Month: December 2007

Ask and you shall receive…

Heard it. Twice. Today.

It’s official. The Hellidays are here.

So far I’ve attended two holiday lunches. I’ve received one two-pound box of See’s Nuts and Chews and given away two bottles of booze. (I’ve probably also “received” a few holiday pounds. Bah!) The celebrations continue…I’ll fiddle with the Christmas Tree while my desk is burning…however…

I finally convinced a certain cranky Director that “plan B” should be put in place…meaning “if we don’t get it done, we have a bridge to get through the holidays”. He fought me at first. Now he’s using the case I pled case as “his idea”. Whatever. It means I can exhale a minute and be ok. And that’s a good thing.

Meanwhile, all this holiday stuff and management meetings and such means I’ve been dressing up a bit lately. The dress code at work is mainly jeans and whatever top I can throw on. It’s a definite benefit of where I work. Comfy is juuuust fine.

So since my dogs have been barkin’ from wearing high heels and stuff, for the past few days I’ve been sporting my all time favorite pair of boots. Ariat Fat Babies are da *bomb*. My best friend turned me on to them and I haven’t looked back since. I love ’em so, they are comfy as anything.

Ooooooh the comments I’m getting from the locals over heah! Ranges from “hey, those are cute” (what with the rhinestones and all) to “OH MY GOD ARE YOU WEARING COWBOY BOOTS!?!?!?!?” Why yes. : coff, bite me, coff :

Days like this make me long for Oh Fair New Mexico where Rockies and a pair of boots are “dress up clothes”…

Happy Friday ya’ll…

It’s the most pain in the ass time of the year

The Hellidays. Yup. They are here. I got ’em all over me.

This is notoriously the hardest time for me to get through. I actually love the holidays but never get to enjoy them because it’s a race to the finish line at work. At the last three places I’ve worked, this has always been the heaviest work time of the year.

It’s why I began the tradition of listening to Merle Haggard sing “If We Make It Through December” every year, because, by god, if I can just make it through December, everything’s gonna be all right, I know….

When I used to work for Lockheed, every December was the time of year I had to decide which of my employees would get laid off, if layoffs got as far as our department. Thankfully, I never actually had to lay someone off, but the stress of making that kind of decision always put a pall on my holidays.

So I’m thankful I don’t have to go down that road anymore. My company is doing well, stock price is high, and we’re working hard. I had a minor breakdown on Friday listing all the projects that have to get done before December 21 (after which my company shuts down for the holidays). I started crying because I can’t get them all done. Being a perfectionist, this kind of stuff gets me…hard.

I had another mini-breakdown today and one of my trusted friends and coworkers talked me down. She is in the same boat and we agreed…what will get done will get done. What doesn’t, won’t. I won’t get fired, but it won’t look good. And that just has to be ok.

So in happier news, (keeping my promise to myself to have a happier outlook, please) I haven’t yet heard what I consider to be my “hallmark” of the holidays; the first time I hear “Feliz Navidad”. I mean, good ol’ Jose Feliciano is my own personal Rudolph, yanno? Haven’t heard it yet. It’s not the hellidays until I sing along!

Soon, tho, I know soon. I’ve already watched “White Christmas”, my other tradition, so I’m on the way.

How about you? What’s your “sign that the holidays have begun” and have you seen/heard/said it yet?

Image via.

Aggies oh Aggies!

Being a proud graduate of New Mexico State University means that where I live now, I am subject to blank looks when I respond to the “so, where did you go to school” question (it’s oddly a big deal out here).

Occasionally I get hacked on. And it also means, that still, some fifteen years since donning a cap and gown, I still feel rather bitter about the < expletive deleted > Lobos. As the chant from the Pan Am Center goes, “Luck the Fobos”

So today, while sitting in a boring ass meeting with hostile senior executives of the company that owns my ass, I had occasion to surf over to the ABQJournal. And I smiled.

Headline reads: “Aggies Dominate Inside, Give UNM Second Loss“.

See, three days ago, the women’s basketball team whomped up on the Fobos (thus breaking a string of twenty-two losses in a row) and then last night, the boys followed suit, issuing a 71-62 beating. Yeah, baby!

I know they get to do it again in a couple weeks (this time at The Pit(s) and that is always tough), but for now just let me gloat.

With little to be happy about (the Aggies are 4-6 so far this year) I’ll take this bit of joy.

It’s important to stop and give thanks for the nice things. Smell the roses, so to speak….drink a beer to my alma mater.

W00t!

Ok, back to work, but here’s the tune I’m humming as I walk to the next building for the next ridiculous meeting.

__________________________

Aggies, Oh Aggies
The hills send back the cry
We’re here to do or die
Aggies, Oh Aggies
We’ll win this game or know the reason why
And when we win this game
We’ll buy a keg of booze
And we’ll drink to the Aggies
Till we wobble in our shoes
A-G-G-I-E-S
Aggies, Aggies, go Aggies
Aggies, Oh Aggies
The hills send back the cry
We’re here to do or die
Aggies, Oh Aggies
We’ll win this game or know the reason why

In Memorium

Heartbroke is the best way to describe how I feel at reading the news in Duke City Fix that Mr. Powdrell, truly a legendary man, passed Sunday night at the age of 86.

When I used to work at Sandia Labs, the Powdrell’s location on Central was a common lunch spot for me. With pickles!

More often than not, Mr. Powdrell was sitting out front, watching the world go by, cooling off from that hot kitchen. I always gave him a hello and a thank you.

Anyone who provides eats that good deserves heartfelt thanks.

My thoughts go out the Powdrell family and the good people of Albuquerque. Wish I could remember the man by enjoying a big plate of his barbeque today. That’s the best way to honor him that I can think of…

Image via.

Follow up and updates

So thought I’d tack on to this post from last week regarding the fuel oil spill in the Bay Area.

Over the weekend I picked up the Friday edition of the The Examiner with a headline reading “Fishermen take to Bay as ban lifted”. Below that is a smaller headline “Officials say initial location of oil slick wrong”. I bought some coffee and grabbed a seat and got caught up on the latest. This story had dropped out of the headlines so I had no idea where it stood.

Long way around the barn, the fishing ban imposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger on November 13 has been lifted. The article says “…crabs and fish were found safe to eat…” but it doesn’t give any source, who did the testing, and what was tested. Pardon me for remaining suspicious. To add to the drama, the season was opened, but high winds kept most boats off the water.

Below this main story was a smaller one about how in the time immediately following the collision, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided projections about how the oil would move which proved to be wrong. It would be easy for me to sit here and take pot shots, however, I can’t. I’ve been on that water. I’ve sat by that water. It’s notoriously unpredictable.

At the end of the day, it can be described as “a comedy of errors” which often happens in these situations. And plans are underway to figure out how to handle it better next time.

I’m hoping, now, at the end of the day, the fishermen can still make and sell their catch and we can put this environmental disaster behind us.

In other news…cue “nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye”, the ABQjournal reporting today that the City Council voted to put a hold on the traffic camera program, meaning no fines issued until a decision is made in January about whether to even continue the program. Talk about a comedy of errors! Drive on good people of Oh Fair New Mexico!

photo by Karen Fayeth