Category: Grindstone

Posted in Grindstone, work

Conference Room Kerfluffle

Posted on by Kelly Russell

LIFE AT WORK: Bumped from Conference Room Edition

Dear CoWorker:

Our program meeting is a standing meeting that was scheduled for the 2nd floor conference room before the scheduling conflict in the 3rd floor conference room arose.

I understand that (YOUR IMPORTANT) program standing meeting dropped off the 3rd floor conference room calendar. If there is a scheduling conflict with (YOUR VERY IMPORTANT) program meeting, I would suggest that you inform the planner of that conflicting meeting that (YOUR SUPER VERY IMPORTANT) program meeting takes precedence as per (DR. GRAND POOH BAH) and (OTHER POOH BAH). If the planner of the conflicting meeting can move into an available slot in the 2nd floor conference room that’s great, but it is not appropriate to bump a standing meeting from the 2nd floor just because there was a conflict on the 3rd floor with your (SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT IT CANNOT EVER BE MOVED) meeting.

(Floor numbers have been changed to protect the innocent.)

LV 2009 Planet Hollywood ext 2

Posted in Grindstone, Mental Health

Thank Who?

Posted on by Kelly Russell

Yesterday, the assistant to the administrator of the division I work in (300 people strong) came to my office. She gave me a nylon bag (Made in China) with our organization’s logo on it and said, “A— (name of administrator) wanted you to have this to thank you for all that you do.”

A soul-sapping thank-you if I ever received one. Administrator can’t be bothered to walk down the hall herself. And what the hell is “all I do?” I do my job. I get a paycheck. I avoid products made in China—practically a full-time job in itself.  Try to find something that wasn’t either made in China or made in a modern-day sweatshop.  Oy vey.

This picture has nothing to do with what I just said.  I prefer posts with pictures, that’s all.  Here’s a fun one (and perhaps a bit more germane)…

Posted in Current Events, Grindstone, Issues

Too Much, Not Enough

Posted on by Kelly Russell

You’d think that with the 24 hours news cycle and blah blah blah, we’d be hearing more about the nice folks in Wisconsin who are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.  My local papers seem to have a lot more about Libya than Madison.

Here’s where to go for info: The Daily Page (dot com).

Here’s a nice encapsulation of the hubbub from Salon:

Union leaders have agreed to pay more for their benefits, which equates to an 8 percent pay cut, as Walker has proposed as long as they can retain their bargaining rights. Walker has refused to compromise, although he said last week that he was negotiating some changes with Democrats.

For those of you like me who never thought the American public would break away from the couch and the remote control to do something like this, well, this is pretty cool stuff.  Here’s a link to Huff Po’s The Best Wisconsin Protest Signs.

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Happy Spring, everyone.

Posted in Grindstone

When the bird won’t do

Posted on by Kelly Russell

This morning on the way to work I saw a guy finish his breakfast, ball up the paper bag it came in, roll down his window and toss it on the ground. He immediately caught my eye and started chiding me (with his motions) for powdering my mess of broken capillaries that passes for a face.

I started yelling at him about his trash. I rolled down my window (passenger side – he was to my right) to make sure he knew what I meant. He had hypocrite all over his face. I could see that he routinely chides his wife/lover/significant other/spouse/ward/charge/his own mother/(your name here)  for stuff that he does all the time.

He knew I was angry and he was waiting to see my white middle finger once the light turned green. He glanced over, hoping for vitriol.

He got Gandhi. I pressed my palms together in such a way as to say, “I’m praying for you buddy.”  Not in that wimpy Christians-we-look-down way, in the Gandhi way.  I might as well have had a white diaper on.

Ape that he was, he had to do the same to me. Never was a man with a mustache so unappealing.

Posted in Grindstone, Let's Get Visual, Travel

O California!

Posted on by Kelly Russell

Or to be more precise, O Santa Ynez Valley!

I have a new job working for a large bureaucracy, but I can’t tell you more than that because I signed something or other swearing me to secrecy.  I haven’t worked in many large institutions, and my head is spinning with wonder.  If you take the one bureaucracy I’m in and multiply it by the number of bureaucracies worldwide…well, don’t do it.  Your head will explode.

The Scout is carrying on without me—most recently in the Santa Ynez Valley.  One of my favorite places evah.

When The Scout called me from The Hitching Post, I groaned out loud.

He had a pork chop, but I have a paycheck.

Posted in Around Town, Grindstone

Working World

Posted on by Kelly Russell

It’s very quiet in the building today, but I have the cubicle next to Loud Mouth Louie. He is interviewing prospective candidates over the phone. “What draws you to the non-profit world?” he asks.

The new employee is Dimitri, and at the end of Day Two, they say to each other, “This was a good day.  A good day.”

*-*-*

Is this the building where foreign policy is decided?  Or environmental policy?

Posted in Grindstone, Life, Mental Health

Disappointed

Posted on by Kelly Russell

One of my favorite comedy bits is from “A Fish Called Wanda” (which is full of greatness, by the way).  Looking into the empty safe where the loot is supposed to be, Otto (played by Kevin Klein) says, “Disappointed!”  To refresh your memory, here’s The Best of Otto – the bit I’m talking about is in the first thirty seconds.*

My mom, who is still in the Geriatric-Psychiatric unit at Tuality Forest Grove Hospital, has not been taking her medication.  Well, she will, then she won’t.  She continues to exhibit many signs of mania.  She has barricaded herself in her room, wandered around wearing only her bra, and has been ordering the other patients around like a third grade teacher (which she used to be).

Here’s where the legal meets the medical.  When my mom first went to the hospital, it was on a voluntary basis.  This means she can walk out whenever she wants to.  Last Thursday (after one week in the hospital) she started refusing meds, and she slapped a nurse.  So they put her “on a hold” (you may know California’s shorthand for this, which is 5150).   This is a legal designation meaning that ‘she is a danger to herself or others’ and an investigator from the county decides whether that is true or not.

The investigator called me on Monday.  I answered the questions.  Is she a danger to others? Well, not really.  She is not going to be released from the hospital and continue to have a vendetta against the med nurse she slapped.  In fact, she may not even be able to pick that med nurse out of a line-up.

Is she a danger to herself?  Is she suicidal?

Well, I said, if you know anything about this disease you know that that question doesn’t exactly apply here.  Is she a danger to herself?  Yes, she is, because she is manic.  During a previous manic episode, she got in the car and decided she was going to drive from Oregon to southern California to visit me.  She was found by the paramedics wandering the streets of Sacramento at 2:00 am.  She had cut off all her hair and lost her teeth.  (There is something universal about the human face with no teeth that just screams “I am a homeless bum.”)

Is she suicidal? Is she pointing a gun to her head?  No.  Does she believe she can fly off a bridge?  Well, not yet, but mania can go there (she once told me she could fly across the room).  Is she a danger to herself during a manic episode?  Absolutely.  Does she meet the strict criteria that Washington County wants to apply in this instance?  No.

The hold was taken off, but I could tell in the investigator’s tone of voice that she agreed with my line of thinking.  Especially after she visited my mom in the hospital.  My mom had just gone to lie down for a nap.  She hasn’t been sleeping well (sign of mania) so she has made it clear to everyone that she is not to be disturbed if she is lying down.  She even had the doctor put it in the doctor’s orders.  So the investigator gets there and wakes up my mom.  The hospital wants her to sign herself back in on a voluntary basis, but she’s very upset that she’s been disturbed; she’s confused.  She calls me in tears and says, “They’re trying to railroad me.”

Then yesterday my mom’s physician called to say that if she doesn’t take her meds, and if she insists on leaving, they will release her.  So I immediately called my mom and busted out with “You have to take your medicine and stay where you are.  I will see you later this week.”  My mom took her meds right there on the phone with me (thanks to Nicole, who happened to hear my mom say she would take the meds and was right there at the ready).  Apparently, she took her meds last night and this morning as well.

So am I disappointed?  Right this sec, no.  Disappointed comes from two weeks in the hospital and negligible improvement.  Disappointed comes from seeing how completely stubborn my mom is—partly because of the disease, and partly because she just is.

Here’s what she needs but does not want to take: Geodon.  Bipolar disorder is such a painful, debilitating chronic disease.  It is so hard to watch my mother suffer.  Take the meds, mom.  I know you don’t want to feel like you’ve been drugged, but if you don’t take the Geodon, your climb down from mania will be much slower.  Not to mention that you might get released from the hospital, and you are not ready to go home yet.

What is a post without a photograph?  A post needing a photograph.

Near Las Vegas, Nevada.  Photo by The Scout.  The Scout is still in Arkansas with his mom.  It’s become clear that she will not be able to live on her own without assistance.  There are no family members in the area…so for now The Scout is there, trying to figure out what do to…

*A shout out to Suebob, who, like Otto, does not like to be called stupid!