dcp - the smile you just made me smile? your gift was to more than just that child. thank you.

yesterday was payday and I already got a low balance alert from my bank. paid most of mac's rent and had a stupid speeding ticket and a toll bill from oct. ugh.

then see on news that the md college bball coach is leaving and getting a 5mil pay out and I want to scream into the void. i mean, theoretically I make enough money, but I splurge on things and don't have enough for these unexpecteds. but I do have savings, so I need to just transfer and stop the unnecessary spending.

in not stupid $$ news, but still stupid - the stories I could tell about the nightmare of testing at work. sabotage, conspiracy theorists in unions, testing vendors at risk of losing licenses. just a mess on so many levels. this was week one of testing and we only tested at a few sites.

He is doing so well with his new health kick that I could weep. It took him so long to take it seriously.

That's so great! He's really working at it.

Yay Brendon. Boo bureaucracy msbelle. I also need to pay a parking ticket. Sigh.

I woke up with a headache this morning but my friends had gotten up to walk on the beach early (and they saw seals!) and brought back pastries! Yay.

-t, I get nostalgic for actual register running/retail, but between you and askye’s troubles, I think I am content to leave it in the past for now.

Yesterday was actually pretty nice for most of the day! It makes a change from the futility of my current office work for sure. I'm just not used to it physically, and even that aspect of it was fine for about 6 hours before my body was all "That's enough of that"and started complaining. I think my final half-day should be a walk in the park. Unless my booster shot on Monday hits me hard, but that was always the gamble.

Of course, I came home too tired to have dinner, just fed the cat, debated whether getting undressed was worth the energy required (I decided it was, but it was a near thing) and went to bed. Not doing shit today if I can avoid it.

Also, I like being in our warehouse again rather than in the old Walmart building. We have less space and no heat, but being able to go to my very own cubicle on a break and sit for a minute is weirdly comforting and I think the customers’ expectations are different in this environment. I feel like everyone is more apt to act like an entitled jerk at the mall - in our warehouse they are more aware that they’re our guests, sort of, and appreciate that we let them in to shop.

Timelies all!

Mr. S woke up at 5:30 this morning, so we are all tired.

Mom and I went out refrigerator shopping this afternoon, and she decided on a model at a local appliance place. All set up except for calling to let them know when to deliver/install. It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but in six months I'm not going to be going "I wish I still had that $400," whereas the guilt of settling for one without the features Mom wanted would have been everlasting.

Yeah, I've read about patients going to the ER with life-threatening (non-COVID) issues like a heart attack who end up dying because all the COVID patients (who are unvaccinated) are taking up all the beds.

Absolutely true. A very good friend went to the ER with heart palpitations, and they basically told him that if he wasn't in immediate danger of dying, they would not be able to see him. His husband ended up driving him to a hospital over an hour away (where they put in a stent, so it was actually a serious issue).

Good lord, Vortex. Glad they got there and didn't just go home.

Way to go, Brendon!

I had visions of tree decorating dancing in my head today, but no go. Had a fun day just hanging out, though. Now we're ordering Mexican for dinner.

He's a nurse, so he knew something was really wrong.