MONDAY MORNING MUSINGS…

listening to... “Change My Ways” by Jordan Knight

Meggie says HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!
Meggie after her Saturday grooming…

FIRST, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUSBAND!

Today is the Husband’s birthday. I suck and didn’t get him anything for his birthday. I should get off my lazy ass sometime and go out and get him something. It’s weird, I don’t go to stores and stuff unless I’m with him, so it’s a little difficult to buy him something when he’s there with me! 😛

I’m a lucky lady to have such a wonderful husband. He’s really a great guy. 😀

SECOND, THE PEANUT GALLERY

Irish, I had a great day off and my weekend was lovely as well. We had dinner on Saturday night with the in-laws and yesterday we both got hair cuts. 😀 I love the way Alberto does my hair… ::celeste::, I hope all is well with you. I’m looking forward to your new layout. 😉 And I hope RL calms down and returns some of you sanity. 😀 Take care… Luz, isn’t Spring Training exciting?! I love it! I’d love it even more if 1) I were there or 2) I could watch my A’s play!!! But as it is, I’m getting all revved up for the start of the season. Yowsa!… Jen, it’s more like what does the Sheriff’s Department need with a boat?! Don’t we have the freakin’ Coast Guard for that? As for layoffs, the whole threat of it just sucks. But what’s worse is that no one is telling us anything. It’s all heresay. If I am going to get laid off, I want to know about it. The most frustrating thing about the department right now is the way we’re being treated. We do all this work and we do it right and they think they can just replace us at the drop of a hat. Good luck with that, eh?…

THIRD, I’D JUST LOVE TO STAY HOME AGAIN TODAY…

But I won’t. I’ll get off my lazy butt and start the routine in about twenty minutes. Now that I’ve made my decision, I just want it to be OVER! I want my month or so off to relax, write, and maybe look for something new. I’m definitely going to take the time to write something. It’s my chance! The most time I’ve ever had off from work was something like four weeks and that was ten years ago. I had surgery, so it wasn’t like it was a vacation or anything. This time, it’s going to be free time to just unwind from YEARS of working. I know, we all have to work, but it’s going to feel so good to NOT work. 😀

And here I am with my new haircut

That’s me with my new haircut. I love taking the self portraits. LOL!

A’s 2, Anaheim 5

Oakland Athletics pitcher Barry Zito works the second inning of spring training action against the Anaheim Angels Sunday, March 7, 2004, at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

I wish I could be there at spring training. I want to watch the boys play ball! Ahhh, baseball…

BRUCE ALMIGHTY

Great movie! We just finished watching it. It was hilarious at some parts and then touching in others. Gotta love a movie that makes you laugh and makes you think…

AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING?

It feels as though it’s been a long time since I’ve been at work and it’s only been three days. I wonder if I will hold my tongue about my plans or if I’ll spill it all before the end of the week. I wonder what will happen. I don’t think I’m good at keeping life changing secrets. 😛

Am I doing the right thing? The words whisper and echo inside my head. Of course there are pros and cons to everything and certainly that’s the case here. I have a job that pays decent, has great benefits, and is interesting. But this same job is almost an hour away, set in a jail, and utterly soul sucking. I’ve kept my spirits and humor up for almost eight years. I’ve done a good job, I think, and yet none of the work that we do is appreciated. Instead we have the threat of layoffs hovering over our heads as the big boss talks about finding someone to pay for the gas in the boat that the department recently bought. Why do we have a boat? Did you know that the cost of the gas for a year would pay for my annual salary, if I worked overtime and more? Yeah, really motivating!

Blah!

A’s 26, Angels 3

Spring training. I love it! 😀

A’s 3, Brewers 4 (10 innings)

listening to... “Don’t Run” by Jordan Knight

Brewers edge A’s again… Notes: Chavez keeping his head, Hudson happy with debut…

I watched my first baseball game of 2004! I prefer to think that it doesn’t mean a thing that I watched the game between the Yankees and the Phillies. Right. I will not make a habit out of watching Yankee games, but it was such a thrill to watch some baseball. I love it!

A MOST LOVELY FRIDAY…

I called in a personal day. I was all set to go to work. In fact, I was picking my stuff up to go out the door. But instead I picked up the phone and made the call.

We watched some baseball while we waited for the DirecTV dude to come and fix our TiVo. I love TiVo. I’ll love it better when we get the TiVo that records HD-TV. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE HD-TV?! It’s AWESOME! The picture is so clean and clear. I can watch anything. In fact, last weekend I sat through the Hanging Coffins in China thing just because it was in HD. The Discovery Channel stuff is so interesting. 😉

We went out to the mall, had lunch, checked out some other stores, then came home. We didn’t buy anything. How odd of us! LOL!

I’m in the leaving mode. It’s a little sad. I wonder what kind of reaction I’ll get…

THE FRIDAY FIVE

listening to...

What was…

1. …your first grade teacher’s name? Mrs. Calais

2. …your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? The Superfriends

3. …the name of your very first best friend? Andrea

4. …your favorite breakfast cereal? Fruity Pebbles

5. …your favorite thing to do after school? watch TV

FRIDAY IS NOW UPON US

Thank goodness! Why has this week felt like the longest week EVER? I am so glad today is Friday and I am so glad it’s my Friday.

WHEN THE WAR IS NOT SUCH A DISTANT THING

I don’t keep up on current events. I prefer to amuse myself with sports and entertainment, but sometimes I’m given a shot of reality by the people around me. My co-worker’s boyfriend is active in the military and he’s about to get shipped out into all the shooting. She was talking to me about it last night. I think even though she’s worried sick about her man, she also has an acute appreciation for the things we might all take for granted. She said that while they were on the phone the other morning, she just listened to him breathing for a half an hour because he had fallen asleep. It must be so difficult for her. I just cannot imagine something like that…

THE WOES OF WEBMISTRESSING

So yesterday both kiari.com and walelia.com went down. What are the chances that both my domains would go down, albeit at different times, on the same day when they are hosted by separate webhosts? I found it quite strange indeed! Of course, the one that stayed up was my so far unused subdomain, thezone.walelia.com. Gads!

MY DAYS IN THE DUNGEON ARE NUMBERED

I’ve said it outloud, “I’m going to quit.”

What a freakin’ scary and exhilarting thought! But now that it’s out there, it’s constantly on my mind. Someday soon I shall forever leave that place, I shall take off that smurf uniform and never wear it again, I shall gather my personal items and empty my locker, I shall hear the doors close behind me, and I shall drive away.

Ahhh, freedom!

I will give them two weeks’ notice. When? I’m not sure. But I will say this, I WILL NOT TRAIN anyone to take my place. Will my friend take over? She might. She might not. And if she doesn’t, whatever will they do?

It’s sad because I do enjoy my job. I like the work! And I like most of the people I work with. Heck, I even like most of my sergeants. But the upper management has issues. For a few months now, maybe even longer, the air in the office has been slowly suffocating. The attitude by upper management has dampened out spirits. The utter disregard for our issues and concerns is demoralizing and disrespectful. No one listens to us yet we are the ones doing the work, getting things done.

And here’s the kicker: The department will be going through the layoff process for sheriff’s technicians. Hey wait, that’s my job title! Although no one IN the department has actually said anything to US, the head of personnel told this to someone who was attempting to be reinstated.

I didn’t get a notice of possibly getting laid off, but it’s only a matter of time. The department doesn’t like our position anymore and the attitude is trickling down to the upper management aforementioned. And even some of the deputies are starting to turn their noses at us. Before, when we were “just clerks” in our regular clothes, I remember one of the deputies saying that sometimes she thought we were inmates because we didn’t have uniforms. And now that we do have uniforms, we still get snubbed because the gray shirts think that 1) we aren’t good enough to be gray shirts or 2) we’re too lazy to be gray shirts.

How can one work in such an environment?

I have no illusions that my departure will hurt them. Maybe in the short term they will encounter difficulties, but they’ll adjust and the work will get done. Maybe they’ll put a deputy in my spot. Who knows? But isn’t it funny that when I’m not there, the mistakes that occur are done by the deputies? Is anyone keeping track?

It’s more important for the big boss to find someone to pay for the gas in his new boat that to find money to pay for the staff who’s working their butts off to get the work done. No, he’d rather “find” $50,000 (a year) to pay for GAS! Hey buddy, why don’t you “find” some money for us?

TV STUFF

Survivor – Well, can I just say that I’m glad that Sue is GONE? She was annoying as hell. I just couldn’t help but think, “He’s GAY! He did not violate you! He certainly got no jollies by rubbing against YOU, a woman.” Personally, I think she over reacted about the whole thing. Sure, it was probably gross, but it wasn’t assault. She was the one who chose not to walk the other plank– “I want this one!” she shouted at her team as they encouraged her to go the other way. Obviously some touching would be involved if three people were on the same platform. She should have said something right then and there if it bothered her. But no, she thinks about it for a day and suddenly she’s “dehumanized and humiliated.” Riiight.

CSI – We watched last week’s ep, finally. Woohoo, Nicholas Lea! Fine, he had like three lines, but he looked good. Yums! And go Catherine! I loved her reply to his “what are you in the mood for” question– “room service.” Oh yeah! 😉

A’s 7, Brewers 8

Blah, the A’s lost their spring training opener. 😛

SNEAK A PEEK…

listening to... “Tangled” by Maroon 5

I’ve uploaded some pages to my Charles website here. I’m not sure if that’s where it shall stay, but I wanted to see how it looked and perhaps get other opinions. 😉 I’m probably going to change the intro on the home page and I really do want a good name for the website. Otherwise it’s just going to be “Charles Mesure at The Zone at walelia.com” or “Charles Mesure by Kiari.” And those are just LAME! LOL!

I really wanted to put the site at kiari.com, but I have those silly dilemnas. Alas! But I’m also wary of putting the site up at walelia.com. What if Hostonce freaks out and shuts me down or something silly like that? Whatever shall I do? Blah!

PHOTO OF THE POST

From the backyard yesterday

It was such a lovely day yesterday! A bit cool and windy, but the sun was out and the skies were clear. I took some pictures in the backyard. I can’t wait until the flowers start to really bloom. So far we’ve had three roses try their hand and they’ve been a bit ugly. 😛 But it’s been fun taking pictures using the macro function. 😉

Oh, and here’s another one of the Saffy dog.

Saffy in the morning sunshine...