Friday, September 23, 2005

You Have to Try This!

1. Go to Google
2. Type in "Failure", without the quotes
3. Instead of hitting "search", click on "I'm Feeling Lucky"
4. See what comes up...and then, have a good laugh and pass it on to brighten a friend's day!

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Blue Tuesday


Ever woken up sad and don't know why? Well, that's what's happened to me today. When I got up, I felt like crying (and if I'm being honest, shed a few in the car on the way to work) and I can't, for the life me, figure out why. I didn't fight with DH or anyone else. Everyone I know is relatively healthy. I got plenty of sleep. I didn't have sad dreams (at least not that I can remember). I even got to go to the Giants-Saints game last night and watch my boys win. And yet, I just can't shake this blue feeling. Granted, I've only been up for a couple of hours, but still. I hope it goes away. And soon. Because this sucks.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

9 Days Gone

Its been 9 days since my last post. And since that glorious day 9 days ago, I haven't had a moment of rest. . .

Beginning on Day 1, the overtime started. Multiple motions and memos had to get out to multiple partners and senior associates so that meant no rest for stina. Oh - and DH got sick...which meant a late night, after work trip to CVS for Nyquil and other goodies.

Beginning on Day 2, I apparently caught whatever DH had. Fun - now I've got overtime and sickness fighting over my seriously dwindling energy supply. Not to mention the $50 I had to spend to fill up my tank just so I could go work the overtime.

Day 3...still sick, still working overtime. Only this time I actually got to do my overtime from home. A sick day of sorts -- only I couldn't veg in front of the TV or sleep all day like DH gets to do -- he gets actual sick days. I remember what that was like. Sort of.

Day 4... no news. nothing's changed. Still sick, still working overtime. Actually, today its officially working weekends. Fuck.

Day 5...could it be a reprieve from my toil? A day of rest? NOPE! No rest for the wicked my friends...besides...it's Sunday now and the Giant's are at home. It takes more than a little sickness and tiredness to keep me away from the stadium. So tailgating we went. A couple of Captain & Diet's later and I was feeling mighty fine. Of course I probably should have did some more work or slept a little extra, but fuck that. I don't have season tickets so I can stay home!

Day 6...back to the trenches. Only now, instead of overtime, I have "ICLE". A torturous little program invented by the New Jersey bar that is mandatory if you want to become or stay a lawyer in NJ. The class alone would be bad enough - but there's actually homework. Fucking homework. Didn't I do enough damn homework in law school? Apparently not. Supposedly this ICLE thing will make me a better lawyer, but since the topics have absolutely nothing to do with my practice area...I think the real purpose, like so many of the rules governing lawyers in NJ, is to scare people from the City away. Don't want 'dem City folk comin' in and stealin' our bidness. So after a fun day at the office, off I went to the totally useless, first of many, 3 hour ICLE sessions. Oh - and I got lost on the way thanks to the equally useless directions that came with my ICLE schedule.


Day 7...pretty much the same as Day 6...too much work, followed by another equally useless ICLE session. At least I didn't get lost this time.

Day 8...today started out looking like it would be pretty awesome. Work was starting to level off. I was starting to feel a little better. And, to top it all off, I was going to leave the office at a normal hour and go shopping!!! (of course it was shopping for suits, for work, but shopping is shopping, right?). Plus, DH was feeling better and was making dinner (have I mentioned he can cook his ass off?). Like I said, awesome! At least until I went outside after work to find I'd left my driver side car window cracked during the day's torrential rainstorms. Great. Wonderful. Shopping with a wet ass, how fun. Of course, I still went shopping. A wet ass wasn't about to keep me from Tahari suits at 75% off. But I wasn't happy about it.

Day 9 -- so here we are. Hard to believe its been 9 days. At least the rain has stopped. I'm still swamped, and still a little sick, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Of course I'll probably have to make up the time I've spent posting here, but what can ya do. I only hope it won't be another 9 days before I have the time to post again. After all, I still haven't even told my stories from Hawaii, and we've been home for 6 weeks! Hard to believe. It'll be xmas before ya know it. But at least I'll get some time off.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

And again...

If you've been anywhere near a TV, radio or computer with internet access, then you know that there are massive unanswered questions about what the fuck happened with the Katrina response. Everyone is either pointing fingers at someone else or trying not to point any fingers at all. Well, everyone knows somebody fucked up...somebody in government. And having been a boss before, I know that when an employee fucks up, the boss is just as much to blame. Which means that Bush, whatever anybody says, is at least in part to blame here. He was in change. This happened on his watch. As a previous US president said, the buck stops with him. So you think maybe there wasn't a fuck up, that everyone did the best they could? OK - let's investigate. And who will be doing the investigating? Someone uninvolved? Unconnected to the debacle? NO, that might lead to real answers. The person who will be leading this investigation is none other than the person being blamed for the problem...Bush apparently will be investigating himself. Nice.

AND, if that wasn't enough...

Around the country, and even the world, people are being asked to make monetary donations to help the victims of Katrina. Do not head down there and actually lend a hand, they say, just give money. My question is, if I give money how do I know it will actually go to survivors? And the answer...thats right - you know -- I DON'T know my money will actually go to the surviviors. Because aside from perhaps the Red Cross, many of the charities seeking donations are recently created with no track record of any kind. That doesn't mean I won't donate, just that my donations will be in things people can actually use...water, food, clothing, schoool supplies, etc.

And speaking of shady charities, did you know that people seeking to make donations in support of the Katrina victims were pointed, by FEMA, to a "charity" run by none other than the pro-assasination, televangelist, allegedly reverend, Pat Robertson? Yeah - thats right - the same asshole who prayed for the death of Supreme Court Justices and the assasination of the Venezuelan president (who by the way was one of the first world leaders to offer aid for Katrina victims). FEMA though it a good idea for people to give Robertson their money so he could, well, no one is really sure what he intended to do with it. Of course, since this story broke (check out
Sploid) FEMA has changed its website (again, check out Sploid) to remove the referral, but still...what the fuck is wrong with our goddamned government?

I've got tons more I could say about this whole mess -- I was without a computer all weekend and just dying to wax poetic about any number of relevant issues, but as I am lucky enough to still have a job, I better get back to it.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Bush Strikes Again

Unless you have been totally disconnected from current events, you know of the disaster Katrina has caused in New Orleans and elsewhere. This morning on NPR I heard that Venezuela offered assistance as did other foreign nations. And what did our esteemed leader do? He puffed up his ego and said, nah, we don't need your help; we can do it all by ourselves.

WHAT!!!!!!!?????????

Nearly every single person in New Orleans has been rendered homeless. Gas prices here in NJ have hit $3.29 a gallon. Lives are being lost. People who were helping with rescue efforts had to be moved to police duty to stop the civil unrest that has erupted. And our president says we don't need any help? Perhaps if he'd given the city the money they asked for to update their levies this wouldn't have happened. But he chose to use that money to fight the war in Iraq instead. And, perhaps if Louisiana's national guard wasn't in Iraq...along with the money... there'd be enough folks to rescue everyone who needs rescuing and evacuate the tens of thousands of people stuck in a place with no food and no fresh water. But that isn't the case. The policies of our government may not have caused the hurricane (although some argue they didn't help since we are the worse contributer on the planet to the green house effect and refuse to ratify the Kyoto protocol), but the policies engendered by the right definitely contributed to the inability of the levies to withstand the storm, and have created a situation where there is not enough money or manpower for the rescue and cleanup that is needed.

I don't usually tell people what to do, but I'm telling everyone now that they need to give whatever they can to help the situation. Contact the American Red Cross for ways you can help (be patient - their website is encountering some seriously heavy traffic -- you can also call 1-800-HELPNOW). Or check out www.guidestar.org for organizations that will use your donations to help the victims of this tragedy. Just do something.

Oh - and most importantly - when the time comes...vote for someone that isn't tied to the current war machine.