Happy Veteran's Day!

My Vet <3

Samuel R. Pacheco 

Served in WWII

This is one special Vet I am extremely thankful for, my Grandfather. Although I never met him, I heard he was quite the rascal and probably the reason sarcasm blatantly flows through the Pacheco bloodline.

Happy Veteran's Day to all!!

Cold Turkey Pt. 2

So you want to hear what awesome things happened while I boycotted Facebook for this last week?!?
Nothing...
I painted my nails a cool blue color.
Nothing.
People at work were told they aren't going to have a job in 2 weeks :(
....and more nothing.

Ok wait, that's kind of a lie. Something awesome did happen to me but not like what I was expecting. I didn't get promoted because I was way more productive, I didn't paint and organize my room like I need to and I didn't stumble upon a briefcase full of money because I wasn't looking down at my phone updates...
After my first day of serious withdrawals, I went into the kitchen in the morning for my cup of coffee as normal and found myself talking to an employee about hiking and then about his bad knee and some surgery he had on it, then about his kids. When I walked away, I started thinking about how many older people I work with (and not like, OLDER as in needing a walker, they're just older than me and in their 40's-50's) and how I really don't know much about any of them outside of work. I kinda just imagined these people to only exist at work, then they disappear off the face of the earth until 8am the next workday. And I mean that in the nicest way possible, now that I'm typing it out it seems a little harsh... I just forget that they also have their own lives and families and problems.

On a day to day basis, there's about 90 people here and I am close to about 10-12 of them, meaning I talk with them regularly and know a little about them & their personal lives. These are the people who do not disappear at 5pm because I've hung out with them outside of work so I know they're not imaginary (my imaginary friends are way more fun, but don't tell my coworkers I said that). So I decided with all of this extra time I've been having at work, I'd make it a point to start talking more to people who I normally don't talk to and asking more penetrating questions than the usual "How are you today?", "Is it Friday yet?", and "Have you seen my boss?". It's probably making some of them uncomfortable that I'm digging more into their personal lives, but most of them seem to enjoy talking about it cause I've been caught up in a few long conversations and they've even come up to my desk after to talk to me more. They like the penetration.

Without being so caught up on Fb I've learned that it's good idea to develop real relationships with the people I encounter almost everyday of my life instead of focusing all of my time on my Internet pals, especially since a group of people won't even be here in another two weeks. Maybe we're not like BFF status, but still it's nice to have someone else at work to talk with on a personal level. I guess all of my older coworkers are not these career focused zombies as I've imagined them to be.

Acknowledgement

Have you ever been in public and recognized someone you personally know and who's even friended you on Facebook, see you and act like you don't exist?? What an asshole, right? How about if you've ever walked down the street and crossed paths with a random stranger and they instantly look away or down at their phone, because God forbid they have to look you in the eye and say Hello or just even smile at you? This is just ludicrous* people! (*Not to be confused with the rapper Ludacris, because he would probably shout something vulgar out at you like MOVE BITCH! GET OUT THE WAY! And you can't really be too upset about it cause he IS acknowledging you, right? No? Ok, moving on.)

I believe that besides Love, another feeling us human beings long for the most is acknowledgement. People like the sense of recognition. I recently had the above example happen to me where I was completely ignored and I was the least bit pleased about it. Here is how how it happened:

1. At small shindig of 12-14 people- Eye contact is made then He looks the other way without even throwing a smile at me and continues his conversation
2. Me thinking: "Wow, you're really that busy or too important to come up and say Hi to me or even smile at me when we're 10 feet away from each other? "
3. The night ends, no words are exchanged.
4. Next drunken night scrolling through Facebook updates- I come across his update: THIS muthaf*cker! DEFRIENDED!!
5. Next day of sobriety- Me: Was that childish of me???
   Trusted Adviser Ninja: Hell no! If he's so shady that he can't talk to you in real life, why the hell should you be friends on Facebook?!? 
   Me: Touche... Man I really gotta stop that drunk Facebooking.

I've actually been one of these assholes a few times and remember thinking "I don't have time or just don't want to say Hi to them cause I don't even know what to talk about". And to those people who've I completely ignored, I apologize and promise it will never happen again. I told myself from that day on, I'm going to make it a point to acknowledge everyone I know and even people I don't know. I can understand that there are times when two people who know each other are in a certain situation where it would just be difficult to sit there and converse with each other about the weather, sports, or whatever it is you manage to think of while trying to make conversation. Yes it can be awkward and utterly uncomfortable, but that person is a living human being with feelings and they deserve some sort of acknowledgement whether it be a smile or just a simple Hello. I don't know about you, but to me it feels good to receive a smile and a friendly Hello from a complete stranger.

So being a newbie to this whole blogging business, I chose this topic for my first post in hopes that my fellow interweb nerds who are strangers and people who I may know, will acknowledge me and love me and all my shenanigans that will be posted.

xoxo

Gina Rae