springading.com

I am beyond stressed. Getting s’mores at work today didn’t even help.

Oh, yeah, we TOTALLY got s’mores. My job can be so awesome sometimes.

But still. Stress! There’s the recent stuff, of course, that I’ve dwelt on enough and don’t feel like dwelling on anymore.  Unfortunately, the doctors keep me dwelling on stuff by having me come into the office to check to make sure those pregnancy hormones are going down after the miscarriage. Initially, my levels were something like 1400, and by Monday, they dropped to 400. Weirdly enough, if I took a pregnancy test right now, it would probably still come up positive.

Yeah. Weird. But since the levels are still not around the 0 mark, I’ve got to come back in a couple of weeks to get blood drawn again.

Anyway, leaving early the last two days = make up time today, which is just time over that is straight pay and not overtime pay. I HATE THAT. I like my overtime money. I like it a lot.

But back to stress. Today was  just a bad day at work, s’mores be damned. I learned a new workflow that I thought would net me more closures, but then they turned around and said we couldn’t use it. The tech who told me was so bummed about it, she needed one of my Jolly Ranchers to cheer her up, heh. Apparently, the s’mores didn’t cut it for her, either.

And then Jim kept texting me because he was freaking out. He was trying to get signed up for fall classes and found out that he’s not eligible for financial aid this year. I’m not surprised; I warned him that once we got married and they figured in my income, he probably wouldn’t be eligible because I “make too much money.” HAHAHA. Anyway, that wasn’t shocking, but they turned around and told him they “wouldn’t do” government loans either. Huh? What the hell?

Oh, and by the way, they told him, the money is due tomorrow.

I was pretty pissed about this. When Jim submitted everything, the e-mail he got said that the financial aid office was supposed to get ahold of him if they needed anything else. They did need other stuff. They did not get ahold of him. And they were only now telling him this because he went down there to ask them about it, and they were telling him the day before the due date. And it was looking like he wasn’t going to be able to go to school for the fall.

So, Jim was freaking out. I tried to reassure him by telling him that he could just dedicate himself to writing until the spring semester. He kept texting me, though, and it was freaking me out because I know that Jim hates that he’s not working, and the only thing that has been keeping him sane was knowing he’d be in school full time soon, and that going to school does, in fact, contribute to our household’s future. I worried another six months of no work and no school would drive him into depression.

But then he told me that his dad paid for it. His dad is telling him that we’ll only owe him half the money, since he helped pay Jim’s siblings’ college.

But…new stress. I hate borrowing money. This is especially how I did not want to start my marriage–borrowing money from my father-in-law. So now I feel compelled to pull even more overtime to get that paid off ASAP. Jim tells me not to kill myself over it, but…I don’t know…Jim’s mine to take care of now, ya know?  MINE.

And then there’ s stress that comes with the fact that Jim and I are fighting more than usual. Even though I know it’s been totally the clash between the pregnancy hormones and the Chantix, it still sucks. Luckily, Jim will be done with the Chantix in about a month, so that should help a lot. And, of course, my pregnancy hormones are dropping. I should be back to “sane” level fairly soon.

But I had to admit something else entirely that had been bugging me for a while to Jim last night. Jim has one big hobby, one thing he loves that keeps him going these days: Warhammer 40K.

And I hate Warhammer 40K.

There. I admit it. And I do. I’m not even sure why. I’ve tried to like it. I listen to Jim talk about his games. I listen to strategies. I look at how he’s painting his little army guys and how he’s adding modifications to them. They’re very cool.

But I hate them. I hate Jim’s little army guys. I think they’re boring. I think they’re cocky-looking little assholes that are overpriced and suck up too much of Jim’s time and energy. I hate hearing about the guys that Jim plays with. Some of them are complete dicks, and about what? Because they have no legitimate lives, so they can dedicate themselves to the stupidest hobby on the planet?

Ugh.

Jim is a good husband–a little too good at times–and immediately offered to quit playing. Which, of course, is dumb. Why do guys tell you they want you to talk about how you feel about something, and when you do, they automatically go into “fix-it” mode? Do that, and I won’t say anything again! Just because I hate Warhammer doesn’t mean that Jim should quit his favorite hobby. That’s dumb. It’s just how I feel about it; it doesn’t mean it’s right or logical or anything.

Really, where it’s getting to me is that I’ve been trying to fit in my overtime around this gaming schedule, and I’m getting resentful of it. When I have to pull a couple of insanely long days just to make sure I get off work as early as possible on other days for these stupid little army guys that I don’t even think are interesting, I get a little annoyed.

So I think Jim and I have agreed that I’m not going to try to “fit in” my overtime around the gaming anymore. The overtime comes first. We’ve  got bills to pay. Still, I’ll try not to pull the nearly 11 hour days on his gaming days. I’m not a complete asshole. But Jim’s going to the comic book store an hour later than he usually would have isn’t gonna kill him, either.

Here’s hoping that’s the case, anyway.

One day I’m gonna write a happy post again. I really am.

Damn, I’m tired. Loved my three-day weekend last weekend. Didn’t get so lucky this weekend. I pulled overtime all week and I just did overtime today, on a Saturday, from 6-11 AM. The only good thing about working on Saturdays, though, is that at least you know you’re not going to be put on the phones.

Oh, yeah. I was put on the phones two days in a row this week. That’s never fun, but it wasn’t too bad, either. My concern is that I’m supposed to be working a special project (the portal) that I’ve been told has high-high-high priority, and then I’m also only one of two people allowed to contact an outside vendor, which is only done two times a week, and which also has high-high priority, but if I’m stuck helping the phone people out, this high priority stuff starts getting really behind.

And the special project is already behind. So Friday, I waved my supervisor down and said, “Okay, I need to know which of my prorities is REALLY the priority. Portal? Phones?” I told him that sure, I don’t like doing the phones, but if they want me to do that, that’s fine–but I’m worried about other stuff getting even further behind. Luckily, he agrees with me, and they’ve already had meetings to see about getting those of us working this special project from getting stuck on phones.

That’d be nice. Until then…I just do what they tell me, heh.

Wow, that’s the most I’ve talked about work in a while. Let’s stop now.

Anyway, I’m tired. Tired enough that I snapped at Jim last night, in front of Phil, both of whom seemed surprised by it. (As Phil put it, “That’s the most heated discussion that I’ve ever seen you two have.” And it really wasn’t that bad.) Still, I felt bad about snapping at Jim, but sometimes….JIM. ARGH. We’ll just leave it at that.

Maybe I just need some time alone. Maybe I’ll suggest that to Jim because I got really bummed last night (WHY? WHY? MY LIFE IS AWESOME) and I’m still kinda moody today, so I think that’s all it is–time for some Spring Break, haha. Whatever it is, I’m gonna have to figure it out soon. Everything’s been pissing me off.

Maybe I just need a nap. Works for Gremlin.

Jim and Gremlin, playing the XBox

Of course, Gremlin makes sure that he has a high-quality person to snuggle with first. Maybe that’s the key.

Well, I haven’t posted much in the last week, but there’s a lot going on. I did not have to get on the phone Monday at work, as I had wondered about in the last post. Nobody did, as far as I could tell. Instead, I’ve been working the portal at work all week, and I think I’m getting the hang of it. At first, it started off rocky, with very low production, but then, once I started getting responses back that I could actually work, my productivity skyrocketed.

Jim also found a desk next to the dumpster this week, perfectly fine, nothing wrong with it, and we really needed a desk. So he hauled the thing up himself. So, YAY, I don’t have my laptop on the floor next to the sofa anymore, and the cable cord is no longer right in the middle of the living room floor where everyone walks. Now it’s more off to the side where people rarely walk. I’m very happy with this, although now we’re going to need a proper chair. Right now, I’m sitting in the rocking chair, and while I love rocking chairs, they’re not so good when paired up with office desks.

But the real event of this week was that my sister, Jennifer, left with her kids, Damian, Trinity, and Seth, to move to North Dakota, where her husband is.

I cannot deny it: I’m bummed. Jennifer is the sister I’m closest to, and I LOVE her kids. I even lived with them fairly recently after my divorce, when Nate (her husband) was then living in Texas for a different job that he had. It was a good set-up because I got free room and board and she got a free 24/7 babysitter. Honestly, I only moved out because when her husband came back, it was just too crowded. I probably would have stayed there even if she didn’t need a babysitter , and I would have just paid her rent. (Which I did when he did come back and she didn’t need a sitter anymore. I’m not a mooch.) But my point is that Jennifer and I get along well.

Anyway, I texted her Wednesday night, remembering that she was supposed to be leaving Thursday. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see them again, but as it turns out, Thursday, she called and asked me to stop by because her ISP won’t turn off their internet service until she returns a modem to them.

Aside: The ISP is Mediacom, and she confessed to me that she didn’t think they ever gave her a modem in the first place. The modems she had were her own. She came to Illinois not needing one because she already had one from California. I mention this because Mediacom did the same thing to me and my ex-husband. We turned down getting a modem for them because we were computer people and wanted to choose our own. So we bought one. Then I accidentally plugged it in the wrong place, fried it, and we had to get another modem the same day, and we were pissed about having to buy two. When he and I split up, he ran up bills in my name, including Mediacom. Mediacom tried to claim we owed them money for a modem, and through ALL the fighting he and I were having, that was ONE thing we agreed on: NO, Mediacom, YOU NEVER GAVE US A MODEM.

I still don’t know how/if my ex resolved that one, but per the divorce decree, all that stuff is his responsibility, so I don’t really care. I just want to mention that if you have to have Mediacom, you might as well get a modem from them because they’re gonna claim that they gave you one, anyway.

But I digress. Jennifer decided to just give them one of her old modems she wasn’t using, but she needed me to take it because they were closed, and she needed to get moving. So Jim and I drove the 40 minutes out to her house and visited with them briefly before getting the modem. The visit HAD to be brief, as she was trying to get out that day, she had no furniture left as the movers had already taken it, and the power had already been shut off. She was doing all her cleaning by candlelight.

So we say goodbye. We’re sad. Yes, even Jim is a little sad because although he didn’t know Jen’s kids very well, he did like them (no small feat, considering he doesn’t really like kids that much) and he was actually excited about being an uncle.

But I’m particularly crabby about it, and when we get home, we putz around a little bit, then we try to go to bed early. Jim hasn’t been feeling well this week, anyway. And it’s about a quarter ’til 11 when my phone rings.

I pick up. It’s my sister. Wasn’t she supposed to be on the road? “Spring,” she says worriedly, “I’m driving along here, and I realized–I don’t think I ever put out those candles.”

So I get up, get dressed. Jim starts to get up, and I tell him he doesn’t have to come. He insists. There could be looters, he says. I have to laugh at his paranoia, but he comes with me because he doesn’t like the idea of me going out there and traipsing around in the dark alone. So we drive 40 minutes out there again, and guess what? She DID forget to blow out the candles! They were still going on in the basement. OH MY GOD. Good thing she remembered and called me! Good thing she still had a relative in the town that she was leaving, and good thing I still had a key to her house!

We check out the house to make sure she didn’t miss any others. She hadn’t. We marveled over the owl that had been making creepy screeching noises when we first came in (I just looked up owl sounds; I think it was a barn owl), then drove home. We didn’t get home until midnight.

And we proceeded to be cranky until the next day, particularly due to lack of sleep. And it’s not going to get any better if I don’t replace this chair, stat. Like I said, rocking chairs and office desks don’t mix. Especially when paired with a bummed Aunt Dingy.

I have been knitting. A lot. When I realized that I needed to complete 5 scarves by the end of the year, and that there were definitely other projects I’d like to work on besides the scarves for work, it’s like I became obsessed. Normally, when I start a project, I work on it for maybe an hour, then I put it down and forget about it for, oh, a couple of months. No kidding. Why do you think it’s been taking so long to work on Jim’s Lego Pirate Ship Blanket?

Now? I started the first scarf not long ago. I did leave it for a few days, with only a few inches done. However, I started working on it this weekend, and I’d say it’s already almost halfway done. And I plan on it being 6 feet long.

For me, that’s fast. This is the most focus I’ve ever had on a project.

Maybe the focus is coming from stress. Life has been good, but at work, they’re training me on something new. Yet again. We have something called the portal at work, and unfortunately, it’s not the cool kind of portal that takes you to another place. If only. No, it’s where providers do all the submitting of things electronically rather than via snail mail. My training was a whopping 30 minutes, during that time of which I didn’t see a single thing worked from start to finish. I finally got a chance to try it my last hour at work on Friday, and because I never saw all the steps for working an item from start to finish, I don’t know if I’m doing it correctly.

I think I won’t mind it once I get used to it. Like most things, as long as I just work and not have to be too social, I end up not minding.

Speaking of the social side of our work, after some internal shuffling, they’re estimating a bunch more calls to our office Monday. Most of the written staff is guessing they’re going to put us on phones at some point. Not like we can really afford it, being behind and all that. That could be the good thing about working the portal though; not as many people are trained on that, they’re really behind, and there’s a very quick turnaround time that we have to meet to respond to an inquiry, so in some ways, I’d be surprised if they did put me on the phone. But I’m getting myself mentally prepared to be put on the phones.

Which means I’m dreading Monday morning a little more than usual today.

Too bad the weekend’s coming to a close. Okay, yeah, we still have today. Yesterday was fun, though. Jim and I babysat Jen’s boys while she and her daughter did a mother/daughter spa treatment thing. (She had a gift card.) Jim initially had plans to go help Phil move stuff from the trailer, but he decided that he really wanted to see Jennifer’s kids again before they move later this week. And it was good. We took them to the Jeremy “Boo” Rochman Memorial park (aka, the D&D park) and then McDonald’s. I took some pictures, but they’re on a disposable camera, so I need to get the film developed first.

Tonight, Phil and Shannon may or may not be coming over for Game of Thrones. I think they’re getting moved into their new place after being flooded out from their old one, and they’re not sure if they have HBO yet. Admittedly, I’m not sure what all they’re up to because when they came over last night, after I made sure everyone had drinks, I went straight into our bedroom to knit. One, we don’t have enough seating in our living room for all of us to sit comfortably. Two, I figure Jim’s a grown man. He can handle making sure everyone’s glasses stay full and that nobody goes hungry.

And three, most importantly, I SAID I was obsessed with the knitting. Did you not believe me?

Everyone keeps asking me how married life is going. Usually, I answer, “I haven’t screwed it up yet!” Then they laugh and walk away.

Here is the truth: Married life, so far, is so awesome and amazing, it’s beyond words.

I know what you’re thinking. I’ve only been married two weeks, right? Well, I will have you know that with my first marriage, I knew something was wrong within the first week. By five months, I was already considering divorce. But I hated the idea of divorce, so I pushed on. I pushed on for twelve freakin’ years.

Just a note: It’s probably not a good idea to marry to someone that you hadn’t seen in seven months because he joined the military. Military is good about giving you discipline and all that, but it does change you.  By the time I realized this, it was too late. I was married to a man that I no longer knew.

But forget all that. That’s old stuff. The other night, I started to tell Jim about how I had been worried, but everything is different with this marriage–this is what marriage is supposed to be. I was about to say more, but he stopped me. “I know it’s different,” he said, smiling. “I’ve never seen you so happy. It’s very reassuring.”

I’m hoping the first couple of weeks are an indicator of things to come.

Speaking of being happy, this reminds me of Melme’s last post. She mentions that currently, she lacks the desire or energy to do anything she usually enjoys, and I joked about it being depression because I was like that through most of my adult life. It is one of the signs of depression. I don’t think that’s Melme’s case–I hope it isn’t–but I know it was in mine. And I realized the other day, I must be happier because now I want to do EVERYTHING. Now, I want to do so many things that I don’t have time to do. I remember several years back, moaning on my Myspace that I had lost interest in all my old crafting interests, but it wasn’t like I had replaced them with new interests. I simply wasn’t interested in anything.

But now? I just tried writing out my current obsessions, and it got so confusing, that I’m going to have to put them in a list format for readability:

• Crocheting the Lego Pirate Ship blanket. This one, believe it or not, is actually nearing the final stages. IT IS HUGE.
• I just started knitting a scarf. Hello, knitting, how I’ve missed you! How this project came about: We have something called a “DAP” at work, which is a personal goal. We will be rated on it, and it will count towards our yearly review. They said it can be anything; our company wants to emphasize the importance on self-improvement of any kind, and that can be outside of work. In fact, they encouraged it being personal. Some people chose weight loss; many chose to read more books; me, I said that I have a hard time completing projects, so I wanted my DAP to be to complete 5 scarves by the end of the year. Then, I’ll donate them to charity. People seem to think my DAP is a cool one, and I cannot lie: I’m exited about it.
• All things related to A Song of Ice and Fire series. I’m finding it harder to put the books down. I’m still only on A Clash of Kings, but when Phil was over, I kept sneaking away to read it. (Well, I also snuck away for a nap. I’m not very sneaky; Jim and Phil knew exactly what I was doing.) I’ve also become a huge fan of the subsequent HBO series, Game of Thrones. I’m loud enough about it that I got an IM from a co-worker the other day, asking me about it–and have managed to convert him into a fan too.
• Learning to sew. I can’t sew, but I do have Sewing for Dummies that I keep flipping through, while eyeing my unused sewing machine, trying to figure out how that monster works. I already know I want some nice, heavy curtains for my bedroom. Also, sometimes, I sneak and watch sewing videos. I think I’m good at sneaking about this–I’m pretty sure Jim has no idea.
• Cross-stitching. I WILL conquer the shaky hands and the permanent blur in the left eye! I WILL.
• Websites! Ah, an old love of mine. The problem? I don’t have the software I used to have to create images. (I used to have Dreamweaver for actually creating websites, but I don’t need that–I can code by hand, even though it’s been a while.) I really want to update the look of this blog. Also, Jim and I have an itch to take my other URL, chaoticspring.com, and do some stuff with it. Except for that, we’ll need some contributers who are good at writing genre fiction. We already have a couple people in mind.
• Getting back to writing. Not unrelated to the last bullet point. I don’t know how well I would do at genre fiction. Heck, I don’t know how well I’d do at writing. I’ve always been complimented on my writing, but my stories were always just me working through my own issues. (Unsurprisingly, I wrote a lot about women in unhappy marriages, heh.) But now, I’m SO happy, I’m stuck. And I don’t know if I have what it takes to write anything other than literary fiction. But I want to try.
• Gaming. Okay, more Jim’s thing than mine. But his and Karac’s Marvel game recently (and abruptly) ended, so Jim has mentioned to me that he would like to run a Deadlands game–and he wants me in it. And, honestly, it wouldn’t hurt for me to be a  little more social, get to know my new husband’s friends better. Jim’s shooting for the fall, I think, but this time, I’d like to actually flip through the books prior to the game starting so I have an idea what it’s all about.

I also woke up thinking about how I needed to finish leveling Alsana to 85…and how I would like to try my hand at Jim’s XBox games. But you see how, with the size of this list, and the mandatory overtime we’ve had all week (including a divisional Saturday yesterday), I haven’t had time to do much with any of them.

Speaking of having no time, I really need to get this day started. It’s already after 10. I’m sure Jim would like to be up by now, and I really need to do laundry at some point, too. Preferably, before Game of Thrones!

By the way, if anyone else is looking for a short series to lap up, I highly recommend Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Oh my god. OH MY GOD.

Well, I was thinking today was technically the last day of our honeymoon. But, due to some confusion with Jim’s work schedule, I guess yesterday was. Jim had to  go to work this morning.

I’m not supposed to talk about it.

…

Okay, I’m not going to talk about the situation, but Jim didn’t say I couldn’t talk about how I feel about it, right? And I know what you’re thinking. “Spring! You should NEVER talk about work on your blog!” Well, I’m not talking about MY job (which is great, thanks)  and Jim’s  not talking about HIS job, I’M talking about HIS job. As in I hate it. I wish he would quit. And I’m  allowed to hate my new husband’s job, three-quarters of the people who work there, and I’m allowed to wish that he would quit.

For now, though, he doesn’t want to be without  job, he likes his boss, he’s loyal to his boss. So I accept he works there.

But eventually, Wife will triumph over Work. Just you wait.

Anyway. This weekend is ending just terribly. When we came back home, we found out that the cats have fleas again. HOW? HOW do indoor cats keep getting fleas? They didn’t have them a few weeks ago! And on top of that–and on top of me being mad at Jim’s work–I’ve been sick. I developed a sore throat in Branson and took it home with me. It just got worse. Last night, my voice started going out. I took a nap, which is rare. I’m still feeling under the weather, but at least the nausea has subsided a bit.

Then another situation presented itself to annoy me, a situation that, once again, I don’t want to complain about in a public blog. So I emailed my sister and complained to her instead. Happy Mother’s Day, Jen, haha.

The only good things that came out of this weekend are 1) Jim–because, you know, I love him to bits and 2) our new TV and entertainment center. I’m watching crap on TV just to see what crap looks like on the big screen. By the way, it just looks like big crap. But I’m in awe with how BIG the crap is. So cool.

I can’t wait to see Game of Thrones on it.

Anyway, I’m sad that the honeymoon is over, but, admittedly, kinda ready to get back to everyday life again. Truthfully, I wish I wasn’t going back to required overtime, but eh. My life, in general, is a good one. I wouldn’t want to be away from it too long, lest I forget.

This week has been crazy. Remember how they moved some of us to the predeterminations department a few weeks ago? Well, we’re all–I think all of us, anyway–getting shuffled back to doing claims again because inventory over there is just getting so high. Guess they couldn’t handle it without us, haha. So I’m back doing what I was doing before, but it’s going to be even better because rather than have us flipping and doing different books of business all the time, they’re having us focusing on one book of business, and the one I’m going to do was turning out to be my favorite book of business, anyway.

(I realize that almost nobody understood that. Recap: Moving back to the old stuff, but better old stuff. Whee.)

In other news, I got a tooth yanked out earlier this week. Oh, there is a lot more the dentist wants (er, needs) to do to my teeth, but we’ve already met my dental max. Better luck next year, bucko.

At any rate, because of that, my mouth has been a little sore. But, luckily, the dentist  prescribed me Vicodin. Score! I take some of that, and then I feel like this:

Okay, not really like that. I don’t feel like dancing on Vicodin–just feel REALLY mellow. It’s a little weird at work. By the way, if Jim were a robot, he would totally be one of those dancing Claptrap ones from Borderlands.

Okay, I’m off to watch Angel. Or read A Game of Thrones. Or crochet. Or play Warcraft. Obviously, I haven’t decided yet.

Can a person get promoted twice in less than six months? Apparently. Today, a small group consisting of myself and maybe five or so other people, including the girl that sits in front of me, were told that the predeterminations department needed help, and they decided that we were the ones who could do it. The woman who told us is one of the supervisors. Actually, she was the same woman from whom I got the news that I was getting promoted to the written department.

She got a completely different response this time, though. We’re all in writtens. We love it. Leaving it makes us nervous. We had heard that predeterminations have to produce way more. She assured us that most of the people who are in preds love it, and after they’re in the unit, they ask that they never get moved out.

None of us are sure why we were chosen. I assume because of how much pred people have to produce, they’re looking for people they think are capable of that. The girl that sits in front of me noted that all the people who were chosen are very detail-oriented.  But the sup and the tech didn’t say anything beyond they had decided that we were the ones who were capable of helping the pred department the best.

I don’t know. I’m nervous because I really like the job I have now, and I can’t imagine liking another job better than this. On the other hand, I’ve heard that preds are pretty repetitive, so you actually get to know the stuff and get in a nice little groove (I’m  a sucker for my grooves), and hey–they get put on phones even less than we do in the written unit. So that’s a plus.

I guess we’ll find out. Training starts Monday.

Good grief, will somebody make me wash the dishes already?

So. Hi. I feel better. Not 100%, but maybe 80%. Which is a B. Which is not A-quality as in excellent, but still, VERY GOOD, good enough for me to start hitting on Jim again and trying to lure him into the bedroom with my best, lecherous grins.

Of course, by the time we get in there, I’ve hacked up a couple of times and gone through a box of Kleenex and immediately pass out as soon as I crash onto the mattress. So, okay. That’s maybe not so sexy. I didn’t say advances on Jim were actually working.

But Jim and I are both doing better. Thank goodness because Friday, I sounded awful. Seriously, this is how it went down on Friday morning:

Co-worker 1: Hi, Spring.

Me [croaking]: Hello.

Co-worker 1 [eyes wide]: Oh, my.

Co-worker 2 [just appearing at her desk, so she hadn't heard me yet]: Well, good morning, Spring.

Me: Good morning.

Co-worker 2: WHAT is THAT?

Yeah, it was that bad.

For the first time since working there, I actually e-mailed my supervisor and asked to bow out of any phone duty that could come my way that day. I didn’t think I’d be put on anyway because it was Friday, so phones are slower, but I had also heard that the people we were supposed to be backing up had resumed their normal duties anyway, so the chances of me getting put on were that much slimmer. Still, I requested to not be put on, and my boss agreed to it.

The funny part, though, is that my supervisor also needed to give me my evaluation, but he wouldn’t come near me. Instead, he did it with me over the phone. Luckily, I didn’t have to do a whole lot of talking.

(My eval was really good, by the way. I’m pleased.)

Anyway, I felt better last night to demand–er, nicely ask–Jim to take me on a drive. First I had to make sure he was up to it, since he hasn’t been feeling well either, but thankfully, he did. I say “thankfully” because I was starting to get cabin fever.

I love our drives. I even love listening to Jim talk about his old games. Well, let me be honest: I have a love-hate thing for listening to his old games. I think I like it as long as we’re in the car and going. Depending on what mood I’m in, I don’t even mind hearing about some of the people he knows in them. If I’m in a good mood, I’ll just laugh (Oh, my god! That girl seriously cried and threw things when her character died? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) or if I’m a morally-superior mood, then I get all huffy (That’s really disgusting that that girl left her freakin’ HUSBAND for a 15 year old boy that she met while GAMING.) Honestly, the two moods are not mutually exclusive. Jim gets really confused.

By the way, I don’t think that last one actually happened. I exaggerate to make a point. But I exaggerate only a little. And my point? Jim used to know some people who border on freakin’ creepy. No wonder why he never wants to leave the house now, heh.

I think he ran into some the other day, actually. Well, okay, they weren’t the actual creeps. I think these were nice, normal people, but people who knew him back when Jim didn’t have standards and hung out with creeps habitually, heh. They told Jim about a game that they were running, told him he should join them sometime.

“And I was so happy,” Jim said, “because I finally could say I’m sorry, but I don’t do LARP anymore.”

I frowned. “Didn’t you quit that, like, a long time ago? Wasn’t that kind of a kid thing?”

“Yes, but it was nice to finally say out loud to someone else!” Jim laughed. “It was like this horrible thing, and I finally got to say I’m off that stuff now.”

Jim’s a funny guy. And if they are really nice people, he should probably keep in touch with them and do non-LARP things. Apparently, decent folk in southern Illinois can be hard to come by.

One thing that made me happy, though, during our driving and talking time, is that Jim says he misses our D&D game.

“It’s because of Phil, right?” I said. Because, seriously, this is Jim and Phil:

Okay, they really are not NEARLY that bad, but still. I’d bet money that if someone told Jim he could only keep one friend in his life (besides me) and drop all the others, Phil would be the one he’d keep. But Phil’s good people, so I approve.

“Well, I enjoy gaming with Phil, that’s true,” Jim admitted. “But that’s not what I meant. Our game is fun. And you seem to enjoy it. I like running it for you.”

“Even when you make me mad in the middle of it and I sulk?”

“Yup.”

“You DO realize that pretty much happens EVERY TIME you make me role-play, right? When you FORCE me to role-play, I feel put on the spot and then I get pissed at you about it.”

“I’ve noticed,” Jim said. ”And I’m good about not doing that to you too often.”

HA. HAHAHAHA. Whatever, Jim. Seriously, I like watching them role-play scenes, but I hate doing it myself. I explained to Jim that it was akin to having to give presentations in class. It FREAKS ME OUT.

Also, to put it out there: I get really crabby when I have to make a decision. I think I’ve decided just now that I actually want to start doing games with more people. My odds of getting “called on” are less.

Blah, what else is new? OH. My dad just sent me an e-mail to tell me he was making out his will and wanted to know if I would like to be “burdened” with their house. Eh? What about Mom? OMG, DAD, ARE YOU TAKING HER WITH YOU? I kid, but seriously, I don’t want to think about this. And I know I need to because…well…my daddy’s getting old. They told him he wouldn’t make it to 50 with the way his health is; now, he’s going on 67. Last time I saw him, he seemed much older. My dad was always a very quiet person, but when Jim and I went to visit him and Mom last May, he was talking up a storm, often repeating things he had just said. It worries me.

Okay, we’re not going to think about that. On a cheerier front, the weather has warmed up. It’s feeling very spring-like, and you know what’s gonna happen in the spring? I’m getting married to the most awesome man EVER, that’s what! And, no, we still haven’t done any preparing because we figure it’s going to be so casual anyway, but sometimes, I like to pretend that we’re going to end up doing something like this:

Ha. Yeah, that would never happen.

But dishes will! OFF TO THE BATMOBILE.

(“Damn, Robin. This is way less exciting.”)

You know that big, gigantic snowstorm, the one that’s hit pretty much all of the midwestern United States? Yeah? Well, it’s hit pretty much everywhere but here.

That doesn’t mean we’re not feeling the effects though. We were warm enough to get rain yesterday, sure, and a few degrees lower, we would have been in trouble, too. We were lucky. However, by feeling the effects, I don’t mean rain. I mean that our other offices in both Illinois and other parts of the country shut down and calls were routed to our office–the type of calls, I might add, we were not trained to handle. When they announced this yesterday at work, we were all pretty freaked.

I managed to get lucky. I was never put on the phones. In fact, I don’t think many of the phone units were even put on, and the ones that were put on reported that there weren’t many calls.  And you know why? Because everyone is trying to survive the snowpocalypse, not call their insurance company. HA.

Anyway, I got lucky, but it’s one of the few times that I have been. Sure, I don’t work in a phone unit anymore, but it seems like when anyone from the written unit has to get on the phone, I’m one of the first people on.

But that was yesterday. Today, I didn’t go to work, but it had nothing to do with weather–it had everything to do with a really nasty headache I developed last night after I got home from work.  (I blame it on Jim’s smelly hamburger. Okay, I really doubt that actually caused it, but I noticed that my head started pounding and I felt nauseous when I was cooking it, so naturally, I connected the two.) It wasn’t just a regular headache. It was the kind where your whole face hurts. Jim wasn’t feeling great either, so we opted to stay home.

When I woke up, I found that I had gotten an emergency email from work advising that our office would be open while the others would be closed, and that, once again, their calls would be routed to our office. I’m not surprised, and part of me feels bad that I wasn’t there to help out–yet, the other part of me is really glad I stayed home. That would be the LAST thing I needed on top of the monster headache.

So because my “day off” was mostly sleeping and moaning about my head, I don’t have a lot to report. No pictures of monster snow mounds because all we got were some ice patches. No cool craft projects to report on because I was too exhausted to do that, either. What little work I did on my priest on Warcraft didn’t come until later this evening, after my headache eased up.

So here’s what I did do, once the headache subsided a bit: Bake cookies for Jim (he hit me up for them as soon as he saw I was starting to feel better, heh), work a very little bit on Alsana, and finish reading Runaway. It’s about time I finished that book, as I started reading it per my old roommate’s recommendation a couple years ago.

I thought about doing a review on Runaway. And maybe I will. But right now? I’m still pretty exhausted and, honestly…I’m just not feeling it.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad book. And it’s certainly not a genre I dislike. It’s literary fiction, which I do love. I don’t need plot heavy stories to make me happy; honestly, I admire anyone who can find and create stories using the everyday stuff, especially if they convey meaning through literary “tricks” such as metaphors, foreshadowing, etc. I like when you have a story on the surface and something a bit deeper right underneath.

So, I love that stuff. And I know that Alice Munro is supposed to be THE SHIT when it comes to this stuff. But, with the exception of a couple of stories, I just found it lacking in…something. I haven’t put my finger on it yet. But when I do, you all will be the first to know.

For now, though, I think I’ll take my second bath of the day (I always take a lot of baths and showers when I have headaches) and read Unholy, which I am excited about. It’s a bit more plot-heavy than I like my books these days (lover of literary fiction, remember?), but you know what? It doesn’t pretend that it’s really there for anything but plot, and plot, it does really well.

It does make me miss our D&D game, though. Here’s hoping we pick it back up soon. Assuming, of course, that both Jim and Phil feel up to it. It seems like we’re all getting sick or having something come up at some point or another these days.

Oh, well. Off to the Bath-mobile!

(Just had a mental image of a tub on wheels. Not a happy sight.)