Gonzai Gallery

A change in year is not helping things at all. This has been one of the worst weeks ever.

Some of it is universal; I may not be the biggest Harry Potter fan, but I did adore Alan Rickman. By Grabthar's Hammer, this sucked. And Bowie. We got cable the same month MTV debuted, so I got my fill of Ashes to Ashes, Fashion, etc., loved the 80s version of Bowie, then went back & discovered that Ziggy Stardust is one of the best records, ever, full stop. Today just heard about Ted Marchibroda, the first ever coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Enough with the death already.

On a more personal level, I hurt my heel in the car accident & it's been getting worse every day. Last week we started using a new software system at work without training or practice, & the data supplied by our client conflicted with the previous set they sent us. I wound up standing at my supervisor's computer for hours at a time while we compared databases looking for the (many errors) sent by our client. That hurt my foot even more. It took us all day Monday to finish fixing the database & printing documents. When I got home, my paycheck was in the mailbox; I usually take it to work in my pocketbook & then to the bank at lunchtime. This will be important later. Monday night, CJ flipped out around 1am, and stayed that way, barking for hours. I finally got up, and after another hour figured out the problem - battery ran low on the smoke alarm. Meanwhile I was freezing & couldn't get back to sleep. Great.

Tuesday, I arrived at work to find out that all the documents we'd printed Friday & Monday - over 2500 of them - were wrong. We had to delete some data that we didn't want on the documents; turned out the new software decided to helpfully put it back when we printed. We had to reprint every one of them. Forget going to the bank - I didn't get lunch & almost didn't get a chance to go potty all day. Meanwhile my supervisor & the third member of our office were at each other's throats all day, & it became pretty clear I was not going home at 4 for the second day in a row. After 4, I kept working on documents while my supervisor went to ask the boss some questions. When he came back, he came back with the boss, the office manager & boxes. And started packing his stuff into them. I thought he had quit. Seems there was another issue altogether I didn't know about, & combined with software issues, there was blow up & he was fired. I'm a temp, who was brought on specifically to be his assistant, so I had to ask the office manager if I should come in on Wednesday. Meanwhile, We were still printing the documents, and as a result of the firing, all of the documents needed the supervisor's name crossed out and signed by someone else. Some other workers stayed late, but the whole mess wasn't finished until after 7:30, & I didn't get home until almost 8. (I called the neighbor & asked here to feed/out the dogs.) When I got home, it was 40 degrees in my bedroom - the wind was blowing straight in & the heater couldn't keep up. So I 'slept' Tuesday night on the couch. Didn't actually sleep much & was one hurting puppy in the morning.

So Wednesday was a continuing adventure in frantically trying to print documents & deliver them to various courts, which included broken hand carts, heavy boxes, metal detectors, nosy clerks & my own failure to poker face (the clerk correctly guessed from my body language & refusal to answer questions that things were a mess, & since we'd just filed over a 1000 documents with the name crossed out...well, we handed over a lot of evidence.) Managed to eat lunch but still no time for the bank. On my way home, I discovered that the keyfob to my new car wasn't working.

Thursday was worse; the third person in our office was now the boss, as it were, & she was pissy, surly & wanted someone to yell at. Guess who. Anyway, never stopped working the entire day, no food, no bank, barely made it to the potty & then only when I snuck out when she was smoking. I nearly quit Thursday. & I got in trouble with the higher ups, because my contract with the temp agency requires that I inform them of any 'change in status' so I called them Wednesday & told them what was going on. Between the temp agency & the loose-lipped clerk, a lot of people knew about the firing, & I started to think I was going to get fired because of that.

Friday wasn't quite as bad as Thursday, but not much better. It was worse for the 'new' boss, she almost quit yesterday. And again, no lunch & no chance to go to the bank. Every bit of me hurts like heck.

Then today, I was finally going to take the check to the bank. And...it's gone. Missing. I searched everywhere, but the check isn't in my pocketbook & it isn't anywhere else either. The only place I haven't been able to look is the drawer at work where I keep my pocketbook. I'm hoping beyond hope the check fell out of the pocketbook & into the drawer at some point during the week, but if it didn't, then I'm out a paycheck indefinitely. Haven't gotten this week's check either, so the money thing is is not good. Oh yeah, the keyfob is damaged & can't be fixed without an appointment at the car dealership. Joy.

2016, you are sucking.

My string of minor successes last week (finished watching Charlie Cox's entire filmography, trivia team won both the final game of the session and the entire session, had two promising possible jobs on Friday) has come to a crashing halt, it would seem. I tried to play trivia last night, an all Game of Thrones night for extra seeding points, but the restaurant had cancelled all Sunday games for the rest of the year (football). However, the trivia company never took it down from their web site, never told the hosts the theme nights were off, and when I called the restaurant to confirm, the woman who answered said yes, they're having trivia tonight. So I skipped part of the Ravens game and drove an hour plus tolls, only to discover nope, no trivia. And got to watch the Ravens implode. Yay.

Then there was the temp-to-hire job I was to start today. It lasted less than 4 hours. I went home for lunch and while there got a call from the temp agency that they didn't want me to come back. Work-wise, it seemed okay, I hit it off with my trainer (who turned out to be a neighbor) and it was something I certainly could do, but I'd already realized I could not, in good conscience, work there. And while I hadn't said so, they must have figured that out. The main business of the law firm was finding legal loopholes for their clients to get around firearms background checks, CCW regulations, and generally selling weapons. Their one client this morning was crowing about the new silencer they'd helped him buy. Sorry, but no. Guns may be legal, but that doesn't mean I have to help people get them.

I will be calling the other job in a few minutes to see if, hopefully, that one works out better.

Last year, I barely managed to be at Balticon because of Mom issues. So I was promoted from volunteer to staff. Go figure. This year, I managed to rack up 30 hours on the job in the art show. Except, that's all I did. One pass of the dealer's room, two panels (one of which was in the art show room), never set foot in the west side of the hotel much less in the game room. Just art show and trooping back and forth between the show and the bathroom/registration desk for three days. The con debuted a new computer system which...didn't work as planned...and only one guy knew how to fix it. I swear, my primary job all weekend was to go to registration and drag said guy back to the art room.

Meanwhile, I have only two weeks of unemployment left and no prospects on the horizon, so my purchasing consisted of the con t-shirt (which is gorgeous, BTW) and two inexpensive prints. And breakfast from 7-11/Royal Farms each morning. That's it. A cheap, hard-working weekend. I did manage to trade 'trade secrets' with the Art GOH, Ruth Sanderson, regarding scratchboard, and I went to a sci-fi trivia competition, was teamed with someone I've never met at random, and we creamed everyone. She knew books & anime, I knew TV, movies & games, we rolled.

Next year - for them's haven't heard, it's Balticon 50(!), the GOH is George R.R. Martin and Balticon is headed to the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Baltimore, right on the Inner Harbor. And I'm the 'co-Art Show Director'. My co-director has already told me she prefers pre-con prep to the con itself, so I'm pretty much in charge of the art show. Meep.

Beats me how I've managed this, but after not winning anything at anything in some 20 years, I have now won two raffles in three months. Both were gift baskets of pet supplies, the first one a $50 basket of small animal items, most of which my rats appreciated, and the one today is a $100 basket of large dog supplies, which hopefully CJ will allow Mosely to enjoy. (The poor fellow was diagnosed this week with a partially torn ACL, so he needs the giant bed and fluffy toys.)

Now, not that I'm ungrateful or anything like that - both baskets are a help with my critters - but being as I'm over five months unemployed, couldn't I win the lottery instead? (Yes, I play one ticket per drawing.) Anything would be good.

So let's see...

1. Going nowhere, literally. The occasional walk and that's it. Falling off the eating wagon as well, but so far no weight change.

2. Maintenance mode. Nothing new in the cleaning but nothing already done is backsliding.

3. Keeping up with TV OK, and proceeding steadily with the movies. Finished A Storm of Swords and Under the Dome, and just started on back issues of the Atlantic. Getting better with the music, listening a couple hours a week to various music samplers. Also, Freebo is a good musical artist if you are a dog person, and the Lone Bellow are awesome.

4. Financially spending too much, but that happens with multiple birthdays, holidays, conventions and car insurance in the space of six weeks. The car's tuneup and new glasses will have to wait for a while, but I should be able to cover this.

5. Look at that. Still at the same job. Which is not to say I don't have a dozen job postings saved and some really strong leads for vet work if shit happens. The boss hasn't been too bad this month, although the supervisor isn't around much (gone again this week on short notice) and the junior attorneys are being a pain. Hanging on, anyway.

Reviewing them with myself won't work unless I actually do it, right?

1 Gym - Really screwed this pooch. I actually cancelled my gym membership today. Haven't been there since December, which amounts to throwing $200 in a hole, so I cancelled. Trying to walk CJ a few times a week for now.

2 Cleaning - Got the computer room completely cleaned up; this weekend, it's sort and put away all the papers and DVDs sitting around. Assuming I actually do it, plus one for me.

3 Media - Caught up on TV (finally finished the last season of Sarah Jane Adventures) and the movie thing is progressing in a timely manner. Still having trouble with music (headphones broke, but I wasn't being good before that happened) and behind on reading, although 'Storm of Swords' is coming along. I may finish it before GoT comes back.

4 Money - The car is paid off and I have the title from the bank. It needs to be re-titled to just me (which apparently isn't cheap) but otherwise all good. Tax refunds are in the bank. CJ goes to the vet next week, hoping to get myself to the dentist the week after, then glasses and fixing up the car.

5 2013 - Not so hot. Mom continues to decline and I have now fully taken over all paperwork and bills from her, my health isn't improving to include a new assortment of GI issues (already saw the doctor, tests being run this month), and I'm amazed I'm still employed. I'm bored stiff at work and my hands are killing me, but still there. I have lost a few pounds, surprisingly, and I'm eating a bit more healthy, but that's about it.

So, walking the dog, continue gradual cleanup, stay on top of TV and movies, do something with the music, keep getting things done for myself and Mom until caught up. Mission assigned.

I've had one nearly all day. No fun. Then again, my supervisor was out today with the flu.

I didn't really( make resolutions this year, ) ore like self guidelines. And it would probably work better if I checked in on them monthly instead of waiting for December. That said...

1. The gym. I haven't been there. Not once. I have walked at every opportunity, but that's it. Renewing this plan, because I have absolutely got to.

2. Cleaning. Kinda haven't done much of that, either. Did clean up a section of my bedroom, and this weekend the computer room is getting cleaned, period. Guests for Superbowl and Mom's bridge upcoming, it's got to be cleaned.

3. Media. Kept up with the TV, but didn't make much headway on the backlog. Kept up with the movies and saw A Clockwork Orange, Raging Bull, M, Midnight Cowboy, Forrest Gump, plus downloaded the films that are public domain. TCM will get me a long way on the plan in February, or would if I wasn't going to be home most weekends in February. The goal for music was one recording per work day, did more like half that. Note to self, maybe a variety of artists instead of a dozen by one artists would help on that. Books - DIdn't expect to get through more than one a month, considering I'm on the A Song of Ice & Fire series. Almost finished A Clash of Kings, a week early. So, acceptable but could be better.

4. Wow. Things are looking up. 1.5 car payments left now. When Mom & I were at the bank last week, the banker kept pestering me to get a credit card, which she assured was fee-free. I finally said yes, and she gave me a card - with a $10K limit. !!! The one I have is, uh, a lot less than that. Then she sent me a copy of my credit score, which I haven't seen in years. It's...about 200 points higher than I expected. Add the new card and the paid off card and yikes, I'll have a credit score to brag about. Never thought that would happen. Meanwhile, I've already done my taxes, and I'm getting a fair amount back. I thought I'd owe the State, but I'm getting some back there, too. In the mail tomorrow. So optimistic in this area.

5. So far, the year has not been particularly good or bad. My health sucks, but Mom's health seems to have levelled off. The money situation is better, but work is dicey still, with very little for me to do and money problems there. Not great, but not disastrous.

Back at the end of February...

It feels like I use all of my (few) holidays and (limited) vacation time to try and get things done for my mother, and half the time it still doesn't get done. See: 2.5 hours at the bank trying to get me on her account with power of attorney. This was the second time we tried to do this, the first time the attorney didn't give us the document in time. And it's still not done, because of course, my brother has to be physically present at the bank but he declined to show up because he saw no reason why he couldn't do it by phone. Because it's the bank's policy, not mine, that's why. Grrr. So he's still on the account as a joint owner, and I'm not a joint owner, just POA. Great. Hopefully I can drag his ass in there soon...except that's another half day of vacation.

Today was a day off work that wasn't really worth it - took off for Mom's meeting with the lawyer, the lawyer didn't show up because *she* forgot the appointment, so the document review and signing was done by conference call. Then I went to PT for the first time in ages, for a new injury, except the scheduler - after telling me it would be a one hour appointment because it was a new condition - scheduled me for 15 minutes. Yeah...Fortunately one of the two people also in my slot no-showed, because, you know, awkward!

But the really awkward thing was, it was rather chilly today. So I wore long pants, of course, and a nice sweater to the attorney's office. But I was having PT done on my knee and ankle, so I switched from pants to shorts for the PT. It took only the walk from the car to the gym for my knees to freeze. And when the receptionist asked me how I was, I answered without thinking...in front of a gymful of strangers..."I miss my pants!"

In retrospect, that could be taken the wrong way...