NaBloPoMo 2010

Thanksgiving is the one day a year on which I am treated even in some small degree like I’m special, and it’s the one day a year when I revel in being treated like I’m special.  And it’s kind of a weird feeling.

The mashed potatoes don’t go to the table without my approval. I’m not quite sure how that happened; maybe it’s the Irish I got from daddy and cultural stereotypes being jokingly applied. Whatever it is, not only to I get to taste and approve, I also get the beaters.

I also walk out of my aunt’s house with a whole pumpkin pie. Yes, every year she makes a pumpkin pie for me to take home. I end up sharing it with my mother and TGF but still, I am the only one who isn’t offered slices to take home. I think that’s pretty freaking awesome.

Every now and then I question this. I wonder what I did to be treated not only differently but, at least from my perspective, like I’m more important than others. Maybe it’s just the accident of birth. Maybe it’s my personality. I don’t think I did anything specific to deserve it and sometimes that bothers me.

Then again, as feelings of self-entitlement go, getting to check out and approve the mashed potatoes, and getting more pie than everyone else are not extravagant all things considered.  Regardless of why, this small little bit of “special” is just one of the things for which I am thankful today.

Now, I’ve just got to make room for pie. Given that I feel like I’m not going to eat again until Saturday, this might be tough.

I know Thanksgiving is a hard holiday for our friends and fellow Earthlings outside the United States to understand. I’m not sure I understand Thanksgiving.

The myth is that the first pilgrim settlers had a big dinner with the local natives in celebration of a bountiful harvest season and to show appreciation for the natives’ help. Every kid in the U.S. likely has a mental picture of Indians and pilgrims tucking in for a fine dinner of wild game, corn, and probably some squash though likely our 7 or 8 year-old minds blocked that out because eeeewww, squash.

No one ever really talks about the fact that the people already resident in what is now the eastern U.S. celebrated harvest festivals on a relatively pagan cycle 6 to 8 times per year. The other thing no one really talks about is the 1637 massacre during a harvest festival of a number of Pequot men, women, and children because the upright Dutch and English colonists suspected the Indians of having murdered a trader who had kidnapped some of their children. It’s not a story that goes well with pie and green bean casserole. [Read more…] about Tomorrow we give thanks

Last week I had jury duty.  I did not get seated for a trial.  What I did do was blow an entire work day in and around the courthouse.  Combine that with the fact that I am on furlough one day a week and my Friday was a little bit pressured with requests.

One of those was from a staffer in California who is a nice woman and always understanding when it comes to timelines.  She called me in the late morning to ask if maybe, possibly, I’d be getting to their request because the vote by the San Francisco City Council was this upcoming Tuesday. She was most sympathetic when I explained to her that I had been out on jury duty on top of being on furlough one day a week and remarked that it would be helpful for her in planning to know that I’m only working four days a week.

Having gotten no guidance from my boss, who is NewBigBoss, on how to let folks know about this, and having forgotten to ask him about it during our weekly check-in call yesterday, I asked him today by e-mail how he wanted me to handle letting folks know I’m on furlough on Wednesdays. His reply: “I’d just as soon not put that message out broadly. Staff will just have to give you the notice you’ve requested and we’ll work to meet it.”

And what this says to me is that they did not, in fact, offer the “compensatory time off” to everyone. They waited for people to ask for it.  They expected most of the staff would just swallow the pay cuts, and I suspect most of the staff did just that.  As far as I know, I am the only person in the DC office who is actually taking the furlough day.

So does this mean I have an over-inflated sense of entitlement or that my co-workers have no spines?

And in other strange questions: how long is it going to take the cat to catch the annual mouse?  Yes, we get slightly less than 1 per year.  The challenge is always to find the <ehm> remains before they start to smell.

Never take short turn-around freelance jobs at discounted rates. I’d say more, but I have to go make assinine changes on a short timeline for less money than they’re worth.