Saturday

I got a stellar massage this morning, after over two months since my last one.

Then I came home and picked up Beast before we headed to Sparky's college to bring home a load of his stuff. including the (way-too-freakin-big) TV and his bike. What I hadn't thought about until we started loading the car is ... uhm ... who's getting this shit outta the car at home?!

Yeah, I'm a stellar planner.

I called our neighbor when we got home, but they're at a soccer thing till...sometime. They'll stop by when they're headed home and it will take less than 3 minutes for J and me to get the TV and one giant (heavy) box out onto the floor in the garage.

Meanwhile, we watched the Derby. Now we're watching what happened with NASCAR while the horses ran. Holy cats: major wreck into a wall, so trying not the check the site to see what happened with everyone.

And the drama continued today at work, apparently. No one had called the boss about Crazy Cat Woman's medical update, so by 2 when Techie Librarian realized that and made the call, she got lambasted. No good deed goes unpunished.

My eyes are goofed up again, both itchy and sore as well as not seeing properly. Beast's back seems better than yesterday (not saying much there). I'm so tired. Tomorrow is laundry and general cleaning once we get home from church. At least I don't have to face work on Monday....

Annoyed beyond belief

One of those days.

+ Being TOLD, not asked, by my boss to make coffee for the volunteers, with the implication being "NOW!" Don't know how the coffeemaker works (which of course I do)? "Read the directions."

+ Apparently, yesterday she told the circ desk staff to take the pot of coffee out to the volunteers once in awhile to refill their cups. Uhm, didja noticed we're stacked 3 patrons deep here? Why don't YOU take the coffeepot out to them? Mind you, these volunteers don't expect this sort of thing and would have been horrified if we'd done it.

+ Hearing a pregnant coworker relate that our boss is pressuring her for firm answers about her schedule following the birth of the baby and return to work after FMLA-time is over. And then saying something to the effect that "I understand that family is important, but so is being professional."

+ Asking the same coworker today if she was going to clean up after a program--one that this coworker had planned and was running. [like, who else would be cleaning it up?]

+ Having another coworker, who doesn't usually work in the afternoon, go gonzo because "the computers are slow!!" Yes, they always are after about 11:30 every DAMN day. Why are you spazzing out about it--we deal with it constantly, so there's no emergency.

+ People who return books--mostly animal training books, but also one law book they 'borrowed' without checking out--that are covered in urine. Probably animal urine. But...who knows. (unfortunately, this happens more often than you'd think)

+ Boss-lady saying, "Well I was going to buy donuts, but I ran out of time" after getting in our way all morning. Any of the times you were wandering from fundraiser to program to program to workroom and back would have been an excellent time to run to the store!

+ Why can't people read directions on cleaning solutions? The stuff we use is CONCENTRATE! It needs to be diluted to use. Leaving a 1/8" slime on the toilet seats "to dry" is stupid and puts us in danger of being sued if someone's ass gets a chemical burn. It took me 5 full minutes to wipe/scrape the gunge off the seat with dry paper towels. Good thing it wasn't an emergency!

+ "[Cat.], come out and help at circ! There's a line!" The two of us trying to work in the workroom fly out there...and find two people patiently waiting. I was out there for less than a minute. Line gone, nobody else around needing help. WTF?

+ Some insect or other bit me on the arm yesterday. Big red owie on my left forearm. Bugs annoy me.

+ Just a note to the general public: JUST BECAUSE YOU LEAVE YOUR MASSIVELY OVERDUE ITEMS IN THE OUTSIDE BOOKDROP DOESN'T MEAN YOU WON'T HAVE TO PAY THE FINES! Even if you wait till closing time. We will be able to figure out who it is that owes $4.90 per item (totaling $29.40) on 4 board books, a DVD and a regular picture book that were due 7 weeks ago. You've received a call, a nice letter, and a not-as-nice certified letter from us. You actually owe almost $40 because we had to send two certified letters because you used your kid's card AND your own, so each card got the extra $5 fee for the letter. Yes, you will still have to pay the fine. Thanks for making us stay till 10 minutes past closing time to find all your fucking paperwork because you're too embarrassed or disorganized to bring your stuff inside.

+ Allergy season sux. My eyes are killing me: dry, itchy, red... Stupid corn!

+ My niece and my brother need to go live on (individual) islands. Alone. With no outside communication. She is unlikely to be invited over more than once a year henceforth, and he's a complete asshole that I don't really care about seeing again either. Neither of them were in my face today, but the past month of dealing with their shit has percolated into a sludge of "I'm so DONE with you after your recent behavior!" in my mind.

I think that's all. I think that's enough. If my boss doesn't settle herself down, though, I'm gonna go apeshit (in my head) and talk to HR. I've played this game before, and I'm NOT playing it again. She's every bit as much an asshat as PsychoBoss in some ways.

Thank God for friends who send consoling emails (even though they had no idea they were consoling), and a husband who asked if I needed a drink when I got home and understands that I really really do NOT want to go out to eat tonight. I just want to drink Stoli, vent on my blog, and sleep. Have done two of the three already. Sleep will be here soon, even if it means that I have to get Beast to club me into unconsciousness.

The Eyes Have It

It's official: Sparky has my genetics in his eyes. We already knew he didn't inherit his vision from his dad, but it appears he also has my optic nerve architecture. The doctor yesterday says he has "cupping" of his optic nerve. Lucky him. He will get to do visual field tests until he loses his mind, just as I have to. So freakin' annoying.

Oh, well, on the upside: only my grandmother developed glaucoma, and only when she was pretty old. So, we may have a tendency, but it doesn't seem to be a determiner.

In other news, Mother of the Year status remains unchanged: "No dear, you canNOT get contacts, not right before you go overseas for three weeks."

The dentist gets a co-parenting prize this week too: "Yes, you have to have your wisdom teeth out. Now. Not in July."

Since we're covering medical bases, Beast has been diagnosed with bone spurs in his elbow. Nothing they can (or want to) do right now about it except for treating the occasional pain. Suck.

But FIL's pacemaker seems to be fine. So, there is some good medical news.

Who knew?

I can do a full day's work after barely three hours of sleep, including 6 full hours standing and working with the public. Actually I arrived at work today with my Chicken Caesar salad for lunch at 7:30 a.m. and left at 5:30 p.m. An hour for lunch in there, that makes 9 hours' worth of work. I duly noted the extra hour for a day earlier this week where I only worked 7 hours.

[Hey, I had a 6:30 meeting and it didn't make sense to go home and then leave right away again.]

Anyway. I didn't commit violence against anyone, I was friendly and perky to everyone, even the idiot "Someone is Hacking My Email" guy. Every time he is in the building, Someone is Hacking His [Email][Internet Login][...brain]. People wouldn't freakin' leave at the end of the day, but beyond that it was a decent day, in spite of having the schedule completely messed up due to too many people mixing it up. Honestly. One person writes the schedule. Period. And if you can't work a Saturday, find a sub or be killed upon your return next week. Don't tell me the Schedule Person is supposed to do so. Be a grown-up.

So, I'm so tired I'm barely even hungry. What the heck? And on that note, I'm hitting the sheets.

Oh, and my eyes are shot again. Maybe I need to try sleeping. Oh, hey, snap...

The economy + my body = CHAOS

Times are tight at the 'brary. We are really short of staff this week because of vacations and honeymoons, and the general fact that we're almost ALWAYS short-staffed even when people are here when they are supposed to be.

Pull a breath like another cigarette,
Palms up, I’m trading ‘em*

My eye has, of course, chosen today to start back with the red/itchy/burning/pain thing. I can't go home guilt-free, however, because someone else has called in sick and I'm scheduled on the desk for a couple of hours this afternoon.

One of my coworkers is basically working 11 hours today--on her birthday. So at least it's not my birthday that I'm feeling so yucky. I'll go sit in the sun at lunchtime and hope that helps.

...whinge whinge whinge...
________
* I Don’t Care by Fall Out Boy

List

1. All the laundry is done for the week, including the semi-regular bathmat-washing extravaganza, and FIL's stuff, which was forgotten in the washer earlier this week and had to be redone.
2. The main floor of the house has been Roomba'd and then wet-mopped. Roomba is clean and ready for the next cleaning project.
3. Dishes needing hand-washing have been washed.
4. Christmas shopping has commenced and we have our calendars for the house.
5. Saw the optometrist at Pearle today who agreed that my left distance vision was not measured correctly last month (off by a full point: 8.75 vs. 7.75!) and rewrote it. Because my glasses are less than a week old, Pearle is making a new lens for free.
6. I have a grocery list made ready for shopping tomorrow.
7. Also, I'm going back to my old glasses tomorrow and will stick with them until the new lens arrives. These make me seasick. Eating Advil is really not so healthy.
8. A & K are having a baby boy. Woo-hoo!
9. MIL's wedding dress is slowing coming back from The Wrinkle Zone. Trud is working on it, alternating vaguely warm iron with gravity to pull out the wrinkles. I told Beast to beat BIL around the head and shoulders this weekend if he's the one who shoved the dress in a shopping bag.
10. We have our plane tickets for Denver in November.
11. Sparky received his school bus information today. He snorted. I smiled. It will be posted on the fridge, just in case.
12. Preseason NFL games have begun. Yippee!
13. I believe it's bath time after I post this.

But first, two things:

1. Today's optometrist arrived while I was filling out paperwork today and I noticed as she walked past me (the doctors' pictures are posted). She has very bandy legs, and the skirt she was wearing really emphasized them, as did her very flat, sort of worn-down-looking shoes. I noted later that they aren't worn down, but her feet are large and very wide. Once I sat down for my exam, I rather suddenly realized that the reason she looked unusual was that (I strongly suspect) that she's a transgendered person. Which is fine, but unexpected in this area. She was perfectly helpful, a little odd in her 'bedside manner' (our whole consultation took place with her back turned or with my eyes behind the big frog-face thingy), but otherwise fine.
2. We drove through Arby's for dinner (hey, I'm an awesome mom, yo!). Sparky ordered a combo and wanted bacon on in, so I said, "A #6 combo, please, with bacon and a Sprite to drink." The machine quacked back at me, "OK, a #6 combo with fries and a Sprite. You want the bacon on the sandwich, right?"
   Uh? Doy? As opposed to bacon on the Sprite?