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europe is calling It seems that the Oscars put me to sleep long before some of the more interesting parts of the night happened. For example, I didn't see Denzel or Halle win. Nor did I see the Robert Redford part. It doesn't really matter though, because the highlights from the night were all over the television today anyway. Plus I still think that I would have rather watched a new episode of The X-Files instead of the Oscars. ... Nicole and I had a twenty minute conversation this morning that explained a lot about this past weekend. First of all, what I had suspected was true. She has been under a lot of stress lately and it has nothing to do with her and I. By the time that I hung up the phone, I knew exactly why she has been so tired lately and not quite herself. One of the causes for her stress was new and the other never seems to go away. The new concern is the fact that her grandma is in the hospital after breaking her hip this weekend. The lingering problems is that once again her boss is making her life miserable. She desperately wants to quit, but can't because of certain financial obligations. Due to a loan that she took out from her 401K a few months ago, she is bound to the company until next January. Thankfully my ties with the company are less binding. If I left tomorrow I'd lose the tuition reimbursement that they paid me. She on the other hand would owe the compay four times that amount. Sigh. I really wish that there was some way for her to get ahead in life for just once. ... I found out that I just missed seeing her son on Sunday. Her fiance had gone home early to pick him up and came back to work to pick her up. I would have liked to see her interact with her son since most of her stories are about him. Plus the last time that I saw her son was probably a year ago. The fact that her fiance needed to go home was enough to get their boss upset with them on Sunday and she said that he was still being an ass about it today. Personally I agree with Nicole that her boss was overreacting. It isn't as though they go home early every day and this was a family emergency. Their babysitter, her mom, had been at the hospital with her grandma. For me that is the major flaw with management. They act as though everything they do is in the best interest of the company, but that is a lie. All that they care about is themselves. They have to report to someone else when someone "beneath them" causes a problem at work. Somehow I have the feeling that professional detachment gets lost in that equation, but I could be wrong. ... I can't emphasize enough how much Nicole means to me and talking with her always makes my day better. ... Some words were exchanged when I went to visit my grandma this afternoon and they weren't with my grandma. Now I need to explain what I mean. Her speech therapist was concerned with my grandma's lack of attention in therapy and wanted to know why this was happening. My grandma didn't seem to be able to concentrate and this seriously bothered the therapist. I had a few ideas as to why my grandma was acting that way, but my ideas were contrary to what the therapist believed. Personally I think that my grandma is tired by the time that she has speech therapy in the afternoon and finds most of the exercises that she has to do with the therapist to be humiliating if not worth her time. The exercises have a small amount of value, but the continual repetition is maddening and the therapist can't see this from her perspective. The therapist thinks that they are over medicating my grandma. Sigh. Once again my opinion seems to have little value and I am starting to think that common sense doesn't exist in the world any more.
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