Please Push Grandy's Button

Crunch time is on.

Grandy is off of work next week, but not before a week of LONG days, and LONG nights. Deadlines, meetings and reports all to be wrapped up by Friday, along with evening events I cannot escape.

All Grandy is really asking for, truly, is that she have no computer system issues. She is bowing to the IT Gods who can make this happen. HOWEVER...such is not the case this morning.

Grandy is going to need a little extra assistance in making it through this week (alive and out of prison). So, for once she is asking you to...PUSH THIS BUTTON!!

Go ahead...you know you want to. Push my RELAX button, and see if it helps me at all.

Don't you wish we had one of these on our keyboards for real? We could put it over in the 10-key section. Right next to the "RESTRAINT" button, the "WAKE UP" button, and the ever popular "FANTASIZE ABOUT BLOWING THINGS UP" button.

The moment when Grandy cries - #52,673,102

So you have probably guessed that Grandy tends to wear her heart on her sleeve. There aren't many surprises from Grandy, when you want to know how she's feeling. My demeanor, or my words, will let you know how I'm feeling right away.

There are moments when Grandy wants to cry. It may not be because she's sad, necessarily. It may simply be when she's feeling overwhelmed, over-joyed, or just plain OVER-over. Regardless of how I'm feeling, sometimes these real moments just hit me.

Yesterday, my son and I are driving back from the bank. Grandy reminds him that now that football is over, he is REALLY going to have to focus on his grades. Really. REALLY-Really. (Wonder if he got the point).

Then the following conversation happened:

Him: Oh, by the way, the Principal came in to Biology on Friday and said she just hired a permanent substitute teacher for the class.
Me: Why?
Him: I guess that her husband has been fighting cancer for a while, and it's not looking good. Meaning...He's Dying.
Me: THAT'S HORRIBLE!!!
::Grandy's chest begins to feel heavy::
Him: Yeah. She teaches two biology classes and an anatomy class. All the students got together and decided we would collect money to send him flowers and a card.
::Totally choked up now::
Me: ::fighting back tears:: Do you need money then?
Him: No, I gave them all the money I had.
Me: ::full on crying now::

Him: Oh yeah...but can I have some lunch money?
Me: ::still crying...but nod my head::
Him: Are you alright?
Me: MmmHmmm...::tears gushing down face::
Him: Should I have NOT told you?
Me: No! Why would you ask that?
Him: I just know that it's kinda something that hits so close to home for you.

DONE!! Crying...close to sobbing...Grandy is a mush pot.

This teacher is brilliant. She is young, vivacious, and married with two young children. The thought of her losing her husband at such a young age, and facing things on her own with the kids, saddened me.

I have a dear friend who is a teacher, brilliant, young, vivacious and married with two young children. She is battling a very aggressive form of breast cancer. This must have been what made me react the way I did. I couldn't figure out why I cried so much.

I tell another girlfriend about the episode, and she pretty much summed it up as any man would have, "Are you getting ready for your period?"

PERPETUALLY!! When emotion cannot be explained by any other means...blame the monthly visitor. All better now.

Small Town News

Grandy doesn't get a chance to read her little local paper very often. It comes in the mail every couple weeks and let's face it, Grandy isn't exactly up to speed on checking her mail and what collects in it.

As I was catching up on a couple issues today, I was reminded of the fact that although the paper only has 20 pages to it, there are at least 4 pages combined of ads, 4 pages of news (including focus spots on the local high school sports programs), it's always a great place to find a calendar of events, and then there are TONS of editorials.

Between letters to the editor, "columnist corners", and whatever else strikes these folks, it is pretty comical. You've got to love an angle from an old Legion Commander, and his thoughts on how the young folks should be doing things. Then there's the "other thoughts from the hill", where we have an old hippie promoting the legalizing of pot. Oh yeah, I live in a cool place.

What really struck me was this little outburst. It's not in the "Letters to the Editor" section, not in the Editorials, nor is it mixed in among all these "columnist" rantings. It was simply titled, Special Traffic Notice!, and it read:

Well, While traveling 60 mph on Foresthill Road the other day, a lady insanely ran out of passing lane trying to zoom around me. She had to go into the oncoming traffic lane to make it and then gave me the one finger wave for being in her way. Is this the Foresthill behavior we all want to display to the world? It is my observation that it is ALWAYS a well dressed woman attempting murder to save 3 minutes on the drive to the freeway. Husbands...could you please bring this subject up in your house before we all have to attend some woman's funeral?

Ok, again folks...THE SPEED LIMIT ON FORESTHILL ROAD IS 55 MPH!!
...
IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU?

While the person that passed him is not THIS well dressed female, I find it amusing that he not only recognizes he was going 60 MPH in the section where the passing lane exists, thus not allowing her the opportunity to pass. He would also probably be the same individual that drives 40 mph where the speed limit is 55, and then guns it when we do have the opportunity to pass, so we cannot.

The irony that he thinks he is making a plea for our "safety" by asking our husbands to have a little chat with us is hysterical.

Just goes to show ya folks, we small town people can have our idiots in the media as well.

Getting Older...*sigh*

Grandy got this lovely image in an email the other day. The words attached to the email said...


A BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE ABOUT GROWING OLDER:

SHIT, I forgot what it was...

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!!!!

Committee Debacle #1

Grandy sits on several committees for large organizations, in her day job. She also participates on a personal level with many volunteer organizations too.

Between the corporate committees and the volunteer committees, which do you think Grandy struggles with the most? Yep...You guessed it...VOLUNTEER.

When you live in a small community, you tend to see the same parent involvement from one organization to the other. PTA, Scouts, 4H, you name it, it's all the same recycled parents. We try to do our part to make the most for our kids, and that is truly what it is for...the kids.

With some professional committees (still not necessarily "work" oriented) where you have people in the same industry that come together on a volunteer basis, to coordinate an event for other professionals. Common theme...throw the best conference ever, get people in the door, and let it shine. Getting all of these "professionals" on the same page, so see that they all have the same objective, is the biggest struggle.

Grandy is going to share a committee experience that was a pain in the ass challenging recently. Perhaps it might give you some perspective about the frustration some of us "outsiders with a sense of humor" are up against.

Committee #1: ALL MOMS, with a token spouse thrown in there but who never says a word. This has been my third meeting, and everybody has great things to contribute. Grandy looks around the room and realizes she has a new found respect for each of the board members, and the roles they've taken on, because there is just not enough hours in the day for Grandy to take on another leadership position. They all have a job to do, and they appear to do it well. My task, by being there, is to see where I can help take some of the pressure off them, and let them know there are those of us out there that want to SUPPORT them. Imagine my surprise when the following dialogue took place:

Committee: blah blah blah...snack bar...blah blah...can't make a decision until so and so is here...blah blah blah...harumph harumph...blah blah.
Me: Can we not table this discussion, you (committee chair) find out the information you need, email the update to the committee and get their general concensus for a vote? It seems to me that you need some sort of decision before our next meeting.
Chair: Well we tried email in the past, but there were too many decisions being made that not everybody knew about.
Me: I understand how that could be a problem, but it seems to me that perhaps you could just utilize it for just this one issue?
Chair: I see your point...but you wouldn't get to vote.
Me: I didn't ask to vote, I was just trying to keep the meeting going.
Chair: You don't get to vote.
Me: ::BLINK...SMILE...CLINCHING TEETH...BLINK::
Chair: You're not a board member, so you don't get to vote. We will have openings on the board next year. And you...(sizing me up and down) seem like you have some good thoughts. Yeah, you seem like a real "go getter". You could be on the board next year and get to vote then. But...THANKS FOR COMING!!

Grandy smiled, looked at girlfriend sitting next to her who was smiling with a WTF look on her face, and watched the room commence back in to the same dialogue that started the conversation. Blah blah blah...snack bar...blah blah.

After about 3 minutes, Grandy turned back to girlfriend knowing our boys were now done with football practice and waiting in the car, and said "Want me to get us out of here?"

She smiles big, and nods.

Me: We're outta here. I need to get my son home, and he's sitting in the car waiting for us. Good luck with your snack bar, your email, and your vote. See ya!! ::SMILING::

As we walk out the door, Grandy turns to see the expressions on some other friends faces. One reaction looked like, "PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU", one was laughing, and the "CHAIR" was shocked.

What I hadn't realized at the time was that my friend, who had driven there with me and was sitting next to me, was denied a copy of the minutes from the last meeting and the agenda by the same "Chair" because she too was not a "board member". She also received the "THANKS FOR COMING" comment.

Really people...we were the only ones there willing to help among all the parents of the Freshman class. Why do you want to alienate them?

For the rest of the week, Grandy received 2 emails, 3 phone calls, and 2 stops in town at the market from individuals in that meeting (none of which were the "CHAIR") sayin, SO SORRY about the meeting, and PLEASE COME BACK.

To which Grandy smiled and responded with, "I'll be back...next year".

Stay tuned for next week's issue of the COMMITTEE DEBACLE.