That's so sugar, Toddson.

Ooh, pretty. You'd look great in that, Toddson. What color are you thinking?

Toddson, that is a great dress.

The gothic Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls amuse me, but I already have, er, three dolls (sitting on my desk next to me right now) that are very similar.

I've kinda skimmed the past 200 messages, so I'm sorry if I missed anything.

OK, I really am feeling better, but I swear, if Ms. Loud Talker tells me one more time about how John used to do things when he was the ops manager, I might just snap...

Todd, that would look great on you! What color?

Damn. I liked this job for the first four months. Now I'm starting to hate it. And I'm starting to doubt anything will ever be better.

Susan, my coworker wears those foam earplugs at work - enough sound gets through that if people approach him directly, he's not oblivious to it, but the random other people's conversations are easy to tune out. Might be worth a try.

K, this shared office business is going to drive me CRAZY. There are people in here, lots of people (OK, four, but still), and they're talking LOUD, mostly not to me, but STILL. It's seriously giving me the sort of claustrophobic panic attack I normally get when I'm in a very crowded hallway with people physically bumping into me, but I can't SAY anything, because this is a shared office and it's not like I can demand that everyone work in silence! And this one woman, the one with the LOUD grating voice, narrates every move she makes, and it's making me want to SCREAM.

This is my office and it's not even shared.

juliana, I would say I'm sorry, but I'm really very not.

I am, however, sorry that ND is stuck on a plane not going anywhere.

Midweek Music is Elvis Costello this week and Halloween is coming up, so... Jack and Sally montage to "I Want You"

Okay, Susan's feeling better so I guess it's my turn to be frustrated...

My car accident was over a month ago. Our 30 days of free car rental expires today. Joe leaves the house at 4:30am regularly and gets home around 6pm. Having only one car will be a huge PITA.

USAA still has not received the accident report and is asking us to go get it for them This is possible, but a huge PITA.

The body shop cashed the check, EVEN THOUGH IT REQUIRED US TO CO-SIGN. First complaint - they cashed it on Oct 10 and ordered the car parts last week. They estimate it will be done Nov 7th. Second complaint - the check required our signature to ENSURE that the work was done properly before they got paid. So, our only clout is now gone and, if we attempt to use it, will require us to contact some bank and fight over an improperly endorsed check. Another giant PITA in the making.

All for an accident that was in no way my fault.

Susan, my coworker wears those foam earplugs at work - enough sound gets through that if people approach him directly, he's not oblivious to it, but the random other people's conversations are easy to tune out. Might be worth a try.

they are cheap, that's one point in their favor. I use them 1. when I can't get away from Daniel's snoring; and B. taking clients to band practice, which is essentially a dozen developmentally disabled adults with drums, plenty of really loud music, and one very patient music instructor. Wearing them, the music doesn't give me the horrible headache that I would get, yet leaves me able to participate in conversation with other caregivers and the instructor, as well as attending to the needs of my clients. If you tried them and someone asked, you could say that there is something weird about the accustics of your new workspace that is making it hard for you to concentrate.

{{Stephanie}} sorry that accident is turning out to be such a PITA.