April 16

On this day in the wee hours of the morning a few years back, two of the best people in the world were blessed with a new bundle of joy...Me!!

Actually, I think it may have been evening and my dad may have been across the street from the sanatorium (yes, I was born in a sanatorium and no my Mom wasn't "that" kinda crazy) having a burger since men weren't allowed in the room during the birth. My mom lied to the doctors and nurses and kept her contacts in her eyes because she wanted to actually see my birth. My sister was at home (she was 3 at the time) with my Grandma V. waiting for her new baby sister or brother to come home.

So this blog is to say Thank You to my family.

Mom and Dad - Obviously I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. You not only gave me the gift of life but also the gift of humor and the arts and intelligence and all that I am.

Marti - Thanks for being the best sister. Thanks for caring for me as a little kid and sharing everything that you had with me.

There is so much more that I'd like to say about you guys, but "Thank you. You all helped to form me into what I am today. Thank You! I Love You All!"

Oh, and Happy Birthday to Me!

Worker Dead at Desk for Five Days

My Santa-Mom gave me a stocking stuffer at Christmas that is a spiral-bound book of funny desk signs that I display on the corner of my desk to make me smile. Many of them I don't display because I don't want people to know how I am REALLY feeling about them and their work or my office/company in general (e.g., "Tell me again how lucky I am to work here. I keep forgetting." or "I'll try being nicer, if you try being smarter.")

So, this morning in my general need for change and to avoid doing the work that needs to get done, I started flipping through the signs to find a new one to display. This is what I decided to go for: "I don't get even, I get odder." I felt that was pretty apropos for me.

On the backside of each of the signs is a story or something to think about. This is the story that was on today's:

Worker Dead At Desk For 5 Days
Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George Turklebaum, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New
York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared
with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed
until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working
during the weekend.

His boss Elliot Wachiaski said: "George was always the first guy in each
morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was
in the same position all the time and didn't say anything. He was always
absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

A post-mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days
after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of
medical textbooks when he died...You may want to give your co-workers a nudge
occasionally.

Birmingham Sunday Mercury 07/01/2001

I used to just worry about dieing on the weekend and nobody realizing that I was dead until I didn't show up to work on Monday, which is why I've always tried to be very consistent with my work hours. Now I have to worry about dieing at the office and nobody even noticing....although I'm not really certain that it would be possible for nobody to notice that I was sitting at my desk dead for 5 days....I get interrupted often enough to shake me out of the zombie-like comma I fall into.