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Day #131 - I Surrender
After fighting with my union rep off and on for two days straight, I surrendered. There's nothing I can do. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I've never felt more powerless over my own fate.
It should be noted that I initially turned down this job because of the union - one of the requirements of the job was to join the union - which I balked at. The union charged $250 to join. When I interviewed a month or two later - because I'd been laid-off and was desperate - they said it was only $50 to join the union, so I caved.
While I recognize the fact that unions, by and large, are a necessary evil and without them we would not have a middle class - and teachers would barely survive, I also have serious issues with them. Mine has outdated policies and I've fought with, pretty much since I joined. I pay $94 twice a month in dues - and I believe it's gone up to $99, recently. It's expensive and I see poor results.
Our fight? Headache inducing. We were going in circles. I gave up finally.
But it kind of ruined my Saturday. I'm thinking of taking a few four day weekends in August and September..to deal with the stress.
Plagued with a sick head-ache off and on today, and itchy mosquito bites from yesterday. They didn't itch yesterday, they itch today. Also I'm edgy and cranky and having troubles sitting still.
No walk today, due to it being hot and muggy. Okay a bit of a lie - I walked to Carnival - the local Fruit and Vegetable Stand - for fresh salad greens, green beans, and aspergus. I didn't see cucumbers - which go bad fast anyhow, so got "Organic Half Sour Pickles" instead. It had more people than usual, but since I learned that they were going to force us to return to the office, and that people are coming to work in my kitchen next week - I've stopped caring. I'll wear a mask, I'll wash my hands, but other than that - I've no fucking control. If the Universe wants to give me COVID it will, there's not a hell of a lot I can do to prevent it.
Been depressed lately. So I tried to distract myself today with various Comic Con
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home things on Youtube. They cancelled all the ZOOM gatherings - to hard to schedule, I suspect. Everything that was pre-recorded is there though. Outside of The New Mutants and part of the Picard panel, I was pretty much bored. The His Dark Materials panel is actually the best of the bunch. Also Martina Satris (Deanna Troy) on the Picard panel is hilarious - she loves to give Patrick Stewart a hard time.Patrick: The big difference was it took me a month to get to know all the new people
Martina: You mean it took you a month to remember everyone's names.
Patrick: First names, I never quite could get their..
Martina: Their last ones, yes, we know. But we've forgiven you for it because you are so old.
Patrick: I'm not that old yet...
Allison: Well, I took the job because of SPS...but don't let him know that I said that.
Patrick looks confused.
Allison: SPS is you Patrick. It's our nickname for you. S is Sir.
Patrick blushes.
Martina: Guys, guys, you have to stop this. He's going to become insufferable.
Panel member: Patrick was a pleasure to work with and blah blah...
Martina: Stop. He's a pleasure because of all the work we did to train him to be that way, it took us years to accomplish it.
I kind of want to check out Picard now. Also Discovery for that matter. The panel was a great ad for both. So too was the New Mutants panel - which was kind of funny, when it pointed out that it had initially been intended for release in August 2018, then April 2019, then August 2019, then April 2020 and now August 2020 - but keep your fingers crossed. Personally, I think, they should just release it to drive ins, it's horror - it'll do well in drive-ins.
Also, watched more of Last Airbender which I'm finding comforting.
Mother: We're bored, there's nothing on.
Me: Well, there are things that are on - you are just discriminating. Try the Major League Baseball -
Mother: That's boring too. I miss the shows in the 50s and 60s, good stuff was on then.
Me: No, it was crap. I saw the reruns, you just think it was good because you don't like what is available now -
Mother: That's not true there was that show 90 something or other
Me: Playhouse 90? There's stuff like that now. You just have to find it.
Sigh. The problem isn't that there is nothing on, it's that there is TOO much on and people can't find what they want to watch - because it involves spending a lot time scrolling through stuff that they don't want to watch.
It's kind of like going to a department store of candy - you don't know what to get. Or a humongous library with millions of books - you don't know what to get unless you have something already in mind.
I've not had good conversations with folks lately. Everyone is cranky. And I'm cranky, stressed, resentful, and angry - which well, isn't exactly conducive for a good conversation.
It's the dread. I dread what lies ahead. The trick, I know from meditating
is not to dwell on what is ahead or what is behind, but stay in the present.
I feel like the months are racing by too quickly, and...I am afraid of what lies ahead.
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It's the best animated series that I've seen to date. Well plotted, the animation is astounding in places, and it has great characters.
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These days I rely on keeping an eye on the media blogs of critics who watch a lot more shows than I do. It's then a matter of learning how what they think might relate to what I would think, especially for anything humorous or sentimental, but I'd rather have other people put the time into finding out which of the shows are actually good or bad; I don't find that user ratings on Netflix tell me much and there is an ocean of mediocrity.
Thank you for all the Zoom links from the convention. (-:
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I don't know if my colleagues bothered to pester the union or not - they appear to have agreed with it or understood the union's position. While the union's position confused me. End of the day? All I can do is put my faith in the Universe and pray it turns out okay. There's some hope at least - that it might, since it did for another union, which almost was sent back into the office and at the eleventh hour had an agreement worked out. It is actually in the agency's best interest to work at an agreement - a lot of this is "let's see who blinks or caves" first. I negotiate contracts for a living, so I know negotiation - hard negotiations are often staring contests. It's best if it is win-win, if either party feels it's lost - that's going to be an impossible situation moving forward - since at the end of the day, you still have to work together.
These days I rely on keeping an eye on the media blogs of critics who watch a lot more shows than I do. It's then a matter of learning how what they think might relate to what I would think, especially for anything humorous or sentimental, but I'd rather have other people put the time into finding out which of the shows are actually good or bad; I don't find that user ratings on Netflix tell me much and there is an ocean of mediocrity
Rec's from friends, co-workers, family members, and people on DW are what I've been relying on lately. Mainly because I don't appear to share the taste of a lot of media critics - they like very dark stuff. OTOH, I've found them helpful for a few things here and there.
But mainly? It's rec's from folks on DW and FB that I've been going with.