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.

Y5 D166

Yay I'm home! Took 8 hours to get home from Vegas from the time I got to the airport until I arrived at home, but I made it home. AND technically I was home earlier than scheduled. I could have gone to the airport at the original times of my flights and the total travel time would have been less, but I opted instead to get there early and try to standby my way home. While that worked, it was longer I spent in airports. Since it was of my own doing, I cannot really complain.

Got up and headed to the booth around 8. Hung out in the booth from 8 until noon. Headed over to the airport. I missed the first early flight and ended up having lunch at CPK. I had a nice chicken salad and an apple cider. I like cider. Just an observation. Managed to get on a 3pm flight instead of my original 5pm flight. When I made it to LA, same thing. I had an 8pm flight but got on a 6.

Checked in for jury duty when I landed and found I am on standby right now. I have to check back at 11am to see if I am needed or not. Hopefully not.

On the way home B and I grabbed some Mexican food. Ate, talked for a while and went to bed. She is unhappy right now because she got her hair cut and it is shorter than she wanted. She thinks she looks like "a fat lesbian". I don't think it looks that bad, but I would definitely be unhappy with the cut too. I didn't say that of course. I am not stupid. I personally wish she would grow it back, but it's her hair and she is free to do with it what she pleases.

Was nice getting into my own bed after 4 nights away. Of course now I have paperwork and spreadsheets to catch up on. Whee. If I don't have jury duty today, then I will have a couple of days of peace which will be nice. Let's see how this plays out.

Y5 D165

Worked all day at the booth yesterday. Was there from 10 until 7. Had some time to walk the floor. What I realized was just how boring this shit that I do is. Rephrase, implementation and the final product isn't boring, but the people and the products themselves. Oh my god. Especially when you put them all in one conference hall. It's just a sea of clones all doing the same thing with a different front end. Took me less than an hour of walking the entire floor to realize I didn't care about any of it. Nothing jumped out at me as being anywhere near exciting. I did have a decent day in the booth though. It went by faster than I expected. I had a few people stop by just to see or meet me in person. That was kind of fun. Later in the day two of my clients came by and we sat in our little lounge area drinking some beers and talking about the conference. Otherwise it was a pretty boring day. Headed back to the hotel around 7, stopped on the way and picked up a bath bomb. Got back to the hotel, ordered up some room service, took a bath, and went to bed. B and I talked a bit but also nothing exciting. I think she is starting to adapt to me being on the road which is good because I have at least two more trips between now and the end of the year. Just need to get some confirmation on them. But it will definitely take me where I want in terms of status. Close to the wire, but at least it will be done. I had to wait for someone for a little bit yesterday and did do some gambling - $2. Yep. I am a wild man. Lost it of course because this isn't Reno with its loose slot machines. But hey at least I can say I gambled. Whee. I need to pack but am having troubles because I picked up too much swag. Need to make some hard choices this morning. Some stuff just ain't going home with me. Oh well. I have to be over at the booth in two hours then off to the airport. Then when I get home I get to see if I have jury duty or not. Fun.

Y5 D164

Long but fun day yesterday. Spent the majority of the day just hanging out. I took a walk down the strip around 9. I was planning on finding this one store I haven't been to in years but it ended up being too far away to walk as they moved locations. No big deal, but I was hoping to stop in there. I could go this morning if I really wanted to but it's not that big of a deal. Instead I ended up at Caesar's and the shops there. I went into Vosges and got gifts for the kid and B. Vosges has the best chocolate in the world in my opinion. I got the kid a collection of bacon related bars and for B Hunger Games chocolate. She isn't a huge chocolate fan, but she loves her hunger games. Got back to the hotel around 11 and had some lunch. Had an incredible pork sandwich with truffled parmesan fries and an "Elvis" milkshake - whiskey with peanut butter and banana. The cornerstone of any nutritious meal right? Headed back to the room, answered a few emails, then took a short nap. I had booth duty last night and got ready around 4. Headed over to the show to meet my coworker around 5 to get his badge. Him and I are splitting a badge. Got his badge and was in the booth around 5:30. The booth time was fun except for one small incident. Turns out there is one client we told I would be working on site for them, but because of scheduling I couldn't do it. Since I already had a laptop and credentials they used a different guy but he is using my name and login. We never told the client about the switch. This person showed up at the booth and I had to hide away from them. Which I personally thought was crap and I called my boos out on it. He said if it came up at dinner he would admit what happened. Whatever. Still a fucked up thing to do to both me and the client. Some of my students came by the booth to explicitly meet with me which was fun. Made me feel like the rockstar I am. After we shut down the booth around 7, the five of us at the booth headed out together for dinner. The five of us represent the cream of the company. We have all been around for 7-10 years and have known the founders from 10+ years on average. We ended up at a sushi place after a few failed attempts at finding room somewhere. Somehow through some trick I am not aware of myself, I managed to get us a private room off the main dining room. We then proceeded to eat and drink for the next 2 1/2 hours. We went through three rounds of sushi, two bottles of sake, multiple beers, and a bottle of prosseco for dessert. Total damage with tip? $550. Luckily we were all drunk enough we laughed at the bill. One of the other guys put it on his corporate card. I am sure we will all get a tongue lashing today for it, but fuck it. It was fun and we deserved a good time. Got back to the room a little after 10 and talked with B for about an hour. Climbed into bed around 11ish and slept like a log.

Today I have booth duty from 12-7 then nothing planned for tonight. I think I will have a quiet night alone here at the hotel. Maybe a steak for dinner.

Y5 D163

And here I am in Vegas. I warn you in advance, this is going to turn into a bit of a ramble of how much I dislike Vegas. I never was warm to this city but now I am able to articulate specifically why. I think it is because I am finally outside of some of the norms in society that make this place such an allure. But we will come to that. Let's get on the plane first, shall we?

We got home from the show as I mentioned yesterday at around 3. I ended up sleeping for about an hour and let B sleep for 90 minutes or so. She then drove me to the airport. I had upgrade requests put in for all legs of my flights and ended up getting the first one. This made for a nice relaxing morning. My second flight I had some fun because when we arrived, it turned out my departing gate was the same gate I had just arrived at. I had only 20 minutes to wait and boom, I was right back on the plane. It would have been hilarious if I had my upgrade and got the same seat, but regardless, it was only an hour and ten minute flight. I slept through the entire thing which was nice. Arrived in Vegas and was immediately disgusted. Why? Because this wasn't an airport. It was a casino, mall, and bar that happened to have a few planes stopping in it from time to time. Seriously. I was just like really? And the people. From the fat midwesterners to the snotty europeans to the annoying asians. I found the taxi line and was floored to see about 500 people in line. I am not exaggerating. I took pictures. You can imagine what that did to my mood right off the bat. I just want to sleep. I am not here to get drunk or laid or whatever. I want to sleep.

Finally got to the hotel an hour after landing which is ridiculous as it is 3 miles from the airport. I could have walked faster. I did have a pleasant experience at the hotel. First off, even though it's the "Tropicana" resort, it's a Hilton property. Which means I have status. That status came in handy. I walked right into the Gold line and bypassed about 50-75 people in the peon line. Score. FIVE MORE NIGHTS and I could have gone into the Diamond Lounge. So close. Regardless, the desk guy was nice and even though it was noon, he got me into a room, got me upgraded, and gave me some good coupons. I probably won't use them, but the generosity was appreciated.

My room is nice. Deluxe size with enough room to spread out and not feel cramped. City view on the 10th floor. Clean, nice, and a quiet corner. The room and the hotel get 1,000,000 points. My coworker called me around 1 to arrange a time to meet. We decided on 6:30 at his hotel where the convention is happening. I then slept until 5:45. Also yay! I am finally feeling like I am catching up on sleep. Got up, talked with B for a while, walked over to his hotel. I got there around 6:35 and he finally texted me at 7 saying he was going to be late. I decided to go to the House of Blues Foundation Room as it was right there. I ended up on the 63rd floor in the bar. THAT was nice. I had pork belly street tacos, duck confit with candied turnips and pomegranate molasses, grits, and a cheese plate that was wonderful. Had four or five drinks while I waited. At 9:30 he finally showed. We proceeded to talk about work stuff and vent. He knows I am unhappy and why. We talked about 2014 and what we can do to improve things. All in all a good use of time. His plan was to get drunk as hell and he had three glasses of wine just in the short time we were talking. I left him around 10:30 to his own devices. Lord knows how he is doing today. As I was leaving I realized the place had gone from quiet nice to nightclub. The waitresses had gone from corsets to lingerie. I mean full on lingerie. Stuff that should not be worn outside the bedroom. Add to this everything I saw earlier and it just reinforced why I hate this city. But we're coming to that. I got back to the room, talked with B and was asleep by 11:30. I slept until 2 when I had exploding ass syndrome, but was able to fall back to sleep until 7. Today I am free until about 5 when I have to pick up a badge and meet up with people.

Ready for it? My problem with this town is how forced and faked it is. There's what I call a "50 Shades" mentality. Oh look, I am in Vegas so I can wear this dress I would never wear back home and I can be a party girl or I can be the suave drunk single guy (even though I am fat, old, married, and have three kids back in MN). The whole what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, while a cute marketing gimmick, is annoying. It rubs me the wrong way. This city exists for one purpose only, to make money. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. It plays into cheap fantasies and makes even the most mediocre feel like a celebrity. Earn it bitches. Because it's not real. It's fake and it just keeps the falsehood going. I don't know. It just bugs me. I know what sex parties, and real debauchery looks like. I know what real alcoholism does. I know what drug lifestyles do to people. To make all of it glamorous and without repercussion is bad. Come gamble, don't worry about the money. Take these pieces of plastic so you don't realize it's real money you are wasting. My coworker lost 2,000 on Saturday. Two grand. He is not happy. But I have no sympathy for him. Yes, I gambled in reno, but the whole time we were there I spent *maybe* $80. Not two grand. Regardless, this place drives me nuts and I actually can't wait to be out of here. I am going to go find one chocolate store I do like here and that's about all my interaction with this town today.

Y5 D162

Just got home from the show. I need to be at the airport in a couple hours so I decided screw it, I will stay up and post so I don't have to do it later. We stayed inside most of the day and hid ourselves away. We ran a couple of errands including getting a ring sized. When we were pawn shop shopping in Reno, B found a ring and it was a little small. We went and had it sized at a local jeweler. While we were out we also found a gift for our director. She is into classic movie monsters and we found a set of still wrapped movie monster head stamps. We stopped at taco bell on the way home for a quick bite. When we got home it was nap time. Thank goodness because I am dying right now. I MAY sleep for an hour myself. Just because.

Made dinner, had some pre-show sex, then headed out. Got to the theater about 10, and had a decent night. All the shows back to back have caught up with all of us and some mistakes were made, but all in all we pulled through.

Now it's off to vegas. Oy.

Y5 D161

A relatively quiet day yesterday. Got a whopping 2.5 hours sleep, taught from 7-3 while B worked until about 2. Afterwards we both needed a nap. I ended up sleeping for three hours. Got up, ran to the store for some dinner stuff, made soup and grilled cheese for dinner, watch Torchwood and the Doctor and went to bed around 11. Slowly starting to get our sleep pattern back. Except of course, tonight is another show, we change the clocks, and I go straight to the airport. Whee. Four days in Vegas next week all for work. Frankly I am probably the only person going who is NOT looking forwards to it. Vegas doesn't hold any thrill for me. I don't have any money to waste gambling, I don't want to socialize, and whatever. I am going for the hotel points and air miles. I need 756 miles to hold onto  gold and I will need 5 nights until diamond. Honestly this is why I am going. Lame, I know but it's all good. I get in tomorrow around noon with no commitments. Therefore I shall sleep. Monday I work from the hotel and then Tuesday/Wednesday booth duty.

Sorry I got distracted. Some weird email from Verizon saying my plan changed but it didn't. They added some new feature to everyone's plan and it sent out an automated email. Whatevers.

Anyway. Need to check in for my flight and pack. Next update will be from an airport at 5am. Fun shit man.

Y5 D160

3 shows down, 1 to go. Yes, I did a show last night. A normal midnight show too. I got home at 3:05 and was awake and 5:37. You do the math.

Taught all day yesterday and then slept for about 2 hours in prep for last night. B did not go with me last night because she has to be up in one minute and she knew she couldn't function on only three hours of sleep. This made her sad while I was getting ready. I ended up going as the mouse from mean girls (I'm a mouse, duh). Which means I threw on ears and whiskers. Done and done.

Another sold out show. In the last 5 days we have performed for roughly 1300 people. Energy through the roof all around. Everyone was pumped for a Thursday. We got in SUPER early which saved our butts because even with letting in early we didn't start the show until almost 12:30. Which is why even though I left early, I didn't get home until 3. While I was there B called me. Being home alone sent her into super sad mode. Sorry babe. Then someone stepped on my camera and ended up breaking the screen. It still works, but you can't see the preview. Whatever. It was $90 with tax.

Gave out, okay threw at the audience, 14 pounds of candy last night. I managed to clean all the candy out of our house including some from last year. That was great. The show is done, today I teach, and maybe get some sleep.

One more on Saturday, then right after that show, I fly to Vegas. Sweet mother of god.

Side note - I am truly glad I have B to share all this with. If I were still single this would really suck.