Bfth's Boring Blog

I have quite a few things I'd like to blog about today... I'd like to write about how my company will be "requesting" that  employees return to the office three days a week starting in May.  This only pertains to all teams who have an office site.  (I didn't have one for 2 years, but last April they opened up a new office in Newark, where my "team" was to work.  Of course my "team" consists of 3 people including myself, my boss and another person who works on a completely different "brand" than I do, but...)  The reasoning behind this is " Much of our industry is operating under similar policy, and the leadership teams believes that we are simply better when we are together." (So if everyone in our industry jumped off a cliff, should we consider that too?  And if we are "better" when we are together, how come there are so few people on the floor?  Furthermore, those people who are on my floor and the majority of th

  I'm second, third, fourth guessing myself again.  I'm trying to accept that sometimes there is no right answer.  Sometimes there really isn't an answer at all. Last June, my mom was sick and in the hospital for a long time.  However, at one point she was too "well" (that's a relative term in my book) to stay and the question was raised did she go home or did she go to rehab.  Although my dad and their caregiver chimed in, it was ultimately my decision that she go to a rehab facility.  I had hoped that it would help her enough to get her home.  That didn't happen.  She ended up back in the hospital.  There were numerous health issues that she was facing; challenges that could not be overcome.  Only July 8th she accepted hospice care and on the 9th she died.  And I've been wondering did I do the right thing?  Would things have been better if she had gone home?  Even if the outcome had been the same, would it have been more peaceful or calming for her? 

  My son is in  Walt Disney World .  I am not.  It's KILLING me.  Not just because I want to be there with my son, but because I just want to BE there!  But that's not how it worked out. This is not the first time I've been jealous of someone who is vacationing in WDW while I am not.  To be honest, that happens A LOT.  I love WDW and for me it's been a LONG time since we've been there.  However, technology has made the sting a little less painful. If you're old (like me), you might remember the jingle:  "Reach out, reach out and touch someone." (The AT&T/Bell Telephone jingle)  Even before the advent of smart phones (or the advent of ME having one), mobile phones could help feed my addiction.  When my (late) brother would go to WDW (or when I went and he was at home), we would play a game over the phone called "Where in Disney am I?"  There was no video, just background sounds (and music).  I could ALWAYS nail it. (I'm that good! 

It's not even 8 AM as I start this post, yet I have been awake since 1:37 (you read that right) and UP since just before 2 AM.  While I did go to bed early (turning off the light around 8:30), I awakened several times during the night before 2.  (My alarm was actually set for 2:10).  It's going to be a long day. Why would anyone be up so early?  For me there is only one GOOD reason (although there may be many different reasons), a vacation or trip.  And that is the case here, only not for me.  (Boo hoo!)  As I have mentioned before (probably too many times), my son and the rest of the music students (or at least most of them) are on their way to Walt Disney World.  Their purpose is to perform (choir in Disney Springs and marching band in the Magic Kingdom), so it IS "educational."  (Don't roll your eyes.)  They get to spend 4 days (or most of the days) in the 4 main parks before heading home.  They had a 6:05 flight out of Newark, which meant they had to be at the

  ...well actually not.  Winter is still here until 5:24 tonight.  This morning it certainly feels like winter with temperatures in the 20s!  However, hopefully by the end of the day it will be in the 50s. (Cross those fingers and toes.) Even if it doesn't FEEL like spring yet, the signs are everywhere.  The robins are out.  (While plenty of people reported seeing them as early as January this year; I did not spy one hopping around on my lawn until this month.)  Flowers are attempting to sprout up.  (I was lucky enough to see this on Saturday, but that was in south NJ, so...) My husband has taken the flannel sheets off the bed, although with the flannel blanket.  (Despite the fact that it was really cold yesterday.  And nowhere was it more obvious than at church where the furnace had decided to give up the ghost [or perhaps I should say spirit?] and everyone wore their coats during the service.  No choir robes for us; but puffy down jackets and gloves.) For many college students it

  Shakespeare had it right.  Beware indeed.  Only not just today, but the whole month has been, in my view, "wonky."  We had NO SNOW this season until the end of February and then three more snow "storms" since then.  While the accumulations have been small (barely, and I do mean BARELY, measurable), the temperatures have been all over the place.  Coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb?  More like coming in like a bipolar swamp monster.  (Is that a thing?  CAN that be a thing?)  Let me talk about today, Wednesday.  If you've read anything I've written before (and I hope you have), you know that Wednesdays are NOT my favorite day.  It's the day I trek to the office via public transportation.  (I'd like to say I'm being an environmentalist like Ed Begley Jr. [check out this article:  h ttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/ed-begley-jr-oscars-2023_n_640e5594e4b0bc5cb64b1303 ], but the truth is I just want to save money since daily parking in my

 If you're going to read this, you need to have the background information here:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2023/03/potty-potty.html Now that you are all caught up, let me continue to tell the tale of the Porta Potty and  Jersey Shore Restrooms . Sunday evening, I received this email: "Good evening! I apologize for my late response! I am back in my office now prepping for tomorrow! I do first want to apologize for any inconvenience, this was absolutely non-intentional, there is a bulk-head job starting tomorrow on that street. I am assuming that on delivery it was placed in the wrong spot. I am sending out notifications now to have the unit moved ASAP! I can give you a call first thing tomorrow morning if you would like to further discuss. Again I do apologize for the inconvenience, I l understand this must be a tough time and want to get this resolved ASAP!" I was feeling pretty good about the situation.  I texted several neighbors, who immediately responded w

I've been under a lot of stress lately (no surprise).  Work is crazy stressful.  I visited an ENT who found nothing wrong with my right ear (my hearing is completely fine), so I guess the tinnitus is just a fact of life.  My son has chosen a college (which should be a post of its own).  My dad continues to have health issues.  All of which adds up to stress, so I certainly don't need anything else to make my crazy life any more crazy.  And yet...  As I headed down to see my dad on Sunday morning, I listened (via zoom) to a local church service.  (Seems like this Lent what I have actually given up is physically going to church, which is definitely something I HADN'T planned, but...)  The sermon was about potholes.  (How apropos was it that I was on the highway at the time?)  However, it wasn't just about actual physical potholes in the road (although that was part of), but about the potholes/challenges we face in life.  How can we avoid them?  What do we do when we dri

  The house at the shore (I should call it mine because technically it is, but it doesn't feel that way) has two and a half bathrooms.  When my mother purchased it back in the fall of 1995, it had three.  One off the kitchen area, one in between the master bedroom and a second bedroom, and one off of the back den.  After Superstorm Sandy, I suggested that the kitchen bathroom be turned into a half bath and that the tiny shower in there (which no one ever used) become a pantry/closet.  I also suggested that the linen closet in the bathroom off the den be eliminated so that the shower area could be increased.  Both suggestions were taken and once everything was finished, the house was lovely again.  (Different than it was before the storm, but still lovely.) As the years went by, the bathroom off the den became my dad's and the one in between the master bedroom and second bedroom was my mom's.  Mom's bathroom was the only one that had a bathtub.  My mom was a bath perso

 Can it really be one week since my son's last musical at the high school?  It was an exhausting weekend (which started on a Thursday), not so long ago, yet it seems far away.  As we (a family) have entered the last semester of his high school years, everything seems to be speeding up.  Musical over and music trip just around the corner.  And memories of past adventures come rushing in. As things wrap up, I'm pulled back to the beginning.  How everything SEEMED to be going so well his freshman year.   He'd been in the fall production.  He'd made new friends; upperclassman friends with driver's licenses.  (I'll never forget my husband calling me at work, because back then I worked in an office every weekday, to tell me that some girl in white convertible had driven our son home after the first rehearsal.  That was one for the books!)  How the group went out after the first show and I, against my better judgement, let him go, knowing full well that he wouldn't

Last Monday night/Tuesday (February 27-28th) brought the first real snowfall to our area.  Last night and into early this morning, more snow fell again.  It was barely measurable (I'm guessing less than .25 of an inch) and is melting away as I write this, but what is going on here?   Before last week's "snow storm" (was it really a storm?), crocuses were coming up on my neighbor's lawn.  The snow covered them, but once it melted (only took a day or so), they were still there. Over the weekend I noticed a few green sprouts poking up in the front of our yard.  I believe they will be daffodils.  (One of my favorite flowers.)  Yesterday, Lawn Doctor came to fertilize our front yard, which prompted me to email the company that does our spring and fall clean up (as well as weekly mowing) to make sure a service contract for the current year was in the works.  (It is.)  Today my front lawn was covered in snow.  Again, not a lot, but...   I'm not complaining.  (Wel

 Last night was opening night at my son's high school for "Hello Dolly!"  It will be the last musical that he does at the high school and I am a bundle of emotions over all of this.  So, get ready for some real Bfth blubbering in the next couple of paragraphs. Let me start off by saying, that the stage he graces was one that I was in high school (too many years ago to mention).  The first show I did (which was during my sophomore year...nothing really much went on in my freshman year, at least not that I knew about) was "Mame."  (Which, like Dolly, has music and lyrics by the late great Jerry Herman.)  I had such a blast (and I was only in the chorus) that I became very involved with the high school theater group until I graduated.   Seeing my son on that same stage is amazing and overwhelming.  In elementary school he was somewhat shy.  All grades presented concerts and he was never very much into that.  In middle school he didn't do any shows.  (I thin

 ...we're off to a good start and I'm hoping this is a good omen of things to come. So far March is going well.  (Yes, we're only hours into it.)  Why do I say that?  Consider all of the good stuff that has happened to me thus far this month (meaning today): Woke up PRIOR to the alarm and actually got up and moving.  (I'll admit that I've been lazy since December.) Got a load of laundry done (washed, dried and 1/2 put away before I had to leave the house.) Son got up without too much of a fuss (this is the one day of the week where he can "sleep in" meaning that he doesn't have to be at school by 7:15) and drove me to the bus stop.  (With the recent snow walking would not have been fun.  It was pretty cold earlier this morning and not everyone did a as great a job as we did in the shoveling department.  Reminder, if you live on a corner, don't forget to do a cut out so that pedestrians can cross the street.  I KNOW it's a pain in the neck, but