Phoenecia Cafe

I know someone who knows the owner of this relatively new Lebanese restaurant in Orleans so I thought I'd go on Google for more information. Doesn't this review sound incredible?

It Snowed

I like the snow, but not losing power. We lost power for over twelve hours. That sucked. We huddled under all the blankets in the house while the cat circled our heaped bodies and mewed.

Bad backs run in my family.

I pulled something and for the past two days, my upper back, neck and the back of my head have hurt. Really hurt. Any movement of my head and neck had to be carefully planned and slowly executed. The fun stuff was when I turned a little too quickly and the pain made me nauseous.

Whatever that pulled something was, it just popped back into place. I was slowly turning my head back and forth when I heard a grisly crunching noise. Everything is still sore and stiff, but moving freely and naturally.

I don't hurt. I don't feel like I'm about to vomit. You have no idea how wonderful that feels. I'm going to get my first good night's sleep in two days.

I have got to start doing yoga again. My father does it as a way of keeping the bad back demons under control. I adore yoga, but I'm really lazy about it.

Taking up swimming again wouldn't hurt either, I just wish there was a closer place to swim than the Hyannis YMCA.

I Skipped the Office Holiday Party

That's okay, I got the full debriefing from the women I work with.

One-tenth of the conversation was how good the food and drink were and the other nine-tenths were trash-talking our marketing manager's girlfriend. She "wasn't very friendly".

Gee, can't imagine why. Maybe because you're all a bunch of gossipy evil harpies?

Peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

Calling All Falmouth People

There's a benefit coming up for Falmouth Family Planning. They do good work providing reproductive health services to local low-income women and can use all the help they can get.

The event is a concert featuring Cheryl Wheeler (with opening act Kenny White) on February 4th at 8pm at Lillie Auditorium in Woods Hole. If you want tickets, email Wendy at merrie_melody@hotmail.com. Tickets will be $25, $15 for kids under 12.

If you can't come, but still want to support the clinic, donations can be sent to Friends of Falmouth Family Planning, PO Box 5, Falmouth, MA. 02541.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Variations on this ad have been running in the Cape Cod Times for almost as long as I've been looking for a new position.

Office Administrator Assist in administration of office, human resources and facility operations in a dynamic, fast-paced trade association. Provide admin and project support to CEO and management team. Candidate must possess initiative, flexibility and have proven top-notch organizational and administrative skills. Successful candidate will be a self-starter and team player with premier customer service skills and demonstrated ability to multi-task. Computer proficiency in MS Office is essential. Please email cover letter, resume, salary history and requirements to: cciaorjob@cciaor.com EOE/AA Employer

The ad will disappear for a month or three and then pop up again. I want to know what the deal is, because they're churning through people like crazy. Either their CEO and management team are horrible to work for, they're not paying enough for what the job requires, or they simply have no idea how to hire people.

Knowing Cape employers, my bet is that they have very unrealistic expectations of what the pay should be. If you pay enough, you can usually find someone to work in a demanding or dysfunctional environment. Cape employers typically think that they're doing you a big favor by offering positions that don't require commuting to the city. But, if you have big city expectations and big city personalities, you need to make it worth someone's while. The commute off-Cape simply isn't that far.

I suppose they could simply be selecting one unsuitable candidate after the other, but I must have seen this ad a half a dozen times now. You could pick someone randomly in a room each time and manage to pick at least one person appropriate to the job.

My secret dream? I would love for someone who was one of the candidates or the past employees in this job to find this message and say in the comments what the deal was, what happened. Give up the gossip baby.

Pro-Choice Event on Cape Cod

Stand Up For Choice: Benefit Concert and Silent Auction
Sunday, February 13
2:00-4:30 pm
Sons of Italy Hall
Rt. 28, Cotuit (Cape Cod)

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts and the Cape Choice Action Team are proud to announce the 4th annual Stand Up For Choice: Benefit Concert and Silent Auction.

Don't miss Stand Up For Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts' biggest fundraising event in Cape Cod, bringing together more than 200 pro-choice activists from across the state. All proceeds benefit NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts' work to protect and expand reproductive choice.

You can help make this year's event another success:

Become a sponsor of Stand Up For Choice by making a gift to NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts by clicking here:
. Sponsors receive two tickets and have their names printed in the invitations and programs.

Buy a ticket to Stand Up For Choice by clicking here:
Tickets are only $18. You will receive them in the weeks before the event.

Donate an item to the Silent Auction. Contact Laura at Laura@ProChoiceMass.org or 617.556.8800 ext. 16 for more information.

For more information, contact Laura at Laura@ProChoiceMass.org or 617.556.8800 ext. 16.

I hate this.

While I'm still flying high from the fact that the Spousal Unit did beautifully and should be coming home soon, I spent all of yesterday untangling the half-done crap that my Stupid Coworker did while I was away from the office.

Not only was three-quarters of the work not even done, what was done was shit.

This is someone I worked with for *days* to show her what I do and how to do it. I walked her through the process, step by step. She's taken insanely detailed notes. She has step-by-step screenshots in a three-ring binder. Failing a Matrix-style upload into the brain, I have no idea what more could be done for her.

Today, I explained politely to my supervisor that the woman filling in for me fell down on the job and that the quality of her work wasn't acceptable.

Somehow, this conversation segues into what a lovely person Stupid Coworker is for helping my supervisor find her lost wallet the other day and my supervisor took her out for lunch on the strength of it.

Let's review. Today we learned,

Basic competence = optional.

Stumbling across a lost wallet = gets you taken out to lunch.

If I ever manage to find another job and leave this position, I am *so* going to bring up this incident in my exit interview.

I'm home.

The Spousal Unit had surgery and is doing beautifully. I am so pooped like you wouldn't believe.