Secret Oaths to Persephone

Persephone and Hades, circa 450BCE via British Museum
Persephone and Hades, circa 450BCE via British Museum

Dear Internet,
Where was I? Oh! Yes.
It is late Sunday night and TheHusband is engrossed in some sport ball of DOOM that is nail biting, etc. I’m annoyed because I have my British telly lined up for the evening and I was told nothing was going to happen just yet so I can’t watch my stories as hoped.
But if my yawning is any indication, and how sleepy my eyes feel, when I get into bed to watch said telly, I’ll promptly fall asleep.
This week has been a week. I still feel okay with missing a few days writing this week, sometimes things just cannot be helped. This upcoming week is going to be far worse as due to schedule kerfuffles, I’ve got at least two 12 hour days on tap, plus I’m prepping for one of my liaison departments accreditation which is taking longer than anticipated. I’ve got a lot of plates I’m spinning in the air at the moment and some personal projects are going to have to be on hold for just another week. I know I said a few weeks that I would be catching up on personal email and projects, but please bear with me for another week if you haven’t heard from me yet.
The next morning.
True to my earlier prediction, we were not five minutes into telly where I promptly fell asleep. We forewent going to the gym this morning as TheHusband has not been feeling well, some version of the plague has been hanging out for the last week, which worked to my benefit since it meant we did not go to the gym. The next three days are going to be rough as I’m working longer than usual shifts to cover all the meetings and classes that were heaped up by happenstance.
Other notes:
I discovered sometime in the night that my heating blanket is not in fact broken as I was beginning to think it was. It seems if the dog is laying on it , it stops the heat from generating up to me. Once I moved her off, and noticing the location she was laying on felt like a sauna, the rest of the blanket warmed up. New note to self: Do not allow dog to lay at my feet anymore.
Speaking of the dog, we go in for a vet check up on Wednesday to see about upping her dose of Prednisone for her arthritis and spaghetti legs, but not to be too much of a Cassandra, the end is coming.  Example: she has almost no feeling in her back legs or below her waist anymore, so she has not been able to tell us when she needs to poop. It just comes out and she’s surprised as we are when it happens. This morning I was carrying her down the stairs and stopped in the kitchen to get some coffee before taking her out. She starts pooping while I’m holding her like a football and I had to put her on the ground, holding her up by her harness, so she can finish her business. She’s had a good run at 13.5 years, but coupled with the occasional peeing when she sleeps which has started to become near daily and the fact she cannot feel when she has to poop, we said if it gets to this point where her quality of life is diminishing, and it will get worse, keeping her around to soothe my savage heart is not in good interest to anyone. Discussions will be had with the vet, and potentially hard choices will be made.
The exercise calendar I mentioned a few weeks ago? I’m using it to track our time at the gym. I’ve cemented that I work best when I hit the gym early in the morning before my day gets going, finding that any time I attempt to schedule after work or afternoons during off days just doesn’t work. To keep myself honest, I’m checking in to the gym on Foursquare and then writing out what we did on the calendar, which is currently posted below my Naked Rowers calendar in my home office. I have been continuously wearing my FitBit Flex since I got it for my birthday last summer, and I like seeing the numbers grow.
Speaking of FitBit, they sent me my yearly roundup:

Screen Shot 2014-01-19 at 9.28.38 PM

Not too shabby for six months! If I can keep up the gym and once the weather gets better this year, do more walking/running then next year should at least be double, if not triple that value. I do wish the notification when my battery is low was more reliable. I have set to email and text me but it never seems to sync up with the actual battery level.
Our holiday tree is still up. I had made self-promise to take it down this past weekend but that looks like it is not happening anytime soon.
I’m now ending my third week of being caffeine free and I think I’ve found a winner. My moods have been regulating themselves fairly well the longer I go without, which was the point of the experiment. I’m sure the exercising I’m doing is also of help to keep me fairly mood balanced. In the next month or so, I’m going to continue on with the experiment and remove refined sugars from my diet and see how that works.
xoxo,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2011, 1999

his last bow

Men decorating crenellated walls with flowers, some climbing on ladders.
Men decorating crenellated walls with flowers, some climbing on ladders, via Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Dear Internet,
I am procrastinating.
I crashed shortly after I posted yesterday’s entry, and woke up on my own sometime after 7. Since TheHusband had the alarm set for 8:30, he, for the first time in any memory, got up and started hitting the snooze alarm until sometime after 9. Turns out he got sick at some point in the night and didn’t end up getting sleep while I snored in the glow of the Benadryls.
Time has passed.
I made it out of the house today, and thankfully our massive shovel yesterday cleared 90% of the snow so that all it took this afternoon to get out was a bit of the gas pedal to push me over the ice packed humps at the foot of the driveway created by recent city snow plows. While it was expected the side streets would still be a mess, as they tend to be during storms like this, the main streets were almost unbearable and unmanageable. An email last night went out from the city that the refuse service was not being picked up on our assigned days this week since the people who drive the trucks were going to be used to do the plowing. After driving in this mess, I’m slightly skeptical that happened.
Thankfully, a good chunk of my errands were located in the same general area, with the exception of having to head to the Ace hardware store a mile north which I decided was going to be a miss as I slid on the straight 2.5 mile towards the grocery store. One thing I had not planned on during all of these storms were the stores being decimated of stuffs. Of course it seems silly to think they wouldn’t be hit by the storms as trucks can’t get through due to the polar vortex, but I was genuinely surprised when I saw some of the things I wanted were not on the empty shelves.
Related: Why are people such assholes in stores when bad weather hits? Granted I was shopping in an area where your self-importance rises by 30% once you cross the city lines, but still. One woman, seeing me trundle down the make-shift one cart wide aisle in the veg and fruit area just stood there and wouldn’t move as I came to the end as she had intended on heading down the same aisle in the opposite direction. Another woman parked her cart and her body several feet apart at the small customer service stand when I went up to buy stamps. Dirty looks were shot by both of them when I said, “Excuse me.” in dulcet tones.
Also related: Observation is that black, mid-to-full length, preferably North Face, jackets are the de rigueur to wear in winter. I noticed this trend a few years ago and today it was like a mob of black marshmallows all over the store. Myself included — though to be far, this is my first black winter coat as I was getting tired of looking like a Lifesaver upon leaving the abode in past winters.
Tonight is the return of Justified, a show I love almost as much as my husband. Before I go make the obligatory nightly bowl of popcorn, I want to leave you with a few things.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.

I have been hankering for a purple, velvet smoking jacket for a long time but haven’t really found one I love. June tipped me off tonight to Derek Rose, makers of fine dressing gowns, who also created the one Benedict Cumberbatch wears in Sherlock. I had no idea I was so desirous of such a lovely piece of clothing until now. It is my ever most wish to save up £297.00 / $487.00 to buy one.
If you’re interested in Sherlock‘s wardrobe, Sherlockology has done a great job of putting together a list of all clothing worn by the main characters throughout the seasons.
I am not a runner, but this exercise calendar is pretty fabulous. The inspirational quotes are not too sentimental, it has space to write in your daily routines, and a nice area to wrap up monthly routines and goals.
x0x0,
Lisa
P.S. UVerse fucked up our recording of Justified and I am bereft of my Boyd Crowder fix.

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2003

The doctrine that all things ultimately tend towards good, although the means by which this comes about may be evil, unpleasant, unfortunate, etc

Overview map of the whole of Bavaria, cia 1651, via Bavarian State Library
Overview map of the whole of Bavaria, cia 1651, via Bavarian State Library

Dear Internet,
After last night’s mania episode, I was hoping to get some decent rest and circumvent the mania today. Apparently, I was wrong! I woke up with TheHusband at 8:30A, roughly four hours after I had fallen asleep. Not only did I wake up without assistance, I woke up goddamned cheerful!
I had a lot of things to write tonight, but I’m falling asleep at the keyboard. So instead, I’ll let you know I had a pizza orgy in my mouth tonight — our treat for our continual shoveling was to order pizza for dinner since we had a cleared driveway and sidewalks for cars and humans to pass. Which after consuming 2-3 lactaid before the mouth party began and double dose of Benadryl after still gives me slight hives and an itchy head, but you know what? Fuck ’em. It was worth every glorious bite.
So here’s to calculating ordering pizza, so I can take Benadryl, which will appropriately knock me out.
x0x0,
Lisa
P.S. It is still snowing.

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2013, 2013

That roams around the world

Ophanim, 13thC via Bavarian State Library
Ophanim, 13thC via Bavarian State Library

Dear Internet,
It’s late in the evening, ticking towards midnight [now significantly past midnight, thanks mania!], and we’ve been sloths all day. Not too surprising, with the current weather we’ve been having, leaving the house would be borderline stupidity. To be fair, TheHusband and I were at the gym on Saturday, coupled with an hour spent shoveling this morning from the first part of the snows, we feel like we’ve got our exercise in for the weekend. But also to be fair, my own silliness for not taking any kind of drug before gym tripped my arthritis up and while the pain has been moderate, it’s still annoying and it has meant I’ve been spending a lot of time with my leg up rather than being active.
Monday has been called a snow day across the midwest as the snows have started to come down, including MPOW, which makes me slightly sad as I’m naturally off so I can’t claim a snow day in jubilation. My nearly four week holiday comes to an end on Wednesday and I’m both slightly delighted and slightly not. I watched a lot of telly, read a few books, wrote a lot here, and did a lot of research for my book. My MIL was in town for a week, we stayed in on New Years, my dragon tattoo fill started, and I wore a lot of sports bras. Not a bad staycation overall.
But.
I need structure. If there is anything this vacation has finally drilled in my head, I thrive in structure. When we were getting up in the mornings early, setting our rhythms for the day, I found I was more productive than when left to my own devices. As much as my inner bad girl grits her teeth while admitting this, sometimes chaos is not always the best answer.
Monday, I will start prepping to get back into work mode. My brain has been in hibernation for the last month, so it’s time to take off the sports bras, yoga pants,  loose t-shirts and get things back in order. To get this in the right frame of mind, I cleaned out my personal inbox today so if you are wondering where the email I owe you is, you should get it in the next day or so. If we talked about doing projects together, I’ll start getting in the groove for those as well. Monday, I’m also planning on sorting mail, finishing up bills, and maybe taking down the Christmas tree.
While we were absolute sloths during our staycation, we did join the local Y the day after Christmas (via online of course). As it turns out my brother and his girlfriend, my tattoo artist and his wife, my friend Liz and her husband also joined within the same week. It’s time to walk, yoga, and swim. Saturday, during the break of the snows, TheHusband and I scrimmaged playing basketball, where I was not as bad as I thought. We kept getting run over by little kids playing soccer, all wearing European team gear, with one of their parents yelling drill instructions in Italian, which were often punctured by our “goddammits” when we missed shots.
I played basketball all through primary school (but not secondary) and some of the old drills came back to my hands as if I was 12 all over again, not nearly 42. I hate watching the game, but apparently I can get into playing it without a second thought. I give no fucks about NBA, March Madness, or Top 10 or anything basketball related.
In the guilt department, the damned post about being fit has been sitting in my drafts folder since December 2012. I am promising myself this is not going to be another year in which it gathers dust, but talking about being crazy is far easier than talking about being fat because you can’t judge crazy by looks alone.
Speaking of crazy, I’ve been caffeine free since January 1. I have been reading some personal anecdotes as well as studies about the effect of caffeine on bipolar and decided to create a one person sample study – me. On one (and many) of my drugs I was on in 2013 for my ADHD, caffeine was off the table since it amped up the effects of the drugs, which are stimulants, for me. Again, a lovely side effect that affected no one else I knew had. I know many ADHD sufferers who self-medicate with caffeine sans the drugs, but I was finding that maybe that is not working for me since caffeine feeds into my mania. I was already cutting caffeine out of my diet after 12PM, and had been for ages, coupled with my caffeine free existence in 2013 for a bit, maybe it was worth a go to see what would happen.
Not surprisingly, I have felt a lot more stable in the last few days then I had in the last month, and my brain has been less foggy. My ADHD has been getting symptomatic. Crazy or unfocused — oh how shall I ever choose?
It’s now significantly past the witching hour and I need to get to bed. Or pretend to. Or something.
[The internal network went down while I was writing this so I missed my midnight deadline, so I’m backtracking this to 23:59.]
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2013, 2013, 2013

Sick of Shadows

happynewyearedwardianpostcard
Dear Internet,
The crazy has been hitting me pretty hard for the last few days — well the better part of the week, which for me means  lots of mania which rolls over into having a constant headache that I cannot shake. I’ve taken 1/2 a Klonopin this morning when I woke in the hopes it would quiet down some of the noise, but it feels like it has barely made a dent. I will more than likely take another 1/2 dose when I’m done writing this and a full dose before bed.
We kicked off the New Year by Wednesday having a pooping accident on our bedroom floor which she proceeded to then fell in to, which led to us giving her a bath and the obligatory anal gland squeeze, which was followed with her pooping more in the utility sink.
We sure know how to party.
TheHusband has been working with TheMIL on her oral history today, which has freed me up to do writing but with my brain spinning a million miles an hour, I’m finding I cannot concentrate more than a few things at a time. At best I’ve done is finish up my Book List of 2013, start the 2014 page and kind of putz around my office. The day is still relatively young but I am not feeling much to do anything at the moment.
The weather has been awfully frightful and currently sits at 10F/-12C with dipping down to 2F/-17C this evening with the never ending parade of snow. Even with several layers on, I’m constantly freezing. I’ve been chugging hot tea like there is no tomorrow to keep my innards warmed, but it doesn’t seem to be helping.
Tonight kicked the beginning of season 3 of Sherlock in the UK, which has Twitter enflamed. Several people asked nicely to not spoil it, so I won’t. Instead I’ll give you the teaser that was released for Christmas from BBC on Sherlock’s return.

xoxo,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2012, 2003

attracts doves and repells dragons

draco
Miniature of the dragon constellation from Ptolemy’s Almagest, via The British Library

Dear Internet,
One of the gifts TheHusband bestowed on me this holiday season was a wireless (via Bluetooth) solar keyboard that is designed to work with my Air, iPad, and iPhone. Set up literally took two seconds and I am loving the way the keys are feeling under my pads. While I’m a 10 key girl at heart, and I will miss having the 10 key as part of my keyboard, the loss of cords and great aesthetic functionality of the keyboard is totally winning me over.
Tomorrow my Mother-in-Law is arriving for a week long visit and we’ve been prepping the house for her arrival. We had started earlier in the week instead of leaving it all at the last minute, as we tend to do in such matters, but even then it’s now nearing mid-evening hours and TheHusband is now deciding to do some of his chores. He claims trifle belly, which lead to trifle coma, which lead to napping on and off all day while watching terrible television. I cannot be too harsh on him – I didn’t wake up until 11:30 myself and then I proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon reading before doing my own chores.
But we did get some work done — laundry is completed, the guest suite is prepped and fresh flowers have been laid, and one of TheHusband’s pet vacation projects, cleaning up the cords and rearranging the router/nas/voip/etc, was also knocked off the list. Tomorrow I take Jeeves in for his yearly oil check and while I’m gone, TheHusband will tackle the worst of all his crimes: his bathroom. Her arrival at the airport is lunchtime, which then dovetails into having a clean house and a lovely afternoon spent with her before we fall back into our usual mess disgrace but my mother-in-law has already said she’s fine with this.
The weather continues to be at worst for wear as we’ve reached the 30″ mark of snowfall this season while in the last 30 years, the average snowfall in December has been 20″. We’re getting predictions for more snow this upcoming week, which is putting a damper on potential plans. The city has been lax in getting the streets cleaned in a timely manner, but considering the damage that came from last week’s ice storm, I can’t be too harsh on them. But overall, the weather is not inviting enough outside to even want to leave the damn house!
Now that the internets is back up and running, and most of my chores of the day have been completed, I’m off to finally take a much need and much desired long soak in the tub before heading to bed.
xoxo,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2012, 2012, 2011, 2011, 2002

Happy Svein Forkbeard Day!

Wednesday_wishes_you_many_happy_returns.JPG
Wednesday wishes you many happy returns

Dear Internet,
On this day a millennia ago, Svein Forkbeard was declared king of England. Because you have to love a name like Forkbeard, and Vikings, we’ve decided to start celebrating December 25th as Svein Forkbeard Day. Because – why not?
We did things half-assed backwards this year — presents were opened over the course of weeks and the rest of the loot this morning, even though the tree had not even been dragged up and put out. TheHusband was extra good to me this year: I scored a new pair of Tieks, a new winter jacket, new earrings, lipgloss, a bluetooth keyboard that will double with my iPad and MacBook Air, and the new Zelda game for my DS3. The best gift was the milk frother I had added to my list at the last minute, which showed up in time for unwrapping and which I am totally in love with. TheHusband received a new bag from Rickshaw, new Pumas, tshirts, socks, a new Harmony remote, fancy bluetooth mouse, and some kind of special router so he can do some dev work.
After the presents were unwrapped, oohs and ahhs were allotted, I put the tree up while TheHusband started on today’s dinner.
Holiday tree, 2013

A few years ago, I asked the Internet to trim our tree and the Internet did not disappoint! Almost every ornament on the tree came from someone across the globe and I love them for it. What makes this tree even more special is the how many of those who shipped us ornaments knew our personalities (or made very good guesses). Doctor Who, Sherlock, Britishisms, Pugs, Books, Gnomes, Jane Austen, and the list goes on.
Again, thank you. You are now part of our yearly tradition.
May tonight be merry and bright with your loved ones close and have a wonderful new year.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2011

on dit, or it is said

Dreamer at the fountain, circa 1340, via visualiseur.bnf.fr
Dreamer at the fountain, circa 1340, via visualiseur.bnf.fr

Dear Internet,
The problem with having staycation that last for weeks is you forget what day it is so I am happy to report it is Friday and today has been a slow and restful day.
I woke up at about 830A with some very definite plans — bleach and then dye my hair a ravishing red and once that was done, plan to hit a matinee of the new Lord of the Rings (or Thorin Oakendreamboatshield).  After TheHusband woke, and the dog had been walked, we read for awhile as my hair cooked. Once the mail had arrived with my rare and valuable Cards Against Humanity card, and we cleansed our filthy bodies, we headed off to the movies.
The weather has a winter wonderland of snow for the last few weeks and on an almost sudden turn, it became an icy hell in the last few days as the weather warmed up slightly over 32F. It took forever to deice and defrost Jeeves and then I wavered on deciding to actually leave. Our street was a rink but the main streets seemed to be okay, so I decided we should go forth and head to the film.
Not necessarily a bad decision, but the warming up of the car and then driving put us behind on schedule and we got to the theatre too late to for the beginning of the film, so we opted for lunch instead. No other films were starting close to the time we would be done with our lunch, so we opted to come back home.
We curled up and read for a few more hours, I made hot cocoa with marshmallows, the dog on my left hip never changing. This weeks Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is all about reading. I finished four books, started a fifth, and did a lot of long form web article reading.
After the dog’s afternoon constitutional, I headed to mainline more of A Place to Call Home, TheHusband headed to watch sportball, and this has been our day.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe:

Magnificent men and their flying machines

South Eastern Wheelers
South Eastern Wheelers from Waterford Bicycle Club circa 1909, via National Library of Ireland. Courtesy of The Commons, Flickr.

Dear Internet,
Unintentionally, yesterday was one of the laziest days we’ve had in a long while. I woke up around 8:30A to take Wednesday out and do her mourning rituals. TheHusband was still asleep when we came back to the bedroom, so I grabbed my laptop to start working on the archives while he slept. I made a lovely cup of tea to keep me warm as our house is freezing.
After a couple of hours, TheHusband finally awoke and we were quiet for a few more hours while he checked the interwebs on his tablet and I continued to work. Sometime around 1PM, we wandered downstairs for food and to plan our meals for the following week.
As we’ve been to-ing and fro-ing to the cabin every week, we haven’t had a grocery shop, like  a serious one, since June. Maybe even May. When I’ve been alone at the house, I graze so chips and dip it is!
Because of all our to-ing and fro-ing, we haven’t had time to do much shopping at any of the local farmer’s markets either, which has kind of bummed me out. I discovered, by happenstance, a local version of Door to Door Organics called Doorganics, with most of the food certified from local farms. Our biggest problem when we were with Door to Door Organics was the food was almost NEVER local (though they claimed this to be so). With Doorganics, each item is marked with what farm it came from, which is awesome. The ultimate goal is to shop at the Downtown Market once the interior is finished, use Doorganics, and use local shops for missing items. While we’ve gotten good use out of our Costco card, we’re not renewing it but I should add, we did get a Sam’s Club membership for when we are up near the cabin, so losing the club membership isn’t really a tragedy.
With food and meal plans organized, instead of taking a shower and getting our shop on, we wandered back upstairs where I continued with working on the archives and TheHusband read on his tablet for awhile. He ended up taking a nap for a few hours, while the dog and I continued on with what we were doing. Sometime around the dinner hour, I walked the dog for her afternoon constitutional, refreshed whatever I was drinking, and came back to bed. TheHusband snored on.
Dinner plans were thrown about but only if the place delivered, both feeling too lazy to put pants on to pick something up. Not having take out delivered in months, I was hoping there were new places available to try.
I would be wrong.
I’ve been cheating like a mad woman on eating dairy and I was tempted to order pizza but I couldn’t chance what would happen if I actually went into anaphylactic shock.  Eating Cheetos is one thing but solid cheese is a whole nother piece of business. In the end I ordered from a local Chinese place, while TheHusband ordered pizza. I eventually fell asleep sometime around midnight.
I calculated with walking the dog, bathroom breaks, and some to and froing to getting drinks or bugging TheHusband in his office, I was out of bed maybe only 2-3 hours out of my 16 hour day.
I didn’t even bother to take a shower or brush my teeth.
If you think this is unusual, you would in fact be wrong. The sheer amount of time I spend in the bedroom when I’m not sleeping is kind of frightening. After I get up, and rouse TheHusband out of bed, the bed is then made. So I’m not snuggled up in the bed itself, instead I treat the bed like a giant desk. Everything I could possibly need is in this room: 37″ HD TV with all the accoutrements, all my electronics, portion of my books, even an en suite for when I need to use the loo! With the kitchen located right off the stairs, everything is within reach.
I live in a beautiful house that is 3200 SQFT, I have my own private office with an Aeron office chair and a desk that dates back from 1923 and came from a college library that we picked up at an antique show. I don’t utilize any other room in this house (which only furthers the notion we definitely need to downsize) and to be fair, neither does TheHusband but I’ve taken it a whole new level.
So then why?
The explanation we’ve come up with dates back to when I had my surgery last year. For three months I was bed ridden. When I started becoming weight bearing, I had to constantly elevate my leg whenever possible. So when I came home from work, on the bed and up went the leg. Then there was surgery #2. Laid up for nearly a month, then back to partial weight bearing, then finally I am free.
For a year I have spent most of my non working, waking hours on the bed with my foot propped and a dog who thinks it was an extension of my left hip. So it makes sense, then, this has become my base for all things.
It doesn’t help the bed is a king and extremely comfortable.
It also doesn’t help my excuse for not working in my office is that computer is old and too slow.
For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to move myself to a place where I could feel inspired, was outside the bedroom, and was comfortable. In June I created a work area in the solarium.
And then promptly never used it.
To be fair, the to-ing and fro-ing to the cabin this summer has impacted how I work, but now that is over, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how organize myself so that I can get things done.
As much as I adored my lovely king size desk  and the great distractions around me, work won’t get done while I’m set up this way. I’ve had a year to make this work, and granted a good amount of time was because I had to, not because I wanted to, but in this configuration is not conducive.
Forward on to finding a work space!
x0x0,
Lisa (Day #30)

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2003

happy xmas eve

Today was one of those days where I went to work and got paid to goof off, eat fudge and smoke a lot.
Have I mentioned the horrors of my company? No? Well they cancelled the holiday party this year (some poor soul tried to set up a holiday potluck in our department but no one signed up…), health care has been detained for open enrollment due to “funding” and they even took our GODDAMN VENDING MACHINES! Free coffee went out the window as they are now replacing them with coffee machines (hence why our vending machine was removed — needed room for the coffee machine). Bonus structure has been rearranged. And the sad part? That MY department does FIFTYSIX PERCENT of the revenue for worldcom. Yes. It’s true. I say the company stats. WorldCOm has been in the black for the last three quarters and they are penny pinching to the point where you can feel the collective sigh as the holidays approach.
fucking eh!
So today was a waste.
They kept all of Wcom open but we yelled down “hello!” down Main St. (the main large hallway that connect all the buildings) and heard an echo back towards us. No one called us, as most businesses are closed or closing early on the eve of the holiday. So I did a site audit on myself and basically ate fudge, wrote personal email and smoked whenever I could. A friend of mine who works in a different department is a part-time Rabbi and he said it’s been pretty slow where he’s at as well.
So I left the joint a few minutes early and drove to the grocery store as Paul said he wanted to make creme brulee for dinner tonight (there are three of us and he’s cooking like there is 12..) and lemme tell you, the one if not the MAIN ONE reason I hate the holidays is how effing rude people get. Look, I’m sorry YOU waited to the last minute to get your xmas shopping done, food bought and gifts wrapped but don’t take your anger out on me. One of the reasons that people get so pissy this time of year pisses me off. I’m also a bit miffed because I had asked a friend of mine what she and her family would like for xmas and she said “instead of three small gifts can you just get me one expensive gift?”. I’m perturbed that she had the audacity to /ask/ it in that manner. I don’t mind helping someone else out but shit. I still haven’t even gotten gifts for my closest friends and now I feel effing OBLIGATED to get this thing for her. Feh. It angers me, as you can probably tell. But I don’t have the balls to tell her “no, sorry, can’t do that” because I already promised her we would. We being a few of us who are doing this. Paul’s all pissy because he’s like “well they don’t treat us well, xyz, why should we buy them something?” And I can see what he means — to a point. but I don’t quite, I can’t quite say no.
I’m not in the mood to write anymore. Haven’t been in awhile, so I’ll be back when I have something more worthwhile to say.
Happy Holidays.
x0x0x