Even the ones with new, crisp centerlines, with reflectors?
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
I’ve been so busy. This is half a rant and half a tale of relative success.
I am on the board for our local continuum of care for housing in the county where I work. I haven’t been on the board that long, don’t know anybody and don’t have a strong grasp on the housing network for the homeless services. However I do represent an organization that runs a DV shelter and some transitional housing. I just took the role because nobody else wanted it but haven’t a fucking clue what I’m doing and also whatever we’re discussing is almost never relevant to what I do because fleeing violence is a special case of homelessness. We don’t use the same systems due to the requirements for confidentiality.
Anyway. The alliance had a retreat today. I got an email from my CEO late last week telling me she couldn’t make the retreat so I should provide updates on our shelter on her behalf. She tells me about this massive grant we received that I didn’t even know about (grants manager? Hello?) but tells me to omit all of it except some modest shelter upgrades, in case it makes people feel bad they didn’t get as much money.
Okay. I have a mortal terror of public speaking, and I have died a thousand deaths imagining speaking in front of strangers at this retreat. But I figure it will just be like, fifteen people in a circle or something. Low stakes. Well I get there, and there are like forty strangers and a podium and a microphone, basically my worst nightmare. So at this point we have anxiety on top of anxiety, fear of public speaking combined with social anxiety combined with I’m not even supposed to be here.
Because I’ve been meditating I just made a commitment to myself to be present with whatever happens. But such a commitment is horrifying when you feel like you are walking into the jaws of a lion. At one point I nearly went back and told the Executive Director to leave me out. Some people were giving these elaborate PowerPoint presentations in their announcements, because, here’s the kicker, they got waaaaaay more money from the county than we did.
All I had a piece of paper with three bullet points.
Well, I did it. I made a joke that they were tough acts to follow, I read my three bullet points, boom done.
Cue time for social networking, my other least favorite thing to do. Well I fucking rocked it. I think I’m getting better at introducing myself to people since I started attending a Zen temple. Zen Buddhists aren’t the most robust conversationalists, generally. But it was good practice for today. I have found that the hardest part is that first moment of introduction, then all you have to do is talk about your job and ask questions.
I networked the hell out of that event, introduced myself to some other board members, met some people in our HARA, and even talked to a guy about Viktor Frankl, one of my favorite existentialists. Bless that guy, when he found out about what I did he asked, “What do you do for self care?”
It turns out even though I’m not a shelter manager or director, people really wanted the perspective of a grants person. People came up to me afterward to talk shop. Some needed help with grants. So maybe I am contributing something.
I still think it’s weird for me to have this role, but I am growing from it, so I grudgingly admit it’s good for me even if I’m not the best fit.
But I do think we had a wasted opportunity and I could have delivered a complete presentation on the entire project if I had known that’s what it was about. But that’s on my CEO for not communicating to me until the last minute.
It is but it sounds like you really rose to the occasion.
Don’t worry about the failure to take advantage of an opportunity to present info, you certainly more than made up for it afterward.
Eat shit (after you roll it into a ball first)
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful!
Thank you. I needed a good laugh.
Oh it continues olds fading away new day new inflames appearing. I’m inflamed. Last attack like this was 2020 yeah. Perfect storm of contact dermatitis eczema and yellow pollen.
And my fresh out of the oven California cauliflower chix bbq pizza was trespasses on by a vole. I hd three tiny slices it’s like 10oz pizza ffs.
I return to kitchen for more and see the trespasser waddling fucking quickly along the counter backsplash to duck and hide down next to my fucking oven.
Of course I can’t eat another slice off the pizza stone now! Surely I must throw it out. I debated ick fucking ick the thought of a thing nibbling my pizza. Is my hunger that large?
FYI, i had some odd itchy welts that I thought were spider bites because i had been doing inventory for a week 12 hours a day, then when new spots showed up, maybe poison ivy but i coudn’t figure out how I got it, no pets and other than walking to and from my car not even outside. Extremely itchy to the point of painful. turned out it was shingles that had an odd presentation.
We have Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) growing around our barn. I like it, but my gf hates it. She’s very sensitive to it. I can handle it and nothing happens. If she touches it she gets itchy welts that are worse than poison ivy.
Every year she cuts it back and tries to kill it. She wears gloves, long sleeves, etc but always ends up with problems. Just to be a dick, I’ll offer to help, sans gloves, wiping the leaves on my arms, etc.
I went to a u-pick strawberry field. Just wanted a few while I was traveling. They turned out to be bland. I get better from Kroger. Glad I only picked a pound.
I never really understood pick-your-own. Save a buck by doing stoop labor? I’ll pay full price, thanks.
Seems like it could be a fun activity for a family outing (with kids), though.
Sure, I remember taking my kids to a pumpkin patch to harvest their own. But my friend/neighbor always tells me when I buy her blueberries that I can harvest my own, and it’s cheaper. (I even buy hers when our’s have berries. The local birds eat most of ours.)
I’ve been vaxed for shingles. But I’m beginning to think this is a break thru shingles attack.
I’m in Canada rn away from home, the cats and PI vines yet it persists. 
I don’t spend a lot of time watching DIY videos on YouTube, so I don’t know if this is a regular thing, but why the everloving fuck would you make a video to show how to do something that you’ve never done before? If I need to know how to do something, I don’t want to watch some random asshole fumble his way through it, I want to see someone who knows what the hell they’re doing!
I can think of two reasons.
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To show that it’s so easy that it can be done with no prior experience.
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Comedy value, someone poking fun at their own ineptitude.
As a straight instructional video though, it’s totally incompetent.
I forgot reason number 3; anyone can upload a YouTube video, and a distressingly large proportion of the populace is really dumb.
It’s May already !!!