working for companies you love (plus a book & recipe recommendation)

i just got back from a roundtable meeting at my office where we sat down - with the president & ceo of the company! - to discuss the unfair financial burden placed on gay employees whose husbands or wives are on our healthcare plan. (it's an interesting issue - this article summarizes it concisely - but basically, under current federal tax law, the cost of a gay employee's partner's healthcare is considered taxable income. meaning for an annual healthcare plan valued at, say, $6000, a gay, married employee would be subject to an additional ~$1500 in out of pocket taxes which straight, married employees would not have to pay.)

nothing was immediately resolved - it was just an initial discussion to highlight the issue - but i am just so damn proud & pleased to be working for an organization where this is openly & positively discussed; where both the president & ceo attend such a discussion; and where the general employee body is supportive of rectifying inequalities like this even when the inequality is due to federal law & not our company's policies.

UPDATE!! in the time it took me to write this post, our management team already made the decision to go ahead with the gross-up policy from the article above. love.

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i was reading through book reviews on princess nebraska's blog recently and came across her take on a book called prep:

I am not sure that I have ever found another book as profoundly effecting or as incredibly super depressing. DAMN does she get into the psyche of the terrified 13 year old girl. This is the third time I have read this and I am still amazed by it.

intriguing, no? it's the story of a girl who chooses to attend an east coast boarding school for highschool... you know, sort of like the one i went to.

you guys. i had NIGHTMARES reading this book. because like princess nebraska says: DAMN does she get into the psyche of the terrified 13 year old girl. i woke up one morning and told chris i'd slept poorly all night because of the nightmares from the book, and he was like "oh, is it scary?" and i said "oh, no, not at all; i was having these awful dreams where i was super worried about what everyone thought about me all the time, and i was nervous to talk to your friends because i thought they'd take everything i said wrong, so instead i kept making these jokes and they totally DID take EVERYTHING wrong and actually none of your friends like me and don't know why you're dating me and... basically, i'm having nightmares that I AM a teenaged girl."

i actually really recommend the book, if you can handle a few days of feeling like an insecure teenager again.

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i've had this recipe for the best tomato sauce in the world from one of my favorite food blogs, framed cooks, pinned for AGES.. and just finally made it last night.

(pin/source)

HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS. she is not kidding. make this IMMEDIATELY. there are only 3 ingredients (!!) but one of them is butter, so. i actually made some meatballs to go along with this yesterday, but forgot to serve them (!!!) and even chris, who does not believe in eating meals without meat, ate just pasta + sauce happily with no "but there's no meat" comments. this sauce is goooood.