Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Ranting

All I really feel like doing is ranting.  Ranting about work, co-workers, team members, life in general.  I’m feeling a whole new level of frustration with my new management and team.  And I just want to complain.  And don’t even get me started on mini-golf…
But complaining doesn’t get my anywhere.  It doesn’t solve the issues that are occurring.  It doesn’t help me to make progress in my deliverables, or even to figure out what those deliverables might be.
So, instead of ranting, I’m working.  I’m thinking, figuring things out, and trying to move forward. 
And I know mini-golf will only last for 6 weeks.  Don’t get me wrong, I like mini-golf.  I am just thinking the group I am with isn’t for me.  They aren’t as fun loving as I had initially thought.  Plus, I feel like an outsider with them.  I often found someone standing directly in front of me, as if I weren’t even there.  Or jumping in front of me when I was ready to go, ball on the ground.  Huh.  They aren’t all bad, but I am feeling as though the group together isn’t for me.  I had a thought after the game last night, I gave up power belly for this?  Huh.  Plus, several of our team members are chimneys.  Smoking almost constantly over the course, leaving cigarette butts all over the place, not to mention clogging my lungs with smoke.  I feel like I spent the night in a bar.  Which, in a way, I did.  Yuck.  No thank you. 
That was a bit more rant than I was planning on.  Oh well.
I’ve found a new favorite thing to do over the weekend.  Every weekend for the past month Freeman and I have headed down to the Ballard Locks to watch the ships.  Mid-day they usually have some larger tugs go through and use the large locks instead of the small locks.  It’s really cool to watch the whole process.  They load the ships in, the largest to one side, and then stack the ships side by side.  Usually they are stacked 4 deep.  There are about 6 or 7 rows of ships.  The water is raised and they open the gates.  Then it is a small parade of ships.  It’s really cool to stand and watch all of the different types, shapes and sizes go by.  The people are as equally interesting.  You can tell who has done the whole thing before, who is there for the first time, which couples may be arguing later, who is there just to look pretty.  It’s an interesting and insightful slice of society.
During the summer the Locks hosts bands.  Every Saturday and Sunday afternoons the bands play, people bring chairs and sit all over the lawns and listen.  I think they play for a couple of hours.  It’s an added bonus listening to a band while watching the ships pass.  It’s very relaxing too.