I find it had to believe that I have been doing this job for thirty one years. My working at the Library is all my daughter has ever known. Thirty-one years ago today a 28 year old me took the elevator to the thirty-fifth floor of Arco Towers to begin a new job and a new adventure. I had been working at Parking Enforcement, a job I still consider "A Season in Hell" for reasons which I will not enumerate, but to say that working with SOME of those people was a lesson in how NOT to treat co-workers.
I was only going to do this for five years. I thought I might get some budget experience then move on, maybe work for the CAO or the City Attorney. My job in Rent Stabilization made me appreciate how the rules and laws were created for the City and I thought either agency might be interesting work.
Then I got pregnant. Kate was a hoped-for "planned" child, but being a mother changed what I wanted. I really wanted to stay home with my baby, but the economy and other things prevented that. I guess I should be grateful, because having a job made ending my marriage possible when the time came. When I was off, there was an earthquake that damaged some of the Northeast and Hollywood branches to a degree that they were uninhabitable. I came back to relocate first my own office and then to work on getting the damaged branches into "permanent temporary" housing. We began a campaign for bonds for building projects, which passed and I spent the next several years working on building projects. Just as that was winding down, the Northridge quake happened and we were off again! 24 building projects later, I was a moving specialist. I had at that point moved more libraries than anyone in the country ( if you reason that the second building project was the largest ever undertaken and I already had a number of moves under my belt by the time that happened.) I was well suited to that job and it was a lot of fun. I kind of miss it, but given the current state of my body, I'm glad we aren't doing anything like THAT right now.
I think about retirement more and more these days. The job is not as much fun as it used to be and some days it is positively draining. I am hopeful they will bring in some new wide-eyed rookie I can train. My predecessor left a sheet of notebook paper with three phone numbers and the words "Good Luck"
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
I should be writing.
Really.
Instead I find myself playing mind numbing video games or surfing the same comments over and over.
I should be writing.
I'm trying to think positively about the world. The #me too brought up far too many memories of things I would rather not think of in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Not just the idiots in trucks blowing sickly kisses and yelling "hey baby baby" at em. I really want to explain that you are NOT going to attract a woman that way. I read a comment on a friend's page that said- in all seriousness- that men know right from wrong but do this anyway. I suppose it makes them feel "powerful" to demean and in some cases terrify other people. Sexual assaults are not about sex, no matter what you have been told, they are about power over the powerless; taking what you want because you can.
It's like stealing but what you have taken can never be replaced or returned.
I sit here, reading the news seeing all the reports of the terrible behavior of DJT and his tweets that he has "proof" he said otherwise. Stop with the thumb action and bring it forward.
We are waiting.
Waiting.
Yeah, right after he releases his tax returns and the proof of the Obama wiretapping.
He's up to something and it can't be good. He and that child in North Korea are about to get into another dick-measuring contest. This time, they may put the entire planet at risk, as NEITHER seems to understand that nukes will take out the whole planet, eventually. If you use nuclear weapons, the territory you attack will NOT be a prize for you to take, but a barren uninhabitable wasteland, use enough weapons and the whole planet goes. Maybe they need to read Neville Shute's masterwork "On the Beach" There were films made of it in 1959 and 2000, so maybe one of those might do, except there may be too many big words for DJT and not enough naked women.
Every morning I wake up and check the news to see if he is still in office. Mike Pence is probably just as bad, maybe worse because he is probably smarter ( there are species of carrot that are smarter than DJT, but that's another story). I keep hoping that Robert Mueller and Adam Shiff can save us.
Really.
Instead I find myself playing mind numbing video games or surfing the same comments over and over.
I should be writing.
I'm trying to think positively about the world. The #me too brought up far too many memories of things I would rather not think of in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. Not just the idiots in trucks blowing sickly kisses and yelling "hey baby baby" at em. I really want to explain that you are NOT going to attract a woman that way. I read a comment on a friend's page that said- in all seriousness- that men know right from wrong but do this anyway. I suppose it makes them feel "powerful" to demean and in some cases terrify other people. Sexual assaults are not about sex, no matter what you have been told, they are about power over the powerless; taking what you want because you can.
It's like stealing but what you have taken can never be replaced or returned.
I sit here, reading the news seeing all the reports of the terrible behavior of DJT and his tweets that he has "proof" he said otherwise. Stop with the thumb action and bring it forward.
We are waiting.
Waiting.
Yeah, right after he releases his tax returns and the proof of the Obama wiretapping.
He's up to something and it can't be good. He and that child in North Korea are about to get into another dick-measuring contest. This time, they may put the entire planet at risk, as NEITHER seems to understand that nukes will take out the whole planet, eventually. If you use nuclear weapons, the territory you attack will NOT be a prize for you to take, but a barren uninhabitable wasteland, use enough weapons and the whole planet goes. Maybe they need to read Neville Shute's masterwork "On the Beach" There were films made of it in 1959 and 2000, so maybe one of those might do, except there may be too many big words for DJT and not enough naked women.
Every morning I wake up and check the news to see if he is still in office. Mike Pence is probably just as bad, maybe worse because he is probably smarter ( there are species of carrot that are smarter than DJT, but that's another story). I keep hoping that Robert Mueller and Adam Shiff can save us.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
A war at home.
I really DO believe the Republican Party is waging a war on women. They want to "Make America Great Again" which I read as rolling everything back to the 1950's when white men ruled everything, people of color were servants and janitors and women were housewives who did whatever their husband said. rankly, they watched a little too much "Father Knows best" although I do remember one where the Anderson family helped their Hispanic gardener launch his singing career. It was like that on the surface, but underneath it was an ugly teeming mess.
They are trying, desperately, to control women's bodies, which they see as belonging to them, created for THEIR pleasure and to procreate. It's a subtle form of slavery, a way to keep all women down. I remember as a child, being told that women should remain virgins until marriage, but men should have "experience". That always confused me and I thought that there must be one woman out there having an awful lot of sex. It's peculiar , the thought that women who have sex are 'Sluts" but men who do it are "Studs". Recently I "unfriended" the widower of a distant cousin, who crowed about how only "sluts" needed birth control and how happy he was at the ruling that employers can withhold it as part of the medical coverage if it is against the EMPLOYERS religious beliefs. I carefully did not point out to him that his daughter had a baby without being married, which used to be an even BIGGER sin than sex before marriage. But I guess since she obviously wasn't using birth control, by that reasoning it's ok. Some women are given birth control to help manage their "cycle" as many women are, but somehow she would have been branded a "Slut", even if they are not having sex, simply because they need this drug. According to some "religious" people, women are cursed with menstruation as "payment" for Eve's "sin" I see this as another way men try to control women.
Until 1974 I believe, married women could not get credit in their own name. We could not vote until 1920. Despite the Lily Ledbetter Act. I am fairly certain that women are still being paid less than men. I was told that was "because men have families to support" Somebody need to check te facts on families that have NO father and women are the only adults. Maybe if these women had access to birth control, they would not need to be supporting families without fathers. In Colorado, for instance, they experienced an almost 40 % drop in unintended pregnancies when they offered the Long acting birth control to young women. But hey, they're "sluts" for wanting that, right, Republicans?
I see Viagra is still covered...
They are trying, desperately, to control women's bodies, which they see as belonging to them, created for THEIR pleasure and to procreate. It's a subtle form of slavery, a way to keep all women down. I remember as a child, being told that women should remain virgins until marriage, but men should have "experience". That always confused me and I thought that there must be one woman out there having an awful lot of sex. It's peculiar , the thought that women who have sex are 'Sluts" but men who do it are "Studs". Recently I "unfriended" the widower of a distant cousin, who crowed about how only "sluts" needed birth control and how happy he was at the ruling that employers can withhold it as part of the medical coverage if it is against the EMPLOYERS religious beliefs. I carefully did not point out to him that his daughter had a baby without being married, which used to be an even BIGGER sin than sex before marriage. But I guess since she obviously wasn't using birth control, by that reasoning it's ok. Some women are given birth control to help manage their "cycle" as many women are, but somehow she would have been branded a "Slut", even if they are not having sex, simply because they need this drug. According to some "religious" people, women are cursed with menstruation as "payment" for Eve's "sin" I see this as another way men try to control women.
Until 1974 I believe, married women could not get credit in their own name. We could not vote until 1920. Despite the Lily Ledbetter Act. I am fairly certain that women are still being paid less than men. I was told that was "because men have families to support" Somebody need to check te facts on families that have NO father and women are the only adults. Maybe if these women had access to birth control, they would not need to be supporting families without fathers. In Colorado, for instance, they experienced an almost 40 % drop in unintended pregnancies when they offered the Long acting birth control to young women. But hey, they're "sluts" for wanting that, right, Republicans?
I see Viagra is still covered...
Monday, October 2, 2017
Lack of sleep and other assorted ramblings
It's NOT sleep apnea.
I have been tested for sleep apnea so many times it's not funny. I'm getting tired of the testing, but I'm tired of being tired. Tired or relying on coffee and catnaps to get through the day. I GO to sleep, I'm just not sleeping deeply. It's probably the pain that is keeping me from deep sleep so I am on the surface of sleep but not down in the healing sleep my body so greatly needs.
I take as MUCH of the medication as I feel I should. It's tricky. My surgeon wants me OFF the medicine before he will do the surgery. The pain is ridiculous. Yesterday Chris and I went to Ikea to get bookcases for the spare room. These don't have to be the lovely lawyers style cases I have downstairs. I recently bought one at a yard sale so I have THREE downstairs ( I know.. I know...) I need to get my spare room in order before the holiday season gets here. It's a disaster
Off Topic, does anyone know an upholsterer who can tell me, Honestly, if my grandmother's chair is worth repairing? It is in a horrible state of disrepair and my husband says I have to let it go, but some of my best memories of her are tied to that piece of furniture. I am torn,
Anyway the new Ikea in Burbank is even more convoluted in layout than the last one was. You have to snake around the entire floor to get to things you need. There is ONE PATH. We found the bookcases that were the right size and the right color fairly quickly once we actually found the Room o' Bookcases. I was also looking for chairs, but Chris could go no further and sat down on one of the display chairs- they don't get mad when you do that so it was ok. I found some nice chairs to replace our dining room chairs which are falling into disrepair and cannot be fixed. I need nicer ones for the holidays. I am thinking about the holidays with a mixture of joy and sadness as most people of my age certainly must. I miss my family and will need to do something about it all very soon. Visits in the works if I can swing the time.
Chris and I managed to wrangle the boxes with the bookcases in them onto the flat cart. Remember this is IKEA so most of the stuff is DIY. I read a sign that said they will assemble it and deliver it, but it was more than the cost of all three bookcases put together so... no. When we got to the elevator I hit my own wall and cried out in pain. A very nice couple asked if they could help. I was embarrassed, but took their offer. There was NO WAY Chris and I could have done this without them. They cheerfully took over, rolling the cart to our car and loading them boxes inside. I must have said "thank you" a hundred times. I was practically crying, I was so grateful. Whoever they are, I hope something amazing and wonderful happens for them. They were so very kind.
When we got home, our friend and neighbor Gary got them out of the car and into the house. They will sit in the living room until I can get the upstairs room and the boxes out of the way. Most of the boxes are books, I think, so if we wan get the bookcases assembled and up the stairs and into the area where they need to be it will be wonderful
I have been tested for sleep apnea so many times it's not funny. I'm getting tired of the testing, but I'm tired of being tired. Tired or relying on coffee and catnaps to get through the day. I GO to sleep, I'm just not sleeping deeply. It's probably the pain that is keeping me from deep sleep so I am on the surface of sleep but not down in the healing sleep my body so greatly needs.
I take as MUCH of the medication as I feel I should. It's tricky. My surgeon wants me OFF the medicine before he will do the surgery. The pain is ridiculous. Yesterday Chris and I went to Ikea to get bookcases for the spare room. These don't have to be the lovely lawyers style cases I have downstairs. I recently bought one at a yard sale so I have THREE downstairs ( I know.. I know...) I need to get my spare room in order before the holiday season gets here. It's a disaster
Off Topic, does anyone know an upholsterer who can tell me, Honestly, if my grandmother's chair is worth repairing? It is in a horrible state of disrepair and my husband says I have to let it go, but some of my best memories of her are tied to that piece of furniture. I am torn,
Anyway the new Ikea in Burbank is even more convoluted in layout than the last one was. You have to snake around the entire floor to get to things you need. There is ONE PATH. We found the bookcases that were the right size and the right color fairly quickly once we actually found the Room o' Bookcases. I was also looking for chairs, but Chris could go no further and sat down on one of the display chairs- they don't get mad when you do that so it was ok. I found some nice chairs to replace our dining room chairs which are falling into disrepair and cannot be fixed. I need nicer ones for the holidays. I am thinking about the holidays with a mixture of joy and sadness as most people of my age certainly must. I miss my family and will need to do something about it all very soon. Visits in the works if I can swing the time.
Chris and I managed to wrangle the boxes with the bookcases in them onto the flat cart. Remember this is IKEA so most of the stuff is DIY. I read a sign that said they will assemble it and deliver it, but it was more than the cost of all three bookcases put together so... no. When we got to the elevator I hit my own wall and cried out in pain. A very nice couple asked if they could help. I was embarrassed, but took their offer. There was NO WAY Chris and I could have done this without them. They cheerfully took over, rolling the cart to our car and loading them boxes inside. I must have said "thank you" a hundred times. I was practically crying, I was so grateful. Whoever they are, I hope something amazing and wonderful happens for them. They were so very kind.
When we got home, our friend and neighbor Gary got them out of the car and into the house. They will sit in the living room until I can get the upstairs room and the boxes out of the way. Most of the boxes are books, I think, so if we wan get the bookcases assembled and up the stairs and into the area where they need to be it will be wonderful
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