Random Musings - Look Good, Feel Good

I've been feeling amazing lately. And it all begins with looking good! High self-esteem days are amazing for mental health, and while I admit to using my fair share of the EAP there's nothing better than feeling good about yourself to wipe off those rose-colored lenses.

I kind of love everything about everything right now. Mainly about myself. And it's not conceited to say, it's healthy. I like to wake up and go for bike rides, and I like to play with my pup at night after work. I also like to joke around with co-workers, and go to late night meetings and work on the weekends. Even though, I acknowledge the fact that my work/life balance is not perfect, I feel better about just about everything.

There's something to be said for eating healthful foods, and getting adequate rest. I'm moving in a good direction I think.

And did I mention...how good I look these days??????????

The Places I Go (New York Edition)

Bohemian Hall Beer Garden, Astoria (the post-Weprin special election extravaganza!)

Random Musings - New York ain't so bad!

So -

I dragged my sister out of bed to take me to the bus stop at 5am (sorry, Vanya) only to embark on a 4 hour journey back to the city. Yes, the city of Manhattan. I've been ho-hum lately about my recent placement here, but I'm realizing it has very little to do with NYC itself and everything to do with slightly more internal issues. And thus, I decided to have a happy outlook today. And it seems to be going well. Honestly.

I slept for much of the ride, but woke up right around the second circle of hell known as the Turnpike north of Newark/Kearny. You know...where it gets all eff-ed up? Yeah. There. So, I decide to turn on the iPod and tune out the ticking second hand on my watch that is practically screaming that I will not be in the city before 10am like I had hoped. Okay, so...nothing I can do about that, I supposed. Yup, let's allow Sia, Bjork, Wolf Parade, and Jay-Z/Kanye to wash over me. Transport me to a place where time stands still and I forget that I have anything to forget in the first place.

Then, while psyching myself up to the new Sia/David Guetta song "Titanium" I realize - "Ugh!! My butt has reached Numb-ville." But I shake it off. Literally - I move from side to side until it wakes from its inconvenient slumber. And I'm right back in my happy place.

Once there, I start to ruminate on more important things than how much it's going to cost to pay for my weekend parking at Secaucus Junction while I was in DC, like the fact that a total stranger has been sitting next to me for about three and a half hours, and I have no idea what his name is. I know he has an iPhone, and that he's wearing shorts with a hoodie and a jacket (are you hot or cold, sir?), but that's about it. I don't know where he's from, why he's headed to New York, if he's happy, sad, excited, or what. I suppose it could be true that even if I had asked, he may not want to disclose any of that information with me, but did I even try?

Well, unfortunately no. And it made me sad. I used to be such a social butterfly, even in the most awkward moments. I'm still a butterfly...flitting around the room, any room (you give me four walls, and I flit), but I have allowed myself to flit less in more circumstances. That makes me sad.

Then I realized I'm supposed to be in my happy place. So I snapped out of it.

But, I couldn't help but wonder if New York had done this to me. Or was it living in Philly? No, it couldn't have been Philly, because I was still a talkatoo-cockatoo down there. Then it hit me...it was my perception of New York that I was allowing to stifle me. That and several new observations about my daily life that have left me feeling trapped (but those are works in progress, nothing major, no worries). But this perception thing got me thinking.

We finally make it through the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus winds its way to 28th St, and I'm trying to build up the courage to talk to the guy next to me if only for the last 3 minutes of this bus ride. It turns out he's visiting a cousin in the city and he's only been here a couple of times. He also was supposed to meet him at 9:45 (our scheduled arrival time), and I told him his mistake was assuming the bus would get us in on time. "Next time you need a cushion of about 20-30 minutes!" There was a language barrier, and I had to explain that I did not mean "cushion" literally, but that barrier was much better than the invisible walls we both had up for most of the ride. Much less awkward.

I'm glad that I talked to him, because it opened my eyes a bit this morning. And just in time, because while on my high of talking to someone (very sad that such a thing gets my blood pumping as it did), I totally wiped out on Varick and Grand when I got off the 1!! Somehow I wasn't embarrassed, and I think there's something about having the Kooks blasting in your ear buds that almost shields you from the uncomfortable stares of onlookers, but I was also so surprised at the genuine concern of the three women that rushed to my assistance. I assured them that I was okay, and I took it as just another example of how the reality of this place exists in direct opposition to my perception of how it would or should be.

New Yorkers are nice people. And the people visiting New York are nice too. So how is it that it gets such a bad rep?

I guess it's an example of you get what you expect, or rather what you look for. If you're looking for, even hoping for, the worst experience, you'll definitely get it. I guess it's a case of adjusting the lenses. I used to be known for wearing rose colored ones, and I was always embarrassed by it. But now, I realize, how could a rosey hue hurt?

The Things That I Buy

Coach ankle boots! Sooooo hot. But Manhattan is NOT the place to break in new shoes. Even boots.

Random Musings - What's My Motivation

While scouring Facebook for illegal posts (like I do)...I stumbled across an FB acquaintance's status update: "Can someone give me a good definition of what a morale booster is???"

This got me thinking...

Could I give a definition for the common abstraction, "morale booster"? Have I ever really experienced my own morale being boosted? Do I give a shit about the level of morale I have? Do the people that always claim they're interested in "boosting" it really care about morale at all, or simply what a "boosted morale" is most likely to produce...and therefore all they're really pining for is the final product?

I suppose most people have been content in assuming "the professionals" know all there is to know about morale and how to properly boost it without pulling a muscle, but I'm beginning to believe that the folks authorized to monitor morale don't know how to maintain it, let alone boost it.

Most morale boosters (team building exercises, retreats, conventions/conferences, workshops, witty motivational posters with kittens hanging on to a tree branch for dear life) are ginormous wastes of time and energy (and resources), but they also do nothing for morale. Considering most participants walk away feeling like they've been beaten with the "Colossal Waste of Time" stick, I think these activities just wipe out all traces of individuality and dignity and turn folks more and more into drones, barely capable of performing the most basic aspects of their jobs.

If you want to boost morale - give people a break. Allow them the autonomy to determine what will most enhance their own lives. Give them a chance to strike a personally acceptable work/life balance. Promote them. Give them raises. Say "Thank you!" and mean it. Recognize them for a job well done. Don't make examples out of their co-workers. Create an atmosphere of care, synergism, and support. Be a working manager; never ask someone to do something that you couldn't or wouldn't do yourself. Make sure your employees don't feel "used and abused". Don't chew them up and spit them out. No undercutting or backbiting. Don't throw people under the bus.

The list goes on and on. And, sadly, there are plenty workplaces that allow for the OPPOSITE of everything I mentioned above to go on simultaneously.

So.

To that, I say...

VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Random Musings - There Goes the Neighborhood

Crazy neighbors.

There are apparently a lot of them, but my family's history with declining property value due to undiagnosed co-tenants is suspiciously high. And I'm beginning to think that we're spiritually marked to coexist with the crazies.

On that note - if you're a crazy neighbor...and you steal...and you have a "suspiciously extensive" pawning record...when there's an open theft investigation in your building - LESS IS MORE. Do not offer up unsolicited information about how difficult it is to off-load stolen property and seeing bizarre crap in the building that simply doesn't make any sense to the logical thinker.

And furthermore, tenants should be screened more carefully by property management! I'm tired of having to endure some lunatic's shenanigans because there's been no adequate background check. Don't be cooking up crack next door! I'm interested in living a crack-free life. And if you ARE cooking up drugs in your apartment, I not only hold you responsible when the building blows up, or when there's a drug raid and innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire, I also blame the leasing office.

The LULU Show! (Episode 2)

So, I decided to take a video of Lulu playing at Doggie Day Camp before I headed off to work. Her "twin" Skylar was already there...and it's just so dog'gone cute to watch them play with each other.

I just wish that her teeny-tiny friend George was there when I took this vid.

And for the record - I have no idea who that white dog is. S/he is clearly riff raff, and I'm glad Lulu laid the smackdown on him/her at the end of the video. My puppy can definitely stand up for herself!

Oh, The Places I Go...(New York Edition)

The"Ghostbusters" fire station is about two blocks from my office...and on the way to Bubby's! TriBeCa is my favorite place...ever. Until I find the next place.

Random Musings - Job Hunting is the Work of the Devil

So, in light of all the talk about flooding, Michele Bachmann, and Bill O'Reilly using the Nassau County Police like old time-y PI's in an Agatha Christie novel, I have decided to post an incoherent rant about looking for a job.

While, yes, I am currently employed (damn...has it been 3 and a half years??), I have become the observer of several family members' and friends' seemingly endless hunts for the ever elusive "employed" status. And I have come to the conclusion, that looking for work is, in fact, a physical manifestation of "Hell". I, unfortunately, watch all of this take place while simultaneously bearing witness to the expanding bubble of "management".

This, I suppose, is the most disturbing part of it all. While the "employee pool" shrinks, the "employer vacation resort" grows and grows. Who the fuck are these people managing? Which managers are entirely redundant? Why in God's name does an employee have to report to five hundred people????

It seems annoying. And pointless. This is why I propose that we, collectively, stop. Just STOP. No more working, no more commerce, nothing...until we figure out a way to share the pot. Call me a socialist if you will...but it makes no sense that three people pull in a bulk of the profit Company A makes, while the 300 "minions" (suckers) employed there take away pennies. And steal from each other (see "Thieving Thievery"). Then become bankrupt as a result of unexpected medical emergencies.

I hate this system.

The unemployment rate is a symptom of totalitarian agriculture. (<--And this is the point where I begin rambling.) Yes, I am re-reading "The Story of B," but Daniel Quinn makes a good point. Our culture depends heavily on an artificial system of life that encourages unsustainable population growth. And our economic system/job market seems to be a mirror of that.