It's Gettin' Kinda Long

This is a view of the garden underneath the fire escape at work during warmer times.

Originally, I thought I might have to stay home with a sick Stinky girl, but she woke up feeling a little better and went to school after all. Here is a list of things that I wouldn't have experienced (both good and bad) had I stayed home.

1.) I saw a dead raven upside down on the ground, with it's wings outspread and frozen stiff.

2.) I saw a man staggering across the street toward St Mary's church clutching his brown paper bag wrapped forty at 8 am. It was even more depressing than the time a bird shit on my head on my way to work.

3.) A guy about a year younger than me called and wondered why he couldn't transfer here. I told him he didn't meet our grade point standards. He had a 1.5 and still wanted to argue the point with me. I had to struggle really hard not to point out that he was almost forty years old and the most prominent word in his e-mail address was "reefer". I also didn't suggest that he take this incident as a really good reason to do a little self-reflection and think about making some positive changes in his life. (i.e. wean himself off the reefer a little bit) Sometimes, I'm amazed at my own restraint.

4.) Almost everyone I work with is over fifty and so sometimes we have a little generation gap - like when they all start talking about where they were when JFK died and I always have to say, "I was a gleam in my dad's eye." Well, today they were all talking about who might want to borrow the Jimmy Buffett Christmas CD one of my co-workers brought into work and I had to try to explain all the many issues I had with Jimmy Buffett. Mostly, my problem with him is all the creepy baby boomer guys with big hairy pot-bellies, covered in Hawaiian shirts, sporting a balding pate on top and a scraggly ponytail in the back.

The new guy in my office said, "So, what you're saying is, you have problems with guys like me?" I told him he didn't have the weird little ponytail in the back of his head and he replied, "Yes, but that's not by my own choice." I told him that I liked his wife better and better everyday.

5.) After I got home tonight, I was tired of looking exactly the same, day after day and decided to take a little action. That's right, I cut my hair and had my daughter straighten it for me.

You can just ignore how weird my mouth looks in this picture, and bask in the fact that you are the first people in the world to see me without curls. Weird, huh?