Special Day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR ALISON

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOOOOOOOOU!

I hope you have a fabulous birthday!

Don’t Be Jealous Of My Exciting Day

Dinner last night with Alison and Paul was awesome. Great company and great food at Eleven.

Work today is kind of busy as I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on and that is making it go by fast.

Tomorrow is a day off, I think I shall buy some new shoes after catching up on sleep. I am in another one of my occasional unable to sleep cycles. I figured out today I have 5 months of Medical Leave acquired, I wonder if sleep issues is covered under that?

It is now my lunch time and I am trying to actually leave the office each day, today being at the library typing this, in order to get away from work issues. I used to be a good little manager and often stayed during lunch making myself available. I have now deemed it better to get a break during the day, get some fresh air, and de-stress a bit.

And my big future plans for tonight…..Survivor and The Office on TV.

Peace out.

Sean Penn Wins For “Milk”

“…For those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect, and anticipate their great shame, and the shame in their`grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone…”

Great speech and well deserved win, he really became his character, Harvey Milk, in the movie.

I liked Hugh Jackman as host. I did not realize he was such a song and dance man, very talented. The show itself kind of dragged along but it had more high points than low. Best sequence was James Franco and Seth Rogan doing a couch scene a’la Pineapple Express.

This And That, That And This

Obama needs to stop being so dire in his speeches. I’m all for being realistic and not sugar coating things, but continuous negativity in front of the cameras and on his videos posted on the White House website are affecting peoples attitudes and I think how the Stock Market reacts on a daily basis. I respect the guy, I voted for him, the country needs him, but he needs to shut up for a week or be positive for a few speeches. I think it would do a lot of good.

And believe me I will take any little improvement in peoples attitudes because I am sick of everyone that comes into the bank being so pissy. And the clueless twits that come into my office and start spreading their ignorance like cows in a field because CNN or a newspaper mentioned the bank’s name, are gonna start feeling my foot in their ass. Just because you hear one blurb or sound bite does not make you an expert on all subjects ever known to man. Nor does it give you physic abilities to know what is going to happen. If you already know it all, then go compete with Miss Cleo, otherwise STFU.

In lighter World of Brent news, I am looking forward to a lazy weekend as I need to catch up on sleep. Also the big Oscar Bash at Alison and Paul’s is happening Sunday and being on the “A” list, I was lucky enough to get an invite. Whether I stay up for the whole show is anyones bet.

In between napping, sleeping, crashing, snoozing, and other forms of restful unconsciousness this weekend, I would like to get out and about on some walking/hiking trails. The snow has returned to the Burgh and I thought I may be able to get some good pictures.

The new season of survivor has started and it is off to a great start. I have only watched the first of two episodes as I watch them with Jeff from the on-demand menu usually over the weekend. Just after they arrived in Tocantins, Brazil even before they went to camp, the teams had to vote someone off without ever talking to each other. So it was based on unspoken first impressions. So an old lady and ditzy blond who seemed like a weakling were voted out by their team mates. But then the twist came that they were indeed not having to leave and got to ride in a helicopter to camp while the others had to hike 4+ miles in desert heat to camp. The lesson: First impressions count, but they can also be wrong as the seemingly weakest did not do bad and were not voted out. Lots of interesting personalities this season too.

And I still have to catch up on Amazing Race. Looks like a good weekend to be a couch potato.

Evolution Of Dance 2

Finnigan Has Not Quite Gotten The Hang Of Hide-n-Seek

Fatal Party

I’m going to a “Death by Chocolate” party tonight.

I’m hoping it’s more about the chocolate, than you know…death.

The Job Thing

Had a meeting today regarding our changing job roles.  Lots of typical corporate bullshit speak and promises of how good everything will be.  We got the usual  blather of how valued we are as a team we will be wildly successful.  Underlying theme — “trust us,” yeah right.

Ugh, they really need to conduct these feel good spectacles in an airplane where we would at least have the convenience of a barf bag.  Anyway, nothings final yet and no changes will be made before March and possibly May or June.  How’s that for a company being on the ball and instilling confidence?  So onward I go on what feels like a horizontal corporate ladder.

That Noise You Hear

is my optimism from yesterday being flushed down the crapper in a turd filled tornado of reality.

I found out at work today that my position is being eliminated. I still have a job, I just have to take a new position. So far I have two choices, although talks are still on going because I feel that my only option amounts to a demotion. Only one option because one the choices involves a pay cut and I’m not about to take a cut. However this is being done to lessen the amount of incentive pay that is paid out each quarter so less pay would be the outcome. The other role while preserving my salary, authorities, and decision making levels, puts me in more of a sales roll. It’s not that I mind that roll, but I have been at this company seven years and worked my way, or so I thought, out of that roll. So the talks are ongoing based on my explaining to them that “except for one person in this room who also transferred from another state to help start this affiliate, I have been with this company longer than anyone else in this region of 130 employees.” And considering how much I am counted on to do tasks outside of my actual role, (in other words I bring a lot of value to this job that would be affected if I no longer was able to do so) I had earned the consideration of finding other options, at least in title. I will do whatever job I need to do, but I want to maintain the status I have worked hard for and earned.

Ugh, I’m sick of always feeling like I’m getting somewhere and then wind up feeling like I’m standing still or going backwards.   I swear when I get more of my debt paid down I am going to become a coffee barista.  Free coffee and no corporate tards to deal with.

It’s been hard being positive lately. There’s been dead deer, people pissing me off, and the corporate climate of my job has been dismal to say the least. It’s no fun working in the financial industry right now. If you are not hearing bad news from news reports, it’s coming from customers and even coworkers who have to bring down an entire office with their attitudes. It’s hard for people, including myself to remember the economy will eventually get better. Bad times happen but so do rebounds. So I should focus on good things. Like the beep of the coffee pot when it is done brewing. Or the wonderful snow we have lining the ground in a wintry blanket. Or being healthy and having a job while living in such a great city which just won the SuperBowl for the sixth time. There is also the constant diesel engine-like purring of my little fluff ball of cuteness I call Finnigan, who we could all take a cue from in being mellow.

With perspective, things aren’t all bad.

Still Pissing Me Off

Three/four way stop intersections. What is so hard about knowing when to go at these stop signs? A first grader can understand taking turns but it takes an adult with jello for brains to mess up the rhythm of an intersection. If it’s your turn and you are waiving me to go, I don’t think you are polite I think you’re dumb.

Smokers. Seriously, why would you pay money to harm yourself? And why would you huddle in freezing weather just to make yourself stink while blocking the sidewalk and making me walk through your haze ?

Self check out tards at the grocery store. Once again they seem to be showing up in front of me every time I go to the store. Apparently self-awareness of ones own inability to follow step by step verbal and written instructions do not go hand in hand. Seriously, go to the other lanes where the nice people will ring you up then all you have fumble over is the ginormous amount of trash in your purse to get to the debit card you left in the car.

Old people who don’t believe anything I say. Yep they still won’t listen to me. They will eat oatmeal because Wilfred (”I have dye-ahh-beeetuss”) Brimley tells them to, but they are skeptical when I tell them what the day of the week is.

Cross walk sloths. Walk signals that give you the exact seconds you have to cross the street are popping up here in Pittsburgh. The literally countdown the number of seconds that you have to make it across the road. But still many people are under the delusion that they can make it across the three lanes of traffic in half a second. And some of them are pushing strollers! They should be careful because not everyone has the sunny feel good disposition that I have and they risk getting mowed down like a bowling pin by someone who has just been to the grocery store after walking through a group of smokers and giving directions to an old lady.