doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
Archive for August, 2002
Monday August 26, 2002
0I was more sick than I thought. I was out all last week and am still not feeling great. I start vacation tomorrow and won’t be around for another week.
I’ll catch up to all of you just as soon as I can.
*hugs*
ah-ah-achoo!
0I have one of those dreaded summer colds. This one is a sore throat that extends into my ears, a runny nose, and lot’s of sneezing. I took yesterday off but since I’m taking a vacation next week, I felt bad taking any more time off. Besides, as I told Warren last night that I want to come in and INFECT those people who think that I don’t dress well enough for them. Heh. 
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I love TLC’s Trading Spaces. I’ve been watching it since day one. More than that, though, I love the BBC’s Changing Rooms and House Invaders. My favorite, though, is Ground Force. I want the Ground Force crew to come to my house and fix up my yard. I know it’s a rental but my yard could be SO cute!
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No water again today. They must be having some real issues with the wells (areyouastoler, I live in rural Arizona. 
) Luckily, I took a shower yesterday evening so I’m not SO dirty. However, Warren has an interview today and I’m sure he’d like to be *clean* for it.
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I may end up going home today. I am coughing up a storm, can barely talk, and just don’t feel good. Blech. We’ll see.
Ok..I’m off to visit as many of your sites as I possibly can. Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Which tarot card are you?
Tuesday August 20, 2002
0I have one of those dreaded summer colds. This one is a sore throat that extends into my ears, a runny nose, and lot’s of sneezing. I took yesterday off but since I’m taking a vacation next week, I felt bad taking any more time off. Besides, as I told AmberWitch last night, I want to come in and INFECT those people who think that I don’t dress well enough for them. Heh. :-P
–
I love TLC’s Trading Spaces. I’ve been watching it since day one. More than that, though, I love the BBC’s Changing Rooms and House Invaders. My favorite, though, is Ground Force. I want the Ground Force crew to come to my house and fix up my yard. I know it’s a rental but my yard could be SO cute!
–
No water again today. They must be having some real issues with the wells (areyouastoler, I live in rural Arizona. ;-) ) Luckily, I took a shower yesterday evening so I’m not SO dirty. However, AmberWitch has an interview today and I’m sure he’d like to be *clean* for it.
–
I may end up going home today. I am coughing up a storm, can barely talk, and just don’t feel good. Blech. We’ll see.
Ok..I’m off to visit as many of your sites as I possibly can. Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Which tarot card are you?
every woman has something
0A little update: The water came back on around 1 p.m. but I couldn’t get home until around 4:30 because I had interviews that I had to sit in on all day. After I got home and took a shower, my landlord (also the water department owner) came by and asked me to use water very conservatively for a while. I asked him if the wells were drying up. He said it was getting close. Ack! Our well is getting close to drying up? What then???
One final comment on this subject and then I’m on to another. SuSu, I understand that my life is easy compared to yours. I choose, however, to live in a place where I don’t have to haul water (although, if I were one mile to the west, I’d be hauling) and where I choose to have indoor plumbing. We all make our choices and when something comes up to change that choice that is out of our control, it can be somewhat disruptive to our everyday lives.
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I just finished reading Forever Sisters edited by Claudia O’Keefe. One of the short stories, A Matter of Gifts, by Cristina Garcia had a quote that I loved. I think it is a powerful reminder of how many of us, as women, should think of ourselves and how the men in our lives might be thinking of us. I’m going to write out a part of the paragraph to give you reference.
“Pepin, who adored Reina but remained an inveterate woman watcher over the years, admitted that he favored no particular female features. Cada mujer tiene algo, he liked to say. Every woman has something. The best lovers, Reina knows from experience, approach women this way.”
I like that. Every woman has something.
I have a keen mind, smiling blue eyes, long, naturally curly strawberry blonde hair, a good heart, and long fingers.
What do you have?
Thursday August 15, 2002
0You guys all made me smile yesterday. You have no idea how much that meant considering I felt dirty and gross! :-P A little update: The water came back on around 1 p.m. but I couldn’t get home until around 4:30 because I had interviews that I had to sit in on all day. After I got home and took a shower, my landlord (also the water department owner) came by and asked me to use water very conservatively for a while. I asked him if the wells were drying up. He said it was getting close. Ack! Our well is getting close to drying up? What then???
One final comment on this subject and then I’m on to another. SuSu, I understand that my life is easy compared to yours. I choose, however, to live in a place where I don’t have to haul water (although, if I were one mile to the west, I’d be hauling) and where I choose to have indoor plumbing. We all make our choices and when something comes up to change that choice that is out of our control, it can be somewhat disruptive to our everyday lives.
–
I just finished reading Forever Sisters edited by Claudia O’Keefe. One of the short stories, A Matter of Gifts, by Cristina Garcia had a quote that I loved. I think it is a powerful reminder of how many of us, as women, should think of ourselves and how the men in our lives might be thinking of us. I’m going to write out a part of the paragraph to give you reference.
“Pepin, who adored Reina but remained an inveterate woman watcher over the years, admitted that he favored no particular female features. Cada mujer tiene algo, he liked to say. Every woman has something. The best lovers, Reina knows from experience, approach women this way.”
I like that. Every woman has something.
I have a keen mind, smiling blue eyes, long, naturally curly strawberry blonde hair, a good heart, and long fingers.
What do you have?
water
0It’s one of those days. I wanted to come online today and leave an uplifting blog. I’m just not in the right place to do that today.
I woke up at about 3 a.m., sweating because it was so hot. Then, about 4 a.m., it was so dang cold it wasn’t even funny. I forced myself to go back to sleep (and that’s harder than it sounds…I have a hard time going back to sleep once I’ve woken up).
5:45 a.m. My radio turns on, NPR is sharing a story with me. I think to myself that I should sleep for a few more minutes but then think that a nice hot shower will wake me up.
Wrong.
No water at all this morning. I try to get water to brush my teeth. Nothing. No pressure, no water, nothing. I flush the toilet. All water is gone. I go to the kitchen thinking that maybe my bathroom is messed up. Nada.
I call Warren and the first words out of his mouth are “You don’t have water, either?”
*sigh*
It SUCKS not being able to take a shower before work. I HATE feeling dirty. My skin is itchy, my hair feels dirty, YUCK.
It’s different when I’m camping. Here, though, when I need to get to work, this just BITES.
I call the local water company. “Thank you for calling XXX water company. You may be experiencing a temporary discontinuation of water service. We are working on this and hope to have service restored as soon as possible.”
Hmmmm…ok. But what is wrong? Why did this happen??? There were no trucks down at the wells when I left this morning. They didn’t look like they were being worked on.
I can’t wait to go home and shower.
Wednesday August 14, 2002
0It’s one of those days. I wanted to come online today and leave an uplifting blog. I’m just not in the right place to do that today.
I woke up at about 3 a.m., sweating because it was so hot. Then, about 4 a.m., it was so dang cold it wasn’t even funny. I forced myself to go back to sleep (and that’s harder than it sounds…I have a hard time going back to sleep once I’ve woken up).
5:45 a.m. My radio turns on, NPR is sharing a story with me. I think to myself that I should sleep for a few more minutes but then think that a nice hot shower will wake me up.
Wrong.
No water at all this morning. I try to get water to brush my teeth. Nothing. No pressure, no water, nothing. I flush the toilet. All water is gone. I go to the kitchen thinking that maybe my bathroom is messed up. Nada.
I call AmberWitch and the first words out of his mouth are “You don’t have water, either?”
*sigh*
It SUCKS not being able to take a shower before work. I HATE feeling dirty. My skin is itchy, my hair feels dirty, YUCK.
It’s different when I’m camping. Here, though, when I need to get to work, this just BITES.
I call the local water company. “Thank you for calling XXX water company. You may be experiencing a temporary discontinuation of water service. We are working on this and hope to have service restored as soon as possible.”
Hmmmm…ok. But what is wrong? Why did this happen??? There were no trucks down at the wells when I left this morning. They didn’t look like they were being worked on.
I can’t wait to go home and shower.
abuse
0My disappointment with humankind is not restricted to abuse of animals, of course. I think that I’m touched most by this because animals have always been such a big part of my life and I can’t imagine life without them.
However, I cannot even fathom the horrors of the human psyche that would allow PARENTS to sexually abuse their children for an internet child pornography ring. I can’t even imagine. This is beyond my scope of what is conceivable. I see a child and sexual thoughts are the furthest from my mind. I think of fun and laughter and pure, pure love.
I’m sure if I dwell on all of this too much, I’ll lose myself in all of it.
There are good stories out there as many of you have reminded me. I’d like to think that my family has had a part in those positive stories. We do greyhound rescue. We have taken in pets that were going to be destroyed (pot-bellied pigs that have worn out their novelty, dogs that didn’t “fit” with a family, etc.).
I can remember as a child having a house that was often populated with people who were traveling cross-country and needed a place to crash. As I grew up and became an adult, my houses have become similar places. I’ve had people from all over the world stay with me as they traveled.
Charity begins at home as the saying goes. Warren and I were recently discussing street people and how we may feel a type of responsibility for them. I don’t feel it is my job to provide a life for them or to support their habits. If they are hungry, though, what is $5 to buy them a lunch? It gets some food in their bellies and they can at least feel some sort of satisfaction.
I know it’s controversial. I know some people feel that “those people” should get a job and take care of themselves. Sometimes, though, they can’t. Compassion can go a long way.
I’ve found that at my work the people who complain about a lack of respect are usually the ones who disrespect others. Yesterday, a co-worker was lamenting that people didn’t respect her or her role in the organization. She was saying that people just walk into her office with no regard to what she is doing. We have an open door policy here and it is expected that it will be ok to walk in. If you have someone with you, though, you should expect some decorum and the waiting person can either come back later or wait out of ear shot. Funny thing is, she partakes in the very activity she complains that others do. I can’t tell you how many times she has walked into my office while I was on the phone or working and talking with someone else and just started talking and made herself the most important person there.
We are hiring a new HR director for our department. While we, as HR employees, have some say, the rest of the school (I work at a community college) also has input into the hiring process because that person will be affecting all of us on a daily basis. Yesterday, we were talking to one of the candidates in a private HR interview. There are four of us in this department and the director would make five. I’m the systems analyst for the HR department and tend to be left out of the loop because I’m considered a “techie” and not an HR person. That’s fine with me for the most part.
So, we’re talking with this candidate and it’s very relaxed. She starts telling us that she wasn’t sure of what to wear to her interview because this town tends to be very non-formal but some people who move here from the cities try to make it more formal. The other women of my department all commented that they couldn’t wait for Tuesday when we weren’t doing interviews any longer so they could dress down. I laughed and replied that I didn’t dress up for other people’s interviews, that I dressed the same way I usually did: khakis or jeans and a blouse or t-shirt. I said that being a “techie” had it’s perks and luckily the college is very casual. The woman who was complaining about respect turned to me and said, “Yes, we’ve noticed. You would think that with as much money as you IT people make, you could afford better clothes.”
She said this in an interview. I was shocked but covered it with a laugh. The interviewee said that she noticed that IT people tended to buy more toys and lived comfortable lives, instead. I laughed more and agreed with her, telling them that I had fun toys.
I’m always amazed at what comes out of people’s mouths. I shouldn’t be, though. This particular woman tends to get her digs into me. I’ve been told it’s because she’s threatened by me. Whatever it is, it can be amusing to watch. I wish I were at more of a distance to watch it, though.
Tuesday August 13, 2002
0My disappointment with humankind is not restricted to abuse of animals, of course. I think that I’m touched most by this because animals have always been such a big part of my life and I can’t imagine life without them.
However, I cannot even fathom the horrors of the human psyche that would allow PARENTS to sexually abuse their children for an internet child pornography ring. I can’t even imagine. This is beyond my scope of what is conceivable. I see a child and sexual thoughts are the furthest from my mind. I think of fun and laughter and pure, pure love.
I’m sure if I dwell on all of this too much, I’ll lose myself in all of it.
There are good stories out there as many of you have reminded me. I’d like to think that my family has had a part in those positive stories. We do greyhound rescue. We have taken in pets that were going to be destroyed (pot-bellied pigs that have worn out their novelty, dogs that didn’t “fit” with a family, etc.).
I can remember as a child having a house that was often populated with people who were traveling cross-country and needed a place to crash. As I grew up and became an adult, my houses have become similar places. I’ve had people from all over the world stay with me as they traveled.
Charity begins at home as the saying goes. AmberWitch and I were recently discussing street people and how we may feel a type of responsibility for them. I don’t feel it is my job to provide a life for them or to support their habits. If they are hungry, though, what is $5 to buy them a lunch? It gets some food in their bellies and they can at least feel some sort of satisfaction.
I know it’s controversial. I know some people feel that “those people” should get a job and take care of themselves. Sometimes, though, they can’t. Compassion can go a long way.
I’ve found that at my work the people who complain about a lack of respect are usually the ones who disrespect others. Yesterday, a co-worker was lamenting that people didn’t respect her or her role in the organization. She was saying that people just walk into her office with no regard to what she is doing. We have an open door policy here and it is expected that it will be ok to walk in. If you have someone with you, though, you should expect some decorum and the waiting person can either come back later or wait out of ear shot. Funny thing is, she partakes in the very activity she complains that others do. I can’t tell you how many times she has walked into my office while I was on the phone or working and talking with someone else and just started talking and made herself the most important person there.
We are hiring a new HR director for our department. While we, as HR employees, have some say, the rest of the school (I work at a community college) also has input into the hiring process because that person will be affecting all of us on a daily basis. Yesterday, we were talking to one of the candidates in a private HR interview. There are four of us in this department and the director would make five. I’m the systems analyst for the HR department and tend to be left out of the loop because I’m considered a “techie” and not an HR person. That’s fine with me for the most part.
So, we’re talking with this candidate and it’s very relaxed. She starts telling us that she wasn’t sure of what to wear to her interview because this town tends to be very non-formal but some people who move here from the cities try to make it more formal. The other women of my department all commented that they couldn’t wait for Tuesday when we weren’t doing interviews any longer so they could dress down. I laughed and replied that I didn’t dress up for other people’s interviews, that I dressed the same way I usually did: khakis or jeans and a blouse or t-shirt. I said that being a “techie” had it’s perks and luckily the college is very casual. The woman who was complaining about respect turned to me and said, “Yes, we’ve noticed. You would think that with as much money as you IT people make, you could afford better clothes.”
She said this in an interview. I was shocked but covered it with a laugh. The interviewee said that she noticed that IT people tended to buy more toys and lived comfortable lives, instead. I laughed more and agreed with her, telling them that I had fun toys.
I’m always amazed at what comes out of people’s mouths. I shouldn’t be, though. This particular women tends to get her digs into me. I’ve been told it’s because she’s threatened by me. Whatever it is, it can be amusing to watch. I wish I were at more of a distance to watch it, though.