back to life

1) I have no idea what's going on with Livejournal, but it's become next to impossible for me to use at work. Strangely, this is not any of work's doing. There seems to be some problem with Firefox and LJ not playing nice with each other. I can't comment on entries, nor can I read long comment threads (can't expand). I've followed LJ's suggestions, but none of them work. Basically, I'll have to use another browser just to read LJ. SIGH. LJ, I want to keep using you, but you make it so hard. ETA: If you comment on this entry on LJ, I can't reply, it won't let me. :(

2) If you follow me on the Facebook, you will have seen this already, but if not, here's Snacky health news: I am having an MRI today to determine a diagnosis for my back and leg pain. The x-rays already showed arthritis (severe facet arthopathy was the term used), so the MRI is to figure out why I have terrible nerve pain and numbness in my legs (spinal stenosis is a suspect).

So I have to lie flat and unmoving on my back for 35 minutes for the MRI. Aaaaaand due to the pain, that's one thing I have a lot of trouble doing. I've been practicing for a week, can only make it to 12 minutes without moving. So my wonderful doctor has given my a combo of sedatives and pain pills to take, in the hope that I will be able to make it the entire 30 minutes.

Basically I will be doped out of my mind. :D Which is probably good, since I've been having massive anxiety about this whole thing.

3) So I think my new boss is a bit of a flake. First there was the whole review thing where she tried to give me a review for a year when she only supervised me for 6 weeks. Yesterday, she sent out the new edition of our email newsletter, and asked me to link to it on the website, FB, and Twitter. She asked me the same thing last month, and I said I couldn't link to an email, unless she had a link to give me, since I can't just link to inboxes. But she didn't have a link, since she builds it as an email in Constant Contact. So I suggested that I would make a news post on our website and FB and Twitter about it, and link to our sign-up form, so people could sign up to receive the email. And she said, "Oh, that's a great idea!" So that was what we did last month.

I reminded her we had this conversation last month, and she was like, "Oooooh. Right. Well, can you recreate it on the website?" I told her I could, but it wouldn't look exactly like the email, since she's using Constant Contact's templates, but I could recreate it the best I could. "Won't that be too much work?" she asked, and I said, not really, if that's what she wanted me to do. But then I reminded her that the reason she wanted an email newsletter was so that people would sign up and give us their contact info, which she wants for funding/donor campaigns, and if we put the newsletter on the website, aren't we defeating that purpose? "Good point!" said she. "Keep doing what you're doing!"

I'm wondering if we'll have this conversation again next month.

Things are going well at the new job! I keep getting high praise from my new boss, for things that I don't think are particularly deserving of high praise? I don't know, maybe I am just too hard on myself, or maybe my predecessor in this job was kind of incompetent.

Or a combo of both those things. :D

The coworkers I share my office with tell me how my predecessor was always stressed out, crying, and doing things at the last moment. This is unsurprising to me. My goals for this job: be on top of things, and no crying.

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Here's a meme, by way of musesfool and bedlamsbard, three random lines from three works-in-progress:

1) Lucy dances like a Faun, sings as sweet as a Dryad, and drinks like a Dwarf.

2) She's not sure where the impulse comes from, but she finds herself saying, "You remind me of a pirate I once knew."

3) "I'd say, 'don't get your jackass self killed' but you'll just ignore me."

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I voted last night and got a nice sticker! But one of my candidates lost to the guy who used to run the soft-serve ice cream place in my neighborhood when I was kid. I met the guy while he was campaigning and I was like, "Yes! I remember you, from the Kone Kastle!" He was annoyed by that, and right then, I knew he was not the candidate for me.

DO NOT DENY YOUR ICE CREAM PAST, POLITICIANS! IT WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU!

I brought Irish soda bread to work and was just treated to a 20 minute rant by crazy coworker about how it isn't REALLY Irish soda bread because I put raisins in it.

"Real Irish soda bread only contains four ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk," she informed me. "None of this sugar, yeast, raisins, and caraway seeds nonsense. Is that how you made it?"

I told her I used flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk, and raisins, because I like raisins. And I brushed the top with a little sugar.

Her: "That's better than most, but it's still not REAL Irish soda bread."

Me: "Well, and also, I didn't make it in Ireland. Don't worry, you don't have to eat it."

She did not find that amusing, I must be losing my touch! And she went back to her desk, still ranting about fake irish soda bread and how it makes her crazy.

My other coworkers have enjoyed it though. :D

Hello! I could tell you about all the drama going on in my house (technically outside of the house) right now, but it is too long and involved and makes me crazy to think about. Basically, two things can sum the whole thing up:

1) Real life is not a reality show. Behaving like you think you're on a reality show is unappealing, horrible, and basically just demonstrates how crazy you really are.

2) There are times when life and the things we have to do seem hard, and overwhelming, and impossible. I understand this and have found myself in this position before. But if you are a woman, the solution to all these hard things is not to just lie down and say, "I can't do it! I need a man!" and ignore all the very real problems you have in your life until a man can come along to fix them.

Honestly. You don't want to know.

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Work is going well! My boss let me go home early last Friday, because she had been out sick all week with the flu (sweeping my company like the plague) and I had filled in for her on several critical issues with the president of the company. She said, "I just want you to know I really appreciate you. I appreciate you and all you do."

This is such a change from the last batch of asshats I used to work with, that I was a bit overwhelmed when she said it.

Speaking of the last batch of asshats, I had dinner with my former coworker and friend F last week, and she reports that the asshats are still asshatting about, that they can't keep anyone in my former position, and they have eliminated the position of my supervisor, after the last one quit and told them she wasn't taking their blaming bullshit anymore. Things are not going so well, F says. In fact, she is looking for another job herself.

Oh, how my heart breaks from them. Not.

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Last but not least, a meme! By way of musesfool:

Pick a character* I've written and I will give and explain the top five** ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

* Try to make it someone I've written (including characters I RP'ed) or recently in order for me to answer.
** May not actually be five.

So, probably too early in my job to take off the afternoon and go home sick so I can read, right?

Right, I thought so.

But FitzOsbornes OMG! *grabby hands*