google.com, pub-4909507274277725, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 Slapinions: Misc Chatter

Search This Blog

Monday, May 19, 2008

Misc Chatter

AOL's being funky tonight. Despite working within their software I have been asked to sign in whenever I visit an AOL owned site, including Slapinions. What a pain.

* * * *

An anniversary of some importance today. It's been two years to the day since I witnessed a fatal accident at work. As cliche as it may be, it seems like only the blink of an eye since it happened. It was easily one of the worst days of my life (and please Lord, let it remain solidly near the top of the heap, never to be bumped down the ladder by something worse)

I thought of that a lot today, especially since an unexpected city inspection took me into the scene of the accident for a long period of time (and yes, the inspection was a coincidence. I asked).

As on that day, my prayers go out to the family of the deceased.

* * * *

Even now, at 10 o'clock at night, I'm bitter that it isn't Memorial Day. All last week I thought today was the holiday. And even though I had planned on working today I'd promised the kids they could stay at Grandma's last night and sleep in. Oopsies. Once I found out the true date  I was strangely disappointed and sulky about it most of the day. Big baby.

* * * *

Since Lu wanted to see the dance concert, me and the two oldest girls threw down for yet another three tickets to Lisa's show yesterday. YaYa really didn't want to go but sucked it up and held it together, and both of them were pretty darn good during the show. Thanks for that.

* * * * *

Word came to me today that a former co-worker from my years at the library has passed away. She was a very large woman of considerable girth. At right around 5 feet tall her weight had a crippling affect and even as early as 1993 she walked with a cane and stopped and wheezed every few feet when in motion.. She continued to deteriorate in my time there, to the point where she became known for soiling the office chairs because of the pressure the weight put on her bowels.

I was always nice to her - believe it or not, my other job did not require me to play the part of the bad guy nor did it make me bitter and snappish - but in the recent years my recollections of her have joined a sort of supporting cast in my head: the knife-wielding transsexual, the morbidly obese woman, the mousy super friendly guy who carried pocket notebooks, the homeless customers, etc. She became a caricature, and frankly I feel guilty about that now that she's dead.

But you know what really sucks? She was recruited, heavily recruited, in her home state of Iowa by Marquette University, attended the school here on a full scholarship, picked up two degrees including one in philosophy, and then wasted the rest of her life on an entry level civil service job and ate herself to a lonely death over the course of the last thirty years. She used to say it was Gods Will. What a waste. What a lousy waste.

* * * *

On a similar but less dire score, Saturday marked two years since I ventured into Weight Watchers. Six months later I had dropped fifty pounds, then quit smoking and put it all back and more. I don't know, maybe the smoking was just an excuse to return to the food I love. Who knows? 

But I reckon it's time to start trying again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meh.  Weight loss.  I lost 10 pounds, but I was angry about it.  I love my food, dammit.

~Amy

Anonymous said...

Love your blog, I agree with Amy, I too love food...I fight the weight loss every day....I had a latin teacher why back when in Washington High Shool, who was like your friend too, who also died from the weight related problems....just got to keep fighting and keep the weight down

Jeanne

Anonymous said...

I experienced quite a bit of funkiness (and not in a good way) on AOL yesterday, too. My welcome screen wouldn't show up, then it would, then it would disappear again...apparently something was going on. Glad to know it wasn't our laptop! Everything seems okay today.

I'm sorry for your coworkers' families, both the past tragedy and the recent passing.

Beth

Anonymous said...

Glad you were able to make it through the anniversary, your humor certainly must have helped :o)

We quit smoking about 1.5 years ago, and while I put on 25 lbs, I have been able to take off 10 of those.  So, a little effort, and I bet you will see amazing results.

Anonymous said...

how cool is it that you made all of these 'rambles' tie in together.  I wish my brain worked like that!

some people have 'addictive' personalities...I've got this crazy idea that replacing one habit with another might be a 'fix'.  If that's the case then maybe we can trick our brains into filling one old bad habit with a new good habit.  lol, who knows...I'll let you know if I ever figure out if it works ;)

You have a good one~
~Bernadette