lets talk for a minute about security in the workplace.

i know that we are living in post-9/11 society, and that security in the workplace is a huge concern, especially for companies with “sensitive data”, but i think maybe my company has taken it a bit too far. i went to the ladies room yesterday to find that they had, without any warning, secured it. which means that you can only get in now if you are wearing your security badge. now that by itself, is not my complaint. i work in a secured section of a secured floor, so im used to having to carry the badge around. my complaint is this….

first of all, if someone who didnt belong here managed to make his or her way onto this floor anyway, they could freely wander around multiple departments, but they could not use the womens bathroom. whew! i feel a lot better knowing im safe there!

secondly, and most importantly, they secured the LADIES bathroom but NOT the mens. what the hell?! i mean really, are women that much more dangerous than men? are they afraid that since we often travel to the bathroom in large numbers that we are secretly plotting to take everyone down? i dont get it.

somehow, i feel like i can claim some sort of sexism here…

the sun rises over a sleepy city
and i,
in a decaffeinated daze,
watch helplessly
as the day begins.
i hesitate,
but throw the car into gear
and step gently on the gas,
joining the race
reluctantly.
with frost on the windsheild
and sun in my eyes.

we press on
because we have to.

it truly is the little things in life that matter. every action, every moment has the potential to become a catalyst. the slightest hurt can ruin an entire day; the smallest praise can stick with you all week. simple pleasures remind us that, despite all the pain and confusion around us all the time, there is still much to be thankful for.

my simple pleasure on this thursday: a beautiful sunrise over red and orange treetops on a cool, crisp fall morning.

did you know that on every issue of Playboy magazine there is a “hidden” playboy bunny image? i kid you not, there really is. when youre done “reading the articles” in the magazine, flip to the cover and look for the bunny. its like a “wheres waldo” for adults.

even though i just set this blog up a little more than a month ago, i decided that it needed a little facelift. i was using a wordpress theme created by someone else with a little tinkering from me. this one is basically the same but with a lot of tinkering from me. i used the original for the php framework and thats about it. the colors and graphics are all mine. do me a favor and let me know what you think, i want constructive criticism. i promise i wont yell at you for it….too much.

i replaced the oil bottle in my glade plug-in fan today. its funny how the mind works. a strong scent of glade “clean linen” really helps me to study. why you ask? because i used to run a glade plug-in religiously in my college apartment senior year. so i now relate the smell of clean linen with late night studying. so when i plug it in, i suddenly feel incredibly focused.

and hungry for chinese food…

im going to steal a little thursday tradition from baltimore country station WPOC. every thursday morning they have “simple pleasures” where listeners are asked to call in and share the little things that really make them happy in life. for example, when you leave late for work, but the traffic lights are all green. or when a friend calls you just to say hello and see how you are doing. these types of things.

my simple pleasure today is waking up to the sound of an angry alarm clock and attempting to lift my arm to knock it unconcious only to find that my arm is trapped under my happy, purring cat who has snuggled himself up against me like a teddy bear. it made me smile—thats a hard thing to do at 6:15 in the morning.

please feel free to share your own simple pleasures as well.

an explaination for fridays post—
i was sitting at my desk at work on friday complaining how i was losing the will to live because it had been so gloomy and gray out for 8 days straight when all of the sudden a maintenance man came through our office turning off 2 out of every 3 light bulbs, effectively making my department just as dark and gloomy inside as it was outside. it was awful. apparently someone got the bright idea that that would make it more “natural” feeling in the room. why yes, yes it did. it did in fact feel like i was standing outside. all they needed to do to complete the simulation was to turn the sprinkler system on just a tiny bit so that it felt like gentle rain…

so yes. by 4pm friday i was going a little crazy…

captains log, day 24:

our journey continues without delay, but it has been 8 days now since we last saw substantial sunlight and the dropping temperatures and constant rainy drizzle have brought spirits down quite low. the situation grew still worse today as a good majority of our artificial light was turned offas well. whether this is cost-cutting or some sort of psychological test i am unsure, but we fear that this might only be the beginning of a series of similar events. we try to distract one another with jokes and song, but anxieties still run high. one man has already abanonded our cause, seeing the risk of futality in it, but many remain hopefull despite the omens. patiently, we wait the return for our efforts…

my only hope lies in the knowledge that…

the sun’ll come out Tomorrow! so ya gotta hang on ‘til tomorrow..come what may..Tomorrow Tomorrow!
i love ya Tomorrow! youre alwyas a day a waaaaaayyyy….

ya know how you wake up on friday morning and youre so excited that its friday that you actually, almost slightly, look forward to the day (that is right up until that point where you get to work and realize that the moment you were actually looking forward to is at the very least 8 whole hours away)? i really like that. and my fridays usually go really well and im even somewhat optimistic on them (a trait i otherwise do not possess the ability to even fake)...but today, it seems like my optimism just keeps on getting shot down.

it started off well enough..i woke up, excited that it was friday because friday is CASUAL day and i can just put on jeans and a t-shirt. lets not bother to mention the fact that i could wear jeans and a t-shirt every day if i wanted because no one really cares what i look like since my department is sorta like the cinderella department, they toss us in a locked room and make us clean up after everyone else but we have to do so quietly and invisibly because dear lord what would happen if a client was to spot us!.... but i choose to try to look somewhat better, though you will never catch me in anything remotely close to “business formal”. but anyway…i digress…

yes, it was FRIDAY and CASUAL day and then i looked outside and OH MY GOD its raining! but that was OK because it was CASUAL day which means i could also wear tennis shoes with my jeans! AND to add the cherry to the sundae, i had just gone out last night and bought NEW tennis shoes! it was just getting better and better. and then, i even got to work early because there wasnt much traffic, which is amazing in maryland on a rainy day. but then…

there was work. and there was lots of work. an uncontrollable mudslide of work. and no sunshine. not that i could see the sun anyway because the evil corporate stepmother puts us in a little room with no outside-facing windows. occasionally we can catch second-hand sunshine through the one window we have in the room, but today was just too gray. and they announced they were taking away our one little window anyway for “security reasons”. and then there was lunch. i like lunch. lunch is the highlight of my day. i look forward to lunch because, while i usually bring lunch, i walk to whole foods every day to 1. see the sun and 2. see if whole foods is serving anything better than what i brought and 3. buy a snapple for my ever so enlightening ‘fact of the day’. so today, i walked to whole foods, like always. but there was no sun. and they were not serving anything even remotely better than a lean cuisine. and i couldnt even buy a snapple because im supposed to lay off the tea for a while due to the life threatening kidney stone. it was all in all a very disappointing lunch. so then i skulked back to work and slunk into my chair and ate my little lunch in a box and then there was more mudslides of work which kept me at work past my normal 8 hour sentence, which made me especially grumpy. not even the fact that i was wearing new shoes could bring me up from that.

and youd think that my day would get better when i left work. youd think that, but you would be VERY wrong. i walked to my car in the pouring rain, then sat for an HOUR in traffic. 95 was at its slowest crawl in weeks because JESUS CHRIST THERES WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY AND OH MY GOD ITS TOUCHING MY CAR AND THE ROAD AND HONEY HIT THE BRAKES WE CANT POSSIBLE MOVE AN INCH FURTHER UNTIL THIS WATER THING IS STOPPED.

finally i got home. only to discover that my power was out. i sulked. right up until i realized that my neighbor was doing laundry…in an electric washing machine…attached to the same wires that my apartment is….so i called maintenance. 24 hour emergency maintenance. and he said he was out but that if i wanted to go downstairs and find the main breaker and flip it myself, that should take care of it…..

if i wanted to do it myself, i wouldnt have called thanks.

but i did. so now i have power again. so i can use the internet.

so that…was my day. totally killed the excitement of friday. but that is ok. because tomorrow is saturday and saturday is twenty times better than friday.