School's Out, Take One

Well, today was the last day of preschool. Otherwise known as the end of "me time." I really did it up right, too, with a facial and polish change. That was my reward for running about 1,000 errands in the last week or so. I have been trying to tackle a monster to-do list in advance of leaving town. Why is it that everyone who learns of our summer plans gives me a look that screams, "You are out of your mind!"? Looking forward to a weekend away with the hubby before the family road trip begins.

Here comes summer

A friend of mine had an interesting observation: When you are the parent of a school-age child, you think in terms of school years, rather than calendar years. So, even though it is just May, my mom friends and I are counting down to the end of the year. My preschooler will be done on Wednesday; my 4th grader the following week.

We are kicking off the summer with a two-week road trip to visit family and friends. Should be quite the adventure.

More Cuts- This time its Salary

I'm addicted to the internet and all its subcategories, email, facebook,google! But i also love to read the newspaper, even though by the time i get to the newspaper at night, i've seen much of the news already from browsing online during the day.

This past week there was an article that I dound very disturbing. The Miami Herald is letting 205 employees go by July 1, 2009. They are allowing the people to retire and take severance and if they don't do that then the company will decide who goes. The BIGGER and UGLIER news is that all remaining employees will take paycuts. If you make under $50,000 you will get a 3% pay cut and if you make over $50,000 you will get a 5% paycut. Oh yes and the newspaper will shrink the margins by an inch so we get less news! I have a friend at a major medical institution and she also told me that the institution is facing huge deficits and one of the options is for employees to have their pay reduced! The School Board in Miami is still trying to negotiate teachers taking 3 furlough days without pay!

Now I try to put this into context, things cost more, people need to pay for daycare, after care, gas, and one of the current OBAMA cabinet members has said that pay has not risen at an appropriate rate for workers and now Companies have decided that the way to fix their financial problems is to give less money to the people who work hard every day!

Something is very wrong with this picture!

Its Sunday March 15th and depending on the city here is what they are celebrating!

I grew up in a very small town 10 miles west of Boston, MA. It was very norman rockwell! We graduated high school on the town green wearing white dresses and a bag piper lead us in! I grew up with many kids who were second generation to our town and in fact are now raising their own children there.

I moved to South Florida for law school, and its a cultural divide from New England to say the least. Miami is a cultural melting pot, as an example when I walk into a grocery store blocks from the business District of Brickell, the cashiers speak to me entirely in spanish. I find that many of my sentences are mixed with spanglish phrases and while my conversation isn't great, i understand a great deal!

So today is Sunday March 15th! In Miami they are celebrating Calle Ocho on SW 8th Street, a huge parade and festival that celebrates the hispanic culture. In Boston they are also having a parade but with green beer and green carnations celebrating the luck of the irish!

And so many years later, i find that while I live in the South, I will always be a northerner in my heart!

Sunday Styles No Longer a Guilty Pleasure

I have a ritual! I love sunday mornings, i get out of bed, open the door and bring in the NY TIMES and climb back into my fabulous bed to indulge! I read the Sunday Style Section First. It used to be filled with stories of fashion, new restaurants, grand parties and EXCESS! It was my guilty pleasure, what connected me to the goings on of the Fashion, Fabulous and Famous in NYC!

Lately when I open the Sunday Times I want to crawl under my bed instead of just under my amazing duvet! Take for instance last week, there was an article on how families could no longer afford to send their children to private school and instead were choosing parochial schools or public schools and how embarassing it was for the children! I don't know, i went to public school and it wasn't embarassing in the least bit! Another article was about how there was a huge job fair at the Sheraton, fewer companies participated and the room held 1000, at the last fair 2000 people showed up and at this fair there were 5000! They were lined up around the block of the hotel and it took hours for them to get inside!

I'm afraid to see what this Sunday will bring!

Violated and the customer service industry

i went to the bank yesterday to discover that i had been the victim of identity theft! A pretty sophisticated identity theft in my opinion! Bad things happen in three's! This is the third bad thing that has happened in 3 weeks and i'm hoping that it's the last for me! Otherwise the bad things in three's theory is out the door!

In any event, aside from the complete violation of my personal information and the ridiculous hassle of cleaning up this problem, it reminded me about our great nation and customer service.

Ever tried to actually get a human on the phone at a bank? first its almost impossible, they make those dial and press deals so complicated, but when you finally get one, they have a very thick accent and are often in INDIA or PAKISTAN!

Several months ago I called an airline to follow-up on a delayed flight I was scheduled to take. The customer service agent was in INDIA and told me that my flight was scheduled to leave at 3:20 pm, the problem was that at the moment he told me that it was already 5:00 pm.

Its time to bring call centers back to the good ole' USA! Provide not only jobs to Americans who are suffering, but provide information to consumers that is relevant and understandable!

Valentines Day amd the End of Hibernation

I have always said that i'd like to hibernate from the day before thanksgiving until the day after valentines day! Mostly its because I don't come from a big family.

There is no festive Thanksgiving celebration with relatives who travel from near and far and you are excited to see, in fact for my family Thanksgiving usually exists of a trip to avoid the reality of the weekend!

Christmas and New Years come with the same set of facts, but coupled with working for a government agency means no big extravagant cocktail christmas celebrations. In fact in our office its a pot luck and I have a thing about eating food which is cooked in other people's homes, who I don't know! New Years is always a holiday when if i go out i want to be on the road at 12:01 a.m.. to avoid the drunks!

And then Valentines Day, so much hype over a hallmark holiday! My parents asked me to go out to dinner for Valentines Day, how horrifying is that? Although, I have to tell you that the older I get the less I care about Valentines Day. In fact, I was on the phone today and mentioned to a guy who i occasionally hook up with to call me over the weekend since he was sans children. His response was definitely not on Saturday, i'm staying home all day and not seeing anyone its Valentines Day! I started to laugh and said who cares about that!

I guess i'm sort of like the groundhog who comes out on Feb 2, except I come out on Feb 15th every year and don't worry if there is a shadow or not!