I swear work is killing me . . . .

So, as you know, I haven't written in awhile. And truthfully, it's because I just don't have time. You see, there is a coworker here who is not pulling his/her weight any longer, calling in "sick" a lot, not getting work done, etc. As a result, as he/she partially works for me, my work is not getting complete and I have to do his/her job in addition to my own. So, I've been working weekends, nights, extra hours, waking up in the middle of the night at 2 am freaked out about work and going into work at that time because I just can't sleep knowing what I have to do, things like that. I'm really ready to go over the edge I'm so exhausted. And it stinks, because I really love my job and really like who I work for which is SUCH a change from my old gig; so it bothers me that I'm really getting so stressed out. And I can't go to the boss about the work b/c (a) he/she already knows about the problems with the coworker; and (b) there would be no one else to do my extra work as we are a really small office and we're all busy - so it's especially hard when one person doesn't do their job.

So, that's me, Ms. Whiney McWhine just sharing my stress. You can now go back to your regularly scheduled program.

I feel cheated.

Well, this past Friday, I saw the Cirque du Soleil. And quite frankly, I feel cheated. It annoys me b/c I can't do anything about it.

You see, my friend's birthday was this weekend. As a result, her husband bought a bunch of tickets for the Delirium Cirque du Soleil show so about 14 of us could go. We had to pay him back for the tickets. Now, for the show, there were three "levels" of tix you could get - $70, $80 and $100 - and guess which ones he got? The $100 ones - and he got front row.

Now normally, when going to a concert you would be like ALL RIGHT front row!!! For Cirque du Soleil, however, you don't want front row - at least not for this show. What I don't get, however, is that I knew you shouldn't get front row and I've never even been to one of these shows. Why did someone who has been to three other shows think front row would be good?

So anyway (and no it wasn't my idea to go - Mr. Bean told the husband we would go) - I still was excited about the show as I had always wanted to see one.

But we got there, in our front row seats and the stage was about 6-8 feet high. So, not only did we miss a bunch of the show b/c we couldn't see, but for what we could see we had to hold our heads back, getting a major pain. It was like being in the front row of a movie theater, only worse.

So am I mad at the husband - not at all, it's not his fault. But I am mad at the Cirque Du Soleil and the auditorium - how dare they sell the most expensive tix for seats where you couldn't see everything? Why would the most expensive tix be for seats that had a horrible view? I really feel like I got gyped. I would have rather have spent $30 less a ticket and seen everything. And the thing is, they know that - it is their show and stage.

I would love to write a letter to complain - to them and the letters to the editor, but I can't do that to my friends. So I'll just vent here, thank you.

Cal-i-fornia, here I come!

RABBIT, RABBIT!!!

Anyway, planning for the big trip this year to be to California, if everything works out. 10 days over thanksgiving - fly into LA and leave via San Francisco, all by the great airlines of Southwest.

Never been there before. In fact, the only two places I've been west of the Missippi are two times to Chicago and once to Phoenix, Arizona. Pretty sad that I can say I've been to the Caribbean, Venezuala, France, England, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, but not to a lot of the US past the east coast. I do want that to change, however, so this trip to California is a start.

Now to start the planning. My fave part of the trip making process.

California, here I come!