January 2008 Archives
The storms in California have been terrible this month. All I can say is that Al Gore is right. I suggest that everyone watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and read his book of the same name too. The website is www.climatecrisis.net. Global warming is causing storms to be much stronger, to release much more rain in a shorter period of time than is typically the case.
At around 1:30 pm, after walking the dog, I decided to go shopping. Just my luck, a very strong storm started just as I pulled out of the parking garage. It was raining buckets so I tried to drive slowly. On the freeway people were not exceeding 45 - 50 mph.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, I hit a deep puddle on the freeway which caused a huge tidal wave to crash over the car. I slammed on the brakes as much as possible but not completely because I didn't want to get rear-ended. I could see a little light ahead so I was reasonably sure that I wasn't going to hit the car in front of me. The cars all around slowed. I could see that all of the drivers were really shaken. So was I. That was scary. Everyone slowed down even more and drove very cautiously from there on. Just a little way up the road I saw two vehicles parked on the side; the drivers were exchanging numbers. I'm sure they were hit by the same tidal wave and then hit each other.
No sooner had I arrived inside the store, soaking wet, that the rain stopped and the skies opened up. The sun shone so brightly afterwards that the streets dried up quickly. By the time I got home, there were hardly any traces of the storm remaining.
I like fresh air so I like to leave open the sliding glass door that leads to the balcony. I'm on the 4th floor. Today as I was leisurely reading the Los Angeles Times, as I always do on Sunday, I heard a slight bang. I almost panicked as I immediately thought that Valentin was trying make a break for freedom.
I ran to look and saw him walking around. I know that he tried to jump up onto the ledge but couldn't fit because the bars stopped him. I doubt he wanted to jump off. I think he just wanted a better view.
I took him for a walk right after that, to satisfy his need to see the sights. Whew!
It's hard to believe that January is nearing its end. I've hardly gotten used to the idea of this year being 2008.
My plans for this year are to find other sources of income. The environment in which I work is so terrible, quite hostile, really. As Anne Maria, my only friend at work says, "Everyone hates each other here." They all turn on each other, too. I don't say anything to anyone anymore because nobody can be trusted. The building is also super cold and dark. We have to wear coats or jackets and bring in space heaters. It's a bunker with no natural light or fresh air. When inside, you can't tell if it's day or night, summer or winter. We sneeze a lot inside. It's definitely an unhealthy environment in every sense of the term.
My supervisor is not only untalented and uneducated but she's also uncommunicative. My first day at work she sat at her desk all day long typing away, sending e-mails. Nearly 7 months later nothing has changed. Not once has she sat down to explain things, introduce us to anyone, or explain what she's working on. It's embarrassing going to meetings or workshops because she ignores us and never introduces us or shows us around. It's like she doesn't want anyone to know us. She must be very insecure. She's secretive about everything she does. We're the last to know anything that's going on in our unit. She send e-mails here and there and cc:'s everyone and their mother. She only talks to us to ask if we could answer an e-mail.
She calls herself the PIO (Public Information Officer) and is very proud of that title. Unfortunately, she has no clue what to do. She's had 3 interviews since I've worked with her and the interviews were just generic pieces, nothing timely. Normally, a PIO would send out press releases on a regular basis and take advantage of issues in the news to make a nexus to something that our organization deals with. That hasn't happened once. The Department of Public Health sends out 2 press releases a day. My supervisor doesn't even send out 2 a month. Nobody knows what our office does because the PIO doesn't tell anyone. I guess what's also very frustrating is that the Administrator - who recruited me because he'd worked with me in the past at another organization - has refused to work on changing the situation.
Recently, Anne Maria and I found out that our supervisor only has an AA degree and no media experience. Anne Maria was a radio, TV and newspaper journalist. Both Anne Maria and I have higher degrees than the school marm. I busted my hump for mine. I'm perplexed, considering that the Administrator has always told me that a bachelor's degree isn't worth much, only a master's is worth anything. So, after having taken a year off to attend fashion design school with the intention of getting an MBA right afterwards, I am pretty ticked off to be forced to work for someone who couldn't be bothered to earn a bachelor's degree in her 32 years with the County, an organization that reimburses college tuition. She was rewarded anyway with a promotion. She epitomizes the Peter Principle. She's definitely someone who was promoted to her level of incompetence.
My coworker and I, both unfortunate enough to have started working at the same time for the same incompetent person, realized very quickly that our new employment situation was a joke. We were both looking for other jobs by the 2nd month, maybe sooner. I kept trying to be optimistic, thinking that things would change. Now I realize that I'm the one who has to change. Change jobs, that is.
I guess this is a good catalyst for me to start my MBA and my fashion business at the same time. I have planned to do so but put it off because of this new job. Dumb idea. The good think is that I can qualify for up to $135,000 in student loans for an MBA. That could cover living expenses and start-up business costs. My father told me, "But you'll have to pay it back." My answer was, "Yeah. So what? It gets me where I want to go." I applied to a few schools, two that are online and one that's a one-year program specializing in global management: Thunderbird. I think that the online schools are good. They both have long histories of brick-and-mortar campuses. The reason why online would be best for me is that I could travel whenever and wherever I like without missing classes. I could go start my business in Argentina and still take classes. Although I know that Thunderbird would be a great experience, I have read that entrepreneurs usually do better attending smaller or less prestigious schools. That makes sense, considering that Ivy League graduates usually get recruited by large firms and their careers are set. So, being an entrepreneurial type, I'll probably be better off attending a smaller school. At the same time, the less famous schools still have good reputations and produce competent graduates. Finally, the cost is so much lower, which would allow me to take out loans for living expenses and be able to stop working for other organizations long enough to start up my business and start earning some profits.
I'm more and more certain that I should start in March of this year, about 6 weeks away.
Stay tuned.
Aphrodite was a beautiful cat that fell into my life in November of 1998 while I was living in a wonderful little house with a huge tropical garden in the city of Phnom Penh,Cambodia. Aphrodite was born in the attic of the house. I could hear her and her siblings scampering around at night. I asked my guard to go up there and get them out because the noise drove me crazy. He tried but the mother, an orange tabby, kept going back up there to have her litters. Aphrodite was part of the second litter that I knew of.
Valentin wanted to get near the kittens and play with them but they were too frightened of him. So he barked at them at pawed at them. Unbeknownst to me, he killed 3 of the first litter. My guard later told me about the killings after I saw that Valentin had killed a little kitten I'd adopted from a French lady I knew. Stupid me, I thought it would be okay to leave them outside together. I think that Valentin scared it to death.
A few months later when the large tabby cat gave birth to a new litter, I decided to adopt one. The mother dropped one while carrying it around back up to the attic area. It was so small, maybe 3 weeks old, possibly younger. I brought it into the house and held it. Valentin saw it, licked it clean then carried it off to nurture it after it had spent some time huddled at the back of the refrigerator. At the same time, its mother circled the house meowing loudly, "Give me back my baby." I realized that the baby was too young to care for so I put it outside for its mother. She took it back but was probably disgusted that it was covered in dog spit.
Then one day in November, maybe only 2 or 3 months later, while I was home for lunch, I heard Valentin barking wildly at the side of the house. I looked outside and say a wonderful little tortoise-shell kitten frightened out of its mind, trying to make itself look really big. I snatched her up and decided to adopt her. Since she was so unusually beautiful and had fallen from the sky (out of her mother's mouth, I'm sure), I called her Aphrodite, after the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
I knew better than to leave her alone with the dog, so I took her to work and let her run around in my desk drawer. Then I would supervise her time with Valentin until they became accustomed to each other. Eventually, she warmed to him and he took over as her father, licking her clean and carrying her around like a baby.
Aphrodite's mother hung around and they would visit each other outside regularly but Aphrodite would always come back inside. My housekeeper would see the cats outside and say that Aphrodite was visiting with her mother. We'd laugh. But it was true. I always felt like her family thought that she was the lucky one who had struck it rich and landed a good deal.
This is the last photo I ever took of her before she disappeared the night of July 13th - 14th of 2002 in the foothills of Banning.
r still looked really black.
In June 2007 right after graduating from FIDM and before I started my new job with the county, I stayed with my Mom and stepdad for a couple of weeks while I transitioned from my old house into a new place. I had to commute from Hemet to East L.A. (sometimes a 3-hour drive one way) for a month. A few days a week I stayed in a hotel because the commute was killing me. During that time, Valentin also stayed with us. He got along really well with their dog, Sydney, an Australian shephard.
The great thing about staying up on the hill on 3 acres way out in the boonies was that Valentin could go out without a leash. At first we were nervous but then I just had confidence that he would stick around the house and not run off. He would wander around the property then come back. A few times I thought he'd disappeared but we always found him nearby. Sydney always helped keep him nearby or helped round him up.
When I graduated from FIDM, right before starting to work for the county, I told myself that I would take the time to really dress well and look really professional and fashion forward. Little did I know that the cost of living in Long Beach would be so high and that my salary would be much lower than I'd thought - due to exorbitant taxes and retirement deductions. So, 6 months down the road, I finally started to earn more money and can now afford to buy new clothes and shoes. I'm going to start creating some new clothes as well, now that I have
more energy. I'm finally starting to have energy to shop and go out to do things after being so stressed and tired due to my job.
So here's one of the first photos of me in '08. My boss told me that I've been "all dolled up" recently. Compared to usual, I guess that's true.
Wow. It's already 2008. I caught a terrible cold right be fore Christmas and didn't recover until after New Year's day, so I missed all the celebrations. I will have to throw a makeup New Year party.
Valentin turned 13 years old on the 1st. I took him to his favorite places, the Pine Ave. Pier and Rainbow Harbor, all along the marina at Shoreline Village and the open ocean area where there's a long bike and walking route. I took several birthday photos of him. We sat down for awhile right across from the Queen Mary and enjoyed the view. Then I went out and bought him lots of the wet dog food in cans and pouches. I've started mixing it in with his dry food for every meal. He loves it.
Valentin rode down an escalator for the first time on his birthday. He didn't get scared. He wanted to walk down the stairs, instead of standing still.
I realize that my little best friend won't be around forever so I'm trying to really pamper him more than usual and enjoy every minute with him.
