Living in the Crazy Land Demilitarized Zone

Christopher Knight. A guy who's made a surprisingly successful career out of having absolutely nothing to offer.

I, on the other hand, am living in Crazy Land. Where are you living? Wouldn't you like to have a fabulous career as You?

Crazy Land has turned into the Mekong Delta of the business world. My office is the official Demilitarized Zone. Is there a war? Sorry. I don't want to play.

The tension in the office is so high that the minute I walk in the door, it feels like a steamroller mowing me down. By the end of the day, I'm depressed and exhausted from it. I've been coming home and crying to release stress. And doing yoga. And doing weights. And cumbia!

Owner and Mr. Moneybags are at each other constantly. Doors are ominously closed, day after day. In the morning, the Information Superhighway fills me in on the latest skirmish.

Some of my favorite characters (though not necessarily people I particularly want to hang out with) are going--Foot Lady, our lovely and brilliant receptionist whom I truly love, and...Crazy Employee. I'm a little ambivalent about Crazy. Let's face it--her antics can be quite amusing. On the other hand, I have to office right next to her and she is crazy.

I'm too tired tonight to tell the long and complicated war story. I'm also attempting to tame my own issues so that I can think about it clearly. Thinking about the uselessness of Christopher Knight is about all I can muster right now.

NBA Championship...and Tim Russert

Proving once again that Kobe Bryant is completely lacking in leadership skills. Without a doubt, he should never ever be compared to Michael Jordan. The Celtics relentlessly shut him down.

You have to wonder if this will spell the end of Kobe's relationship with the Lakers. It's far more palatable to say offensive things about management when you bring home an NBA Championship. If I had to guess, I'd say it's bye-bye to the "greatest player on the planet."

The Lakers collapsed as if they'd been sucked into a black hole of basketball. Aside from my fondness for Luke Walton, very little could make me happier. Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and all the other Celtics (especially the "old" guys, like Sam Cassell and P.J. Brown) absolutely made my month. If only the Lakers could have shown up to play a competitive game. Obviously I'm thrilled about the Celtics' win, but ultimately I'm always on the side of a great game.

On a less jubilant note, could we please stop with the canonization of Tim Russert? Of course, I'm sorry about his untimely death. I'm sorry for his loved ones, friends and co-workers. But people die every day who are much younger and who've had far less fulfilling lives.

I watched Tim Russert for a while. I found him lacking in intellectual rigor. Calling his interview with W. a series of softballs would be an enormous understatement. I never watched him again. His reputation amongst other news people as an unbiased, independent thinker is baffling to me.

If we wished to celebrate the life of a great conservative thinker, we should have devoted more time to William F. Buckley. He was brilliant, an original. I rarely agreed with his positions, but I watched his weekly show for years. Maybe that's part of my resentment of the relentless coverage of Russert's death. I respected Buckley and was dazzled by his intellect. I never saw him suck up to anyone he interviewed or debated.

Enough of my little tirade, though. On the Crazy Land front, we'll be a little less nutty soon. I'll update as events unfold.

Cumbia

I've been missing in action for a while because there are a lot of things going on in Crazy Land. I'm still puzzling out what I feel comfortable writing about in that regard.

Here's something I can talk about--I did one of my salsa exercise dvds on Friday and rediscovered the joy of working out. I had such fun! It's been three years since I've been able to use any of my dance work out dvds. It was breathtaking! I may be phasing out the bike on Fridays so I can have more fun doing cardio work. Until last Friday, my weekly schedule was weights on Mondays, yoga on Wednesdays (I recently switched from power yoga to gentle yoga) and the bike for 30 minutes on Fridays.

Hubby points out that I may lose some ground after surgery in July. No one is more aware of that than I. It may not be that bad, though. After my joyous workout on Friday, I decided I definitely won't have the donor site surgery. I think the other stuff is "minor" enough that recovery won't be too long and hard.

I'm helping to answer the phones this morning because we're missing several people. I need more endorphins. Maybe I'll just Cumbia around my office a couple of times.