Rave: Got out of work early! Rant: Skipped lunch and couldn't grab a snack on the way to the train; have a ~45 minute train ride & I'm hungry enough to eat the seat cushion
RAVE: Work trip to Japan just got booked for the first week of Feb. Full on business class travel arrangements. I am SO incredibly excited.
RAVE: This just makes me smile. My former boss is in deep shit. She let two of her highest paid employees be put on the chopping block because she could hire 5 temps for the same rate as us. My old department is now so far behind they are having to hire 2 more temps to try and salvage this cycle. Now they're paying at least 4 people just to try and cover the numbers I did by myself and they're failing. I was the highest paid person in our department for a fucking reason you dumb bitch.
Caution, 'Woe is Me'. Rant: I feel like I am living the dumbest character arc of all time. Apparently I have some weird health issues (aluminum toxicity?) that I am finally addressing and I am basically waking up @ 38 to a whole bunch of problems I coasted into. I guess it is good that I am 'here' now, but damn, it's like every single thing is a struggle. It feels like I could write a book about it, but it would also be a stupid book. It's like I got a job cleaning up after some moron and found out the moron is me and there isn't actually any pay, stuff is just fucked up.
RAVE: Finally back online. RAVE: England is pretty great - emigrated last month with my parents. My family is awesome and actually seem to like me (a first for me, really) - most of them are pretty close by. RAVE: SIM contract for 25 pounds per month with unlimited minutes, texts and data. RAVE: 3 pounds for the huge Toblerone! (the 360 gram one). One of those in S.A. would easily cost 4 times this. RANT: One of the reasons for us coming is to help my aunt look after my uncle (he's 62 with vascular dementia and diabetes). HUGE RANT: I got ill the weekend before Christmas. You know, fevers, coughing, sneezing, general unpleasantness. 2 days before Christmas, I take a shower, finish up and it's Shock & Awe time - the first time I have ever simultaneously puked and crapped myself. The diarrhoea went on for a few days until the 26th (mercifully with less nausea), then I begged at 4am to go to A&E (Accident & Emergency). Saw a doctor there, she gives me 2 paracetamol (!!!!) and sends me home. Next day, 27th, I went back to the hospital. The nurse on duty took one look at me and stuck me straight into my own room so I didn't infect anyone else. I ended up staying in hospital for 16 days after being diagnosed with pneumonia and influenza A. My stay there included 3 days in the ICU and 4 days in High Care and basically being in isolation until I was discharged on Friday. RAVE: The NHS were mostly fantastic. Obviously a few problem nurses (and that first doctor) as is the case everywhere, but the food was decent and the nurses and doctors mostly took very good care of me. Can't praise them enough. Yes, actual edible food in a hospital, who knew?
Rave: My kids have some great friends that they’ve developed strong friendships with in the neighborhood. Rant: I’m starting to feel like they live here. Knocking on my door at 8 am to come hang out with them. I’m rotting my brain watching old Southpark episodes and suddenly there are all these smelly boys around me. I’ve been feeding them all every weekend for a month. Rave: I know where my boys are. My house is the place for fun. It could be way worse.
RAVE: Actually done kind of early on a Friday for a change... have a Prime Rib almost ready on the BBQ, a couple bottles of nice wine, and The Punisher Season 2 dropped today. Hell yeah!
RANT: I thought I was done with this shit. Some of y'all may remember when my father passed away, his estate became quite a point of contention due to his wife's daughter deciding she was queen shit and taking everything. I lost my property that was put into the trust and then as far as I know they revoked the irrevocable trust. At some point I just quit caring and got my life back on track. Fuck 'em, I made it on my own once and I can do it again. Then I cut off all communication with my family. I saw on the internet about a month ago that my step mother passed away. I said a prayer for her and called it good. Then today a call came from a friend at my former job...."Do you know someone named XXXX?" she asked. "Yeah, that's my niece's name" and she told me that she just got a call on my former direct line from her. I called the number she gave me back and yes, it was my niece. She informed me that my father's widow had passed and that she left everything to myself, my sister and my step sister. That was in direct conflict with the trust my father set up that was to leave everything equally between us 3 kids and the 5 grand kids. That pissed me off. My dad earned all that money and that was his wishes, and now it's been changed? It also let me know that my dad's small estate (Roughly $2M) is gone. But once again, who cares? But now I'm pissed off again. RAVE: My nieces and nephews are doing great! They've all graduated college and working! No mater how much I wanted to distance myself from my family, they were the one's that hurt me the most having no contact with. I'm going to get together with them tomorrow. So Yay! RAVE: While I was typing this a friend called and asked me to go see ZZ Top with her tonight. Hell. Yes.
Rant: One of the supers/mangers is so fucking stupid. I send out an email saying a part has arrived couple minutes later he walks into my office dip shit "i got an email saying a part is here, did you receive it yet?" me "yes that is why i sent out and email saying it was here" This week he starts panicking that the part he wants is here yet, they are going to start running this set of machinery. me "why didn't you look at this when you took this set of machinery offline months ago" dip shit "we didn't need it then"
Rave: Just got back from playing with my kids at the local fun center. They’re at such a great age for bowling and games. Rant: I got too competitive during laser tag and rolled my fucking ankle. Getting old is crap. I still beat my son but he’s walking around just fine right now.
Rant: Fuck Wix and all its parts. I'm convinced this site was invented by Israel to drive Americans to insane and prompt a series of mass homicides.
Rave: They canceled school for tomorrow due to the extreme cold. Got two days off and only had to use one sick day.
RANT: I fucking hate people sometimes. My mother's best friend's son is married to a cop. He's a stay-at-home dad, she works the gang unit in a major Canadian city. She's going batshit insane, and he's started separation proceedings. She's been put on stress leave, and on medication, which she is now self-adjusting, and is showing up on his doorstep at 2am trying to kick in the door to get to her kids, and threatening to harm herself if he doesn't. He and his mother refuse to do anything about it, officially, for fear she's going to lose her job as a result. Meanwhile the 11 year old girl is asking daddy to call the police on mommy. But nope... the dad "did the research" and is proceeding the way that he thinks is best.... which is handling it himself. So let me get this straight... she's a gang-unit cop with 10 years in the streets, and works in and knows the system cold, and you think that you're going to be able to out-manoeuvre her without going through any official channels? She's a smart crazy chick with a gun and a big Blue Shield... the deck is more than stacked in her favour. Fucking idiots. RAVE: I just got off the phone with the cops after reporting it myself. The dude was super nice and totally gets where I'm coming from. Fuck the parents, the ONLY thing that matters is the kids. If they don't understand that, I don't give a shit. So yeah... the genie is now out of the bottle, let's see what happens next. At least I'm not going to wake up to news of some murder/suicide where "all the signs were there".
Rant: Fucking people who can't or won't do their jobs right. My job is based on getting places on time. When I'm trying to follow a run sheet with times and direction that haven't been updated or are incorrect, it screws the whole works up and people start bitching at or about me. And no amount of, "Well, that's ____ for ya" or, "That's just the way it is, its not your fault" makes it any better in my world. Do your job correctly or GTFO so someone who will, can.
Rave: Finally went to my first jui jitsu class this week after wanting to for years but always making excuses. It was awesome, can't wait to go back. Rant: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now" and all, but I remember being 19 and almost going but thinking "nah I should have started in high school, I'm too old to start a new sport now." Jesus Christ.
Rant: An old high school friend's son was hurt in an accident today. I'm not going to suggest that I'm not an empathetic person but it's hitting me way harder than expected. I don't know if it's because I graduated/grew up with the father or if it's because his son is in preschool with my son, but I'm pretty torn up about the whole thing. The little boy is four years old and was life flighted into the city. I don't really know any other information. I'm not one to ask for prayers but if you believe in such things, I don't think it would hurt to send them his way.
Rant: If I had only one chance to use the power of time travel, I wouldn’t go back and take out Hitler or anything, but I would do everything in my power to prevent Baby Shark from being written and recorded. I just can’t take it anymore.
RAVE! I got a GOOD job! It's a little less then I made before I got restructured out of my old job (And a 40 mile commute each day), but I don't care. At my age it's kind of hard to get your foot in the door, so I called in a favor from my old boss. She highly recommended me, which held the door open a crack for me, I nailed both interviews with the company (In her words the people who did the interviews "Raved" about what a great fit I would be for the company.) It's nice to know that I can still be utterly charming and personable when I need to be.
Rant Decided to start potty training my daughter this past weekend. We expected accidents, but the very first one almost took me out. She straddled an air vent trying to look out a window and peed directly into it. A lot of pee... Rave It got better and she's getting the hang of it. We still have timers set for her to sit and try every 30 minutes, but I haven't had to follow her with a roll of paper towels for a couple days now. She's doing well during the day at daycare, too.