on this day

15 years ago at approximately 6:37am, i gave birth to my son. he came into this world weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces and i consider our survival of the event quite an accomplishment for both of us.

don't lean on me, man

because of a comic strip, i am waiting up on a saturday night to be summoned by cell phone to a high school. until about 15 minutes ago, i had always thought sadie was a suffragette.

Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of Dogpatch's earliest settlers, Hekzebiah Hawkins. When she reached the age of 35, still a spinster, her father in desperation called together the eligible bachelors of Dogpatch and declared that day to be Sadie Hawkins Day and that "when ah fires [my gun] all o' yo' kin start a-runnin! When ah fires agin - after givin' yo' a fair start - Sadie starts a runnin'. Th' one she ketches'll be her husband.

that makes two of us

who don't feel this is the destination of our fate

what

day is this?

salt on that?

this evening i needed to call a buddy and go have a margarita and a tamale or whatever and shake off the day. i really needed to do this. but i don't have a buddy i can call to do this with. so i had a margarita and brought mexican take-out home for my kids. it was a pretty good substitute, but it made me realize that i need to expand my social circle.

really

yesterday, i had a long drawn-out conversation with the office manager at the veterinary hospital where i have been showing up regularly with my small b&w cat since the great tragedy of october 2nd. i was trying to express my dissatisfaction with their estimate and billing process which have ended up not matching by about a thousand dollars. in my mind there's a big difference between $3400 and $4400. but that's another story. the point is that during our conversation, she engaged a stance that i employ, which is by systematically reminding my customer of points that any intelligent person would have been aware of, i negate any complaint they may have about the course of our business. well, i didn't like the way it felt, even though i can't say she did anything wrong other than trying to make me feel like an idiot to avoid having to empathize or take responsiblity.

today i got a call from a ranting customer and i thought i'd try something different. i went back to a time when i had a job that didn't have as much pressure or expectation and i bent over backwards to help this woman. she was being dumb and she was being angry and condescending, but i didn't return it. i went way outside what i'm paid to do. the whole thing went much better than it would have otherwise.

i haven't always had this critical approach. i'm not sure when i changed the way i handle other people's problems. i still step up when i know i have caused the problem. when did i stop stepping up when it is someone else's problem? i think, maybe i just have too much responsibility in all areas of my life and i just don't make myself available to take care of any more. i'm afraid i can't handle much more.

which is sad, really.

however,

this one is the best thing i've seen.

good

geez. the holiday season has come and gone. it was a good one, full of "all is calm and all is bright." i haven't had much to say lately and it looks like 2008 is starting the same way. everything is good, just really good. and i'm good with that.