Friday Feels – The Feelings of the Week

What’s up with the generic title this week? Because “I’m sad and tired” probably wouldn’t make people come running to read this. So why am I sad and tired this Friday? It’s a two-fold micro and macro thing for me right now.

The Micro – My Direct Life

I don’t want to dwell on the micro too much because I don’t really share much of my personal life; however, this week was no good. The only one good thing occurred was the Cubs advancing to the NLCS. Other than that this week was pretty shitty. Work blew up like a baby with explosive diarrhea. This happens to everyone at some point, maybe a lot, and if that’s the case, I’m sorry for you.

So my actual work was all sorts of drama, but there were more important work things happening. My company is “restructuring” right now aka laying people off. It’s stressful, nerve-wracking and depressing. I’ve been told repeatedly, my department is okay which I am so thankful about. Even though this isn’t the first restructuring I’ve been through, it’s still awful. It sucks when people you’ve worked with, even in passing, are let go or some leave because they feel it’s time to move on. Yesterday, I found out my senior leader, who I’ve reported to for the last seven years, is leaving the company. It’s his choice, so that’s good, but it still makes me really sad. I’ve had an excellent working relationship with him over the last seven years. He’s always had an open-door policy which is rare for someone so high-up in the kind of industry I’m in. We are two generations apart and don’t always communicate the same way, but he’s always tried to understand my millennial way of thinking which I appreciate. My department was very lucky for his leadership over these years.

On top of my work stuff, I don’t really know many others that had a great week. Must be something in the water or something. Two people very close to me had pretty crap weeks, too. It’s not just me, and here’s hoping everyone’s weekends are nice, relaxing, and we all have better weeks next week.

The Macro – Our Country

I literally don’t know where to begin, I guess, with “grab them by the pussy” – it’s as good of a place as any. If you haven’t been living under a rock since last Friday, you know about grabbing them (women) by the pussy. Because you know, if you are a star, you can do anything to women like grope and assault them, oh and call them out for being ugly or fat. Obviously, I could dedicate a whole blog post to this alone. I could do another one on consent, rape culture and how “oh it’s just locker room talk” so you know, that’s fucking okay – NOT! (I feel like I have to throw that in there in case people don’t get my sarcasm.)

Why didn’t I dedicate a whole blog post to this? Because like you, I’m exhausted by it. I’m so tired of this man and the horrible, disgusting things he says about women and minorities. I’m also exhausted from all the excuses he, the GOP and conservative media are making for him. Like seriously, stop it! Grabbing a woman by her pussy is not okay on any level. Walking into a room of under-aged teenage girls changing is not okay. Assaulting women or joking about assaulting women is not okay. Insulting minorities is not okay. I don’t understand how complicated this is. I am so fucking sad for America right now. So in case you need a recap of events – here is a list of articles you can read to catch up on how shitty this man and the people around him are:

• A list of each woman who has accused Trump sexual assault – BONUS! You get to see the campaign’s explanation of each too! Wahoo!!!
• New York Time’s response to libel threat from Trump’s lawyers – I actually think this is my favorite thing out there right now. NYT’s lawyer’s said Trump’s rep is already too shitty for their article to be libel, and Trump is the one that created his own shitty reputation. Their letter is literally a lawyer mic drop. It’s beautiful and should be framed in a museum for posterity.
• New York Time’s article referenced above
• Two articles about deaf actress and Apprentice contestant, Marlee Matlin – calling her retarded because she’s deaf and her account of being hit on by him
• What Trump’s children, Eric & Trump Jr., think about sexual assault and harassment – Eric thinks it’s just alpha male’s chit-chatting in a locker-room and Trump Jr. thinks if you can’t handle workplace sexual harassment you should GO TEACH KINDERGARTEN! Because ya know, if you can’t handle a lil good old fashion sexual harassment at workplace, then you can’t close billion dollar deals and all you are good for is teaching children (not insults to teachers – it’s a tough job.) Assholes.
• This combines Trump’s two faves – women AND minorities: Former Miss Teen USA’s account of meeting Trump – spoiler alert: he doesn’t like black people and she was forewarned BUT he liked her cuz she was hot
• A cocktail waitress’ account of working at the Trump Taj Mahal – this actually isn’t about sexual assault which surprised me. Sure, the beginning part about the audition process will leave you a lil grossed out, but the article is about the micro-economy of the Trump Taj Mahal and how he’s screwed the approximately 3,000 employees that depended on jobs at the casino. It’s REALLY interesting, worth the read. I wanted to do my Friday Feels post on this article alone, but I couldn’t with everything going on. Please take the time to read this one – it gives insight to Trump’s 2016 motives and how they relate to our economy in general.
• Ben Carson tries to silence a female journalist – Ben Carson ran to be the presidential candidate for the GOP in the primary. Obvi, he lost but has been campaigning for Trump in the meantime. Well, this morning he asked to have female reporter’s mic turned off multiple times when asked about the allegation’s of sexual assault against Trump. AWESOME job republican guys, continuing to try to silence women! Should be your campaign slogan – oh wait, some of his supporter’s do want to repeal the 19th amendment – the one that gives women the right to vote. So phew – they are on it!
• Finally, here’s a fun list of all the insults Trump has spewed against celebs – it’s a classic and almost “light” reading at this point.

You sad yet? I am. I’m sad, tired and actually really angry. I wanted to try to keep Friday Feels light for awhile like last week’s post. But le sigh, the election didn’t let me this week. Donald Trump did not let me. This man continues to use hate and fear to gain support of people. It’s disturbing, scary and reminiscent of other vicious leaders of the past. I would be doing you and myself a disservice if I didn’t bring these articles to your attention. There is so much more out there like all of Fox New’s shitty talk exasperating America’s rape culture and they “boys will be boys” attitude, but I think I brought you enough to fall down the rabbit-hole for one day.

Sorry to be such a debbie-downer again so soon after my feminist post a few weeks ago. Hopefully, America won’t give me a reason to be so upset next week, but at this point, it’s hard to keep my hopes up.

Also, I hope you have a great weekend and even better week next week!!!

Peace out,

Wet Hair, Don’t Care