If you're a Facebook friend, you'd be getting blow-by-blow commentary from yours truly about the United States Senate hearing, "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: The Role of High Risk Home Loans". I've been breaking it into chunks in the evenings because there's no way I'd be able to focus on my projects and the hearings at the same time. If you clicked the link, you'd see that the video is 437 minutes. That's a lot of yacking.

Parts of the hearings made me really angry, but the things that made me angry have nothing to do with why WaMu was seized. I was angered at the fraud, finger pointing and greed. I thought I'd be upset with a particular executive, but I wasn't. In fact, I learned a few things that I didn't know and my opinion of him is different now. My friends know who I'm talking about. I've been carrying a big "he's an idiot" flag around for a couple of years now about the guy. I still think he made some dumb decisions- my fellow trainers will know what I'm talking about. I now think he has more integrity than I'd originally thought. Don't burst my bubble about it this week, OK? Let me live in this nice little fluffy cloud for a while.

Those that aren't in the know- I'm not talking about Killinger. I think I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the guy. I remember being in kind of a fog after we were seized, and the thing that really hit me hard was seeing Killinger's pictures removed from the walls. That was the first time I cried about the whole thing.

Tomorrow the regulators are under fire. It's clear to many that the regulators unfairly pulled the trigger on WaMu. Because of this decision, many of my friends are STILL out of a job, and countless numbers of people lost a lot of money because they owned WaMu stock. I'm one of those people because I believed in and was loyal to my company. I was part of this company when it was so small that I probably trained every employee on the front line personally when I was a classroom trainer. I *loved* my company because I knew what wonderful people WaMu employed.

I trusted that purchasing stocks in this company was a win because there were so many other employees like me that did what we could to make WaMu successful. This cost me just over $100,000.00.

I know for a fact that many of my friends lost even more.

Are we destitute because of this loss? I'm thankful that I can say that we're not. I've read many stories of people counting on this money for their children's education or their retirement. I'm thankful that I'm not one of those people, but I do hurt for them.

So, here's a warning to my Facebook friends. You'll be getting more play-by-plays over the weekend as I digest the next round. I hope you don't mind a little cussing.

I made a new friend at the Story-Catcher event Tuesday night. She owns a funeral home.

In the past, I've toyed with the idea of working in a funeral home as a funeral director because I'm not afraid to be present with families who are grieving. I'd like to think that I'm good at it, actually. Even if my new friend wasn't hilarious and fun to be around, I'd still want to get together with her to talk about her experiences. The whole funeral home business fascinates me for some reason.

Yes, I'm fully willing to admit that I'm an odd duck.

Our volunteer coordinator expressly forbid (he was joking!) us to hang out together. He said that the world is not quite ready for the two of us combined in any sort of gathering. Of course, that makes me want to hang out with her even more.

She has one vehicle. It happens to have the name of her funeral home all over it, which of course could be alarming to Hospice patient families.

She shared a story about one of her visits with a Hospice patient. She tries to park her vehicle down the road, rather than in the driveway, but I guess that's not far enough because a family member came rushing through the front door and was stunned to see the Hospice patient alive and well yacking it up with my friend.

For some reason, I can't stop giggling about that scene. I probably shouldn't, but I do.

One might think that it's awfully convenient for a funeral director to be a Hospice patient-care volunteer, but we have rules and guidelines in place where you cannot profit in ANY way from anyone you're assigned to. She shared with me that she decided to become a volunteer because, like me, she's really good with people in crisis and felt that she wanted to share her talents in a non-profit environment. I think that's really cool.

I like it that she's irreverent like me. There's a time to be somber and reverent, but you can't be that way ALL the time. Well, I guess you can- but you sure wouldn't be any fun to hang with.

I wonder if she'd let me job shadow her sometime. I wouldn't want to do this for a living- - I love what I do, but I'd like to get this silly fascination out of my head.

Have you ever had a strange fascination with something completely wacky?

I'm currently contracted to two large international companies. I found out today that the Chief of Staff (CoS) of company one is leaving the company to work for another company and found out yesterday that the department head of company two has just left her employment there.

Does that scare me? Not in the least. CoS called me to tell me in person about her move and said that she wants to work with me at her new company, sharing with me that having me at 20 hours per week produces "way" more work than a full time employee. She knows that I want to stay at 20 hours with company one, but that doesn't keep me from accepting an additional contract with another company.

I've already turned in a very well received training piece to company two and they like it so much that they are planning to give me more contracts. I have no doubt that the newly departed department head at company two will be reaching out to me at her new company as well.

It's been an awesome leg up for me to have my original contacts at WaMu go to new companies and give me the handshake to the folks who would be able to give me work. I feel good that I've represented them well and have taken the ball and run with it. Now I'm getting second generation contacts who are taking me with them to new places and introducing me to new people.

I used to beat myself up for working so hard, at the detriment of having a personal life. Not anymore. Now I can see it was all worth it because I'm doing what I love to do and am working WAY less hours. The hours I work are at home in my sock monkey slippers next to a snoring dog.

Karma; it's a wonderful thing.

I think boys are a lot more destructive with their pranks than girls. See how easily I can lump people into groups?

I present to you the following stories:

My sons' group uses permanent marker on friends' faces when someone 'falls asleep' (aka passes out) at a party. I've been told that the rule is if they still have their shoes on, they're off limits. I'm not sure if I believe that this rule is universally respected.

The guys we were with at the stock car races told me that they used to have 'blanket parties' on people who 'fell asleep' at a party. They'd wrap that person in a blanket and then pummel them. I still laugh thinking about it. Boys are HORRIBLE!

I think most of my pranks during the early adult years involved dipping roommates' bras into water and freezing them. I even took it a step further one time when my roommate and I worked at the same restaurant (sorry Candy!). I brought her bra into work, filled a huge salad bowl full of water and put her bra in it. Once the whole thing was frozen solid, I put the large frozen-solid ice sculpture out on the salad bar when we were prepping it for the evening crowd.

Note: No food was around yet, nor were there any customers.

What were your favorite pranks?

If you have a chance, I'd highly recommend watching the documentary "Dad's in Heaven with Nixon". It's on Showtime On Demand and is truly wonderful.

The main focus of the story is a 50 year old man with autism. The story also delves into a family history of mental illness (his father and grandfather), which was less interesting to me, but interesting nonetheless.

I love the relationship he has with the brother who is filming the documentary. I love the respect and tenderness which is evident between the brothers. Hearing how Christopher has evolved over the years and his ability to live on his own and hold two jobs is simply amazing.

I think the most precious thing to me are the interviews with Christopher. He's very childlike but what strikes me the most is how honest he is. He doesn't have the filters to hold back what he's thinking and quite frankly I really like the way he thinks.

For someone supposedly limited in some ways, he has so much stuff all figured out. He's inspired every day to take us to places where the clouds are always full and white and fluffy, and the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is always shining. All he asks from us is love and approval from those that he cherishes the most.
~Christopher's brother

It's an amazing story.