"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down" -- Well, not really the rainy days so much as the Mondays, but if the Monday is a holiday, then I love it!

Isn't it funny how your tastes and outlook on different things change over time? I used to love Yoplait brand yogurt. I would never eat any other brand. But then I switched to Lite & Fit because it doesn't have any sugar. I really didn't like it at first, but over time, it was yummy. After many, many months of only eating Lite & Fit, I purchased Yoplait again because it was on sale. And now it tastes kind of gross to me! I think that's odd. I used to love it! I first tried sushi 3 years ago. It was so disgusting! I could barely make myself chew and swallow. Blegh. But over time I have tried it again & again, and I have finally gotten to the stage where I actually really like it! (But only the salmon or tuna rolls, and they either have to have cream cheese or avocado in them.) :) I used to not really like Dave Matthews Band. But now I really do like their music. I used to love country music, and now I just sorta sometimes like it.

I was born in California and lived there until I was 12. It was mostly sun-shiney year-round, and I remember running barefoot from my house to my neighbor's house almost daily to go swimming in the summer time. I had to run because the pavement was so hot that it would burn my little feet. I remember spending the summer picking peaches from our peach tree in the backyard, my mom spending all day at the stove bottling them up. I would practice cartwheels on the grass in the front yard, and play on our swing set in the backyard. All the neighbor kids would get together in the evenings to ride bikes, roller blade, play capture the flag, kickball, or hide & seek. In the fall evenings we would have our windows open to let the cool breeze blow through the screens and cool us down. Weeknights I would go to soccer practice and on Saturdays I would go to my games. A lot of my friends played soccer too, so it was fun to play against them. The air was mostly hot & dry -- we had a drought for many years. When it finally DID rain, the street gutters would get flooded and I would go outside in my galoshes with an umbrella to jump and splash in the huge puddles. I have such happy memories of my childhood. I had lots of close friends. My memories are full sunshine.

Our family moved to Washington (Seattle/Tacoma area) when I was almost done with my 6th grade year. It was quite a shocking change of scenery and lifestyle. By nature, I am a shy person. I was especially shy when I was younger. I didn't like going to a new school or trying to make new friends when the school year was almost over. The days were filled with rain. Always rain. And when it wasn't rainy, it was cloudy. The summers would provide some sunshine, but the temperature would never get past 80, usually. I was cold. I was sad. The weather reflected my sadness and contributed to it. Long gone were my days of wearing shorts and t-shirts 9 months out of the year, soaking up the sunshine. Over time, however, I of course got used to the constant rain. It was just part of my day. Umbrellas were unnecessary, as no matter what, I would get wet. I got used to having my pant legs soaking wet almost up to my knees. The rain provided a beautiful canvas of green year-round; green trees, green grass, green plants, green moss. Mount Rainier would hover above the horizon on clear days, and I would get to see the ocean on a daily basis. I grew to love the area.

Now that I am on the opposite side of the country (the "other" Washington; DC), I long for the "real" mountains, the "real" ocean (the Pacific is so much better than the Atlantic!) and the cool days that used to be the norm. I get SO happy when there is a rainy day! The very hot and oh-so-humid summers suck the life out of me. My happy memories now involve bonfires on the beach, huddled up in jackets, or driving with my hand stuck out the window so I can feel the little needles of rain drops hitting my palm and forearm.

I think once I finally leave this area, I will miss the beautiful colors of fall and the spectacular sight of the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin in the spring. I never tire of the touristy sights of DC -- I will always take a moment to marvel at the Washington monument, Lincoln memorial, Capital building, National Archives museum, Jefferson memorial, Arlington National cemetery, Pentagon, and the Air Force memorial. These are daily sightings that I never tire of. It truly is a great place to live.

My point is this: I think that whatever we experience, whatever our likes and dislikes, there is always a good side to find. I now try to recognize the good things about where I live while I'm there, so I can enjoy them. Because I can be assured that I will miss them when I move away, and wish that I were back where I was..... even though I will NEVER miss the humid, sweltering heat! :)

It's always about the money

I usually post new blog entries while I'm at work. I write a little during my "down" time throughout the day (usually my lunch hour), and eventually I post the conglomerative effort. However, you may have noticed that I've kind of slacked on the postings the last few weeks. This is due to the fact that my job has given me absolutely NO down time lately. Things have become even more crazy than they have been the last couple of months, if that is even possible. I have been pretty stressed out and really exhausted. And this leads me to the long-procrastinated post about my job saga. So get comfortable, put your slippers on, grab yourself a fresh cup of hot cocoa and get ready to settle in for a GREAT story. .......

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Washington DC), there lived a fair maiden (Me!) who was happy and content with her life. She was single, independent, lived with some wonderful roommates, and had secured a great job. The fair maiden got settled in to her new job and routine with ease. Life was good. A little over a year later, her company was being sold. She was assured that this did not mean trouble, nor should she be afraid of consequently becoming unemployed. The company she worked for was very profitable, and was sold for $80mil to Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum. The Tweedle-D's merged the fair maiden's former company with another company they already owned, thus forming one large, successful, money-making business. (We will call it Goober; like the jar which contains both peanut butter and jelly)

The problem with working for Goober is that Princess Emily (that's right - she's no longer just a fair maiden) started paying more for health & dental insurance, but got bumped down to a lower plan. So not only were monthly premiums more expensive, but co-pays for office visits and prescription costs went up as well. There was no more company-matched 401K plan, nor did Goober offer a vision plan. But don't worry. That's OK. Because Goober issued each employee a company-paid brickberry (the dinasour version of a blackberry) so that everyone could be connected to work 24/7 :P --- and they planned an all-expenses paid employee trip to Las Vegas to make up for it all. Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum had enough money to buy a company worth $80 mil, issue every employee a brickberry, and pay for an extensive trip to Las Vegas. But somehow they could not afford to give the employees proper insurance coverage. Hmmmm.

Life went on. The Vegas trip turned out to be a lot of fun. Goober put the employees up at The Bellagio, paid for tickets for a Cirque Du Soleil "O" show (AMAZING!), and gave $50 gambling chips to everyone. It seemed as if they were successful in converting unhappy employees with their gripes and worries about their insurance levels, into happy, intoxicated, sleep-deprived, gambling fools. I'll admit, besides getting intoxicated, I was all of those things while in Las Vegas. It was a good 2 days. Plus, the Princess' good friend, Lady Kelly, drove to Las Vegas from Utah to see her.

11 months after the Tweedle-D's $80 mil purchase and creation of "Goober", it all crashed to a halt. All Goober employees received an email after hours on Monday, January 7th, 2008 that told them not to go to work the next day because all assets were frozen and they would not get paid. The next day, all Goober employees realized that their Tweedle owners were crooks and had taken the company into bankruptcy to fund their own lavish lifestyles. All of the sudden, the once happy and content fair maiden/Princess Emily found herself with no job, no insurance, and no idea how this could have happened. She never received her last paycheck, never got paid out her vacation time, and found out that her insurance had actually been canceled a month earlier.

This bankruptcy did not only affect the Goober employees, but it affected all of the companies that Goober worked with as well. Millions of dollars that were owed to different companies by Goober, were sucked into the bankruptcy and left those companies scrambling and very angry. The customer that the Princess worked with through Goober was gracious enough to hire her on a contractor basis so she could help them through this huge debacle. We will call this customer "Glenda the Good Witch". Glenda had paid Goober all funds owed for the month of December but before Goober could pay the 70 companies that provided service for Glenda (Goober acted kind of like a pay-agent), the funds were gone to the bankruptcy court. Imagine this scenario across hundreds of more customers, and you will be able to start to realize the magnitude of the problem.

For a real story that reads like a TV Drama, check out this complaint filed by the Tweedle's Lender. It's rather long, but scroll down to "Background Facts" to get the juicy stuff.

I didn't want to include the real names of the companies because I know that there are a lot of key word searches going on the internet right now and I didn't want my blog to come up as a search result. But I have included somewhat of a key below so that you could understand where I fall in the complaint...

KEY:

• The Tweedles = JV & RG



• The company that is listed in the beginning of the complaint that starts with an "A", was the parent company of the company I worked for. "A" Company got pulled in to bankruptcy, and the company I worked for got pulled in with it, since we were listed as an asset.



• Goober = the three-lettered company that starts with an "E".

Since the company I worked for no longer exists, we are not able to use the software that we had been using for the last 3 years. This means that everything has gone to a manual process, and work is very super-busy trying to stay organized through it all. There are a lot of details that nobody would understand, so I won't even attempt to explain all of it. I will just say that the result of all of this has caused a ton of personal stress over job security and financial standing, as well as professional stress over the increased and seemingly never-ending work load. I long for a vacation.

Here's another news article that sums up some of it.

How about a nice tall glass of what the...... ?

Washington DC is truly a melting pot; you will run in to all kinds of nationalities and languages spoken, which is actually pretty cool. However, with such diversity, you are bound to run in to some "interesting" people. I encounter a lot of these interesting folk when I venture out of the office for lunch. While I'm used to the homeless people on the streets constantly asking for money, shaking their cups of change at me, huddled in the alcove of an abandoned building entrance, their plastic bags of possessions encompassing them, or the crazy women with lavish fur coats dripping to the ground and a matching Russian-style fur hat, or the avid male runner in his too-short shorty-shorts and no shirt, or the Chinese guy playing the electric mandolin hooked up to an amp and his case open to receive tips; yes, I am used to seeing all of these people. But it is the weirdos inside the restaurants that never fail to catch me off guard.

One afternoon last fall, my co-worker and I decided to spend our lunch hour eating outside so we could enjoy the beautiful weather. We chose a nearby restaurant that wasn't too pricey; Austin Grill. We were given our requested table outside, and proceeded to wait at least 15 minutes before we were even greeted by our server. This is the kind of place that immediately has somebody place a basket of chips and a bowl of fresh salsa on the table before someone else even comes to get your drink order. So we were a little curious and truth be told, annoyed that we had been sitting there for that long without a greeting. We finally waved down our waitress and asked for the chips and salsa. She said "sure". When she came back, we asked if we could order, so she said OK. We ordered our drinks and food, and 10 minutes later, we had to wave her down again to ask if we could at least have our drinks before our food came out. "Oh, yeah, um, OK, sure". We were feeling a little uneasy at this point. We finally get our drinks and we're happy. A long while later, our basket is left with barely the crumbs of the chips that we consumed, our salsa devoured, and our glasses filled only with mostly-melted ice. We see our server come out the door. Hooray! We are ready to eat our meal!

...... Ready for this? .............

The waitress comes over, sets the leather-enclosed bill on our table and says, "Thanks for coming." ...Seriously.. My co-worker and I look at each other, stunned, and my co-worker tells her, "We haven't even gotten our food yet!" Her response: "Oh, you haven't? Oh, woops. Um, I'll go check on that." YEAAAAA. Why don't you go do that. So she brings out our food and it was luke-warm, like the plates had been sitting on the counter in the kitchen for the last hour, not even under heat-lamps. Gross. The manager comes out to ask how everything is, so we tell him our trouble. He offers us free dessert, which we accept. When we are all done with our meal, we remind our server that we were offered free dessert. So she rattles off the desserts and we put our orders in. 15 minutes later (I'm not kidding), she comes back and tells me that they don't have the kind of pie that I chose. Great. I don't care at this point. Get me out of here! First time I've ever "stiffed" somebody. She never apologized for any of it, so I figured not giving her a tip could allow her a witty "touché".

Fast-forward to this week. Another work luncheon out. This was at a more uppity restaurant. Our waitress comes over to us and says, "Wow! I'm surprised they actually sat my section! I'm a really bad server. They should have fired me a month ago." GREEAAAAT. We were in for quite a treat. I prepared myself. She continues, "So are you guys here during work hours? Do you work around here? I swear I know you! (looking at my co-worker) You look SO familiar. Do you know me?" I'll spare the details on this one, but it was bad. Really bad. She may have been high on cocaine. But I will give her this: yes, she should have been fired! She was just plain awful!

This afternoon I was waiting in line to get some chips and guacamole to-go, and I was asked twice by 2 different men if I could give them money. They both smelled like booze and ash trays. *sigh* We are no longer able to escape inside the walls of restaurants. The Crazies always find a way in - just like the cockroaches on the wall in Subway..... Haven't eaten there since. EW! Lunch in DC has given me more adventures than I could have wanted or imagined. I've started to pack my lunch more often so I can just eat at my desk. Crazy- and cockroach-free. Safe.