Newscoma

Sometimes you find some stuff on the tubes that it is so good that you just want to throw yourself into the road, crying to the heavens.

From a blog I’ve never gone to before called Execupundit, here is something that I just found to be helpful:

1. 1. I am sometimes under enormous pressure from upper management; pressure that you seldom see. Anything that you can do to make my job easier will be greatly appreciated.
   2. Your interests are important, but please remember that I also have to juggle the concerns and feelings of a bunch of other people, including individuals outside of the department.

and my favorite is this one:

I will make mistakes. Please give me the same understanding that you’d like me to give you when you blunder.

Lord knows I make mistakes. I do, sometimes so horrifyingly terrible that I want to hide under a blanket. But this guy sort of said what I couldn’t formulate into words about being in middle management. There is a lot of really good, useful stuff over there so head on over.

Now I have a long day, and night thus establishing the lateness of this post as I don’t post from work ahead of me and I need to get to the office.

H/T to Seth Godin’s Blog

I wasn’t going to write this, but it’s on my mind.

I have a friend in the National Guard who just served a tour in Iraq and one stint on the border. He’s a cool cat and I like him. We are both the same age, he’s one of those perpetual bachelors always dressed to kill and I’ve never met anyone who just doesn’t adore him. He has a way about him that’s hard to explain. He’s always smiling in a nice comforting way that makes everyone around him just sort of feel better.

Yeah, he’s one of those guys that you just like being around.

We get along just fine. I talked to him last night and as I drove home, I couldn’t get his face out of my head.

After talking to him for a few minutes, I realized he’s in limbo. He doesn’t know if he will have to go back to Iraq. He always has a brave face and he never gives anything away about his time at war. He is a soldier. He does what he’s told, but sometimes I see this look in his eyes that is very, and it’s hard to find words … lonely and tired.

Yeah, I guess those are the right words. There was a picture earlier this week over at Volunteer Voters and it was of a soldier and there were words written on a wall that said something along the lines of “America is not at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall” and dammit it all if it didn’t just break my heart and resonate with me last night as I spoke with him, because, alas, I thought of that picture and it’s true.

I’m just ready for him to get his life back.

I saw Slartibartfast do a list a couple of days ago about things he digs and things that are sending him up the wall. I opted to copy him. In other words, today, I got nothing so I’m cheating.

List One: Things I’m absolutely sick of or bored with:

1. Junk bills going through the capital of this state. NO, I’m not bored about this one. I’m seriously pissed. The Order of Protection legislation has me so steaming mad I might have to go scream in one of our local cornfields. I worked with battered women for years, going to police stations in the middle of the night trying to help women who had the crap beat out of them get away from their abusers, women who are so scared to leave their husbands that they stay because they have been so emotionally abused into believing that he will kill them or the children and too frightened to go to court because it’s humiliating and they don’t think they can get any help anyway. This legislation is about devaluing people who really need help and it makes me angry.
2. The presidential race (IT’S 20 MONTHS AWAY.)
3. That I feel all of my age this week, which is frustrating.
4. High School Basketball playoffs, because I haven’t seen Squirrelly in two weeks basically other than as passing ships in the night.
5. And I’m with Slarti on this one, school fundraisers. As my sister is the PTO president for our little burg and she has been about to rip her hair out trying to do what she feels is the right thing. I also don’t like grouchy people who won’t volunteer to help at the school but are armchair critics about every little thing she does. Homer is my girl, don’t mess with her.
6. Being perpetually poor because we need a new laptop. Trying to figure out how to manage that one.

List Two: Things I cannot get enough of:

1. High Plains Drifter. Man, I love that movie. Big Daddy always used to take us to the movies when we were kids and I remember this one very clearly because it was just so awesomely cool. And The Seven Samurai. Yeah, they both give me a happy. Anything Akira Kurosawa does makes me just plum joyful and I have such a crush on Toshiro Mifune that it’s just downright embarrasing.
2. My dog Mabel, who always greets me with so much love and joy when I come home that I have to pick her up and just squeeze her.
3. The Groovy Chicks at work, who have been extremely patient with me over the past month.
4. Spring Fever and Tony LaRussa and Scott Rolen have shaken hands are now ready for some baseball. Ummm … I love baseball. Cardinals baseball, Smiley.
5. Munster cheese.
6. Getting hugs from the nieces without having to ask.

So, there you go. A little glimpse into the world of ‘coma. Yeah, I’m not that exciting, but then again, March is here, I’ve seen some sunshine this week and it was 70 degrees yesterday so life isn’t so bad.

Thanks Slarti.