Cookies = Love

Once a week, The Husband cooks a family meal so the boys will come over for a visit. There's usually enough food to send leftovers home with each boy.

Tonight I watched The Husband pack up equal servings of casserole and divide up the remaining homemade chocolate chip cookies into two take-home baggies.

There'd be no leftovers for me or The Husband, but that's cool because I get to enjoy The Husband cooking every night and the boys get just this one day.

After the boys went home, The Husband called me into the kitchen. He looked left, he looked right, then he pulled a Tupperware box out of the cupboard and peeled open one corner for me to peek inside.

He had set aside a dozen cookies and hidden them from the boys so we'd get our own leftovers.

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

I picked a good one when I picked that man.

Armed and Protected

Two identical(?) conversations...

"I don't trust guns. Here are several articles that support the argument that they're dangerous and kill people. Why do you have one? What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything... because I have a gun."

"I don't trust COVID vaccines. Here are several articles that support the argument that they're dangerous and kill people. Why did you get one?What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything... because I got vaccinated."

Just a bunch of stuff

Question: Hey Roses, got any plans for the weekend?

Answer: Mostly trying not to eat my feelings.

::sigh::

Name Dropping Karma

A notorious name dropper recently tried to use his long-term relationship with me to woo a budding business partnership. This happened without my knowledge or consent.

Normally I'd be flattered to be thought of as important enough to have my name dropped. However, I later learned this particular dropper was trying to get his target to accept a deal that was unbalanced in the dropper's favor.

That's when karma took over.

The dropper had no idea that his target is no fan of mine. The mere mention of me ended any possible relationship that might have been built. 

Boom. Gone.

Had he asked me, I'd have warned him to leave me out of it.

But he didn't ask. 

It blew up in his face so hard he didn't know what to do.

So he did what he knew best. He dropped my name AGAIN feeling certain that his first attempt had been misunderstood. 

Kablam! See ya, sucka!

Karma, oh karma.

Thank you for your sweet, sweet justice.

You dig?

The Husband and I are driving past an empty lot where steam shovels are moving great quantities of dirt.

Me: Looks like they're making something here.

He: Yeah, a hole.

How I Cleaned Up My Facebook Feed

I tried something with my Facebook account. Throughout the month of April,  I snoozed for 30 days every Page that showed up in my newsfeed. All of them. I wanted to know if I would miss seeing them. No surprise, I did not.
There were some other things I discovered about myself and my Facebook habits. So I made some adjustments to how I use and interact with Facebook. 

Here are some things I learned while Pages were Snoozed:

1) Once the page posts stopped showing up, I did not miss them. Not once did I wonder what was happening with any of them.
2) It took a lot less time to scroll through all the new posts. The Recents tab on the app is great for this purpose. Result: I spent a lot less time on Facebook. A lot less.
3) Without the extra noise, I could see more clearly what real people and actual friends were posting and sharing. This was enlightening. Quite a bit of it wasn't original content; most was reshared content that I didn't care for or agree with. I flat out Blocked these kinds of Pages since I didn't want to see them at all going forward.
3) I made some tough decisions about FB connections with former coworkers. If we are connected on LinkedIn and don't have a relationship outside of the workplace, I unfriended these folks. For networking purposes, they can still reach me via LinkedIn messaging. They don't need to see pics of my kids or read stupid comments I make on my goofy friends' posts.
4) Furthermore, was able to connect more personally with what friends were composing from scratch. Not copy/pasting, not sharing from someone else. Just the bare bones of their lives. I see you now, friend.

Things I learned as Pages began to reappear in my Newsfeed:

1) I was Following Pages from previous broadcast and marketing jobs going back almost 10 years. I'm talking about clients that I had been obligated to Like in order to artificially inflate their number of Followers. There were community organizations I followed so I could promote/share their events on the radio. As these Pages began to reappear in my Newsfeed, I realized how little interest I had in these pages now that the obligation to promote them and entertain an audience was gone.

2) I could get rid of Pages that I had Liked and Followed for college and for job hunting purposes. Instead, I connected to most of these on LinkedIn which is more appropriate venue for professional interaction.

3) Like a lot of people do, I had sought out as many new and interesting Pages as I could find to add flavor and new content to my Newsfeed. Lots of clutter in this department. In fact, I learned one Page that I had Liked for its constant flow of kitty memes had been sold and instead of cats was now posting multiple ads for casino slots everyday. In my drone of endless scrolling, I had never noticed; I had simply scrolled past and ignored the ads. Never noticed there were fewer cat posts because I'd diluted my Feed with so much other garbage.

4) What was most amazing to realize was that as Pages reappeared, I could feel the negative energy of slanted messaging. Viewpoints I thought I agreed with delivered in an unsavory way got Unliked quickly and without remorse.

What it's been like since the cleanse:

1) I'm seeing more posts from real people, fewer posts from entities.

2) I'm getting more notifications when my friends interact with other people and Pages. Frankly, Facebook has run out of other crap to feed me; it scrambles for content now.

3) Speaking of crap, yes, I get tons of ads now, too. But I've gotten the impression that other people are also seeing waves of ads, so maybe the influx is just coincidental. 

4) It takes me less time to read through Recent posts to get down to the posts I've already seen. Scroll time is shorter meaning I spend less time on Facebook.

Bonus: Did you know that in many cases you have the option to Follow a Page rather than Like it? FB uses Likes to market to your connections; it feeds ads to your friends with the notation "Roses likes this Page". I bet you've seen this, but haven't really SEEN it.
Now that I've Unliked loads of Pages, my friends will be subjected to fewer Sponsored Posts. You're welcome.

I enjoyed this experiment quite a bit. There's more fine tuning to be done, so I'll probably launch another 30 day cleanse again before the year passes.
If you try this, I'd LOVE to hear what kind of experience you have. Please check back and let me know.

I hugged my boys this week

First time since March 20, 2020

💕

Six Weeks and Counting

As of this afternoon, three quarters of the Ack!Thbbbt! family are half-vaxxed, and one quarter is fully vaxxed.

Better days are coming.

Hugs in six weeks!

The Lazy Brat

As I grew up, I was called "lazy" and "a brat".

I was told to behave and quit whining.

Not once was it suggested that I might be sleep deprived or hypoglycemic. 

A simple snack and a nap would have done far more to modify behavior than the name calling.

The correct answer to the question, "What is wrong with you?" never came.

"You need a nap," isn't an answer when it's presented as a punishment.

It takes a long time for a person to unbelieve a statement that had been repeated to her over and over for the first 22 years of her life.

I know now that I wasn't a lazy brat, at least not as often as I was told that I was.

But I still hear the internal accusations when I'm not feeling well and wondering what is wrong with me.

Sorry this wasn't one of the funny posts. 

I'm still working through some stuff, apparently. 

Two Modes of Work From Home

After 13 months of working from home, I have identified two modes under which I function. There is no in-between.

Mode 1:

Wake up half an hour before my alarm. Get a shower and breakfast. Crack open my laptop at 7:15am marveling at how great working at home is because I can get started so much earlier when I don't have to commute. I am a great WFH employee!

Mode 2:

Hit the snooze alarm until 8am. Unmute all the alerts on my phone so coworkers can reach me if needed. Stay in bed another 15 minutes before slowly rolling out of bed. Skip the shower. Crack open my laptop at 9am marveling at how I am able to work this well under such stressful conditions. I am a great WFH employee for toughing this out!