What villains do you feel sympathy or maybe even empathy for, without moving all the way to their side?

hmmm, I think when I understand the motivation for their actions, but don't approve of the actions themselves (i.e. faulty maintenance caused a crash that killed my husband, so I'm gonna kill the engineer who made the payoff. But, I am okay with making him think that he killed a guy and crashed the Spruce Goose, so therefore needs to flee to Canada)

Worked eleven hours today. Came home to Frankie accidents to clean up. Just sitting down to eat dinner, two fried eggs and some toast. Still have two work-related phone calls to make. Hip is killing me and I jammed my knee jumping down off the truck this afternoon.

Pronouns gone. Send pool boy with mad massage skillz, kplzthxbye.

Smonster, I hope you get a good night's sleep and wake up feeling better.

I have my aunt's funeral in the morning. I definitely want to go to honor her, but I am nervous about seeing some of my relatives. I could use any calm-ma that can be spared.

Ugh, I did something boneheaded that may affect me getting my car load. ARGH.

Lots of calm~ma, sj.

Vortex, I hope it's no big deal.

In better news, I went on two dates with this guy from OKC, and then he went to China for a couple of weeks but I saw he had logged on from there; I thought he wasn't that into me, so I sent him a message letting him know that I'd leave it up to him to contact me when he got home if he wanted to see me again. Turns out he thought I wasn't that into him! So!!! For ONCE, my "oh-fuckit-I'm-gonna-lay-out-my-cards" thing worked out. At least so far.

And now I must stretch just enough to let me sleep. Owies. Maybe half a flexeril?

Yeah for Smonster! Hope it works out. Now feel better and get some sleep.

SJ, tons of calm ma for you.

I got a bland response from the management company,

Thank you for your email. We will send out the association’s vendor to evaluate the area for repairs. Thank you for letting us know.

OK, dinner is done, time to head to new place and paint the baseboards.

smonster, yay for the guy, boo for the pain. Also, you butt dialed me!

calm ~ma, sj.

Hope the loan goes OK, Vortex.

Seriously, if I don't get out of this depression spiral by tomorrow, things are going to start getting bad.

Okay, let's go through it.

Work is under control. Yes it is. My manager is no more crazy passive-aggressive than normal, and I did something today that pleased her, so I've fed the beast for now. The workload is manageable as long as I stay on it, I just have to stay on it.

Bills are paid. I think. Lemme check... Yes. Okay. Mortgage and car not due until August, other bills on autopay, nothing is overlimit, money in the bank is sufficient as long as I don't go on an anxiety-fueled spending spree.

Personal relationships are good. Even spent some time with my niece last week.

House is no more untidy than normal, in fact it's a little better than normal, for the day-before-the-cleaners come. And I remembered to take the trash bin to the curb! Small victories.

Been eating Bad Food(tm) lately, which is probably contributing to my vague unsettled feeling that something is wrong. Can fix that by throwing out the starchy food and not buying more. Stick to the list.

Still mad at myself for things I still haven't done (gone back to the gym, finished painting the bathroom, cleaned my office, trimmed the cats' claws, etc ad nauseam) but those things could all be done in a couple days if I'd just DO them. Maybe. Maybe tomorrow. Argh.

Okay. That's better though. Laying it out like that lets me see that nothing is actually going wrong. Thanks for your indulgence with this long mememe post.

I vote Smonster butt-dials everyone, but only if the cell phone is on an unlimited calling plan.

Vortex, I hope you can get your car loan stuff back on track.

Omnis, I am very very glad that you found out about this dangerous issue with the structure before it got you sick or dead. But I am sorry it will be such a PITA to get it taken care of.

Nora, what a rotten situation to come back to. I hope you find a new awesome employee soon. Dental~ma for Tom.

Sj, you are in my thoughts.

Dear Adorable Little 21 year old Colleague,

I admire the heck out of the importance you place on spending time with your family. But when I said I am willing to cover night shifts in emergencies, your uncle's birthday is not included in allowable emergency situations. So yes, that was a lame excuse I gave for turning you down.

As for the question of how I am always getting my time off requests approved while yours keep getting denied, bear in mind that since you started working here, I have asked for three days off. One of those days was because you wanted more hours and volunteered to cover a shift for me any time I wanted to use some PTO. I took that day not because I had any plans but because I have a boatload of PTO accumulated and I felt like being generous to you. The other two days I started making arrangements for three months ago, and I have managed to coordinate vacation time at two of the other three locations I work at for the same stretch of time. To contrast, at least once a month you have some family member's birthday that you try to get off work.

lots of love cuz you are such a little cutie, Me

Anything we can do to help, Zen?