Gena Hrbek's blog

Lassitude

I have been sooo lazy lately...I'm so lazy that it's 11:56pm on a Saturday and I don't even want to go to bed (the giant mocha I whipped up for myself around 7 probably is a contributing factor).  I feel slightly nauseous and hyped up, so I lie around thinking I should do something - anything - and then continue to lie there.

I've read almost an entire book  - Ariella Papa's Up and Out (a really good one, even though it's only chick lit) (go here to read excerpt...obvs click on "read an excerpt" under Up and Out) ... and done the dishes.  I've watched at least three episodes of What Not To Wear and the same number of How Do I Look.  Gah.  Oh yeah, and Tetris.  I *heart* Tetris.  So I downloaded it to my trusty iPod Touch awhile back and I play it alot...and played a bunch today.  God, what a loser!

I know sometimes we're supposed to give ourselves breaks and all that...but I can't help feeling like I totally wasted this day for nothing. 

My day was so boring that even a long-overdue blog entry is boring.  I'm vanilla!!  Boo.

Things That Bug Me

So, I had thought of like 5 things that bug me, but didn't write them down and when I went to write this post, of course I could only remember the one below.  (I even typed up this post and then just let it hang out in limbo hoping that would jog my memory.  Of course that did not work.)  So I decided just to post, every so often, a Thing That Bugs Me.  Today's Thing That Bugs Me:

When people say "Chi-POL-tay".  It's "Chip-OTE-lay", you morons. 

 

Enough Already!

I JUST NEED TO VENT, OKAY?

 

So you know that, recently, my pay has been cut by 40%, then raised so that it was only cut 20%.  So, with the 20%-only pay cut, I can pay my bills but have nothing left over. 

Okay, so today, right, one of the guys I work with (who knows about everything going on) comes in and says, "hey, did you know that your back tires are, like, really worn?  You need new ones."  I said, "yeeeeahh... well, that's not going to happen any time soon."  and he was like, "well, you need them" and I was like, "Well, I don't have money for them" and that went back and forth for a while, then he insisted that they can't be that expensive, since they're so small.  I said, they're very expensive, as they're very wide (I drive a Scion XA) - they are, at the cheapest, $100/tire!  He just COULD NOT understand that I can't buy new ones. 

There's no money, dude!  NO MONEY!  Shut the fuck up and get out of my fucking office!

Ohhh...okay...wow, that feels better.

Rowwrrrr!

So, I was at Target yesterday, right?  And as I'm in line for the express checkout, I'm noticing that the guy at the register (okay, the KID.  The KID AT THE REGISTER.) is gorgeous.  Tall...dark...handsome...fit, etcetera.  So I get up there and he totally flirts with me.  He makes eye contact and jokes with me and all kinds of stuff.  (No, really.  He really was flirting.  Shut up.) 

He is clearly younger than I, but I'm thinking he's like, 24.  And on a good day, I *look* 24 (or so people tell me, usually when they need something from me) so I'm thinking, 'this isn't oustide the range of possibility!'  (It's not like I was going to try to date him...I'm just saying it wasn't impossible.)  I finish up with my two purchases and I say bye and start walking to Starbucks, and as I do so I turn to look back and he's checking me out.  Ha!  HA!!! 

So I'm feeling really great, right?

As I continue walking away, an older lady comes up to him and says, "Jeremy!!  Look how big you are!  What grade are you in?"  and he says, "Senior!"

Yeeeaah.  I'm a cougar.

Feeling Slighted

So...you know how I posted this missive   about my pay and work hours being cut (even though I'm salaried)?  Well, it was decided that the four of us who were cut would work only Tues, Weds and Thurs, then two of those people had to come in yesterday (i.e. Monday) per the owner. 

We moved our weekly staff meeting from Monday to Tuesday.  I was supposed to have some information (on which I was waiting on a call back to verify some information) to present at said meeting. 

Well, they went ahead and A - had the meeting without me (um, the Office Manager) and B - decided that one of the expenses we're cutting is the cleaning service, and that *I* should clean ALL THREE office suites in order to recoup 'an extra day of pay'. 

Now, I'm sure I should be grateful.  But I'm not.  If I wanted to be a cleaning lady, I would have stayed in Nebraska.  I would rather work a 40-hour workweek doing my regular job than work a 15-hour workweek cleaning our offices.  I. HATE. CLEANING.  I don't mind cleaning my house, because it's mine and...I dunno, I just don't mind cleaning my own place.  But I hate HAVING to come here and clean.

The thing is, I can't say no.  First off, I won't look like a team player, and secondly, that would take my pay cut from 40% up to 20%.  At 40%, I wouldn't even make all my bills.  At 20%, I will make my bills, but I won't have anything left over.  So you see, especially in this job market, I have to do it.

What I'm pissed about is that I wasn't even asked.  I mean, I live two miles away and everyone knows it...they could have said, "hey, we're having our staff meeting, any chance you'll come in for it?"  and I would have, gladly.  But since I'm the ONLY unmarried one in the whole fucking office, they think, "Oh, Gena will do it, she needs the money."

So, now I'm the bitter single bitch with two cats whom everyone probably thinks stays home every Friday night drinking boxed wine and watching Lifetime.   

(I know...you're all, 'what does that have to do with anything?'  I'm sure it does...somehow...!)

QotD: Named after one of the 50 states

'If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?'

Okay, it's rare that I answer one of these, but for some reason, I had to answer this...probably because the state name just popped into my head.  If I was named after any state, it would be...Montana.  Now, the ex is from Montana (that right there made the name grounds for disqualification), but even in spite of that, I just love the sound of the word "Montana"...with Wyoming a close second. 

(Okay, I believe I have just branded myself as CA-RAZY.)

Both of them just sound so old west...a period in history I think is just really, really interesting.

Fuckles.

So...my job just cut my working hours by 40% - so, though I now get a 4-day weekend (WOOT!), I also will be getting paid less - forty per cent less, to be exact.  (Shades of Lane, anyone?)

Just when I think I'm crawling out of the hole I made for myself back in 2005...BAM!  I get kicked in the face and Fate says, "Get back in there, bitch!"

Hopefully this isn't a long-term thing...and that it's not a sign of things to come for my company.  :(

My Friend Lisa

My Friend Lisa

http://pronouncedherbeck.vox.com/libr...

My dear friend Lisa, The funniest thing happened the other day. Jerry from ProMed emailed me a link about you! I went there and saw your obituary...it said you died after a long illness. What the hell? I signed the guest book, in shock, and then saw Riki's name, which vaguely rang a bell. I clicked...

My Friend Lisa

My dear friend Lisa,

The funniest thing happened the other day.  Jerry from ProMed emailed me a link about you!  I went there and saw your obituary...it said you died after a long illness.  What the hell?

I signed the guest book, in shock, and then saw Riki's name, which vaguely rang a bell.  I clicked on the "contact me" link and sent Riki an email, asking her if we could talk.  She emailed back immediately, asking me to call her, which I finally did last night.

She told me you took your own life.  You were only 42.

I know you were devastated after your good friend Sarah's death in '98(?) from breast cancer...and then because of your baby son Alec's death in 2000...two events from which you never really recovered.

I'm so sorry that we lost touch after you left Frank.  I feel like I could have tried harder to find you after I heard you moved to Pensacola.  Even though you and I had a little tiff, I should have been there for you...tried harder to find you...something.   I don't know.

Now I can never write you another letter and any Google search about you will offer only your obituary. 

I hope you knew that I will always remember you as someone whom I could be myself with...whom I know would never judge me...whom I could be a seven-year-old with.  Remember the time the three of us danced around in Sarah's kitchen when I visited you in Port St. Lucie?  Remember when we went to the grocery store when you moved into your own place, and we held hands the whole time, just because we wanted to?  You were my only friend I could be that affectionate with.

I hope you found the peace and happiness you failed to find in life.  I will always miss you.  I'm going to go to Pensacola to visit with Riki (coincidentally, Sarah's mom), and we will have a Lisa-fest.  I will never measure up to you as a friend to Riki, but maybe she and I can help each other to feel a tiny bit better about everything.

Goodbye, my friend.  I will miss you always.

Love, Gena

I Agree!

...with this column about Valentine's Day:  it's a farcicality!