Dear Sprint

A cross-post from a blogger I read regularly, the venerable JKrew.

Click me

Random Ten Wednesday

It's Wednesday! Yay!

As of tomorrow, I'll be officially FIVE WEEKS AWAY from my due date. Wow, good grief...has this pregnancy flown by! I really can't believe the baby is almost here. I am looking forward to meeting her. My belly is getting huge, and I'm having a more difficult time walking around, standing, and sleeping.

Two of my aunts threw me a baby shower last weekend, and it was quite nice. We were given many, many lovely gifts for our wee girl by family and friends.

Here's my Random Ten for today!

~Radiohead : Creep
~Shakira: La Pared (Versión Acustica

Eres como una predicción de las buenas
Eres como una dosis alta en las venas

Y el deseo gira en espiral
Porque mi amor por ti es total
Y es para siempre

Después de ti la pared
No me faltes nunca
Debajo el asfalto

Y mas abajo estaría yo

Después de ti la pared
No me faltes nunca
Debajo el asfalto

Y mas abajo estaría yo
Sin ti

Eres la enfermedad y el enfermero
Y ya me has convertido
En tu perro faldero
Sabes que sin ti
Ya yo no soy
Sabes que a donde vayas voy

Naturalmente
Después de ti la pared
No me faltes nunca
Debajo el asfalto
Y mas abajo estaría yo

Después de ti la pared
No me faltes nunca
Debajo el asfalto
Y mas abajo estaría yo
Sin ti

~Frou Frou: Let Go
~Led Zeppelin: Kashmir
~Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Revenge of the Sugar Plum Fairy
~John Mayer: Love Song for No One (Live)
~Jesse Cook: Tango Flamenco
~Plump DJs: Bullet Train
~Paperboy: Ditty
~Fiona Apple: Slow Like Honey

An open invitation for your opinions

I don't do this often - solicit other people's opinions, that is - generally because I live my life by the belief that most people are full of crap. But I have a genuine quandary, and I'd appreciate some insight from outside sources.

It's been mentioned in more than one post that I am an atheist. I used to be Catholic, and was downright bible-thumpin' Christian for a few years before my downward spiral into abject heathenism. I've been secular for about 12 years now - happily so. Living as I do in the Shiny Brass Buckle of Bubba's Big Bible Belt, I am of course surrounded by Christians of all types. Most of the time, we coexist in relative peace. I am not often the subject of rabid proselytizing. The few friends I have at my job are well aware that I'm a non-believer and they are still nice to me. The problem I face is much more subtle - e-mail.

Today alone, I've received five mass emails from coworkers with heavy religious themes. Four of them were the same email- one of those "pass this along to everyone you know" things. Basically, this email says if you love Jesus, you'll forward the email to everybody.

My usual response is to delete the crap, but it's starting to get really old. Christians (and everyone else, for that matter) are more than entitled to their beliefs, but I am not interested. I try to practice responsible email. If a missive contains opinions of any kind, I do my best to only forward it to those I am sure will agree with it. Just because I hold particular beliefs and opinions does not mean others should have to read it, or even receive it.

So save your typing on the "just delete it" suggestion. I've been "just deleting" them, and it's only getting worse. Think about this: If I was sending you atheist propaganda or some political stuff you disagreed with all the time, wouldn't you get tired of it?

I have once gone so far as to ask one girl to not send me anything religious, but apparently she forgot and thus continues to do so. I was polite in my request, and would not be impolite or bashing to anyone else.

What am I supposed to do?

My boss is begging to be sued...

...mostly because of his own blind eye toward the actions of our operations manager, whom I shall call Tammy.

Earlier this year, it was made known (though not by any specific distribution of policy or official announcement) that family members or friends of employees would no longer be hired.

(It should be mentioned that the company has experienced at least part of its growth in the past 3 years due to the buddy system of employment. My husband and I both work here in two different capacities, IT and accounting. But my husband did not recommend or hire me- the company president did.)

Since then, according to the grapevine, two women have been specifically told by Tammy that their family member could not come apply for a job- one woman whose daughter wanted to apply, another whose brother sought to work here.

Despite these two denials, the so-called policy has been bent for other people. The totally incompetent sister of a manager was hired this summer. The cousin of our former receptionist was also hired. Now, today, Tammy's husband is here as a "filing temp." This position has been held before by other people who wound up working for us full time.

You might wonder how this has anything to do with my post title, that my boss is begging to be sued. Well, ladies and germs, the prospect comes from the fact that the employee whose brother wanted to apply here happens to be black. If this lady and her brother wanted to, they could slap my boss with an EEOC claim that would make his head spin.

It would be difficult to dispute. Tammy's mother works here in Tammy's department, and her grandmother is employed as our cleaning lady. Her husband is now acting as a filing clerk, supposedly only for a few days. At least three other women working here were friends of Tammy's when they were hired, before the policy was set in place. Then you have the two other relatives of other employees that were hired.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.