I felt the same way with the series finale of Friends … the series finale of Sex and the City … and now I have to feel empty with the loss of my current favorite program, The L Word. Yes, ladies, our favorite group of Los Angeles lesbians is breaking up after six seasons, Showtime says. Ilene Chaiken, L Word creator, is in the process of creating eight final episodes to wrap up the series … which in and of itself is distressing because every other season has twelve or thirteen episodes, but Chaiken seems to think that everything can be “wrapped up” in eight episodes. Yeah, we’ll see.

Either way, it’ll be a sad ‘n empty Sunday night for me at the end of this.

Thanks for the tip, Shazzer.

I was appalled by a news article that appeared on my screen this morning when I went to Yahoo. Santas in Sydney, Australia, are no longer allowed to use the timeless Father Christmas expression of “ho, ho, ho.” Rather, now they’ll be saying “ha, ha, ha” instead. And why? Because “ho, ho, ho” is supposedly disrespectful and offensive to women.

Excuse me while I vomit.

I have nothing against feminism. In fact, I think feminists have made great progress in narrowing the gap in inequality between men and women where voting, the home, and the workplace are concerned. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and when feminist women start complaining that something that has been so natural for so many years is offensive, I’m going to get pissed.

Because I’m a woman too, and when I hear “ho, ho, ho” being said by Santa Clause, I immediately start thinking of the very expensive Christmas list that I’ll be drafting to send to my parents. I’m not automatically assuming that Santa thinks I’m a skank. Well, he might, but that’s irrelevant. When I heard the story of Sydney’s new rule, I immediately pictured the feminist stereotype: a butch woman with unshaved … well, anything, an angry look on her face, and a sawn-off penis in her hand. In other words, a man-hater. For as many strides as conservative feminism has made, radical feminists and their automatic assumption that men are evil and that certain commonly-used terms and expressions disrespect women, labeling them as a sub-human or a man’s property, overshadow any of the good things that feminism has brought to society.

I don’t call myself a feminist. Yes, I’m all for being able to earn as much money as a man in an equal position to me. Yes, I love the fact that I can vote (whether or not the whole ‘electoral college’ idea is ludicrous). But I refuse to call myself a feminist simply for the negative connotations associated with it. And I think I would probably come under attack if I were to call myself a feminist.

Because, let’s be honest: when the waiter comes by and drops the check in front of the guy, I sit back and enjoy the gift of a free meal. When an American hero gives a speech about “mankind,” I cheer along with the rest of the crowd.

And if you say to me, “I think you should take a class on feminism to educate yourself. I believe there’s one starting next ovester,” I will punch you in the head.

Per the last post, I did in fact get a ’snow day,’ although perhaps it would be better categorized as a ‘ice and hail day,’ since that was pretty much what we got. My area of Jersey ended up with about three or four inches of this sludge, which quickly froze and generally prohibited leaving one’s house, much less driving. Apparently everyone else at The Office felt the same way, because only two or three people made it in.

So even though I was required to work from home - which I did, to my surprise - it was a really nice mid-week break from the daily grind. I have to admit, though, that if I were to work from home permanently, I would no doubt become a workaholic. Meg actually had to yell at me to stop checking my work email at 10:30 that night.

Speaking of which, work has been busy, busy, busy since we’ve finally organized ourselves within the marketing department and signed up for the 3803242 trade shows that we’re planning to attend this year. I’ve found myself in charge of the weekly marketing dashboard, tracking web site visitor interactions, new leads, the revenue pipeline, and so forth. It’s a lot of numbers, but, funnily enough, I’m not put off by that. If nothing else, I get to make lots of colorful graphs, and I sound important when I’m rattling off the numbers to the SVP.

Last weekend was okay, though not nearly as crazy as the one before that. Friday night was a typical quiet night, take-out Chinese food and a video from Blockbuster. Saturday, of course, we went out to The L Bar in central Jersey; very few people we knew were there, but the place was mobbed and the music was pumping, so no complaints there. Sunday night was Jen’s L Word gathering, but I was so knackered for some reason and had such a bad headache that Meg and I ended up leaving practically right after the show.

Meg’s dad came up from Philly from Sunday until Monday (Monday being a holiday, of course), and we ended his visit by playing poker for about four or five hours on Monday evening, after having gone to see Ghost Rider at the cinema. I’m not a Nicolas Cage fan by any stretch of the imagination - he ranks closely with Keanu Reeves with regard to acting talents, of which both have very little - but it was a pretty entertaining flick. It’s no X-Men, but I’d say it’s probably good for a rental, anyway.

On Friday a bunch of us are planning to go see Gray Matters, that new film with Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh, and - wicked - Rachel Shelley, otherwise known as Helena, from The L Word. I’m excited.

Back to work, methinks.

A paycheck right now would be much appreciated. Hmm.

I spent my first couple of months here at The Office asking everybody for more work, because the CTO for whom I was working directly really didn’t have all that much for me to do except arrange travel, do his expense reports, and manage his fundraiser. As I said before, I was doing loads of work for HR and various projects for other people.

I started assisting the marketing department right before the new year, and now my title has officially changed from executive assistant to that of marketing coordinator, which makes me feel important even if I’m not really. The major bonus of this is that I finally get to utilize some of the skills that I haven’t used in forever, namely web design, and I love that. Basically, then, I am absolutely swamped with stuff to do, but I’m enjoying most of it and the days just fly by, something that never happened at The Firm when I worked there.

This also means my hours have extended somewhat, as I feel guilty leaving before six or six thirty. I’m hoping all this work will pay off when bonus time comes around … we’ll see. In the meantime, I’m having a blast and that’s what counts.

Apart from work, what’s been going on? Meg and I had our one-year anniversary on Saturday night, which we spent by going out to dinner and spending a night at the Hilton, which was just wonderful. I always forget how much I like room service.

Also, Jen and I went to the L Word premier party in the City last Sunday at the Copacabana. Awesome. Apart from me getting absolutely tanked, which is always a good time until the next morning, we spent the evening dancing, watching the first episode of the new season of the L Word, and listening to live music. Plus, we got to see Jennifer Beals (of Flashdance fame), Marlee Matlin, and series creator Ilene Chaiken.