Y5 D220

Got a christmas card from one of the company bosses last night. Better late than never? I guess. But the thing is, who still sends cards any more? Seriously. I got a total of about 5 cards. Let's see, the kid's grandmother, one set of friends, two from the bosses, my dad, and one from B's aunt. So six. Think about it. People sent cards as a way of staying in touch with people they didn't see or talk to all year. With social media and all the other ways of staying in touch these days, it's a bit old. Think about the cards you may have received. Did you get one from anyone under 30? I haven't sent cards in probably a good 8-10 years. Don't see the point any more. A dying tradition I feel. I didn't even keep the card. I just threw it away. I don't need a picture of your family. I know what they look like. Especially since I didn't get it until after the fact.

Worked a lot yesterday. Actually felt productive for the first time in a week. Got some major things accomplished. Was doing great until B called and I had to go pick her up at work. We almost ended up in the emergency room. One of the cats freaked and punctured a hole in her hand. It wouldn't stop bleeding and they were about to call an ambulance when they finally got it subsided. I ended up picking her up because her boss wouldn't let her drive herself home. It was a pretty bad wound, but we kept it iced and wrapped and it finally calmed down. She was in pain most of the night which sucked because she had to finish that sewing project. Which she did. We then went and did a final fitting for our friend.

Made chicken fried steak with biscuits and gravy for dinner. I just had a random hair up my ass as I had bought biscuits when I went grocery shopping. I decided screw it, let's make some gravy. Turned out quite well I think. I had never made gravy like that before and was pleased with the results.

We watched a mini-marathon of grey's anatomy and then off to the bedroom. Ended the year on a high note says I.

Yes, it's the end of the year. Another year will be behind us in 16 hours. A pretty damn good one I feel. I managed to get things done, managed to find B, managed to stay a float. Pretty happy with 2013 all in all. The kid got her own place. I have moved to a better place in my head. I took 21 trips to 9 states last year. 5 Disney trips. Not a bad year. Got a new car. Let's keep this trend up in the new year, shall we?

Y5 D219

Had a sad day yesterday. Was just feeling very useless. B's project is taking way too long. What was supposed to be an hour took five and multiple trips to Joann's. It was a bit annoying which put me in a lousy mood and her in one as well. I am also getting tired of her not having two days in a row off. She needs consecutive days. We didn't do much of anything else. The morning started off alright. We took a nice shower together, I made breakfast, we had fun in the morning. Then we started running the errands. That made us have to go out and deal with people. And people suck. They are annoying especially on weekends. I should have stayed home. I am just feeling a bit blue right now. Don't have much else to say on the subject other than I am seriously meh. Hopefully this will pass. It's going to be an interesting week with another midweek holiday. Show on Tuesday, then another on Saturday. I get to mc Saturday's show which will be fun. Today is more documentation. Joy.

Y5 D218

Felt like a very long day yesterday. Lots going on, but really nothing got done. B worked from 8-4 and really needs two days in a row off. It's getting harder for her to just deal with one day off. She is constantly tired and has no energy to do anything. She doesn't feel like she has enough time and then gets frustrated when she just wants to relax. I understand that feeling. I went off and ran some errands while she was at work. Nothing major, just some target kind of things. When I got back home I helped her out by working on her sewing project. No, I didn't attempt to sew anything, but I did do the ironing of the pieces to make it easier for her to finish up today. I then ripped some movies, played some video games, wrapped presents for the birthday party, and straightened up the office. When she got home we headed over to our friend's house for the party. We all felt kind of bad because it was a kids party and the adults outnumbered the kids. The parent is going through a custody battle right now and is all depressed and acting like a spoiled teenager which is making it hard for her cards. The kids are 9 and 4 and watching mom act like a bitch isn't helping. Those of us who showed up did our best to try and make it a good day for him regardless. After the kids went to bed we sat around playing cards and talking. Not a crazy night, but one out of the house. We got home around 9 and I wasn't tired and decided to start laundry. Got all the laundry done by 11 which is great as now we don't have to do it on B's day off. One thing she doesn't have to stress about. That's all I can do - take care of things to reduce her stress. Today we are going to relax as she deserves a quiet day off.

Y5 D217

Another non-exciting day yesterday. Even more boring than the last. Yeah, I have reached the point where I need something to do. Being home is starting to get to me. I need to be back on a normal schedule before I lose my mind. The days are blending together. Time for something to change. Yeah I am bitching about being home. Part of it is B's irregular schedule. She has days off in the middle of the week which throws me off. I don't know what we're doing most days.

What did I do yesterday? Not much of anything. I went to the grocery store and got eggs. I hung a couple of brackets and the mounting base for her new vacuum. I made the bed. I did some work. I played video games. I made dinner (pork chops). A friend came over around 7 and we chatted. B worked on her sewing project which thankfully is almost done. This project is part of my issue. She agreed to do something which she knew would be a drain on her. But she agreed nonetheless. And now she's paying for it. We were up until 11 because she was sewing. Whatever.

Today is a birthday party. I have to run a couple of errands. Guess where B is? Work. Again. Has she had a day off? I can't tell any more.

Y5 D216

What day is it? I am so confused. I really dislike midweek holidays. I don't think anyone knows what day it is. My friends who are teachers are going through the same thing. They have the full two weeks off and the days start blurring together. I wish I was joking but last night I had to really remember it was Thursday.

We didn't do much of anything yesterday. We went to the toy store to get presents for a birthday party we are going to tomorrow, cleaned the house more, wandered around bed bath and beyond, had some taco bell, B worked on her project she is still dealing with, our friend came over for a fitting of said project, we watched Tex, ate leftovers, and pretty much had a quiet day. I really can't think of what else we did. It's all kind of blurring together. Not complaining just fuzzy.

Otherwise, things are good. This is probably the most boring year to read isn't it? I feel bad sometimes that there's nothing exciting going on but it's okay. Today I am going to work on documents finally, clean some more, and maybe try out my new paraffin bath. Look out, the excitement keeps coming.

Y5 D215

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house, not much of a mess, not even from a mouse...

Yesterday was a fun day. As mentioned, we stayed up until midnight opening our presents officially when it turned Christmas. B got me some really great stuff. She got me a paraffin hand and feet bath which I really need, some Disney shirts, a Mickey man bag, a cookbook, socks, and some other fun stuff like books and movies. "Santa" also brought me a 3dsXL with some new games. For B he brought stuff from Victoria's Secret, a rice cooker, a pet vac, a crockpot, some jewelry, clothes, books, movies, and the best present, her own swiss army knife with all the cool attachments. She loved everything. She said it was the best Christmas she ever had. Makes everything worth while to hear that. There was more stuff like a whole lot from Cards Against Humanity, but it would take forever to inventory everything.

She got up around 7, me around 8, and she went off to work. While she was at work I cleaned and put everything away. The house was looking rather organized by the time she got home at 4. I made us a traditional dinner as that was one of the things she was afraid she would miss out on. I made ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls. Basic and midwestern like she wanted. After dinner we headed over to our friend's house and stayed until about 10. Got home and crashed around 11.

All in all, a calm peaceful day. Just as one should have on Christmas.

Y5 D214

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Yay!! All the presents are opened, B is at work. Sad panda

Yesterday DRAGGED by. I worked for a little while, took a three hour nap, annoyed everyone on Facebook, made apple butter, made madeleines, cleaned the house, rearranged all the presents, and it was still only like 3pm. Ugh. Finally B got home around 4. We took a nice shower together and then I went and got the chinese food. ALL the chinese food. The kid and KBF came over around 6 and we opened presents, watched always sunny, grinch, and Charlie Brown. They got us some nice presents too. I got an evil minion and the Tick Season 2, and B got a really nice Disney shirt. Some friends stopped by and dropped off cookies and an Oswald lanyard for me. We went to bed around 10 and that was a serious fail. Neither one of us could sleep. B read for a while and I came back on the computer. FINALLY it was midnight and we decided fuck it, let's open all the presents. We finished around 1:30 (more on what we got tomorrow since that technically is another day). B went to bed because she needed to be up for work this morning at 7. I cleaned up most of the stuff and started ripping some DVDs. I hit a wall at 2:30 and got into bed. I didn't fall asleep until 3 though. Too wound up.

Today is cleaning, playing with new presents, dinner, and then friend's house for cocktails and dessert.

I am in SUCH a different place than I was last year. I have to step back, be humble, and thank the heavens for where I am. This time last year I was two steps away from who knows what. Now? Now I am enjoying the holidays, enjoying ME, and enjoying life. I have a wonderful gf, incredible friends, some family I love (sorry, not all of them), a job, a roof over my head, and am a very fortunate man. I truly am blessed.

Y5 D213

Less than seventeen hours until Christmas!! Whee!!

Did jack shit yesterday and I have zero guilt about it. I got up early and ran to the store because B needed some material to finish up a costume she is helping one of our cast members with for NYE. The store was relatively dead. I did go out at 8:30 which helped. After the store I came back home and did timesheets, expense reports, etc. End of year paperwork. I also figured out I took 21 trips to nine different states this year.  On top of that, the rest of the year was spent training from home. Gee, where I live is OH SO important isn't it?

Took a nice nap during the day, played Deadpool, and waited for B to get home. When she got home she worked on the costume, then we had dinner. I slow cooked a pork shoulder marinated in a Hawaiian luau bbq sauce all day. Made pulled pork sandwiches with fries and corn. We watched the second episode of the newsroom. LOVED IT. Poor B fell asleep on me while watching. She is just getting over her cold. She ended up sleeping for 12 hours but it looks like it helped. I stayed up late watching Futurama. Around 8:30 I went to the store and got the makings for apple butter. That took me until about 11pm to get prepped and in the slow cooker. I let it cook all night. It has about 2 hours to go until I can start pureeing it. Guess what my plans are for today? Process and jar up apple butter. Booyah. 

Tonight the kid and KBF are coming over to celebrate. We are having chinese food. While B is at work today I plan to spread ALL the presents out on the floor. This should be fun. BWAHAHAHA.

Almost christmas, almost christmas, almost christmas...

Y5 D212

Fine day Sunday...

And it was. A good day. I was up early (the sky's awake so I'm awake so let's play). I was up for hours before I woke B up, but unfortunately I woke her up too early for her tastes. It was 8:30 when I woke her up which was 9 hours of sleep. Plenty in my brain. Bad move. She is still feeling icky and did not appreciate being awake. She got over it obviously but it was a rough start for her. Got up, had some food, and hit the pet store. Needed stuff for the dumb cat. After we stopped at the office supply store to get EOY folder files. Time to clean up 2013 receipts. That's today's project. We then had to be at the spa as B had a wax appointment. We ended up walking around the local farmers market before her appointment. Didn't buy anything but it was nice being outside. We then had grilled cheese for lunch. Quite tasty. Came back home and she worked on a sewing project while I played deadpool. Then made dinner and we watched some tv. B went back to her project. She needed to stay up to take her next dose of medicine and we ended up watching Newsroom. I watched just the one episode last week because I wanted her to watch the show. I am glad I did. She loved it too. Now we have something we can both watch. This makes me happy. Went to bed around 10:30.

See? A good day.

Y5 D211

Before I get into today's real post, I want to comment on something. Every Sunday I read Post Secret. Lately it's been kind of bland. But today was a Christmas edition. We have to stop and remember sometimes that there are way too many people out there that dread this time of year. Being alone or worse it would seem, being with family. I used to be one of those people. The number of times I worked on Christmas or had to wait for the kid to get to my house before I could have my holiday made the time of year almost a chore and hassle. I am grateful I am in a different place this year. I am looking forward to this week. While it will be different since we are doing Christmas Eve with the kid and then B had to work on Christmas, it will be a day filled with people I want to be around. People who want to be around me. I miss my sister and her family and wish I could be around them this week too, but at least I am going to have someone to wake up next to on Christmas morning that I want to share the day with. Only 65 hours to go.

Speaking of Christmas, got up yesterday at 5:45 and was out the door by 7:15. I was one of the first people inside the dollar store. Yep, yesterday was stocking stuffer day. I even got KBF a stocking so he could have something to open on Christmas. I know, I'm a nice guy. After there, I went to the grocery store and stocked up. I am going to be home for the next few weeks straight and wanted to make sure there is more than enough food in this house. I spent $300 but as I calculated out yesterday, that's three weeks of food at least which breaks down to about $2.40 a meal each. Not too shabby. I can't live on that eating out. I didn't buy anything useless either. No stupid food. Meats, fish, staples, soups, etc. Good stuff to keep us from eating out the next couple of weeks.

Got home and B was awake. Her and I went back out as I did something I have been wanting to do. I got my nose pierced. Yes, I added another hole to my head. It's a small 18 gauge ring. Nothing crazy or big.  I will never do spacers or plugs or anything weird like that. I like it. It's something different. After that we stopped at the costume store to see if I could find something for our friend's nephews party. He is having a disney theme party and people are coming in costume. I didn't want to spend what they wanted for a costume unfortunately. Headed back home and B took a nice nap. The piercing place was in the city and we took public transportation which means it was a good couple of hours there and back. It drained her. She is still sick and that was the most she has done all week.

Made steaks for dinner and around 8 one of our friends came over. He is going to Disneyland next week and I needed him to do me a favor. The silkscreen on my nice leather Disney jacket is coming off and he is taking it with him to see what they can do. We sat and talked for a couple of hours and I gave him a bottle of champagne for taking my jacket. B was starting to feel rundown again and I had her in bed by 11. My lips are finally starting to feel better but not 100%. Still cracked and bloody.

Today B has a spa appointment for some waxing otherwise this begins my time of nothing. Long live the nothing.

Y5 D210

I made it home! Home safe and sound. Long day of travel and teaching. My lips are killing me. The cold destroyed them. I can barely open my mouth without them splitting and causing me pain. Taught at the client from 8-12 then headed to the airport. Everyone kept saying how bad was going to be for travel but this is one of those times where status had its perks. I got to the Denver airport, saw the security line, and freaked out. Then I asked where the first/priority line was and laughed. Instead of an hour like most people, I was through in two minutes. I am not exaggerating either. It was two minutes for me. I got my upgrade on one of the two flights which helped make it a smooth ride. Even on the one without an upgrade I was still not in a bad seat and it was an okay flight. Both my flights were less than three hours which made them tolerable. B is still sicker than hell and instead of making her go out, I had a friend pick me up. THAT part status be damned. The line getting into the airport was insane. What should have been a 15 minute drive for my friend took an hour. I kept apologizing profusely, but she was okay. We stopped at CVS on the way home and I got B medicine. Got home, unpacked, talked, bed. She is really sick and slept horribly. I on the other hand slept like a rock.

Today is grocery shopping and stocking stuffer day. And NO WORK for the next two weeks. Goddamn that makes me happy.

Y5 D209

FINALLY! I had a decent night's sleep. I am so happy. Done without booze or any other outside influences too. I stayed up until about 10:30 and slept straight until 4:45. Well mostly. I woke up once at 1:30. Compared to most of the nights I have had here, I will take that as straight through. My nose is bleeding, my lips are cracked and destroyed, but I slept! Fuck this dry climate. And I am leaving just in time. I can feel the snow about to arrive.

Yesterday was the one formal by the book training day and as a result I was able to keep everyone focused and on track. At lunch I had to take that conference call. Companies should not let developers try and run projects. They have no concept of time or requirements. This guy I had to talk to was just an idiot. He wanted everything to be like five minutes and plug and play. When I pushed on him and said the earliest I could touch anything was 1/6 I thought he was going to explode. The heavy sigh he let out and the 'fine' was worse than any woman telling her husband who just bought her a vacuum for her birthday that everything was 'fine'. He is one of those people who feels like 'us contractors' (sorry buddy, I am a consultant) should work whenever to make him happy, including Christmas week. And he was upset when I told him what he wanted to do was not just one click done and I would need at least two days AND that he needed to do some data prep work. At the end of a very annoying call, it was clear we won't be hearing from him until at least mid-january. Suck it.

Got back to the hotel around 5, ironed, packed, printed boarding passes, and had dinner at the restaurant. I posted online something and to paraphrase here - I wish I had a sign that politely said "I know you are trying to be nice and polite and engage me in conversation, but I just spent 9 hours talking and that's the last thing I want to do right now. Please give me silence'. I know the waiter and staff are just trying to be nice, and I come across as grumpy, but I just want silence. I don't want to interact with people. I want to eat and be quiet. They tried to seat me in the bar because the dining room was empty and the server had to split rooms, but I don't care. I want silence.

Headed back to the room and talked to B for a while. She ended up going in on her day off because of the holidays coming up. They will have 150+ cats next week at their peak. Everyone is freaking out. She only worked four or five hours, but still. On top of it, she feels like she is getting a cold. Bad week babe.

After we hung up, I started watching The Newsroom. I am in love. The first episode blew me away. I have 18 more to go but wow. Great show. I was going to watch a second episode but I decided to wait for B. She will like this show.

Today I train for a half day, then head out to the airport. I am scheduled to land around 9:30. Let's see how travel goes.

Y5 D208

Most people can't handle being on the road like I am because they can't deal with the loneliness of it. You have to be okay with being alone. I mean like really alone. Once the work day is done you are on your own. Dinner by yourself. Hotel room by yourself. It's a lot of silence and introspective moments. This is too frightening and depressing for most people. I have come to accept it. I don't always like it, like last night, but I know how to deal with it.

Case in point, spent the day teaching yesterday and finished up around 4. Got back to the hotel at 4:30, ironed, then decided to walk around out of sheer boredom. I didn't want to go to a restaurant and eat another meal by myself, and ended up walking around the mall that is near by for a little while. Decided to eat at Noodles again and this time it was better. I got the pan friend noodles to go and headed back to the hotel. All around me I saw people out shopping and having holiday gatherings which made me feel even more isolated but I get there's nothing that can be done about it. It's part of the job.

Came back to the room, ate, and fell asleep watching tv on the laptop. I had some major bowel problems yesterday which wasn't helping my mood out. I spent way too long in the bathroom too many times last night. Other than some texts I didn't even get a chance to talk to B. She worked a long day and I have a feeling she fell asleep herself. One more day and I can be home for a while. I can get through this. Today is by the book in class versus the freeform mentoring we did the last two days which will make the day go by at a decent pace. I also have a conference call at lunch which should be interesting. I will describe that tomorrow depending on how it goes.

Y5 D207

I really dislike the climate here. It's too damn dry. Every time I touch something I get shocked. I can't breathe because if I sleep with the heat on my nose dries up, but if I don't have the heat on I am freezing. It's a no win situation. And my shower seems to have two settings - scald myself to death or frozen.

Interesting day yesterday. I say interesting because it was all over the map. This isn't formal training but rather a blend of some book information coupled with mentoring. This means we kept deviating off onto different topics all day and it makes for an uneven day. You spend the whole day jumping from topic to topic with no clear path of where we are going. For lunch I had Noodles and Company as B loves the place and has been sad there isn't one near us. It was okay. I had a thai hot pot which was better than expected. It wasn't like true authentic food, but it was better than I expected from a chain restaurant. I would give it another go in the future.

For dinner I ended up at an Irish pub which seems to happen a lot to me. I find myself in pubs because I like them. I had a full Irish breakfast for dinner. Watched some drunks make idiots of themselves, then headed back to the room. Meanwhile back at home I was helping to coordinate something fun. One of our friends has been studying over in London. She came home Sunday for Christmas break (163 hours to go in case you're counting) and wanted to surprise B. I helped coordinate it all and B got a great surprise last night. She was so thankful to see our friend. Even 1300 miles from home I am awesome.

Watched some netflix and hit bed. Another day. Almost done. One of our salespeople is trying to rope me into something and I am pushing back as hard as possible so we will see how that goes. I have to have a conference call with her and a client on Thursday at lunch. I am going to be a bit of a dick but that's what happens when you try to barge in with a 'let's get one more closed' kind of thing. Piss off. I am in the training group, not the consulting group.

Y5 D206

B ended up driving me to the airport yesterday. To say she wasn't happy is the biggest understatement of the year. Where does a company get off thinking they can cancel an hour before they are supposed to pick someone up? Total bullshit. We both posted tweets and facebook posts about it and I verbally told at least three people yesterday about my experience. Negative press all around. In this day and age of technology, companies can't afford to give bad customer service. One bad experience will reach too wide an audience too quickly.

My flights were uneventful. I didn't get my upgrade on either flight which sucked from LAX to Denver as it was a small plane with no width on the seats. People think leg room is the issue, it's the width. The rows should have three seats instead of four. That extra seat just makes it tough on everyone.

Got to Denver about 2:30, almost a 1/2 hour ahead of schedule. Talked to B, found my driver (which the hotel took care of arranging for me, yay being Hilton Diamond), and headed downtown. I am staying literally right downtown. I am in the middle of everything. I walked over to the client's office around 4 and we spent about an hour together going over the room layout, the expected students, the agenda, etc. Got back to the hotel, unpacked, ironed, and headed down for dinner. I tend to be lazy my first night somewhere and if it's available eat at the hotel restaurant. This one wasn't bad. I had a bison flatbread with grilled broccilini, and bourbon peach cheesecake for dessert. Tasty.

Got back to the room, talked to B, watched some Futurama, and fell asleep by 9 because I had a splitting headache. Altitude? Heater? Unknown. Probably my eyes. Eye strain headache. I need to replace my contacts. Can't do that until the 3rd thanks to insurance. So my eyes are killing me on long days like this.

Heading out in a couple of hours. Class runs from 8:30-4:30 each day. Let's see how this goes.

Y5 D205

Okay this day is off to a fucked up start. I just got a call from Execucar saying my car service is cancelled. Who the fuck cancels an hour before?? Oh and that it will take 3-5 days for my refund to show. I see, you get an hour and I have to wait 3-5 days? FUCK YOU. You just earned a bad review and no more of my business. On top of that, the AA app is fucking up and won't confirm my flights. Ugh. Last trip of the year. Last trip of the year.

Yesterday was okay. I ended up getting up an hour earlier than I needed. I got up to check in for my flight only to realize I was off on the time. Oh well. I ended up going over to Toys R Us at 7:30. Nice and quiet. Then I went over to Old Navy to pick up B some slippers. Headed back home and then B and I went downtown to the greatest toy store around. We decided to see Frozen while we were out. LOVED IT. It wasn't the greatest movie ever like some folks are saying but it was wonderful. I was ready to hate Olaf because I thought he would be too cutesy but they did a really good job on him. Afterwards we had cheesesteak sandwiches and then headed home.

A quiet evening of reading and relaxing. I went to bed at 8:40 since I had to get up at 3. B went to bed around midnight and now she is up because of fucking Execucar.

Last trip.

Y5 D204

MUCH better day yesterday. Nothing incredible happened, unless you count sex last night. That's always incredible. Oh yeah.

But truthfully it was a better day. I woke up way too early as is normal for me. I did all my morning stuff and then hit the grocery store for some items for dinner. I made a roast in the slow cooker so I wanted to get it going early. I got it in and ready by 9. B got up around 9:30 and I made her breakfast. She had to be at work for a meeting around 2 so we didn't do much before hand. I did some cleaning, she sewed my bag and fixed a zipper on it for me, and in general we were homebodies. Since she had her meeting and I knew it would run late, we stopped and grabbed some Taco Bell. That was the excitement of the morning. At 2 I dropped her off at work and I went and ran a couple of errands. I have felt bad because the kid doesn't have enough presents under the tree. I stopped at CVS and bought her this little mini crockpot thing that she can use for work or school to take hot food with her and keep it warm. Essentially the modern version of a thermos. I think she will like it. Very practical. We also decided what we are doing for Christmas. Since B has to work Christmas day, we are going to have the kid and KBF over on Christmas Eve, open presents from/to them, have Chinese food, and then they can go on home. When B gets home from work, we will have our Christmas and then head over to our friend's house later for drinks and social time. Everybody wins. B's meeting finished around 3:30 and we decided to hit the mall. It was fun going to the mall when you don't need to buy anything. Everyone else is stressing out and you're just cruising. We did stop at Harry and David's and I got some stocking stuffers and another gift for the kid. B wanted some slippers but the line was too long. I am planning on heading over there this morning when they open to get them. We got back around 5:30 and the roast was perfect. We had a nice dinner of roast, potatoes, brown bread, beans, and a caesar salad. While we ate we watched Olympus Has Fallen. Meh. She enjoyed it, I tolerated it. Felt too much like Die Hard to me. Very cliche also. It also felt rushed at the end. Not horrible but whatever.

After we headed to the bedroom. Next thing ya know it's 10:30 and I am passed out. Yes, I am old. I have the sex and I fall asleep. Sue me.

Talked to one of my friends yesterday. I am very grateful and glad him and I reconciled. I enjoy talking to him. His wife has been having some issues but she is doing better now. I worry about both of them.

Today I will go back, get the slippers, pack, and get ready to head to Colorado. My last trip of 2013. When I get back I am done for the year. Thank god.

Y5 D203

Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have B? I can't say that enough, believe me. Yesterday was one of those days where if I didn't have her, I would be typing a much different entry this morning. The universe as it is want to do, decided to fuck with me. Oh, you're happy? We can fix that. Let's send you into a spiral of self loathing and depression. Ready? Here it comes...

The universe decided to send the past 3000 miles and bitchslap me in the face. Here's how it did it. I log into my bank account to check balances and make sure everything is cool. I see this weird account listed down the bottom I have never seen. I click on it and it's my old mortgage which mind you has been closed for four years. It is showing a zero balance but there are $1100 listed in late and processing fees. WTF? But wait that's not all. Guess who's listed as the primary contact? Yep. X2 and her current address. I call the bank and they have no idea why it just showed up. They can't remove it though because it is showing those late fees. I have to write a physical letter to have it investigated. Fuck me. Then I did the stupid thing. I googled the address listed. Yeah I know. I could have let it go, but come on, you would have done the same thing. And guess what? She is now living in a house she bought about 1 year ago in Boca. 3500 sq ft 3 bed 2.5 bath with office loft, swimming pool, on a 10,000 sq ft lot. For 400,000. Are you fucking kidding me?? This of course pissed me off, depressed me, and sent me into a spiral of regretting every decision I have made for the last five years. I made me pissed that she got to walk away clean and had enough to do this. It pissed me off that I was straddled with all the debt. It pissed me off that I moved back where I did where 400,000 won't even get me a condo. Just everything collapsed onto itself on me. I was wrecked. I tried to distract myself with work and did paperwork and sat through a webinar. Then at 1pm I tried to go to Best Buy just to get out of the house and get ink for the printer only to get there and find I left the piece of paper with the cartridge numbers on my desk. Wasted time and trip just like my life - that's how I was feeling. Then at 3 B came home. I told her everything that had gone on and she understood. She also understood exactly why I looked up the address. She agreed she would have done the same thing. Mostly I was feeling horrible because I want B to have a good life and here I am still living in a fucking apartment while X2 is in a 3500 sq ft house. Which by the way is probably way too big for her. But whatever. Even if she has someone, two people in that big of a house? Perfect if you're cold hearted and want to be surrounded by empty space? And the real kicker? I explained to B how even if I could afford it, I don't know why it is so upsetting to me. I would never live in that area (did you know almost 25% of the population is over 65?) nor would I want a house like that. I wouldn't want the pool. It's in a cookie cutter community. It's everything I have come to hate. But yet it still bugs me. Without B I would have drank myself into a deeper depression. Having someone to talk through things with made the difference. I am still not over it (thanks universe) but I was able to get it out of my system instead of letting it eat me up. Thank god for her. And I do. Every day.

She ended up having to go back to work from 5 until 8 so I ordered a pizza and then decided to go back to Best Buy. BIG mistake. It took me 15 minutes to get there, 10 inside, and then FIFTY SEVEN minutes to get home. That of course just made me hate where I live even more. I really do want to leave this area when our lease is up. It's the only way. I can truly put ALL of the past behind me and move forward. I can have a nice house and not be stressed all the time. I have to. Otherwise I might go insane.

When B got home at 8 we ate pizza and watched some TV. She actually fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. I put her to bed and followed soon after at 10. We both are free today. Hopefully we will have a good day.

Y5 D202

FINALLY - a day unto myself mostly. I say mostly because I have to go through 400lbs of receipts and timesheets and other admin stuff, but I don't have to talk.

I was a little floppy in class yesterday. It was my last online class of the year which made me a little distracted. But I got through it. B had yesterday off, her first in a while. She slept in while I taught. At lunch we went and tried getting her car to start which it did with no problem. Whatevs. After class we went and started laundry. All the laundry is done, the house is mostly clean, and we had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. A successful day in my book. Some time in the next couple of hours I am going to put a roast in the slow cooker for dinner and all will be good.

We watched a little tv and then B read while I played Deadpool. We need to have the sex but we are both so damn tired. We just don't have the energy. But don't get me wrong. We are having our own version of intimacy. We are close and together and that is good. I am happy.

In other news I found out a friend is back in the hospital. I wish her all my love and hope she recovers quickly. I also wonder how my sister is. I wonder how the house sale is going.

I have to pack today so I can go to Colorado next week. Whee.

Y5 D201

Guess what I did yesterday? Taught another class! Woo. I'm about to lose my voice after so many days straight of talking. Some days I know how a singer on tour feels. You push your vocal chords for a short period constantly every day. Even though it's for a limited time, you are using your 'professional' voice which makes it harder to keep it up after so many days in a row. BUT only one more class to go this week and then one week on site and I am done for the year. Then I can go two weeks without saying a word if I want.

After class all the time changes and travel finally caught up to me. I passed out from 3 until 5:30. Then I got up, made dinner, and was back in bed by 10. Just was exhausted. B doesn't have to work today so she stayed up last night until midnight. I know because I felt her get into bed last night. She too has been running ragged at work as they get ready for their Christmas rush. They will have almost 200 cats at the peak during Christmas week.  It's been crazy for her. New kennels, new responsibilities, etc. But she is hanging in there. We didn't do anything with her car yet which is frustrating but we are both just so tired. Maybe finally by this weekend we both will have some energy. I really hope so.

Nothing else exciting to report. My life is boring these days. Good.

Y5 D200

Just in case I didn't have enough in my life going on, we now have problems with B's car. It's not starting in the morning. It seems like it is cold and just having trouble so when she got home from work last night we jumped it and it started but then even after running for 20 minutes it wouldn't start back up. It seems like it is not getting enough spark. One more thing to have to fucking deal with.

Class went LONG yesterday because five of the students were from one company and they had a specific question they needed answered. The upside is that the time spent looks like it will turn into some custom training in the early part of the year. The half hour I spent with them after class may result in a $20,000 custom training in PA. Okay. Worth the time.

After dealing with B's car, we had a friend come over then we went to Target. We were out of everything. Toilet paper, food, you name it. We got back home and at around 8:40, B just collapsed from exhaustion. She went to be and was out by 9. I stayed up to play Deadpool. I went to bed around 10.

I don't know what to do about her car. She needs a new one but this is not the time. We will probably go buy a battery today just to make sure that's not the problem. Fun fucking stuff.

More training today.

Y5 D199

Weird being at home after my adventures on the weekend. A little surreal to be honest. Especially since I have to leave again in a few days. But then I am home for two solid weeks minimum. It was a struggle getting up yesterday morning. No lie on that. But up I got. I managed to get class started on time and things went well. Given the size of the class, things went much better than I expected. There are 19 students on this class and I was worried it was going to be a challenge keeping everyone's attention and keeping everyone at the same level. But they did really well. I was impressed by the majority of them. There's one or two who are little slower, but overall the group did a good job. Let's see how they do today with harder material.

B had to take my car yesterday because hers wouldn't start. I think she flooded it because when I went out at lunch it started right up for me. It's super cold here right now and I think that was the issue. She didn't give it enough time. She really needs a new car. I know she likes her car but it's a beast. Something to look at for next year. Class finished right on time and I took a quick nap. When I woke up B was on her way home. Around 5 we decided to go to the pet store as we really needed kitty litter and dry food. The roads were a mess. There was a 4 car fatality on the freeway that was backing everything up for a good 10-15 miles so everyone was taking the surface roads. We both agreed that once we got home that was it. We need to go to the grocery store, but it can wait. We grabbed chinese food on the way home. Now we have leftovers. Much easier. We got back and the kid came over right as we were starting to eat. She was picking up her new phone and stayed a while to have some food and relax before attempting traffic.

B had some work stuff to do and then around 9 decided she was too exhausted to keep going. I stayed up for about another playing video games. My friend let me borrow Deadpool so I started on that. Hilarious game. I think I will enjoy it.

I went to bed around 10 and slept hard. I woke up at 4:00 and decided to just get up. Three more days of classes and then I get a break for a couple of days.

Y5 D198

Took from 3am EST until 11:01pm PST for me to get home yesterday. Five airports. Four flights. One upgrade which was useless since it was a one hour flight. What was really frustrating was even though I left the hotel at 6am, I didn't get off the east coast until almost 12 hours later. I kept bouncing from airport to airport on the east coast. Tallahassee to Miami to Tampa. Honestly talk about annoying. But I finally did get home. I only had a sandwich all day which was okay. I wasn't dying at any point. I made it home and ate. B had made a special chicken pot pie for me that she worked on all day. It was tasty. Even when I got home though the fun didn't stop. I went through mail, unpacked, fixed the kids phone, cleaned the litter box - like I never left...

Today through Thursday I teach. 19 students today and tomorrow. I am so not ready for this. 5 hours of sleep is not good.

Y5 D197

Yesterday was a fucking nightmare. I am STILL in Florida. Yep. I never made it out of here. I have been trying to stay positive but it's getting more challenging every hour I am here. I got up in the morning to a plethora of voicemails from American. This flight is changed, this flight is moved, etc. I went to the airport at my scheduled time to figure out what was going on and it looked like I was going to leave just a LOT later. As the gate agent and I talked, she realized that I was on flights TODAY and not yesterday. Son of a bitch. I called my cab driver, had him take me back to the hotel, and rechecked in. Both the cabbie and the hotel were understanding. I ended up back in the same room. I was still keeping positive because no one individual was doing this on purpose. They don't control weather. Instead I now had a free day, flights confirmed for today and while rough, I was on track to getting home. So I went back to sleep for a few hours and then took a walk to the mall.

The mall ended up being farther away than I realized and in the end I walked a round trip of 6.2 miles. Well, I got my exercise in for the week didn't I? The fucked part? It started raining on me while I was walking. Of course.

I got back to the hotel, ordered some Christmas presents since I lost this weekend to shop at home, napped some more, talked to B who is livid right now at everyone, and went to a nice dinner. I figured if I am stuck here, someone is paying for it. When I got back to the room is when the real fun started. I was in the middle of talking to B when I got another AA auto call. I am now, ready for this?, going to Miami, then Tampa, then Dallas, then home. IF I AM LUCKY. I am about to spend the next 18-20 hours flying. And that's if everything goes right. We shall see. As of right now, my only goal is to get the fuck out of Tallahassee and get to a bigger hub. That's all I want. If I can get to Miami I can find a flight home hopefully and gate hop. Same thing if I can just get to Dallas.

I sent my work emails about all this. I have to be up at 5 tomorrow to teach 20 people. I am going to be so exhausted this week it's not even funny. I have lost my entire weekend and am at wits end. I am about to head out. Wish me luck. I just need to somewhere.

Y5 D196

I am completely stressing out right now. I just woke up at 3 to a voicemail from American. My flights have been changed/rerouted/canceled. I have no idea my new itinerary except for the basics they left on the phone. I am still going to the airport in 45 minutes to see what is going on, but I may sit there for SEVEN HOURS until there is a flight. I was scheduled to get home around 2. NOW I am going to be lucky to get home by 9. Wish me luck.

Class went okay. Got through it. Went to IHOP for dinner. Went to bed at 8. Nothing else to report because of the flight shit. So fucking stressed.

Y5 D195

Another day down. Still here for one more day though. We are now about 4 hours behind but I need to decide if this group is even smart enough to do the remaining material. I don't mean if they have the mental capacity which they do, but are they able to comprehend and retain the additional material. I don't think they are. I realized the problem yesterday. This group is made up more of end users than developers. They kept over thinking everything. "but what about this?" and "what if we need this" are end user questions not developer questions. There is one person in particular who thinks she is the smartest thing since sliced bread and is the most annoying of them all because everything turns into a philosophical discussion. Just click where I fucking told you and don't worry about WHY you are clicking. Meh whatever. One more day and I get to go home. This time tomorrow I will be at an airport and be heading home. Home to my peep and my packages and my life. The downside is I go back on the road in 10 days. The upside is once that gig is over I am done until the end of the year. I can do this. I can make it through.

Got back to the hotel around 5:30. Had dinner at the restaurant next door, came back, soaked in the tub, and went to bed. Captain excitement.

I want to go home.

Y5 D194

I am technically now Diamond! Last night was night 60. Now, it won't actually go against my account until I check out and they process everything which means my account won't reflect the change until probably Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, but I hit it. I will actually show as having 62 nights when I check out on Saturday. This means when I go to Colorado in 10 days I will be going as Diamond. Damn. Milestones.

Yesterday was a rough day. I have three PhD candidates in my class. I fucking hate doctorate people. They don't "do", instead they want to "discuss". They have to know the why behind everything instead of just doing things and that is annoying as hell. We are 3-4 hours behind because we have had to do intro material plus a 2 hour philosophical discussion about how this will fit into their day to day things. In other words, a waste of fucking time. I need them to put on blinders in some respect and focus on the material I am trying to teach them and stop worrying about the long term picture. I don't have weeks or months with them, just days. Made for a very exhausting day yesterday. Got through it though. Luckily I have a bit of a buffer in the schedule and will still make it through all of the material.

Got back to the hotel around 5:30 and decided on BBQ for dinner. Meh. It was okay. Nothing exciting. Talked to B. She is excited about today because she gets paid and she will get to see the fruit of her labor. I did have an interesting phone call with my coworker about 2014 and what we plan to do with the training team. Let's see how that all plays out over the next month. I don't expect anything to change right away but he has some interesting ideas.

Couldn't sleep because I was too worked up about the day and stayed up later than I would have liked. I am pretty beat this morning. I hope today is easier.

Y5 D193

So sleepy. Need to stabilize my body clock. Not working. I wanted so bad to take a nap after work but fought it off with all my strength. Ended up falling asleep at 9:40pm. Which of course meant I was awake at around 3. Managed to fall back to sleep until now. Thrown off. Ugh.

Class went well yesterday. In a lead lined three inch thick concrete room where I have no internet or phone access unfortunately. Okay it probably isn't lined with lead, but it's a state government building which also houses prisoners so it might as well be. And yes, I said prisoners. This client is a juvenile detention facility. They have 'guests' from age 5 to 21 visiting them at any time and I am right in the middle of it. Fun stuff. The group is pretty good. They aren't the 'experts' I was led to believe though. I think there was some confusion between this gig and the next one I am doing in Colorado. This group is all novices which means I lost 2 hours yesterday having to do the intro part of the class that I would normally do for non-technical folks. Everyone was able to keep up and there are so far no stragglers. But it did throw off my schedule and I am about an hour behind right now. Luckily we have a fourth day which is meant to be open ended. If I need to, I can roll things into that day. It also looks like I did an upsell and have them wanting another week of training on some other topics. I may be coming back here in the not too distant future. That's always one of the unwritten goals of these classes. Either turn it into a consulting gig for the company or get them to take more classes. In this case over time I think we can do both. If I can at least get a week more of training on the books for 2014, I am doing my job.

Finished the day up right around 5 and headed back to the room. Walked around a bit and found a place called "Beef O Bradys". Yeah. It was okay. Had a decent salad and sandwich for dinner. Nothing exciting. The place bordered on annoying especially the people wanting to know if I was 'doing okay?'. There is a fine line between checking on your customer and bothering the shit out of them. This place straddled it too closely.

B got her new phone yesterday and went ahead and opened it. She was so excited. We didn't get a chance to talk, but we texted and it seems like everything is going well on her new device. I am looking forward to being home and checking it out. I don't want one, but I am always excited about new toys.

Watched some TV in the room but otherwise, not much else. Last night was night 59. One more and I am officially Diamond. Bam.

Y5 D192

The fun of time changes. I am awake when most back home are going to bed. I wonder how many times in the last five years I have said that in this blog. Too many probably. Last night marked night 58 spent in Hilton hotels. I say Hilton specifically because I have at least 10 nights in other brands this year which means I have spent close to 70 nights in hotels and still have at least 10 to go before this year is over. I did the math the other day. Over 30% of my work year was spent in hotels. Which means at least 30-35% of my job was away from home. If I add in the number of classes I taught from home, I have a strong feeling that will bring my total to 60-70% of my job being irrelevant to where I live. Why does that matter? Because then I can move in September without anyone saying it will impact my job. I really do believe that less than 20% this year was spent at local clients. A few more weeks and we shall see the numbers first hand. I am very curious to be honest.

Traveled all day. My car service picked me up at 4, right on time too. I was very impressed. I ended up using car service because B had to be up for work and it would have been too hard for her to get up, take me, and then be functional for work. Plus it was only $10 more than a cab. Whatever. Since this was a Monday morning trip, I didn't even bother putting in for the upgrade. I knew it wasn't going to be worth it and I was right. 13 persons on the upgrade list. Now Saturday's flight home I may put in for it because there will be less business travelers. I will say that yesterday's flights also gave me enough points to be able to fly B back home in Feb for her birthday with the return flights giving me some wiggle room. Nothing exciting happened on the way home. Hit Dallas around 11 cst, took off for Tallahassee at 2, arrived in FL at 5 est. Basically 12 hours traveling. Checked in, found dinner, ironed, watched a Dr Who episode, talked to B, went to bed. This hotel is one of the more basic ones so no restaurant or bar in the hotel. Not a bad thing mind you, just makes it tough because I have to leave to eat. 

I have to be at the client at about 8:30 this morning. It's less than a mile walk so I have 3 hours or so until I have to leave. A waffle sounds good...

Y5 D191

And so begins a travel day. Roughly 12 hours from now I will be sitting in a hotel room across the country. I will be back home on Saturday. This is a long ass week coming up. No other way to put it. Good thing we had a quiet day yesterday. Plus the sex. We got up officially around 11. I was up and down because of the show and flight check in, but we were both up and moving by 11. We then went and had the taco bell. That was followed by driving the prop truck back to our director's house. We got back home from everything around 2. B then need to hit the fabric shop to return some yarn for the blanket she is making. She is knocking this thing out of the park. She just sits and crochets while watching TV and she has a pretty damn big blanket already going on. I am impressed as hell about this thing. It's amazing to me. We had dinner, watched some TV and then hit the bedroom for some fun. We also had a good talk about sex. We discussed how I have been leaving her be because she had a rough work week and she told me I need to let her make the choice and not decide for us if she is too tired or not. It's nice to have a partner that I can openly discuss things without anger or embarrassment. Score one for me. That was our day. Didn't do much in the 10 or so hours we were up, but felt pretty good regardless. I don't expect this to be an exciting week either. I will be in Tallahassee FL and walking everywhere so this is probably going to be a boring ass week. BUT it is my Diamond week. I am there five nights and as of night 3 I will hit Diamond at Hilton. Score. I will carry that through all of 2014. I am excited about it because the amount of bonus points on a stay is 100%. That shit will add up quickly next year. Okay, my car will be here shortly. Time to go.

Y5 D190

From up at 6 yesterday to up at 11am today. I have no such thing as a normal sleep pattern. I am up at 3 tomorrow since it's a travel day. Seriously, people wonder why I have trouble sleeping or can nap anytime. It's because I do not have a consistent sleep pattern. Didn't go to bed until 4 this morning, back up at six for an hour, then slept from 7-11. Whee.

Took the train yesterday to get the truck which was a major pain in the ass. The train was late, I walked a 1/2 mile in the wrong direction when I got off, and then I had to put gas in the truck tank. Just one thing after another. I left the house at like 8:15 and didn't get home until three hours later. I did make up for it by playing some video games and then around 1 taking a three hour nap. Yeah, real productive day, right?

B got home around 4:30. She herself had a very long day. We got ready about 8:30 and then headed out to the show. Good show if long. We were short handed which meant a lot of running around and I tripped on a cable and ripped my leg open. I haven't fully checked the extent of my injuries, but I know there was blood on my jeans last night.

Got home around 3:30, slept on the couch for two hours. Checked in for my flight, welcome to today.

Y5 D189

Why am I up at 6:30am on a Saturday when I don't have to work or travel? Oh because some of my fellow cast members are total douchebags and once again I get to pick up their slack. I have to go get the fucking truck this morning. You know it's slightly mean of me to say they are douchebags. What they are is children who joined something not realizing it would be a job and be a real amount of work. Ugh. Just venting.

Anyway, yesterday was pretty good. B finally had a day off which was great. She got up at a reasonable time but still felt like she got to sleep in. We didn't do a whole lot. She wanted to make green bean casserole for dinner because it was one of the few things she missed on Thursday from home. That was our big time out was going to the grocery store and getting the ingredients.

We did do some black friday 'shopping'. We logged on to verizon's website and lo and behold they had the note 3 for 199. Down 100. I ordered her and the kid one for Christmas. Upside? I don't pay for B's until Dec 16th and then the kid's in January. That was our big shopping for the day.

Other than that, we dyed my hair and watched like six episodes of Criminal Minds. Her turn for a marathon. Good day off for her, acceptable for me.

Y5 D188

Yesterday ended up being better than I thought it would be. Have low expectations and one is never disappointed, right? Spent the majority of the day alone. B worked from 8 until 2:30. She was very happy and frustrated about this at the same time. Happy because it was time and a half and she made more in one day than she used to make in a week back at one of her old jobs. For her this was a great day. A tiring long day, but she is focused on the outcome of her next check which will probably be the single largest check she has received to date. Good for her on that count. I am happy that she is happy. While she was at work, I ironed and sat around doing pretty much nothing. It was pretty enjoyable. I watched some shows, played some video games, and paced. To be honest I would have been content if that had been my whole day. But this was B's first holiday away from family and I knew it was important for her that we be around people.

When she got home we headed over to our friend's house. We got there a little after 3 and it turned out we were the only ones to accept the invitation. I felt both good and bad about that. Good that we were there for them, bad that we didn't have any other family of our own to be spending the day with instead. It was all good. They had actually timed dinner based on our arrival. I guess they knew we were going to be the only other ones there. Dinner was your standard stuff and I was given the honor of cutting up the turkey same as last year. We had turkey and stuffing and all the usual suspects. Ate a moderate amount but didn't gorge. We ate around 4 which while earlier than normal wasn't a 2:30 meal at least. Never understood that.

The downsides of yesterday? My friends had been drinking since noon and it showed. By 4 they were well into drunk. The upside is B and my director bonded like never before. This makes me happy. She even gave B one of her rings. That's a huge thing. She has only ever given jewelry to one other friend in her life. Yes, B cried. Even I teared up a bit. Some other folks came over around 6:30 or so and we made our exit around 8 when the same stories were being repeated for the fourth time. I have a feeling that it was about to go out of control in another hour or so. This is why we made our exit while things were still positive.

We got home around 9 and collapsed. After 4 straight days B just wanted sleep. She also told me if I wake her up this morning she will kill me. Sleep my woman, sleep.

Today we have NOTHING to do. I refuse to leave the house today even for the smallest thing. I should just go back to bed...

Y5 D187

Happy Thanksgiving? Yeah, okay whatever. One of those days that has never done much for me. Yes, I have plenty to be 'thankful' for, but I don't need a day to recognize that. I also don't care much for the typical food that gets served so there's no motivation for me to eat like a pig. Spent the day working on work stuff yesterday. Took a quick break to hit the store and get some boxed mixes to make desserts to take over to our friend's house today. Nothing fancy - box of lemon bars and chocolate cookies. Spent a whopping $9 on everything. That was the extent of my day until B got home. She is having a crisis with one of her co-workers. She knows this person is a drug user but she has no proof. We had a long talk last night about what she can and cannot legally do now that she is a lead. She wants to tell her managers but I had to explain to her that without any tangible proof, it's her word agains the co-workers which will end messy. She has to have solid evidence this person is coming to work under the influence of illegal drugs, or she is doing them onsite, or has drugs or drug paraphernalia on her person. It's a slippery slope trying to prove something like that. ESPECIALLY when this person has already told her supervisors she has a medical condition and takes prescribed medication. B cannot put herself in a position where she is accusing someone of something and then have it blow up in her face. Had dinner, watched some TV, and then she went off to bed around 9:30. This getting up early stuff is hard on her. She is not used to being up so early every day. I feel bad because we haven't gone to bed or gotten up at the same time in over a week. Tomorrow is a day off for her finally and we can have some quality time together. She is working right now which sucks but she is getting time and a half which makes her happy. Her next check is going to be great.

I stayed up and watched some of my shows I have been trying to catch up on. Specifically American Horror Story. I am really enjoying not just the storyline, but the incredible acting in this season. Some fabulous work being done by everyone. I ended up  going to bed around 11:30 and sleeping solid until about 5. Had a weird dream that woke me up. Me and X2 were at a store where she had to have this dresser. It was $400 and I decided to walk it home. After a few blocks I left it on the street to get the car. That turned into a comedy of errors. It was a much longer dream but trust me, it's not worth repeating. It was just one weird thing after another. In the end I got the dresser back, but not without an adventure. I woke up from it at 5 and almost stayed up. Luckily I fell back to sleep.

Well, I don't really have much to do until B gets home. Guess I will watch some TV?

Y5 D186

I'm in a shit mood today. Started last night when we tried to go do something simple as upgrade B's phone. Normally when I do an upgrade I go into the store, pick the phone I want and bill it to my account. Well the phone she wants they don't keep in stores any more. The other one she liked you have to custom order which means you can't bill it to your account. You have to pay for it all at once and this is a bad pay period to be doing that. I got paid too early this month which means rent, car, loc, disney passes, and a couple of other things are ALL coming out of one check leaving me with about $4 to last until the 6th. The 6th. It's going to be a long week next week. But this of course put me in a lousy mood because I just want to be able to take care of my family. B then felt guilty for wanting a new phone but the truth is she needs one. Hers is barely able to hold a charge for more than 8 hours and is dying on her. On top of that the kid came over yesterday to drop off a present and she showed me her phone - the back is gone and hers won't keep a charge any more. She needs an upgrade too. Of course she too wants one that isn't in stock in the stores. Well they're both going to have to wait. A roof over my head is more important to me. Sorry, that's just the way it is. Then to make matters worse, one of my friends came by last night with an early Christmas present but unfortunately it's someone B doesn't like which just made for a real awkward night. Fuck this is too complicated and frustrating. I just want to go back to bed and wake up when I have to leave for Florida. At least I will be on an expense account that whole week and not have to worry about anything. Fuck me. I quit today.

Y5 D185

Got a lot done yesterday on my documents which made me feel pretty good. I am in the process of converting all of our trainings to a new template which should be easy except they were never built with a template to begin with which means I have to go slide by slide and edit fonts, sizes, locations of objects, etc. It is a mind numbing tedious task that needs to be done and I have been dawdling on for weeks. I have these three days to show results and I need to knuckle down. I made good progress on one yesterday and should be able to show two completely done by Wednesday. I would like to have our five main classes done before the end of the year. Here's hoping.

In addition to that, I managed to also do all the laundry, vacuum, and go to the grocery store. Yay me. B got home around 3 after a long day. They are prepping for the onslaught of kitties which is going to happen tomorrow. She was exhausted when she got home and didn't feel like doing anything. We watched some TV we were behind on, watched a movie, and had dinner. I don't see the sex happening this week because of her work schedule so man I am looking forward to her day on Friday. She ended up going to bed at 9 last night because she was so tired. I stayed up until about 10:30. Had a rough night sleeping though because she was tossing and turning. I didn't say anything though because she has to be up early this week and I don't. I can sleep if I want to all week. I also have Thursday and Friday as official holidays and just need to make it a couple more days. Then it's off to Florida for a week. Fun. I just checked the weather. At least it won't be cold. Wet yes, cold no.

Time to shower and work.

Y5 D184

Had a really good day yesterday. Wasn't feeling good obviously because I was drunk mcdrunkie on Saturday night, but if you play you pay and you just keep going right? Stupidity doesn't give you a free pass to ruin other people's day. Got up before B even with a hangover. She wanted to see Catching Fire so we went. Long ass movie so that was the majority of our day. We went to a noon showing, left the house at 10:30, stopped and grabbed taco bell, and we were in our seats by 11:20. Good thing too because by noon the place was pretty full. Not crowded, but much more than normal for an early sunday morning. By the time we got out of there it was almost 3. After the movie we went and ran a couple of errands. B needed to get some stuff for work and some wrapping paper. Current present count under the tree is 73. We should be able to beat last year's 90 easily. I ordered the 12 days of Holiday Bullshit from Cards Against Humanity a couple of weeks ago when they released it and that means I will have 12 individual presents coming from them. I assume each one is like a set of booster cards. It was $10 for the set so I don't expect them to be the most exciting of presents, but 12 individual presents will take us up to 85 without even trying. Anyway, got back home around 4, relaxed, made dinner around 5:30. Chicken with rice and asparagus. Not too shabby. We watched a couple of episodes of Dr Who and then B decided she wanted to watch the Avenger movies she hasn't seen - Thor and Cap. We watched Thor because we have to watch them in the right order. By the time that was all done it was close to ten. She is working all week including Thanksgiving and needs to be up early. For me this is a week of doc writing. Well at least M-W. Thurs and Fri are pure holidays and I am not going to do jackshit those days.

That's it. That's Sunday in a nutshell. Time to work on docs and laundry...

Y5 D183

I had a night last night. Haven't had one of those in a long while. No excuses, no stories, just truth - I got drunk, I spent too much money, I threw up, I passed out. That's that. No sugar coating it, that's what happened. I had fun. Probably embarrassed B. Don't know yet because I am up and she is not. I am letting her sleep as long as needed. I woke up to find a friend passed out on the couch. So we must have had fun, right?

Whole day, here it goes. B went to work at 8:30, I went to Target. Got stuff we needed for the house like bread and milk. Basics. Came home, put stuff away, cleaned the fireplace, cleaned the patio, and straightened the house. Did my stuff. Watched some Doctor and waited for B to get home. She got home around 3:30 and got ready to go out. Her coworker is leaving and it was a big going away party. Her friend came over early to drive with us and we all headed out. We started at one place where we ate and drank, (okay I drank, less eating than I should have), went to another for more booze, and ended up at a 3rd bar for even more. I lost count of everything but I know shots were involved, rum, vodka, and gin. I mixed, I paid, is life. I have no idea what time it was when we got home. Two of our friends came home with us, but I lasted like 20 minutes before I needed to pass out. That's what B will be pissed about if anything. The fact that I left her alone to be a hostess. She hates that shit. That's my job in this relationship.

Okay. Let's go see the damage...

Y5 D182

Been up for a while. Slept like crap last night. Tossed and turned. Almost got up at 3 because I was just tired of the flipping. Don't know why.

Taught all day yesterday followed by a brief nap. B got home from work late yesterday because after her regular shift she started training. I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but she got a promotion. Not bad for only being on the job for 2 months. They want her to train to be the back of house lead and then supervisor. She also got a 5% raise and another one to follow in 2014 when she becomes supervisor. She is really happy about this. Even with the small raise she just got it's more money than she expected to make here. It's definitely more than she would have made back in MI. While it's a lot of work, it's making her very happy. She never figured she would find a job here that she really loved and enjoyed so I am supporting her even if it means more hours. Like today for example. She was supposed to have today off but they want her to go in and train with the morning shift.

When she finally got home we went out and had a nice dinner. Went back to the Hawaiian place we both love. She had her hurricane fries and I had a couple of dear god these are huge mai tais. Everyone was happy. I tried to do something nice for her afterwards but it didn't work out. She really wants to see Catching Fire in the theater and when we arrived the next three showings all had lines. The showing without a line would have been too late and she would have been too tired this morning. She is currently buried under a pile of blankets not wanting to move as it is. If we had gone to the later movie it would worse right now. Such is life.

Instead we came home and she crocheted and I played some video games. Look out, we are all crazy up in here.

Today while she works, I will run errands. Tonight she has a work thing to go to and I may join her later. We shall see.

Y5 D181

Got up a little later today to try and accommodate B. That was a mistake. Now I feel rushed and she decided to sleep in until 6:30. Dammit, don't tell me you're going to get up at a certain time then not do it. Throws me off. Ugh.

Taught all day. Got an email last night that pissed me off. We updated our insurance policies recently and mine went up $60 a month for apparently no reason. I then got an email saying there would be a back charge of $40. So I haven't looked yet but my check will be $200 less because of the new insurance rate and the back charge. Hey, let's go look and see how bad it was. Please hold...

Yeah this going to suck. It's not a lot in the grand scheme but in the short term it makes for a bit of a challenge especially since this is a rent and car payment check. I need to move. I can't keep paying $2100 for this place. Oregon here we come. Seriously. I would love to be paying $1000 a month for a larger place. Then maybe I could put some money away instead of having this frustration.

B napped in the afternoon when she got home from work. She got a promotion at work by the way. They gave her a 5% raise, and will be training her to become a manager. I know that sounds contradictory to us moving, but she wants to talk to the owner about franchising if we move and opening a location up there. Not bad for the girl who randomly moved from MI to be with some crazy guy eh? End up being the owner of her own business and having a pretty decent life.

Made dinner, played some games, went to bed. This weekend we are doing NOTHING. Just the way I like it. Next week is looking light because of the holiday which will be nice.

Y5 D180

Another early morning. Day 4 of 5 training. While I enjoy solid, filled weeks, getting up early takes it toll for sure. I need more sleep dammit. Thank goodness the weekend is coming in just a couple of days. I will sleep in on Saturday and Sunday for sure.

Yesterday's class went fine. No issues. 7 students all good. One was starting to upset me but we made it through. It was yet another case of being an advanced class where some of the folks really didn't fall under the 'advanced' heading. I teach a beginner, intermediate, and advanced class all in the same week. Optimally folks should be waiting between classes to get their knowledge level up but so many take all three in a row and when your experience with a product is two days of beginner and intermediate, you really aren't ready for an advanced class yet. But they take it anyway. Is life.

After class some workers showed up to do repairs in our bathroom. I had specifically told the office they couldn't do the repairs until after 3pm and they respected that. They showed up at 3:15. Perfect. We ended up getting new aerators on the sinks and a new toilet put it in. It's a damn low flow which studies have shown save zero water but I had no choice in the matter.

After they left Ontrac showed with one of our Christmas deliveries. I then wrapped presents for a good 1/2 hour. Once all that was done, I made B happy. She was craving her wild wings again so I took her. The traffic was a bitch and it took us almost an hour to go 13 miles but she was happy. Me not so much. Their menu i s nothing by fried crap or 'spicy' fried crap. I ordered a burger and it came burnt with spicy thousand island dressing. It was disgusting. But she was happy. All that counts.

We walked around the mall after and she bought a present for the kid. She also bought one for me. Something I was looking at but on the fence about. It wasn't too expensive and she ended up getting it for me. Yay.

Got home around 9 and here "b-dubs" was sitting hard in her stomach. She ended up going to bed early. I stayed up until about 10:30 and joined her. That's it. Another oh so exciting day. You know how long it's been since I have seen the inside of a bar? You know how long it's been since I came home drunk and depressed and hating life? I don't miss those things that's for sure. I am much happier these days. Who knows, maybe I won't write a year six when this one is over...

Y5 D179

Not much going on today. Or yesterday technically. I taught all day, made dinner for me and B (steaks with couscous and veggies), played some Lego while she crocheted a blanket, went to target for some errands, talked to the kid, went to bed. There's my whole day in a nutshell. Pretty boring actually. Didn't hear anything about the friend I mentioned yesterday until this morning. He is off life support but still hanging in there. The human body is an amazing thing. And a piece of shit at the same time. The pinnacle of creation my ass.

Can you believe it is 11/20? This year is almost gone. We are 34 days away from Christmas. We 41 days away from a new year. Time never stops. Just keeps going forward wether we like it or not.

I am going to try and do something this week. B was wanting a N64 for Xmas. I found one on Craig's list and I am going to see if the guy still has it. He wants $40 plus $5-$10 per game. I am thinking about the unit plus two games. She pretty much knows everything she is getting for Christmas so this would be one out of the blue and random. I am going to email the guy today and arrange for a Friday pickup. Wish me luck on this.

Time to teach.

Y5 D178

The day was pretty straight forward but the afternoon and evening were much more interesting. Started my day off early as I will all this week. A full week of training. I like weeks like this because I don't have to think about what I am doing. It's all just get up, do the material, call it a day. Big class, ten students, all seem pretty capable. No one really upset me or asked any dumb ass questions. While I was teaching my final amazon gift card I have been waiting for came through. I ended up in total with $320 to spend for Christmas guilt free. Not too shabby. Everyone laughs at me for all the surveys I take during the year, but this is why. I managed to order 18 gifts for B, the kid, and 4 for myself and my total out of pocket after shipping and tax was $16. I consider that time well spent during the year. About 1/2 - 3/4 of my Christmas shopping paid for with just a little time during the year. Score in my book. Finished up my orders and shopping and then had a nice relaxing evening in store ahead of me. One of B's coworkers/friends came over to hang out. She had mentioned to him that I have clippers and he asked if I would mind running them through his hair. Sure. Not a problem. I gave him a damn good haircut if I do say so myself. We then just hung out and yapped for a while. Around 6 I cooked us dinner - a nice chicken marsala with red potatoes and green beans. After dinner B worked on some crocheting. She is making us a new blanket. I played some video games. We then decided it was time for the sex. Afterwards we then decided it was time for some post coital taco bell. As people do, right? As we were heading out, I saw a message from a friend about a mutual friend. I asked what was going on and went off to Taco Bell. When  I got back I saw the reply - he has been in a coma for two weeks due to a brain tumor and is about to be pulled off life support today. Damn. He is around my age. That's some scary fucked up shit right there. I am at that age where I see friends, acquaintances, etc starting to get sick or even die and it down right freaks me the fuck out. Especially something like this where you have no control. It's like the kid's aunt who died a few years back. One minute you're fine and then your fucking brain decides to explode. What the fuck? These days while I don't say anything to B, I worry about every slight migraine or twinge in my head. Funny, I don't worry about the rest of my body. My back hurts, whatever. Pulled muscle? Fine. But the brain? I can't see it, I can't rub it, and who the fuck knows what it is doing up in there. Fuck that. It worries me. Death worries me. A lot.

Time to teach.

Y5 D177

We did a LOT this weekend. I mean seriously. While we were sitting and finally relaxing last night we went over the 'list'. Here's what we managed to accomplish in the weekend:

- Switched dressers
- Reorganized two closets
- Reorganized the bathroom
- Redid a nightstand from the top down including sanding, finishing, and painting
- Groceries
- Redid the pantry

That's quite a bit for two people to accomplish in one weekend. Add to that all the small stuff and we rocked. Nice not having any social obligations for once. We collapsed down last night and watched two movies too. We finally watched Iron Man 3 and Despicable Me 2. We were headed off to the bedroom last night when things took an awful turn. B pulled her back, bad. Like unable to move bad. We ended up spending an hour with ice packs and gently arranging her to try and keep her in the least amount of pain possible. Thank god there are always pain killers in this house. She finally got settled and fell asleep but it was touch and go for a while. All the bending and moving of the weekend caught up to her. Such a shitty way to end a really good weekend too. She is doing okay right now, but if she isn't better by tonight, insurance be damned, she is going to the doctor. I know it will be impossible to convince her to do that, but I will have to try. I know how bad back issues can be.

For me, this whole week is training. I have classes every day. And right now my laptop is acting up and I am watching the little wheel spin. It needs to get its shit together here real quick or I will have some serious issues with it. It's because I need a fucking windows browser on it. WHY can't microsoft just have IE for mac? Can't everyone just play nice? Asshats.

Okay, I need to deal with this shit.

Y5 D176

This year is almost half over. Not the real year, but the blog year. Can you believe I started writing this thing back in May of 2009? That's a lot of words and a ton of writing. Massive verbal vomit. Some days are more exciting than others to read for sure. But it tells me I am still alive. I am still here. I make it day by day minute by minute. I keep going. Money troubles. Women troubles. Life troubles. I survive. It's what I do.

Enjoyed our day of no obligations yesterday. Except for the one point where we had to leave the house and had to interact with people. Ugh, people. Just like when I lived in my other place, I hate leaving the house on Saturdays. Too many morons out there. And now we are starting to get near holidays when every moron needs to be out doing whatever it is they are doing. The two hours we spent out of the house yesterday were horrible. Back to our cave thank you.

B worked on the nightstand project, we reorganized the bathroom, we switched our dressers around, made pork chops for dinner, watched Supernatural, played video games together, yelled at the neighbors loud party together, and had a pretty decent day overall. Nothing exciting mind you but that's okay.

Today promises to be more of the same except today I don't want to leave the house at all.

Y5 D175

Ah yeah bitches, sleepin' in is gooooood! And good is dumb. Sorry, thanks to our performance earlier this year, I now have a permanent Spaceballs callback stuck in my head. Can't help it. Technically I was up until about 1:30 and got about at 8:30 so it's not like I overslept, but I did sleep wonderfully which is good enough for me.

Got up to teach yesterday and had a bit of a crisis. We have been trying to automate some of our class processes. When you go to our website and sign up for a class, it automatically creates the Goto Meeting, puts your name on the email list, sends out the meeting notice, then sends out a testing email prior to class start. Mostly it's working. Yesterday I went to start the meeting and realized the automated process didn't set the meeting as recurring. Yesterday's was part two of a two day class and I had no meeting. That's when I realized it never sent me out the list of students with their companies and emails. Nice. I had to call people at 6am to get everyone's email and send them all a new GTM request. Manageable, but annoying. That's how my day started. Which also means I woke B up earlier than she needed to be up. Not by much but she has been super tired as she puts it since Reno and just wants to catch up on sleep. She went to bed at 10:30 last night and is still sleeping. I will let her sleep the day away if she wants. BECAUSE we have no obligations today outside of our own desires.

Finished class and took a nap. When I woke up we headed out to IKEA and home depot to get some stuff to finish up her project and to start a new one. We have been needing to clean out our pantry and I picked up some tupperware to do it. The time change has us both screwed up which is hilarious. We went into IKEA around 5. We did our stuff, had some cheap Swedish food for dinner, and then when we came out, we needed to hit Home Depot. Neither of us looked at the clock. I ran into Home Depot and when I got back in the car we were like okay, let's head on home it's late already. Yeah, no. We looked at the clock and it was 6:30. It was just so dark we both felt like it was already 8 or 9. Sigh.

Got home and started in on the projects. I helped her sand down the nightstand she is repainting, then she got tired and went to bed. I was nowhere near tired and ended up doing the pantry. Two things off our list done. Even though we don't have any social obligations, we do have a list of things WE want to get done this weekend. Pantry and cleaning hamsters were on that list and they are done.

B is up and I am going to go cook her the food.

Y5 D174

Yeah life is back to 'normal'. Get up way too early. Be exhausted while teaching a class and trying to be positive. Pass out after class for an hour. Throw off sleep cycle by staying up too late. Repeat. There, that was my day in a nutshell. I am barely functional this morning. I need a few more hours of sleep. The good news is we have NOTHING to do this week. I mean seriously nothing. No show, no parties, no social obligations of any kind. The house is clean, there's not enough laundry to stress about, we have plenty of food in the house. As of 3pm today I can hide away until 5am Monday morning. Works for me.

We did do one thing other than the above yesterday. B decided she wanted to repaint her nightstand. We spent time working on it together. We stripped it down and got it prepped. It isn't quite done yet but it's ready for sanding. We also went to Home Depot last night and picked up paint. That will be our weekend project to keep us in the house and out of trouble. One more round of scraping off old paint, sanding, painting, taping, and maybe going out and finding some new knobs. BIG weekend around here. Look out we got a badass up in here.

B was also very tired last night. I let her go to bed before me so she could have some decent sleep time before I went in and started snoring all over her. Oh we also went by and saw the kid at work. I realized how much I actually miss her but then again I don't miss her being here with KBF. I am glad to see her doing well on her own. She is working, going to school, and having her own life finally. I am very proud of her.

Okay time to get my shit together...

Y5 D173

Back to my normal grind for work. Up at the butt crack of the morning to get ready to train. Two days of the most technical class we do. Five students scheduled for it as well. This is going to be a long two days. I can already feel it. But it's just two days and I have had a very light load the last week and a half. The big news from yesterday is Christmas has already arrived in our house. Yeah I know. We bought a bunch of presents while we were in the park because we didn't know if we'd have a chance to go back there before the actual holidays. Based on the trips I booked yesterday, I am not going anywhere in December unless it is work related. As a result we had a need for wrapping paper and tape and boxes. That led to us deciding we needed a tree. We happened to be at Target yesterday getting some other stuff for the house and they had a sale on trees. We ended up getting a 5' pre-lit fir for $60. It's the perfect size, good number of lights, etc. We then stopped at the dollar store for wrapping paper and tape. When we got home and had everything situated we felt pretty good. While we were eating dinner (nice chicken breasts with couscous and sauteed veggies) we both kept staring at the tree with its all of four ornaments. So at 8pm we said screw it and headed back to target. We got 50 little ornaments, some strands of beads, and did this charlie brown tree up right. It looks pretty good. Even if it 40 something days until Christmas. It was nice doing something like this again. Still way too early, but it still feels pretty good. As of last night there are 33 presents under the tree. 6 or 7 for the kid, the remaining for us. BUT like my usual nut job self, some of them are ridiculous. Like one pair of socks. Or a shopping bag. B is about to learn how goofy I can be this time of year. Watched Agents of Shield and went to bed. Slept hard too. Need another 4 or 5 hours to be right, but still feel okay. Had some weird dreams including one where I was trying to give people cheese. Um okay.

Time to start this class.

Y5 D172

Spent a good deal of yesterday playing tech support for idiot customers. It scares me when I have to spend this much time with both internal employees and customers right before a training class because if they can't figure out the testing part of the class how the hell are they going to handle the actual class itself?? The next two days are the admin classes which are some of the hardest to grasp because it goes very deep into technical topics. If they can't get past testing a remote desktop connection, they are not going to get all the material in class. Sigh.

Around 4:30 B and I decided to go get some food and do grocery shopping. We wanted to eat first before we went shopping for the obvious reasons. She worked all day and didn't get home until about 3:30. We decided to go on an adventure and find the last remaining Arby's in the area. It's about 12 miles from us but that took 40 minutes at 4:30 in the afternoon of course.

After Arby's we did our shopping. We got 2 weeks plus worth of food for 188. I spent an hour earlier in the day loading up the rewards card with good coupons and specials. As a result I saved almost $60 off the bill. I always feel so good about that. I mean what the heck, I have to buy food anyway, might as well get the most for my money.

Got home around 8 and B decided to touch up her hair. I relaxed while she did it. We hopped into bed around 10.

I know this blog has gotten very boring but GOOD. I don't write it for you. I write it for me. And it makes ME happy seeing that I don't stress like I used to. I don't have the panic that I used to have. I don't spiral into loneliness and depression like I used to. I don't need fucking drugs to balance me out - I need another human being who talks to me, who smiles with me, who respects me. Gee, how hard is that?

Y5 D171

Home again. Boo. Left the park at 1am to get home and beat traffic. Almost did it too. Only got hit with some traffic at the end. Lost about 40 minutes. So not bad.

Good day yesterday. We went back to the park around 10, hung out, had lobster nachos, and did Christmas shopping. Went back to the hotel around 2 until 4:30. Went back to the park, watched the parade (Yay christmas!!), watched magical map, went on the matterhorn, and finished christmas shopping. As of right now there are 10 gifts (8 wrapped) under our non-existent tree. Go us.

Slept from 9:30 until 12:30 and then hit the road. Nothing more to report at this time.

Y5 D170

Hello from the Mouse House! It's a wonderful morning. The sun is shining, the girlfriend is snoring, er, I mean, sleeping beautifully with a rosy glow to her cheeks. Yeah, that! Had a great day yesterday even with no sleep.

As I left off, at 6am the hotel let us check in. Corner 11th floor room with full view of the park and windows on all walls. This is basically the third time this year I have stayed in "this" room. 10th floor. 14th floor. Now the 11the floor. Just need 12 and I will have completed the set?

B slept until 10, I slept from 8:30 - 9:30 and that was it. We headed over to the park and spent the whole day in DCA. We went on Ariel, Screamin' (bad move. B no like. Which is weird because when we went to her company thing at Halloween she rode the one there which I think is worse than this one but whatever), and Soarin'. That one she liked. She LOVED that. Okay. Odd. Some days I don't get her, but then again, am I supposed to? We pin traded, we had good food, we enjoyed our day in the sun. We even skyped from the Paradise Cove bar with our friend who is in England. They skyped her in to the party saturday night but we had left already. So we decided to have her our own private session. These are the times we love technology.

Got back to the room around 8 and ordered some dessert. Nothing crazy, apple pie for her and sorbet for me, tea for both of us. We crashed out around 10. A full wild day.

Today is back in the park. Tomorrow we are rolling out around 4am as she has to work at noon and I want to beat morning traffic. No post until later tomorrow.

Y5 D169

Quick update as we drove all night and I need to get some sleep. Pretty much wasted my whole day yesterday playing video games and it was wonderful. B went to work around 8:30 and I got motivated to start doing stuff around 9. By 10am I was done. I plopped in front of the couch until she got home at 3:30. We were waiting to make this reservation until we knew her schedule. When she got home we made the reservation and she went and took a nap until 5:45. I still did nothing. I packed and that was about it. We headed out around 6:10 to our cast party. Lots of fun. It was great watching her socialize and have a good time. I kept it mellow since I knew I would be driving. We left around 11:40 and headed down here to Disneyland. Got in around 5, ate breakfast and at 6 the hotel let us check in. Now we nap until about 10 then go to the park. We are heading back Tuesday around 4 so two days of pleasure. Sleep now!

Y5 D168

Cheerio and pip pip dear readers! Howdy ho! Yeah, I am in a good mood. Slept in. Slept well. Had the sex. What more can I guy ask for in life?

Yesterday was nice and quiet. Got up, did some work, went and tried to pick up a ring B had dropped off to have sized. That was a bit of an adventure. When we were in Reno she found a ring in a pawn shop she loved but it was one size too small. But the price was right and whatever we bought it. Of course now after having it sized, it was expensive but she's happy. Anyway I went to pick it up as it was supposed to have been ready Tuesday and they still hadn't called us. Turns out it was still in the safe. I raised a ruckus and was promised it would be done yesterday. This was at 11 and they said it would be ready by 2. Fine. I went off and ran a couple more errands including going to the bookstore. I paid all the bills and then did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. When B got home we decided to have a nice lunch and went to this Hawaiian place I have been dying to go to. She has been hesitant because you know how she is with food. I am glad I convinced her finally because not only was the food AWESOME but turns out I know the owners. Yeah it happens. We had one of the best lunches ever. Came home and she napped while I did some more work stuff. I am completely booked now starting 11/14 until Christmas including two trips.

We later tried to go have a light dinner but the place we normally go to for sushi was so crowded that even though we got a table they ruined the order. B ordered shrimp tempura and they first brought her a roll, then they brought her prawn panko. It was a nightmare. I left zero tip which is not something I normally do. But I was pissed. I had a poki that was awful. We are never going back there. I know what happened. The original owner retired recently and his protogees are fucking things up. They are nowhere near as good as the original owner. Bye bye. Never visiting you again.

Came home, played some Lego Marvel (which I plan on doing today too) and went off to the bed. Good sex. Sex good. Rawr. Passed out around 11 and well here it is morning.

B is off at work. We have a party to go tonight and while we are both meh about it, if we don't go we will be shunned for not going. We don't want to go because we know it's going to degrade into a discussion about how the cast has no money but we need to build new props that no one really wants and yadda yadda. But we will go and we will smile.

That's about it. I think now I shall poop, shower, and do nothing for the next 4 or 5 hours.

Y5 D167

Slept in yesterday and damn it felt good. Today too. I was on call for the majority of yesterday morning waiting to know about jury duty. I was pretty sure I didn't have to appear because it was a Thursday call and they had me on standby but I still had to wait until 11:15 to check in. Thank goodness for the internet. In the old days you'd have to go regardless and just sit in the damn room and wait. Now I was able to get things done while waiting. Much more efficient for everyone. Since I had some time to kill I went to the grocery store and got a few things. Nothing major, but things we were out of completely like bread, cat food, and toilet paper. Important stuff. Once I got confirmation that I wouldn't be going in, I then did laundry. Amazing the difference in laundry now that the kid isn't here. I mean seriously, it was like 1/5th the amount. Even with me being on the road and having to wear clothes. While I was doing laundry B got home from work. She had a migraine and went to lay down. I was going to take a nap but then a bunch of work emails came through. The upside to that is I got confirmation on everything in December. First week, Florida, third week Colorado. I WILL hit Diamond. I also got approval for a Disneyland trip. Now we just have to find a couple of days that work for everyone. Her schedule is going to get tighter with holidays coming up where mine gets a bit looser. Especially as we near the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is a Wednesday this year which means I won't have shit to do Weds-Fri that week. You watch, everyone will be out of town. January is already starting to book up but December should be okay. I am happy about the trips as it secures my Diamond status at Hilton. Score. AND I may have to go back to Vegas for a client which means this time I go through the special doors at the hotel. Suck it bitches. Played some Lego Marvel while B slept, made pork chops for dinner. We watched a couple of shows and went to bed. She still had a headache lingering so no sex for me. Oh well.

All in all I had a good day. My mind is so much better these days. I cannot be alone. Not in that sense. In the sense that I need a partner to be around me to help keep the dark thoughts out. I can be alone with my thoughts, but I need someone to help me when they go too dark. Thank god I have that now. I feel so much more stable and in control. Some bad days sure, I am mostly human. But at the same time, look at how less frequently I am going out and getting drunk on a weeknight. Look at how I am eating and actually taking care of my self. It is what it is.