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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-07-19 - 7:48 a.m. What a day! I have several back injuries and some days, just giving up the comfort of lying flat makes it hard to get out of bed. Yesterday was one of those days. Fortunately, I have a high tolerance for pain and a low tolerance for whining, so I deal pretty well with it. I drag out of bed and decide, I just don�t care. I have work to do and no time to primp, especially since I�m already running very, very late. So I pull on a pair of jeans, old tank top with a floppy shirt over it, jam a baseball hat over my wet hair, and drive to work with the windows down. Yesterday was the day we took branch pictures. My branch chief escorts the camera woman in with a firm, "No arguments, we need pictures for the website." Me, "Um, well, sure � it�s not like I�ve even brushed my hair today." Work is fairly used to my eccentricities, and my branch chief is good at catching me at my worst. The day he decided to make me interview people I was wearing a torn up sweater from college days and Pippi Longstocking braids which make me look ten. Poor graduating engineers, all dressed in interview clothes, and faced with me. Somewhere soon, there will be a picture of me wearing a baseball which features a picture of Winnie-the-Pooh and proclaims "Bear of little brain." My branch chief says this is okay, because we want to give a realistic view of our work environment. Sigh. No, I won�t be posting that url. I�m juggling two projects at work right now. The first is a project called Triana , which is rapidly rushing to finish so we can put it in storage [but that�s a rant for another day]. The other is a proposal for a new spacecraft. That�s much more interesting, but we are plagued with poor technical leadership, so it�s frustrating. Our senior engineer just isn�t the sharpest tool in the shed, and as near as I can tell, he�s just waiting for retirement. So I ran from meeting to meeting yesterday [hey, if you want me to actually complete assignments let me stay at my desk occasionally!] which caused me to miss lunch completely. On the bright side, they were productive meetings and I was fairly high on anti-inflammatories and using terms such as �steppy motion�, �jumpy torques�, and �dude�. I love my job. But my Gen saved me. Kind Gen took my dinner order to Hard Times caf� and came by my house with warm chili and nutrious salad just after I got home. We were going to see a play, so Gen not only picked up dinner, she and Alan gave me a ride downtown. We were fairly good company, considering both Alan and I had had maddening days. Yay Gen � thanks for the effervescence! We saw a great play last night with Alan and Gen. Ibsen�s "Hedda Gabler." Judith Light plays a fantastic psycho-woman, a society wife who despises the strictures of the society as much as she fears scandal and boredom. She struggles against these conflicting forces, hurting others just to prove she can, because only pain makes her feel alive. She seeks , but lacks, the courage to live. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." � H.D. Thoreau�s Walden. J. Light really blew me away. This sort of art reminds us all to take the time to live rather than doing what society expects. After watching her TV work on "Who�s the Boss?" I realize the woman had way more talent than TV ever showcased. Of course, right now I need to run to another meeting run by the less than sharp technical lead on my proposal work. Sigh. One thing I suck at is suffering fools. My friend Mel can always tell just how low my opinion is by how dulcet my voice gets. Me to idiot: "There, there, it�s okay, anyone could�ve forgotten to check the units, and not realized there�s no way a battery weighs 2000 pounds" Mel, after watching idiot walk away: "Whew � you sure got dulcet on his ass." [P.S. Gen � the word from last night was "aplomb" meaning "Self-confident assurance; poise," � "It takes a certain amount of aplomb to crawl over and under several rows of crowded theater seats in an evening dress to find your car keys." But the lady found them, and didn�t even get embarassed.] � � � 
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