8-16

This is my second day back at work. The first day was so crazy that I couldn't have planned a worse day if I had tried. Zac is being watched by my friend Melissa, who worked with me in Houston. Unfortunately, Melissa lives up in north Houston, while I live in south Houston. This wouldn't be such a big deal if Houston weren't the fourth largest city in America with the worst traffic. Houston's transit system seems analogous to Bush's foreign policy: go in aggressively and try to clean up the mess later. Huge churches, strip malls, super Wal-Marts, and housing developments (check out the website kb homes suck for an interesting perspective on housing from people that live in the hastily built "communities" that are popping up all over) have all been built without any thought to traffic patterns or the lack of mass transit. A block from Melissa's house my front tire fell off the road and exploded. Basically, the concrete (they don't use asphalt in the older neighborhoods) had broken away on the side of the road, leaving a jagged hole where my front tire should have gone. I had to go and buy a new tire after work. Zac was tired. I was tired. I think even the tire guy looked tired. He was trying to explain to me the difference between tires when Zac started fussing in my arms. By the time the child had gotten to the full-on scream, I was like, "I'll take any tire under $80. Stop looking on your damn computer for the ZL873qo**@ model and find something round and rubber to install on my car."

However, today I got a phone call that lessened some of my overall negativity. I was told that I have a right to say "NO" at work. Amazingly, this phone call was not from my therapist, it was from one of my supervisors in another city. Let's review, after a couple months of banging my head on my cubicle wall and leaving work feeling frustrated and devalued because I keep getting asked to do things that I don't want to do, I received support from someone that wants to stand up for my opinions and beliefs. Whoa. This heady feeling has left me walking around the office smiling at everyone and commenting on their good use of accessories. I suppose that part of the lightness comes from recently expressing ten ounces of breast milk, but let's not diminish this occasion. It's back to work I go.