Rainy Days & Mondays Always Make Me Blog

Well, not always. Sheesh, almost the entire month of September has whizzed by without a posting. In that month, I...
* Delivered a bunch of training (for which I still haven't been paid)
* Went back to SGS to volunteer for Family Fun Day, an annual fund-raiser to benefit Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
* Had two interviews with American Medical Response (AMR) for a Training Supervisor position
* Learned my next-door neighbor/landlord is moving out, so I'll have a new neighbor for the first time in 15 years
* Had a visit from my friends Tammy & JR

Oh yeah, I also got this:

My friends Lori and Charm got me this at Sheila's Tattoos as an early birthday gift. I created the design years ago and just never found the money or opportunity or artist I trusted to execute it. I have to admit, I'm thrilled with the result. Or I will be, when it gets over the tender/scabby stage.

But on this rainy Monday, I'm experiencing some disappointment in, well, people. It started with my neighbor, Sandy. The disappointment lies not so much with the moving thing. She has this ugly/cute, 5-year old female dog named Maggie. Maggie is 100% people-oriented. She has been raised around my neighbor, a middle-aged woman, and her two grandsons. Maggie has never been socialized around other dogs. As a result, she lives for human contact. Apparently, my neighbor can't take Maggie with her to live with her daughter's family. Maggie is being shuffled away to live with a nephew. Not so bad, right? Except that for weeks now, Maggie has been living alone next door in a dark, empty house. My neighbor comes once a day and lets her out. ONCE A DAY! When I learned this, I volunteered to take care of Maggie until the nephew can take her in. And so, for a couple of weeks, I would go next door 3-4 times per day, let the poor thing out (could you hold it for 24 hours or more?) feed her and generally spend some time with her. The poor dog just sits beside me, leaning against my leg and looking up into my eyes. I tried bringing Jake over for a "playdate" but Maggie had no idea what to do with another dog and Jake found her disinterest boring and proceeded to explore the yard. Maggie will play with me, however. Saturday, my neighbor came home while I was feeding Maggie and asked me to return her key, saying she would take Maggie to the nephew the following day, Sunday. Twenty-four hours later (ugh!) she returned and I thought that was the end of the story. Alas, Maggie is still next door and I can't do anything to help her. It is literally making me heartsick to think of that poor, sweet dog locked up in that dark house alone!

The disappointment also extends to a couple of friends who have made major changes in their lives that I learned about well after-the-fact. Are my friends required to inform me about life-altering situations that have nothing to do with me? Of course not -- don't be silly! But sharing those kinds of changes is part-and-parcel of building and maintaining friendships. Learning those things months later or from other people makes me doubt the validity of our friendships -- relationships I never had reason to question previously.

I'm disappointed that basic human decency seems to have been eliminated from the hiring process these days. I wish I could list all the employers who interview and interrogate, then don't have the decency to contact you to let you know the results of their hiring process. Of course, that number is vastly exceeded by number of employers who simply don't acknowledge receiving/processing your application or resume at all. Sigh. Anyway, I got a call from AMR for a third interview next week, so I may get to leave the wonderful world of semi-employment behind soon. Keep your fingers crossed.

Hopefully, someone will come along soon and restore my faith in humanity. Just in case, I wonder if there are any hermits looking to turnaround their cave-dwellings?