Beth's Contradictory Brain

Two Reads

Two good reads today.

One serious - about Bob Geldolf and Bush visiting Africa and what Bush has done for Africa during his term.

One not Serious. Stuff White People Like.

Weekend

We're mostly fast forwarding through the Oscars, because Jon Stewart - not.funny.

I was thinking if the Oscars were as big a deal as Hollywood wishes they were - then advertisers would be selling million dollar minutes for them like they do the Super Bowl, but they don't.

Anyway.

We had a decent weekend. We balanced out our cultural evening a couple of weekends ago when we saw MacBeth with going to the DC Rollergirls double header last night. It was lots of fun! We were familiar with the current incarnation of women's roller derby back when we lived in Austin, but we never got to go see a match. I was excited to see DC has a league. The first match wasn't as exciting as the second, but it was all fun to watch. The crowd was a little tame, but at least somewhat interesting to watch. If you ever get a chance to see women's roller derby - check it out, I know they've got leagues in a lot of cities.

Heh

The last one is worth it all...

For My Girl

Yes, how neat!!

Sigh

Listening to the Democrat debate is making me sigh as loud and long as Ramen and Nerdstar usually do.

If Hillary really wants taxes to reflect the wishes of the "middle class" then on day one she'd stop all taxes on gas, alcohol, cigarettes and chocolate. Wouldn't that be nice?

And if Obama doesn't stop talking in circles I'm going to keep getting dizzy every time I listen to him.

I am jealous that they're in Austin and we're not. Although San Antonio would be much more appropriate for Univision and the Hispanic vote than Austin by far. Austin is pretty full of rich, white, hippy liberals.

Not That Bad

If you'd ever been in a car with me, or maybe just stood in a long line at a store with me, you'd probably be surprised that I'm not more like this. But I'm not that way online. Maybe it's because so many other people are, I don't feel I have to be.

Anyway. It's a great cartoon!

I Tried

I tried to quit my job today. I even handed in my two weeks notice. Then my boss talked to his boss, then he talked to me and asked if I wouldn't consider the part time option. I said I'd think about it, and he said we'd talk on Monday. Then it all went to hell part of this afternoon and reinforced my desire to just be done with the place.

But... I decided to go and talk to my boss's boss one more time and really say just how bad things are over in our little lab, and why. Last time I didn't want to say that my manager and coworkers are kinda sucky.

I think it was a really good conversation. She was really unaware of some of the things going on, and she acknowledged that my boss's management style isn't always appropriate for some of the problems. (He really just wants to be the nice guy and tells everyone what they want to hear.)

So starting March 1, I work MWF 7:30 to 4. That means I won't be working the last two hours of the day which is quite often when I'm stuck doing all the work. That alone will help a lot.

It also frees up Tuesdays and Thursdays for things like working out, running errands, cleaning house, and volunteering.

If a few weeks into the part time thing the office moral still sucks and nothing has changed, well, then I gave it a try.

3

That's the number of goddammned mother f'n hours it took both Nerdstar and I to drive home from work tonight.

They actually closed parts of highways because they didn't get the roads treated in time for evening rush hour when they knew all damn day the weather was going to turn bad.

Grrrr....

Fun

We had a short little weekend getaway to NJ this weekend. A few weeks back I read about this production of MacBeth on Neil Gaiman's website and thought it would be cool to go. It was! It was really well produced and the acting was adequate.

Then this afternoon we went to Kevin Smith's Secret Stash comic books store. Since he started doing podcasts we've become even bigger fans. He holds poker events there that we hope to go to soon.

The weather even cooperated today and although the winds were really bad, that was the only bad for our drive.

I'm not feelin the love for another week of work, but we'll see how it goes this week.

Hope your weekend was as fun!

FYI

Here's a simple explanation of the tax rebates.

Dilemma

I decided to talk to my boss's boss today. She was nice and explained that there isn't a budgeted position for part time and they really wouldn't want to split up a full time position into two part time - which I understand. She asked if there was anyway to work out me staying. I explained that I really need more time for "life" and that I'm burned out and don't want or need to work so much or so hard. I suggested that maybe working MWF might be ok.

I left her office feeling a little more optimistic.

And then... the end of the day was just more of the same old bullshit with one of my coworkers. Ugh.

That's really the heart of the problem. Even less of a bad work environment is still a bad work environment. And the things that make it bad really aren't going to change any time soon. And living in this area - jobs aren't hard to come by - even if it means changing fields again.

One little problem is just that I always feel guilty quitting a job. And the boss's boss really said how much they'd hate to lose me and that they're already short handed and how long can I hang in there... But even if I decided to stay I wouldn't get an answer about going to MWF for about a month.

Nerdstar is pretty much behind me if I quit - which is nice. I also feel a little bad - that it's not fair for me to not work while she has to work. But her job is way cooler than mine!

Anyway. If I quit my last day would be the end of this month. So I've still got a week before giving two weeks notice. What would suck now is having to explain why I want to quit altogether instead of working things out. It would be hard to explain the sucky manager, the useless co-workers, the being tired of carrying the load all the time when I'm not even a supervisor.

More to come I'm sure.

Oh My

SCARLETT Johansson (below) has a steamy lesbian sex scene with Penelope Cruz in Woody Allen's upcoming "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." A source tells us: "It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping." The women later have a threesome with Javier Bardem (below), who plays Cruz's husband. The film also stars Patricia Clarkson, Rebecca Hall, Kevin Dunn and Chris Messina.

I think I just came a little.

(As soon as I figure out where our Mac put the little icons from MT I'll provide the link to Page Six.)

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Well, I think I'm about 90% sure I'm going to quit my job.

I finally asked my boss today if there was any way I could work part time and he said no. Okey dokey then. You'd think since he's already short a person or two, and I work really, really hard, that he'd find a way to make that work. But, no. The lab doesn't have part time positions. There's a slight chance I'll talk to his boss, but probably not.

I haven't given my two week notice yet, and would pretty much need to finish out the month anyway because one of the other people is taking two weeks off this month.

I also think my manager was a jerk when he gave the early shift to another guy instead of me. I don't love the idea of working 6:30 to 3 because I'd have to get up at 5 am. But... one of the reasons I'm going to quit is that I'm tired of being tired, and I'm tired of not having any time do things I want to do. I get home from work at 7 pm and we figure out dinner, watch The View, walk the dog and that's about it.

I really, really need to start working out. (I don't want to talk about it.) And I'd love to do some volunteer work with these people. All of the opportunities so far have been at times when work interferes.

Nerdstar and I hit one of our financial goals in terms of how much we've got in the savings. My salary goes to things like vacations and fun stuff mostly.

I'm still hoping in time to find a part time job.

Anyway. I'm sure I'll blog more about this later.

How Cool Is This?

On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station.

Watch the video. Found via Throwing Things.