Writing on the Wall

For the reasons cited below the Graduation section is unable to post your degree.  Please review the following statements that are checked and make any adjustments immediately.

X – The MBA college has screwed up and defined your program of study incorrectly in our system and therefore it doesn’t match up right with our data. But this is your problem, not ours.  Please call 50 people to find someone who will tell you the problem, but not tell you how quickly it will be corrected or what steps need to be taken.

X – Per our system you must take an exam to get your degree, even though the smart people at the MBA School told you that you did not.  This again is an error of ASU, but we won’t send you a secondary letter telling you of our error.

ALL REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION MUST BE MET BY THE CONFERRAL DATE. (huh? What date?)

A good one for the week:

A very unattractive, nasty, mean-acting woman walks into Wal-Mart with her two kids.

The Wal-Mart Greeter asks, "Are they twins"?

The ugly woman snarls, "Hell no, the oldest one, he's 9 and the younger one, she's 7.  Do you think they really look alike?" 

"Hell no", replied the greeter, "I just couldn't believe you got laid twice"

Why won’t people leave Britney alone!  I know, she has made some seriously STUPID choices.  We could easily list them out:

1.  Letting Justin Timberlake slip through her hands.  Granted this may be a mistake only I understand because I still keep a picture up of him in my office, but I got to list it.

2.  Smoking.  That is just plain gross. 

3.  The entire “Me Against the Music” CD

4.  Kevin Federline

5.  Chaotic, the most ridiculous, self absorbed show ever that I watched every freaking episode of like the insane teeny bopper I still am

HOWEVER, all that said, I think it is time we just let her be a mom and figure this stuff out.  I don’t know a single mom who doesn’t have a moment where you wonder about your own mothering abilities.  Brit is going to make mistakes.  GRANTED BABY SITTING ON LAP WHILE DRIVING IS AWFUL.  Not just awful, but mind boggling, who does that?  Nevertheless let her figure this out on her own and stop putting it on the front page of MSNBC. I watched the video people and she was NEVER in a position to drop that child.  She bumped the car and steadied herself in less than a second.  But that second is all you see in the freeze frame. 

Is it just me or has paparazzi gotten completely out of control.  I mean following Brangelina to Namibia?  Leave them alone in peace!  Taping Brandon’s entire comment about Lindsey Lohan, while funny, was preying on a young drunk dude just trying to have fun, obliterated fun, but fun nonetheless.  I just think it is time we let Britney live in peace for the next three months while she waddles her way through this second pregnancy and had a little quiet time. 

I have been fortunate enough to have a great job, that while it stresses me out easily, it is something that really rather enjoy doing more days than I dread doing it.  I got the job through nepotism.  That’s right, my dad works here.  It isn’t extreme nepotism – he was a retired manager who knew someone looking for a fresh out from school and got me the interview, but I still feel the desire to claim that my connection was my father.  And really he is a great guy so it really isn’t that big of a deal. Soon after my interview, my dad came back to work here as a consultant after he retired from another company. He is an engineer doing something that bores me, and I am in operations, which probably equally bores him.  We have never worked on anything together because with 5,000 employees the chances are slim.

My father has been tasked to work on a program that requires help from our operations team.  And with that means my father has to come to me for information.  It is infrequent that I mention my father’s name as some sort of relation, and typically no one would guess – I got married soon after I started here and changed my last name.  But on this program people have found out and it has been okay.  We work well together and things have gone smoothly. 

One question remained – What would I call him in a meeting?  Mr. So-and-so?  First Name?  Dad?  Which is too formal?  Which keeps us on the business talk?  Which keeps us from looking stupid?  My sister suggested the first name route.  In a con-call I tried to use it but instead the mishmash came out more like yes sir.  Not feeling comfortable I swore I would try better next time. But next time came too soon.

One day last week I decided I was going to walk to Subway and get a bite to eat.  I wanted to get out in the heat before it got too hot and I would sweat on the first step.  I also had the day from hell and needed a break.  I put on my iPod and out the door I went.  When I got there I didn’t immediately see my father sitting there.  He was in the corner surrounded by numerous men in khakis and button-downs, continuing business talk while they got a quick bite.  But suddenly I heard him yell my name.  When I turned around I quickly yelled back,