TIWIWTJSF?

The above is a new acronym I invented -

This Is What I Went To Journalism School For?

Work has been a little better but the malaise passes slowly. I've been able to spend more time on projects I enjoy and not so much on the ones that were ticking me off. More good news - I had lunch with a friend today who gave me good advice and a good laugh.

It doesn’t matter…

One would hope we all are blessed with meaningful, fulfilling work – work you can be passionate about; work that excites you; work that has you rising eagerly from your bed each morning with an I-can’t-wait-to-get-started attitude. But alas, that is not always the case.

I am going through a spell at work right now where I have lost my passion. Work at best is meaningless and at its worst, stupid and irritating.

I’ve taken to amusing myself with little things – things that don’t matter but might give me a small chuckle at some point during the 8-9 hours a day my soul is slowly being sucked from my body. When that fails, my mental iPod plays show tunes (I don't know why - it just does). Below is a current fav.

So help me out – what do you do when you’ve lost passion for your work?

Bad day

It's a bad day when the only thing keeping you from flipping the bird and walking out is your dependency on your paycheck.

This song says it all.



Daniel Powter Lyrics
Bad Day Lyrics

Just a quickie

This past week has been one crazy day after another. So much to blog about, so little time! Here's a quickie update until I can find more time to sit still.

Why so crazy? Read on...

Work work work; busy busy bee!

Did Patton's troops ask him, "But why are we invading Italy from the South instead of the North? It doesn't make any difference to me."

Did they ask Hannibal, "Why elephants?"

Did they say to Washington before crossing the Deleware, "But I don't want to work on Christmas Eve! Can't this wait until after the holidays?"

I don't mind when people ask questions but what some people fail to grasp is that they are so far down on the totem pole they don't need detailed explanations on every little thing in order to perform each individual task they are assigned.

Corporate America is not a democracy or at least in some cases it shouldn't be. I don't mean to sound like a 1950s managerial throwback but there is value in the "shut up and do your job" approach.

Burned out on turkey?

Try a helping of lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise. Here are the last of the leftovers from the fridge.

Thanksgiving with the walking wounded
We had a very nice visit with my parents in Minnesota. Thanksgiving went smoothly – no family rock fights – which is good but doesn’t give much inspiration for blogging.

The only thing of interest is my family seems to be under some kind of “boo boo” curse. Back in June, my Uncle fell off his trailer while loading his Harley. His bike started to tip over and he had to bail…but unfortunately he didn’t bounce. Broke his clavicle and had to have surgery. For you Harley enthusiasts, don’t worry. I think the bike is fine.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving my Dad fell down the garage steps, hyper extended his knee and tore his quad. Yes – another surgery. I jokingly told him I’m sure there’s a 12-step program somewhere that could teach him how to walk up and down stairs. (hardy-har)

And finally, the Sunday before Thanksgiving my sister had a retinal tear and had to have…surgery. Earlier in the year she had to have cataract surgery on the same eye. She’s a bit young for this sort of thing – only 37.

All are recovering nicely but I’m really hoping, if injuries come in threes (kind of like celebrity deaths come in threes), we are done for awhile. Heaven help us if we start on the next batch of three.

Catching my breath
It’s been a busy busy week and we’re not even into the full swing of the Christmas season yet. Tuesday night my clown group had our holiday party; Wednesday Hubby had his last class of the semester; Thursday Hubby took me to a lecture about the Iowa caucus (he’s such a romantic!) and Friday Hubby had to go to a holiday dinner for work.

Tonight is my work holiday party. We’re hoping to be able to make it but Mr. Snow Miser has blessed us with a Dec. 1 ice storm. I think it’s letting up so it's possible we’ll be able to go. It mostly depends on if mother-in-law can drive over for babysitting duty. The woman has a hard time keeping her car “between the ditches” in good weather.

Last but not least…
Do you get e-mails at work where people abbreviate the phrase "follow up" like this - f/u or F/U? Maybe it's just me but it always makes me snigger when I get an e-mail with the subject line "F/U after meeting" :-O Just an observation...


Picture: http://www.swankola.com/md/jello/jell01.html

Sausage

I'm a "hired pen" - I write for other people. I take their words and objectives and craft/cobble/paste together a cohesive message to help them acheive the desired result.

Sometimes when you write for other people, it's a lot like making sausage - you don't really want to know how it's made. At least I'm getting the job done.

Creativity? Feh!

Cram it, ram it, pack it and ship it.

Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kielbasas.jpg

I will survive...

Today was my third day back on the job post maternity leave. Wednesday was rough. I said good-bye to Baby Boy's sweet little face at the sitter's house. Maybe it was best he was asleep. My short commute to work was very depressing. I was teary-eyed off and off through the morning. Yesterday and today have been better.

Reality bites
I'm still not happy about it. I still wish I had a magic wand to change things but...as I keep telling myself...it is what it is so until Tinker Bell shows up with her pixie dust I will just have to accept it. The one nice thing is my co-workers have been very understanding and are keeping my work load light until I'm on even keel again.

I keep hearing about these new moms who go back to work for a few weeks and then up and decide corporate life is not for them. They quit their jobs and blissfully become stay-at-home moms without so much as a backward glance. I'm jealous - I'm jealous of their ability to make that choice, to have that option. I'm sure it's a difficult decision...but they still get to choose.

In other news...

Thieves Steal $44G in Corsets, Erotic Costumes
ORANGE, Calif. — Thieves have twice raided an Orange County store that specializes in corsets and other costumes, making off with an estimated $44,000 in exotic outfits. Jeanette Zinkan, a 69-year-old great grandmother who goes by the name "Miss Antoinette," owns Versatile Fashions, and designs most of the store's merchandise herself.

Hmmm....my grandma used to knit sweaters.... :-O

Empty calories for your head - Lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise

It’s been a loooooooooooooong time since I whipped up one of these. Enjoy!

The “C” word
I’m talking about clowning! I haven’t donned the grease paint since May for the March of Dimes Walk but I’m hoping to change that soon. I don’t have any clowning dates on the calendar yet but I will be attending a 2-day clowning seminar this weekend.

Hubby is working all weekend so at first I wasn’t sure about the child care situation. As it turns out the hotel where the seminar is being held is literally walking distance from my mother-in-law’s condo. She very generously offered to have all three of us (me, Darling Daughter and Baby Boy) stay overnight with her Friday and Saturday. She will watch the kids for me while I’m at the seminar.

The only thing left to do is plan some breaks during the day so I can nurse Baby Boy.

Got milk?
Speaking of nursing…I’ve been storing up milk in the freezer like a mad milk maid so I have a stockpile for when I go back to work. I had some production trouble when I was nursing Darling Daughter (my cup did not runneth over) so I’m hoping I’ll have better results this time. I love the nursing but hate the pumping – too sciency! The sacrifices we make for our children!!!

Church photo time!
We are getting our church directory picture taken tomorrow night! This is a big deal. Our church doesn’t do a new directory very often – about once every four years. Since Baby Boy didn’t arrive until late July, we were worried we wouldn’t be able to have him in the picture. We put it off as long as we could and managed to score one of the last available slots. Sometimes things do work out perfectly!

Count down
This is my last full week of maternity leave. I go back to work on Oct. 3. No – I’m not ready. The paycheck is nice but I really have been very happy staying home.

I need to call the babysitter to see when I can bring Baby Boy over for a visit this week. She is the same sitter we used when Darling Daughter was little so that makes it easier. I’m going to miss the extra cuddle time in the mornings. Life is about to get exceedingly more complicated.

Picture: http://www.swankola.com/md/jello/jell01.html

Surfacing

Another busy week has gone by. It seems I go from Monday to Friday in a single blink. So much has been going on and yet nothing I would consider blog worthy.

My writing muse just hasn’t been visiting me very frequently. I blame it on all the writing I’ve been doing at work. See…when you write for a living and most of what you write is taking other people’s words and ideas and creating coherent sentences, then by the time you get home you’re kind of tapped out. It’s like my word bank is empty and I have nothing left for me to be able to write for myself.

I have a little time now so maybe I can find a few words I haven’t used yet. Like noodles stuck to the bottom of the chicken noodle soup can, I’ll see if I can coax them out.

Busy busy busy bee
Work was better this week. Still busy because I’m backing up another editor but she is back on Monday. My desk looks like a hurricane hit it but I was at least able to sort through my filing box. The stack was getting dangerously high! Lives were at stake so I took a few minutes to thin out some of the more precariously balanced files.

Baby news!
Little boy has been very busy too! I’ve been feeling some slight movement for a couple weeks but now it is definitely stronger and more recognizable. I’ve also been getting a lot of round ligament pain – yesterday was the worst yet. The mommies out there will know what I’m talking about. For the uninitiated, it’s essentially achy muscle spasms because of all the stretching your body is experiencing. Mostly it is annoying but it can be very painful. I might have to do some stretching exercises this weekend.

Mother-in-law
I haven’t had any mother-in-law updates in awhile. She has actually been pretty good lately – not nearly as challenging as she usually is.

When I got home last night, Hubby told me she would be calling me later to ask if little girl and I wanted to go to lunch today. I was really tired and didn’t even want to think about it. I have a million other things to do over an average weekend so going out to lunch was not really on my radar, especially given the short notice. But…I was a good sport. When she called, I told her it sounded like fun and we’d be happy to.

Lunch was fine but true to form she floated a few trial balloons based on her own agenda. I’ve become a master at the non-committal response and conversational redirection.

Girl Scout Cookies
Our cookies are here! Yummy! We’ll see how long they last. I think these Girl Scouts have quite a little racket going. They only sell the cookies for a short time every year and then they are all gone. You feel you must buy a whole bunch of cookies while they are available, and then you gobble them all up really fast because you haven’t had them in so long. Then all you are left with is a graveyard of empty cookie boxes and overwhelming feelings of guilt. But you still look forward to next year when the little urchins come back with their order forms again.

Saint Patrick’s Day parade
Des Moines has their St. Pat’s parade next Saturday and I will be marching…IN CLOWN! If you’re in town for the parade, watch for the clown with the feather duster. At least I hope I will have a feather duster for my gag. I need to go buy one first.

I guess that about covers it.

Down the road! (clown speak for see y’all later!)

Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Scuba_diver.jpg

Shut up and get out of my cube!

That’s how my week began. Things are a little better now but my major project is still unapproved. Monday is drop dead day – one way or another it will have to be finished.

Give me strength!

Being pregnant makes things 10 – 100x more irritating so my fuse has been a lot shorter and my reactions to unexpected problems much more intense.

Things that have annoyed me this week:

1. Super cheerful people who talk about the importance of wellness when you're so busy you can't even think about your exercise routine let alone stick to one.

2. People who wait until the last minute to give you the info you need, which keeps you from being able to do your job.

3. Being too pregnant for your regular clothes but not pregnant enough to keep your maternity jeans from sliding down your butt.

4. The whiney little message you get when your e-mail box is too full thus filling up your e-mail box with more useless e-mail.

5. The whiney little message you get that prevents you from sending an e-mail because your e-mail box is too full.

6. The last minute request.

7. The person who stresses the importance of completing the task but doesn’t offer to help.

8. The well intentioned person who tries to help but inadvertently creates more work for you.

Hmmmm….let’s see…did I miss anything? Oh, yeah…

9. The scary music they play during weather alerts. What do they want us to do – wet ourselves and curl up in a fetal position? Criminey!