I guarantee you it’s preferable to making her wait for almost half an hour while you try to figure out the mechanics of a hook and a loop. Link via Sgt. Stryker and Ginger Stampley.
Ever wonder what Spiderman’s blog would be like?
Instapundit seems to have exceeded his bandwidth. See Glenn? This is what happens when you abandon Mother Blogger for the deceptive charms of Moveable Type on your own host.
Children, let this be a lesson to you- Being a Blogosphere celebrity involves lots of people linking back to you and driving your traffic ever upward- make sure your hosting plan can handle it.
UPDATE: Of course Professor Reynolds didn’t run out of bandwidth- he was smart enough to work out a deal where they would just automatically up his bandwidth if necessary, ’cause he’s swift like that. But the lesson still stands.
So I have this migraine. And the medicine is keeping me up late. I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep for a while. Ugh.
So I haven’t blogged in a couple of days….
Yesterday was Memorial Day, and I strolled on over to the parental compound for the traditional cookout. It was fun, especially watching my cousin and my aunt try to one-up each other. That was priceless- especially the part where Tommy said, “She buys me this stuff I don’t ask for, and then she uses it against me!!” Welcome to our world, Tommy. I also scared my poor grandma when I told her that not only do I still plan to move to DC, but that I have already secured an apartment and am planning to move next month. She’s terrified that I’m going to end up like Chandra Levy or something. And grandma is also not quite ready to make peace with my adulthood. I guess that’s understandable, since I’m the first grandchild, and am therefore the trailblazer. When I moved out of my parents’ house a year ago (at the age of 22), she told me I was too young. The irony of that statement when coupled with the fact that she was married at 16 and had a child by 17 was not lost on her, so there’s hope for her yet.
Woke up this morning with a horrendous migraine, due to the stressful events of last Tuesday. Actually, I think the headache started yesterday and just reached migraine-force overnight.
So I was feelin’ crappy when I walked into the monthly Leadership Retreat today. At least, I told myself, it’s my LAST ONE. Hurrah. I was really not wanting to deal with the Doc glaring at me for 7 hours. Not that I was afraid of it, I just can think of many more pleasant and productive things to do with my day. So I walked in, squinting at the flourescent lights in the Enrichment Center kitchen, and had a very pleasant conversation with Excoriated White Boy and his officemate (another member of the Disaffected Caucasians Club) about my impending move and how lovely all that is and how very excited they are for me.
Then the surreality started. I know for a fact that the Doc was none too pleased at my resignation last week, so I really expected her to be less than polite to me today. Quite the opposite happened, however. Today she was all smiles and compliments and seems genuinely pleased and even impressed that I am taking steps to further my education (she’s a big fan of graduate degrees). Apparently she was sick last week and is on some very effective drugs this week . Whatever they gave her, she needs to keep taking it. She was so pleasant all day…. Even when she was scolding people, she was still very direct, as is her habit, but it was much politer and more supportive than her usual temper tantrums.
After Communications Girl gave the report for the uber-department I work in, the Program Director asked me directly what the status of the caregiver computer training schedule was. Fortunately, I was ready with an answer. I replied that we weren’t able to get a response from the training department, and when the Training Directrix tried to interject that I hadn’t contacted them, I continuted my story: Trainer Boy has repeatedly passed me in the hall and said, “I need to meet with you about the computer stuff,” and then I never hear from him. Then the draft of the May recert calendar (that’s the document that tells the caregivers when they can take refresher trainings so they can remain certified foster parents, for those of you who aren’t Two-Strikers) came out and we weren’t on it, and so CTL emailed Training Boy to ask about it, and he CC’d the Directrix and F/OM as well, and that was a few weeks ago, and then the final calendar came out and we still hadn’t heard from Training Boy. The Directrix just kind of blinked and looked confused, at which point the Doc said, “Well, you all did exactly what you needed to do, [Directrix], please make sure you do what you need to, as the Director, you really should have followed up on it if they felt the need to CC you on that email.”
About freakin’ time someone pointed out to her that she’s been blowing us off. At the morning break, EWB congratulated me on being so thoroughly prepared that I managed to show up a Director. Heh. It doesn’t take much- Training Directrix is probably the most useless member of senior management. I have a lot of respect for the work ethic and intelligence and abilities of the other Directors, but I can’t figure out how TD got her position. So, while I ordinarily don’t like making people look bad in front of the Doc, this time I did derive some satisfaction from it, simply because I have been prevented from doing my job by her department’s lack of follow-through.
I may have to teach a caregiver training one of the first two weekends in June, but that would be OK. I genuinely enjoy teaching elderly people who have never used a computer before how to make it do stuff.
So not only was she not nasty to me for daring to leave her agency (she’s got real abandonment issues, I think- she grew up in foster care), she even told the whole room that the reason she hired me in the first place was because I’m so motivated- She gives me things to do because she knows that even if I don’t know how to do them, I will learn how to and make it happen. I blushed.
Honestly, today the Doc reminded me of why so many people outside of the agency, and even people in the agency who don’t work directly with her, think she’s so fabulous. The Doc is capable of being quite charming- she’s brilliant, charismatic, and witty. Her smile lights up a room. Her laugh is infectious and she has a lovely singing voice (as I discovered today). I almost regretted my decision to leave…. until she started talking about the Development Department.
She isn’t planning to replace Cavalier. Instead, all the proposal-writing and things will be done by consultants. She complained that for all the money she had spent on building a Development Department, she had only gotten 20% of it back. While this is true, and while the department did struggle, and while you can probably even say that Cav’s relative inexperience contributed to that, the Doc completely failed to acknowledge her own failings as a leader. She didn’t acknowledge that she shares in any of the responsibility for the way the department struggled. She didn’t mention that it was her own ridiculous demands that spread Cav too thin, and that it was her own lack of foresight that sent the department into crisis mode on so many occasions.
That’s what reminded me that this is the right decision- The Doc has many shortcomings as a leader, and they have made the working environment at Two Strikes poisonous. But if she would just acknowledge those shortcomings and honestly work to overcome them, I think I could put up with the shortcomings themselves. If she could accept responsibility for the problems she causes, she’d be a lot more bearable. But she won’t. So leaving is still a good idea.
I found $5 in my jeans pocket today. That was just one of those pleasant moments. You understand.
Being John Malkovich is a weird-ass movie. Really, really weird. But very good- I enjoyed it thoroughly. I also want the soundtrack. I suppose I could go into detail about the metaphysical statement the movie makes about the human condition through the metaphor of puppets and John Malkovich, but it’s Friday night and I’m tired. So I’m just going to say that it’s a rockin’ flick.
Cavalier, pleasepleaseplease tell me you didn’t.
Wendy Liebman is on Letterman. She’s a terrible standup comic- her delivery is so repetitive and annoying.