Creative Writing Starts Today

I am back on the Wilkes campus once again.

The creative writing residency starts today. Yay! I just wanted to throw a quick blog up here.

Guess what movie is playing in the background. Seriously- this is so f*ing poetic. It was when I watched this movie last that I really started to think about what I wanted in life and then here I am at Wilkes getting started on the MA in Creative Writing. I'm in Rifkin Cafe and OFFICE SPACE is playing on E! on the big screen TV here. How coincidental is that.

I probably won't be doing much blogging, myspacing, etc. during this week. Classes all day every day through the night. Drop me a line sometime though, and we'll catch up.

Another Great Loss

You know you are getting older when your childhood heroes start passing away. Not long ago, we bid farewell to Mr. Rogers. We experienced another great loss yesterday: Mr. Wizard.

I grew up watching Mr. Wizard. While I was never great in science/math, I was always fascinated with science and experiements. Even this past summer when I took chemistry at LCCC, I thought of Mr. Wizard. I remember his experiments with static electricty and when he made the really big bubble by mixing up soap and water in a baby pool. I remember some of these episodes so vividly. I remember that I always wanted to be one of the kids in the episodes.

Someone at the site I write for contributed an article about him (beat me to the punch!). Check it out if you want. Mr. Wizards's real name was Don Herbert. He was 89-- so he had a great, long, successful life and probably inspired many of the doctors and scientists and engineers of today!

IN OTHER NEWS:

I am loving my new job at Solid Cactus. What a cool place to work, what a great and creative team, and what a kick ass product. I am stoked, thrilled and every other adjective that means excited. I made the right decision.

I am watching a penguins and seals doc. on Discovery right now, and if people aren't worried about global warming, they perhaps should start to think about it. Seals swim, but when they need to take breaks, give birth, make nests, etc. they need to go up on small islands at sea. Well folks, those glaciers are melting and the water is rising and guess what- those islands are disappearing.

Well, I have a movie to toss in. We're trying the Blockbuster mail-order thing. So far, no complaints. Never had a prob. with Netflix either, just trying them both and seeing which one we have more luck with!

Scooters & Nikki's 30th

I feel a little queasy today. Probably because I rode the scooters all night at Nikki's 30th birthday bash.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKKI!

For those who don't know me, I am totally a beer girl. I love a good microbrew, but when I am in for the long haul, ala' party and especially in the summer, I usually guzzle down Miller Lite. So, when I get a little liquor in me, things tend to get out of hand. So, I preface the story of last night with that tid bit. (That's Nikki there with her new PIMP glass, but you can't see the word "pimp," darn camera.

So I guess King's College is known to teach its students about a wonderful concoction called a Skippy-- like the peanut butter. Sounds kind of icky, but I would not have drank seven of them had they not been "delish." It's beer, vodka and lemonade mix. Tastes awesome! I didn't touch the beer all night! The lemonade must take away the beer flavor and you can't even tell there is vodka in it. Oh boy!! That is trouble right there kiddos.

So, I walked into the pool with my clothes on a dare from Mr. Johnny Weekender. (That's him there on the left.) That was both refreshing and fun. Later, I asked someone how many 'Scooters' they had, instead of saying Skippy. Hence, the scooter was born. Funny! But after my sixth or seventh one, I kind of went blank.... You know. That just happens sometimes, but I think I continued to have fun. Gotta love an early party too, when you have that much fun and you are asleep by 10:00.

Some GREAT & fun people, too! Met some awesome new people and hung out with others that I don't get a chance to see out too often. Got to do this more often, totally. I posted some pics on here. I made the one black & white because I look horrible-- all washed out. I need a tan so bad! And, my eyes are closed in most of the pics. I wish someone got a shot of me in the pool!

A big thank-you to Dave to coming to rescue me, and to Nikki's mom for putting the jeans in the dryer and giving me a towel to wear around me. Kudos to her also for making a mean potato salad. And kudos to Nikki for making the Skippy-- oh my god. I just rhymed. A bar needs to start making Skippies, or Scooters....

I'm a Big Sister Again

I remember when Joey and Shannon were first born! Now they are teenagers! Oh my!

My dad and stepmom recently adopted a two-year old boy from Kazakhstan-- he's been here for a few months and I met him for the first time yesterday. As soon as I came onto the porch, he greeted me by running up to me and hugging my legs! He must have known I was his new big sister! Meet, Cary Ploshay!

I spent the day playing with him-- and realizing just how out of shape I really am! A two-year-old can really make your heart pound and make you work up a sweat! That's for sure! Up and down the hill, and around the trail twice, and just having fun! The funniest part was when we went down the path to retrieve a ball, and then he began to wash it in his bucket/fountain. Jeanne had informed me he likes water, but I didn't anticipate him dunking his head underwater in the fountain. He did it about three times and was laughing and giggling the whole time. I think he's going to be a swimmer! After playing with him all day, I think I was the one who needed a nap!

Cary has a great smile and he's silly funny! A blast to be around. I can't wait to see him grow up! And pretty soon, he'll be a teenager like Joey and Shannon-- I miss those days when I was the big sister who got to take care of them, and now they can take care of themselves! FOR MORE PICTURES, VISIT JEANNE'S ALBUM.

NIGHT DRIVING

I am one of those people that can fall asleep anywhere. I think it had to do with my childhood spent traveling so much by car. At any rate, Jeanne had reminded me of a funny story my dad told her. When I was younger, I was asleep in the backseat of the car. At some point I rolled off the back seat, onto the floor but didn't even wake up. My mom and dad didn't even realize til much later. So, fast forward to today. Any time Dave and I go somewhere at night, I almost always pass out in the car. So last night coming back from just outside Reading to our house, about a two-hour drive-- I was starting to fall asleep. So, I stopped halfway at my mom's house and crashed. I think I would have fell asleep at the wheel had I tried to make it home. I barely said hi to her-- I grabbed a pillow and blanket and crashed on my brother Joey's floor. I don't think I should drive places by myself after dark!

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I Hate Beauracracy: Office Space Linked to Marx/Weber & On Being Strange at Work

I just read a great article about Office Space: "How the Movie Office Space Exemplifies Weberian and Marxist Theories."

Please click on it and read it, as I want the article to speak for itself. However, at my last job I began to realize that big companies care less and less about their employees as people... which relates to 'impersonality,' one of the six characteristics of beauracracy. That element is the one that got me the most upset about working for a large company. Second, the 'written communication' is another characteristic of beauracracy, meaning talking to employees is not important. Memos and paper trails are. People aren't important. Numbers and paper and reports are. Right before I resigned from my last job, us SALARIED employees had to fill out time sheets with when we took our lunches, and also my department had to write down every single call we made on a sheet that was set up with lines by the hours. We had to use tally marks. I felt like a child. I didn't work hard in school to become a salaried, career employee to waste my time filling out unnecessary forms. (Hello- the rest of the world is becoming paperless & GREEN!)

But I digress.. This article brought me back to Dr. Garr's Sociological Theory class at Wilkes. Loved that class and loved learning about Marx and Weber. It's pretty cool how these theories can really be seen in our everyday life, but I think most people don't know they exist. I mean, they are only taught in depth in the upper level sociology classes. People laugh at movies like Office Space, but they don't fully know why. They don't understand that there is madness going on, and people are too worried about losing their jobs to worry about it. That's why I LOVE Peter Gibbon's in Office Space. He becomes aware of the corporate maddness and begins not to care.

I hope that other people begin to realize how bad beauracracy is and begin to revolt and make people pay attention to people again. Did I mention again that I am stoked to start at a new company on Monday?

Going along with this, I just read another blurb today about a brand new book from the Wharton School of Business. It's about creating a strange workplace. It's called Change to Strange: Create a Great Organization by Building a Strange Workforce. I didn't read the work yet of course, but from the reveiws and press I've read, it's favorable. And the theory of management has GOT to be good coming from the Wharton School of Buisness. I think building a strange workforce is something worth looking into. Going along with what the movie Office Space made fun of, and the problems I personally know people encounter in beauracracy, it sure would be a cool thing to do-- to pay attention to the quirks and creativity of people and captilize on that! Instead of a carbon copy world.

Even though I am not a manager or business owner, I am ordering this from Amazon now because I am uber fascinated by this. I knew it was okay for me to be strange. I always knew it! No wonder I never fit in at certain places I've worked. The radio station was probably the best place I've worked, because well, media people are strange by nature. But you know what, every media person I've met in the country have similar traits-- and yet the media is a multi-billion dollar industry with very successful products. So, being strange works. The rest of corporate America needs to catch on.

If you didn't read my last blog about Office Space, please click around to find it. I'd LOVE your comments on this post. Please comment.

Spectra Kitty is my companion this week

When you are excited to do something, it seems like forever until it comes. I start my new job on Monday and am so stoked about it. However, this week is dragging. All day, I thought it was Wednesday. Then I realize. Crap. It's only Tuesday.

Dave thinks I should clean the house since I am home. Nah. I just wanna relax. So, I am playing the part of my cat-- just lounging all day. I don't even have the TV on. I am just kind of vegging. Well, when I am not blogging or working on my wedding website.

At any rate, it makes me think how good my cat, Spectra has it. Always a full food bowl. I also spoil her with some wet food. (Dave hates it. "It smells like fish!" he yells. "Well-- that's 'cause it IS fish!" I yell back... all in good fun, of course.)

She always has a sunny, warm spot to lay. And after dark, a nice, soft pile of laundry to lie on. (Thank goodness for lint rollers). She's a very happy, content cat. Kind of like me this week. I haven't relaxed like this in years. I have NOTHING that's pressing. Nothing that HAS to be done. I mean, chores sure. But no emotional baggage from work, no papers due, no stories due this week. I need this. But, my stint in a kitty-like state is over this weekend.

It's a shame it is raining because I wanted to start hiking at Rickett's Glen to get in shape. But the past two days it's been icky. And all that does is give me an excuse to be lazy like Spectra this week! Maybe it'll be nice tomorrow and I can get some exercise and lay out in the sun. I did get my three books in for my creative writing class in from Amazon, so I could start to read those. They must be read my the 22nd, so since I have this week off it'd make sense to read.

Then, Monday I begin a whole new career in the e-commerce industry. I am so eager to learn and get started.

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Old Friends

We went out on Saturday night for our friend Andy's birthday. We went to Hops & Barleys, my all-time favorite place. I used to be a regular there. A really, really regular. But, every time I go there it is like home. At any rate, on this particular eve I ran into some old friends that I used to hang out with at Hops, so it reminded me of the old times. I ran over with my camera to take a quick photo-- I'm just nostalgic like that. (In the pic, it's me, Ted, Cyndi, Doug and Brian.)

Ted and Cyndi are married now and have twins that are almost a year old. Time flies. Dave and I are engaged and have a house, and the friends we were with, Andy and Colleen are married and building their house. Where does the time go? I reminisced that night about when I was in my earlier 20s and was just worried about having fun. Even though I was always on my own since I was 18, I have more responsibilities now. Or maybe I am just growing more responsible?

But, the thing is-- when we get together-- me and my 'newer' friends or the old gang I ran into-- we all seem to party and have fun just like we're younger. I think that is important. Even though we may hang out less and less as the years go on, we need to have as much fun as we can and live it up! It's kind of sad to think that one day, we'll all be grown up with families of our own and see each other once or twice a year. Now, if we go a month without hanging out, it feels odd. Dave, Andy and I were talking that we each have to have a set annual party-- Andy already has Halloween-- that way we are guaranteed to see each other several times per year. That's a pretty good idea, I think.

I'm pushing 30. But I feel younger, and I still get carded. Age is a state of mind, really. I am glad to see that most people I know are still young at heart.

That's all for now. ; )

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New Hair!

I have a new haircut. The picture of me is kind of bad, but the hair looks nice. I had to take a picture because of course I can never get it to look just like Cheryl does it. I wanted to thin out my hair in the back-- it just gets so thick and hard to blow dry and flat iron, etc. so she used a razor to slice out the bulk! I love how think, yet voluminous it looks. I like the layers and the addition of the side bangs. I think it is more fun. Yay.

While I am talking about Cheryl, I must congratulate her on her new shop, Urbane Hair Studio located in downtown Wilkes-Barre. I met Cheryl last year while she was at Euphoria in Ashley and Dave and I love her-- so we followed her to her brand, spankin' new salon, which is awesome because downtown Wilkes-Barre is really on the upswing. I think she will do well there. It has an urban, industrial theme. She did a nice job with the place. Here is her MySpace link if you'd like to learn more about her new place and perhaps you will make an appointment with her.

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