Have I told you lately... that I love you?

You lift me up

when I'm feeling down;

You brighten my day

like I'm wearing a crown;

You make me feel like a queen

You're never mean...

Okay, clearly I'm not a poet.

But today is one of those days in which I truly love...

my job.

And I felt like writing my job a love poem.

Mission (poorly) accomplished.

I grew up thinking you were supposed to hate your job.

I've had plenty of crappy ones, that's for sure.

 Brandywine Picnic Park, serving chicken & ribs in 90 degree heat

Pier One Imports, selling moderately priced home goods to Indians, hoity-toity moms and the occasional drunk customer

A small law firm, where I would drive from courthouse to courthouse filing documents because attorney's do everything at the last minute

Then, I found this magical place known as HARRON COMMUNICATIONS.

HarCom for short.

Harron swept me off my feet like no other job ever had and showered with me with lavish employee benefits, raises & bonuses.

It had me at "Bagel Wednesday."

My love for Harron today has sprung from my annual spring duty.

Our CEO comes into my office with a giant Fed Ex package.

Inside are an entire season's worth of Phillies tickets - the best seats in the house - for every single home game.

And then he casually says, oh yeah, and pick out a few games for yourself.

Well slap my face and call me Sally.

Don't mind if I do!

This is the 3rd year I've been working here, and the 3rd year I've been organizing the boss man's Phillies tickets. This is one secretarial chore that I'll never complain about.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

And if you're near a coastal area, throw on a lifevest.

I'm pretty sure we're all doomed.

Just kidding.

But seriously, we are.

Tuesday Morning Gripefest

I don't want to turn this blog into a place where I complain all the time.

Sometimes, things just really annoy me and I gotta let it out.

Maybe it's the 5 inches of snow we got over night (after a 70 degree weekend).

Maybe it's the fact that I didn't eat breakfast this morning.

I promise you, this will not happen regularly.

So here we go...

Gripe #1: Your Job

People with jobs who complain about them... annoy me. I've had crappy jobs. We all have. If you honestly cannot stand your job, find a new one. Yes, they're out there. It might take you a few solid months of searching, but it's possible. You don't like what you're getting paid? Maybe you should have thought about that before you majored in art. Or philosophy. Or women's studies. Unless you're the next Picaso or Aristotle, those majors will never ever ever pay off. And just to be clear, you don't HAVE to go to a traditional 4-year college to get a good job that you enjoy. Parents who push this on their kids annoy me. My husband hated sitting in a classroom. But put some tools in his hands and let him play around under the hood of a car and he'll shine. If you want a career that you'll enjoy and that pays well, you have to be practical. I love giving people advice and organizing things. As a paralegal, that is literally what I do all day. I didn't just pick it because I thought it sounded cool, I picked it because it's an in-demand job.  During my senior year of college, I started thinking ahead and my mom even did research about what jobs would be prevalent in the future. She brought the paralegal idea up to me, I liked it, so I did what was necessary to get the job. I went into my major (communications) knowing that additional schooling after graduation could be necessary. I worked full-time at the front desk of a small law firm while going to night school for a year. It was hard, but it paid off big time. I love what I do now and also feel that I am fairly compensated for it.

Gripe #2: Your Health

People who always complain about being sick... annoy me. Achieving and maintaining good health is no longer a mystery. We've figured it out. It's all about your immune system. If you keep it strong, it will fight off bacteria & viruses for you. If you don't take care of your immune system, you will get sick often & be miserable. We even know what things strengthen our immune systems. There are countless super foods, vitamins, minerals & herbs that your immune system loves. All you have to do is read a few books and google a few articles. There are countless websites that tell you, word for word, how to prevent colds. How to limit their number, length & severity. Yet all people do all winter is complain about their 8th, 9th, 10th cold.

If you can't do a few simple things during cold & flu season, then frankly, you deserve to be sick all winter. I feel no pity for you.

Gripe #3: Your Weight

Setting aside serious medical problems or unavoidable medications that lead to weight gain, you CAN lose weight (if you want to, ahem, Donna Simpson in New Jersey). Diet & exercise. Diet & exercise. Diet & exercise. There are no ways around it. You have to eat less, eat healthy and move around. Tim and I went out for Mexican food on Saturday night and sat at a table next to a very large family. There were only 5 of them, but what was large was their individual sizes. Mom, Dad, 2 boys & a girl. The kids were larger than their parents (already) which was the really scary part. The other scary part was how much food they consumed at one sitting. The portions at this particular Mexican joint are big. Enough that Tim and I had to have half of our meals boxed and we finished them for the lunch the next day. But each person in this family housed their entire meal and multiple sodas, they each ordered & finished dessert (fried ice cream) and the kids got giant, sugary gumballs out of the gumball machine on the way out.

I almost couldn't enjoy my meal with them next to us. It was appalling. With everything we know about how to live a long, healthy life... how can you do that to yourselves and your children? They're all doomed to a life of type 2 diabetes and heart disease if they don't change their ways ASAP. It's science. 

*********

Tuesday Morning Gripefest is now over.

Ahhh, that feels so much better.

And just to prove that I'm not being a TOTAL debbie downer today,

I'll leave you with this clip from the episode of Seinfeld that was on TV last night.

Sweet Fancy Moses!