KateP's musings

    The world underwent significant change twenty-four years ago.    People were killed, buildings destroyed, war broke out. The events of September 11, 2001, commonly referred to as 9/11, were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by the extremist group al-Qaeda against the United States. On that day, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes. Two of these planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both towers to collapse within hours. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington, Virginia. United Airlines Flight 93, intended for a Washington, D.C. target, crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers confronted the hijackers. The attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and caused significant destruction and emotional trauma. After 9/11, U.S. policies changed significantly, launching the War on Terror and creating the Depa...

I will need to be careful today.   I have been up early and had a few cups of coffee and already put my foot into situations.   Even though team Lead Pat reassured me it wasn’t just me but several factors going on.   Short story-during a meeting I interrupted Super Bob while he was explaining something.   I wasn’t the only one but that’s not the point. The staff meeting today was basically about the move.   There was another incident in which an employee called police on another employee.   It wasn’t our team and he commended us for that but reminded us that space in the new building will be tight and to keep it professional and respectful. I found out later in the day what happened.   It involved two people that I have a lot of respect for.   The team lead put work on the other person’s desk and said person returned it with the word bitch written on it.   Team lead reacted strongly and instead of going to the supervisor or HR they...

October 25, 2013 Dear Friends: I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.  I kept ignoring the alarm and the subsequent snooze button ringing.  When I finally did get up I managed to read some emails, watch TV and iron the clothes I wore to work..  I left before 7:30 and had little to no problem with traffic. except for the sun glare in the morning. I spent the first part of the morning  doing re-address mail and when Lockbox came I worked on that. until the next round.  The volume seemed light to me and it was light yesterday but making sure I catch up on stuff is what made it seem a lot. I heard from Nancy this morning.  She was hoping I could watch the dogs for the night as she and Patrick were invited to dinner out of town..  I explained to her I had previous commitment..  I felt bad for her.   I hope she got someone. We had our wings and cake for Regina’s Birthday today.  Amongst their moving to new desks.  I...

August 31, 2013 Dear Friends: I wasn’t sure my birthday would be any great shakes.  A couple of days ago (Thursday night) Mom and I got into another one of our angry arguments over one of our favorite subjects.  I didn’t like the way she was talking to me and I asked her to stop and she responded rudely to me and for almost two days we barely spoke.  That is until I got home from my hair appoint determined to change things again.  We are speaking and talking about the subject in a less angry manner.  We got interrupted by a call from Jim. Jim sent me a Birthday Text Message at some ungodly hour this morning.  I heard it come in but checked a couple of hours later.  I chided him for it when he called.  He explains he got up early to eat and do things then goes back to bed.  Much like the rest of us in the family.  I asked them about the kids and the one person I did really ask about was Kristina!  As soon as I write this I am going t...

Over the last few days I have been looking at pictures of various family gatherings that I have attended and not one has included pictures of me.  Liz took pictures of the Ladies night and I was there.  She hasn’t posted them.  She hasn’t posted the pictures of me with Sweet James.  The recent engagement party.  There are pictures of the couple with friends, and with Mom and Ethel.  I get the feeling they are ashamed of me in some way.  I am really gonna be upset if they post the picture of the cousins and second cousins (my first cousins) and left me out.  AS i mentioned to EH today its hurtful.  It may not be important to anyone else but it is to me.  I did mention to Diane and Rogier that I am looking forward to the pictures and they seemed willing.  When I spoke to Momma TMJ today she said to give it time.  If they don’t post them in another couple of weeks say something.   I was quite surprised that w...

Well up until Sunday afternoon it was rather unpleasant.   Friday Mom and I had a fight over miscommunications and attitudes (mine mostly) and we hadn’t spoken until noon today.   I will not bore you with the details but it is on the road of normal again. My activities that I spoke of on Friday went successfully.   The carnival at the Nursing home went smoothly and bingo went very well on Sunday.   As in years past Palm Sunday services were long (not really complaining) and crowded.   The weather was windy most of the weekend.   Temperatures were in the high 40’s.   Saturday was rather cloudy and on Sunday sunny.   By late evening the clouds rolled in.   The southern part of the state was expecting snow while the northern half and snow flurries all weekend.   This coming week should be fairly busy.   I have a few doctor’s appointments and meetings (maybe one overall).   I want to get as much OT as possible as i...

Even though today was a federal holiday and the post office was closed the mail volume seemed to be like any other Monday. It was mostly insurance and legal correspondence. The US mail was from the clinics and lower in volume. I was able to get that all done and the lobby mail from Friday and the weekend. I kept checking with Finance to make sure all the mail was available to me and it was. I was talking to Joanie today and talked about how concerned I was for my job. I don’t like conflict and I was trying very hard today to stay out of SR’s way and not give her any ammunition that could cause problems with it. I even gave her a “what if” scenario. What if Gayle was no longer working here or could no longer work? I didn’t want to let on that’s exactly what was going to happen come the autumn. I did get a little teary eyed and Joanie gave me a hug and told me not to worry. DK and RW both came back today after their bout with the Stomach flu. They both know and understand it was...

I swear there is definitely a full moon out. I have seen it twice. This morning I passed out the flyer that Gayle made last night as an FYI about Terry’s husband. Well some jack-hole noticed some spelling errors and criticized it. They suggested that who ever wrote it up should use spell check. Said Jack-hole was on the elevator with me a while later and asked me who wrote up the flyer and I looked at her and simply said yes Sharon I heard you the first time. She then asked if I wrote it up and I looked at her and said no. Who the fuck cares? I told a few people and all agreed it doesn’t matter. One shared a story on how “Jack-hole wrote notes in to various accounts she was working on and they were very poor in spelling. When I heard that I laughed so hard. The little girl (she is probably 18) that I have taken a dislike to came to work in really short shorts. Gayle noticed it too. She ended up changing later on she was in a dress when last saw her. Now that I think about it I did...

Hello and Happy Mothers Day to all of you. I hope you had a wonderful day today. I know I did. As in the past I spent the morning playing bingo with the residents at the Nursing home. The rest of the afternoon was enjoyable. We had hot dogs and hamburgers at My sister’s and BIL’s home. Things for me are going well. I had some Doctor’s appointments in the last few weeks and they were fine. I continue to make progress with the WW @ work program. My last weigh in was on Friday and that was very successful. Each day is a progress and I am enjoying it. Work continued to be a little hectic as I had to change my vacation plans around when a co-worker had some serious health issues come up and we were a little understaffed and of course heading to end of FY. I have been taking long weekends to use up excess vacation time I need to use before the end of the year. The volume of work for every one has tripled. We have some challenges ahead as we get new billing assignments and new method...

Mom has been home now just over three hours. Her flight got in around 5:30 and it took her about an hour and half to drive home. We talked while she took a look over the mail and the newspapers. She was very impressed with how tentative and caring the family was to Rita (she was especially impressed with Carol). I asked her what the area was like. She really enjoyed meeting Rita’s neighbors. Both Frank and Carol did things for Mom in preparation for her trip back home. She did get to see Michael and spent time with Ryan who was a bit overwhelming at times with his constant hugs and kisses. So much so that she had to tell him to stop kissing and hugging her. I have a feeling that will bite her in the ass in the future. After she looked at her mail and checked emails she got changed into her pajamas and had tea and watched TV. I bet if I got up from this chair I would probably find her sleeping in the back room. She did say her neck was bothering her right now. She did say she w...

Well I think we got our April fool’s Day joke weather wise. Even though it was cold there was no snow. All we go was rain. The temperatures for most of today seem to get no higher than 40*F. I didn’t see or feel any highway powerful winds. I am looking out my back window right now and the trees seem calm. Today was supposed to be the day where I had all the readdress mail taken care of before I left. Both Janet and I worked our asses off doing our various duties. Janet is now doing the whole batching process. We found out yesterday that Frank’s assignment for now was over. So now she is not only doing his job (all the other stuff she was doing) and now mine (along with trying to help me with the readdress mail). Today this magazine came for all the doctors. I still have a box and half left of the stuff from previous weeks. My goal was to have a better turn around. Let’s just say everything I touched didn’t work out that way. I was getting stressed over getting a few documents to J...

Several of us from the office went to Wicked Wolf for dinner. Some of us got appetizers along with our meal. Man did I eat a lot. I had coffee because it was so cold out. While we were there two men from a union from Hartford were noticing us. They were waiting for the rally to begin. It wasn’t supposed to start until about 6:30 7 pm. It was being hosted by this organization: http://local.we-r-1.org/weareone/events/show/16 . Almost every labor organization, community organization came out to this rally tonight. The meeting was held at the Church on the Green. We had several votes to take both for financial reasons and labor reasons. It went pretty fast. If you want to read more about it here and it will explain the reasons for the rally from the perspective of local labor. After the meeting we joined all the other unions including or sibling local 35. We marched across the New Haven Green and on to City Hall. For the next half hour we listened to chants, speeches, and froze my but...

Good news the big UPS envelope was my American Express Card for Costco.  Bad news they are a pain in the ass to get my card activated.  I was going to do it on line but Mom's name and stuff is on the sight and I don't want to change it on her.  I tried to call and at first my phone disconnected.  I tried a second time and had to speak to someone who was condecending to say the least.  I didn't have this problem before!  They wanted to know who the primary card is..ah duh?  I explained my name is on it but it is linked to Mom's card.  I got so frustrated I hung up. I am also aggravated because the pains in the side seem to be acting up big time tonight.  Read it here .  Right now its fine but then in a while if I move or breath deeply it will hurt. No news on the Computer front  really. Mom went to the reception for Congresswoman DeLauro this evening then she went to the DTC.  I joked that Congress would not appreciate the...

It is nearly 1 in the morning. I haven’t been to sleep yet. After posting nearly a 3 page family update entry to most of the journaling lists and here I have been trying to empty out one of the mailboxes of the journaling emails. It also has one of the NCIS lists as the one I wanted to use had been banned from my visit there a few years back. As I had hoped things with Mom are significantly better. We cleared the air (in every sense of the word) right as she was going to sleep. At least I hope we did. I will find out later on today. She brought something to my attention and she wanted confirmation as to whether she was off base or not. I basically told her that I should know at this stage in our lives she wouldn’t tell me things just to be hurtful but helpful. Edited to add the previous passage had gone beyond “Too much sharing” and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone So I have also been updating my birthday list. I have been getting the info from Facebook at least the dates. I...

I can’t believe I slept so late this morning! It was quarter of nine when I got up and I had to be at the nursing home by 9:15. I had taken some Nyquil last night and it must have done the job because I put my head done and went right to sleep. I had a weird dream that I( was back in the 70’s and Mark Harmon was there and I saw my Aunt Rosalie. That’s about all I could remember of it. Anyway I quickly showered and dressed and heard Mom call me. I called back to her and said I was coming. When I went down I explained what happened and she asked if I was even dry yet. She shrugged and said it happens. I told her when I would be back and what I would be doing. She called out and said have fun. I drove quickly to the nursing home and looked around and some of the residents were already in the recreations room. I started serving the coffee and got some hot water for tea. I chatted with the residents and a short time later Natalie was there. It was about then when I discovered ...

Today was very cool. I got up early and started getting ready for breakfast and the walk. Mom was having breakfast for her self and then realized she had to get ready for the birthday party. I called Liz for some directions for Mom and had a few moments to chat with Liz. Dave came after 9 and we headed to Cracker Barrel Old Country Restaurant up by the highway and we were seated promptly and ordered our pancakes. Dave had blueberry and I had plain with cherries on top and whip cream. I had juice and coffee. We had some time to catch up on some things and we even chatted with waitress who waited on us. She was quite nice. After we ate it was about 10 and we headed to Killingworth and to Chatfield Hallows. We arrived about 11 or so despite our not paying attention to the GPS. However it got us back to where we needed to be and we began following the huge sign that said “Chatfield Hollows” this way. We registered and chatted with the organizers Genovese Salvatore (my friend from...

Today is the day in which everyone is Irish. They dress up in green and have fun. I am no different. I dressed up in my green and black suit with the hat I won in the raffle at the woman’s club meeting last week. I was told I was a tall Leprechaun and very cute. People smiled and laughed. There were a couple of co workers who really were annoying today. In the morning it was LG but it stopped and then BM. I am not sure what the problem with him was but I spoke to several people and have said that if I did or said something to someone then that person needs to come to me and say “Hey I have a problem with what you (said, did) to me. Not this silent treatment. Of course they may not feel like it that moment so that’s understandable. One thing I did was to clear the air with the Administration staff in another department. It’s on the 9th Floor of our building. I told the woman that that I sensed we got off on the wrong feet last week and that if I offended you I apologize becaus...

Well today is my first day back from my long weekend. It seems like I have been away so long. It is great to be back. I had gotten a phone call on Thursday Gayle and text message from Cami looking for the combo to the records box so I text Cam and called her back after that to make sure it worked out okay. Stephanie did the mail and as usual she did a good job. There was still a lot left for me to do so I put it today’s mail. Susan wants Claudia to “shadow me” so that they know what needs to be done. I told everyone there was a book on the desk with notes. Stephanie told me she had some notes but still had a hard time remembering where certain things went. Claudia says we will start tomorrow. I worked on the mail from today and the rest of Fridays for most of the day but didn’t finish it. I will work on it tomorrow along with the mail for tomorrow. I was really hoping I could get it all done by the time I left but it wasn’t to be. There was some excitement. The one section of Temple St...

Aw man you should have been here in Milford today. It was absolutely beautiful today. It was sunny and in the mid to upper 40’s today. I think it was in the 30’s at the beginning of the day and when I started for Mediplex it was a bit chilly but when I came off the highway after church the sign read “44 degrees” when we drove by it again later on it read 47. That’s almost 50 degrees. I even went without a coat for a short time. Today went well despite the fact there were some annoying moments with Mom but I will get into that later. When I left here in the morning Mom asked me about an email with information about the benefits of Bingo or something. She wanted me to share with Natalie. I haven’t yet. She started to criticize and get all pouty because I didn’t. This didn’t bode well for me and I knew it. When I came back from Bingo/church she wanted to make her weekly complaints. The first was not rinsing one of the containers before putting it in the dishwasher. The second was leaving ...

Yesterday was President’s Day. It was designated the day all the President’s that were born in February are remembered and celebrated for their accomplishments in our history. Some places have the day off (Yale doesn’t). There will be no mail (just like I mentioned yesterday) banks will be closed as well. Many families will be or have already for things for the kids to do for the day. Many students have off this week. Work was going along pretty smoothly. We all got a big scare shortly after Gayle arrived. She became ill and we were not sure if it was a stroke or what. I was so upset because I felt guilty I didn’t do enough when she walked in. I could sense something wrong. She was taken to the hospital and checked out and by the end of the day was released from the hospital. By the end of the day I was exhausted. I went to my session with Debra and we discussed that and the previous week’s events. The session went by quickly. When I left it was after 5 and the sun hadn’t...