The Sweet Sound of Silence (With a Foray Into the Squeaky Wheel Syndrome)

Silence is golden. I know that's a term we've all heard before but for me, especially today, it really hits home. Today I got to sit for quite some time and write without interruption for a decent stretch of time. The girls were gone and it seemed that my muse was kicked into high gear. (Thank you, muse.) As I've stated before, I require relative silence to write, which usually means I'm writing at the ass-crack of dawn before the girls get up or after they go to bed at night. Neither of those scenarios are exactly perfect for me. I'm not a morning person. And after a full day of work, tending to the house and the girls, etc., my brain is usually fried by the time 9pm rolls around. And I really needed the silence today, not only to write, but to reflect upon a few recent events - some of them good, others not so good.

On a high note, Maya (the soon to be 5 year old miracle child) lost her first tooth - while she was brushing her teeth. It required no effort to pull out, it quite literally fell out as she was happily brushing with her Spongebob toothbrush Saturday morning. That was quite a momentous occasion, and the tooth fairy did make a visit to her. (Actually the tooth fairy was running a bit late, but no worries, it did not get caught, whew.)

On the other hand, work has been beyond stressful lately, with lots of changes - and the promise of more to come. Some of those changes have been sad, hopefully the upcoming ones will not be that bad. Either way, those changes have made me aware that absolutely no one is indispensable at their job - at any point in time all of us can be expendable to our so-called bosses. Years of service and dedication can be flushed down the toilet in the blink of an eye. You know what else I've noticed about many workplaces (this actually pertains to life in general, not just work though) - the squeakiest wheel gets the grease. It seems as if the people that bitch the most and make the most noise and basically just bully other people get what they want - whether it is fair or not. I've also found that many people like that are liars and only out for themselves and will step on anybody in their quest for....well, whatever it is they want. At the risk of sounding like a Pollyanna, why does it have to be like that? Whatever happened to rewarding the people that do their job, without complaint every day - especially those that go above and beyond and do more than what is asked of them? I'm thinking that karma will eventually have to intervene....Wow, that was a tangent I didn't expect to go on. Anyway....

I'm thankful that I had a few hours to myself to recharge and relax. I have to admit (here comes the parental guilt) it is nice to get a brief break from having to act as a referee, nurse, short order cook and maid, even if just for a short period of time. Today's silence is due in part to the in-laws taking the girls for a few hours, something that doesn't exactly happen on a regular basis due to a plethora of reasons. However, this is not the time or the place to go into those reasons - because, as we have already covered....sometimes silence is golden.