Tap Into Your Magic...

Another memo from the establishment has been circulated... 200 to 375 positions will be cut... all based on seniority... least seniority or most? No one knows...

The other night I go to sleep and dream that my department goes from 6 staff members to 3 and I'm one of the 3 cut...

I need a raise in the worst way... Obama did all right with the $30 stimulus in my check... but the establishment?... they keep pushing my raise back... or forward... we're looking at May for some of the 4% raise...

we're thoroughly spent / them bills are stacked up / the budgets bent / and our credits jacked-up

I simply love Amel Larrieux's music... and especially her Morning CD. She wrote this song called Magic. And that's exactly what I thought about when I read today's memo... with the typos and the inappropriate slang use from our professional union... a union who rips fees from my check every 2 weeks that at this point serves little to no purpose... for me....

the stress level's high and the morale's low / and when it's lookin' like you're about to blow / your mind to the moon / stop what you're doin' / tap into your

Magic...

I've got magic up my sleeves... between my fingers... and swirling around my cranium... I believe, without a doubt, that I'm going to make it through this financial cycle... unscathed... I have skills and hustles that are marketable... I think outside the box and I'm not beyond any job...

I'm thankful... for my mother who still has an extra bedroom for her children... and the fact that my parents are financially stable... the roles are reversing at this stage and age and I worry about them as they once worried about me...

magic... feels good soon as you add it / if you forgot you had it / well, it's right where you at kid / reach into you and drag it out / i'm talkin' bout that magic / however you can, you must grab it / jump, sit still, sing, laugh it's...

magic...

magic...

I'm frugal like a mutha! I can turn 15 cents into $15.00. Like Erykah sang in Cleva... my dress may cost $7 but I'll may it fly... and I'll tell you why, cuz I'm Cleva!...

I love being a Librarian but if the money is elsewhere... I will learn a new skill, pursue a new career...

And most of all... I am resilient... sure sometimes my spirit breaks and tears seep from my eyes, but I've got tenacity... not easily broken...

Sister Brandi wrote of a Proverbs 31 Woman... and her post is on point!

And I close with this... Proverbs 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future."

That's An Order

For 2009, I made another “silent vow” to leave work on time. However I've yet to actually follow through with it. My actual work day goes a little something like “When I get here - 7 hours later” to fulfill my work obligation instead of an orderly 9:00 – 5:00. So let’s say I come into work at 10:40 a.m. (when I’m really supposed to be here at 9:30), I’ll leave work at 6:40 p.m. They don’t pay us for lunch, and I satisfy my 7 hours, no problem. Right? Well not necessarily.

My supervisor’s, supervisor’s, supervisor (the director of our division) has ordered that none of her staff works past 6:00 p.m. That cancels out me and 2 of my co-workers who lounge around the office way past regular evening hours, among many others in the building who seemingly have no life and don’t mind staying in a creepy library past dark. And what it also does is set us straight – we are to get here no later than 10:00 a.m. – and that’s final.

There are not too many people that I really like around this establishment. Oh I respect them, their titles and the jobs they do but I really like the director of our division. She appears to genuinely care about her staff, our welfare and well being. Though she’s never said it to me, I know that she is partly responsible for this promotion that I received a couple of years ago. I could have been and almost certainly should have been my own boss. I applied for the position that my supervisor holds and I didn’t get it for whatever reason my old supervisor didn’t choose me for. However when the workload began to overwhelm the newbie, they decided to split her work in half and hire me.

I’m grateful for my director (my supervisor’s, supervisor’s, supervisor). She’s familiar with her staff and makes it her business to acquaint herself with our issues.

I respect her management style. I sometimes feel like I need no correction, no regulation but by her creating order she’s commanding us to buckle up, set our priorities, establish our own personal order, and eliminate the clutter of our everyday. In this time of economic crisis, she’s sending a message – let’s do what we have to do, in the time we have to do it, and save time.

There are going to be some folks around here, pissed, that our director has set a mandate. Oh I’m sure they will defy her word and stay here huddled at their desks surfing the web or actually working well after everyone else has left the building. However, I’m heeding her word. I already know that it makes no sense for me to be here at this desk, instead of lounging at my home or just anywhere else. From this I learn that lesson that “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” -Thomas Merton