Today's amusement: an online scammer spoofed a message from my boss to try and get me to buy "gifts for co-workers" on her behalf. So I applied for loan info with Rocket Mortgage using the scammer's cellphone number.

Brilliant!

Ohh, Matt, you're fun.

And thanks, bennett. I was just venting. I know it's hard to make sense of the world as it is right now, and I guess I picked one hell of a year to start studying public administration for MA.

ION, a colleague of mine may be thinking now that I have a crush on her because I showed her a thing with excel and the new data management system and I've been fangirling this whole process a lot and sent a lot of adoring gazes to the screen and sometimes to her because she was next to the screen. She's also one of the only tech people that are doing the sort of work I'm doing (in organization of 380+ people there are four of us) so it's been such a relief to say things like "you take this set, set output to xml and run this process, stick it to this and that and them save the .txt and then you can open it in excel" in one sentence and not in a meeting of 30 minutes with my other colleagues and tons of handholding and screenshots and "you see that little blue square icon over there? well, press there - no, there - a bit more to the left - yes, there, and from there...".

I just sometimes can't help the human crush I have on excel when it makes my life easier, y'know?

::Excelomancy high-five::

So, in the Ongoing Saga of My Driver License Renewal -- the mystery hold on my application was released, and the online process let me through!

And...

Even though it's NOT a Real ID that I'm applying for... it still is either necessary to give them an unexpired passport or a birth certificate.

I actually do have a request in with NJ for a new copy of my birth certificate. It takes FOUR TO SIX weeks to be processed.

The only way to get it faster is to go to the state Vital Records office. In Trenton.

I'll call them tomorrow and find out whether another person is allowed to go -- if so perhaps my brother will consent to go, which is a like a 3 hour round trip. He's semi-retired, so maybe.

In the meantime I'll spend this evening going through the 30 or so boxes of paper 'stuff' I have here. I probably have it... somewhere. Probably.

Oh, and PS: my birthday is the day after Christmas. When my license expires.

Timelies all!

Sounds like quite an adventure, Theo.(not in a fun way)

Aaaargh. Feeling like JZ now because I've been trying to explain to a friend why there's nothing wrong with what he's asking, the WAY he's asking it is kinda racist or at least micro-aggressive and assholish? Sigh. I feel like in person I'd be able to explain but FB comments are not great.

super frustrating day at work....AGAIN. at least I actually got stuff done.

Came home to dogs having escaped the area I put them and destroyed foam from dog beds and a Christmas wreath of my mother's we had listed for sale online. They got major scoldings and sent to sit and think about their behavior.

I've got my dinner made (because I might be getting hangry).

I think tonight I will pack instead of apply for jobs.

Remember having braces and how your teeth would ache after the braces were tightened? My entire face feels like that. So much for that flu shot I got.