This ain't no disco, this ain't no country club either

"...all I wanna do is have a little fun before I die, a man said to me, out of nowhere..."

Yes I do have a song in my head.

There are way too many days that I wait for 4:30. 4:30 is when I leave work and sometimes I just hit a wall. That's the issue with office jobs. Sometime, somewhere, someone made up this rule that you HAD to be at work for 8 hours.

How productive are those 8 hours really? What if you get bored and spend at least 2 of those 8 hours on facebook, talking to coworkers about non-dairy recipes, or generally gossiping? What if really there are only 6 hours that are truly productive. Does that mean I have to be paid less? Just because I am efficient and rarely have work go into overtime I should be punished by taking away pay. Hours = pay. Unless you are salary of course.

It just really bugs me how our society is so focused on what is SUPPOSED to be instead of maybe what SHOULD be. Maybe we SHOULD consider making our hours more reasonable. Sometimes I will be working over 40 hours a week, sometimes I will be working around 30, altogether that should even out to how much you want to pay me. How much is my work worth to your organization? That is the real question. And if I'm not getting things in on time or I'm spending too much time on facebook then fire me.

Maybe we spend too much time worrying about our PTO and our sick days and our unexpected days off, and not enough time focusing on work and what we want out of our life. Sometimes these petty things get in the way.

And that's no way to live life.

Until next time.

Keep calm and carry on.

Fragile Xtiquette

I have two pictures of my brother on my cabinet at work. A few times people have stopped and asked me about the pictures and I will attempt to provide a short explanation of Fragile X and how it has affected my brother. Two of the more recent occurrences could not have been more different. They are a lesson in "what to say" and "what not to say."

First encounter:
Coworker: "Oh who is that in the picture?"
Me: "Oh that's my brother...blah blah blah...fragile x...blah blah blah"
Coworker: "I can tell you love him. That's so great. I'm glad he's doing so well."
The end.

This is what I would call a good conversation.

The second encounter:

Coworker: "Oh who is that in the picture?"
Me: "Oh that's my brother...blah blah blah...fragile x...blah blah blah"
Coworker: "They just want to be normal don't they."
Me: ......
Coworker: "Does your brother go to a program like Proact?"
Me: "What's Proact?"
Coworker: "Oh it's a place where people who can't do normal jobs and go and work doing small tasks."
Me: ".........................no, he has worked in several areas including a greenhouse, hotel and grocery store. In fact his older cousin has a steady job at a hospital and lives in an apartment with a roommate."
Coworker: "Oh, how great."
End.

This conversation makes me want to bang my head against the wall.  I know it comes from a place of ignorance and I try to remember that, however the "oh they just want to be normal" comment makes me fume.

Oh yes, they do. Don't we all just want to be normal. How quaint. Excuse me while I throw up.

If people are really curious why don't they say this:
"Oh I don't know much about that! Could you send me some information/explain that further" so I don't drive you insane?

The one area I can do nothing about is the child conversation. I wish I could just wear a sign:
 "IF YOU ASK ME ABOUT CHILDREN I MIGHT PUNCH YOU!"

I have made a choice to most likely not have biological children. It is my choice. I don't want to explain to you why I want to adopt, you should just respect it and move on. I know children are the light of the world and changed your life but I am going to have a different experience. Good for you, now leave me alone.

The only thing that is helping with this is reading adoption blogs. They are so helpful and also are great for venting purposes because adoptive parents often go through the same ridiculous questions as people who have children with disabilities. Basically, "oh that's different, how did that happen?"

It happened because nature always wins that's how it happened.

I'm sorry for the anger today. I just needed to get this out there. I hope it sparks conversation.

Until next time: Keep calm, and carry on.