You Say It's Your Birthday...
No, wait, that's me. Actually, I'm taking a cue from my Dad. He no longer has birthdays. He has anniversaries, as in, "the 32nd anniversary of his 39th birthday." So today is the fifth anniversary of my 27th birthday.
And what did I do on my birthday? I went to class. Very exciting, but I really had no choice as it was the second of three required class meetings for my web-centric class (that means it meets primarily online, but in person a few times). If I miss even one in-person session, I fail the class, so off I went.
But tomorrow I have a breakfast date with a friend who is driving through town on his way to Mackinac Island, and I have dinner and drinks plans with "Heather" (that's what I'm calling her until I get a chance to ask her what she would like to be called... I won't use anyone's real first names anymore). Oh, and a meeting with my attorney in between. That should liven up the day.
It's hard getting back into the groove of writing. I intended to write last night when I got home from class, but then got distracted by my iPod (had to download new software and reformat the evil little minion of Satan). I also intended to write on Monday as that actually was a full day, but I was pretty drained. Let me tell you about Monday.
Monday was the day that I was allowed back into my place of employment for the first time in a month. While someone had been filling in for me in my absence, and I was doing some work from home, I needed to be on-site to do some things now that the scheduled extended vacation has begun (like how I'm not even mentioning what I do for a living, but you are so able to figure it out? I'm crafty like that.). Then I had a meeting scheduled in the afternoon with my immediate supervisor (who wants this over almost as much as I do, BTW) and the head honcho. I barely said two words in this meeting, but instead let my local and regional union reps do all the talking for me. It was a meeting suggested by my employer's attorney to try to come to some sort of agreement short of having me dismissed. Now, I find this interesting that their lawyer is so confident that they will prevail, but thinks they should work out some sort of deal. Anyway, nothing was decided, but we gave the big boss a proposal to take back to the higher ups (although he stated over and over that it wasn't enough and they wouldn't agree). They can take my offer, or else we have no problem proceeding to the labor court because the only way I'm not going to win this is if the first amendment is repealed. I don't see that happening.
So, it is possible that I will be back in my same job after this extended vacation period if I don't find a new job. If finding a new job wasn't ultimately what I wanted, though, I'd be pretty tempted to sit back and collect a paycheck from my current employer for the next year to year and a half and just wait for the courts to side with me. I'm so grateful that I live in a state where people in my profession are strongly unionized. I will never again complain about paying union dues.
Anyway, that lovely situation left me wiped out, so I was in no mood to drive the hour and forty minutes to my class that night. I sent a quick e-mail with my assignment attached to my instructor and started working on homework for another class. The phone rang about 5:30 and it was Heather saying that she and another of our co-workers were going to Don Pablo's for dinner and I was required to join them. It didn't take much twisting of my arm. It was great to get out of the house and I was so glad that I got to see this other co-worker because I had missed her over the last month. She had lots to fill me in on, too, as she had been doing all kinds of lobbying for me (she's on our union e-board). And she's just a lot of fun!
But I guess that's about it. Tuesday I worked literally non-stop on my web design homework. I just don't get JavaScript. I typed everything in just the way the book told me, but things still wouldn't work. I'd pour over the source code over and over just to find a missing quotation mark or something similar an hour later. Wednesday was more of the same except it was reading for collection development and then I had to go to my young adult literature class (since I missed it Monday).
Alright, off to bed. I promised Copper we'd get there earlier tonight as last night I got sucked into the freakishly addicting game of spider solitaire (I had to wait while the iPod software downloaded... it's not my fault). Oh, and I expect a wake-up call about 7:00 when my friend gets close to my house. Man that's early.
And what did I do on my birthday? I went to class. Very exciting, but I really had no choice as it was the second of three required class meetings for my web-centric class (that means it meets primarily online, but in person a few times). If I miss even one in-person session, I fail the class, so off I went.
But tomorrow I have a breakfast date with a friend who is driving through town on his way to Mackinac Island, and I have dinner and drinks plans with "Heather" (that's what I'm calling her until I get a chance to ask her what she would like to be called... I won't use anyone's real first names anymore). Oh, and a meeting with my attorney in between. That should liven up the day.
It's hard getting back into the groove of writing. I intended to write last night when I got home from class, but then got distracted by my iPod (had to download new software and reformat the evil little minion of Satan). I also intended to write on Monday as that actually was a full day, but I was pretty drained. Let me tell you about Monday.
Monday was the day that I was allowed back into my place of employment for the first time in a month. While someone had been filling in for me in my absence, and I was doing some work from home, I needed to be on-site to do some things now that the scheduled extended vacation has begun (like how I'm not even mentioning what I do for a living, but you are so able to figure it out? I'm crafty like that.). Then I had a meeting scheduled in the afternoon with my immediate supervisor (who wants this over almost as much as I do, BTW) and the head honcho. I barely said two words in this meeting, but instead let my local and regional union reps do all the talking for me. It was a meeting suggested by my employer's attorney to try to come to some sort of agreement short of having me dismissed. Now, I find this interesting that their lawyer is so confident that they will prevail, but thinks they should work out some sort of deal. Anyway, nothing was decided, but we gave the big boss a proposal to take back to the higher ups (although he stated over and over that it wasn't enough and they wouldn't agree). They can take my offer, or else we have no problem proceeding to the labor court because the only way I'm not going to win this is if the first amendment is repealed. I don't see that happening.
So, it is possible that I will be back in my same job after this extended vacation period if I don't find a new job. If finding a new job wasn't ultimately what I wanted, though, I'd be pretty tempted to sit back and collect a paycheck from my current employer for the next year to year and a half and just wait for the courts to side with me. I'm so grateful that I live in a state where people in my profession are strongly unionized. I will never again complain about paying union dues.
Anyway, that lovely situation left me wiped out, so I was in no mood to drive the hour and forty minutes to my class that night. I sent a quick e-mail with my assignment attached to my instructor and started working on homework for another class. The phone rang about 5:30 and it was Heather saying that she and another of our co-workers were going to Don Pablo's for dinner and I was required to join them. It didn't take much twisting of my arm. It was great to get out of the house and I was so glad that I got to see this other co-worker because I had missed her over the last month. She had lots to fill me in on, too, as she had been doing all kinds of lobbying for me (she's on our union e-board). And she's just a lot of fun!
But I guess that's about it. Tuesday I worked literally non-stop on my web design homework. I just don't get JavaScript. I typed everything in just the way the book told me, but things still wouldn't work. I'd pour over the source code over and over just to find a missing quotation mark or something similar an hour later. Wednesday was more of the same except it was reading for collection development and then I had to go to my young adult literature class (since I missed it Monday).
Alright, off to bed. I promised Copper we'd get there earlier tonight as last night I got sucked into the freakishly addicting game of spider solitaire (I had to wait while the iPod software downloaded... it's not my fault). Oh, and I expect a wake-up call about 7:00 when my friend gets close to my house. Man that's early.
posted by Charlie at 11:36 PM
1 Comments:
Wow! I really didn't realize just how serious this whole previous blog/MySpace debacle has gotten. You now require a lawyer?! Crazy! I am so sorry you're going through this, but I am also so glad you're still writing, albeit under a veil of anonymity (as would I), because there's no reason your thoughts and feelings should be censored. I wish you all the luck in the world that everything turns out OK. Keep it up!
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