Did Someone Say Cookies?

So I'm crashing a game party at Randy's. But I brought cookies, so they pretty much had to let me come over. Mmmmm...cookies. Oatmeal Peanut Butter cookies to be exact. Yum!

Work seems to be steadily getting better. (Although I'm still planning on contacting the DOL & am half heartedly looking for another job. Once they find out I've contacted the DOL, I have a feeling that they'll just be looking for an excuse to get rid of me.) But my overall stress level seems to be steadily lowering, and that is a very welcome relief.

I'm only working a half day tomorrow in honor of my friend Wendy coming to visit on her way to her new job. I love being on people's way to someplace! My first official "apartment guest"! Sweet! I checked out the place she's gonna be working on the web & it looks awesome. I'm half tempted to jump ship and tag alone with her. It's year round & it's a camp job - what more could I possibly want? ... Other than enough money to live off of. And maybe medical benefits. And my own place to live...living in "provided housing" with lots of other people is great for a while, but I'm just at that age where that gets old pretty quickly.

Anyways, life is good. And that's all I have to say about that.

Monday Chores

I had the day off work today. I drove up to my parents place and made good use of their free laundry facilities. I let laundry go 2 weeks this time! I rarely do that...I'm normally a once a weeker. Needless to say, I had enough to wash that it took me the large chunk of my day. (One disadvantage to not being able to wash multiple loads at the same time. But I can't argue with free.)

Tomorrow I have another day off to do whatever my little heart desires. So far my big plans for the day include cleaning my kitchen, grocery shopping, and shopping for birthday gifts for my parents (they both have birthdays in the next couple weeks).

I received an e-mail tonight from one of friends who worked (& lived) with me in California. She's about ready to start a job in New jersey & will be passing through the area on her way later this week! Sweet! She's going to stop over & crash at my place if all goes well! How cool is that?! I can't wait! I love getting caught up with old friends. I haven't seen her since we all went our separate ways a year & half ago. It'll be great!!!!! I hope it works out & she can come bye. Fun!!!

Congrats to Elizabeth on coming in 3rd in the Chicago Tri!!! You rock! And congrats to April - good luck with the new job! And to all of you out there who are getting back into the swing of school (teaching it or attending class) - best of luck & learning for the new term! I'll blog at ya later.

Sunday Quote Blogging

"For every dream that's took me high
There's been a dream that's passed me bye."
~ Harry Chapin

Friday Already?

Well it's Friday morning & I'm up & awake earlier than I need to be to head out for work. (*grrr* I hate not sleeping as long as I could be). The weather this week so far has been awesome to work in! I'm hoping the forecast is right when it says we have another day or so of it. Working this week has actually been sort of nice for a change. My stress level has started to lower - although it spiked for a bit yesterday. Had some staffing issues that were unexpected & HR is screwing us again. (But on the bright side, at least their screwing "us" & not directing their aim at "me" this time.) Hopefully I can continue to, as Randy puts it, "chill out" about it.

Speaking of Randy, he's leaving me for the weekend. Must need his gaming fix or something like that...(Don't go easy on him David). I guess I can forgive him though considering I have a long day at work tomorrow...probably won't leave work until 9pm or so.

In completely unrelated news, I think I've finally started on the way to conquering my coffee/caffeine addiction. Yesterday was the first day in about a week & a half or two weeks that I actually my normal large coffee intake in the morning. The headaches seem to have subsided for the most part so that's a good thing. And (last night excluded) I've done a good job at sticking to my new rule of no caffeine after work hours. (Was having trouble falling asleep for no apparent reason...caffeine may have been the culprit.) So we'll see. With any luck I can do this without a 12 step program. :-)

Good luck Elizabeth in Chicago! Shannon be safe driving home. David take care of Randy & make sure you give him a hard time just because. Have a good normal people's weekend everyone.

Random Picture Blogging

Fun with Flowers

Just a quick note to self: remember to take a little time to stop and smell the flowers from time to time.

My Weekend's Over

Tonight brings an end to my "weekend" and it's back to work tomorrow morning. Life at work still has a ways to go before it starts to have any semblance of normalcy, but once everyone is trained & pretty self sufficient, I'll be a happy camper. I reckon that'll be another 3 weeks from now - 4 weeks maybe. Somewhere in the near future there is light on the horizon.

Today's been a good day. I've spent much of the day just relaxing and not doing a whole lot. But I've been pretty damn productive throughout the day too. I cleaned my living room & bed room, washed dishes a few times (yes, dishes...it bugs me if I have more than a few dirty dishes in the sink...what can I say - I'm anal about it.), did some journaling, a little reading.

I just got done cleaning up from a kick ass dinner for one. Awesome mashed potatoes with green onions mixed in, a pork chop that I marinated in an really easy & spur of the moment homemade marinade, & a yummy spinach, zucchini, green onion & cheddar salad. A bit healthier (not to mention more yummy) than my fast food foes that had my stomach in an uproar 2 days ago.

Not too much to say today...for a change. Life just isn't very exciting right now. I'm gonna sign off for now & focus my attention on Nova (gotta love PBS!) That's about how much excitement there is in my life tonight. Catch ya later.

A Much Better Day

Today things have once again perked up a bit. I think I've located the source of my stomach woes - plan & simple poor judgment on my behalf. After thinking about what could be causing my queasiness, I realized exactly what I've been eating over the past week or two.

Let me use Saturday as my example: Got up & went to work without eating anything. Didn't get a lunch at work because things just kept coming up. By the time I could actually sit down to eat, I was ready to leave early for the day so didn't have lunch until I made my way to Perrysburg at 3:15pm. When I finally ate for the first time of the day, I wanted something that was instant gratification & little effort so I choose McD's. Yes, yes, I know. Please...I know...I'm disappointed & embarrassed just to admit it. Then it was off to a little get together at Bob's (which was really fun by the way). When I finally left at 10:45ish I was hungry yet again (those of you who know me even remotely well, know that this is not unusual...I'm hungry all the frickin' time!) So once again, I'm tired & not wanting to make anything when I get home 'cause it's freakin' late & I'm freakin' tired - and so I once again listen to the little devil on my shoulder that tells me "Taco Bell! It's quick, it's cheap, it's on the way home! Problem solved!" Then comes Sunday. Shannon's passing through town on her way up north & we'd made plans to have the best pancakes in town at Uncle John's Pancake House. Banana Pancakes & sausage links, & coffee for my already not so happy tummy. Not the best idea according to my body.

Now I know most of you out there are probably thinking "Not the best idea?! No shit! Any moron could have told you that!" And yes, you're right. I guess my body will no longer put up with me feeding it complete shit anymore. How the hell did I eat like this in High School & College? Geez! I was lucky it only had my face looking like an Italian dinner. My belly has spoken! I'll try to follow it's warning & attempt to eat food that actually has some sort of nutritional content in it. Moral of the story - Don't listen to the fast food demons...they just want to party together in your tummy...fun for them, not for you.

In other news, Randy & I have started (but are far from finished) a deep clean of his apartment. Maybe a deep clean will help his allergies & hopefully help him feel better than he has lately. This may take several visits from me though...I'm anal retentive when it comes to deep cleaning. The Q-Tip is your best friend in times like this: it can get the grime out of almost every tiny crevice! I have tomorrow off work so maybe I'll keep up the work for a little bit tomorrow. For now, back to cleaning! Until next time, get out there & enjoy this great weather!

A Day Off?

I took the day off work today sick. Feeling kinda sick to my stomach & queasy. Just not up to working out in the heat all day. It's hard enough to keep my breakfast down as it is - I'm not going to tempt it by forcing myself to be out in the heat working my ass off all day on top of it. Work can wait...it's time to take care of me for a change. I've been putting work first for far too long & it's gotten me fucked over time & time again. No more. The stress is once again effecting how I feel physically. And besides, I have a 10 hour day ahead of me on Saturday, so I would be over my allotted hours anyways if I went in today. Whatever. My morale concerning work is now even further down the shitter than it was a couple of weeks ago when I thought it couldn't get much worse. Well sure enough it did. "Thank you sir, may I have another?" Whatever.

I'm just planning on laying low for the day. Hopefully I'll start to feel better shortly. Sorry for the bitchy post. But between my fucked up work situation & the fact that I feel like shit - well I'm just not a big ball of sunshine today.

Sunday Quote Blogging

"Well my nerves are exploding and my bodies tense
Feels like the whole world has got me pinned up against the fence.
I've been hit too hard, seen too much
Nothing can heal me now, but your touch.
I just don't know what I'm gonna do
I was alright until I fell in love with you.

...

Well I'm tired of talkin', tired of trying to explain,
My attempts to please you, they were all in vain.
Tomorrow night before the sun goes down
If I'm still among the livin' I'll be Dixie bound."

~ Bob Dylan
" 'Til I Fell in Love with You"
from the album Time Out of Mind

Bend Over

And take it the ass...again.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Yeah...that's pretty much the story of my work life.

Birthday's & Bosses

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON!!!!! You Rock!

In other news, my new boss is cool so far. It's a little weird to be training my new boss, but she's very willing to learn from me rather than just take over & become like a dictator so I think it'll be a good thing.

It's late, I'm tired. Off to bed I go.

Random Picture Blogging

Me & Shannon...close up!

Just a random picture from my short visit home from California last March. The Self Portrait strikes again!

...

My new boss started work on Monday so tomorrow will be first day under the rule of a new top dog. Let the training of my much awaited replacement begin! We'll see how it goes. Hopefully things will start looking up at work soon.

Random Picture Blogging

Randy & Me hanging out on the shore of Lake Erie.

Here's a picture of Randy & I from Marblehead. It's really overcast, but if it was clear you could probably see Cedar Point somewhere in the background behind us. This is from our mini road trip last week. It was a good time & just what I needed to get my stress level back to a healthy level.

Today is my day off once again. So far it's been pretty relaxing. I spent the late morning doing some writing (Sarah you're long overdue letter is on it's way shortly!) I also went to the library & got myself a brand spanking new library card! Woo Hoo!!!! It's the little things that can make a dork like me happy. Checked out my first book too. So hopefully now that I have my library card & am being forced to cut back on my hours at work maybe I'll have time & energy to get back into the habit of reading on a daily basis again. I don't think I've actually finished a book since March or April. Pathetic!

No real plans for the rest of the day. Just some relaxation, more writing & yes - READING!!! If I get ambitious, I might even do some cleaning...my kitchen & bathroom are in drastic need of a good once over.

Sunday Quote Blogging

"With every mistake we must surely be learning."
~ George Harrison
from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

Jesus Freaks & Baseballs

Okay, so it's been a longer break than normal between my posts. I'm such a slacker.

It's Saturday and I must go in to work today. But I'm only allowed to work for 4 hours because I'm out of hours for the week (long story). On the plus side, I'm only going into work for 4 hours today. So who knows when I'll actually decide to show up. Probably around 11 or so. No use getting up at the butt crack of dawn to go in for half a day.

I had a meeting with my boss earlier this week & my attitude has been much improved ever since. Got some stuff off my chest & now I feel better so it's all good. And my new boss starts Monday! Which means I won't have any interaction with her until Wednesday 'cause there's no way in hell I'm going in on my days off. But this is one step closer to weight being completely lifted off my shoulders & I'm all for that right now!

But enough about work. Randy& I had a fun evening last night. It actually felt like a normal persons Friday night for a change rather than a "I have to work in the morning" Friday night. It got off to a rocky start. Weather threatened to keep up indoors, but we prevailed. Dinner plans were promptly put to Plan B thanks to mass amounts of rather rude "holier than thou" jesus freaks who invaded Spaghetti Warehouse like the plague. And so we scratched that idea in about 2 seconds flat which is fine by me. Not the type of crowd I'd want to be surrounded by for a relaxing dinner. It'd be different if there were a few of them...but what seemed like a few hundred? No thanks.

So we ended up heading to the MudHen's game. And the freakin' Jesus Freaks still wouldn't leave us the hell alone! What the crap? I just don't get how a person thinks that standing on a street corner dressed up in your Sunday best holding a bible and yelling at people about their "sins" & about how we must "repent" or spend an eternity in hell is going to attract people to your faith. I mean come on! That's just not the way to go about it ya know. That doesn't make me want to explore the "Christian" faith...it makes me want to stay clear of it at all costs.

But once we purchased our tickets & were inside the stadium, we were finally free of the fanatical jesus freaks who would damn us to hell with a glance. We were stuck way out in the nosebleeds in the picnic table area, which actually turned out to be pretty good seats. And we got to eat yummy baseball game food - hot dogs, nachos, popcorn & a huge soda to split between us. Yum!

The game was pretty good. Hen's won...which was good for me...the first 2 games I went to they lost - I was beginning to think I gave them bad karma or something. There were a couple really cool plays. And the game went into an extra inning, and just by luck they came out with the win. Then fireworks after the game! :-p It was a good time. We were out way past my bedtime for a change.

Anyways, I'd better go get ready for work. The sooner I go in, the sooner I can come home.

It's All Good

I'm enjoying the last fleeting moments of my 2 days off of work. It's back to work bright & early tomorrow morning. I'm so excited...really I am. (*insert sarcastic overtones here*) I've had 2 great days off though!

Yesterday Randy won the Greatest Boyfriend of the Year award for taking the day off work so we could actually spend an entire day together. It's been what seems like months since we've actually both had the same day off of work. Realistically it's been about 6 weeks or so since we've spent an entire day together so this was a little overdue. And we both had a great time I think!

We both had morning things to be done, but were done by 10ish so we went out for a late morning yummy breakfast & great coffee. Then we took a little road trip to Crane Creek State Park. It was hot, but not too miserable. We went for a couple of really nice walks on some cool trails. I think Randy would like to go back during a busier bird migratory time of year. It was great to spend a day at a park and actually get to enjoy it without feeling like I was at work.

Part of the park was right along the beach of Lake Erie. I got to take my shoes & socks off & feel the sand between my toes & walk in the lapping water on the shore. It was great! Too bad we didn't know about the beach...next time we'll take our suits.

After the park it was off to Marblehead. We got to see the lighthouse, although we didn't actually get to go inside & up to the top. Maybe next time. Instead we hung out on some big slabs of limestone along the shore. We had a good view of Sandusky & Cedar Point (even if it was overcast by this point.)

We eventually headed back to Port Clinton & got some dinner in a cool restaurant in the rather huge downtown area (if you've ever been there, you get the joke I hope.) Dinner was great & shockingly affordable considering the portions & the meal!

And we made it back in time to crash out on the couch for the remainder of the evening. It was a much needed day away from everyday life. Just one more reason why Randy is super cool!

Today I've spend the day doing lots of little productive things (laundry, cleaning the inside of my car so it doesn't look like I'm living out of it anymore, grocery shopping, etc.) It's been a busy, but good day. I have a feeling a long overdue journaling session will be in the cards for the remainder of the evening. It seems I haven't been very good about keeping up with my hand written journal these days.

Sunday Quote Blogging

"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second best policy."
~ George Carlin

It appears that I'm getting a new neighbor. My old neighbor moved out without me even knowing it a couple of months ago. I just stopped seeing them walk past my window at some point, no biggie. Then one afternoon I saw a few maintenance guys walk past with painting supplies - thus leading me to the startling observation that I no longer had a neighbor on one side of my apt. And here I sit at my computer getting caught up on blogs & all of a sudden there is a mattress being transported past my window. New neighbor...sweet! ... I hope.

Life this week has been good. Work has gone pretty smoothly. Ever since the news of my time as boss coming to a close here shortly, my stress level has been nice & low. Somehow just knowing there's an end in sight is relief enough to relax & focus on getting shit done without wondering when I can go back to my normal life. So in that realm, life is good. There are other annoyances that have popped up at work, but I'm trusting my boss will handle them...I'll raise hell if he doesn't, but there's no use worrying about it now. I've got enough on my plate for the moment...we'll worry about it more when it's more pressing.

From the looks of some other blogs out there everyone seems to be having a nice weekend. As usual, I'm spending mine at work. But it's all good. After 4 + years of working weekends it kinda becomes less of a mental hardship. And I do tend to enjoy my Monday & Tuesdays so it all works out in the end I guess.

Revenge Pic of the Day

Randy's competition for boyfriend of the year. It's pretty hard to compete with a dirty old man sugar daddy.

Light on the Horizon

I found out some great news today! I won't go into detail, but I will say that it involves my remaining time as the Interim Mgr. at work...mainly that my time won't be dragged out much longer. Relief at last! The days just can't go fast enough at this point! Knowing that I will soon be relieved of many of my unwanted responsibilities is the best news I've heard in about 3 or 4 months.

What's up with this freakin' heat?! Man, last summer I spent much of the summer wearing long sleeves...this year I'm wishing for just one day like that. Is it winter yet?

Not much else to report at the moment. Life is moving along - almost as if I'm on auto pilot - just trying to get through the summer with as little stress as possible. Work continues to make that a challenge, but it will all be over soon if all goes as I'm told it will. I'm looking forward to having more time off & being less burnt out & exhausted during my hours away from work. I miss having the energy to do the things I love; like reading, journaling, writing my kick ass friends who live elsewhere. I haven't done much of any of those things over the past 4 months. It's amazing how not having time or energy to do those things can take a toll on me...they always provide a great attitude ajustment when I need one...time to chill out & refocus. It'll be nice to be able to get back to a place where I can get back on a schedule that will better allow for that stuff.

Week of Insanity: Over

Another week at work has finally came to an end. This has probably been the most hectic week I've had since I've taken over as Interim Mgr. I had a new hire start, and 2 small events & 1 large scale event to cram into my work week. It was crazy busy! But all in all, I'd say things went pretty well. I must say that my large event went extremely well! Our visitors seemed to really enjoy it & get into it and gave some great responses! And as far as planning, set up, program flow, & take down/clean up - smooth like butter! For my first large scale event - it was actually a fairly stress free time. Busy as hell sure, but stress levels stayed fairly low...just enough to stay productive. So I'm giving myself a large pat on the back for a well planned, smooth running event! Chalk one up for Ruth! Woo Hoo!

All week I've been pretty exhausted, which makes sense considering my level of productivity & long on the clock hours this week. So I'm enjoying a day to do as little as possible. Made myself a big yummy breakfast this morning, washed some dishes (the only productive thing I've done all day). Here's to a lazy day!