Listening: Metropolis 2003
I'd rather be: doing something I enjoy
Desiring: coffee

*sigh* nothing like lunch with a fellow frustrated co-worker to make me nervous all over again. It helps me to check around and know that I'm not going crazy when I feel a bit picked on by management. But it doesn't help to find other folks who see their chances for staying on past the New Year as very bleak. I can easily say, without much hyperbole, that this would be a really bad time to lose my job. *sigh*


But enough about that.

We're doing some work swap stuff so I have a little bit of downtime.

Work has been a bit oppressive in terms of the capacity of mind it occupies. I have to plug away and plug away at it so hard that I almost feel dizzy at the end of the day and have to readjust my world view to figure out what I can do with all the free time before I have to clock back in again. It's especially bad first thing in the morning. If I don't get up with the sole idea of getting ready and heading into the office then it takes me whole minutes to decide what to do next. It sucks because I would otherwise be able to get several small chores done in the morning that I don't like doing in the evening because they're small chores - taking out the trash, putting away the laundry etc. And it totally wrecks any plans to exercise before work. urg.

The windows in my apartment are a tad on the pathetic side. They are very obviously decades-old. I would venture to say at least 50 years. The glass is very thin and the wood is so old and has warped so many times that the glass just rattles like a frieght train under the slightest breeze. But the main trouble is that there is hardly any seal around the windows and these days that means my apartment is fucking cold at night. I normally don't like turning up the heater much - a throwback to growing up in a house without central heating and terrible drafts - but last night I was shivering under two blankets. Around 230am I gave up the ghost and stumbled to the heater and nearly set fire to my hair in order to get the thing on. thank goodness I don't pay the gas bills there.

*Note to self: find your sleeping bag.


I'm nearly finished with my shopping. There are a couple people for whom I am stumped. Fortunately I think I'll get a reprieve in that I won't be seeing them for a while and so they can just wait. The only person left is my dad. I haven't made the time to shop for him and this past weekend I realized my error. Everybody and their frickin brother was at the malls. This is going to take some planning. (and more prayers that I don't lose my job) I can fake it with what I've got, but I don't want to. He doesn't want to be sent on any trips at all, which I find annoying because he's surrounded by people who would love to go on a trip with him. He doesn't need clothing, has no use for machinery.... Bah! So I'll attack his first and last weakness: books.

Books on travelling, books on history, some fiction, some religious, biographies and academic treaties. MMhh. should be fun. Then for his birthday (three days later) I'll get him a personal bookcase. *grins* And thus goes the coup. For Christmas Molasses got him a copy of Jimmy Carter's Hornet's Nest. Too late I found out that he was to do a signing at Vroman's. They were sold out more than two weeks in advance. I drove by the night that he was there and that line was damned long. But I would have liked to have met him. Hell, I would love to get my dad to meet him. Ah well, maybe another time.

Though I wonder if the Secret Service had to keep the store empty...


Anyway. I have to remember to call GreatWest. I was a dunce and forgot to request a specific disbersment(sp?) for my 401(K) since the new company uses different people. Yesterday was the deadline and we will otherwise get a check. I think I can live with the taxes and the fine, but it would blow chunks if that means I'm cut out of a 401(k) plan until I get a new job or something. I sent the disbursement order yesterday by fax and I have no idea if they got it, let alone if it was in on time. I nearly missed the deadline for changing my health benefits (that would have been ass), and I think I clean missed the ESPP dealie. I'm fine with waiting till Feb to get back on board with that, though.

Still need to diversify my holdings. I'm not even sure who I talk to about the stock I currently own. Not to mention there are some paper certificates for the old stock that I'm not sure what to do with. If I make through the New Year unscathed then I'll try to gather up everything and get my ass to money-counsellor-type person (if there isn't such a creature, there should be). I'm not going to get a big portfolio going on with what I've got, or even a very small one - maybe something in the minute range. But anything other than having a bunch of stock all in one company. dear god.

And then save up some dough for an account for my squirt of a niece. and then... take over the world!

Tonight I'm doing some OT and that might make working out after work unlikley. But I have to get home and straighten the place out before Molasses shows up with the Assassin. Then maybe I'll entice them to get my computer online and working properly. (and they can show me again how to place DVDs and burn CDs on the thing) And then maybe dinner at Palermo's.

Tomorrow evening is Return of the King!!!!! *bounces* WEEEEE!!! I'm going with the Squire somewhere down in the South Bay. There used to be an AMC up here across the street from my work but it turned into a Laemmle's. I have no idea why, there's another one a mile down the road on Colorado, and now RotK isn't playing in Pasadena. The closest spots are La Canada and Glendale. Oh well. I like Laemmle's but have been looking forward to this since last December.

On thursday Molasses, the Assassin and I are scheduled to go see a taping of V Graham Norton in Hollywood. It likely means they won't get to see RotK until Friday, but it was the only time we could get it in. Course, since I'm working OT that day I have to get in ass-early.

Friday, more OT, maybe RotK, maybe not. On Saturday More OT still, then the Hwa Rang Do Christmas demo which is always fun, and then a potluck dinner for a friend of mine who will be celebrating her 1,684,384th birthday. Sunday there's likely to be a Garou game then at some point I will flop into unconciousness.

I'm not sure if I'll hang out with the Squire next Monday. He'll probably need that evening to pack. He leaves town on Tuesday. If we do hang then we'll go climbing again like the previous two Mondays. I've been suckign a little but also getting back some of my game. If not then I'll do some OT and maybe see about donating some blood.

On Tuesday next I don't think I'll do OT cause it'll be my Molasses' last night in town. But I don't know if I'll stay away from the office on Christmas Eve. They won't let me in on Christmas Day.

Other folks will be leaving also: The Ice Cream Assassin leaves this weekend, I believe. And Space Dog heads out on Monday. So I'll be left to my own devices for a little while there.


Anyway. I think I hear the whip cracking. Got to get a move on.