Meanwhile, I will work on my face-punching skills.

Do you have your Spectral Bovine superhero costume finished yet?

(No capes!)

I keep obsessively looking at the Nashville pics too. My mother's family has been there since my great grandfather was foreman of the yards at Union Station. We visited relatives every year when I was growing up; I went to school there; my first newspaper job was there; and I'm there at least four times a year to see my family. (Someday, Kate, I'm going to be headed there without every moment being committed.)

The Cumberland is at its highest since the 1975 flood, which I covered as a reporter, working 180 hours over two weeks. (I remember because of my largely futile efforts to claim at least some of that comp time.) I kept driving through water I shouldn't have been driving through. My car would stall out and I'd stand in the rain drying the distributor cap, then start the car and go on. I discovered that ballpoints won't write on sodden reporter's notebooks, but pencils will. That was very different flood, though, because it was the result of a number of days of rain, so people had a fair amount of warning to evacuate.

Fie on all the bad news!

Much ~ma to Kristin, Kate and others in distress.

Congrats on a little more weight MaxCat. Good ON ya.

So, the event I've been working on for three months? Canceled three days out. Why? Because the president of the org, who said over and over again how they were handling the marketing aspect of getting people in the seats didn't bother to send out an announcement to membership until today. Plus? The announcement had NONE of the details I gave her. I wouldn't sign up for an event if all I got was a list of doctor's names either.

The second in command called me to apologize and suggest that the president was 'falling on her sword' for dropping the ball, but maybe *I* wanted to be the one to call the speakers I had worked so hard to recruit and manage.

Um. No. YOU call them and I'll follow up with them when I'm not likely to leak the bitterness I feel right now.

If, at any point, someone had said that they WEREN'T going to do the marketing, things would have gone very differently. Much as I said I did not want to do it, I might have picked up the ball. But, despite what I'm sure were good intentions, NO ONE just fessed up...not in 3 months. Ergh.

I feel like a schmoe for getting involved at all. Ah well. It's almost over.

Oh deer loward Kristin. I know anger at that sort of treatment used to make me cry in impotent rage. Now I think I'd just lack the requisite social control to keep from confronting the bitch on her own turf. Dude, what part of "voluntary" do you not understand. "Contractual next year"? That's next year. This year? Still voluntary, and I informed you weeks ago of my inability to go. I'm sorry your circumstances have changed, but mine have not. Step. Off.

Fired? Probably. Which is why I send you boatloads of sympathy and all the new job~ma in the *world*. Taking that sort of abuse is not part of the job description.

Damn, pix, that sucks.

Fingers crossed that all the timing works out, Hil!

Weird that I've heard about the flooding in Nashville here and on facebook, but notreally on the media. Hrmph.

...there was someone else to pet or congratulate, but I forget. Sorry. On my phone.

Kate, I'm sorry I jumped in without saying how sorry I am for what you and other Nashville peeps are going through. You have every right to be upset.

Glad to hear about Hil's interviews and Max's progress.

Just got home. After bursting into tears twice at work today, I decided it was okay to leave after my last class.

Dude, what part of "voluntary" do you not understand. "Contractual next year"? That's next year. This year? Still voluntary, and I informed you weeks ago of my inability to go.

It would be interesting to see the wording of a contract that required more hours in a week than an employee is paid for.

So sorry about the job situation Pix.

Sorry about Nashville too.

{{Kristin}}

I haven't expressed my horror and sympathy for Nashville and the folks who are dealing with the flooding first hand, or who have friends and family there. Restored utilities and normality wished to everybody, as swiftly as possible.