Thursday, June 30, 2011

Top 5 things I don't like about working in an office...

1) I can hear everyone's conversation about everything that has ever happened to them. I know when people's kids are sick, the their in-laws are in town, what they shot of the golf course the other day, etc.... I don't care... please step outside and finish your conversation there...where no one is working or on a business phone call.

2) Farting. I work in an office and people fart...at the their desks...... loudly.....and we have cubicles, not full height walls. If special lights were turned on... the air might actually be green, as if Pepe le Pew walked by... le stink!

3)Inappropriate work attire.... I don't own a business  and never really have, and I pretty sure that wearing the TIGHTEST jeans on the planet are not appropriate, no matter how sexy you are...ever! How tight is too tight? If I can see a hard line crease in your jeans where your butt meets your thighs, A) your jeans are too tight... B) you might want to eat some yogurt...I'm just saying...

4) Disrepect for others food and food containers. So while I am not prepared to storm into my office asking who drank my apple juice, I do wonder who used all my mocha latte creamer and who ate the last of my jello... I am watching...

4 continued) Also- if you lunch container is on the verge of being consumed by the next 3-D version of swamp thing, I suggest you throw the entire container away. Not me nor the enitre office is ready to get E.coli or some other alien bacteria because you can't  remember toss your chicken piccata turned oozy green/blue/blue mush with mold flowers.

5) Use of unnecessary force: see conversation below.

Office Manager: "You need to clean up your work in teh library. We have a lunch and learn today and we will need those tables."

Me: " Yes, I know.. I only plan to work for a little while longer and then I will move my work back to my desk. Besides its only 8 am and the presenation isn't until noon."

OM: "Well you still need to clean up your work, because we will need ALL of the tables for the presentation. Also, your department loves to leave all the chairs spread out through the room.... so you should be sure to tuck ALL of the chairs in at the correct tables before the presentation as well."

Me: "Um..ok."

I immediately clean up my space in the library and when  I go back to put the chairs away. The tables cloths have already been set out for lunch. It was 8:15 am.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Additions to the Gaines household...

.....soooooo..... the same week that HGTV blessed our living room with a much need makeover, two lovely white stray dogs entered into our backyard and adopted us as owners/landlords.

We named them Jack and Lucy. Lucy is on the right. I'm not sure if you can tell in the photo, but Lucy was riding low when she first arrived out the house. They both were starving and scared out of their minds. It took days to earn their trust and make them feel somewhat safe.

Lucy on the left, Jack on the right.


And within a week, Lucy gave birth to three fully healthy beautiful white puppies. Two girls and one boy. The boy is the one wrapped in Lucy's front paws with the wavy hair. This picture was taken the morning after they were born.


This is me with the puppies at 2.5 weeks. They were just starting to open there eyes.

Here are the puppies at 4 weeks in our bathroom with Lucy standing guard. She was never comfortable in the house so she would run in and out to check on the babies. Meanwhile, I sat in the corner stunned by cuteness.


We named them after there appearances: Curly, Fattie, and Tiny.


This is Fattie.



Lucy and the puppies in the "den" that we created with my cousins crate, some blankets, towels and sheets.


This is a video of the puppies at 6 or 7 weeks. We moved them into the breakfast nook of our house to start socializing with humans and weaning from the mom....The one howling is Curly. We named his that after is long curly hair. His new family that adopted him a few weeks ago renamed him Namche after a city they visited in Nepal.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Got PRIDE!

For the past two years now, I have volunteered for the LGBT pride festival in West Hollywood. I have typically volunteered in the beverage section serving beers (mostly bud light) to anyone in possession of enough tickets. What's soooo awesome about pride is the collective sigh of comfort and safety that everyone feels for those 3 days and nights. Believe me, no one is holding back there waiting for next year.

Crazily enough,  its that same self-expression that I find so amazing, that seems to always  have the community in the news for some type of attack on morals or personal values because of the choices its constituents make or for behaving in a certain way. Really, it's that big of deal if a girl wants to wear a tuxedo to prom or if a guy wants to wear a dress? But I also, kinda, understand the dilemna that some consevatives may have with the label of self expression. While I don't see anything wrong with a girl wearing a tuxedo or fading her hair, or adopting an overall appearance similar to a man's, I do see how people walking around in pasties or extreme latex panties that leave nothing for the imagination can be somewhat disconcerting. I don't know of any other festival in a major city where people can walk around naked and it's expected to be ok. Particularly, if children are around. But just because I don't choose to wear those things doesn't mean that they don't have signifcance for the person who does...I have talked to people who truly feel as though leather, studs, and all other sorts of things are part of their self expression.  So, would I want to  walk down the street in head to toe bondage gear, well no, but I will fight for the right for someone to do so (espeically if I have to bombarded with pictures and video of celebrities asses and sex tapes on tv and in magazines that have nothing to do with self expression and everything to do with exploitation). And of course lets face it, that's part what makes pride so much fun, the surprise and spectacle of it all.

Unfortunately, that same spectacle seems to reinforce bullying, violence, and enhance overall disregard for humanity.  I am not quite sure what makes people so angry, so filled with hatred, so upset at the ideas of the LGBT community that they are driven to violence. I am also not sure why they feel so personal affected by a community that they have no interest in participating with or helping. You don't believe that gay marriage is ok, fine, then don't get gay married (Wanda Sykes) . Why does it bother you so much  if two other people do? You don't think homosexuality is right? So what?! I think your open/closeted bigotry is wrong and hypocritcal. But I am not going to fire bomb your house, or beat you death with a bat... Is your heart just so concerned that they gays won't get to heaven because of the choice of their lifestyle? Well, that's on you, because its not a choice for everyone. Sure, its a choice for the drunk girl on springbreak who wants to show how awesome she is by making out with her girlfriends; but not for 5 year old boys who want to walk around in the mom's high heels or for the girl who knows that she was born into the wrong body and shouldn't have breasts or a vagina. Those are not choices; that is DNA expressing itself.

The entire organizational effort behind PRIDE is arguing for equality rights, equal protection, and limiting prejudice while in a safe and friendly environment. Their efforts, as a minority who can strongly pull together, fight for equality and try to sway policy are unparalleled in today's world, at least in my opinion. And as they continue to struggle, I will continue to fight for equal rights for everyone. I am so rooting for the gays.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Your view is important...

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.


Will Durant (1885–1981), U.S. historian. Life (New York, Oct. 18, 1963).