JTMacc99

It's a level 5 earworm, and a flagship member of my "Known Allies of Mambo #5" playlist. You don't even have to hear that song for it to suddenly be in your head. So, I was never a huge fan of the hair metal bands even though they were thriving during my teen/college years. There were songs I liked, and there were definitely videos I liked, but I don't remember spending money buying Poison albums for example. However, heh, these days I've come to appreciate them for what they are. I'll have my little Sonos system playing music while I'm working in the kitchen when Pandora will say "You look like you would like to hear a hair metal power ballad right now!" And then I hear the first few seconds of Skid Row fill the air, and me:

Fine. Heh, I said I was happy not knowing, but now that you have officially educated me, I will probably not get it wrong again. Looks like to me, I just have to ask myself "Can I substitute the word 'put' in this sentence?" If so, it's lay. I am putting my dress on the bed. I put the baby down in her crib every afternoon. I put the folded laundry on the dresser yesterday and it's still there. I have put the mail on the table many times, even though there's a bin for it. Whereas that doesn't work at all for lie: I am putting down. I put down at 3:00 every day. I put down to watch TV yesterday afternoon and fell asleep until dinner. I have put down on the couch in the past, but now I nap in bed. Which now means that I can now do this: "The shirt is laying sitting lying in the drawer."

Of all the shows where I start the episode topics, this one is by far the most amusing when I hit the TV listings to get the episode title.

So, the extended shut down has officially broken both of my young teenagers. They've been stuck in this house for ten weeks; they have come to hate online assignments so much that they're just emotionally and mentally shutting down. Don't care if they fail. Don't listen to reason. Don't see any point of doing anything. Don't see the point of getting out of bed. Human beings are social creatures, and I've got a pair who are at the age when they're actively developing social skills. Just taking away everything that school represents to them, and it's FAR more than just the assignments, has been a dramatic life change for them. I guess I shouldn't be shocked that I'm seeing behavior that sounds an awful lot like they're developing some situation depression. And with no real expected resumption of social activity any time soon, I need to figure out something to break them out of it.

That's funny to me, because lie/lay is pretty much the only grammar rule that I know exists but have never got around to memorizing. I could literally google it right now and commit it to memory, but instead I'm choosing to just change whatever sentence I'm about to use to avoid it. "The shirt is laying sitting in the drawer."

Pfft. He doesn't even give you any proof he looked at the photos. He could send that to a hundred women a day and just work with whomever responds. Back when I thought dating/online dating was a good idea, I would very occasionally send a first message to somebody who gave me absolutely nothing to work with verbally.* That would be the only time I'd lead with commenting on a photo, and even then I would go with asking a question about a place or activity going on in a photo and not "You're so beautiful!" * Talking to a coworker at one point about her online dating experiences, she told me that for her Bumble profile she just used one of the suggested word blurbs rather than attempting to write something about herself. This is a thoughtful, kind, intelligent person who was just dipping a toe into the online stuff just to see what was out there. It was at that point where I decided it was okay to send notes to somebody who didn't write anything of substance. Maybe I could find a hidden gem.

On a completely different subject, I just fielded a phone call from my dentist, who was calling to inform me that my appointment for a cleaning on Monday is cancelled (I told her I assumed so) and that they'll reschedule when things are clearer. I told her I was just thinking about her this morning when I was flossing (totally true BTW) and she very genuinely said "that makes me happy!" Heh. Doesn't take much to make my dentist happy; probably because of the sheer number of people who answer the question, "Have you been flossing?" untruthfully.

That's what I was thinking when I read that suggestion. Even if I do get in my car at exactly the same time as the person parked next to me, we're still 8-10 feet apart from each other, outdoors, for like maybe five seconds, wearing masks per company policy. (I suppose if one is backed in and one isn't, driver's doors could be facing, so you just wait in that case, which is what you would do anyway...) Maybe I should check the latest CDC guidelines to see if maybe my car can cough on another car when they're parked next to each other. But I digress. I just wanted to share that my company seems to be going about things in a relatively sane and cautious manner. They haven't made an official policy about extending WFH time for parents with young children who are impacted by government enforced school and daycare shutdowns. Unofficial policy sounds like they're going to evaluate case by case and let those employees extend WFH. I'm a little worried that unofficial policy means that individual managers will factor into the decision making. While my general opinion of most people I work with is that they're good people, I can think of a couple I do not trust to make logical decisions.

I'll still be working from home for a while longer. I'm in an area of NY where we're about to start phasing things back in again. My office will almost definitely still have WFH schedules to maintain some sort of distance between people. I sit in my own office, so I'm assuming I won't be on any WFH schedule. Which I understand, but is a shame. I kind of got used to this stuff! Other offices are smaller and mostly in rural areas and states that are open. We're doing the same things there, with a lot of effort put into spacing people out which includes WFH schedules. What's interesting is that the HR system (the one that handles payroll, so people have to log in to enter time) has been posting safety tips. Today is a nice list of things like "you'll be provided masks, and you should wear them when moving around the building, in common areas, and when coming into the building from your car." Yesterday's list had "Try to leave an empty space between cars if possible in the parking lot." I gotta be honest, that one seems like it came from somebody who doesn't want anybody dinging their new car.

Oh man, I missed that. Hee!

Me too: Louder than my cousin in cowboy boots.

Bristol this Sunday!! The tag line should be, "This is a representation of what happens when you don't follow social distancing guidelines."