Friday, April 06, 2007

“It’s Bring Your Personal Demons to Work Day”

Isn’t that every day? (I do love my little New Yorker calendar – it reflects my sad brand of humor so well!)

For some reason I’ve been in a very annoyed mood at the Random Non-profit lately. I can’t tell if it’s because I’m tired and need a long vacation (which is true), if it’s because we are still rehashing the same discussions that we’ve been having for the 5 years I’ve been here (which is true), or if it’s because our workload keeps increasing with no end in sight or with acknowledgement that we are all having a hard time . . .

Layoffs suck. They suck for those laid off and they suck for those left behind. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how loyal you are or how well you do your job – all that means nothing to the managers when it comes down to dollars and cents. That’s the reality of being in the workforce today and I’m not sure how well all of us are adapting to that reality. I’m trying to, but it is not very easy . . .

I am taking Monday off, but I’ll have to run a few errands and start getting ready for Thursday – that’s when Mr. Random’s Mom will come into town. We have a few things tentatively planned to do while she is here and the weather should be much better than when she was here in August. We will probably take her to the National Cathedral, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the campus of Mr. Random’s grad school. We are also going to try to find her a few events to go to – luckily DC is a mecca for free lectures and discussions . . .

I just got an e-mail from my sister, who is about to leave Kuwait and head on over to Baghdad. She said she was a bit nervous about the flight into Iraq because of what they’ve been hearing – and they have to fly in wearing all of their armor. Please send as many happy vibes my sister’s way as you can! There is nothing I can do to help besides be encouraging and supportive, I know, but I am not going to be able to sleep well until she is back home – hopefully, just a year from now . . .

Tonight Mr. Random and I are going to the Good Friday service at our church. There won’t be many other choir members there, which petrifies me – I hate being the only person singing my part. I don’t want my voice to stand out, I just want it to blend in with everyone else. I do hope this service is not a repeat of last year’s service when they made everyone walk up, one-by-one, and hammer big long nails into a symbolic log cross. Can you say creepy and sick-sounding? Yes, I get the symbolism, but you know it makes me yearn for the relatively reserved nature of a Catholic mass . . .

I am loving that the weather is back to being cooler – I’m not quite ready to get rid of my sweaters and layers just yet . . .

OK, now that I have shared my personal demons for the day, I hope that everyone has a great weekend. Enjoy some jelly beans, marshmallow chicks, crème eggs and chocolate bunnies on me!

2 comments:

CS said...

You know, you'll have to do a follow-up to tell us whether your church did the nail thing yesterday. For my money, too great a focus on the horror - I'd rather go with the messages of compassion, tolerance, etc. Hope you have a good Easter!

Virginia Gal said...

Aye sister - the reality is no matter how hard you work, lay-offs are inevitable. One thing I learned from working in a company with numerous periods of bankruptcy and lay-offs, keep your head low, kiss the right ass. Sad but true.

I'm praying for your sister - can't wait to hear about Random Mom's visit to DC. A nice thing I love to do, is go to National Airport and have lunch at TGIFriday's (outside of security), get a table upstairs and watch the planes take off from this breath-taking view. But I love airports, that just might be me : )