Sunday, October 28, 2007

WARNING: Political Post

Today, I watched the Republican Presidential Debate on Fox. I know, I know... people think Fox is biased and right wing and wacky... but I wanted to hear what these guys had to say. I was struck by the answers of Congressman (Dr.) Ron Paul. I've long been a Constitutional Republican and I was absolutely floored to find someone going against the "New Republican" philosophy. Over these past eight years, I've grown increasingly dissatisfied with the direction the Republican Party has taken. Once the party of limited powers of the Federal Government, low taxes and free markets, they've become a cheap knock-off of their Democrat counterparts... all about spending and invading personal liberties. It's really quite frightening.

While many may find Paul to be shocking in his views, I find him refreshing. Although I don't agree with him 100% on all issues, neither do I agree with any OTHER candidate 100% on all issues. Of course, I tend to lean a bit Libertarian and Paul has Libertarian roots. That being said, I invite you to visit his site and read for yourself: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/

I was so impressed by his performance in the debate that I pulled out the check book and donated. Then I signed up to run a signature campaign to get his name on the ballot in Virginia. I encourage each of you to do the same for the candidate of your choice. This is, after all, supposed to be OUR country. Let's make our voices heard!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Surprise!

You know, I try very hard not to be an angry person. I don't like being around angry people -- they make me uncomfortable -- yet since Monday, I've been an angry person.

I'm angry at my business partner for giving me the shaft on the office space front. I'm angry at my contractor for giving me the short end of the stick when it comes to getting my job done on time (he called off work on Friday so he could put all his guys on SOMEONE ELSE'S job so that it could be finished on time). I'm angry at myself for being angry - and for subsequently stuffing my face with comfort food. I'm angry at Ali for constantly complaining about the inadequacy of the space I'm paying to build for him. I'm just plain old angry! It kind of surprised me today as I was moving all of my stuff from my lovely, secluded, quiet, large office space to my dinky, wide-open, noisy office space. I picked up a chair and flung it against the wall. I didn't realize I had it in me to act that way... but in that moment, I wanted to break things. I reigned myself in - but it really was quite surprising.

I know that I will not be able to stay in this office space for long. I'm seething over the whole thing. I keep trying to 'let it go', but it keeps bubbling to the surface. It's so very unfair. He promised me that office space! If I had known I was going to be crammed into this fish bowl, I never would have moved here in the first place!

All of that being said, I simply cannot allow this to derail my fourth quarter. Every one's relying on me to produce miracles and I can't produce miracles while my head's up my ass. Let it go, Lauren... breathe in, breathe out... focus on joy and peace and abundance and St. Thomas in April (that's the location of our trip for top producers). Think happy thoughts... like "Johnny Numb Nuts" writhing in pain from thousands of scorpion stings. Oh, crap, there I go again! Breathe in... breath out...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I'm BAAAACK!

I'm hoping that it's been long enough that the busy-bodies who invaded my space have gone away. If not... maybe I'll write about them! LOL

I decided that it was just too much of a hassle to try to add everyone who wanted to read my blog (why anyone would really want to is beyond me! LOL), so I'm making it public again.

I'm in the midst of a number of crises in my life. First, my "housing agent" - the one with whom I share office space - has just informed me that he wants me to move out of the office I just moved IN to and instead move into a 7 x 9 space with no door, situated right behind the reception area. Now, I moved out of a perfectly good office across town to THIS office because it was nicer and in a more up-scale neighborhood. Keep in mind, also, that what I do has a major level of confidentiality associated with it -- people share private health information and confidential financial information. To transact this type of business in an open-air office space is unthinkable.

What compounds the situation, is that we are smack-dab in the middle of fourth quarter, when sales goals are uppermost in everyone's minds and I run like a chicken with my head cut off to get each of my SIX partner agents to their numbers for the year. I don't have time for this crap! What's WORSE is that he tried to blame his staff for necessitating the move. He told me that there was "a great deal of animosity among the staff" about me being located in the back office and that I'm not "adding any value" to the office by being here. I went to the staff to apologize to them for not "being there for them" and they looked at me like I had two heads. They all told me that they weren't the least bit upset and that they couldn't care less which office I sat in. I cannot ABIDE liars -- especially those who lie for NO GOOD REASON!!!! Turns out that he and his wife want to empty out their offsite storgage unit and put all of the files in the space I'm currently occupying. If we weren't in the middle of fourth quarter, I would pack my bags and move the hell out of here. I don't want to work with assholes! As it stands, I'm trying to carefully balance things here until January 1 -- when I hope to have other accommodations lined up.

On the homefront, Ali is freaking out over the renovation which is a simple FROG project (finished room over garage for those who aren't familiar with the term). I was in an all-day meeting yesterday and when I took the first break at around noon, I had six messages on my cell phone. One from a customer, one from an agent, three from Ali and one from my contractor.

Listening to the first message from Ali, one would have thought that they had blown off the end of the house and that the walls were falling in. Turns out, that they weren't able to do the stairs just as we had wanted due to insufficient head room... so they took up more space than we had originally thought. This is something about which our contractor had warned us and he had even shared with us his plans for an alternate placement in the event his suspicion was correct. Still, my contractor was upset that Ali had cussed out his workers and Ali was upset because the workers wouldn't listen to him.

Ali went on and on about how there were cigarette butts all over the place and that they left the windows open when they went to lunch, etc, etc. I was expecting a war-zone when I finally got home at nearly 9pm last night. Instead, I found a very nicely framed stairwell, a floor that was swept clean and two stray cigarette butts outside the garage door. I had to apologize to the workers this morning and then 'discourage' Ali from visiting the worksite on a daily basis. It turns out that I went to school with the carpenter -- I've known him for over 20 years. He told me this morning that Ali acted like a child yesterday -- ranting and raving and then squealing tires down the street and around the corner. David asked if he always behaved in such an immature manner. It's kind of embarrassing to hear a friend talk about your husband that way. I'm starting to hear the words of my psychic ringing in my ears, "if you DO decide to move back in together, you'll have a fight before it even happens." Oy ve. Will I EVER learn?

I've taken a sabbatical from choir for the remainder of the year. I don't know if I'll go back or not. I DID get a spot in the local symphony chorus for their annual concert. That starts after the first of the year. I'm looking forward to it.

Well, my lunch half-hour is over. I really must get back to work.

Welcome back everyone. I promise to try to update more often.