{{Steph}} I hope you get some more solid news, soon. And ~ma for your brother.

{{JZ}} I feel you. I'm an admin in the radiology department of a med school attached to a university hospital and event coordination can be a real bear. Fortunately, it's the part of my job I really enjoy. It's all the rest of my job that I hate. I'm actually interviewing, tomorrow, for a new job as strictly an event coordinator for the universities undergrad admissions office. Having good notes for a major event is a necessity. Keeping up with any funding changes can be the hardest part; people will be thanking you to high heaven in the future.

Here are some baby red panda pictures, for those who need them.

The baby red pandas were a help.Thank you for them.

I'm also having one of those ... well, it's been longer than a day, although my computer died this morning - completely dead - and the tech support people are supposed to come and take it in to see if they can resurrect it. Meanwhile, I had to find another computer - this one's at our front desk, so I'm receptionist for the day. (I have an old tower computer, but that isn't working either ... also, a guy who sits near me had something for lunch that smells remarkably like what my high school cafeteria's food used to smell like, so I need to be away from my desk and him until the smell dissipates.)

At home ... the building I live in - have lived in for over 30 years - has been sold. I wasn't sure it was going through, since about three months passed with no word and then, Oct. 1, we had a whole new management group in with all new rules. I'm looking for another place, but I don't really take home that much and there's little chance of getting a raise ... ever (last year they passed a rule that if any one thing was marked "needs improvement" you couldn't get a raise ... and I had several and will probably continue to have at least one). So ... I'm trying to find a place I can afford that is more or less conveniently located. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get all those years of accumulated STUFF cleared out. I've donated about 12 bags of clothing and more than 25 bags/boxes of books ... and there's more. In addition, I got a notice that I MUST get a Real ID ... and, since my ID doesn't expire for another year and a half, I need to call and make an appointment (by tomorrow) to go in and get it early ... only I won't have a new address until 2020, so I'd face having to get a new ID, then go in and get another one when I had a new address ... with a $47 renewal fee. My arthritis has gotten worse and I'm not allowed any kind of painkiller that actually works - I'm allowed Tylenol, which does nothing for me.

All of these are things I can manage, but I'm just sitting at the front desk on the verge of tears.

But thanks for the baby red pandas. May I offer a video of therapy dogs on Capitol Hill ... I could use a snuggle with one of those big fluffy ones.

Oh, Todd. I wish you were in hugging distance. I'm so sorry. That is an awful lot to be dealing with at once.

Also it's really cold and the heat keeps going off at home ... the office is always chilly, so I have things to wrap up in, but it's hard to stay wrapped up when I'm trying to go through stuff.

But thanks Amy.

Toddson, I'm sorry. That's a heap of things. I would bring you a doggo if I could.

Ugh, Toddson. I'm sorry. Almost all of that would be nearly manageable by itself (not easy, but cope-with-able), but all of them piling on each other on you, and then the computer and the smelly lunch just to finish it all off.

ION, boss is in my corner and is instituting Event Planning RULES and a firewall between us and the other division (happily/unhappily, the other admin analyst within my division just got back from being dragooned by the other division into a decision-making meeting she should never have had to go to over decisions she neither can nor should make, and they did it to her solely because they know if they ask me I'll just keep robotically saying, "I'm not a decision-maker; you need to talk to our academic manager"), and so boss is now super-steamed about boundary-trampling.

I feel roughly 200% saner and 500% less like I'm about to erupt in ulcers after the three of us sat down and brainstormed. After all the years of Rage Nurse, I'm still not used to being in a place with an emotionally functional manager who sees protecting her admins' quality of life as one of her vital job duties. (Things got bad over the last couple of years because she had an aggressive cancer that kept her home for almost a year, and then recurred barely two weeks after she'd been declared in remission. She's now 3-4 months into the second remission and seems to be holding steady. So, so grateful.)

JZ, I'm glad you have a boss backing you up. And I can sympathize with the frustration of having to work with a, um, fluid process. I used to be (no longer, thank the powers that be!) responsible for doing the accounting entry for one of our programs. Lots of fiddly details; we have someone who's responsible for accounts receivable, but she refused to do it so I got stuck with it. Always - always - there would be something I'd done wrong. She'd say I'd messed it up but refused to either tell me or show me the correct way. Invariably, I'd spend at least a week, usually two (or more) asking her how to correct the problem. She'd finally get someone else to show me how to fix it.

Yay having a good boss, JZ!

Toddson, have you talked to any renters rights groups in DC? I feel like DC usually has some pretty good protections?

Oh Todd, that is a lot. I'm sorry.