Ooh, I hope I'm about to get into a fight on the internet about how my neighborhood has changed over the last 30 years.

Gris speaks truth.

Kat, It made me think of Joey telling Phoebe that anything done to be nice is always more about the do-er than the recipient.

I think it depends on context. I mean, I do nice things for people, and yes, it makes me feel good, and that's great, but I do them in the hopes that it will make that person feel good/be helped/bring compassion into the world blah blah.

Some people do it to LOOK nice. I think the Greeks are a combo of "have to do this"/pad my resume/people who like kids and wanna help them have fun/some who have or have friends/family with special needs and it's really important for them.

Woked till 11:30 last night, then had some wine, and got to sleep at 3. Still up at 10, ready for noon yoga class, then by god I am going to the gym and walking 3.1 miles. The 5K is next Saturday, and I have been making it to yoga, but I haven't walked in a week, so this week is a big push, NO MATTER how busy I am. At least 3 3.1 mile walks before Saturday.

I have been annoyed quite often lately with how many restaurants and bars and other such things have been using facebook pages exclusively instead of websites. It is like AOL all over again.

Yes, and very often they don't even update those with their correct seasonal hours or seasonal menu.

I guess it's because one of the people said something about how the event was super important. Important to whom, I guess. Yes, fun for my kids, but not a particularly meaning-filled experience.

Can't speak for those Greek Life young persons, but in my line of work, making sure people get to have fun - that IS important. As important as making sure the medications go down the right throat? No. As important as making sure that bruise is from the edge of the table and not from a human being? No. Important enough for the State to say, "Buy some damn cameras, we want proof the people we are paying you to care for are having fun." Oh, hell yeah. It's kinda nice that the State has caught up with some of this stuff. I could wish that they weren't so hamfisted with their ideas of what the paperwork should look like, but we'll deal with it.

I don't think it's a secret that anything that is set up as a volunteer activity for a group is always at least as much about making the group feel good. This is why I never wanted corporate volunteer days at my youth center job. PITA for no benefit to our kids!

We actually had one corp who pretty much told us that they didn't want to do volunteer work, but wanted the staff to entertain them and their small children. That's not volunteering, that's getting a private program for free.

We don't do busy work for vols, it's a waste of everyone's time. We do have a weekly and a bimonthly SN group who come to volunteer, and it's all about life and job skills and getting fresh air. And if I feel like it is make-work only available, I cancel. Socializing is another big component.

Steph, clearly you're supposed to drink enough bootleg gin that the taste of the food ceases to matter.

Turns out there is no menu, but the bar it's attached to (this is confusing; the party was at a bar that you get to through another bar, speakeasy-style) brought over big platters of wings/nachos/tiny sandwiches, along with fruit/veggie/cheese trays. I cobbled together enough food and mimosas to fill me up. And the bar was pretty cool.

I got home from running errands and my house key was missing and as I was contemplating going back to PetSmart, where I was sure it had popped loose, the bag of cat food broke and dumped cans and the key on my foot. Ow, yay?

Also, got bins for shoes and I've attained some measure of order...and then I found another bag of shoes to go through.

Sounds fun Teppy.

I want weekly visitation rights on the house I'm buying. This waiting sucks. We are awaiting the appraisal to see how much I'm actuaLl paying for the place. April 24th seems so far away.

I kinda wish I had Steph's morning. My day has been pretty thankless so far. I am trying to get my own grading done while also supporting my daughter as she drama llamas her way through her 30 minutes of math homework. It has taken 3 hours so far, and she still isn't done. We have her complete the work, then check, and if there are crazy numbers of errors we ask her to redo it. We are stuck at that particular point in the loop. She and I both know it's counterproductive at this point, so I'm just letting her mope around the house and not forcing her to work.

Ugh.

I did have to engage a different set of thinking about the Greek Life people, which is healthy for me to not always assume the worse.

I have to say working at a school with a huge Greek presence means I had to recognize and then actively unlearn any stereotypes I had about them.