sleepybadger

Some mornings when I'm getting ready for work, I come across an article of clothing - a shirt, a dress, a pair of underwear, whatever. And I think "hey, I haven't worn this in *forever*! I'm totally wearing this today!"

Typically about an hour after I get to work, as said article of clothing is riding up/gapping open/falling down/some unfortunate combination of the above, I think "oh right. THIS is why I haven't worn it in forever."

For some reason, when I get home I don't immediately say "fuck this, I'm donating this/repurposing this/throwing this damn thing away". And so it gets washed and put away and at some point months later... "hey, I haven't worn this in *forever*!"

(this is not a dirty post, despite how it might sound from the subject ;))

So since we were getting a new mattress, that required a bunch of other new purchases - mattress cover (in particular because certain things can void your warranty), new frame/base, new sheets and blankets, new headboard, etc (since we were going from a full size to a king size).

The mattress arrived earlier than promised, and we had gotten everything except our headboard (not counting the wrong-sized one I had ordered and had to return). It was supposed to arrive on Tuesday. I checked the tracking Tuesday morning and it was marked as on the truck for delivery. yay! Then I got home from work Tuesday evening, and there was no headboard. I checked the tracking and it had been scanned back in at the local hub. A few hours later it was scanned with a note that it would be delivered next business day. Wednesday around noon, I checked the tracking, and it had not been scanned at all. I decided to open a ticket for them to check on it. I waited and waited, and at 7pm I decided to call and ask wtf was going on. The person I talked to told me someone would call me back. I got a call back around 9pm from someone telling me that the facility was closed but they would check for it the next day. They asked me to describe the item because they said maybe the label fell off and they could look for it. OK fine.

Thursday I waited all day and heard nothing. Friday morning I was pissed. I called twice - once to ask if there was an update (they said they would have the person working on my ticket call back that day) and again to update my phone number. Everyone I talked to was polite and friendly, but no one can tell me jack (and I never got a call on Friday, either). I got fed up and contacted the place I got it through, and they are sending a new one (yay!). But I can't believe how bad this customer service is. And no one will tell me anything! I even updated my ticket telling them that I expected a response and they sent me a canned 'your request is being investigated' answer. Grrr. The replacement headboard should arrive on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, with the width of the new bed, our nightstands were too wide. We looked at several stores and didn't see any we liked, and I ended up ordering a pair online. I was nervous, as they were also supposed to be delivered by FedEx (two days after my headboard mysteriously disappeared), but they came. Aaaaand they were the wrong ones. There were two styles we were looking at. There was one Zen loved and one that I loved. After we looked at both and compared, Zen agreed to the one that I loved. So that's what we ordered. But what arrived was the one that Zen loved. Too much of a hassle to send them back, so I'll get over it, but man, that was just one more disappointment in a frustrating week.

Our mattress is very supportive, but not as squishy as I wanted. We got a 2" mattress topper yesterday and I'm very happy with how it feels, so now I think we're all good (except for the freaking headboard).

In job news, I had dinner with O&FB and some other folks on Thursday night. She said the problem now is that there will be some added scrutiny related to hiring me because of the whole having to cancel and re-post the job thing. When she hired the other guy that I used to work with, she was able to just interview and hire him. Now they will want to know why she didn't interview more people, if I was really the most qualified candidate, etc. The tricky part for me now is that my next set of classes is supposed to start this week. I haven't registered because 1. I think it would be too hard to try to learn stuff for school AND learn a new job at the same time and 2. I don't want to ask my current company to pay for my class if I'm planning on leaving in a couple weeks (I assume they would ask me to pay them back, and it's $3k). If she put off hiring someone for this position for, say, 2 months, I could finish my last class (though I am not happy to see that the format is a Saturday class from 8am - 4:30pm), and have my master's certificate, which might make me look like a better candidate on paper. So I'm going to give her a call tomorrow and talk to her about that. It's a bit frustrating, but at the end of the day, I still have a job so I'm not overly concerned about it. If it ends up not working out, I'll finish my certificate and start looking in a few months.

Other than that, things are good. I babysat for my niece and nephew on Friday (he was sick so we didn't do anything fun), and had a date day with Zen yesterday, which was lovely. We also had dinner at a place that had an Easter brunch option that I'm going to suggest to the family today since we haven't made any plans yet. Today has been a quiet and relaxing day.

I took my niece to the library on Friday afternoon. We played in the kids section, looked at some books (she was hoping there would be a new one from the princess in black series, but we've read them all), I (sort of) taught her how to play checkers, and then I said she could play with the iPads that they have there. The plants vs zombies game was up on the screen, and she wanted to try to play it. At one point she said "what happens if they get in the house?" I said "they'll eat your brains." When we turned one of the zombies around and he ate the other zombies, she said "does it make the zombie cry when the other zombie eats his brains?" I said "no, he's already dead." At which point my brain finally said 'HEY, MAYBE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR A FOUR YEAR OLD!' So we played a couple of other games, including one about astronauts and one with basic coding. When we left she was hoping we could go somewhere else (she suggested her favorite ice cream place. Nice try, kid, you're about to go home and have dinner), but her mom was coming to pick her up about 20 minutes after we left, so we didn't really have time anyway.

When her mom came to pick her up we got her all packed up and ready to go, and then this conversation happened.

Niece: Mommy, we played the game where you have to knock the skeletons down to stop them from coming in the house and eating your brains.
Sister-in-Law: ....
Me: (inwardly: you couldn't have waited till you were in the car??) Ha ha, uh, yeah, we played plants versus zombies at the library.

So, aunt of the year, for sure.

Ok, only funny cuz he wasn't injured.

Last night Zen dreamed he was escaping from something and jumped a fence - and fell out of bed, breaking the nightstand on his side. He got up, got back into bed, assured me he was fine, and was asleep again almost immediately.

It's been lovely to have some time off over the past couple weeks, but tomorrow it's back to the office. We're working on doing some planning for our projects group, but I learned in our last meeting that both of the other people in the group hate doing documentation, which is, ya know, like 50% of project management. Evidently their current method is filling in the documentation months after the project is complete, when their boss asks them why it isn't updated yet. I'm feeling not at all confident about how this is going to go moving forward. We're also having our reviews in the next couple weeks, and I'm very curious to see how it's going to go, since my boss has flat out said he has no idea what I do (thanks, boss).

Poor Zen is still quite ill. I took him to Urgent Care yesterday, they did a chest x-ray and strep test, but everything came back negative. They told him to take ibuprofen to control the fever and drink lots of fluids. Now it's just waiting for the flu to improve. He got a note for work excusing him until Wednesday, but as of today, he still feels absolutely terrible, so I don't know what happens if he's still this miserable on Wednesday. He insisted on coming to the grocery store with me today because he wanted to make a taco salad and wanted to pick his ingredients, but by the time we were ready to check out, he asked if I would mind if he waited in the car because he was feeling so weak. He hasn't kissed me since Wednesday and last night in the middle of the night he got up and slept on the couch. When I asked him why, he said he was afraid his coughing would wake me up and he didn't want to disturb my sleep. OK, well only one of us has the flu, maybe that person who needs better rest? I kept calling him to come back to bed, but I was too exhausted to get my eyes open and go out there and drag him back to bed (though I did get him there eventually). tbh, I'm a little amazed I've managed to not get sick (so far anyway). With my asthma, it could be really bad.

I've been enjoying relaxing and reading, I am determined to meet my 60 book reading goal for this year. I'm back in school starting a week from today, so I'm going to try to especially enjoy this week :) And as bad as it is that Zen is sick, I'm glad we've had a little extra time to be together the last few days. I was surprised at how much I missed him on that first shift when he was gone all evening and didn't get home til after 11pm. I know I'll get used to it, but it'll be an adjustment.

The water aerobics schedule should be back to normal this week. Last week I was one of two people who came on Tuesday, and one of three (the other two were a mother/son pair) on Thursday. In both cases, the others were happy to see me, it's always a little awkward being the only one. Typically the gym gets extra busy around now, hopefully it'll be OK. I don't begrudge anyone who wants to give the gym a shot, it's just a pain not being able to find a parking lot if I'm running late, especially this time of year when it's usually cold and snowy/icy.

I'm not making any resolutions, but I do want to do better this year - make better choices, be a better friend/partner/family member/employee, focus more on the positive stuff. I do think I need to find a way to write this out in a much more specific way, because otherwise it's too murky and too easy to talk myself out of it. Maybe I'll plan to write up something every week with what I did this week that falls into the "better" category.

I'd also like to get/make a new icon or two. I like my little fishy, but I'd like something different. I just don't know what yet.

Hope everyones 2017 has been good so far!

Zen said he thinks his interview went well yesterday. The place is hiring for two positions, so hopefully this will work out for him. I know he'll be great once he finds a place, it's just the waiting that makes it hard. They didn't tell him when they plan on making their decision, but hopefully it's soon. Edited to add He just called to tell me that they offered him the job!!! He goes in to do paperwork on Friday and officially starts working on the 12th!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

Had a meeting this morning at work, and brought in a large cup that I had just filled with ice and water. Halfway through the meeting while talking, I gestured and knocked it over, spilling half the water and ice across the table (it has a snap-on lid, but it popped off). I moved the cup off to the side, and as I was cleaning it up (with help from a couple other people in the meeting), I knocked it over AGAIN on top of my phone and spilled the rest. Fortunately no electronics were injured, only my pride. I would say not a great start to the day, but actually my day started out with me sleeping through my alarm and waking up 20 minutes after I was supposed to be at work. Yeah, I think this is a 'should have just stayed in bed' day. :)

I've been meeting and discussing with our IT director at work and the current plan is that I am going to write up a recommendation for creating a Project Management Organization at work that I will head up. He said our mutual boss thinks it's a good idea too so this could be good. He also wants to start a Change Advisory Board that he wants me to head up, but wants me to get ITIL certified first. He gave me a book to read and study, but I'm in my last week and a half of classes so I'm going to wait until I'm done with that. It could mean a lot more interesting stuff for me to do at work next year.

I was talking with a colleague about Santa and belief in Santa. She said her son was starting to doubt last year, especially when something he asked Santa for that had a very particular shape came to the house in a box that made it clear what it was. She enlisted her sister to out of the blue tell him about how sometimes with certain items, Santa has to send it to your house in advance because it doesn't fit well in his sleigh, all to get him to keep believing. My mom told me the truth when I asked her about it. I'm sure I probably heard about it on the school bus or something, in first or second grade (at my school, the bus carried all kids from 1st through 8th grade). After she acknowledged it, I sat there for a minute and then said "so I guess that means no easter bunny or tooth fairy either." She enlisted me to keep it a secret from my younger siblings, and put me on duty to keep an eye on them to make sure they didn't come down when mom and dad were wrapping presents or assembling something or putting out the toys on Christmas Eve. They had me wrapping presents in another year or two. Today, Christmas is without question my least favorite holiday, not sure how much that stuff did or didn't contribute to that. When did you learn/figure out that Santa wasn't real? Do you love Christmas (or whatever winter holiday you might celebrate)?

I can hardly believe it's already the 23rd.

After I get bills paid today, we'll probably watch some football and maybe put up the plastic on our windows. You really need to put it up when it's not too cold out, so probably best to get it done today, or at least get a couple of the windows done. It's been a relatively busy weekend but we still had some good relaxation time, so I'm happy.

My niece and I are doing a team costume for Halloween. She is going to be Ariel. I am going to be Ursula the Sea Witch. I haven't started on my costume yet. Yeah, I know. The thing is though, I want my costume to be fun, but I don't need it to be really *good*. If I was wearing it to a con, I'd want it to be great. But I don't want to upstage my niece in any way, so I mostly just want it to be functional. My plan is to make tentacles (I ordered fabric, it should be here tomorrow) and attach them to an elastic waistband. I... don't have a sewing machine though, and I am for sure not sewing 8 tentacles by hand. So I'm going to go to my mom's and work on it there. I also have a backup plan if needed. I'm also thinking about taking off this Friday to take her to the zoo - they have special "mold-a-rama" pieces for Halloween, a red skull and a silver Frankenstein's monster head, and I want the skull :D

My class is going better than I expected. It's taking me some time to get accustomed to the coding, but it's nowhere near as hard as I was afraid it was going to be from the way the syllabus was written (also, do no teachers actually expect people to read the book? This class and the previous class, even though they SAY we're supposed to do the reading, the teachers seem to assume that no one has read anything). The teacher is passionate about what he's teaching, which I think really helps. However, he told us if we submitted our homework a couple days early, he would review it early and let us make changes before it was officially due. Our homework was due on Wednesday and I submitted mine on Monday, but it was Monday evening (around 7) so I wasn't sure if he'd have time to review it before class. He didn't review it. In class on Wednesday he sheepishly told us that he doesn't get notified when we upload our homework, so if we wanted him to review it early, to please email him and tell him that we submitted it and wanted him to review it. Meanwhile, he still hasn't reviewed it, and I don't want to work TOO much on the next homework (due Nov 2) until I find out if I did the first one right.

I'll have to see if I can get some pics of our Halloween decor. Zen said that at night it's "intimidating but not scary". I'm a little worried that it's too dark, as in not enough light for people to see where they're going. So I'll have to see if there's something we can do about it.

My fantasy football teams had a terrible start this year, at week 4 one team was 0 - 4 and the other was 1 - 3. Things are improving though, I'm currently 2 - 4 and 3 - 3 and this week looks promising. Being in Illinois, a lot of people are very excited about the Cubs going to the world series. idgaf about baseball, my whole family is full of White Sox fans, and I don't think I personally know any Cubs fans, so other than potential traffic issues, this has no impact on my life.

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my first date with Zen. Yesterday was a great example of why he's such an amazing partner. After my dr appointment, I took my niece to the zoo for a few hours, and came home tired, hungry and sneezy (I assume it was allergies, I feel fine today but yesterday I was sneezing all day long, even before we went to the zoo), and I wanted to spend some more time preparing for my class. I had a taste for pasta, and when I got home I asked if he'd had dinner yet, thinking maybe we could have a quick dinner at our fave Italian place. He had already eaten. He'd had a long day too, working in the morning and then finishing painting the garage and doing a bunch of yardwork. He asked if I'd like this pasta dish he'd made before that I loved. I said that would be great, but we didn't have the ingredients. He said it only took a few ingredients and it would just be a quick trip to the store. I got up to go with him, but he insisted that I stay home and spend the time reading and preparing for my class. He ran to the store, got the ingredients, and cooked a delicious dinner while I read/studied. If he hadn't offered it, I probably would have made a sandwich or something. He was tired after a long day too, but his first priority was making sure that I was taken care of. I am so happy and so lucky. :)

Some background: I go to water aerobics every tuesday and thursday at 8pm. I've been doing for probably 8 or 9 years and I don't skip very often. The gym is pretty close to my house and I typically go wearing my suit under a dress so all I have to do is strip out of the dress and take a quick shower before I get in to the pool, so I should leave around 7:45, no later than 7:50 if I want to be on time.

So this is how it went last night.

6:50pm - Me: OK, I have a little less than an hour. Must keep an eye on the time though.

7:05pm - Me: OK, about 40 minutes. Still doing fine.

7:25pm - Me: in the next 15 minutes or so I should get my suit on so I'm ready to go.

7:53pm - Zen: Honey? Did you know it's 7:53?
Me (hurriedly pulling on my swimsuit): Um, yes, yes, I totally knew that. I was just planning on getting there a little late so Nick can yell at me, cuz I love it when Nick yells at me!

You would think after all this time I could get it together. But nope.

I had a really good conversation last night with my former boss about the potential at her workplace. She was very open and honest about her team, how things are going, personality issues that she's dealing with, and the fact that she wants me to *really* think about the commute because I'd have to go to that office at least 3 days/week. The company is large and there are several openings right now, but none of them are under her team at this time. She can apply to have one of them moved to her team but she doesn't know how long that will take (she's only been there for about a year). I really appreciated her honesty and openness about it (especially because some of the personality issues she's dealing with are not good), so I have lots to think about, but some time to think about it.

Also, when I returned home last night, Zen had finished up the back door! Pic below the cut! I love it so much. He has a little bit of cleanup to do around the door and he wants to paint the bit below it black, but I'm so happy with how it turned out.
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