Guys, you can take or leave this reading.  It still applies throughout the remainder of the week.  The choice is yours.  I've been working on this baby, in bits and pieces, since Saturday.


Over to our left, we'll find the Clouds card.  Now, this card doesn't appear to be the friendliest of the deck, does it?  Especially if the image is read from left to right, gray clouds rolling in?  We're going from blue skies to gray.  Whatta way to f*ck up a glorious view or tan or picnic or neato study of cloud formations, 'ey?

Damn those gloomy puffs.  Damn that brewing storm.

The Clouds has to do with daydreaming or dreaming.  Or spending our time in a dream-like state.  Dreaming is fun, fun as hell.  But not when we need to get some work done.  Because if we don't get our work done, knocking out our priorities, this week, we will be in an overwhelmed kinda funk.  See also: not in our happy place.  So snap out of it!

Which reminds me...  This morning, I could have sworn I'd cracked my blinds open to a ton of sunshine. 

I was really excited about that because we've Milo the Cat staying with us temporarily while his owner settles into a cat-friendly California apartment, and the Tuxedo loves, absolutely loves sunbathing. 

Unfortunately, by the time I left our place to run some errands, the sun went away, and the remainder of the day was overcast.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  I like cloudy days.  I just felt cheated, you know?  It was as if someone offered me a brownie, today, and then changed his/her mind with a, "nah, nah-- just kidding.  You don't get a brownie, stupid." 

Milo fell asleep on the recliner as I was leaving, in a way that pretty much told the sun to eff off.

Sunshine is enjoyable in the Northeast neck of the woods, especially in the winter when it's f*cking cold.  Pretty helpful stuff from November - March.  That's all I'm saying.


                          

Hum-drums!  That's what some of us might be feeling, this week.  We may be in a hum-drum, ho-hum, oh-f*ck-not-again kinda mood.  So bored or uninspired or unmotivated that we may grow frustrated or overwhelmed with thoughts about what we could be doing or doubts about what we're already doing.  Let's not take our boredom or stagnant lives out on anyone.  Let's do something about them.  Let's tackle something we've left on the back burner.  Vacuum something, folks.  Vacuum something.

I understand the cabin fever.  The "been here, done this".  I also understand "same shit, different day".  However, boredom is sort of a luxury when you think about it.  Many people would KILL to have enough free time to feel bored!  Boredom forces us to be creative or active, so let's think of this time as an opportunity. 

I actually heard someone say this, earlier: "I'm so tired, and I didn't even do sh*t, today!"

This person was referring to the duties of her job.  It was a slow day.  So she dusted and reorganized her office.  Also vacuumed her carpet.  That's still work.  She wasn't sitting and tweeting to her friends.  She just doesn't perceive her efforts in this way, especially when compared to all that is expected of her.

Others will be falling into or rising out of a dream-like state.  OK.  It's fantastic to dream.  Successful people needed to have a dream, first, before having ventured on their journeys.  Dreaming, mentally-crafting, fantasizing, imagining, envisioning-- all of it intensifies a desire, too.  Really, dreaming is both fun and a necessary part of our work.

However, with this card, some of us may be doing a little too much dreaming or fantasizing about _______.  Seems we can't forget something or someone that is no longer with us.  Or we're envisioning a result and doing absolutely nothing but scratching our butts to attain it.

Before we present a proposal or idea or invitation or something like that, we'd better be convincing with our intentions.  Sufficiently detailed in our presentations, not sooooo detailed that we leave others drifting off into space.  Know what I mean? 

Also, be aware of what is presenting itself, this week.  See also: a grand ol' fork in the road.  A call for choices.  Now, it's not going to be the kind of fork in the road that gives us two options.  Oh, no, no.  It's going to be one a hell of a lot more interesting than that.  We're going to have to make more than one choice as well as to adapt to the sets of choices that we will inevitably make. 

Some of us are really concerned about how smart we sound, how intellectually superior we come across to others, how awesome and great and all-knowing we think we are... which is really beginning to smell like a whole lot of bullshit.  Just doesn't smell right.


               
 

Speaking of stuff not smelling right, something's "off" about our air quality, folks.  Or it's about to be. 

Moving on, know what's happening, say, in the resume submission department?  Everyone is beginning to sound the same.  Intelligent.  Long-Winded.  Painfully... robotic. 


                             


The fact that many applicants are sounding the same-- primarily boring-- reminds me of the Jennifer Aniston haircut that almost every girl and her mother had to have in the nineties.  Remember that? 

(Blech.) 


                                  

Another blast from the past that comes to mind is the time a loved one argued with her sister-in-law via e-mail.  My loved one wrote a concise, concerned e-mail about _________.  But her sister-in-law?  Her sister-in-law replied with a 1,000 word e-mail including countless 10-letter words Merriam-Webster would fear (as only an arrogant, obnoxious, full-of-shit lawyer can).  We laughed our asses off after reading that reply.

What would you look for in a resume?  What e-mailed response would you prefer from your loved one in a hurtful situation?

Let's do ourselves a great big favor and stop pumping ourselves so much that we get placed on a slush pile atop resumes that read exactly like ours.  No one cares for an IQ of 200.  People care about an ability to do a job, whatever it is.  Let's not be another Jennifer Aniston.  Let's not be my loved one's sister-in-law. 

Let's not be another statistic. 

The best way to land a job or other opportunity is to get off the internet and our hinies, walk into a place we like (regardless of what that is-- it doesn't have to be Trump Towers), introduce ourselves, shake hands, say what we like about the establishment and its mission, drop off our goods and mosey along.  Folks, it's really that simple.  I've done it several times.  Because why?  Because an employer doesn't want an idea of us.  Employers want to know who the hell they're employing and why a potential employee is interested in working for them.  And we, as candidates, should get to know who the hell we'll be working for, and whether a company or establishment is worth getting all worked up for with expectations and whatnot.

Employers want to know that you're interested and determined and (don't be frightened but) responsible.

Meanwhile, job candidates needn't become excited or anxious about nothing.  They should leave potential employers wanting more.

I assure you that this is the way the application process is (or is going to be).  No more bullsh*t from either the employer or a job candidate, anymore.  It's time to add a personal touch-- really, interest-- to these kinds of goals, again, and to behave fairly or our pretty businesses are going to go down the hole alongside so many others. 

Why the hell should anyone support the business of a jackass?  Consumers will prefer to save their pennies than support a jackass.

I hope you realize that my "employers vs. job candidates" mention is a mere example of how we are relating to one another.  The "application process" includes everyone.  It's time to do a little less envisioning of what could be and what could've been because-- WAKEY, WAKEY-- none of that stuff is here, right now.  We need to become concerned with what is HERE and in our possession, material or not, so that we can act with all of it.  Pinch yourselves.  Let crap go.

Let's not count our chickens before they hatch, either!

As possibilities and/or opportunities present themselves, this week, let's not jump at them.  Let's take them under consideration, carefully.  Think them through.  Think.  Them.  Through. 

                         


As d-bags present themselves with what seems like proof that they'd scored highly on the verbal part of their SAT exams, understand that their studies mean jack-shit if they haven't applied them to anything conducive to their (or others') existences.  And, folks, just because some of you have graduated college or some other program or have book-knowledge oozing from your ears, it doesn't mean that you've moved up with honors, um, wisdom or even relatively good grades.  So before some of you come forth and judge those without a degree, certification, etc with your obnoxious attitudes, let me warn you that your arrogance will not be taken well by others. 

(And if you know what's good for you, don't dare approach me with your crap.)


                                     


As deluded folks swear, by golly-gee, that they, and people like them, are at the top tier of our planet and that they, and only they, are to be respected and heralded, understand that these people are on fucking drugs.  They have to be.  No single group on our planet is on a top-tier.  There is no top-tier.  I don't give a rat's ass about what zodiac sign you are, how much money you make, how smart and powerful some of you think you are.  Get yourselves a damned reality check, quickly, before your tails wind up between your legs.  Better yet, get yourselves a damned reality check before you stumble into this or other blogs in which you are not welcome. 

Folks, stay the fuck away from anyone who intends to make you think/believe in anything you question or know to be "off". 

Beware of hoopla.

We all have choices.  We should make them, responsibly.  If we need to consult with someone, that's OK.  Consult away.  That's not the same as doing something because someone else told you to do it.  Consulting means that we need support or a connection or understanding or verification.  We need a shoulder, hope, inspiration, someone on our side, and that's all fine and great.  (And I'm here for you if you need me, always.)

What we do not need or get is a decision.  No one can make decisions for us because only we know what is best suited for us. 

Enjoy the wisdom, possibilities and opportunities which open up, this week.  Even in the midst of gray skies and other assorted crap.

Please take good care of yourselves.

Love,
Deb