Lately, Newspaper Mentioned Cheap Airfare; I’ve Got to Fly to Saint Somewhere, I’m Close to Bodily Harm

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while and for that I apologize. I certainly wanted to write, but things have been totally crazy around here lately. It's budget and strategy season so I have literally been in teleconference phone meetings every day for the past week. That wouldn't be too bad, but the people who come up with these budgets/strategies have their heads up their posteriors, in my opinion. The Big Boss Lady got us all together before her big meeting with the execs to discuss how we can make our division more profitable. My list of recommendations to actually resolve problems and target obvious known issues that are eating heavily into our bottom line got the brush off as usual. Their solution? Just increase sales volume and gross margin rate. Sure, that will help. We can't collect on the stuff we are selling now. Adding more sales will just compound the problem plus adding more points on our mark-up will just drive our customers to our less-expensive competition. When the boat is sinking you don't add more passengers and charge them more for a ticket. You fix the dang leak! But what do I know? I'm just the worker bee. The execs must make those big bucks for some reason...

The weather here is also making me grumpy. I used to think that Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) was a bunch of BS made up by psychiatrists to push more Prozac, but then I moved to Minnesota and came back to Colorado a year later. There is MOST DEFINITELY a connection between sun, warmth, and depression. Being snowed in and freezing for 7 months of the year = not good for Johnny. Sixty degree and sunny blue sky Januarys = very good for Johnny. However, this winter for some reason we have not only been hit for the past four weeks with significant snow falls (two of those being blizzards) but it has been sub-freezing for the past month so it won't go away. The sun hasn't been out, either. It was so overcast the other day that I couldn't even see the mountains. So let's summarize: piles of ugly, black snow that won't melt, long stretches of below-zero weather, no sun, and no mountains. I feel like I am living in freakin' Minnesota again!!!! To make matters worse, Minnesota is having a highly unusual mild winter with high temps and barely any snowfall. This is a phenomenon that my parents have not failed to mention on several occasions to me. Considering that we are close to eclipsing the seasonal average snowfall and we haven't even hit our snowiest month yet (March), this is not looking good for my mental stability. I need summer now.

On a side note, I read in the paper that S.A.D. is a diagnosable medical condition that can be treated in several ways, one of which is taking a long, tropical vacation. I am considering visiting my doctor, getting diagnosed, and then hitting up my employer for paid medical leave for "treatment." I'm think I'm going to call my insurance company to see if I can work this all out...

So, the weather sucks, my job sucks, and my commute to work the past few weeks has absolutely totally sucked. I've also been in complete despair ever since I watched An Inconvenient Truth last weekend. I'm tellin' ya, you'd better bust out the straight jacket now because I don't think I am going to make it to February...