Backpedal

TODAY (Thursday)
Today I almost got stuck on the elevator between the 5th and 6th floors. Our elevators do this quite often - everyone knows it. When this almost happened to me, I remembered the story of our VP getting stuck in the elevator for 30 minutes once. Everyone made fun of him, but then it got me thinking how that is probably the only place he has ever actually stood still. That made me think of a story someone told me about him (actually, he told it himself to the person that told me). This VP, who is really awesome, I'm not just dogging him, said that he hadn't seen his kids in weeks because he got home from work too late and left too early. One day he was at Sonic grabbing some food and he just happened to run into them and that's how he finally saw them. This all brings me back to the topic of workaholism which I'm doing a research project on for Critical Evaluation of Research (it's a class). Until I really looked around and noticed it (thanks to a certain someone) I didn't realize how bad it was. I've done it out of necessity, but never for years or months at a time. And I don't have kids; I didn't even have a dog back then. So I wanted to share a quote from a book I'm reading called Married to the Job by Ilene Philipson, PH.D. This quote is long but extremely profound. Always remember this because you can't go back and re-do. Work to live, don't live to work. She says:

Unlimited emotional investment in the workplace hampers that autonomy and reduces our ability to participate in civil society. When we give it all to our jobs, there simply is little left over. Our emotional reserves to care for each other--within families and within society in general--are depleted and impoverished. Living to work impedes our capacity to develop a vision of life and of how it should be lived. When we tether ourselves to the workplace and cannot see beyond the next deadline, the next promotion, the next company event, we lose sight of ourselves and our place in the world

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday I said good-bye to my love. It was Charlie Gibson's last day on Good Morning America. I want to say that I hate him for leaving, but I couldn't hate Charlie. He really belongs on GMA though. He can be himself there -funny, caring, mathematical, support women's soccer, playful, and eat all of Emeril's cooking during commercial breaks. They had a final show in honor of him being simply the best! I watched the first hour...crying. I taped the second hour when I had to go to work. I have yet to watch the tape because I know I'll cry. Who wants to make themselves cry? But I want to honor Charlie. This morning seeing Diane and Robin sitting there was only not so bad because they haven't replaced Charlie yet. I don't want a replacement - nobody can fill his shoes. I heart you Charlie!

SUNDAY
We got back from the beach on Sunday. And my pleasant souvenir is the skin peeling on my back, which I know is no one's fault but my own. If I could reach it to lotion it maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I really did have a good time at the beach. From what I hear it sounds like I had fun on Friday night. And...all you who were there had to know I was going to tell the story - imortalize it in the blog so I can remember it in 40 years when blogs are like snail mail is today. It was 11ish in the morning and I was standing in the water with September. It was totally flat and she said "it's like something is about to happen." Her sister and cousin shortly joined us and we were talking when September pointed behind me and said "Oh My God!" I turn around, and just like in the movies, there was a fin about 3 yards away. I turned around and tried to get some words out, but I think all I said was "is that a....I didn't think those..." when September said "come on!" We started running, which in water is hard, but when you're trying to avoid being a nub it's even harder. I was in the back, and I swear it feels like in the movies when people are pushing to get out of the way. The fin was gone so the shark was somewhere under the murky water and we had no idea where. We made it out though, no nubbings among us. Now, I know there will be skeptics, but I was in the water with three other girls and they thought the same thing, and the fisherman and his kids next to us ran out of the water and I heard him say "I saw a fin" so it wasn't just us. I think he actually lured the shark in with his fishing. I'm not saying we were attacked in any way, but because of the environmental pollution there are "dead zones" around the coasts that drives most small food away, but the larger things stay out there. Thus, hungry shark smelling fishing lure, you get the idea. September's sister was also wearing shiny bracelets. There was a shark attack at Crystal Beach last year in knee high water, and a co-worker was just there and said the hotel concierge told them that there were many sharks and attacks were pretty common. He even said that the baby sharks will nip at you while you swim. Yum. You might not want to believe us, but I swear that's what I saw. Go to this site to see how to avoid shark attacks.