And then I open my mouth and a medical dictionary falls out and they look at me TOTALLY differently. Saying "I edit for the AMA" makes them look at me like I'm a peer and not some drug-seeker.)

"I edit for the AMA NOW GIVE ME ALL THE DRUGS".

You know, if you were miffed at missing out on the twofer.

"I edit for the AMA NOW GIVE ME ALL THE DRUGS".

I'm going to reserve that line for when I *really* need the good shit.

Like the behind-the-counter Sudafed.

Man I'm sorry for all the suckitude. I cannot keep up with how many shitstorms are falling on how many Buffistas. May what remains of 2013 stop fucking with us. May 2014 be about ten thousand times better for all of us.

My office is currently dealing with a ... well, it's stupid.

We have a general email address - it's plasered all over our print materials; it's intended to be the address you send emails to when you don't have an individual address. Well, our receptionist (who chose to be called "Customer Experience Specialist") left a little over a year ago and, in the interim, no one was even looking at the messages to the general email address. Tech support did something arcane with the email system, and a bunch of us ended up with access to this general email box. And its 9,600+ unopened messages.

We had a conference right about then and, since I was one of the few who had access to the messages and didn't go to the conference, I volunteered to go through them.

Spam. Lots and lots of spam. Of the messages, 70 were actual content.

So ... with this situation, an executive decision was made. Rather than inflict the general email onto the new receptionist ('scuse me - Customer Experience Specialist), ALL the emails to the general box are being forwarded to EVERYONE. So every day, every single person on staff gets bunches of the spam that comes in to the general email box. Seems there isn't a single person on staff for whom it would be appropriate to take responsibility for this email box. There have also been a few instances of several people responding to a message (OF COURSE the responses aren't consistent ... what fun would that be?).

We have a contractor who's on the all-staff email list and he was asking me why he was getting all this spam. I referred him to a higher authority - the person who made the decision.

jeepers

FINALLY figured out something good to get my sister's mother in law.

Any thoughts on a brick and mortar store where I could buy a shortbread mold?

Yeah, it's like they think everybody's either a drug-seeker or a big baby. Reminds me of when I went to the Dr with an ear infection - I had let it get really bad because I was afraid I'd sound like a whiny 6-year-old going, "I have an eeearaaaache." Sure enough, when I called in, the scheduler treated me like a whiny 6-year-old, the nurse treated me like a whiny 6-year-old, and the Dr treated me like a whiny 6-year-old - until she finally got out the scope and noted that the inflammation was so bad she couldn't see into my ear at all. Got a couple of different anti-biotics, but also confirmation that my concerns would be largely dismissed.

It's not like the time the intern many years ago tried to bamboozle us with Latin, which we promptly translated and asked what the phrase he'd thrown out had to do with anything.

Connie, I love you and DH, that's awesome. Lots of effective-treatment-ma.

I just went to write part of why I've been extra-dark lately, but when I started trying to organize my thoughts, I felt my brain try to shut down so let me sum up...work is kicking my ass, my laptop's trying to keep me from the internet forever, I was asked to do extra volunteer hours to cover for someone, I picked up a mild case of pink-eye, and my diabetic mother (whose toe-infection I've been trying to deal with for a few weeks now) has been informed that they're going to have to remove part of the toe (keeping in mind that last month we lost a family friend whose toe amputation didn't heal, which led to foot amputation which didn't heal, etc.) Can I please just get a dark cave to retreat to for a few weeks? Please? I'll leave it neater than I found it. Promise.

::sets up a dark cave filled with soft bedding and good books, and orders a cabana boy to silently restock the mini-bar on a regular basis::

Ooo, a dark cave with good spot lighting and Net access, with a warm snuggly bed and a mellow old cat sounds exquisite.

We're gonna need a bigger cave.

At least I'll be in good company. (Of course we'll all be retreating to our own separate corners to recharge our batteries, but we'll each know we're doing it in solidarity.)