2001-04-23
feeling kinda
oh, will the hilarity never end?
we were accosted by the corporate farm again today. it's not enough that they've dictated we use their process. it's not enough that they restructured our benefits, costing most people substantial time off. it's not enough that we just got whacked with corporate wide layoffs. no, apparently, that's not enough. today we got re-orged, boys and girls! whee! and it's only monday.
my initial response was fine, that's it, i'm fed up, i quit. and i sat with that for a while, trying to figure out why i wanted to quit. there are a couple of reasons, i think. and it was interesting to take those reasons apart.
off the bat, i didn't like the corporate Farm girl who came to make the announcement. now, did i not like her because of her reputation? or because of her announcement? or was my gut feel that she was useless in any way accurate? i'll never really know. but first impressions do count for quite a lot, i think. we've only known her, most of us, thru reputation. and it's not a terribly positive one. but really, when she walked in to the room, i just got a weak vibe from her. as in, she's weak, not that the vibe was. and listening to all the corporate drivel she offered up made me furious. i know it's her job to put a good spin on things. but when she walked into the room and asked if that was everyone, i was hard pressed not to say, 'well, yeah, you fired a bunch of us. so yes, this is all of us that are left.'
the other thing that got me, at a very basic level, was the upheaval. good or bad, it's more change. and damn it, you can only take so much major change in a short period of time. this just feels like too much.
i couldn't wait to get the hell out of Dodge, so i took off a little early tonight to work down at the Orpheum. it's funny - i've felt like the new kid on the block there for so long that i get jazzed when everyone gets happy and says hi to me. maybe it's just the amusement factor; i'm terminally afraid of going anywhere without reading material, and my tastes are rather ... obscure. so someone is always asking about what i'm reading. tonight? The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels. just a *tad* obscure, you think? but as ken said, 'better weird than average.' :giggle: actually, i can't remember if he said boring or trivial or mundane or average. but you get the idea.
so the show tonight was Mark Knopfler. whee ha! sold out show, but with plenty of staff, which made it easier than some. [note to self: remember that none of the shit the patrons say to you is personal. they're just cranky.] i didn't get to hear much of the opening act, which was fine. we got released right after Knopfler started, and since i was working the lobby, i got the opportunity to see most of the show from about 20 rows from the stage. yeah. 8) he and the band played a solid two hour set, including two encores. i was trying to figure out most of the night what seemed so familiar about the bass player, when finally it donned on me: he looks kind of like one of the lead characters on Sports Night.
ooh! ooh! bonus round! James Taylor came out to play a few songs with Knopfler! how cool is that? the thing that cracks me up about JT is that he looks so mild, and then when he plays, he gets the Big Bad Guitar Man face. makes me laugh... seems sort of out of character for him.
much as i hate to say it - it was lovely to hear Knopfler play songs i first heard when growing up. gawd, i sound like an old fogey. 'back in the day, when they had *real* music...' but it is nice - all these songs that you've known forever, and recognize in the first chord or two, and you and everyone else are cheering and whooping and singing along - it feels like home.
made for a good long day, it did. full(ish) day at work, and 5 hours down there... so i'm squinting at the terminal as i write this, trying to focus on complete sentences. grammar? what's that? *g* i've managed to reverse my sleep/wake cycle, pretty much, because i haven't been able to get to sleep before 2 most nights lately. perhaps today will help fix that.
ooh - i almost forgot! look, kids - new toys. ::pointing right:: lookie, lookie - you can sign up on the notify list (i'm most likely going to batch updates in email, unless you want to hear every day i update; let me know). and you can search the site, too. so if you want to see what i had to say about Maceo, or the elevators from hell - that nifty little gizmo will help take you right there. ain't life grand?
