TheBanyanTree: Get Out of Jail Free

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Good old Paris Hilton was on the cover of my copy of People Magazine that
was laying so innocently on the dining room table when I came home from work
yesterday.  What is it about that woman?  She spent 23 days in jail.  So
what?  Lots of people spend time in jail and thousands of photographers and
Larry King don’t care.  What’s with this?

She is not attractive.  She has no personality.  She has no talent.  She has
no intellect.  The only thing I can see that she has is $MONEY$.  But we’re
not obsessed with Bill Gates in the way we are with Paris Hilton.  Anna
Nicole Smith was in the same category as Hilton – boring women who figured
out ways to continually generate publicity about their boring lives.

I wish the press would focus on someone who got out of jail after spending
years behind bars because he/she turned out to be the wrong person through
newfound DNA evidence.  How many people are wrongfully incarcerated in the
United States?  Some of them have spent more than 23 lousy days in jail
eating bad food.  What it be like to spend day after day in prison or jail,
knowing you’re innocent of the crime, but you don’t have the money to hire
an expensive lawyer, your parents don’t come to visit you, your friends drop
you like a bad habit, and every day is a repeat of the one before.  Why
doesn’t the press follow them?  Why aren’t they on Larry King Live?  Why
aren’t they on the cover of People Magazine?

Paris Hilton disgusts me and it disgusts me that our media focuses so much
on this woman who just takes up space.

Hopefully, she’ll melt away as we turn the calendar to our hottest month,
July.

It sucks that the 4th is on a Wednesday this year.  That wonderful holiday
hangs alone in the middle of the week, confusing people who like to bridge
their holidays into long weekends.  Already, the Cities seem to be emptying
out as people who decided to take the entire week off are heading out of
town.

For those of  us who remain, there’s plenty to do, the Jazz Festival is
going on, B Girl Be (a female hip-hop fest) is happening, and the Taste of
Minnesota has taken its place on Harriet Island in St. Paul and will provide
food and fireworks and music for the next few nights.

We need rain.  The Mississippi looks like a creek.  Boats are scraping the
bottom of Lake Superior.  I try to conservatively water my garden.  We have
no watering restrictions in St. Paul, but I try to not over do it.  After
all, I don’t live on a golf course.

But our summer days have been glorious.  Beach weather, book reading
weather, biking weather, and just sitting on the deck and watching the birds
weather.  Nothing beats a good summer, even when the 4th is on a Wednesday.

Last April, when we had to re-do our project documentation, I got mad.  When
I got mad, I started looking for other jobs.  I applied for a particular job
that seemed to fit me to a T.  I didn’t hear anything and forgot about it,
because I stopped being mad.  Well, they called me a couple of weeks ago,
and I went in for an interview.  The interview went very well, although I
was brain dead when I left, because I’m not used to talking so much.  I’m
scheduled for a second interview this coming week.

Wow.  When I had my icky old job a few years ago, I couldn’t find another
job to save my life.  Then I got this job, which after a bad start, and now
that I’m done being mad, I really enjoy.  All of a sudden, I might have a
chance to work somewhere else because of the skills I built with this
current job and skills from my old job; this job encompasses a nice blend of
both the skillsets.  There won’t be any extra driving, because they’re
located in the same place.  And with this new job, there will be no travel.
I don’t mind traveling like once a month, but I’m thinking with Phase II
coming up on our current project, I’ll be traveling much more.  I hate it.
Ray hates it.

The kicker is the money.  If they extend an offer to me, the salary will be
the deciding factor.  The new company has more vacation time and better
benefits than my current company.  So It’s all about the paycheck, baby.

This new job is validation for me in a way.  I’m 52 years old and I’ve heard
all the horror stories of older people not getting jobs.  My company seems
safe for now, in fact, we might have received a new contract, but being laid
off is worrisome.  Finally, while being interviewed, I realized I have
learned a lot of new skills that I didn’t have before and they’re skills
that can be applied across industries.  That makes me feel good.  I’m still
learning.  I haven’t hit the wall yet.

So if I don’t get an offer, my heart won’t be broken.  I enjoy my current
job now that I’m not mad anymore.  However, it’s funny to me that when I was
desperate for a new job, I couldn’t get one, and when it isn’t a big deal to
change positions, I had an interesting position pass my way.

Today is going to be another one of those glorious, rain-free days.  I got
things to do and places to go.  I’m not in jail, I’m free to go where I
please and do what I want, so I better get started.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever.
~Author Unknown