Currently earning an A- in gestation
 |
Seeing Rupert win the million bucks last night was amazing. Here's a guy who loved being on the show, never stopped trying, and had the same level of integrity in real life as he did on the show (from what I can tell). In my opinion, there had never been a more deserving winner but twice he was voted out too early and didn't get the chance.
This time, we got to choose and for once, I was THRILLED about the winner. Hooray for you Rupert! |
"As athletes, we repossess our bodies. Told that we're weak, we develop strengths. Told that certain sports are wrong for women, we decide what feels right…Told that certain sports makes women look 'like men,' we notice the truth: working out doesn't make us look like men, it makes us look happy…it makes us healthy and powerful" (Mariah Burton Nelson, The Stronger Women Get, The More Men Love Football, 1994, p.33)
Though the hour is late and my literature review is still a couple of hours away from being finished, I must stop to give a huge shout-out to Heather for the simplest, most wonderful of gifts. For my birthday this year, she gave me a pack of little tiny post-it notes shaped like arrows that I've used to mark and color-code spot after spot in the growing collection of books, course readers, my own work and journal articles that are forming the backbone of what I think is going to be a very strong piece.
Without these little flourescent arrows pointing to thoughts that seem to leave my brain as soon as they arrive, I would be utterly lost.
Thank you Heather, for saving my thesis.
Haiku Tuesday
Liz car sad, in shop
For two days, while pimp Focus
I must drive around.
I called Pimp My Ride
They cannot help the Focus.
Is Unpimpable.
In bug fix, I am
Liz Doughty, fixer of bugs
Rid the world of bugs!
I want to go see
Bob Barker. In his waxen
Glory. Price is Right!
Today's Work Related Adventures
The money part is of course fantastic but it's really a whole lot more than that. I'm part of a very funny, smart, occasionally very loud, team that rocks in so many ways. And I'm not dealing with the General Public (aka The Many People) at all.
This morning when I was renting my pimpass Focus, the guy doing my contract asked me where I worked, apparently for the contract. When I said the name (technically I work for an also well-known subsidiary of the larger, well-known company) he of course started telling me about his experience using the larger company, and how did a certain option (which is, in essence the whole reason that the site works so damn well) work. He also told me that he owes my company $.35.
I do not mean to be rude, but I am not tech support, customer support or someone who cares about your $.35. I realize that I have an inherent duty to be an ambassador for the company but does that oblige me to listen to every story from every person I meet who has ever used the platform or the product?
Maybe it does and I'm just not very good at it. I've never had this problem before since every other company I worked for in this valley (yes, save IKEA, why you gotta remind me?) is long dead and gone or so bastardized that the parent company would never have heard of me.
Last week, I decided to celebrate going permanent at work with a spiffy new pair of hockey pants. I've actually had mine long enough that both pairs in my current rotation are starting to fall apart and more importantly, I keep falling right on my ass. Hard. Incidentally, these pants coordinate nicely with my spiffy new orange stick.
So I wanted pants with more ass. I was all excited that they'd arrived so soon, since the website said blue (my preferred game color, I'm not sure why it's worked out this way) would take 1-2 weeks. I was ready to wait, but thrilled and surprised when I saw the pants-sized box on my porch.
The surprise was for naught. They were the wrong pants, an older, cheaper model. Though they were blue. I'll have to give them points for getting the blue part right. The guy was very apologetic and will refund my shipping costs when I return them. That's good service.
After five months of having my Check Engine light on, I finally have the cash to get the throttle body replaced and have the little light turn off. While I'm at it, I'm getting new tires and having the locks fixed. Right now, the car has a charming feature: it acts like it's locking but doesn't really lock. If you wanted to, you could just open my driver's side door, then reach in to grab whatever you like from my collection of empty coke cans, happy meal toys and assorted workshopped pieces of fiction, as long as you didn't mind the gentle bleat of my wounded horn.
But now, you won't have that option. I can't wait! In the meantime, I'm pimpin in a Ford Focus, which is seriously a pieceocrap. For a rental, it's pretty thrashed. Even though my car has issues, I still can't wait to get her back, minus a few of those issues.
What a weird weekend! Saturday, we spent the day with Jennie, her son Graham and their dog Maddie. They'd had a tough week and needed some quality time with dogs. Since we have dogs in abundance, it was the perfect thing. Then we trotted off to Belmont, where I coached my first red game (I think, I may have filled in once in the past but I was never Head Coach). Neither goalie showed up so the team had to make do, but they came up huge, winning 9-5. That was much different than their previous game, where they lost 8-0 and had a big implosion on the bench. I was beaming with pride when one of the players got a hat trick (Go Jenny!) and another, her first goal ever (Go Vanessa!). More importantly, they all got along well and seemed to have a good time. Go Red Fury!
Later that night, the A-Team had another great game, winning 3-1. All of a sudden, we're a very strong team and I'm having more fun with them than ever. It makes all the bullshit I've gone through getting to this point worth it. And not because of the winning so much but because we've become a team.
Sunday, we slept in and when I finally got up, I was determined to shave so I could wear shorts when we went out to a nice breakfast. So I figured, what the heck and took a shower. At one point, I put my shaving cream back into the little cubby we have affixed to the wall for bath products but it didn't settle in there quite right because when I turned around, it leapt from the cubby and landed with the edge on the side of my foot. I stood there screaming 'fuck! fuck! fuck!' as my foot bruised, then started to swell almost instantly. Andrea came to my rescue, admonishing the shaving cream for hurting me and helping me clean out the extra crap that had prevented the can from sitting properly in the cubby.
That scrapped all of our plans because the swelling was quite impressive. I knew I had to skate that night (do not even think for a moment that this would have kept me from doing so) so instead of a nice breakfast, we stayed home and I iced/elevated the foot while watching the Sharks lose to Calgary. The swelling went way down but the pain remains far too much for the kind of idiotic injury that it is.
I hobbled out of the house around 4:30, ready to put one more notch in my 'test-driving-every-mini-SUV on the market' belt with the Toyota Matrix. So far I've driven the Honda Element, Ford Escape, Mazda Tribute (yes, I know they're the same) and the Mitsubishi Outlander. I think the only one left is the Subaru. Anyway, the Matrix pretty much rocked. I drove the WRS, with a big ole' fatty engine and a ton of options. It was fast, handled well and had a fair amount of room inside. Of course the salesguy tried to get me to come inside and 'talk numbers' but we bailed, saying that we couldn't do anything until the refi is complete. The guy wanted to know when that would be, I told him that was a little personal, didn't he think? and we left.
I had thought I'd talk about last night's game, but I think I'm still processing it. I was shocked and disappointed at how rough it was, given the level and the fact that a lot of us on both teams were friends. I could give a rat's ass about losing (which we did) but when I look up and see a friend clocking one of my players on the back of the head, I just have to ask why?
Kinda makes me want to give up on co-ed for a while. The Seals have spoiled me.
