WWYDWednesday: the new class

Hey y'all (I live in the South -- this is my one vice),

WM is on vacation today so I, WorkerTwin, am guestblogging on her behalf. Please be patient with me as this is my maiden voyage into the public blogosphere.

Chatting daily as we do, the WM filled me in on the Wednesday goings on and I quickly agreed (how could I say no?!) to host.

Thank you all for playing the WWYDW game last week. Like many of you who commented, I would feel karmically obligated to "return" the $20 knowing that others have done the same for me (and hopefully would in future). Aaaaaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaaah <-- that's the choir of angels accompanying my good deed...really though, I would also probably spend most of the rest of my day obsessing over whether or not I'd been hoodwinked because people really aren't that honest and I'm a cynic, ya know? But its ONLY $20 so the universe gets the benefit of the doubt.

Now, without further ado...today's scenario:

You are eating lunch at a restaurant with a friend--in fact, someone you might consider one of your closest friends: you've known this person for years, you have shared birthdays and big life moments and been there for each other when you needed support. You are having a great time laughing and catching up. At one point in the conversation your friend relates an anecdote that includes derogatory remarks about disabled people and includes mocking hand gestures and exaggerated speech. What would you do?

All "horn"ed up and the wrong place to go

On the way in to work, as I stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, I happen to notice the latest David Beckham Armani ad on the side of a bus.

Now, I'm not normally the kind of gal who salivates at the sight of every good looking man she sees. I mean, sure I can appreciate a good looking man, but it doesn't cause me to go all stereotypically "construction worker" and hoot and holler and whistle. This instance was different though, I actually did wanted to hoot and holler.
I was unable to take my eyes off of this photo. Honestly, it was really doing things for me. I mean I literally felt like I was in heat.
I continued to stare thinking such crass things as "what I wouldn't give for a few minutes with him" and other things which...well which I probably shouldn't mention here.
I was mentally drooling, when the light changed and the bus turned the corner. For an instant I wasnt sure what to do. I shuddered as if to try and shake off these univited feelings. Recovering only slightly I quickly crossed the street before the don't walk sign appeared.
On the other side of the street I thought for a second "what the hell just happened" in semi disbelief that a picture of a man had this effect on me.

But as I am now officially in my mid 30's, perhaps the old body chemistry is changing. And maybe, just maybe my hormones are no longer betraying me. Maybe the days of raging bitch-itis two weeks pre Aunt Flo (AF) are gone in favor of these new more,uh,pleasant feelings.

Could it actually be? YIPPEE, hubby will be ecstatic!

But then my excitement was put on pause as I thought about the timing of all this. What if it continues to happen in the morning... on the way to work. Can you imagine getting incredibly horny several days a week on the way in to WORK.

Maybe this isn't such a good thing. Dammit, I thought....my hormones do continue to betray me.

Can't a girl catch a break ? *sigh*

File this under crazy ass stuff I'd never buy

I love hubby and all ... but seriously !???

WWYDW - Installment 2

It's Wednesday, my lovelies and y'all know what that means.

It's time for What would you do ? Wednesday .

Don't know what it's all about. Go here and find out.

Thanks to everyone that participated last week. Since it wasn't a complete bomb we'll try it again. But first I thought I'd post what I would have done given the situation.

Honestly, I'd offer to help the woman get in her car but beyond that wouldn't necessarily confess to grazing her vehicle. Since I'd inspected her vehicle and seen no physical damage I can't be sure that the internal damage (if any) was caused by me. But I love that you all are much better people than I and would immediately fess up.

This week's situation:

You're walking down the street and stumble upon a $20 bill. You look around briefly and then bend down to snatch up the bill. Just as you start to grab it, a pleasant looking individual comes up and says "Oh thank goodness you found it. I must have dropped it while rushing to catch my bus." What would you do ?

Turning One for Me means goodies for you

Because I must Blog just turned one. Woot!(she says ducking - knowing the masses expected much more exciting news)

Pop open the bottle and grab yourself a glass, because we're all cheers and smiles here and wouldn't dare let this momentous occasion go by without a little fanfare.

I shall start by thanking all of you for hanging with me through all the rants and continuing to come back even when I was at my whiniest of whiny. What brings you back I'll never know but I thank you nonetheless.

To further show my gratitude I bring you WM's favorite things (think Oprah's favorite things).

One of you lucky peeps will win two of my very favorite things:

(sorry guys, unlike Oprah, I ain't got the dough to give gifts to you all but just know that I would if I could)


I love my Krista Handbag














Be the first on your block to have one of these super cute, super funky Krista Handbags. Krista is a local designer that I first spotted at a fair at TomGirl's high school. I instantly fell in love with these hip handbags. Only I couldn't decide which style and design I loved most. I finally opted for the regular style Prestige bag and it didn't disapoint. It's sturdy enough to hold my mountains of crap and realistically probably makes me look cooler then I am.

Krista has generously offered to share the love. Head on over there and check out her fabulous designs (she's also got one in basic black with a pink ribbon supporting the cure) then come back and tell me which style and design you like the most and the lucky winner will win his/her favorite bag (and fellas they'd make a fabulous gift)

and

I loved the book The Middle Place

As a "daddy’s girl" and now a mother and the child of a breast cancer survivor I had an inkling I’d enjoy Kelly Corrigan’s book The Middle Place. What I wasn’t prepared for was falling in love with this book.

The Middle Place is Kelly’s real life story. A wife and mother newly diagnosed with breast cancer Kelly's story is ultimately about family. She writes about being an adult and mother to her own children but simultaneously being able to be the adult child of her parents when she needs them most. The Middle place is that place. That place where she is not just an adult but she is also her parent's daughter.

She masterfully takes you on her journey through that middle place and with the turn of each page Kelly draws you in with her honesty, her humor and genuine feelings. In truth when I finished reading the Middle Place it was as if I’d said goodbye to a friend. Her story is that good.

Thus making it one of my new favorite things. The lucky winner will also get a copy of this incredible book.

How's that for some "thank you" love ?

Lastly, I must give a quick shout out to my girl Amy. Amy is such a fantabulous gal and has the distinct "honor" of being my first reader/commenter and will always hold a special place in the ol' WM heart .

Now, what are you waiting for!? Go check out Krista then come on back and enter.

*the fine print - One lucky weiner -I meant winner- will be selected at random and announced on 4/1 from all entries received by 3/31/08.

Wishing you Much love and much luck,


WM

The Suspense will kill You...

I have some lovely news... only I can't share it until Monday. It'll be a special day here at BIMB.

So y'all come back now y'hear ?


Mwah,

WM

What would you do? Wednesday

Last week while rushing downtown during my lunch hour to mail a package to my niece for her birthday, I was accosted by a homeless woman just outside of the post office. I say accosted because this woman walked up to me, stood inches from my face, kept pace with me as I continued to walk and then asked for $1 to buy some water. She claimed she couldn’t swallow and needed to take medication. Just moments before she approached me, I had seen her pound on the door of a car motioning for the driver to open up and posed the same question. She was probably the most aggressive panhandler I’d seen. In fact she scared me a bit when she approached me. Not because she was homeless but because she was unknown to me and she’d gotten so close.

That day I didn’t carry my purse with me downtown. I’d simply shoved two fives in my pocket to mail the package I knew would cost $8.95. When the woman approached me even though I had two five dollar bills in my pocket I told her that “I was sorry”. As I walked away I heard her begin to cry and exclaim “Somebody, please, I need a dollar. I just need to get some water to take this pill and I can’t swallow”

That statement scared me even more. I can’t explain why exactly, but it frightened me. Maybe it was the sheer emotion behind her statement. Maybe I was frightened for her. What if she really couldn’t swallow? The thought of her living her life on the streets not knowing where her next meal might come from, needing medication to feel better but not sure she’d be able to get her medication much less be able to swallow it saddened me and scared me all at the same time.

Then the cynical part of me wondered if the dollar really would be spent on water. But I asked myself. What did it matter? It was only a dollar. I was conflicted and thought about her the whole time as I waited in line. Armed with my $1.05 in change I’d planned on giving it to her as I exited the post office. But she was no where in sight.

And so it ended.

But that situation has stuck in my mind since that time. Should I have given her $5 and mailed my package later ? Or did I do the right thing ? Where did she go? Is she alright?
In the end, I made the decision I made. Presented with the situation again I’m not entirely sure I would have handled it the way I did. I guess I'll never know.

Then last night, I was enthralled by a fairly new series that explores that question in depth. When faced with certain ethical dilemmas “What would you do?” As I watched the show’s staged situation unfold I asked myself what would I do if I was walking through the park and saw a man crying and in distress. Would I stop ? Would I offer help ?
I’d like to think I would but realistically I may not have. If I were by myself I may have worried about my safety and not have stopped for that reason. Again, I don’t know, but it’s certainly fascinating to explore the question. What would you do ?

So I bring you, What would you do?Wednesday. Each Wednesday, I’ll post an ethical dilemma and ideally you’ll comment honestly saying what you’d do given the situation.
Who knows this may be a total flop, perhaps this will be the one lone What would you do? Wednesday . We shall see. But perhaps this will help us realize things about ourselves and in doing so enable us to change that which we don’t like, or simply renew our confidence that we are good people. Who knows. If nothing else, maybe you’ll find the responses of others as interesting as I. Feel free to comment anonymously if you feel your answer warrants it.

Now then, todays dilemma:

Upon pulling out of your parking space you graze the car next to you. You immediately put your car in park and examine the other car for any signs of physical damage. Seeing none you get back in to your car and continue backing out. Seconds later a woman in a wheelchair arrives and struggles to open the side door. You realize it is the side you “grazed".
What would you do?

It's Monday, lets talk about big uteruses and other things

Lately, I've gotten a lot of hits from a post I did a while back regarding an unpleasant gyn experience.

Image searches no less.

I'm not exactly sure what folks are expecting to see but imagine they are sorely disappointed once they arrive. So in an effort to lessen some confusion, let it be known, there are NO pictures of large uteruses here.

But if and when I do post one you'll all be the first to know.

Beyond that, happy Monday to y'all. It was kind of a nutty weekend chez WM. Some highlights for you:

My not quite 5 year old daughter J lost her first tooth naturally (I didn't even know it was loose until Friday) and the adult tooth has not only broken the surface but is quite visible. Did I mention she's 4 1/2 ?

Hubby farked up his back and was laid up most of the weekend and useless to me. It happens now and then. He's got an arthric twinge and anything... even looking at him the wrong way can cause it to go out.

TomGirl, my 14 year old stepdaughter, got so many text messages this weekend I can still hear the new text notification in my head. She showed me a text from one of her friends that read "Mark Wahlberg is fuckin orgasmic isn't he?". Doesn't matter that I happen to agree with that. I'm a little, ok a lot bothered by the fact that it was sent by a 15 year old. Was I like that ? Never mind, don't answer that. Oh and did I mention that my hubby bought her a pellet gun for her upcoming 15 birthday. O-v-e-r-j-o-y-e-d...yep that's me.

My not quite 5 year old son has now taken to saying Spiderman can make webs come out of his penis. Nope, nope, don't ask...I couldn't even begin to tell you . I just have to think he combined two of his favorite things: his "weiner" (as he refers to it occasionally ) and Spiderman.

So, now that you're all caught up . How was your weekend ?

I'll show you Efficiency

Yesterday, I sat down with my boss for my annual review. She handed me two pages to read and said we could discuss it further if I had questions after I finished reading.
The review started with my accomplishments,then moved on to "Areas for Improvement/Professional Development". In the past 4 years, this section has always said the same thing. Keep abreast of constantly changing HR Laws. I've come to expect it. Bosslady continues to put it there because as she said one year "I have to put in something so that it doesn't look like you're perfect."
But this year there was an extra sentence in the "Areas for Improvement" section.

It read "Strive for efficiency while maintaining quality".

Just what the hell did that mean?

I stewed on that for a bit, while my boss finished up a call. I was tempted to ask her to clarify but as I thought about my performance over the last year I realized one very important thing had changed.

I'd started a blog and very quickly become obssessed with posting to it and reading the blogs of others.

And well maybe it had taken its toll on my level of efficiency.

Hmm...shall I stop blogging? No, that's too extreme.

Should I set a specific time to write and read blogs outside of business hours ? No, what else will I do on lunch or if somebody hands me a task I'm trying to avoid.

What to do ?

And in a true lightbulb moment it came to me.

I do need to be more efficient. Bosslady wasn't totally off the mark. I need to be more efficient in managing my blog writing and reading so I can still pull off this work thing I'm paid a salary to do.

So from hence forward, I must request of you:

1) Please do not post every day. Thus lessening the amount of time required of me to be on the internet doing non work related things

2) When you do post, please email your posts directly to my work email address so that I may in the midst of addressing work emails multi-task and read about your fabulousness too

3) Only comment on my blog from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST or thereabouts. That way I can enjoy all of your wisdom during my lunch hour thus not taking away from the 8 hours I'm actually,like, supposed to be doing work.

Ha! Who am I kidding? Do whatever floats your boat. Don't worry about little old me. I'll be fine.

Hell, if that's the worst thing on my review (and it was)then I'm not changing a thing until someone actually puts down on paper "Get your arse off the internet and get some work done"

This Post brought to you by the letter Pee

Wanting to enjoy the mini glimpses of sun yesterday, the WM family walked to a nearby park to enjoy a mini hike.

The twins, B & J took turns being the leader as hubby and I followed with our schizoid mutt, Buzz in tow. They were so excited that at times I had to break in to a jog just to keep up with them. Each time that happened, I expected to see hubby and Buzz not far behind, but one time I noticed hubby had stopped a few feet back. I called to the kids and asked them to turn around because Daddy had stopped.

Wondering what hubby, who had his back turned to me, was looking at so intently I called to him "Whatcha lookin at?"

"Well there aren't any frogs over here" he says in an oddly exaggerated voice.

Huh, I thought...we hadn't been looking at or for frogs. What is he... ?

B, hearing the word frogs had gotten so excited he ran to his Daddy and was then able to answer that question for me, "Daddy, are you peeing?" my son asked.

All I could think was he's so going to get caught. Why couldn't he have waited until we got back home ?
My thoughts were interrupted when a woman and her dog appeared. They were walking on another trail a few feet away and fortunately headed off in another direction.

But that close call got me to worrying. "C'mon guys...lets get going" I urged my hubby and son.

My words fell on deaf ears as hubby was busy asking B, "Do you want to water the plants too buddy?"

My daugther J and I started walking but then stopped as my husband said "Wait up, B's trying to water the plants too...like Daddy" his chest swelling with pride.

So my little 4 1/2 year old hiked down his pants and started to go.

"Look, Mommy,I'm watering the plants" he said. Once he'd finished he hiked up his pants and slapped his dad's raised hand in a high five.

"Yeah" they both exclaim.

I rolled my eyes ...

The testosterone was so thick you could choke on it.

Aah yes,it moments like this that make me so pleased in my choice of a life Partner.