Week in Review


It’s Friday! Woo-hoo!

My week started out bad! I won’t go into the details of why. I have decided I don’t want to write about it yet. But Hubman did. If you read him (and why don’t you?), he wrote about it. There are a few things I have done – so if you notice some things missing, that is why. But overall, I’m okay now. Had to get my head wrapped around it, and that I did. Thanks to friends who offered perspective. And my own reaction after thinking about it and talking about it. Hey, you didn’t think I was going to let that go, did you? If you did, you don’t know me very well. So that’s all I’m going to say about it…..for now. Maybe later when I have some distance.

But it turned around. Tuesday afternoon I had some fun with SG. I am noticing the men I have the most fun bring their own kits with them. I’m not talking the usual condoms and lube. I’m talking fun things they are not afraid to use. Yeah, SG is one of those guys. I’ll write about it later, I’m sure. Just haven’t had time to do it. Fun was definitely had by all. Just the outlet I needed.

Oh yeah, and Garbanzo – he’s arranging for his own fun over spring break in case anyone wonders if he ever gets a chance. Now that I think about it, we have some great fun planned for that week and hopefully the weekend before too. (If you are reading this TL, you still haven’t answered me about that weekend. Just a subtle reminder in front of God and everyone.)

Wednesday was a fun night but for entirely different reasons. DJ is doing a report on Thomas Jefferson. She read us her speech which seemed to have incredible emphasis on the number of his kids that died soon after they were born. Garbanzo and I approved of the speech overall despite her morbid bend early on. She did a great job. But, the entertainment began when she asked, “Is there anything I’m missing?” We both explained to her the irony of Jefferson’s words (all men are created equal) and the fact he owned slaves. “WHAT?!” was her response. I made a side comment about how ironic it was that I think more of his “alleged” children survived. “WHAT?!” was her response again. So, I summarized for her that Jefferson had “intimate relations” with one of his slaves.

“That’s so wrong?!”

Enter into the picture a friend of ours – a black woman who is also a teacher. She concurred. That should also be included.

“I can’t give a speech where I talk about Jefferson having sex with his slave!!!” was DJ’s protest.
“Intimate relations”. Don’t say sex.” was my response.
“NO!” was the joint response from Garbanzo and DJ. Garbanzo was clearly foreshadowing the parent-teacher-principal conversation that would inevitable follow that speech. He would be the parent in that scenario. And the principal would likely never let him forget it.

“DJ, you have to tell the truth. Tell the history!” was what our friend encouraged.
“You guys are so weird!” was DJ’s response was she fled the room.

She won’t put it into her speech.  I keep checking.

Thursday was a fun day. The fun part came when I was standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light to change when the guy next to me collapsed. I grabbed my phone and dialed 911 as the other two women crouched down next to him. “What do we do” was their question. “Check to see if he’s breathing and responsive.” A couple others came running. One had seen it happen and ran to city hall to grab their medical kit in case he was hurt. (We were standing next to it.) The other helped the women by keeping them calm. As I’m talking to 911, he came to just in time to refuse treatment. 911 hearing he could talk requested to speak to him. He told them he was refusing treatment – don’t send anyone, he was fine. We are talking to him as he is still laying on the ground, and he tells us that he had just gone to the doctor where he was subjected to various heart tests. “But I’m fine.” We all were like “you need to get checked out.” Nope. So we helped him up as a few other security people nearby came to check on him. The women agreed to walk him to the building he was going to – there was a nurse there to check him out. The woman – the one who asked what to do – said “I’ll go with you in case something happens, I’m a nurse.” The other woman thanked me for being level headed and making the call. And I went back to the office. Then the words of the first woman struck me. She was a nurse?? Why was I telling her what she should do when a man collapsed?? It reminded me of something my dad said once after I got certified in CPR. “If you have to use it, you will find out if you are going to let the training take over or if you are going to let you emotions take over. If it is the former, your emotions will come later. If it is the latter, it won’t matter how much training you had.” Guess she was in the latter category. I just hope that guy is okay.

Then after lunch, I got to educate accountants on accounting. They were freaking out about something saying that payroll should match this other system which should match the general ledger. After they stopped talking, I said – “guys, you only want  Payroll to match what is in the GL.  It should never match the other system.” They argued with me, then I demonstrated to them why I was right. Their response: “oh, you ARE right”. And these folks would be why their boss keeps asking if I am sure I have never been an accountant.

Then my ride home on the train was made more interesting by the guys on it. They were visiting from out of town and had made it their mission to try to get people on the train to agree to go drinking with them. Interspersed where comments about how one was medicated. Yeah, he was definitely on something. I tweeted part of my favorite conversation. One guy announced he was Irish which is why he drinks so much and uses drinking as an introduction. Upon hearing he was Irish, one of the riders (a woman) asked if he could speak Gaelic. “Gay-lick? I’m not gay!” was his response. Yeah, I’m sure he was Irish. The woman they had been flirting with responded with “It’s okay honey, I’m gay enough for all of us.” Both guys expressed considerable shock as I laughed to myself. Then they tried to pull it together like it was no big deal. It was quite entertaining to listen to.

This weekend is going to be a bit crazy. I will be a solo parent as Garbanzo will be out of town. I’m hoping it stops raining so we can get outside. If not, I definitely think we are going to go have beer – I mean – watch a movie that happens to be in a local pub. They have a matinee of “The Princess and The Frog”.  Maybe we’ll hit the local science museum too. We’ll see.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

5 Comments Add yours

  1. Secretia says:

    That’s a lot of man talk for me at 6am, but I like it!

    Secretia

  2. It sounds like you have lots and lots of fun planned and I can’t wait to hear about it all.

    I will also be interested to see where DJ takes her report.

  3. John and Ann says:

    I am sorry to hear that your week started out on such a poor and disturbing note. However, things have certainly improved.

    If DJ is still working on her report on DJ, she might be interested to know that Jefferson himself struggled with that irony. On multiple occasions later in his life, Jefferson referred to the problem of slavery as holding “the wolf by the ear.”

    It remains scary that your accountants need a wicked smart non-accountant to explain to them how accounting works!

    The train story is classic too. I am sure that line will get a lot of use over the next few days with St. Patrick’s Day approaching.

    Have a great weekend!

  4. Freaks come out at night. Or so I thought. But I’ve been wrong before and will be again,

    I’m always a little touchy about the ‘we need to know the truth’ argument when it comes to history. Yeah, I think it’s important, but so are icons. I want to believe Jefferson was better than me. That Newton was smarter. That Mozart and Shakespeare were more artistic. I don’t really need to know if they stole their ideas, believed in ghosts, or buffered their stableboy. But then, I mock Russians who like to believe Stalin was good for their country. Slippery slope that.

    Anyways, good luck with that 🙂

  5. Joker_SATX says:

    Overall, it looks like you had a good week and an even better weekend planned.

    I read what you linked over at Hubman’s page. Yeah, that was freaky!

    Here is hoping that everything just turns out for the better.

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