Wednesday, February 06, 2019

real estate

There are times of day, usually between 5:00 and 5:15 am, that for no good reason my entire family congregates in the same spot.  It's aggravating.  We live in 2000 square foot home, and the fact that all three of us want to stand in the same square foot of space between the toaster and the coffee maker drives me berserk.  Why can we not stagger our morning routines just a little bit so they do not overlap in this way?

The same thing happens at work.  Try as I might to schedule my lunch break to avoid having to listen to M's insipid chatter, somehow she always manages to be there when I go to the staff room, talking about herself.  Me me me me me oh yes, and did I tell you that me me me me me?  Oh me too!  Me me me me me me!  

This morning I had an email argument with some asshat from a non-profit organization that gave a presentation to our students yesterday, and collected confidential information from these students about their mental health.  I insisted that they return the original forms to me, and the manager of this group was firmly opposed, while simultaneously swearing up and down that the information was being kept confidential and only used for statistical purposes.  I'm irritated with the staff members who allowed this to happen in the first place, and even more irritated with the organization itself for doing something that strikes me as underhanded and unethical.  It remains to be seen whether or not I will win this argument.

This afternoon N asked me if I could teach him how to talk to the kids on his caseload about sex.  He said that he has trouble with it because he grew up in a household where he was taught that sex is only meant to exist within the confines of marriage - or at the very least, a committed relationship.  His implication seemed to be that my own lack of morals around sex is what makes it possible for me to have these conversations.  Having been married and monogamous for more years than I can remember offhand, this made me disproportionately happy.



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