10:23 p.m. - 2003-10-20
Leapin Lizards
All is quiet on the family front - both human and feline. Miss Kitty's punishment yesterday? Exile from my bedroom and separation from her kittens for a while, plus a talking to from each of her humans. I know the last sounds silly, but tone of voice - not raised just firm and crisply delivered - and body language are things cats understand whether they get the words or not. In the movie "Three Men and a Baby" Tom Selleck's character starts reading from a novel - the scene is a boxing match I think - in a voice that would be used to tell a fairy story. One of the other characters objects based on the content of the chapter. Selleck's character responds it isn't what one reads, it is the voice and attention that matter. Infants do respond to that too. In the meantime, my youngest played the ribbon game with the babies and reintroduced them to the litterboxes to reinforce their place in their world. Today behaviour and privileges went back to normal. Miss Kitty even purred for me today when I cuddled her. I don't like the discipline part of having children or pets, but it beats them struggling in the outside world or finding themselves constantly in trouble at home.
When we were out on the weekend my Dad asked me to research travel packages to New Zealand for him - yes! So I spent a fair amount of time today checking several websites. I sent an e-mail with a list of site addresses he can check out to find the ideal arrangements for himself. I told him I would give him my airmiles so his flight would be looked after. I can always collect more so I can go to Egypt/Greece later. I found this site during that time OfficeHijinks. Do things like that really happen in regular offices - you bet. Not everyone is that extroverted though. When I needed to blow off steam I would go into my office or the washroom when I wasn't in an assignment where I had private space of my own and do some shimmying or some yoga stretches in private. Being in an office can be somewhat oppressive because one is always ensuring no one else is disturbed by anything you might do.
When we were talking on the weekend my Dad also had another take on the "interview with the vampire" I had on Friday. He thought the HR person might have been testing me to see if I could stand up for myself in a meeting or tense situation. That would posit another position being considered, since the one I was applying for was at a fairly basic task. I had stated at the beginning of the interview that I didn't want full time work because I knew a Federal election would likely be called within the year. I stated I didn't think it was responsible to take a position then ask for two months leave not long after. All the work I would be doing would be on my own and fairly structured by industry standards. I must admit, I couldn't understand why I was being asked how I delegate tasks or make decisions around changes - neither of those is relevant to the job I was seeking. However, since I've had to deal with violence in my office during elections from angry citizens on my own and cope with overbearing politicos, I think it would have been a more accurate measure for him to ask for examples of times I've had to deal with challenging situations. In a job interview one doesn't feel as if one has a lot of authority to take a stand when necessary. I did challenge him on points but in most cases I think that loses the position not otherwise. Maybe I'm wrong.
A couple of dreams overnight. The first was at some sort of active ranch, but it also had a commercial component - a mall on the farm, fancy that! I seemed to be there to work on a research project about cattle - breeding or genetics, something I have very little knowledge about. There seemed to be a lot of other researchers, all male, there too. Our living quarters were sort of combination hotel/office with the latest in electronic gadgetry. One of the males kept asking me to have sex with him and he seemed to be constantly in a state of "readiness". He kept saying that since we were both in the same building and both single that was all the reason that was necessary. I kept telling him to get lost and stayed out of his way whenever I could. The male I was working with was one of those "I'm famous, worship me" types and he couldn't accept that I was intent on carrying out my tasks instead following him around telling him how wonderful he was. He even had a whole cadre of groupies who followed him everywhere. He commented that he would allow me to put his name on my work to give to the boss. Insisted on it in fact. Uh huh. I seemed to have quite a few friends on site. We met in the "mall" section. It was full of stores and restaurants all having a "country" flavour to the decor and articles for sale. It had three levels and we seem to meet in the "loft" to socialize. That was fun, since it was quite a bit like the loft in a barn - open to the sky through skylights and full of hay. My friends thought I should give the fellow who wanted to have sex a chance and kept teasing me about it. I told them they were welcome to date him themselves if they thought he was such a catch. We had lunch together and then the dream ended.
The second dream was shorter. I was living in spacious home filled with light. Immediately out the back door was the ocean. The water was almost translucent and it felt warm to the skin. I was sleeping upstairs (third floor again?), windows wide open with a soft sweet-scented breeze blowing through. My sons arrived for a visit. My number two son asked if I would mind picking up a permit to camp in the national park nearby, when next I was downtown during the day. He was working to nightfall and just couldn't get down there himself. He wanted to take his partner, P, there for a short vacation. I said that would be fine with me. There was a tide coming in and he and number three son went out back to lie in the pool that seemed to be attached to the house. It seemed to be filled from the oceans movement and the water went up to the windows in the lowest level at high tide. They floated in the water their heads resting on a cement lip that ran outside the house. My second son seemed to have fallen asleep and I reached through to pull him back onto the ledge so he wouldn't slip under the water. He continued sleeping and his brother agreed to keep an eye on him - laughing at the scene as he did so. We looked out on the ocean and saw both sailboats and motorized craft coming near to shore. Clouds were piling up on the horizon although there were no other indications of stormy weather ahead.End of dreamtime.
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