Yeah I feel like even a glowing appraisal would not keep up with inflation these days. I was shopping yesterday and damn—often I’m like “this seems more expensive?” But don’t remember prices. But like, the bag salads were usually on sale for 3/$10 and now are on sale for 3/$12!! Geez!!

Laura good to see you and good luck with the shower!!

Yeah I feel like even a glowing appraisal would not keep up with inflation these days. I was shopping yesterday and damn—often I’m like “this seems more expensive?” But don’t remember prices. But like, the bag salads were usually on sale for 3/$10 and now are on sale for 3/$12!! Geez!!

Oh, yeah. Everything is ridiculously more expensive these days.

Thanks for the butt, -ma -t and Matt! Writing that sentence is a delight; I love here. Also, appointment went swimmingly.

Laura, I missed your update, because I posted and ran. Recovery hang in -ma to you. I hope the shower went well and makes you feel better. And, yes, sorry for all the bad health news from family and friends.

sj, I'm sorry for your rough week with family health news, too.

I'll just throw this out there: The only thing I've found to help in writing self-evals is large quantities of alcohol. It helps reduce my natural reticence/reserve/whatever and, of course, the pain.

I also have the self-appraisal nightmare due...tomorrow? I think? With the added bonus of so much upheaval and turnover, that we accidentally ended up never setting goals last year. So, good in that I can theoretically just make up goals of things I've already done, but bad in that, like all of you, I have no effing clue what I've done the past year. With the added bonus that the annual reviews have been so uniformly bad (like, literally verging on insulting) the past 3-4 years that I have zero fucks to give about the whole process. I have a new supervisor (started in...November, I think) that I like well enough that I don't want to make his life any more complicated than necessary, but I'm seriously having a hard time caring.

We do not, thankfully, have peer reviews, other than a voluntary thing where you can give someone a "badge" if you happen to be so inspired. Jess, can you just go in and give 22 thumbs-up emojis and call it a day?

Laura & JenP, medical-ma, in whatever form is most helpful to you. With added immunity-ma to Laura's patch.

Much ~ma, sj. That sounds like a rough week. Are ltc's teachers taking action?

In me news, I've been having some ongoing health struggles. I know it's hard to tell since my posting tends to be so sporadic, but I've gone days without reading and weeks without posting 'cuz I just didn't have the spoons. I went from walking pneumonia in October-November knocking me on my ass, then I had a really bad set of side effects from the antibiotics and I've been dealing with that since November. I'm down 30-35 lbs since this all started, which, while I'm glad of the loss, the journey has been super-unpleasant (and none of my pants fit!) I'm treating with otc stuff, because no specific symptoms seemed bad enough to drive me back to Urgent Care. I did make a general appt with my doctor (in February, first available appt), by which time I very much hope I'll be back to whatever qualifies as "normal" and just fill her in on the details of the last few months. And I'm going to ask for a referral to a gastroenterologist, because I think I've been dealing with my IBS or whatever it is unassisted for more than long enough.

I also finally made an appt for my vax booster - I've been afraid to get it while I was dealing with all this other stuff, but I'm starting to feel human again so I'm ready to risk it. On February 4, the first available Friday appt (so I have the weekend in case it knocks me on my ass).

Are ltc's teachers taking action?

Yes, I made her teacher aware of the situation (some of which was happening when extracurricular teachers were in charge and her primary teacher was not in the room), and she sat all the kids down today and encouraged ltc to tell them what they were doing was not okay. I'm hoping this fixes things for now at least. ltc loves school so much, picking her up all dejected with tears in her eyes breaks my heart.

Oh, Epic, that sounds awful. I hope you continue to feel more human as time goes on!

I'm sorry ltc has to go through that, sj.

Good idea, bennett! So far I have determined that the instructions from my boss are different than the instructions from the People Department (still funny that we call them that) so I am just not doing anything about it for a while but I do have a bottle of wine in reserve.

Found out on Tuesday that my BFF's older brother died on Monday. I'm pretty sure it was suicide. Though I've known her and her parents and other siblings for almost 30 years, I barely knew him. So I've just been struggling to support her the best I can. She and her husband (unvaxxed, don't get me started) and possibly her younger brother will be driving out to Reno together. Her parents were visiting her sister in Texas, so the three of them will be driving out. Her parents are vaccinated but she's very concerned for her mother (diabetes, heart issues). And then the fact that her brother had threatened suicide on Christmas and she was still dithering whether she should try to go to him or whether there was anything she could do from here...I know is going to be eating her up inside. Any ~ma you can send her way as they figure out plans to deal with...everything, will be appreciated.

And our heating system is leaking oil, which is great timing since we just signed a contract for a new roof.

Epic tons of ~ma for your BFF.