Spurning Reagan

“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.”

I'm no fan of Ronald Reagan, but considering how much the Republicans claim to be the Party of Reagan, they sure have done a terrible job at acting like him.

Bipartisan

Can't make this stuff up:

Democrat from Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney, responding to the question of how many affairs he's had: "You're asking me over a lifetime? I'm just saying I've been unfaithful and I'm sorry for that."

Gotta love it.

(Green) Investment Advice

Overheard:
If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000. With AIG, you would have less
than $15 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214 cash. Based
on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

Finally feeling it

So in my 10 years of working, I have never really felt the impact of being Orthodox on my work life. Until now.

I have always considered myself lucky for never feeling stressed or pressured regarding taking off for Jewish holidays, leaving work early on Fridays for Shabbat, and eating kosher. My current employer has been really terrific about it; as a consultant, I have had plenty of opportunities to telework when I needed to, which has allowed me to travel to NY to see my family and work at home on Fridays while cooking for shabbat.

All of that still stands, for the most part. Teleworking is frowned upon with my current client, but I still worked out a plan where I can work 9+ hours Monday-Thursday and 4 hours on Friday mornings, leaving me wriggle room in the afternoon (I never actually only work those 4 hours on Friday anyways, since something always comes up, but my managers understand the firm deadline I've set for leaving at least an hour before sundown).

But, doggone-it, these chagim falling out during the week are killing me! Not because I have to miss work, but because I'm being forced to miss team events after work!

Background: For five days in September, my team worked hundreds of collective hours writing out a proposal for a huge contract with our current client. Long story short, we won the proposal- $27 million over 5 years for an expansion of the work we're currently doing for them. Needless to say, this was a HUGE win for us; it was, in fact, the largest contract my firm has ever won.

Now the partner in charge wants to celebrate with the core proposal team, 7 of us, but can only do it this Thursday- yes, TOMORROW, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. I don't begrudge him for this, obviously; they tried working around my schedule, but it just won't work.

So I'm sad- I'll miss the cruise on the Potomac and a limo ride to a fancy-shmancy restaurant in Alexandria (where admittedly, I'd only be able to have a salad). It's not the actual activities, but the out-of-work time with my team that I'm really sad about missing.

The salt on the wound is that the larger team- including our client, spouses, significant others, kids, etc.- is having a get-together on the last Saturday of the month as a celebration as well.

My consolation prize is that they're buying me a $100 gift certificate to a spa as a thank-you for my hard work and an I'm Sorry you can't join us. I guess I can deal with that. ;o)