suzyness.com

This is going to be a short blog; I don’t have much time to write, but  wanted to give a small update.

I’ve been starting blogs in the mornings, only to abandon the drafts the next day. I have about 6 blogs started that have yet to be finished. Sigh… such a rough life.

I’ve been anticipating the ‘big push’ at work; but it has yet to come. My hours have been consistent… around 9-10 hrs/day. Not too bad; definitely managable. I think my fears stem from long hours and rough
work come from the years at PwC, where long hours meant 8am – midnight, at the earliest. I think PwC would have done well to invest stock in caffiene pills, diet coke & starbucks. They’d easily make a fortune off their employees consumption alone.

Alright, that’s it for now… like I said, it’s a mini-blog. I don’t care if it sucks, it’s better than I’ve been doing over the past few days. :-P

A label I’ve flagrantly ignored unless completely mandatory (suits,
formal dresses, etc). $2.50 to clean a pair of pants always seemed
absurd to me, and the return time to get clothing back was always a
pain as well.

I’m regretting that I ignored this label with a pair of my favorite
work pants. I’ve washed and dryed them previously, but always in a
different washer & dryer. The new dryer thrown into the equation, and
my pants came out of the dryer at least a size smaller.

This morning was a trying time getting ready for work… turns out
I’ve shrunk not only my favorite black pants, but another pair has
also fallen casualty to the new dryer (or, more appropriately, the
setting I had the new dryer on).

Sighh… the black pants still fit, as they were fitting loose before
I shrunk them. They’re just a bit *snug*.

So I’ve decided to retract my previous blog… on the condition that
dave comes to our next dinner party :)

Ben & I cooked an awesome pot roast this evening. Dave did not grace us with his presence this evening. His wonderful wife, however, did. She’s way cooler than him.

My pocket pc died on me this weekend without my knowledge. I tried to
sync up this morning, was prompted to “establish” the partnership with
my computer again. This is something you usually do when you first
start using your pda.

So, all of my programs, files, etc are gone. Luckily I sync up with my
computer daily, but it’s still a pain to reinstall the programs and
restore settings. Ughh…

California Brewers Festival .: Sacramento California :.

I had no idea we had anything like this in the area!! This is gonna be trouble… ;-)

Morgan had the following site highlighted as her “site of the week”; I think it might make it to my links page…

PARK

It’s odd how I live for the weekends. When I was younger, weekends
were always preferred over weekdays, but never as necessary as they
are now.I think part of the reason is that I’m needing more sleep now than I
did in high school or college. Back then, I could go off 5 hours of
sleep for weeks at a time, then catch up on weekends. Now, I’m zonked
if I get less than 8 hours; and it’s nearly impossible for me to sleep
past 8am on weekends. I keep thinking how great it would be to wake up
and have summer vacation back again :)

Weekends are now blurring the line between “unwind” and “finishing up
everything I couldn’t get done at home during the week”. Unfortunately
there is always much to do, too little time or motivation to get it
done. So I end up with feelings of guilt as I sit on my couch, enjoy
my air conditioning, and watch 6 hours of Divo’d cartoon sitcoms
(Family Guy, Simpsons, Futurama, Aqua Teen, take your pick).

I was a lurker tonight. I felt a bit ashamed, but I gave into the
little “Next Blog” button in the upper right hand corner of my
blogspot page (check it out… scroll up and look). It instantaneously
sweeps you away to someone else’s world. I saw things, or more
appropriately, read things that weren’t meant for my eyes. They
weren’t written with me in mind as a reader, but I wanted to see what
else was out there. It was an interesting stroll, but I only found one
other blog really worth investigating, let alone bookmarking.

I should be uploading the pictures I just got finished organizing. I
should be burning them to DVD. I should be uploading the NEW pictures
from my bday party Friday night. But, instead, I’m blogging and
reading blogs. In my procrastination and random stumblings, I’ve
determined that livejournal has now turned off the “email comment”
feature for non-paid users. So I’ve just gone back through some old
posts and found comments I didn’t even know existed! Knowing this, I
*must* be better about keeping up to date on my other journals.

Alright, I’m off to frolic in the blogging world a bit more. Have a great night.

x-posted to livejournal and blogspot

I came up with a great blog idea on my way to work this morning… but
now it’s gone.

There’s been some discussion between Ben & I regarding protected
right-hand turns (where you essentially stay in the same lane as you
turn, protected by a cement barrier), and whether they’re legal on
red. So far I’ve only been able to find one document at the DVM
website that even sites protected right hand turns here . It’s a type
of turn I make every day on my way to and from work, right near the
sheriff’s office, and it would be nice to know whether I should be
yielding or stopping. I’ve seen people do both, right in front of
police officers, and neither has been pulled. over.

I realized this morning that I’m passed the “go to school for free”
phase in life. Or, more appropriately for me, “go to school on govt
loans” phase in life. I took it for granted that I’d be able to go
back for my masters being fully funded by good ole’ uncle sam. I did
the math this morning, and came to the sad realization that I’m now
too far above the “government funded” income bracket to qualify for
even an unsubsidized loan. Let alone the fact that I now have a
mortgage and other bills to pay monthly, and can’t afford not to work.
The brief period of time I had to get my education for free (or for
loan) has passed. I’ve moved into the world of adulthood, and there’s
no turning back.

I’d still like to go back to school to pursue my masters. It’s a toss
up for me between going back for more business type classes, or mixing
it up and attempting to go the MSBA route (business with IT stuff).
I’d be really interested in learning more about SQL and programming
languages, but it also means a whole lot more work; when I’m already
feeling stretched thin and have little to no motivation to do much
more than veg after work.

Thursday is my birthday. I’ll be going to work, as usual, then meeting
my friends and family for dinner in elk grove. I gave a heads up that
I’ll need to leave “early” on Thursday night (“early” being 6pm) and
felt bad even mentioning it. I know it will be crunch time for
billing, so that means another early morning for me to try to get as
much done as possible before leaving. Friday night, Ben is taking me
to dinner for my bday (in addition to the awesome surprise
party he threw for me last week). Again, getting off work “early”
(this time “early” is 7pm to make it to dinner by 8pm). It never
fails, I have this horrible haunting feeling of guilt & responsibility
to work whenever I have other plans. Even when I’m leaving at a
completely reasonable hour, and will be putting in at least a full 10
hours at work, I still feel like I’m shirking my responsibilities.
It’s something I came to terms with while working at PwC; but it never
went away completely.

I’ve noticed with the last few posts that my links don’t transmit
properly through email, so if you notice a mis-placed link here or
there, it’s not because I’m clueless about HTML, it’s due to the media
used for posting. I’ll go back to fix where I can, but I’m not
guaranteeing that they’ll all be perfect.

After battling a maze of traffic outside Lowes & Golden 1 at Sunrise
Mall, Ben & I stopped at 7-11 to grab a refreshing slurpee.

At first glance, it seemed like it would be a quick stop. We went
inside, taste tested a few of the new flavors, and decided on our
choice. As we headed for the line, and girl our age rushed in past us
and hurried for the slurpee machine. Ben & I waited patiently in line,
I turned my back to the counter, in awe of the ;new “mega m&m’s” (55% larger than the
original candies);, which I pulled off the shelf to show him.
During our momentary distraction, said girl rushed up to the counter,
and crept into the ‘personal space’ gap we’d considerately left for
the patron ahead of us. Initially, I gave her the benefit of doubt. It
could have been that she just didn’t want to push past us to get
behind us in line. We were, afterall, waiting in line since before she
even came into the store. Events proceeded quickly, and it was
apparent that she’d taken our momentary distraction, and the ‘personal
space’ gap to her full advantage. Her boyfriend(?) popped back into
the store (apparently he’d made his purchases and left prior to our
arrival?) to ask her why she was taking so long. Her response placed
her in the ‘scary white trash’ group within seconds, and Ben & I
receeded. A few more minutes was nothing in the grand scheme of
things; besides, she seemed a bit off and I’d prefer her ahead of us
than behind us.

Regardless, the lack of consideration and ultimate “i’m always right”
attitude of this country annoy me. It’s bad enough that we hold wealth
and power in such high respect; consideration & kindness placing a far
second. It seems odd to me that a country like the USA, that possesses
so many opportunities for advancement, education and support of
others, squanders those opportunities away. While no country is
perfect by any means, the acts and attitudes of the people who live in
the country really dictate the overall feel and culture of the
community. When you live next door to people who have a complete lack
of respect for others, it creates an environment that no one wants to
live in. We live in a state where homes are so overpriced that a
single income individual can’t afford anything more than a condo;
supposedly a great place to live. We pay more homes here for the
weather, location, community… but the ultimate destiny of this
community depends on the people in it and their level of respect for
others.

I was born into a neighborhood that was fairly new, respectible, and
seemingly a good family place. Within the short 9 years that I lived
in that house, my family and I saw it go from a family oriented
community to one of crime, poverty and less than respectible
occupations. The owners of those homes saw their investments gain,
then plateau, then plummet in value. We got out during the plateau.

The lack of respect for self and others is what caused our good family
location to go so far south. While we were just trying to live our
lives as normal, decent people, others around us chose to turn our
neighborhood into one littered with crime and drugs. It’s scary to see
the demise of a neighborhood take place so quickly. And while there
isn’t much we can do about changing the attitudes and beliefs the
adults in our current communities, we do have an opportunity to reach
out to their children and create a better community for the future.

In California, it’s an unheard plea of desperation to ask that the
children of our community recieve a decent education and motivated
educators. Our government chooses not to reward the educators who are
responsible for molding the youth of society, and provides ample cuts
to the education budget annually. While there are still many motivated
and great teachers out there, it’s no wonder they so easily become
discouraged. It’s like telling someone to drive from CA to NY on half
a tank of gas. It just can’t be done.

Rant over… i’m out.