I am totally cracking myself up with my new trailing cursor. What's not to like?

We just heard that Rajiv's visa is approved at last, ending the fear of a one-way ticket back to Calcutta. Even it is the city of love, he still doesn't want to go there right now. Phew and congrads!

Thanks to my buddy Glen, who hooked the Jets up with an emergency goalie for the big playoff game on Sunday. May the forms be with you.

I just bought myself a new watch. Why? Because I can and it's cool. I guess in celebration of my continuing paychecks or something like that. And I like watches with velcro bands that glow in the dark.

Give Hockey a Try Day is Sunday, which means it's that time of year where I run around sayng 'GHATD' and then following myself up with 'bless you.'

Something I did not expect is that my job is suddenly a lot more interesting without Mary to help me. I have more to do, more contact with clients and am doing a wider range of things. I miss having her and Kyle around, no doubt about that, but I am kind of liking the changes to my job itself that have resulted from their departure. Is that bad?

I've moved into the other room at work and now sit with my lone teammate, Rajiv and two account managers for the other product this company sells. One of just said that an account has a corrupted load and is talking about loads and logs. Maybe I secretly want their job.... He said load. And log.

Today my dad started giving me shit about going to my sister's wedding. I told him this:
I knew that telling Mom about going to Rachel's wedding would inspire a flood of comments from you both about this. I'm not even sure where to start, so I'll just say that knowing her gives me a great deal of peace, it offers explanations to questions I've always had. I know it's hard for you both that I'm in touch with my birthfamily, but in the end, I'm part of them too. Please try to understand that and not give me grief about choosing to go. I do not and will not continue to defend my relationship with the (birthmom, hubby and kids), the (birthfather and Rachel) and the (birthmom's family). I shouldn't have to. I know it's hard on you but I can't help that, I can only remind you in as many ways as I can figure that I love you and remain a member of our family before I'm anything.

That seemed to quiet the comments for now.

Sore Loser
One guy who was laid off was a guy I call Weasel Boy, or Penis. He has a gift for saying the wrong thing pretty consistently, for working long hours but producing few results. No results I can live with, but the lack of social graces really got to me. In his final moments here at the office, he sent out an email detailing how much he'd done, how he'd generated x amount of leads, he'd done whatever. Yeah great, I'm sure the entire company wanted to know that. Unlike Mary and Kyle who marched out of here, heads held high, WB looks like a fool.

I've been laid off enough to know that the way you handle yourself on the way out means something. Even when the Evil One fired me, the only act of defiance I did was to throw my badge on the table. After that, I packed up my things and walked out calmly as the weight of Evilness lifted from my shoulders. I can only hope that Mary and Kyle felt that same weight lift yesterday.

Mary and Kyle just made their triumphant final exit from the office. It's finally starting to hit and I am very fucking sad.

We are making the most of Andrea's temporary disabled status, along with the hard-earned parking placard that accompanies this status, by going to as many movies during prime-time hours as we can think of. Usually we don't go, especially not on the weekends because there is no parking and the theaters are packed. But when you have Class A Gimp parking, there is no problem. Tonight we're off to see the new Austin Powers, mainly so I can sit there and say mole! mole! mole! forever and ever, just like after Dan and I saw Uncle Buck, where a melanoma featured prominently in the story line. We still joke about that mole (Moley Russel's Wart) today, hopefully tonight's mole will have a similar lasting effect. Mole.

It seems that only a handful of people were laid off, most of them upper management/higher paid employees. Scratch that, they all fall into that category. They're here packing and it's odd, I want them to be gone now so that I can get on with doing my job, which is now also part of their job. It's hard to concentrate when they're here being bitter and upset (rightfully so) and it's now my job to pretend like everything is normal.

My brother scored his first goal last night. Go Chris!!

I told my mom that I plan to attend my sister's wedding. I shouldn't have, I should have just snuck into the state, stayed near the wedding and gone back home without seeing any of my family. The moment I said it, mom got all weird and was like 'are you sure you want to go? If it was me, I wouldn't go.' Jesus. Am I going to hear about this every time I talk to her for the next month? What people who aren't adopted don't understand is that at the core of your life is a very traumatic event that from what I can tell, affects so very much of who we become after that and if I can get a little healing, a little closure from going to a wedding, then I will.

Some good news: one of my 3 teams has a solid enough record to go to the playoffs. The Jets will be playing Sunday at 5:15 PM. Woo! I'll be there!

I walk around the corner this morning and there's one of my co-workers, loading boxes into his car. I walk into the building and the slimiest sales guy is talking about how great this opportunity is for him and how the company is poised to kick ass in the market and blah blah. Later he came to my desk and I said ' what's up, Mr. Party Line?' and he said 'party line? I'm a party guy' clearly missing the meaning of my comment.

My boss was also laid off. Good god. Why did they buy us if they didn't want us around?

I'm safe. I'm still employed, however I don't know if I'll be forced to take a cut in pay and I'm no longer allowed to work from home. My favorite co-worker was laid off and we still don't know if my boss was. The good part is that they're sending me for technical training which in theory could open doors for me going forward. I'm still stunned about Mary.

We got the official company memo today. Today I'm either being laid off or given a new job offer for my same job, possibly at a lower salary, my vacation would start over and I'd be forced to sign up with a new insurance carrier. I am so tired of all the layoffs in my life. I know there's something to be learned from each one but shit, I'm really tired of the constant worrying and in the end, of no longer liking what I do.

As I write I'm working from home, the sound of happy baby bassets wrestling in the living room/dining room/kitchen/outside is music to my ears. How could we have even questioned bringing Patrick into our family? He's the best gift we could have ever given Rainie.

Yesterday the current incarnation of the A-Team had their last game. I chose to sit out since I am taking no chances with my noggin until it's fully healed. They chose to end the season with an all-out brawl, with the usual suspects getting ejected from the game/penalty minutes as a lovely parting gift. I was embarrassed but no longer surprised. I wish them all the best in their new team and look forward to rebuilding, hopefully without folks who want to fight during the game. During the handshakes after the game, one of the instigators said 'Kiss my ass' instead of good game.

Afterwards, I played my first game in a week, with my NCWHL team. I was very tenative at first but got my sea legs back after the first period. There was also a fight in that game too, with one of our players getting shitty on one of theirs. Our coach didn't let that woman go out for the post-game handshakes. I guess everyone was just grumpy. I was happy to be not puking so I didn't have a lot to say about it.

I had no idea that b-may is also an Ohio State fan. I'm sure that kid is pointing at someone from Michigan.

A sign of the times
The following jobs match the criteria set up in your agent:

***Your HTML agent yielded 1 jobs:

1. Manager - San Jose Taco Bell

My sister Rachel is getting married in September. I'm thrilled for her but was bummed when she didn't want to invite me -- I'm essentially the bastard 1/2 sister that emerged from the woodwork 5 years ago and rattled her mom, since my birthfather had claimed all along that his girlfriend in high school had had a baby, but it wasn't his. Ha! I'd resigned myself to not going, vowing instead to give a gigantic gift that cost as much as a gift and air fare to Ohio. Imagine my great surprise when she told me this weekend that she'd changed her mind, that it's her wedding and I needed to be there! I'm still in awe and am now a little nervous, I'll be meeting my birthfather, his wife, my other sister and brother for the first time. But I'm thrilled that Rachel asked me to go. Of course I'll go!