Was advised
by friends
to subpoena my personnel file.
Geez. Don't think like that. Need to think
like that now.
Never a write up. Never a complaint.
But there are bad bad bad people out there
who would like nothing better than to see
someone else suffer.
What a bunch of bunk.
This whole thing I mean. Not the advice.
The advice is given from others not so naive--
others who actually care.
2 comments:
You ARE worth fighting for.
Your voice SHOULD be heard.
Something better WILL come your way.
You're my hero. It takes guts to stand up and say out loud what everyone else in the room is thinking.
You might be the first person that ever confronted her. She may have always treated people this way and may continue to do so--but at least you had your say.
Seriously, you're my hero.
You have balls, my dear. That's rare.
On a different note, was Dodge s'wonderful or what?
Thanks, Laurel.
I had a really bad day with all of this yesterday. I guess it really hit home when I went online to sign up for unemployment. For the first time in 20 years, I don't have a job to go to.
I started working when I was 11 (babysitting, shoveling shit out of horse stalls, etc.). The only time I have not worked since the age of 11 is the time I took off to stay home with my oldest son and daughter. I stayed home for 8 years and only returned to work when my daughter started kindergarten (1986).
This is just devastating, but I could not--I just could not allow her to continue to debase and humiliate me for one more minute.
The conversation with her was a private one, and as there was nothing in my personnel file she could use to terminate my employment, she thought she'd use "failure to obtain a bachelor's degree" to get me, but my original contract only states that I need to be working toward my degree. Nothing more than that.
Again, it's all so inane.
And I hope you're right--I hope something better will come my way.
**********************************
On to Dodge.
When I am not carrying this boulder around on my shoulder any longer, I am going to share my experiences here.
You've been there. You know how it feels to just want the thing to go on and on forever--like Dylan's neverending tour kind of thing--yes?
Each day brought its own reward--its own level of amazement.
I am a huge Billy Collins fan, so he wowed me each time I sat in on one of his lectures and each time I heard him read.
Then there was Anne Waldman. Wow. Amazing energy in her work. She reminded me of Patti Smith.
Then of course Lucille Clifton, who did not disappoint in any way. I particularly enjoyed the lecture I attended in which she and Anne Waldman, Tony Hoagland, and Kurtis Lamkin discussed poetry and class.
Then there was Coleman Barks reading Rumi with the Paul Winter Consort playing this ethereal, mesmerizing music.
And Gerald Stern. He cracked me up!
So much to write about it and so many poems waiting to be written.
I just gotta pull myself together, Laurel, and I'm finding that hard to do right now.
By the way, I am really enjoying your flower pics (and the pumpkin and leaves and the Bob and Elmo pics!).
Thanks again for the encouraging words. Pray, chant,light some candles, burn a smudge stick--whatever your preferred method of talking with the universe--please do so for me. I feel terribly selfish to even ask when there are so many terrible, terrible things wrong in the world that my losing a job just doesn't rank.
But my world is pretty well turned upside down at the moment and I need all the help I can get.
And my voice will be heard.
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