A rant that makes no sense to you, maybe.

Don't you hate it when women get laid off right when they're coming back from maternity leave? You hate that. Right? I hated that when it happened to me six years ago. I hated it so much I got a good lawyer who got the severance I deserved (the one that was in the employee handbook, not the one they made up on let-go day).

Boy, I really hated that I was punished for having a baby after five years of stellar performance, the company hero, the results getter.

Can you spell W-h-a-t- h-a-v-e y-o-u d-o-n-e f-o-r m-e l-a-t-e-l-y.

You really hate that not very many people understand that while you were out of the office, you were finishing baking and birthing a human being. That kind of took up some time on this extended vacation called "disability" (in my day it was).

There are enough women in HR now, in management now, that this shouldn't be happening. It is beginning to smell more and more rotten to me. When women are so worried about their own asses that they won't even stop to notice another woman's ass being raked over the coals, that just plain stinks.

What's next--should we start eating our young and just be done with it?

I mean, there are enough mothers out there to stand up against this growing practice of ousting women on the eve of their return to work, to make a real stink about it when it happens to a colleague. Aren't there?

Aren't there?

Where are all the fucking women in this world?

Hello??????????????

And by the way, if this happens to you unjustly, and you live in Georgia, Adam Conti's great.

bye bye ketchum blog

An update of sorts: the ketchum blog I referenced a couple of days back for its cluelessness is now sans content. As in, the posts there have been deleted, but either someone doesn't know how to delete the blog itself, or maybe they're planning to have another go at it. Time will tell. I have my guess already. I wish I had a bookie.

My original post on the blog has no comments because YACCS, my comment facility, was down and out at the time. But hunt around the PR bloggers. You'll see the references. The latest is over on PR Opinions, where I left a comment, and Tom wrote another good post (although we differ in our predictions) on the topic of BigPR.

So that's the update.

Oh, and...

Anyone wonder if I'm feeling particularly good about pointing the Ketchum blog out and generating much PR biz buzz over it? Or if maybe I'm feeling guilty that my pointing out the blog may have played a role in their ditching the content?

Do you really want to know?

Who knows me--come on, you guys know me... what's your vote?

Good or Guilty.

Lemme know, then I'll tell you that I feel G......................... Well, maybe later.

what a post

When halley does it, she really does it. Damn. A fine post.

Nothing was easy for anyone and of course terrible in some ways for my son. No kid votes to dissolve a family -- they could give a shit if you're unhappily married. You do everything to avoid it. You're kidding yourself if you think they'll EVER understand that your happiness matters. They are built for their own selfish survival and they want family, not rupture. I like that about them. They're smart. They make it painfully clear that you're an asshole -- both of you -- you're both assholes for not being able to stay together.

So you just keep losing and losing -- parents and husbands and weight and you name it -- and some how you come out the other side. God knows how. For me -- it's about writing -- it was the only self I could hold on to and the only place I could go and find a long lost self. What did I write? Irony of ironies -- I wrote about men, all the while not understanding the man I had married at all, letting him down in a million ways perhaps, and simultaneously letting down the boy I was raising. But wait, there is a happy ending -- I'm almost sure of it. I see little glimmers even now. We're all coming through it alive.

yes i know what day it is

a hoard of bloggers will relate their impressions and feelings of the day that changed everything today. Not me. I let mainstream media do that kinda thing.

You see, it's all they have left. I figure we ought to let them keep something. You know, remembrances. Anniversaries. Obituaries. Terror alerts. That kind of thing. So turn on CNN if you want to hear all about the day that was. Better yet, hug your kids and take them to Chuck-E-Cheese or the park.

And Halley, don't preempt my honor role award with that writing that leaves lumps in people's throats, now, ya hear?

smelling her breath and public relations

Okay, I admit it. One of my favorite things about night time when I lay down with Jenna to itch her back is lying face to face, and when she finally falls asleep, If I can stand waiting the very long time it often takes, smelling her breath as she exhales. Not just smelling it really, more like sucking it in.

I time it. She breathes out, and I breath in. Her little breath smells so sweet I want to drink it in like fruit juice.

Tonight I thought, if I inhale with enough force, I wonder if I could suck her back inside me so I could protect her from the world. From nasty cats and boo-boos. From icky spiders and bullies.

You think?

In other news, I'm getting tons of great mail from folks who liked my Bye Bye Big PR post. From "You Go, Girl" to "You hit the nail on the head," my peeps in and out da biz dug it.

Bloggers, thank you for hearing me. It helps validate us lunatics who really are in charge of the asylum--and can that be a bad thing, can it?

Speaking of lunatics and all, The Hooter Tutor, err, I mean, Happy Tutor had, as usual, gobs of insight and intelligent commentary on the TooBigAgency issue. The comment banter between Happy and Gerald is worth the read. I think everyone over there is in agreement that Valium is the answer for me.

Ben Silverman of dotcomscoop fame mentioned it in his ezine.

Uncle Doc (doctor unc?) gave me my props.

Halley the Glove Suitt gave her readers a mandate to check out my take on the end of BigPR, and I see today she's hoisted me onto her September Blogger Honor Roll--I'm so excited! I haven't made an honor roll for more than 20 years! Thanks Halley!

And Jeremy over at his Pop-PR blog chimed in too.

Who'd I miss--anyone?

And, lastly, don't you think the broccoli in those Uncle Ben's Add Boiling Water Quickie Pasta Dinners tastes amazingly like cabbage?

So many things blow my mind.

I am slammed with work that I would have once been doing within the BigPR context. But instead I've been writing from my couch, and it's gotten so out of hand--this work--that I needed a change of scenery, so I have moved my laptop to the floor, and I'm now sprawled out with papers and an empty Starbuck's cup thinking it's time to sleep.

Nighty night.

should she or shouldn't she? Only Glove Girl knows for sure

Halley has a dilemma over her way. Her Harvard B'ness Review Glove Girl and Blogging article has been published in full-frontal fashion by another blogger for all to see. Problem is, Harvard keeps its cherished content behind a pay-fer firewall on purpose--it's part of Harvard Publishing's business model. Oh dear.

Does Halley point to the lifted version of the article, or ignore it? Hmmm.

I say it's time to show Harvard that they had the real Glove Girl in their midst, link to the blog-land-based article content, and see Harvard handles it.

They have a panel of experts they can ask for guidance. ;-)

Hossein Rocks On with His Bad Self over at YACCS

Man, if all businesses delivered on schedule like blog-land businesses, it'd be a happier world. Hossein has YACCS comment facility back up and running, as scheduled. I bet Gary's doing the happy dance too.

So how the hell IS everyone?

I dunno

So what do I do. The YACCS comment facility--which has been down, and which I don't really mind being down since it's been reliable for a long time--is really slowing down my blog by not working. I'd ask you to leave me a comment on what comment facilities you use, but, um, you can't. SO I guess I'll give it another day. Hossein was estimating he'd have the server up by tomorrow.

Guess I'll go take a snooze.

In the mean time, my keyboard's acting up too--extra letters, not registering the space bar when I hit it. It makes hellish work out of writing for a living. I really need an editor now. Except that's my job too. Oh fuck.

Silver Rights--Nice.

This is important. Now, how do we break it to Arnold?

blogging is like having a cigarette

okay, so, I finished another page of web copy, so blogging is my reward, my way to lul myself in the coma I seem to need to be in these days to sleep.

Jenna is doing well. So well. We are so thankful. She's back to 100-percent, with a doctor re-check coming this week. In some ways, I think she's better than she's been in a long time. Of course, that could have something to do with having her daddy to pal around with.

I had a recurring dream last night that Hunter the cat came back. And back. And back. Every time I opened the front door, there he was, jumping through the screen (like always) and biting my calves. It was one of those real dreams. When I went outside today, I opened the door slowly.

The house is a mess. I realize now that the eight hours of sleep I got last night was the longest run of shut-eye I've had in nearly three weeks. Most nights since Jenna got sick were 4 hours, and the hospital was virtually sleepless for three days, followed by the killer work project of all projects, and more of the same.

I'm not complaining because that sweet baby who'll be six years old the end of this month is doing well. Like I said, at this time in my life, that's what matters.

Still, I'm tired. And I think I better hit the sack.

Thanks for hanging with me.

I'm hoping Hossein has the comments working again this week. I miss them. I don't know how glovegirl lives without 'em. ;-)

Pimping Iron

Is anyone really surprised at this? Arnold a racist. You could knock me over with a feather. The racial slurs are one thing, but what up with not paying the $10K lil Arnold? [[yes, i believe the reports.]]

At different times, different things

Blogging means different things at different times to me. Tonight, it is a complete procrastination tool.

Mostly, blogging is breathing. It's something I have to do, to write, to hear my voice, to know I'm alive, you're alive. It's about hearing heart beats. And when I go away from it, the world sounds so loud, but not with beating hearts. More with backfiring cars and pound-pound-pound from the rennovations on the house up the street. How many cars really need to back out of driveways every day? Don't they know?

Tonight though, pure and simple, I'm procrastinating here. I have copy to write. I don't want to write it. I want to hear hearts beating instead.

This is not good.

Looming deadline.

Lots of pages to write.

Why am I hear?

The question is, why do we have to be anyplace else. Darnit.

Okay, I have to do my work now.

More later.