Friday Five

"This one is patterned off an old Friday Five written by Songbird, our Friday Five Creator Emerita:"

(From my mind addled from lack of sleep , being up with with neuropathy and parasthesia from my personal boulder to push uphill, Cauda Equina Syndrome. (oh and a fever, I must have the flu. I DID call in sick for the first time in 8 months!)

"Below you will find five words. Tell us the first thing you think of on reading each one. Your response might be simply another word, or it might be a sentence, a poem or a story."

1. vineyard-growing up in an orchard including a vineyard. This time of year was heavenly with all kind of fresh fruit for the picking! And it smelled divine!

2. root- my relationship with my beloved has strong roots- I thought of that because I was watching Elvira Kurtz on "First Comes Love"- a LOGO tv show where she flys same sex couples to Canada and arranges marriages. Part of the vows- last night-the couple said "our relationship is like a big tree with strong roots and sheltering branches." Awww... I thought, ours too.

3. rescue-my beloved rescued me last night when I needed someone to hold on to.

4. perseverance-to get through the pain

5. divided- my Church-the Catholic Church and has been for a long time and me with it.

This one caught me at a vulnerable moment.

I Call My Boss Daddy

courtesy of Reuters:

"I call my boss ‘Mommy’
August 10th, 2007, filed by Robert MacMillan

We were struck by the survey of 2,000 executives in BusinessWeek’s
latest double edition featuring a 55-page spread (including ads) about
the future of work.

The survey yielded some intriguing insights into the human condition
while chained to the cubicle:

- Men and women, when answering what scares them most, picked China
(46%). That’s right. The whole country. Runners-up for both genders
were “Wall Street”(35%), “My spouse”(5%), “My boss”(7%) and
“My computer”(7%). At least they know their ways around computers.

- 90 percent of managers think they’re among the top 10 percent of
performers in their workplace.

- The places where people want to work, in descending order, are “The
place I’m working now,” “Google,” “the government” and
“Goldman Sachs.” In other words, the survey revealed that the
least popular option was the one with the quickest path toward becoming
a millionaire.

- More than 25 percent of workers aged 55 and up said they expect never
to retire. We know the feeling.

- And our favorite: 6 percent of respondents under age 30 said
they’ve accidentally called their boss “Mom” or “Dad.”

We also know that feeling."

I'm kind of afraid of China, too, although I really like Chinese food. I'd really like to work for Google, but I work for state government- oh well... And I would never call my boss daddy!

Holiday is but a Memory

I got back to the office yesterday and my counselors were lined up outside of my door. Well, not all day, but at some times. And I had two disgruntled phone calls that will require meetings and one confused walk in. I'm going to print some of my pictures to add to the gallery on my office walls to remind me that there are other places. I love my job, it makes me think and I can help people. I do work for the government so there is lots of policy and procedure and I am a bureaucrat (as I was called yesterday-Ouch)-can't be helped but I try to be a gentle one. Is that an oxymoron.
I'll just have to remember sunset at Herring Cove and the biggest Hollyhocks I ever did see.

Leaving Provincetown

We're packing our things and getting ready to leave this otherworld. The beaches and sand, the glacier ponds (warm for swimming) where we saw a big snapping turtle yesterday and may have made a connection for next years rental. The legions of same sex couples walking hand in hand. Our landlord is starring in a play about gay marriage and preaching at the UU Church! The delicious fresh fish and seafood. The kitschy souveniers we are taking back. All of it will I miss untill the next visit. I'm taking back a pocketful of e-mail address' and phone numbers to keep in touch.