However, did you mean percentage? Or is precentage correct in this usage?

Thanks! I didn't spell-check yet, and now you saved me that, as well! The hivemind is the best.

I think KHepburn's annoying character is part of what makes the movie so darn funny. Plus leopards and Cary Grant in a frilly bathrobe!

God I just want to smack her. And I have to keep explaining to mac that yes, is lying about things and tricking people and no nothing she is doing is very nice.

I think msbelle's put her finger on why I've been unable to watch more than a few minutes of Bringing Up Baby despite it being a classic and all famous and like that.

Wow, that article just punched me in the gut. I have class issues all the time. I'm the first person in my family to graduate college. My parents were the first to own their own home. My grandmother and grandfather on my dad's side were were raised by people who had starved. My mother grew up in poverty.

I'm the only one in my family to sort of transcend the class thing by getting a book published and having casual conversations with nobel laureates and people who have emmys on their mantels.

There's a straddling disconnect, and it is awfully weird. I never shared with them that I was writing a book until I had an agent and it just about sold, because I just couldn't find a way to explain it to them. Even when i did, my mother immediately became suspicious and wondered how much I was paying "this woman" to sell something I wrote, because obviously, I was being taken.

ION, I have to have a meeting with my boss on Monday about the future of my job, which is bleak. I go from very calm, to angry, to sad in five minute cycles.

Tim said there's no way this situation isn't going to be traumatic, but it isn't tragic, and yes, I will panic about money. And yes, I will yell and cry for days about it. But in the end, he says, I can find another job quickly and I won't be homeless or starving. Maybe uncomfortable. But I'll work it out. And then he said my children's book is made of gold, and this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

I'm still scared, my hands are still shaking. And I'm hoping that after this meeting I will still have a job through the holiday season, because it's going to be impossible to find one in mid-October, when this symposium is over.

That's what I have to work out. If I left now, I could find a job much easier than I could if I left after the symposium. But I'm committed to the symposium, it's nine weeks away.

I'm just really scared, you guys.

That's what I have to work out. If I left now, I could find a job much easier than I could if I left after the symposium. But I'm committed to the symposium, it's nine weeks away.

...if they're trying to screw you over, why should you care? Do what's best for you.

Seriously.

Look for a job now. If you get offered something, it might have taken a few weeks and you could maybe set the start date for after the symposium.

But you have worked there for many years, and if they are being assholes to you now for no good reason, there is no good reason for you to handicap yourself in finding a job out of some misplaced loyalty.

IJS.

I think it's completely normal and expected to be scared in this situation, Allyson! If anything, you should be complimented on how well you're holding up, seriously.

I'd start looking now, Allyson. Yes, it would be great for them to have you around through the symposium. But it would be great for you to still be employed. Your needs totally trump theirs right now.

I'm sorry I brought up issues for you, Allyson- I actually have the similar ones (also the first person to graduate from college etc, etc, although I wasn't ever personally starving).

Also, you just made a lightbulb go off over my head about a) why I never share something potentially good with my mom until it is over and done with and b) my mom's theory that everyone is out to take me/her.

I wish you well on the job front- I can't imagine being given no direction at all in planning a symposium if I had never planned one before, and I think we have similar jobs. The other thing to think about is (and I would have trouble doing it, but..) don't worry about staying for the symposium. I guarantee you your boss wouldn't if they needed to leave. I have this (probably from being working class) issue where if I commit to something, I always see it through, even if it kills me. And sometimes that serves me well, and it certainly makes me not just give up on something. But on the other hand, sometimes it just means I screw myself over bigtime.

You are such a strong, wonderful, intelligent person that I cannot imagine someone not wanting to hire you to either write for them, or take care/wragle them. Maybe you could wrangle famous people/bands/actors/etc? I bet you would be great at that.

Allyson, I want you to have a job that uses your intelligence, your organizational skills, your ability to pull people together for a cause, your writing skills and your wit.

One of the companies I worked for used to have a summer program for bright students who had grown up in poverty. They had jobs for the summer, like being receptionists and general intern-like things, but they also had instruction every day in how to dress, why it's important to be on time, how to talk to your boss and so on. They added that part to the program when they realized that these kids had no role models for how to behave in the business world.