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About to peel potatoes

Tuesday, and the weather's settled into general light scuzziness.

Overslept this morning (with a story-spark dream I'm still toying with - haven't had one for a while, so I'm still savoring the juices as I debate what to do with it). Now I need to load the laundry and Do Something with my day.

Away I go.

I honestly never remember my dreams; sometimes I wonder if that's a good thing or not. Last one I remember is a nightmare from when I was a child, maybe 7 or so, in vivid detail. Since then, nada.

I'm getting ready to go upstairs and finish out my evening, probably with reddit. The one major problem I have with reading in bed during the week is I'll want to stay up way too late to finish "just one more chapter" and then 3 hours later...yeah, no. I definitely do want to adjust my schedule to get some daily reading time in, and writing time, and exercise...I forgot what it was like to actually be busy. I miss being able to do whatever, whenever, but I don't miss the constant worry and doubt of watching my savings dwindle every month.

Swingin' back through before I trudge off for nightly writing... don't mind me.

Today wasn't particularly productive, but I've made some site overhaul layout progress on paper, at least. Also watched a movie with lunch (Rifftrax took on Ator, the Fighting Eagle, prequel to the "classic" MST3K'ed Cave Dwellers. It made Cave Dwellers look downright taut and lucid...) Otherwise, aside from tracking down more ref pics for that logo, nada.

I suck.

And that's a night.

Once in a blue moon I have dreams where I know I'm dreaming so I know anything is possible, that's when I fly...wish I could do that every night it's such an amazing dream. It's always night out in my flying dream and I fly above a black ocean where I dip down and can breath under water and then sail back up to the sky.

I'm excited about my writing. I became inspired today and have a better grasp on my novel.

I'm vaguely annoyed and I'm not even at work yet. My supervisor sent something work related to my personal email, which a. means there's a cluster"f" already and b. I'm not dealing with anything when I'm not physically in the building. He made the mistake of mixing his personal and work business, a mistake I'm not about to make. If he asks I can't open the thing he sent me on my computer, and I'm not about to buy a license for software I never use.

The truth is that I "borrowed" an older enterprise version of that software suite from a friend, so I have it. I'm just choosing not to use it for something I'm not paid for. I'm not salary, I don't owe anyone there anything when I'm not clocked in. If they don't like it they can find someone else. I'm not so desperate for work that I'll give away my personal time. Some things are sacrosanct.

Jan74 said:

Once in a blue moon I have dreams where I know I'm dreaming so I know anything is possible, that's when I fly...wish I could do that every night it's such an amazing dream. It's always night out in my flying dream and I fly above a black ocean where I dip down and can breath under water and then sail back up to the sky.

Click to expand...

I sometimes know I'm dreaming, but it's never a guarantee of total control.

DragonHeart said:

I'm vaguely annoyed and I'm not even at work yet. My supervisor sent something work related to my personal email, which a. means there's a cluster"f" already and b. I'm not dealing with anything when I'm not physically in the building. He made the mistake of mixing his personal and work business, a mistake I'm not about to make. If he asks I can't open the thing he sent me on my computer, and I'm not about to buy a license for software I never use.

The truth is that I "borrowed" an older enterprise version of that software suite from a friend, so I have it. I'm just choosing not to use it for something I'm not paid for. I'm not salary, I don't owe anyone there anything when I'm not clocked in. If they don't like it they can find someone else. I'm not so desperate for work that I'll give away my personal time. Some things are sacrosanct.

Click to expand...

Keep that line, and defend it vigorously. (I have a relative who is doing tax stuff for the season, and is already doing extra stuff for the boss. Not the first job where he's let himself be overexploited, or put work ahead of family - we called him "the mythical uncle" growing up, as he was always missing family holidays. Disappointing, as we thought he'd learned something after the last job used him up and dropped him like used Kleenex, but not unexpected. So don't become the family myth...)

Wednesday morning, more iffy sleep before work. My subconscious is trying to sabotage me, I'm certain... thing is, I don't have another reliable source of income. All I'm qualified to do is retail and light warehouse, and I don't actively hate this job (yet.) Pessimistic logic tells me I'm lazy and I should just shrug into the retail harness and grind my life away like everyone else unable to afford useful education, but I just can't bring myself to do it yet. I've seen what retail can do to a person. I don't want that to be my life.

Ergh. Definitely too little sleep, and too much stress...

Guess I'll wander off.

OK, here's the sequence of events related to a watery problem at home.

1) wife puts earrings in mug containing diet coke (to clean them, she's done it before)
2) wife leaves mug by sink
3) wife allegedly tells me that she's done this.
4) next morning I tip contents of mug down the drain and wash the mug. Oops, but understandable mistake. Perhaps.
5) wife wonders where the mug is.
6) we realise that said earrings are down the drain
7) wife suggests undoing the u-bend under the sink to check
8) two days later (today) I get around to doing just that.
9) I find one earring.
10) After a struggle I put the u-bend back together and then replace the shelf below it. I don't think I bumped my head.
11) I go down a while later and find it's leaking.
12) After a struggle I undo the u-bend
13) After a struggle and a good old shove I put the u-bend back together and then replace the shelf below it. I think I bumped my head.
14) Some time later the wife checks it and tells me it's still leaking.
15) After a struggle I undo the u-bend (again)
16) After a struggle, a good old shove and all but tearing the skin off my hands tightening the screw I put the u-bend back together and then replace the shelf below it. I definitely bumped my head.
17) I wonder if calling in a plumber might be a good idea.
18) Together we reflect on whether it would have been better to just buy more earrings.
19) I sit hoping it's stopped leaking.
20) I sigh.

I will keep you posted.

Working minimum wage for so long has given me a very good perspective on work boundaries, if nothing else. I'm not quite that low on the wage pole anymore but I still don't get paid enough to care about anything outside of my working hours or job description. Doubly so when the daytime dispatch crew gets snippy about answering a pharmacy call. Not my fault you picked it up before I did, and I still don't have a contact list for the numbers I need to know that aren't specifically listed as pharmacy on the caller ID. I'm still not even sure why my presence is required for the weekly dispatch meeting, tbh. I have nothing to contribute and even if I did I'd just get witchy comments about it. Meh, whatever. I stopped taking this kind of thing personally years ago.

Anyway.

Still weird that days of the week have meaning again. Over the hump, just two more days to go.

I'm pretty sure I intended to do something when I got home, but I didn't write it down and can't remember what it was so I'm just going to wind down for the end of the evening instead.

Keithy - I think all sinks leak perpetually, just to varying degrees. (Have you checked the faucet? Sometimes the faucet works loose and you get a hard-to-track drip...)

Well, Wednesday's finally drying out as the sun sets. Typical...

Work was overloaded; Issues yesterday generated a backlog we'll likely be chiseling down the rest of the week, and the crane threw a suspicious number of red lights (a.k.a errors) today - plus there was some sort of pneumatic leak for the last hour that danged near robbed my hearing. (Five people couldn't fix it... that's Not Good. Any time the boss-to-equipment ratio's greater than 1:1, that's Not Good.)

Shopped my way home, which was uneventful but long. I'm sick of grocery stores. I'm sick of how much of my money goes to grocery stores every week.

Now I'm being lazy and procrastinating on washing dinner dishes. (Stuffed peppers. I got snarked at last time I made them, then I got snarked at for not making them anymore. I so wish someone else would take over dinner once in a while... and, yes, I'm still tired and a little cranky.)

I have edited myself out. For now. Going to read and perchance nap. Might continue editing later. I just have three more chapters and the epilogue to go on the 6th draft.

Our sink didn't leak before I "adjusted" it.

Anyway, it's got a bucket under it until we sort out a plumber.

One of my biggest inner debates about my revised "life schedule" right now is when to do my grocery shopping. I have basically 3 options--I have enough time that I could go first thing in the morning on a weekday before work. I could go on my way home after work. Or I could go on the weekend, when everyone else goes.

I was thinking about Friday evening, but I already have laundry tentatively penciled in for that time slot so I don't have to do (as much of) it on a weekend. I could potentially go on Thursdays, as long as I don't mind any produce I buy being 3 days old by the time I get to meal prep on Sundays. If I go early enough, I can beat the weekend crowds and just do it on Saturday morning.

These are the things I think about at 7 a.m. on a Thursday morning, because I've been looking around for inspiration on the best way to handle recurring weekly task lists in my bullet journal. I decided I'd rather use my mornings as my personal time since by the time I get home I'm too tired to care about anything creative, so nighttime is going to be when I do things that don't require thought, like chores and working out. It's a bit backwards of more traditional routines, I think, but hey these books aren't going to write themselves.

I'm also thinking it might well be a two coffee morning, as my cup is empty but I still haven't had breakfast yet.

Crikey, looks like everyone's having a crap week.

Keithy: hope that plumber sorts that sink out. At least I know how to clean my silver (the earring were silver, yeah?).

Dragonheart: Man, what impertinence from your boss. Good on your for standing your ground. I wish I could write in the morning, but I can't relax when I must go to work later.

Brightdreamer: Well, that's sucky having to cook dinner everyday. As for supermarkets, I've had enough of them, too, and their stupid TVs flashing ads and hurting my brain. They're due to rearrange everything in the aisles again. I hate being manipulated.

+++

Got an email from the coordinator stating we have to present objectives for new classes for next semester in next week's meeting. We were supposed to do that during our holidays, but screw that; I holidayed.

Who likes meetings? Seriously? People who like wasting other people's time, perhaps, but at least our new boss isn't a control freak. Heck, we haven't met him yet!

Can't sleep. So I transferred Draft 6 to Google Docs because I'm paranoid about losing my novel. Been there, done that. It ain't funny. Thinking about doing a little find and replace on Draft 7.

Thursday, and there's a glimpse of sunshine between the showers. Not when I'm out there, though... (Elsewhere in the area, a weak tornado touched down. We never used to have them at all. But, remember, climate change is a hoax...)

On the way to work, I saw that a power pole at the bottom of the road had become an abstract art piece: Alternative Braking. No sign of the car, but the pole's leaning, it's fractured clean through, and there are pieces of bumper at the scene.

Work was again busier than it needed to be, with more red light issues. Three people were out (and I'm not holding my breath on one of them coming back). They need extra hands on Saturday, and I'm hesitating to volunteer because I just plain don't want to have to face this load again. My flimsy rationalization is that we might be doing family Stuff on Saturday... though if they still need people as of tomorrow I might go in anyway; still leaves the afternoon free.

I don't know what's been cursed around here, but it needs to go...

Brightdreamer said:

I sometimes know I'm dreaming, but it's never a guarantee of total control.
Keep that line, and defend it vigorously. AGREED!!!

Click to expand...

Keithy said:

18) Together we reflect on whether it would have been better to just buy more earrings.

Click to expand...

yep it would have, but hindsight is 20/20

Brightdreamer said:

Shopped my way home, which was uneventful but long. I'm sick of grocery stores. I'm sick of how much of my money goes to grocery stores every week.

Click to expand...

I've always said if I didn't have to buy food I'd be rich!

Tonight I thank Domino's for making my kids supper! (Hubby isn't home till much later and I have zero desire to cook) Although I'm not eating Domino's so I will have to make something, but I'm an easy person to cook for. Pasta... simple sauce and simple spaghettini and I'm a happy girl.

Today I fixed a hole with a MC and edited my villain. Lot's of research today so now my arm hurts from scrolling... yes I'm getting old and the body doesn't like repetitive movement like scrolling.

At this point I'll take a tornado over yet more snow, which is on the forecast for tomorrow and Saturday. *grumbles* Very funny New England, can we have spring now? I'm cold. The fleet manager keeps turning the heat in the office down to like 65 degrees, and with the dock-facing door constantly left open from drivers coming in and out, it gets chilly.

Apparently I've made friends with one of the dock dudes. He gave me a muffin when I was dropping off the paperwork before I went home lol. I wasn't going to take it but he made a sadface and I was like...ok, fine. I do feel bad though, he's a super nice guy and always chatty but I don't understand a word he says cause I don't speak Spanish, and his English is minimal at best.

Work went...ok. I'm still having trouble resolving issues on my own. Yesterday, the driver wouldn't answer his phone when I called him. Today, I emailed and called to request a manifest for proof of delivery, but it was never sent to me. There's only so much I can do about that sort of thing.

Anyway. I'm going to make sure I do my one chore for today, which is more than I've been doing all week, then back to researching task lists and trying to figure out a more efficient schedule.

Jan74 - Pizza for dinner... haven't done that in ages. Not since our favorite pizza chain abruptly closed the local store. Dang, I miss Round Table...

Well, I just found out that the head of our library system abruptly resigned over "confidential" issues. I also found out that the last training video was woefully inadequate explaining our new self-serve payroll software. Seriously, what the friggin' heck is going on around here?

I'll leave you with a (bad) picture of the neighborhood art installation:



I have to drive past this thing on the way to and from work... hopefully we don't get any winds before it's fixed. Though the way things are going the local faultline'll probably let loose...

I've enjoyed reading some of your updates Yesterday, I sat for literal hours starting at screen with last scene open, thinking; scroll through FB and got caught up on that (car break-ins in our neighborhood, ugh!) and reading more history about Asian tribes and time periods. Wrote not one word. This novel is at 114K now (1st draft) and almost done, but I'm stuck - to the end is mostly action, which is not my thing. I can visualize it somewhat, but writing it is tough. Today, hubby wanted to spend time together--which was fine because my writing brain wakes up around 10 p.m. (thank you, genetics on my dad's side).

Anyhoo, I realized that I need to get our stupid taxes done, and then my mind will be less cluttered for writing, and worrying if will we get a refund or pay?? Aaaah. So tonight, the novel must be left to start our taxes. Which I detest but trust no one else to do, after several crap experiences.

Barb ~

Ah, taxes. What joy.

I have to do mine in May. Doesn't help I don't speak the lingo.

Got a bunch of homework to correct this weekend. Yay. At least it'll be raining. The air quality has been disgusting cos it hadn't rained for a whole month.

I might do my taxes this weekend as well. I've been putting it off because I'm lazy and didn't have any income last year so I won't get anything back anyway. But I have to redo my budget so I might as well get it all done at the same time. Speaking of, I got my first check today finally. Holy carp, it's seriously close to double what I made in retail, between the higher wage and 25% more hours--a full 40 instead of the ~30 I was lucky to scrape by with as "full time". My first thought was about how fast I can pay down the rest of my student loans, snowball style. Clear debt, build savings. Play money will be minimal but I won't feel bad about occasional wishlist purchases or going out to dinner either.

Gotta finish getting ready for work in the meantime. Not really looking forward to it after the fiasco that was last night, but hey I'm new, I'm going to have problems getting into the flow for awhile.

Friday, and the sun decided to visit. I fully expect it to take off for the weekend, though.

Work existed. A little lighter than yesterday, with only one person out. Still feelin' yesterday...

Now I'm just lazing around decompressing until it's time to start dinner. (Salmon night. Usually can't go wrong with salmon.)

Away I drift...

Just realised why my tablet wasn't charging. I didn't plug in both ends of the cable. Senility beckons.

The sink is still dripping away happily. We're not so happy about that.

Just finished putting away my laundry. The upside of doing it tonight is that I don't have to do it on the weekend. The downside is that it's not done until late and there's at least a 50% chance I won't care enough by then to put everything away. I did tonight, if only because I don't check it off my list officially unless it's washed, dried folded and put away. I live out of laundry baskets for an embarrassing majority of my time. Trying to get better about these things.

Work was pretty quiet and really laid back. Pizza Friday woo, and I don't know where they get it from but it's good pizza. Best I've had in quite some time, all the local places are just sad.

Stupid snowstorm though, seriously. The drive home wasn't fun but the highways were clear at least. But we're supposed to get 8+ inches overnight...grr. So sick of winter. I'm already debating if I really want to bother shopping tomorrow or wait until Sunday. I also broke my good snowbrush during the last storm so I'm down to my crappy backup one.

For now I think I'm going to worry less about tomorrow and more about nice comfy bed.