Joys of Being an Admin

As I'm sure many of you know, being an administrative assistant is a thankless job. Most of the people that I work with are okay, but there's one woman that I refer to as the Queen of Unreasonable Requests. Any request that she makes needs to be done yesterday. I'm having lunch, but whatever she wants takes precedence over that. I do it for her so that it can be sent out via courier ASAP and she tells me that there's something else she needs to look at, so I don't get it back until 30 minutes later. That kind of thing is bad, but the worst is when there's a problem with the printer or the copy machine. Yesterday, she was printing something on the color printer that was legal size. Suddenly she comes to me and says there's a problem with it and asks if I can fix it and then bring her the printout. I go to the color printer and the display says to load legal paper in tray number 1. Yeah, that's a real problem! She doesn't have time to load the paper and wait for her stupid 4 page document, so she has me do it. I know that my job is to assist in an administrative capacity, but that's just ridiculous!

The Power of Good Music

As a Gavin DeGraw fan I've met people from all over the world through his fan club. They are some of the nicest ladies I've ever encountered. Not only are we able to bond over the music, but over life experiences, in general. We are all different ages and come from many different backgrounds, but our interactions with each other are a testament to the fact that as human beings, we are all very much alike. We support each other. We share in each other's triumphs and sorrows. We do our best to help each other. Maybe if all of the world powers could find a common love of some type of music, this might be a more peaceful world.

What are We Paying Them For?

The rock I'm banging my head against

I've been battling a sinus infection for almost 2 months now. I went to an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor), he took a culture and saw nothing. Because of that, he tried to say that I don't have a sinus infection. Meanwhile, I'm still feeling sinus pain and pressure, accompanied by discolored mucus. After I let him know that, he ordered a CT scan. The scan showed that almost all of my sinuses are 80% blocked. My doctor consulted with a surgeon and the surgeon recommended an antibiotic and a nasal spray. He also said that I should follow up with him in 3 weeks. For almost a week now I've been trying to make that follow-up appointment, but the surgeon's office is dragging their heels. All of a sudden the surgeon wants to know why my doctor is referring me to him. Hello! You were the one who suggested the antibiotics and the nasal spray and said that I should follow up with you. WTF! I know doctors shouldn't be expected to remember every little thing that they do, but that's what patient charts are for. Read it and then you'll know what's going on. I finally got tired of the runaround and made an appointment with another otolaryngologist for a second opinion and hopefully, a bit more indvidualized attention.

Grown-up in a Kid's Body

My 11-year old niece has had a very tough life. Her mom is an alcoholic and drug addict and her dad (my younger brother) has never known what it means to step up, be a man, and take care of his child. Because of her tough life, she's had to grow up very fast. Having a conversation with her is like having a conversation with an adult, most of the time. Because of that fact, it's easy to forget that she's only 11. Although she understands a lot of the inner workings of adult life and can converse about them intelligently, she is still just a child who often still does childlike things. One of the things that her mother taught her was to be deceptive and keep things from people. Because of some things that have happened, she now lives with my parents and has attempted to keep things from my mom. Of course all kids lie, but it's never good to hide things. My mother is 61 and has been taking care of children since she was 8 (she's one of 12 children). So she's pretty much seen it all and knows every trick in the book. My niece is a good kid who's very smart, but I just hope that she doesn't let the wrong stuff she learned during the first part of her life hamper her from growing up to be a good adult. I'm trying my best to make sure that she doesn't end up another statistic.

That's What We Want

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=54009042


The video above shows Gavin DeGraw talking about his approach for the new album. He mentions that fact that he wants to sound less produced. His voice is one that sounds best in its rawest form. Any production beyond the bare minimum does a disservice to him and to his fans. Although we pretty much love everything that he does, we love him when he's pared down to his essence more than anything else. All of his true fans are really happy that he's giving us what we want with the album "Free".

It Doesn't Take Much

A person's day can be made or ruined by the turn of a simple phrase. A lot of times things are said in an off-hand way without regard to how they affect the person who is being spoken to. That usually results in hurt feelings and sometimes bias against that person because of whatever race they belong to. Race has nothing at all to do with a person's bad choice of words, but sometimes people fall into the trap of stereotyping based on wrongdoing that was caused to them. I've been guilty of generalizing about a group after a member of that group has hurt my feelings. That's the anger and the hurt talking. No group can be judged based on the actions of one member of that group. That's not fair. Unfortunately, very few things in life are fair.

Sheer Genius!

A single from Gavin DeGraw's new album "Free" has been released. It's called "Stay" and I think it might be his most open, vulnerable recording yet. On their own, the lyrics, themselves would be heartwrenching, but when the plaintive quality of his voice is added, it hits you squarely in your heart. I get the feeling that "Free" is going to be the album that Gavin was born to make. Whether it's critically acclaimed or not means nothing to me, because it's not about that. It's about whether or not music can reach deep down and touch my soul. If you love music in its purest form, you've gotta check this song out. You won't regret it!

www.myspace.com/gavindegraw