| Thursday October 24, 2002 -- 8:45pm I had the most assanine interaction with the director today. I sent him an email yesterday explaining that I would give into his demands and raise the price of our break week workshops by $10 a week. This morning I received an email from him that said something like, "You have to find out what other places charge so we can raise the price." I was a little confused, because I thought I had just said I would raise the prices, but I did some calling around anyway. The new prices were right on target, so I sent another email to the director to tell him so. Two minutes after I sent this email, he walked into my office. Director: What was this email you sent me? Me: Which one? Director: The one you sent me. Me: Just now? D: Yes. M: What about it? D: What did it say? M: <Recites email verbatim, as it was still fresh in my memory from writing it two minutes earlier.> D: So... we're not going to raise the prices at all?!? M: What are you talking about? I raised them by $10! You want me to raise them more? D: Oh. No, no. I didn't know you raised them. M: I told you that yesterday!!! D: Oh. Heh, heh. I was slightly bitchy, but, my God! He must just see that someone sent him an email and then totally disregard it. I should just send him subject headings. Like "Your Complete Stupidity." Also, the iguana is pregnant. We thought it was male. Oops. -- 10:00am Happy Birthday, Nicolas!!!!! It snowed yesterday. This qualifies as a minor disaster in my books. It means Winter is approaching. I'm not a huge fan. Good Things About Winter: - my awesome scarf - excuse to buy some new clothes - sitting in Mahar's watching snow fall and drinking beer from Romania or someplace weird like that - Christmas - Christmas shopping (I think I am the only person on the planet who loves Christmas shopping) - My birthday - New Year's Eve - gingerbread - I might go ice fishing - 'Tis the season for Irish Cream Whiskey - How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on TV - Playing "Potter" with Dee!!! (If you want to know what this is, you'll just have to come over and play sometime.) Ok. So there are lots of things to like about winter. The problem is, the things to like come to a screeching halt on January 1st (with the possible exceptions of ice fishing and watching snow fall at Mahar's). I need to work on January and February. And March. And, oh wait! I live in Upstate New York, so April too. I tried to be like a normal girl this morning and I blow-dried my hair. The end result looks something like a cross between Mary Tyler Moore and Dorothy Hammill. Eish. Tuesday October 22, 2002 -- 8:55am Fishing with Angie & Jake = Fun. It was chilly, but sunny, and the town we were in was cute - despite being a stone's throw from NYC. (Whatever you may think of NYC, you have to admite, it is not "cute.") We caught mostly "stripers" (striped bass, I think) and silver sides. We also got a pipe fish, which made Angie's day, and a decent sized blue crab and half a dozen or so little green crabs and some other stuff that I couldn't name. All of us managed to stay tolerably dry too. The only real disappointment was that it took us so long to collect, we weren't left with enough time to go out for a beer afterwards. I might have the opportunity to go fishing with them again some night this week - like with a fishing pole, which I have no idea how to actually use, but they said they'd teach me. I have zero desire to go to work today, but I guess I have to. If I start skipping work whenever I don't feel like going, there's going to be a problem. They say it's going to snow here tonight after midnight. I'm trying to feel positive about the whole idea of Winter, but, honestly, I'm not looking forward to it at all. Oh. On Sunday I didn't realize I was supposed to have the kids put out the museum's garbage for pick-up. In fact, I told them they didn't have to because our one-woman maintenance crew would do it. So our already overflowing garbage bins face another week, and the enormous rats that frequent them will be delighted. I feel bad, but, Why is it my job to make sure the freaking garbage goes out?!?!? Saturday October 19, 2002 -- 7:00pm A person could develop lung cancer just from living on the same street as my downstairs neighbors. The special now-annual magic/science event is underway at the museum. I put in 13 hours yesterday, but luckily Joe and I spent the morning blowing up balloons and became light headed and giddy quite early on in the day. The place was packed today, which is good, but which also makes it impossible for the staff to get all righteous and say "We told you so!" We hate when that happens. On Monday I'm going fishing with Angie and Jake. This is extremely exciting for my inner 7 year old, and I'm trying to keep her contained. Thursday October 17, 2002 -- 5:40pm I'm just here at work, chillin with my buddy, the Northern Brown snake. He's super-cute and I'm babysitting him while Theresa cleans his cage. Distressingly, people have actually signed up for the workshop I planned for this month. This means I actually have to write it. Hmm. It is embarrassing the way people from outside organizations completely disregard our director at meetings. Of course, that might be because he cannot pronounce the names of his own museum's exhibits, and he slouches in his chair like an ill-mannered 7 year old. Wednesday October 16, 2002 -- 10:00pm It's amazing how quickly the happy contentment induced by a vacation can be demolished by going to work. :( Anyway, I'm back. Sunday October 13, 2002 -- 10:20am I love Maine! Thursday October 10, 2002 -- 5:45pm I'm going to Maine tomorrow! Yay! Sadly, that means you will be without my wit and charm until Wednesday. "You" being the 2 of you who still read this. :( Anyway, Maine. Except for that one, really weird weekend when we were supposed to go to Virginia and ended up in Pemasquid Maine instead, it has been about 4 years since I have been there. I miss the ocean! My work-study student seems to have given up the work thing. I haven't done anything about it, because having him here just means I have to find things for him to do. See you on Wednesday. Wednesday October 9, 2002 -- 7:15am Yesterday was really fun. Actually, come to think of it, I have had many moments of fun over the last week - interspersed with complete meltdowns, but, hey, it's an improvement over just meltdowns! Anyway, yesterday was our "Hudson River Training" day at the museum. A guy from the DEC came in and made us sing songs and play games which, being that we are all about 5 years old at heart, was fun. Then we went fishing. We went down to the river and some of us (including me) put on waders and helped Jake with the seining (not sure of that spelling) nets. We caught lots of little fish (No, none of them were glowing or had 3 heads.) but my favorite thing was the crayfish. It's pretty big, and I am especially fond of it because I spotted it and grabbed it. The Hudson River is pretty amazing. That's the main thing I got out of yesterday. An appreciation for this unique body of water we live beside. Did you know it flows two ways? I like that. It suits my personality. I've also been relatively social. I went out with work people and my friend Katie on Friday. Very fun. Yummy pub fries and microbrew. I got mauled by about 250 Girl Scouts on Sunday, but then recouperated at Mama Rosa's with Lisa, her boyfriend, and bottle of red wine. And before that, on Thursday, I saw Doyle and Natalie. I know I might be biased, but I think Natalie is one of the top 10 coolest people on the planet. Also, I am pleased with myself for convincing her to call her construction worker action figure "Bruce." I've also been having some pretty bad days. I was trying to ween myself off one of the medications I'm on, but it looks like it's not time for that yet. So I'm back up to a higher dose of that one, holding steady on the other one (which I like because it's lavender and looks like it has a smiley face on it) and I've added an iron supplement because my new doctor declared me Anemic. When I'm 80 I'm probably going to need a special suitcase just for pills. Thursday October 3, 2002 -- 8:20am Yesterday I heard my first Canada Geese of the season. This is nice, because it means it's almost Fall. This is not so nice, because it also means it's almost Winter. I'm not really feeling up to Winter this year. Can't we just skip it? Also yesterday: I had to go storm the garden at work and scream at the truant teens who were vandalizing it. Then I had to call the police to report them. They'll probably turn up in my youth program in 6 months. Then I spent half an hour counseling my boss, because the director has decided to make him the next target on the I'll-Make-Your-Life-Hell-So-You-Leave list. Then I spent 20 minutes counseling another staff member who had been raked over the coals in colorful terms by another staff member, in front of a new person and one of the youth. But then I went to Jen's and got a Thai-Yoga massage and was miraculously cured of all of this. Today will be better. I am starting the day by listening to Soul Coughing. No day started in such a funky way could go too horribly awry. Wednesday October 2, 2002 -- 8:00am Dear Universe, I suppose you think you are very clever. Monday September 30, 2002 -- 9:30am Clearly I need to locate the nearest sensory deprivation tank and throw myself immediately into it until such time as the world shapes up or I die of old age. Or of sensory deprivation. I'll bet a person could die of that. |
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