Category Archives: stuff

um Tool…. yeah. Last night was overwhelming and amazing and mind blowing all in one. I just stared with amazement at all that was happening, knowing I couldn’t see it all. My heart pounded with the beat that still resonates within me even a day later. It’s amazing to me that I missed this before. Deaf ear, closed heart. no longer.

I am completely bewildered by my own ignorance. Have I been under a rock? Have I been living in a cave? Was I just not listening when people tried to share before?? Probably. I think I just might be that lame!!!! In the past six months I have found more music that is new to me than I thought I’d ever like. I feel like I’m cramming for some final trying to catch up on all the stuff there is to learn when you discover you like a band. It starts with reading lyrics then on and on… I’ve found myself two and three hours later not having accomplished what I set out to, but having learned a shit ton about one song. Or something mentioned in one song.

It’s a bit epiphinal actually.

Lyrics like this describing my life and the music behind them mirroring the intensity. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had this happen before, where lyrics seem to describe me, we all have. Or some style of music just captures me but I hate the lyrics. Most often, for me, I don’t get the pairing. AAAAAHHHHH(angelic voices overhead) I have achieved pairing… and it is good.

Damnit… the cd stopped, I can’t have that.

I’m not sure where to start today. It’s really been too long since I’ve written anything. I’m pretty sure I could ramble meaninglessly for a while, but right now I’m just tired. I took a job I didn’t really want because my need to pay my bills overtook my need to find the right place for me. I have far too much energy and creativity to waste away as an assistant in an HR department. But alas I have no desire to be a failure and I am rapidly approaching. I guess I can’t take back all the bad decisions I’ve made in the last two months. Good thing I’m learning from them. I miss my best friend and am sad that we’re too busy for each other. I miss myself. I don’t know where I’ve gone.

As I start the downward decent to my last days at my job I am feeling totally overwhelmed. I had no idea this would be. I figured I’d be excited, which I am, but I am also plagued with my desire to be a good person. Why can’t I slack off? Why can’t I leave things un-done? Why do I feel the need to leave everything with nice little “Martha” style bows on top. They can’t even be that cheap curling ribbon you by at the drug store, they have to be a really nice fabric. I look at my desk and the piles of papers and I don’t even know what I’m looking at. I see my “in-boxes” and they are all full. My list of things to do keeps growing and I still work late when I’m out of here next week. Who does this?

I should be frantically searching for work. The bills aren’t going to magically start paying themselves. My gas tank isn’t going to be full on it’s own. But I can’t or won’t or whatever because by the time I leave here I’m thrashed. I don’t want to talk to people, I don’t want to see anyone, I just want some down time, but I never seem to get any. I’m still the reliable person who does what I should and what everyone wants. I thought it would get easier.

I am thankful to be leaving this place of negativity. I am thankful to have sunshine. I am thankful that the people I care about in this place are still going to be in my life when I leave. For today I guess that’s enough

It’s funny how a little bit of positive energy can put up the umbrella that deflects the old mans rain. Who was that I was thinkin about a few months ago?? or weeks?? I can’t remember.

WOW!!! What a freeing feeling it is to shed the negativity that has plagued me for the past three and a half months (since they chopped my pay…everyone’s pay). I can’t believe how long I made it!!! (yay for drugs!!!). I don’t think I realized how much being unhappy at my job was affecting my physical well being. No more. I should know these things… we spend a full third (or more) of our lives in a box. When that box is made of walls of negativity it finds it’s way into your pores. Not anymore, not me. I am free (well, almost), just in time for my birthday. Happy Frickin Birthday to me!!!! And I’m not even scared. At this point if I had anything to lose it’s already been lost. Now on to working on finding balance, strength and renewing my faith. God knows these last months have all but shattered it.

So in quitting I wrote a very appropriate and professional (given what I do and who for) resignation letter. It was to two people specifically that I care about very much. They have been encouraging and fun to work with. The big boss has been a mentor and friend and is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known in my life. I will miss the day to day contact we have, but I will see him often. We share a love of the ink and that is a very good thing. A brief excerpt:

Working with both of you has been my pleasure. I think I may have left months ago were it not for you and the unique relationships we have. We have been through a lot in the last year and I think that without your friendship I may not have made it this far. My overwhelming sense of connection to you is what has kept me here after losing the pres and my boss leaving. It has taken me some time to resign myself to the fact that it isn’t getting better. I’ve decided that no job is worth my health and mental well being.

I had to write the letter to them for several reasons… they are my immediate supervisors, but more importantly, I couldn’t write to ownership. I don’t think I could have figured out what to say. I would be at a loss for words given this is what was in my head:

Dear pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed, fuck-stick (stole that last one):
(oh yeah… that’s the managing partner)

Most sincerely,
another item in your loss column

Too much? Maybe I should leave it for him some weeks after I go. Regardless, I feel lighter and that’s good. It’s amazing… even my coffee tastes better.

When did dating change into hanging out? When did planning and forethought cease to be a part of the equation? I’ve heard that chivalry is dead and that women killed it…. I may be inclined to believe this is true. However, I won’t be satisfied without it. I was not a part of that group that decided men shouldn’t open the door or walk on the side closest to traffic or pull out your chair or help with your coat. I didn’t have any part in that and I don’t want someone who doesn’t know these basic rules of manhood. And I won’t be satisfied with “hanging out”. I’m not high maintenance – I get ready to go in 40 minutes including shower. But I have standards. I don’t want to settle. I did that once because I thought I should, or needed to, or that I was setting my standards too high. That relationship ended in the “we don’t talk and never will, I lost my ass and all I got was this lousy sweatshirt” section of my history book. (I kept the sweatshirt. I still wear it when I paint) The one that has the blank binding so my family doesn’t see it and it doesn’t get brought up anymore.


Anyhow…….. I had been anticipating Friday night. I wasn’t overly excited (I am a practical girl) but I was looking forward. We had talked in advance, even about this very subject. It was brought up about who makes plans (the one who does the asking does the planning) what I might like to do (always good to find out if I’m afraid of heights before you take me skydiving) where I would not like to go… This last one is key. Maybe even more key that my intense fear of being thrust from a plane at frightening speed. When you live in Smalltown, USA and you are a person who socializes in the community, you tend to know quite a few people. I’m not saying I am popular or anything like that, I just know a ton of people. I walk into my local watering hole on any given night and know probably half the people there and the bartenders. Smalltown. So I did not want to go to the pub. If you are trying to get to know someone, it is hard when you can’t talk to them because everyone else is coming to say hi. So I was let down. I did have a good time. I laughed a lot, drank a little lot and felt comfortable. But I was let down. It wasn’t what I had hoped or expected. There was nothing planned, I was asked where I wanted to go (we had totally talked about my not wanting to pick) and we ended up at the pub (thus the drinking).


I am not a person that dates much. I can count the number of actual dates I have had in my adult life on 1 hand (yes 1). I’m not counting the stupid stuff you do when you are 16, even then, I’m still on 1 hand. So maybe my expectations were too high. I know it wasn’t the right guy. (we’ll be great friends, but nothing more) Maybe I’m just sad that I don’t get taken on real dates. Maybe I am looking for someone that doesn’t exist. Maybe I need help. What’s a girl to do??? Online dating is out, blind dating is out that leaves meeting people. I’m not scared.

It’s raining it’s pouring the old man is snoring……

I remember singing that song as a kid. It’s funny we have no clue that when it rains it really does pour. It doesn’t always have to be in the “shit! It’s all dumping on my head at once and I can’t get dry to save my life” kind of way. It can be in a “woah! Where did all these boys come from, when just yesterday there were none to be found in a 150 mile radius” kind of way. Good or bad right now I am soaked to the bone and I don’t see any buildings with awnings ahead and my umbrella won’t open.

On the downpour side…. Have you had that time at work or home where it doesn’t matter… it doesn’t matter how many good things you do, or what is positive that is produced from your cubicle, all that gets noticed or noted is the fuck-ups? I was late last week… almost everyday. I admit it, I was late… I can admit when I’m wrong (I had made known I didn’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t work at the ass crack of dawn, yet they made me anyway). 10 minutes or so, except one day that was a half hour. So I got a “verbal” warning… that I had to sign. How is that a verbal warning? If it is written down and nowhere on the paper does it say “verbal warning” then isn’t that a written warning? In the middle of the morning when I was dealing with a logistical nightmare, entering PO’s and running a report when I was asked to make a dinner reservation. I wrote it on a post-it and promptly forgot to do it. This could have been horribly embarrassing, except there were plenty of tables and all was well. But (there’s always a butt…) the boss felt the need to call me to tell me I forgot and how embarrassed he would have been, if there weren’t a table, but there was. Even the littlest mistake becomes huge. (maybe this is my karma for my “jeremiah was a bullfrog blog”. … if I deserve it I deserve it.) I think at some point there should be a break. Some things deserve to be noticed and dealt with accordingly. Others can be let go. Passive aggression people! Just don’t talk to me for a day and be fine on Monday… How hard is it really? I do good work. I am a producer. And there in lies the problem. We continue to produce and never get appreciated and never get thanked, yet we get cut down for our littlest mistake… but we STILL PRODUCE. What motivation does this provide?? Flip the coin and you’re fired and there’s the motivation. So I continue to walk in the rain. Maybe if I whistle no one will notice the little things. Ya think??

On the sprinkling with short bursts of sunshine side… It’s raining men. In my journal on Tuesday I wrote about this boy I met and how funny he is and how he asked me out on a date. (What is a date??? I thought this was a fruit that is way to sweet with a pit that breaks teeth… ) So I said yes. All day I thought about going out, but not in the overly excited way, just in a looking forward way. Then I wrote the following… Even still I think about BK and wish I didn’t miss WC. I put my journal down and started to read…. My phone started buzzing and it was a text from a boy I had met three weeks earlier. (I hadn’t gotten my hopes up, so I wasn’t disappointed when he never called…. hhmmm) We texted back and forth… he’s been gone for his job (this is usual for him) and will I be around next week… yup. Curious. The next morning I open my email to find a note from the one I miss. Telling me he misses me and thanking me for my Christmas gift – it’s come in handy on his vacation. He’d love to see me when he gets back. (We’ve remained friends, but I still feel the weight of my mistake in letting him go). Then a call from BK… (were they reading my journal????) and lots of texts and emails from the date?

The old man was waking up from his slumber on the home front…. The scales of home and work seem to be moving up and down… kinda like a see-saw. Now if I can find the balance to stand in the middle. Maybe I’ll use the faulty umbrella as a cane to keep me from falling and it will help with the step. If someone can teach me to whistle I’ll be doin really good and maybe, just maybe ….. all can be right with the world.

So I had some random thoughts…

There are more things I’m wondering, but I’m tired.

There is a sadness that is hanging thick in the air around me. That positive energy that once was is no more. I talk about it, I think about it, I say I will bring it with me and I do… but when the threshold is crossed the vortex of this place takes what was and removes all traces leaving only what is… sadness. Deep and seeded. I can site the people around me and the marked changes within them, within me. The closest friend I have in the world that surrounds me from 8 to 5 is falling, struggling, hurting, in pain. I hate it. This makes me feel all these things. Makes me want to sooth and protect and be the save-er. I can’t. I know this. I go too far, have gone to far. Those outside my inner circle point this out to me (painfully) – ‘you give too much… you take on guilt that you shouldn’t. you can’t fix things for everyone, and that’s okay.’ But is it okay? What if I want to fix it? I want it to be better, I want to feel better.

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse
When the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
If you never try you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I…

Tears stream down on your face
I promise you I will learn from the mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I…

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

I’m learning hard lessons. I asked for them, I almost begged for them. I threw my hands up and shouted ‘IS THAT ALL YA GOT!!!!‘ that wasn’t all, there is always more.