Always Time

Completed Work.

It IS Time Travel - with Poppets! - 3rd Panel

The Future panel.

Past and Present are posted immediately below if you missed them.

The Devil I know

Part of the reason for the Dreamtime is because I stopped being good about telling people whom I loved what was happening. Mostly because I was tired of hearing myself. And perhaps I was tired of having to admit that things kept happening.

This entry is to meet that need, although this time I have informed immediate family members, other loved ones might still check here:

There are many aspects of my job that I can't talk about, and indeed very few people who read me here even know what I do to support my Poppet Habit.

Even if I had the type of job where I could talk about it, I'm not sure I would here. Because the internet is a web, but it is also like amber - it traps everything forever. The Dreamtime has some journal like qualities but there are limits, journals generally don't have an audience. They work well for processing and exploring ideas that you are still working on and maybe for venting, but the internet and (as I discovered earlier this week), emails are not necessarily the best "working documents" for processing thought.

However, there is one thing I'm relatively sure of, which is that no one from work reads this blog. Even the one friend from work who thinks about reading the blog frequently admits to not getting past the thought.

At work however, the one thing I should not talk about, is that I am about to be out of work.

I guess it's like what I heard about fight club, which I suppose I shouldn't have heard about.

So although I am about to join the statistical measure of the recession at the end of the month, ( For once I am on Trend! My advertising professor would be so proud . . . .) I find that one of the things that is happening is that everyone who has to tell me something about it, is deeply upset at having to talk to me about it at all.

Later I figured out that's because right now, for this minute, I am the only one they have to tell.

And universally they have said "I can't believe this is happening, who could have predicted this?"

Um . . . . me.

You know, the one you hired to analyze and manage things? The one who told you not only that this was going to happen, but should it happen, I'm the one that you should throw overboard first.

"I can't believe they're doing this to you during the Holidays"

You mean the month the contract ended? But honestly, I do understand that it is upsetting to my three bosses, my HR representative, and the people I can't mention because then I would be talking about work.

But I'm not sure why they were surprised at my acceptance. I wonder what they were expecting? Do people generally behave badly in this circumstance? I can't even imagine. It's just the end of funding. I did a great job, they made money, they'd hire me again, I'd work for them again. It's all good except for the I-have-no-income part.

I was upset sometime in October when I saw that the math would not work. And while my value is tangible, and perhaps even critical, the description of my work is devalued, no one would work to save me on a sinking ship, even if I'm the only one with an oar to move the flotsam. But when the promised miracles still stayed exactly as far away I predicted, it started being more about making sure that the ship could still float even if it was becalmed. Because that's a whole lot better than having the whole thing sink. So I've been working for that, knowing that there was very little chance of being invited on to the repaired vessel unless there was a me-shaped hole when everyone was ready to set sail again.

And if they kept me, I promise the sailors would have thought I was bad luck and thrown me overboard in a different direction.

So now I need to just be careful - I am elegible to work for that ship again or a similar ship. I don't see myself changing the nature of my web presence which is "present but discreet."

I will be looking for a job and I am old school. I work really hard and I take not working as a kind of personal failure. I have ended up in employment situations that were horrible and afraid to leave them for fear of unemployment, but I've been where I am five years, I have family and friends to back me up. I have a spark of life back that had hibernated for several years thanks to Lisa and the Poppets.

So with any luck I'll be able to make a living doing what I'm good at without working for the devil. Instead of what happened once before. Primary job criteria - don't be evil.

I think I'll be OK.

But I do admit I miss at least the idea of corporate cultures with a career path instead of a continually improvised trajectory. Of course those might be as mythological as the hydra.

If nothing else the Embassy will resume construction . . . .

Where Both Sides can Agree

A pious fool is he who sees a child struggling in the water and says, "I'll take off my tefilin and then save the child." - Talmud Jerushalmi: Sota

This Will Fix it

"Hmmn, she's sick again, how tiresome that must be for her. Some strawberries should help."

"Don't be silly, she should have Whipped Cream, it fixes everything."

"Strawberries have anti-oxidants and Vitamin C, what good will Whipped Cream do her?"

"It's pretty and it tastes good. See. And she's just sick again,  she doesn't have cancer. Just bad luck with bacteria this month."

"It does look prettier this way."

"Told you so."

"Something's missing though. I don't really think this will do it."

"You may be right, but what's missing?" 

"We Know."

"It is Mandatory. We shall get started immediately. This will fix it."

"Well, if they're going to do that, we should certainly do this."

"Hey! That's not healthy!"

"No but it's chocolate and it goes with coffee. It's the rule of 4."

"There's a rule of 4? I don't know that rule."

"Well then you just weren't paying attention. Coffee, chocolate, strawberries, whipped cream. You see how it works?"

"Not really."

"Trust me. The chocolate will make sure that this will fix it"

"Trust you?"

"OK! Everyone ready? Let's call her down - she'll be good as new in no time, or at least happier."

"Shouldn't she be writing for the Embarrassed Embassy tonight?  She might not get to it if we interrupt her." 

"It's OK. We'll make an announcement. Announcements solve everything that Whipped Cream and chocolate don't cover."

"And Coffee"

"Coffee is Mandatory."

"Righto"

Attention, 

This Blog will be temporarily distracted by Dessert. Normal Blog Functions will resume when Dessert has fixed things.

Thank you.

The Poppets

Free At Last . . . .

Break out the Chametz!

Oreos Away . . . . 

OK - That might be a bit over the top . . . . Bread - free for a week isn't really that bad.

However, in the great Tradition of things that bewilder non-religious people the end of Pesach means that everything I did last week I have to undo as soon as it's over. And it wasn't over until 8:17 last night, which is why the modern American tradition is to desperately order pizza and use paper plates to eat it. 

So until I revert the kitchen and switch the Pesadik stuff (kosher for passover in Yiddish) like the pots and pans, silverware, dishes and mixing bowls, I can't cook regular food in the kitchen. Then in the kind of thing that makes observant Jews think that maybe Reform might have had the right idea on some stuff, tonight is Shabbat which means it's time to light things on fire and have another festive meal and indulge in no-commerce for 24 hours. All of which is solemnized with TWO BIG FLUFFY LOAVES OF BREAD! 

Right- so since I am Working Woman we went out for breadsticks and Alfredo sauce at Olive Garden, which I personally capped off with some Tiramisu. Got home by 10, too tired to switch kitchen, send out the Hordes to school and work from 6am - 8am then work for me - Shabbat will start at 8ish tonight so I'll have about an hour and a half to change all the stuff, to make sure I don't contaminate the Passover stuff by accidentally touching it with stuff I shouldn't.

Yetzair Ha-Ra is laughing at me, covered in Oreo Crumbs, because he knows that I will accomplish the wine, fire and probably the kitchen switch and challa ( bread) but tonight's festive meal is gonna most likely be pizza ordered before sundown and paid with a credit card so that I don't exchange money during Shabbat. 

(Burning Man and Shabbat have a lot in common, participation is required, no commerce and fire is mandatory).

It's cool though, Pizza and Red Wine are excellent together, but yeah I can totally see why people who aren't doing this think observant people are nuts. But I get pizza and red wine tonight, and I lost six pounds last week (which means maybe I should eat a few less baked goods out of the work vending machine, because those were six out of ten recent pounds that I was very unhappy about) and no one loves Olive Garden's breadsticks and Alfredo Sauce like Jews who are coming out of Passover. For that moment they are sublime.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who provides the capacity for both chain restaurants and delivery for those of us who are trying find a midway. Blessed are you, who allows us to crack jokes while we are dealing with our Exoduses, large and small, internal and external, whether you are actually there or not. 

Hopefully, I'll be able to sneak in a new Tiny Alien Episode before Shabbat too. What? I've already decided to order Pizza  that knocks an hour off my timeline right there.