The Panda Bear on Medical Appointments and the Terror of House Repairs

The Panda Bear has been enjoying the longer days.   It makes such a difference going to work in daylight and leaving in daylight.   It makes the Panda Bear feel that there is a life after work.   

Things have been going slightly better for the Panda Bear at work.   The superior section at work no longer seems so superior and they are having problems of their own.   The Panda Read this inspired article about following one’s passions on the nights and weekends and the Panda Bear has resolved to follow this suggestion.

However, the Panda Bear’s nights and weekends have been taking up recently with medical appointments and home repairs.    Her employer prefers that the Panda Bear schedules her medical appointments after work. This time of year is the time of year where she has her various annual physical exams.    A lot of the Panda Bear’s “free time” is being spent on lab tests, mammograms and various yearly doctors’ appointments.  These annual exams always remind the Panda Bear of her own mortality.   She hears the Grim Reaper saying “if not now, eventually I am going to get you.”   In addition, she needs to see her dentist, acupuncturist, dietician, and psychologist on an ongoing basis.    Also, the Panda Bear needs to maintain her diet and exercise routines.   The Panda realizes that she is fortunate to be able to have all the services available to her.   She also realizes that she is lucky to be blessed with good health.    However, as she gets older the Panda Bear can understand that many people feel they are too busy to look after their health in the best manner possible.   The Panda Bear thinks the US culture will need to change to make a dent in the amount of illnesses caused by poor lifestyle.

Last Sunday, Mr. Panda was very upset at the Panda Bear for not going with him to the YMCA swimming the way they usually do.   The Panda Bear wanted to clean the condo because the Panda Bear anticipated repair people coming in during the week.    She was afraid of them seeing a dirty apartment.     While the Panda Bear is fearless in confronting the corrupt oligarchy that is running the United States, she trembles at the thought of someone coming into her place and saying “this apartment is dirty.”    The Panda Bear admits her apartment is not as tidy as it should be.   It would take all the Panda Bear’s free time away from work to maintain the apartment the way it should be maintained and the Panda Bear hates domestic chores.      Her goal is to have her apartment in some order for at least a few days a year before it becomes a messy again.

Though the Panda Bear was glad to see her kitchen cleaner than it had been in a while, she found out that she may have been too hasty in getting her apartment in order for the repair.   Yesterday the Panda Bear found out she needed to get the condo association’s approval to do her bathroom repair. Therefore she and her contractor quickly had to complete forms and send them to the condo association for them to approve the work.   It may take them a couple of weeks to approve of the work.  Therefore, these repairs have temporarily been postponed.

However, the anxiety is getting to the Panda Bear.  Dealings with the condo association have not always been pleasant.   What will the condo association say about the repairs?    Also there has been some damage to the Panda Bear’s bathroom floor underneath the tiles.   The tiles will have to be taken out to find out the extent of the damage.    These uncertainties are setting the Panda Bear’s nerves on edge.

From what the Panda Bear sees of building, it seems to be a very changeable industry.   While she knows there is some reality TV shows about home repairs, the Panda Bear thinks a fictional TV series about real estate/contracting could be very successful.   Some of what goes on can be quite dramatic and the main characters could be people in all walks of life (i.e. painters, lawyers) so they could have wide audience appeal.

The Panda Bear on Her Bathroom Repair, Queen for a Day and House Cleaning

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about an average office worker muddling through the tedium of life. She feels that though there must be more to life then work and purchasing consumer goods though she thinks this is what makes the politicians and large corporations happy She hates domestic chores.

The Panda Bear yesterday came to the conclusion that civilization is moving forward even though it at times it may seem to be at a standstill. The Panda Bear's coworkers yesterday were talking about the nineteen fifties television show Queen for a Day. Apparently what the woman who was chosen Queen for the Day received was a NEW APRON. She did get taken out for dinner but what she good for being Queen for the Day was a new apron. Apparently the show was sponsored by house cleaning supply companies. For part of the show, the woman's house was inspected for cleanliness.

One of the Panda Bear's coworkers remembers an Aunt of hers who was a stereotypical nineteen fifties housewife. She always greeted her husband when he came home from work with a kiss with freshly applied lipstick, a clean apron, fancy home cooked meal and an immaculate house. The Panda Bear finds it hard to believe that anyone lives this way nowadays. However, the Panda Bear feels that we probably are still being manipulated by advertisers and business to make home chores seem appealing, fun and exciting. However, the Panda Bear feels that in a perfect world the Panda Bear feels that nights and weekends should be mostly about relaxation for both men and women. Why hasn't the technology been invented to make ALL household chores go away?

The Panda Bear and Mr. Panda will be having their bathroom redone. Someone at the Panda Bear's work said the Panda Bear has been talking to for the last four years about having their bathroom redone but this time it appears that they will actually have it redone. They are meeting with the contractor on Saturday to finalize the arrangements. Originally they were going to have someone else to the work but they waited too long have the company do the work and the company stopped doing that kind of work. So they had to find a new contractor. The lesson learned is that procrastinating on home chores.

The Panda Bear took the day off from work today. She told herself (ha!!) that she was going to spend most of the day cleaning for the contractor. However, she spent a lot of the day at Starbucks reading and surfing the Internet. She tells herself after working hard all week she deserves to have a day of relaxation. However, after she finishes this post, the Panda Bear hopes to put in a couple hours of cleaning. She hopes to feel some sense of an accomplishment or some sense of penance for unknown sins.

 

The Panda Bear on George Carlin, Mindfulness, and Her Office Desk

The Panda Bear got this quote she liked from George Carlin on Facebook.   Before she put it on her blog she wanted to verify its accuracy because as Abraham Lincoln has been warning people on Facebook just because because you see a quote on Facebook it does not mean it really came from the person(this is a joke).   Anyway the quote that was attributed to George Carlin that the Panda Bear liked is:

Governments does not want well informed, well education people capable of critical thinking.   That is against their interests.   They want obedient workers, people are who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept it.

Sometimes the Panda Bear feels those in charge of the US want everyone to be so busy working and purchasing goods that they won't have time to challenge the status quo.   Instead of diverting the masses with bread and circuses like the ancient Romans, she feels the powerful want to placate us with cheap consumer goods(really toys) that we don't have room to store so spend what little free time we have decluttering our living space.

Daylight savings time is making the Panda Bear feel better.   Why can't humans just admit it that even though it is not rational their bodies are programmed to go to sleep when it is dark?

Recently, the Panda Bear has been reading about the importance of having a positive attitude at work.   She read that a negative attitude can be self-fulling.   Actually, things have been going better in the Panda Bear's job even though things have gotten very busy.  

Also the Panda Bear has been practicing "mindfulness" which means focusing on the present moement rather than the past or future.   In a moment of mindfulness inspiration, the Panda Bear realized that  she should not obsess about her twenty years worth of negative work experiences and focus on the hear and now.   Today is a new day and a chance to have a fresh start.

However, sometimes when the Panda Bear at her desk and is practicing mindfulness she sees a very drab cubicle(most people admit the office is drab). Though the miracles of scanning and other computer technology the Panda Bear almost paper-free in her work.   In previous years, the Panda Bear's desk and work area used to consist of mounds of papers going in every direction.    She admits it was an eyesore.   However, since her work area is now by and large paper-free, the Panda Bear now sees the first chance ever in her work life to make her work area attractive.

Since the Panda Bear is very busy and finds it hard to shop, she is slowly trying buy things to spruce up her work area more(too bad Woolworth's went out of business-it was a good place to pick up cheap nice office decorations).   She has mentioned in previous posts how she has bought some plants to her work area.   Now she has put some nice fabric on another part of her desk for which she has received some compliments.    For the first time in her work life,  people have said her work area looks nice.

The Panda Bear wants to add more objects of beauty to look at to give her some relief from both the stress and monotony of the job.    She wants to get either map or globe to put in her cubicle which she could look at if she wants a quick mental break without going on the computer.   Even if she is confined to her desk, in her mind she can be a global traveler.    No longer will the Panda Bear suffering from job stagnation!!! Though she may not be obtaining a promotion, the Panda Bear for the first time in her work life will have an eye pleasing, attractive, creative and as well as efficient looking office.


  

The Panda Bear on Yahoo, Lack of Leisure, and the Diet Project

The Panda Bear has read about Yahoo's decision to stop allowing people to telecommute.    The Panda Bear has not read about the details of this decision but just from the headlines this decision rings about everything the Panda Bear dislikes about modern leadership in organizations.    It does not treat people like individuals-good workers loose benefits because of the incompetence of others.    Rather then go after the bad workers, the organization punishes everyone.   Secondly, the Panda Bear strongly believes that the CEO of Yahoo will be telecommuting some of the time.   Modern leaders seem to feel they don't have to follow the rules they set for us peasants.      There are very few people in leadership positions that the Panda Bear respects.

The Panda Bear is an office worker but she does not telecommute.    Her job is still very paper based and it would be hard to do at home.   However, the Panda Bear dreams of flexible work scheduling.   The four day work week or the four and a half day work week!.  To have greater freedom on how one works their forty hours.  How nice not to be charged time off for going to a physician's appointment,   The Panda Bear believes that the five day work week is both for her personally and her work extremely inefficient.  

The Panda Bear's supervisor was in the kitchen and she was asking the Panda Bear and other coworkers why people don't like to work.   The Panda Bear said sometimes it wasn't the work itself but the fact people feel that their lives are restricted because of long work hours.   People don't live by work alone.

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog that believe work and fun go together.   Of course, the Panda Bear has become more critical of her work environment in that "fun" means eating high caloric food in a job that involves sitting at a computer all day.    She told the heads of her organization at a group meeting that many people in offices need watch their weight-the office should be more diet and exercise friendly especially since the organization is self-insured(Overweight employees increase healthcare costs).

Seriously, while the Panda Bear confesses she has ate many and  has enjoyed office sweets, she feels she would be a healthier person if there was less food available in offices.  Also the Panda Bear (unfortunately) has body type that does not require a lot of calories.  She can't eat most of the food in offices without gaining weight.    The office has been a source of junk food for the Panda Bear that she does not eat at home.   It has reinforced Panda Bear's tendency towards emotional eating. To increase her diet resolve, the Panda Bear tells herself that she is not a dog-she does not work for a food reward.   The Panda Bear reminds herself that offices used to reward people by giving cigarettes;it might be fun to smoke and sociable to smoke at work but it is an unhealthly pleaure

Therefore, the Panda Bear has began the Diet at Work Project.   She has vowed to go 365 days without eating any food at an office event except food that she brings.   The Panda Bear feels it would really be a blessing if the office never fed her again and showed their appreciation in other ways.