I am sad, it was raining so I had to cancel my birthday plans to watch an outdoor showing of the princess bride.

That is a shame. Those were perfectly wonderful plans.

Baby~ma! Headache~ma!

smoster, you are worth every penny and more!

yay smonster. that's wonderful.

Yipee for Smonster! Pay off the debts first. Then slowly ramp up into the High Life.

Steph, I think the shot in the bum is so painful, so as to distract from the pain in the head. That's how it magically makes the migraine disappear. That was my theory after my back surgery. Hope you feel better in the morning.

And now I just looked at literally a thousand Katrina pictures with my roommate who was an EMT here during the storm (and still is). It feels weird to say I feel lucky to be here right now, but I do. It's weird to be here because of the storm and flood, however indirectly, and to try to honor in a respectful way what people went through without appropriating their stories. I'm not going to go into specifics, because again - not my stories, and I don't want to trigger anyone who did go through it and did have losses. But damn - she was 22 years old, 6 months in with EMS when the storm hit. Unlike NOPD, no one from EMS failed to show up and no one left before they were released. And like so many others who've been through similar events, can't stand to be called a hero.

Congrats on the raise smonster!!!

Oh, smonster,that is such great news. Congrats on a well-deserved recognition of your skill and merit!!

And what a wonderful experience both sharing your roommate's history and being able to appreciate it in a way that works for her. That's a gift for you both.

I hope everyone's heads are behaving.

I did sleep last night, but you wouldn't really know it from my energy level.

Still, out of bed for an hour and still no crisis...YAY.

Thanks, everyone. Boss finally forced out his kind of sketchy, slacker project manager* who was on salary, and that suddenly freed up a lot of money! Even though my boss is frustrating sometimes, I think the fact that one of his first actions was to give all four of us a raise speaks pretty highly.

* Oh, the stories, the stories I am hearing one by one. Former project manager is that kind of douchey insecure fratboy type who covers his weaknesses with a mountain of bluster and bullshit, who makes himself feel better by "getting one over" on people. He's done things like "accidentally" order $4K extra tile for a project, and then mysteriously that tile vanished from the storage unit and reappeared installed in his house. He threw me and E under the bus a couple of times in stupid and transparent ways. Now that he's gone, we are hearing from many longtime clients and business associates that his abrasiveness was keeping us from getting referrals and repeat work.

I predict that in two years or so, he will get sued, his doctor girlfriend who's funding his new company will dump him, and he'll be out of business.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, smonster.

Also, omnis? My version of the "high life" right now entails things like buying contacts for the first time in three years, maybe replacing my glasses that I've had for at least five and are scractched to hell from work, and paying to get my hair cut by a professional for only the second time in over two years. But not this week, because I have $5.70 until Tuesday (not counting savings).