Pawprints From Space

Someone needs to tell the media that their job is to report the news and to do so with objectivity. Not keep hammering away at an incident, track anyone within 10 miles of said incident and then play video tape over and over again that is far from newsworthy. I am speaking of course of the incident at Virginia Tech. Yes it was horrible. Yes there are interesting questions about that two hour or so gap between the first shooting and the massacre that followed. Of course people want to know why. And oh yeah there will be lawsuits to follow I am certain. But as a family is frantic wanting to know if their child is all right. As the parents and family of the criminal are horrified that one of their own could do such a thing. As people begin to grieve... What they do not need is 24/7 in-your-face-twits of media people crawling all over the town and the campus, sticking a microphone in the face of whomever they meet. They do not need to see a madman ranting over and over on TV. As a person ...

They say one should not drink and drive but what about drinking blogging? I do not think that they are laws governing that. If so, I would be in trouble tonight. But despite the fact that my fingers can not find the keys I am compelled to write. I have a friend who has had to quit his job because the people he works for are beyond stupid, beyond compassionate, beyond having the ability to think of others besides themselves and the kicker is that they are the board of directors of a nonprofit organization who should know better because they are goaled with the mission of helping those most in need. They approved his vacation time when his was hired because he was honest and told them that he had tickets to an expensive, exclusive event. And yet after he took said time they docked his pay because (get this) another person in the office also took time during the same week. And well, she has worked there longer - despite the fact that his time was on the docket first or that he followed th...

Doing the right then, being conscientious gets you nowhere... it only brings more frustration, anxiety and grief. Case in point. Trying to do the right thing by my volunteers, tying up loose ends and such before departure. Had a thing all arranged (or so I thought) for a staff member to speak at an important event next week. Find out today she double-booked herself and won't be there after all. Now since I can't be two places at once, volunteers are counting on us and we have a shaky situation in that community to begin with I am livid. I express these concerns and get told "thanks for your concern, we'll handle it". Basically don't worry your little head about it, you don't need to be concerned any longer you resigned. Well yes I did but I set this thing up over a month and a half ago and I'm not leaving for another 24 days so guess what jerks? It is still my responsibility. You want to screw things up after I leave that's one thing but you do no...

Oh this ought to be fun. Met with the person who is going to babysit my events through the end of this fiscal year today. She'll do fine. Interesting thing though is that while we were meeting a co-worker called. All of a sudden there is a hiring freeze. So the boss can't replace me with a new person who actually lives in this part of the region. The one who is covering for the next few months was a "floater" and that's what she wanted to be, she didn't want the job I had but now she's stuck with it. They didn't give her the opportunity to refuse it, told her "no". Kinda like when they told me I had to take the event from hell. This person has a two hour drive to get to that particular event. The volunteers especially one particular major donor are going to flip out when they discover there is NO ONE local any longer. They were already annoyed that the office had closed but I was still here so they had a point of contact. So much for the mone...

A weight has lifted. In less than a month I will be out of an extremely stressful job and beginning a new one. I can hardly believe it. It's been four and a half years and three and a half of them have been sheer hell. From office politics that resembled the Spanish Inquisition, to narrowly avoiding being down-sized (first I was, then I wasn't, then I could have this job, no wait the budget can't support that), to being micromanaged from afar this organization pretty much shattered my desire to work for the public good. I might still volunteer but if I do I can always walk away without penalties (like loss of a paycheck) if they get too demanding. For all its flaws the private sector has been much better to me over the years than the nonprofit world. And I do not mean merely in compensation. I will be working with other MBA grads and lawyers. Imagine being able to have a conversation about current events, being able to use what my mother used to call $3 words and not get bl...

Ye Ha! I have been offered and have accepted another position! I will be leaving the insane nonprofit world and going back into the private sector. So yes, as previously posted: the end is not only in sight but has come into focus and all that is left are the departure details. A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It has been a good day: Mom's surgery went well, got this great job offer, will be graduating with a MBA in four short weeks (counting this week) and so far the 4.0 GPA remains intact. Now if it would just stop snowing.....

Okay so I bought some pansies and some violas (they have a stronger scent) today and we had record temps. Now it is raining, a cold front is en route and we may have snow tomorrow. No one said "boo" about snow. Rain yes, colder yes but snow? Nope. Nothing. Not one word. Nevertheless the little perky flowers are all in pots and yes I did have to move them all onto the sunporch but I don't give a damn. I feel so much better looking at their little faces you can not imagine. There is something extremely theraputic about planting colorful flowers with smiling faces. I feel better for hours afterwards. Never mind the dirt under the fingernails (even with gloves somehow), the cats you have to chase away from eating the flowers or the inevitable rain. I just feel so much better about life, the universe and everything. So my advice is: whenever life throws crap at you - what the hell, plant pansies!

Okay so just did the taxes, used software of course, and with all the calculations and deductions and depreciations I'm still getting less back this year than last. So... home office hoo-ha? Big whoop. It wasn't enough of a deduction to really impact the bottom line. So all this frustration. All this aggrivation. And really not much of anything to show for it all. Well then, if this other job comes through all the more reason to walk away from the telecommuting situation. It simply is not worth it and now I have tangible proof. Sigh!