The Siren Call in Everyday Ramblings

I just passed by this tree about 15 minutes ago on the way back from getting my flu shot and even though I took this picture last weekend it looks the same, crabapples, wild tart apples. Not a lot of birds eat them whole like this but they become a snack as they decay. As I am reading The Third Plate I am thinking a lot about what is in the ground and on it.

I now know more about how foie gras is produced than I thought I’d ever wanted to know. The whole environment in which the ducks and geese are raised for it is fascinating. All the variations that are possible based on what is grown locally. And about how it is hubristic to go for uniformity. You never know when a bit of information like that would come in handy… I am not sure I have ever had any and am not in a big hurry to try.

There is this very popular restaurant I walk by on Friday nights that specializes in organ meats and serve foie gras. It is in a not quite completely redeemed sleazy neighborhood and sits a block down from a strip club. People, many of them from out of town, wearing those incredibly expensive casual clothes queue up in front of it starting around 4:30 PM on Fridays looking at their cell phones.

I’ll be on my way past it in about three hours as I trek up to the studio.

Has anyone played Pictionary? I haven’t and I have been invited to play at the end of October. I hope I don’t totally suck at it as I think you have teams? Oh speaking of teams, it is one of the performance points on our work reviews these days, cooperation and team building.

Last year one of allied departments put on this put put golf tournament in the office and I was confused about it, thought it was an offsite thing and didn’t participate. It actually sounded like folks were having fun. This year I put together a team that includes healthy coordinated 26-year-old Saint Joe. It is next week. Most Honorable is loaning me a putter.

The fact that I was actually able to put together a team is pretty remarkable in my work environment. Everybody is so weird.

My take no prisoners boss does something that completely unnerves me. He stares at my breasts. He is very careful about it and only does it when we are alone or everyone else is looking away. It creeps me out. This is a married guy with three kids. I could understand it if I were like say Saint Joe’s age. But I am 60! Yuck.

For reasons I don’t want to go into here it would not be prudent for me to report him. I am gathering information about it though and I hope he leaves before I have to use it. In the meantime I have to dress defensively, I have never been anything close to a provocative dresser to begin with, so it is more like adding layers on top.

Most of the time, 98% of the time he leaves me completely alone to do my job, barely speaks to me while he is doing his Lord of the Fly thing with the other men I work with so compared to my mentally ill former boss, who was involved in everything I did, and my soon to be retiring director who started proceedings to get me fired last year, he is actually the best of the various evils so far.

But still… Yes, Virginia sexual harassment is very much alive and well here in the 21st Century.

I better start making travel plans soon for a few small trips I want to take because I am hearing the siren call of kittens all the time now. :)

Last updated September 26, 2014