Rave: Following up on the girlfriend's landlord situation, she and I will be checking out a couple of good sublet options for her tonight. Her older brother happens to be a lawyer (and is pissed off about it now too), so she has cut and dry legal advice from him. We're not out of the weeds yet but things are looking up. Rave: Got an email from a client while working out in the gym last night. Sounds like I'm booked for the next 2-3 years now. Almost fell off the treadmill when I read it. Awesome. Rant: People who not only want to take up every single minute of set-aside meeting time for the sake of taking up every single minute, but also end meetings with a pop quiz. Dammit Randi! Ain't nobody got time for that! Rant: A co-worker who went on maternity leave (and wasn't really missed) is back now, and RFP indeed stands for "Really Fucked Person."
Rave: I had a lot of free booze on the company credit card last night to help farewell my boss of five years. Rant: I'm at the bus stop waiting to go to work at 7am and I'm sure I still reek of beer. Rant: My head hurts.
Rant: I logged into my credit card account to pay my bill. On the home page there was a header banner that read "Please update your account. We do not have your billing address." (spoilered for long) Spoiler Hmm, I thought, that's odd. I've been at the same address for a long time and I just got my bill in the mail, no problem. So, I click on the "Profile" tab. My phone and email are correct, but my address section is blank. I better call . . . Beep, boop, beep, security code, boop Hello, card services this is Ann, how may I help you? Hi, Ann. I have a question about a message when I log into my account. Sure, I can help you with that. Can you verify your mailing address for me? Um, what? Can you verify your mailing address? You have it? I just need it for security purposes. Oh, I understand the premise. When I say it, do you have it in front of you to verify? That's just our policy, sir. Again, I get the policy. I am going to tell you my address. Then you're going to look at the address on your screen to see if it matches, right? That's our policy, sir. If you have my address in front of you, then why do I need to update my account? I just need to verify it for security purposes. You're killing me, Ann. That went on for five minutes. And, I was never able to explain to this woman that I found it odd that I was being asked to update my records because they didn't have my address, while at the same time, they were going to use my address for security verification. I finally said "nevermind" and hung up.
Rant: Got told this afternoon that I'm flying up to Katherine(In the middle of fucking nowhere) to help with maintenance for a week. We leave at holy shit it's stupidly early in the morning on Sunday. Rave: $250 in allowances for a week plus what I'll save on food and other stuff. Rave: Date tonight provided she actually shows up unlike the last few I was meant to have.
?: Broke this off with Thenow-exGirlfriend. I've never been with anyone that has cared so much for me or gone so far out of their way to make me happy. Which sounds perfect, but my feelings were no longer there. She was devastated, and didn't see it coming, at all. I think I made the right decision though.
Rant: Woke up on Monday to find out that $2k was missing from my bank account. Multiple ATM transactions in Chicago, a place I've never been. Rave: By Wednesday morning, all funds had been returned. Crisis over. Seriously, Schwab bank is amazing. Rave: Going to San Mateo (just outside of San Francisco) for a week in March for work. Never been to California, so it should be fun.
Rant/Rave: The boss of my boss got fired. It wasn't unexpected, I really liked the guy, but he had some faults that were holding the team back. Great interaction and relationships with people externally, a lot of people disliked him internally. It'd been better if they fired him a month ago when we noticed the first signs, but now is just inconvenient. The client is coming in for 2015 meetings (yeah, already late as fuck) on Tuesday and just so much shit has to be one. Feel sorry for my direct boss who now has to do all this shit and interact with upper management, both things she never wanted to do.
Rant: I had to go to a regional town this week to visit my brother. Rave: The discussions I had to have with him went smoothly, it seems isolation has made him less violent. Rave: I have had more sexual partners this week than I have the past 3 years. Small towns with few eligible bachelors = win!
Rant: Snow comes to Charlotte (possibly) and now bread, milk and eggs are gone. Southern people are funny. Oh and mandatory twelve hour shifts. Fuck me
Rant: Painting my living room. I hate painting. I painted one wall and the color isn't going to work. Fuck. Insult to injury: My paint job on the one wall was absolutely flawless.
Rant/Rave: working downtown for Mardi Gras is a mixed bag. On the downside, I have literally been working 14 hour days with no break and been busy the whole time. My feet hurt and they smell like yeast, I have blisters that I can't even feel any more because my feet are effectively numb, and I get abused by drunk people all day. Also, my sister is in town with her kids and I haven't even seen them once because I wake up, go to work, come home after midnight, and go to sleep around 3am. Plus side, the money's good. I'll take it for now, but if this was my full time gig I would have quit 14 months ago.
Rant: Holy fucking shitballs it is cold. Snow tonight, no temps above freezing for the next week. Worst week ever to be a dog walker. Rant: Car still in shop. Rant: Missing guitar lesson. Rant: I may have to start looking into escort services. Rave: I will probably be too frozen to care about looking into escort services this week.
One of my first students mom died unexpectedly in a car crash. She brought my mom dinner over last week. One of my mom's closest friends, who she went through breast cancer with, passed away from a brain tumor. My aunt's mother (my great-aunt) passed away from...being in her 90's. So, three funerals in a ten day span. My application for unemployment benefits was denied, because...I'm too white, my last job was in another state and because fuck off. So, now I am faced with...unhappy choices, like borrowing money to pay for a security deposit and rent on my own place. The sole interview I had scheduled this week was cancelled because the HR director is leaving and they kind of already filled the position, but ....ugh, who the fuck cares. Goddammit, life. Could you stop, please?
Rave: We're having a girl! I'm super excited for the next 10 years. Rant: We're having a girl, I'm terrified for the following 11 years.
Long-winded rant: I've managed to live with couples most of my rent-paying life. It sucks, but I didn't realize how much it blows financially until now. As a couple, you tend to go in on your groceries together. That means you're paying half for everything. As the single guy, when I buy shared stuff such as toilet paper, soap, and even food, I'm eating half as much as the rest of the people in the house when you add them together. When I buy a thing of orange juice. I get maybe two fucking glasses if I'm lucky out of the fucking thing. I should only be buying one out of every three orange juices. This is a really dumb rant but it pisses me off greatly.
Rant: Wife doesn't feel like sex tonight. Rave: Antiquing someone is as awesome as I thought it was gonna be. Rant: Now I'm really not gonna get sex for a while
RAVE: My company's yearly Board of Directors meeting is this week, so we have a bunch of investor and board member types up visiting from the Silicon Valley area. One of the head investors was chatting with me today about our tech and what we've been doing with it and where it's heading, and she said, "Oh, I have absolutely no doubt at all that we're in good hands with you.... and ___________ says hello, he's a good friend of mine and speaks very highly of you and your abilities". __________ is the new-ish President of the 2nd largest software company on the planet that I haven't talked to in over 5 years. My CEO's face when he did a double take, as in "wait, ________ knows you?", was fucking priceless. After a lot of the shit I've put up with over the past year or so fighting to do things how I know they have to be done, it's fucking awesome to have your abilities recognized in such a way. Needless to say reviews are a few weeks away and I do believe I'm in a rather solid bargaining position.
Rave: I think we're through the mess with my girlfriend's douchebag landlord. Not quite there, but almost. The past week has been tumultuous and stressful because of it, but we'll make it. Could be worse. Rave/Rant: Taking on more responsibility at work. Part of that involved a doing a presentation today on some product technology and it went well despite me being nervous as hell for it (relief!). This is all good but management has been glacially slow to change employee titles and compensation, and I didn't give up the opportunity to collect on sales commissions for nothing. I keep getting told that "they'll think about it" and don't want to sound entitled but this has been a recurring theme for too long for me not to get annoyed after feeling like my old boss just took advantage of me and my hybrid role here for three years. Maybe that's why he was resistant to me making changes to my position. Marketing Princess co-worker is back from maternity leave now too and the smarmy stuck-up bitch had better start taking me seriously sooner than later if we'll be working together more (no, I didn't miss her). Rant: I'm all for cycling around rather than driving if you can, and you have my respect if you're hardcore enough to do it year-round, but please for us all do NOT cruise around in the middle of the lane during morning traffic at a creeping slow pace like it's only you on the road. These two assholes in my neighborhood do this daily, backing traffic up and causing jams, and I don't think they understand why some people hate cyclists so much.
Rant: I work with one passive-aggressive bitch. This gal says one thing when she really means the opposite and then sends me passive aggressive texts after I do her a favor to help with her productivity. Her productivity was low, so I asked if she wanted one of my new patients. She said yes, so I gave him to her. Then, she pulls this, "Anything else I can help you with? Will you come in and help me manage lines?" When help was definitely not needed. That's just silly. Don't be pissy with me because your productivity blows today. I was trying to help. She needs to knock the sand out of her vagina and do what needs to be done. Lesson learned: I'm not "helping" anymore.