No Wonder I'm Exhausted

I averaged 70 hours/week over the last two weeks, I believe. It hasn't been fun.

Last night, however, I decided to make up for all that. After a particularly horrible afternoon at the office I needed to go out and get my mind off things. So:

I went to dinner and Cloverfield with a bunch of friends (most excellent!!!) We were back at Sine's place and departing by midnight.

Then I went to my co-worker's party. It was fun, until someone lit the hooka. Then I had to bail.

I came home and washed everything I had been wearing, since it all smelled like smoke.

Around 2 am I finally fell asleep.

I got up at 9:45 to go to some friends' place to help them clean up after some trees they fell late last year. There were two trees, and lots of branches. It was an Elders' Quorum service project that the girls were invited to--only 2 girls (outside of the bishopric's wives) showed. I spent two hours trimming branches to be either cut down further or mulched. I made amazing progress, and as a result was quite pooped.

I came home, washed everything I had been wearing, took a shower, and laid down for a nap.

2 hours later I was back up. This time looking through houses to see what I liked and what I didn't so I can get back to my realtor so we can get down to this house shopping business. That's quite exhausting.

Here I am now, 1 am, and updating my blog. I have more to write, but I can't stay awake. Hopefully tomorrow will dawn a brighter day and I'll be able to paint in the morning—right after writing my Sunday School lesson.

Like Her Hair is On Fire!

One of my co-workers, who I have little like for, has a tendency to over react. To everything. Her code doesn't compile and she's laughing loudly in her high pitched shriek calling out the Lord's name in vain over and over again. This happens a lot as she is a terrible programmer.

It just so happens that she is also my boss' peer. Not my boss, thank goodness, but she's still higher in the food chain than I am.

I'm supposed to be training two of her subordinates to do my job (yes, two. I know, I should get paid more), but that hasn't happened. Mostly because I have work to get done and I don't have time to wait for it to be a convenient time for them in order to do my job. Thus, I wait as long as possible, then I just do it.

My boss and I went to talk with her Friday about the progress of my project, the state of their training, and why this hasn't happened, yet.

She didn't like what I had to say. In fact, she was livid that I hadn't done more than what I promised would be done. As if this were somehow my fault. I have delivered what I promised, nothing more, nothing less. She wants more.

After the meeting she looked over the code I have checked in and asked about an artifact left over from my work. She wanted to know why I had done what I had, and what I was planning on doing about it. I gave her a very logical explanation (which she really didn't appreciate), and told her a work around. She wanted me to implement the work around and got even more annoyed (at this point I was surprised she could get more annoyed with me, but it was apparently possible) and demanded to know why I refused. I gave her a logical explanation (yet again) told her it was a five minute fix, and any one could do it. She actually huffed off!

I left work 10 minutes early just so I could be finished dealing with her for the week. I might have to put arsenic in her coffee one of these days.

She's incompetent, stupid, annoying, loud, and dumb. Many of my least favorite qualities in human beings.

Stupid Flirtation

InternBill and I flirt incessantly. It's all in good fun. But, sometimes, as I've noted before, I don't know where the "all in good fun" ends and the "no, I'm serious" begins.

Take, for example, the latest.

Thursday morning with not so much as a 'hello' the first thing to pop up in my im window from him was a link to the symphony in his city for a concert from his favorite composer.

The next thing I got was a question, "Want to fly out and go see it? :-)"

I asked if he was buying the tickets. He reassured me that if I buy the plane tickets he'd pick up the symphony tickets! We laughed, then I reciprocated with a link to a concert I want to see out here—one that I know he'd love.

The conversation was then duplicated in reverse.

Out of shear sense of preservation I suggested he ask his current school crush to go with him to the symphony. He said that might be a good idea.

Friday he told me he was thinking of asking her. I told him I thought that was a good idea, but "you're taking her on my date, though. :'("

"You said you couldn't come :("
"But still. <sniffle/> that's my date," I whined.
"No worries. I'll take you out to a concert when I get to Seattle," he promised.

I'm sure he will, the question remains: why are we doing this to each other? It's kind of ridiculous. We both know nothing could ever happen between us, and yet we persist in the flirtation as if we both were looking forward to his return to Seattle—which, I fear, we are too much. Perhaps I should stop talking to him so frequently.

Matter of Time

Well, it was all just a matter of time. My bus crush, I just discovered this week, took the opportunity to get married sometime in the last month. Too bad, not that I was remotely holding out hope, but, it's much less appropriate to lust after a married man.

Art Display

The Institute is, once again, having a "fine arts night." I've been specifically requested to bring some paintings for the event. I was thinking about what to bring when I decided that I shall bring Blue.



And, after more thought, I decided I really wanted to include Cigar Smoke and Racism.



I asked the owner if I could borrow Cigar Smoke for the evening. He was really excited and said "Sure! But, can I have a little plaque that says 'On loan from the <his last name> collection.'"

I agreed. How fun! Now, I just have to finish Racism.

Snow!

It here again. I know, I find it hard to believe as well. One thing that these small snow "storms" have taught me is: I need snow. I'm going to have to find a place up in the hills here in the Seattle area, or find a job where there is snow. I love playing in it, being in it, living in it. I know, it's rare, and (as Mumsy might claim) sick and wrong, but I get so much joy from snow.

Weird. I thought snow was supposed to depress people. Guess not.

Anyone know any good liberal mountainous snowy places where there is an epicenter of tech-heads?

40 There 40 Here

Well, I'm back to the 80 hour work week. It sucks. I actually worked about 70 last week, but, really who keeps track at that point. My boss has offered me a comp day, which is nice, but, really? One day for an extra week of work?

Oh, the joys of salary.

Fund Raiser

Midge called me Wednesday asking for suggestions on how to raise money for tuition. The catch? She needed the money by Thursday.

I made some apparently unsatisfactory suggestions. A bit frustrated and out of plausible solutions, and not wanting to suggest she turn to prostitution, I suggested, "I dunno, sell a kidney on the black market?"

For some reason she wasn't in love with that suggestion either.

Gelatin

A coworker offered me some candy yesterday. He is a very strict vegetarian, so when he offered it to me I simply checked for the dairy products which I don't eat. He said he thought it should be fine. As I was chewing it I pondered out loud how they made it so chewy. He mentioned that it's a Japanese candy, and they have this sea-plant extract they use in replacement. I asked to see the label again, and right there in plain English was the dreaded word, "gelatin". I pointed it out to him, and he promptly said, "Spit it out! Spit it out!"

I did, though I wasn't sure why I should. I mean, by that point I was already committed, the thing was in my mouth being chewed up. He answered my question, "well, at least you didn't ingest it."

I've been thinking about that off and on for the past day or so, why does it matter if I ingested it or not? How does that impact anything? The answer is simple: say someone hands me a beverage and I take a sip before realizing it contains alcohol. The point where it's in my mouth requires a choice: I can spit it out, or I can swallow. I know I wouldn't want that in my body, so I suppose the same goes for gelatin. By the same token, when I accidentally find meat in my supposedly vegetarian food I always spit it out.

I guess gelatin is just so divorced from meeeaaattt that it doesn't seem like animal. And yet, it's one of the grosser parts.

Happy New Year!!

Though the first 16 hours have sucked (stupid lost keys and cellphone) I have high hopes for the rest of the year. 2008 will be, I predict, a year full of fun, tears, drama, and laughter.

What more could one ask for?

BNE

Today I learned that my neighbors will not call the cops, or pursue any means of investigation when they see someone breaking into an apartment.

My keys, cellphone, and camera were stolen last night (or, maybe, accidentally picked up, either way, I'm without), so this afternoon I went to the main office at my apartment building; predictably, no one was there. I called maintenance, and was told that they don't do lock outs (whatever! They used to, and that's ridiculous!), so I should call a locksmith. Like I'm going to pay for that. Ever resourceful, I decided to break in. It was a snap. Which kind of worries me. But, equally worrisome is the fact that the window I entered was right in the front of my building, and this took place at 2 in the afternoon. It's not like no one could see us. Maybe the fact that the whole entering took less than a minute. I suppose a maneuver that speedy could easily be missed. Either way, now I'm home, showered, teeth brushed, clean clothed, and in (slightly) better spirits.

Now, it's just a waiting game. Hopefully whomever picked up my stuff calls someone in my phone to see who I am, or they return my keys et al to lost and found. Somewhere.