Does anybody read these?

Ever have one of those days?

After watching Jimmy Kimmel last night, I woke up dragging this morning. It was one of those days that I'm really surprised that I made it through without bursting into tears, completely going off on someone or storming out (which I seriously considered twice), but more about that later.

We'll start with my shameless plug for Kenny's TV special tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. on ABC. I saw a clip from it on CMT tonight, and it looks even better on TV than it did in real life. I am just not sure how that works. I read a little about KC and Renee today. I don't think we'll ever know what happened on that one. I guess we'll see, but I'll chalk it up to some people just shouldn't marry each other, love or not. Kenny is up for American Music Awards tonight. I hope he wins them, but after last week I am not sure I'll even tune in. I just can't watch him get hosed again. This morning in the car I wrote a letter to the CMA's in my head that I was not only going to send but I was going to post it here. It's moved a little bit down the radar screen, but perhaps I'll do it sometimes soon. We'll see. I might just chalk it up to some people being jerks and move on. I think last year we all built this odd sense of false hope that Kenny was finally being recognized by the establishment and they just reminded us that he is still the Rodney Dangerfield of country music.

In slightly related news, someone scored points for making an excellent beverage choice!

OK, now I'll rant about my life a little bit more, and then I'm going to rant a little bit about other things going on in the world.

I am officially hunting for a new job. I went to the library after work and checked out all kinds of job-seeker's guides and manuals. I'm updating the resume and getting it out in the next few days. I have a few hot leads, and I'm pretty excited because this time I am only applying for jobs that I will love. When I took this job, I never intended for it being long-term. I had just started looking for jobs in Nashville when I got offered this job, and this job was better than the one I had. But I've really been trying to get out of fundraising, because I'm a writer at heart. And honestly, I am just a little tired of struggling to make ends meet in the nonprofit world when the folks I went to school with are making twice as much money. I went to one of the top 3 journalism schools in the country, and I got two Bs while I was there (the rest were A's for the smart asses among y'all). Surely I should be able to get a better job. And while I love not having a long drive home during Holiday weeks like this one, I'm really just a city girl at heart. I have concluded that rural America is nice to visit, but I need to be near Lane Bryant and Panera and Target. So, I'm going to start looking around. I had always intended to stay here long enough to make it worth my time and my employer's and I wanted to make sure we got through the big fundraiser, which was last week. And despite my hard work, I feel like I'm just taking up space. I realize daily that I just do not do business the way that business is done there. Today I got very frustrated because I'm sitting there in a meeting and I've been left out of the loop on a few things and then I am expected to know what's going on. How does that work? I am sick of my boss hijacking my team and having meetings without me and then getting upset with me for not leading my team. It's also confusing to the girls I supervise because they are getting mixed messages. Basically, it seems like I am their supervisor when there is some sort of complicated, shitty paperwork that needs to be filled out for some report somewhere. That sucks and it pisses me off. I'm also very frustrated that I made a sizable contribution at last week's fundraiser, and I didn't even get a verbal thank you from my boss. I thought maybe she hadn't thanked any employees (which isn't right but makes it easier to swallow), but when she was going over feedback from the event it was clear that she had talked to other employees in her follow-up calls. I do believe in the mission of the organization, but I'm seriously thinking of not continuing to pay on my pledge when I leave. If my gift wasn't good enough for a thank you, maybe it's not needed.

OK, enough of my whine and cheese party, although I always find a nice white is appropriate during the holiday season!

There were a lot of articles today about the Vatican being against actively gay priests. Before every one gets their panties in a wad about the church being discriminatory and saying things about the church turning men away from the priesthood when there is a shortage of clergy, all I want to say on this topic is that the sexual orientation of priests shouldn't be an issue. It shouldn't matter if you are gay or straight because regardless of whom you'd have sex with if you weren't a priest, when you are a priest you don't get to have sex with anyone. You take a vow of celibacy. And straight or gay, if you have an issue with being celibate, you might not want to become a priest. So for me as a Catholic, it's not an issue of sexual orientation. It's an issue of whether or not my priest is committed to his vows, one of which is to live a chaste life. And you can't live a chaste life if you're having sex with strange men in parks in Columbus or if you're screwing Mrs. Murphy, the housekeeper at the rectory.

OK, one last rant and then I'm done. If I made it a policy to hate people, I think that Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig would be on my short list. Our family has a cute little nickname for him but I don't know if I can say it here. Let's just say it rhymes with "mockshucker" and leave it at that. Why do we dislike Mr. Selig? Well, there are plenty of things he's done as MLB Commissioner that have rubbed me the wrong way, but most of them have to do with Charlie Hustle. I love Pete Rose and my precious Cincinnati Reds. It seriously upsets me that Pete Rose was banned from baseball for doing something that doesn't even compare to the improprieties committed by some of the folks who ARE in the Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb, for example, killed a man with his bare hands on the streets of Detroit. He's a murderer, yet he is one of baseball's heroes. We won't even get into the drug use. Yes, drug abuse is a sickness, and they deserve the chance to go to rehab and come clean. But some never come clean. Let's look at this steroid scandal for a minute. Was it bad for Pete Rose to bet on baseball? Hell yes. But do I believe that Pete Rose ever rigged a Reds game to win a bet. Nope. It didn't happen. Charlie Hustle never threw a game. And seriously, what kind of bookies let him bet with all that insider info? It was wrong. He did his time in jail. He went to rehab. As far as I know he doesn't bet on baseball now. Bud Selig has been saying as long as he's been commissioner if Pete apologized and came clean and admitted he did it that he'd let him back in baseball. And let's face it, letting him back in baseball meant one thing: that Pete would have a fair chance at the Hall. Well, this was the last time he was eligible for the sportswriters' ballot and Selig won't let him on it. I knew when Pete played by Bud Selig's rules that the jerk was setting him up. And here it is in print for the whole world to see.

One thing's for sure: Cooperstown isn't a place I ever plan on going if it's a place that won't make room for one of the best players in the history of the game. I was pissed when Bud Selig threatened to have Pete arrested if he attended the last game in Riverfront Stadium. That was after the fans planned to take up a collection to cover the fine for him entering an MLB ballpark. It was nice to see the players write a 14 in the dirt at first base and leave a red rose there for him. He will always be an All-American in all our hearts even if Major League Baseball has no place for him.

And Bud Selig? Yeah, he's still a "mockshucker."

posted by Laura at 6:07 PM