(For those who care nothing about silly French, it’s pronounced kest kuh-SAY)
Mood: perturbed. I need some inner peace today.
WHAT IS IT? What IS it with people? Not that I’m 100% organic all the time, mind. Wagons are rickety and the ride is bumpy for a reason. Sometimes, folks fall off. I get that. But over the past two days, all of these things have happened:
- I’ve been cut off twice by drivers who neither look nor care to look anywhere except where they want to go.
- I’ve been spoken to like I’m nine.
- I’ve felt insulted by the behavior of a few of my students.
- I discovered that my school district paid $4,000 for a battery of standardized tests that indicate nothing, solve nothing and mean nothing.
- Despite the fact that the Cleveland Browns are showing some offense and competitiveness for the first time since 1999, “fans,” hiding behind the guarantee of anonymity, continue to dream up and write the most vile, mean-spirited and cruel comments on the web, wherever possible.
- I’ve been lied to, and I knew it, but the liar didn’t.
Now that’s a couple-a days, lemmetellya. Where can a rat get some tranquility around here? Still, as is my M.O., I will provide you with two wonderful things:
- I had a great rehearsal last night.
- It’s JAKE’S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! (ya think I have enough !!!!s?)
Big boy is 7 today. Grammie loves him.
So I guess it’s not all bad, ja? Have a good whatever-it-is, fiends. Thanks for the listening eyes.
FO
“What is this that this is?” Correct? !n colloquial American English would this be “What the ‘heck’ is going on?” Since misery loves company, we’ve all been there at one time or another, in one way or another. Sometimes, I shake my head an roll my eyes about things. Sometimes I shake my fist. Sometimes I clam up. Sometimes I look for solutions, but often these things are beyond my control. But isn’t it neat that in the midst of these things, there are others that are loaded with love, grace and pleasure, such as the the 7th birthday of your first born grandson. Happy birthday to Jake! I know you enjoy him and all of your grandchildren immensely. What gifts they are! Enjoy the celebration of his birthday and his life! You’re a terrific Grandma (and much to young to be a Grandma)!
Yes, that’s right! As in English, the French colloquialize the phrase to mean “What is this?” I was tempted to add the word merde to the title, but that wouldn’t have been ladylike.
Those “other times” you referred to are saving graces indeed. I needed those this week, as it’s been a rough one in the “feels” department. You handle it, you try to move past it, and to paraphrase you, you look for the joy. And I have lots of that in my life as well, as do you!
And of course I’m too young to be a Grammie…or at least that’s what I keep telling myself. haha
To quote a Fink “lemme tell ya.” I recently got wrangled into coming out of pension-hood to supervise a project for a contractor friend of mine…in the flipping desert! He used the old “you’re the only one I trust” bag of garbanzo beans on me and I fell for it, that and I am really just a nice guy. Oh yea the money is ridiculous.
So…my Monday started out with eight, count em, eight laborers showing up 90 minutes late for the job start. This project is for a major, world wide player as it is THE largest automobile proving grounds in North & South America. That’s right, not just a little Mom & Pop organization; these people are real serious when it comes to security and job site protocol. The Guards in the security shack have real guns! Needless to say lots of hoops must be cleared to even get in the place.
So, one of my “hot buttons” is promptness and punctuality and I am sitting on site at the gate at 5:00AM waiting…waiting…waiting. The guys finally show up and they do so with an attitude, grousing about it being too early, how long will their lunch break be and can they be paid in cash daily. First things first, I tried to clarify that the hours for this project will be 6AM-2:30PM daily and as I am doing so one young man walks over to a bush, in front of the security office and starts to empty his bladder.
(OK, here is where I must confess that I drew upon and entirely different and let’s say slightly more expressive vocabulary.)
When I suggested that I needed to establish some ground rules for working on this project a young man of 22 years of age interrupted me and called me “Dude!” I have never been a Dude in my entire life, except when I am in a Big Lebowski mood, cause everyone knows “the Duder abides man.”
Twenty minutes later I fired all 8, called my friend and asked what Plan B was?
Ms Fink, the answer this week is in the form of a question…”Does anyone die?” If not, tomorrow will be another day. I wish you Peace when there is turmoil, I wish you Joy when there are attempts to rob you of yours and finally, I wish you Love that surpasses our feeble understanding!
Your Pal!
Unbelievable. What a rotten lousy day, with rotten lousy attitudes!! I’m glad you had the power to relieve the jerks of their job. When the first question they ask is, “Can I be paid in cash?”, you know where the money’s going, at least 5 times out of 10. Anyway, I hope you got some replacements with brains and a little more ambition…Dude.
Like I told RD above, it’s been a bit of an ouchy week for me, but nobody died, and I’m still standin’. (That’s a song, you know.) I just need to work on the “I refuse to give someone else permission to ruin my day” thing. It’s a work in progress, but coming along. I mean look, I’m all gray-hair-don’t-care now! That’s saying something, Jim!
HUGZ