I’ve noticed lately that there is very little on TV that interests me. I don’t really know when that happened, but today, as I channel surfed through hundreds (yes hundreds) of channels, there was nothing on that even remotely interested me. I’d either already seen it or had absolutely no interest in watching any of it. The only program I absolutely must watch on Sunday morning is This Week with George Stephanopolous. After that, I was bored. So in it’s place I turned the channel to the XM stations and found a very relaxing atmospheric music channel that I’ve had on pretty much the whole afternoon. Blank screen as if the TV is off, but the music plays on. I have absolutely no idea who I’m listening to at any given time, but the music (purely instrumental, world inspired, good for the Karma, music) plays on. I’ve caught up on some newspaper reading, ate a good early meal and now sat down to write. I haven’t had a Sunday like this in a long time. The house is clean, the laundry is done. Wow.
Usually around this time, I’m glued to the TV, forcing myself to watch stuff I really don’t have any interest in, just to have something to watch, something that is making noise and feels as if the house is not empty. But for some reason, this is beginning to bother me. I just can’t get comfortable in front of that mammoth TV today. Actually I haven’t watched much TV this whole week come to think of it. Is it me or the programming? (I did catch up on the Grey’s Anatomy episode I missed last Thursday, watching it on the web, but other than that, I’ve been disinterested.) Has the programming deteriorated that much or have my senses evolved?
This has never happened to me before. I am a child of TV, having been born in 1960. Entertainment came from TV. It was on in my house almost 24/7. It was even on at the dinner table (so my parents didn’t have to speak to each other), it was on in the living room, we had a TV in every bedroom. It’s been on in my household everyday since I am a child. I’ve even slept with the TV on all night. Even when "nothing" is on, the TV plays. Even when I am not in the room, the TV plays. My lover is the same as me. He has the TV on all the time. He has it on when he sleeps, he has it on whenever he is in the house. Wherever he is, here or away, the TV plays. When he is here, we sit in front of that TV and we cuddle and watch together. TV is on all the time.
But now, the TV off. It has been off most of the week. And I just noticed. I like it. I am enjoying the music. Its absence is allowing me to do other things. It is liberating.
I do not smoke. I quit many, many years ago. I have many coworkers that do smoke. Smoking is prohibited in govt office buildings. Anywhere in the building including bathrooms, lunchrooms, waiting rooms, private offices, hallways, stairways, elevators, etc. You get the idea. But those that DO smoke seem to get these frequent smoking breaks to feed their habit. One particular coworker also takes the opportunity to drink her coffee and read her book while on these smoking breaks.
But what about those of us that don’t smoke? I think there should be a non-smoking break where those of us who DON’T smoke get to leave the office and gather outside the building to chat, drink coffee and stand around for 15min every hour. This in addition to everyone’s lunch hour of course. Don’t you agree? Shouldn’t there be some incentive to quit smoking. A slogan like "Quit smoking. Don’t worry. You can spend your hourly 15min smoking break drinking coffee and chatting with the rest of us". I think it might work.
It may also even out the field when it comes to goofing off in the name of addiction. I have a coffee addiction. Maybe if they prohibit ALL addictions then we can all gather outside the office building every hour for a 15min break and feed our addictions. Coffee, junk food, cell phone chit chat, text messaging, blogging, whatever. Bring your books, your laptops, your insulated coffee mugs! 15min breaks every hour for EVERYONE! Kinda like "a chicken in every pot!" Let’s show them what the American worker is all about: shirking our work onto the less fortunate, healthy coworker, who, being so healthy and free of addictions has the stamina to take on all those extra tasks the rest of us can’t manage with all the time we have to stand around outside feeding our addictions. Or, all us non-smokers can pretend to smoke. Don’t inhale. I hear that method has worked in the past. Then we can ALL stand outside in unison, all puffing away (some of course not inhaling), like one big happy non-working addicted, dysfunctional family.
Workplace or Day Care Center? I Suppose It's a Matter of Opinion...
While reading the Sunday papers, I noticed an article on issues of child care and back-up child care. The author of this article, Liza N. Burby addressed several scenarios, sick child, sick babysitter, unexpected school closing, and then made suggestions for parents, on how to anticipate these unexpected child care problems. The one thing it all boiled down to according to Ms. Burby is to have back up babysitting, available at a moments notice (even when a 6am phone call is necessary), and further, to make sure this "back up" has been pre-introduced to your child and properly screened to prevent any unpleasant issues that may arise.
All well and good. Not practical. But all well and good. Now, I’m not a parent, having never had children of my own. My lover has two children and now one grandchild. He and his ex have always managed without bravado, to meet any unexpected issues concerning child care. They seem to have been, and still are it seems, the exception to the rule. I DO understand that child care is a growing problem in our country of two income households and single parents. I do understand that emergencies arise. I do understand. Really. I even sympathize.
But the author seems to have missed one alternative that parents have been choosing of late. That being, instead of staying home with a sick child, or staying home due to lack of child care, they bring their child to work with them. Now this may come off to you as quite a bit bitchy on my part, and I have been accused of being too inflexible. Insensitive people have even gone so far as to tell me that because I have no children of my own I would never understand what it is like to be a parent. But I am a human being with feelings and the power to reason and the power of observation. It all boils down to this. Common sense and consideration.
If a child is too sick for school or day care then a child is too sick to enter a work site. If a child is healthy but off from school or day care, the job is not their playground or source of entertainment. It is not a parent’s place to bring a child to the workplace. It is A PARENT"S job however to stay home with their child if they cannot make other arrangements. I do not have children, the parent does. I am not at work to do anything else but work. Not entertain, babysit or be otherwise imposed on by a child or children. That child is most certainly the apple of Mom and Dad's eye. How could anyone resist little Richard or little Brittany they may believe. Don't believe it. It doesn’t matter if their child brings homework, coloring books, Play station or IPOD. It doesn’t matter if their child stays in their office all day. They get bored. They start whining, fidgeting, running around, investigating every nook and cranny, etc. They are kids. That’s what kids do. That is what childhood is about. It doesn’t matter how cute or well behaved the child is either. It doesn’t matter. It is distracting. It is annoying. It is unwelcome. It is so selfish and inconsiderate. But do they care? Not.
Sounds bitchy huh? Is it a valid complaint though? Unfortunately not only is this unwelcome distraction happening more and more often, even the supervisors are bringing their sick and day care less children to the workplace. No one is speaking up and no one is telling employees that this is improper in the workplace. Only once has a supervisor told an employee that their children are not to be brought into the workplace. That came about because she was bringing them in everyday after school and whenever they had to stay home. Her children are completely out of control and were unsupervised, and one day created such a ruckus that a security issue arose when it was thought that someone was being assaulted.
I have spoken out on the subject and have been shot down in some of the most insensitive and cruel fashion. I believe I have a right to complain but apparently not. I am just a childless insensitive bitch it seems. In the minority. So I endure. It is not just happening in my own workplace, but speaking to many friends and family in other job environments, it is happening everywhere it seems. It is becoming part of office culture. Maybe I am a bitch. But it bothers the heck out of me.
Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE kids. I adore children. They are a constant source of joy and a blessing to anyone fortunate enough to have children. I am a wonderful auntie to all my friends kids and my stepchildren and step granddaughter are a wonder to behold.. Kids are great. Just not at my job. My mind is not geared toward kids in my workplace.
Funny though. My civil service job is in a government office, dealing with individuals and families. Kids are running around the waiting rooms all over the building all day long. Some sweet, some shreaking out of control monsters. But on the other side of the counter. Not in the back office where we have to sit and concentrate. Where we go to get away from the clamor and screaming. Where "authorized personnel only" belong. Yes we are "family friendly" for the public. The bosses feel we are family friendly all around. So. My coworkers who don’t want to "waste" sick days or vacation days to stay home with their kids bring them to work. Some run out in the afternoon to fetch them from school and bring them back for the afternoon rather than enroll them in after-school programs. Some have the school bus deliver them to our building. It is accepted by management. It is endured by the rest of us.
I AM being too bitchy right? Does anyone have an opinion? Are you one of those parents? Or are you someone like me? What do you think?
Okay. Picture it. It is the day after New Year’s. January 2, 2007. I get in my car first thing in the morning, turn on my radio expecting to hear my NEW favorite radio station and BOOM. The format changed without notice! My GOD! ANOTHER LIGHT MUSIC STATION! What is WITH this city?? Who decides what the 40+ crowd wants to hear on the radio?
First they take away WCBS 101.1, which for any one outside of NYC, was THE oldies but goodies station. It pretty much covered all the bases for me, and for many, many other loyal listeners as well. It had 50's do wop to 70's disco all wrapped into a tidy bundle of fun. I listened to nothing else. Then one morning, I get in my car, turn on the radio and without notice, the format changed. Cousin Brucie was gone, the Stylistics were homeless, the Beatles dead. No more Donna Summer or Thelma Houston. Gone.
Replacing it is JACK-FM. A DJless station that scrambles all kinds of music without rhyme or reason. The station motto: "It’s like your IPOD on shuffle". The station owners decided that the "oldies" did not have a large enough audience and was not profitable enough. The DJs were overpaid and unnecessary. It is an automated station. Which is complete nonsense. It was the only one of it’s kind left in the NYC Metro area.
So for months I was lost, shifting around the dial, searching through the rap/hip hop stations, light stations and latin stations, lost, frustrated. I resided myself to the news station. But then one day, I found 102.7, what used to be WNEW, the classic rock station (which by the way was a FANTASTIC station), but changed format without notice one day and became MIX 102.7. A classic dance music station of the 70's and 80's. At last! I found a station that spoke to me. A station of my era. A station that played no hiphop, no rap, no light music. A station with a GREAT morning drive and a fantastic rush hour evening drive. A station that I could enjoy and identify with. And I listened. I changed all the stations in everyone’s cars that I traveled in. All of us at work listened. It drew in the lost listeners of the 40+ crowd. We found a home at last.
And so it went on for about 10 months. Radio bliss. Then it happened. After Thanksgiving, the morning drive DJs disappeared. We figured that since it was the Holiday season, and most stations were playing non stop Christmas music, that this was just in step with the seasonal music. We thought, yes, after New Year’s everything will settle back to normal. Joe Cauzi and Michelle Visage will be back at the mics as soon as 2007 gets underway. I shoulda known. Light music. It is the same crap on 3 other stations in the area. The same crap. Who decides this I’d like to know?! Who thinks that all us "old folk" want to hear are the light tunes. No more classic rock stations. No more classic dance stations. No more oldies. Just light music. This so SUCKS. Will I be forced to buy XMradio in order to hear something I want to hear. Where are these decisons made? Don’t the advertisers realize that the ones who have the most money are the 40+ crowd? The parents. The ones that buy the stuff for the kids. Us. We exist. Bring back our goddamn music stations!! Death to the light music stations!! Wake up NY! I’m mad as hell and once again, shifting around the dial, searching through the rap/hip hop stations, light stations and latin stations, lost, frustrated. Residing myself to the news and my CD player. Sigh.
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