Appreciation

Everyone likes being appreciated, right? Well it depends. Mindy, the operations manager at my job, came up with the idea to have an appreciation party. It wasn’t anything fancy but to me it was the thought that was most important.

Mindy had a quick meeting with the department and team managers to decide what to have for the party. They ordered cakes, blew up balloons, printed certificates of appreciation and coupons for an hour off, and gathered various gifts for the employees.

When I arrived that Tuesday afternoon, the dayshift celebration had already taken place and it was nearing the time to set the room up for the night shift employees. A few of the workers were not enthusiastic about the cake, mixed nuts, mints and punch. For a last minute effort, I thought that the managers had done a good job. Now if you ask me, management did not have to spend their money on people for doing their job. They could have said, “Hey, you did your job. Your pay check is your reward.” If that had been said, many people would have felt slighted and, of course, would have had their lips poked out.

Every time I heard someone say, “Is this all the food we get?” I told them, “If you want, you can go pick up some hot wings for everyone.” They just looked at me like I was crazy and tried to get as far away from me as possible as if something was wrong with me.

It was like a graduation ceremony as each manager got up to thank their team before calling each employee up to receive their certificates. After handing out all of the certificates and gifts, the managers served the punch and other refreshments to us.
Mindy said, “We literally decided to do this yesterday, so there wasn’t a lot of planning time.” This was in response as to why so many different gifts were handed out. The tax examiners received stress balls or lanyards for their ID badges, the clerks got water bottles, and the leads and I received Bravo paraphernalia such as coffee cups, Post-it Note holders, and beverage coasters.

Lindsey, one of the leads, was nice enough to stand up and offer thanks to all of the managers for their part in helping us meet our goal, which was very happily received.
After the festivities were over, I helped the managers clean up the room and take down all of the decorations. Mindy took the themed balloons with “Congratulations” and “Well Done” on them and put them on a table in the middle of the work area. She was hoping that the balloons would bring a smile to the employees’ faces every time they looked at them. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the majority of the people rolled their eyes when they looked up at one of our tokens of appreciation.

Life Got in the Way

This poem is dedicated to my best friend. Even though we've known each other 10 years, it feels as if we've been friends all of our lives.

We met through mutual
friends and have been
through thick and thin
ever since.

What happened to
those days when
we could go out
and treat
each other to dinner
even when we
had no dates
to double with?

But now that I
think about it,
sick parents,
needy children,
and job responsibilities
took center stage
in both of our lives.

Phone calls and emails
are the only way
we communicate
these days, because life
now dictates our
free time.

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo

I've decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) from November 1 to November 30, but it did take me a while to make this decision.

It is possible that I have been living under a rock since 1999 (when the competition first began) because I didn't find out about it until 2008. Being the procrastinating writer that I am, I've waited a whole year to find out what NaNoWriMo is all about.

One of the people that I follow on Twitter, who goes by the name ProcrastWriter, has been tweeting and blogging about NaNoWriMo since September. I signed up for her NaNo survival tips and set out on a journey to find out more about this 30-day-Novel-Writing-thingy.

Of course the first place I went to was the NaNoWriMo website. After checking out each page on the site, I was like okay this sounds cool. I still had to give it some more thought though.

And you'll never believe what happened that night. I had a dream about something I would have never thought would ever happen to me in a million years--I was falsely accused of murder but was acquitted and ended up on Oprah. Isn't that something.

Now I'm not the type of person that sits down and tries to interpret what my dreams mean, but I did wonder, "Is this a story I need to write?" The more I thought about it I finally came to the conclusion that I had to use this dream as the basis for my NaNoWriMo novel. So I went back to the website and created my profile.

Then I was at the point where I was trying to figure out how in the world would I be able to write 1,667 words a day for a month between taking care of my son, working (full-time mind you) and going to school two days a week as well as taking one class online. Now I know I spend a lot of time online, which is great because I get to network with new people and keep in touch with old friends; I'm thinking that some of that time (at least an hour a day) can go towards working on this novel.

I Googled NaNoWriMo yesterday and found a few more blogs that had some very helpful information. Paperback Writer posted a blog entitled "NaNoWriMo Ten". This article talks about finding character names, using a graph that monitors your novel word count, and gives information on outlining your novel in 30 minutes as well as a few more suggestions.

Spacejock.com created a progress form in 2008 that can be used to track your daily word count progress.


Writinghood.com suggests finding someone to compete in the challenge with you.

All of these sites offer a wealth of information. I may find myself using nearly all of them before the month of November is over. I'm even considering purchasing a NaNoWriMo 2009 "Noveling Machine" t-shirt to keep me motivated.

Phone Tag

Why do you
Ask me for
My number
When you
Knew you would
Never use
It?

Those times when you
Do text,
it’s late
at night.

So I call
You early
The next day
and get your voicemail.

The only
thing we
Have in
Common are
Bedroom
Games.

Other than
That, nothing
Exists
No conversation
Unless we
Are about
To screw or
After we
Are through.

I need more than
That in my life so
when you’re
ready for the
real deal,
give me a
call when you
have some time
to kill.

The Death of My Computer

I am so sad...my computer died last night
I don't know why I was so upset
When I realized it.
I didn't write when I was supposed to.
No greeting cards or scrapbook pages
had been done in a while.
Sims and Diner Dash had been totally neglected.
But when I pushed the power button
and nothing happened, I cried.
All I could think about were all the things I could have done.
If only the computer would come on.
I switched out parts,
unplugged and re-plugged,
But still, nothing happened
and I'm really, truly sad.
When I get a new computer
I'm not going to neglect it.
I'm going to write until
my hands cramp.
I'm going to make greeting
cards for every day on the calendar.
I'll make a scrapbook with all
the crappy photos I didn't want
anyone to see.
And I'm going to play every
goddamn game on it including solitaire.
All praises due to the computer
and the folks that brought them into existence.
I don't know how I would function without you.