Y5 D251

Yesterday exemplifies why I get frustrated working with this one particular client. I was up at 4, left the house at 6, and didn't get home until 7pm. A 13 hour day for which we can only bill 8 hours. Why the extra five? Commuting. It sucks. They are just located in some of the most inconvenient places. Not far enough away to justify hotel but not close enough that I don't stress.

The class itself went fine, it's just the travel time that annoyed me.

Got home and was too exhausted to do much of anything. Ate dinner, took a bath to soak, and went to bed. Yeah, that's it. That was my day. And I get to do it again on Monday and Tuesday. This whole month is going to be insane. I am booked every damn day this month.

Can you believe tomorrow is February? Seems like it was just Christmas. I need sleep. Lots and lots of sleep.

Y5 D250

I do not want to be awake right now. I want to be sleeping. Ugh. Nor do I want to go to this client today.

Yesterday I got up and did a 5 hour mentoring session with a client in Canada. That was from about 6:30 to 11:30. B was supposed to have the day off but ended up going in from 11-2. It's a good thing too because right when I was done with my session I got a call from the jewelry store telling me there was a problem with her ring. They weren't going to be able to have it here in time. I went off on them. In the end after 'making some calls' we got it resolved. The problem was they weren't going to have the band and ring in time. She managed to track down the ring only and it will be here on the 6th. But I ended up having to go to the mall and canceling the first order and redoing it. That took me until about 1. I came home frustrated but relieved and took a nap until B got home at 2. We then did a whole lot of nothing until about 5 when we decided we wanted to ghetto up and have KFC for dinner. Got back home around 6 and B ended up going to bed because she had a super bad headache. I think it's caffeine withdrawals. She too has been trying to give it up and it's causing her some bad headaches. I stayed up and played video games and general nothing doing until about 9 and went to bed myself. Woke up at 11, then again at 2. Why? Because of stress of being up early this morning to go out to this onsite gig.

Speaking of that, I got booked for another onsite in Feb. As of right now I am 100% booked for every day in Feb. Every free day I had is now solid. I don't think we have had a month like that in a while. I will catch no breaks until the 12th when I am on vacation and that's just two days. This is going to be a fucked up month coming.

Y5 D249

I am starting to forget things. Like what I did yesterday. I can remember most of it, but let's see if I can piece the whole day together. It's not because I am losing it (which I am for a long time now), it's that nothing really exciting happened.

I got up early because I had to take the car in for its first service. That went much better than expected. I had a 7:30 appointment and got to the dealer around 7. I was first in line and they took my car in around 7:20. I sat in their lobby and watched an episode of the Blacklist. When that was done, amazingly so was my car. They had me out of there by 8:40. And of course since I have the service contract I owed them nothing. Nice to not have any car repair bills for the next few years. Got back home around 9 and started in on some work. B came home while I was working and napped from 1 until about 4. I tried waking her up a couple of times with no luck. She originally said to not let her sleep past 2:30 but she wouldn't get up. I am not in control of her. Which meant she couldn't sleep last night. Sometimes I wish she would just listen to me. I have more experience when it comes to fucking up your sleep schedule than she does. Whatever.

While she slept I kept working. Around 5 I made dinner. Mushroom chicken with rice pilaf and salad. After dinner she needed to go get some things at JoAnn's. We headed out around 6:30. While we were out we also stopped at the bookstore and the mall. I needed to see about finding something to wear for next weekend. Going out with a friend while she is back home. Hit CVS for a couple of things on the ride back. Back home around 8:30. Watched a couple episodes of Leverage and hit bed. We got into a small argument about the cat.

She really dislikes the cat and vice versa. The cat is being super territorial when it comes to me and it shows. She stomps around the house and yells if I am not in the room. Needless to say, B and the cat don't get along. B wants a cat of her own, but I know bringing a new cat into this house will cause trouble. This pisses B off because she can't have what she wants until mine either magically becomes nicer or dies. Given how stubborn my cat is, god only knows when that will be. We resolved it, but not until it was almost 11:30. I tried falling asleep but I could tell B couldn't sleep. I heard her get up at some point and don't know when she finally came back to bed. Luckily she has the day off today and can sleep.

I have a mentoring session today from 7-noon and then I am free. This should be interesting. It's with a college in Canada and they have a mess of a model. Let's see what I can do with it.

Y5 D248

I can't wait until B wakes up this morning. Why? Because I want to know why she felt the need to hit me in the face at 4:11am. Not just a tap either. Whatever she was dreaming about was good enough for her to just haul off and hit me. Lucky me. Something to be said for sleeping alone sometimes.

Uneventful day yesterday minus an email shit storm at one point from the client I have to be at Thursday. I fucking hate this client. Always have, always will. I hated the months I spent out there in 2011 when I had to drive 70 miles each way for them, fucking hate their people, hate their bureaucracy,  hate them as a company. Yet I have to go out there Thursday and smile. Ugh. The emails yesterday are part of the reason I hate them. Stupid fucking shit.

I also got something done that I have been putting off for a while. I got the motorcycle running. The battery has been dead for a while and there hasn't been a pressing need to fix it. But yesterday that changed. It seems in two weeks they are replacing the garage doors on our place and that means cars have to be out. I had to get the bike running to get it out. This also means I have to figure out what to do with the kid's car. It too doesn't run. I am going to just push it out I think and then push it back. Of course it has a flat tire so this will be fun. I have to deal with that this weekend. The bike I am not upset about as I needed to do that. Now I can ride it again which makes me happy. It's the car I don't know what to do with right now. I don't have the money to have it fixed nor the money to register it. Stressing over that.

Took care of the bike, took care of the client, watched some TV, made dinner, went to bed. That's all. Today I have a 7am appointment to have the car serviced. Its first service. Thank god for the service contract. This will cost me zero dollars out of pocket. I go, I give them car, I sit and wait. That's the shitty part. The sitting and waiting. B has to work and can't drive me back. I don't want to take the shuttle either. I am going to just sit there all day. Hopefully they have wifi.

Speaking of B's work, she finally got her promotion. Starting next week she goes to full time and will have benefits. She gets her raise and 40 hours a week. She is about to make more than she ever would have back home. Needless to say she is pretty excited about it. She isn't looking forward to extra work, but then who ever is?

Okay time to shower.

Y5 D247

Another Monday. Another week. Yesterday was a good lazy Sunday. Fine day Sunday. We did nothing. B slept most of it away but she needed it. Me, I got up, went to the grocery store, picked up stuff for dinner, and pretty much didn't do anything exciting. We marathon watched Leverage. Through the second season and into the 3rd. Not much else went on. We didn't really leave the house. We were supposed to go out but neither of us was up to it. We both had headaches for some reason. I think it's the humidity. It's supposed to rain this week and you can feel it in the air. We did spend some time looking at apartments and house rentals in Oregon. I really think this is going to happen. We found a complex with 400 sq feet more than we have now for $1100 less a month. $1100. That's a serious difference. I mean that's like huge. We could easily pay things off if we were saving that much per month. And to have a bigger, newer place to boot? What's the downside? Oh yeah, we have to move. We talked about it. I told her it's been stressing me out. I haven't lived in any other state than this one. We would have few to no friends. We wouldn't have Rocky. We would be completely starting over. And that worries me. Makes me nervous. But I know it's the right thing to do. Oh I remembered what we did on Saturday during that block I couldn't figure out. We went to Ross because she needed to find some yoga pants for work. Ha! I knew I would remember eventually. That's about it. I have three classes this week, but today is clean. Tomorrow I am taking my car for its first service, then the rest of the week I teach. In one week from tomorrow B goes back home for her birthday. Some exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks!

Y5 D246

Why do I have a headache?? I haven't drank anything. I managed to get through a show last night with zero alcohol but yet I have a headache this morning. It feels like a sinus headache to be honest. Like I am getting a head cold. Last fucking thing I need right now.

Did a lot while B was at work yesterday. Ran all the errands. Got stuff for the kid for her birthday. In one week she is gong to be 21. Holy fucking shit. Cleaned the house, picked up stuff we needed, cleaned the animals, and checked off all the items on my list. I wanted to be done before B got home from work and finished everything by 12:30. She was supposed to be home at 1, but didn't get home until almost 2. Still, I got all the things done.

When she got home I can't remember what the hell we did. She napped for a while but that wasn't until 4. I am totally blank on what we did in that two hour window. Hold on... It will come to me. I made steaks for dinner, we watched TV, got ready for the show, but what the hell did we do between 2 and 4?? Obviously not important enough for me to remember.

Left for the show around 9:30. I thought things were okay but for some reason B tripped out and as we left she said she didn't want to do it any more. Fine, except she then proceeded to not talk all the way home so I don't know why. She is still sleeping and I haven't been able to ask her. Whatever. When we move we will have to retire regardless but something must have happened that I didn't see or hear to trigger such a response.

When we got home she went right to bed. I stayed up for another 1/2 hour or so. I always need a little time post show to mellow out. Stupid fucking cat woke me up or I would still be sleeping.

Nothing on the plate for today as far as I know. We were going to a birthday party, but neither of us is in the mood for that. Me because I don't want to try and not have to be in the bathroom all day and her because it's her one weekend day off.

Damn my head hurts.

Y5 D245

Ironically I couldn't sleep last night. Just the opposite of the night before. I went to bed around 11 but for some reason I couldn't sleep. I started thinking about too many things and the next thing I know it's midnight and I am saying fuck it. I ended staying up until almost 3 making mac and cheese and an applesauce loaf cake. Whatever. I still managed to get almost 5 hours of sleep.

First let me address some things I got asked in emails yesterday:

- the doctor has me on a long term med (more in a minute)
- no, I did not get my test results back
- I have cut my caffeine intact in half
- I haven't had a drink in three weeks

As for the meds, there are two types. One is muscle relaxant variety, the other is an androgen. He put me on the former because there can be long lasting side effects from the other. Irony at its best is if I were on the second, I could go sterile, but I would get my hair back. Cruel fate. So far I have noticed a significant improvement being on the first in just two days. Makes me happy.

I worked yesterday, took B out for a nice lunch since she had the day off, came home, she napped while I worked more, then we had a nice relaxing evening at home. We watched FF6 finally. Ugh those movies annoy me. But now I am done and I can say I have seen them all. Did the playlist for tonight's show. A quiet evening.

Tonight is a show so I should probably get some more sleep during the day, but I have a ton of errands and things to do around the house first. Let the Saturday begin!

Y5 D244

I slept like a log last night. Fell asleep around 10 and just woke up. I haven't slept that solid in a while. Felt good.

So I went to the doctor yesterday. I couldn't take the issue any more. Wednesday was hell for me in terms of the pressure I was feeling in my groin. Sitting in that workshop for six hours was torture. I felt like I had to pee every three seconds even though I knew I didn't. I finally caved in and made a doctor's appointment. As a result yesterday I had:

- to pee in a cup
- get needles in my arms for blood
- have cold hands on my balls
- get fingers shoved up my ass

And I paid for the experience. Yay doctors. End result? There's a problem with my prostate. Oh joy. We are waiting to here back on the test results to rule out cancer. The doctor was confident it wasn't but he still wanted to run the tests to be 100% sure. It could still just be an infection, although he feels that it is just old age hitting me. Fine be that way. He did give me some meds to start on but those will take up to a week to get into my system and really make a difference. As of right now, I am not feeling any change. Last night was painful when I tried to go to bed.

That is how I spent the majority of my day. I was there from about 10 until 1 dealing with everything. I did manage to get back to the parking meter with 6 minutes to spare so I estimated my time pretty well. I got home at the same time as B. I needed to go back out to get my prescription around 3 and we hit the grocery store at the same time. Came back, put away groceries and then she wanted Taco Bell. Fine. It's been a little while since we had it and I obliged.

Got back home, I worked on my documents, finished them, then we spent the evening watching some TV, doing my hair, and generally relaxing. She was very happy I went to the doctor because other than my one issue, the doctor said everything else is fine - blood pressure, heart rate, etc. He wants me to lose like 20 pounds but I knew that already. I also have a small hernia which he just wants to monitor but it shouldn't cause me any problems.

Went to bed and slept well. Now let's get those test results back.

Y5 D243

Another morning. I am up early because I need to finish a document this morning as soon as possible so it can get sent out to a client. We have an upcoming class and we want to use the new template and format. It's one of the last ones I need to finish. I should have finished it last night but I was so tired after the presentation I went to that I didn't have the energy or desire to finish it. My bad but now I pay the price by being up early when I don't really have any good reason. Oh well.

Went to a six hour workshop on SPSS modeling yesterday. The material was interesting and I learned a lot, even if the presenters were horrible. They truly were. I am sure these guys are smart and know what they are doing with the product but they make horrible teachers. I guess it's one of the reasons why people enjoy my classes so much more. There's a human aspect I bring that lightens this dry material up. It was taking all my power to not fall asleep with these guys.

Speaking of falling asleep, when I got home, B was hungry so we went and got some food, ran a couple of errands and then on the way back she started getting a bad headache. She laid down around 5 and that was it until 8. Of course this messed up her sleep pattern for the night and we were up until 11. I didn't sleep with her and I was tired, but we all know how that goes.

I slept mostly okay once I fell asleep. Okay time to write this document.

Y5 D242

Meh. Not a good day yesterday. I had a headache for most of it. Would not let go of my head. I worked on documents for the better part of the day. The kid swung by to pick up an iron I bought for her. Made pasta in meat sauce for dinner. TRIED to watch a movie. We have such very different tastes in movies. TV we can agree on. Movies not even close. We watched American Hustle. While I thought it moved slower then I would have liked, I thought it was well acted and was a good movie. Christian Bale as usual did a fantastic job as did Bradley Cooper. B hated it. Every minute of it. Whatever. Honestly, whatever. My friend called last night but it wasn't a good time to talk and then I forgot to call her back. I will call if I get a chance today. That's the day. I am still in a bleh mood and have to go to a 6 hour presentation at IBM's offices in a little while. Joy.

Y5 D241

Okay let's see if I can remember everything that went down yesterday. It turned out to be a busy day. Got up and took care of some work emails. From there I went to the store and ordered a ring for B. Yes, that kind of ring. A white and rose gold wedding set. I was super worried about wether I would get approved for it but it turned out to be worrying for nothing. The jewelry store approved me for $8400. Um okay. Not what I was expecting. And no, I didn't go crazy and change what I was already planning on buying. B had picked out several rings from the book and I went with one that was reasonable. After discounts I got it for $1500. I put $500 down and will only have a grand to finance. I can pay that off in a realistic timeframe. After taking care of that I came home and called Disneyland. I want to do this right during princess breakfast. I made the reservation and the manager of the restaurant will be calling me back to coordinate the rest of it.

After that I did some more work, ate lunch, and waited for B to get home. We ended up going out for nice mexican last night. Came home, watched some TV, and FINALLY had the sex. Things are evening out with her body and it was quite enjoyable.

Today is more document work and that's about it.

Y5 D240

Morning is off to a rough start. My phone is behaving like an idiot trying to do a bunch of updates in the background and it's pissing me off. Ugh. Bad phone. No cookie.

B was super emotional yesterday. Started in the morning when she got a text from her mother. Her mother is letting their house go into foreclosure. They are about 4 payments behind on the mortgage, have already refi'd it twice, and she can't keep up. The fucked up part? Her mortgage payment is a little more than my car payment. It's ridiculous because she is not going to find an apartment for much less than she is paying right now for the mortgage. If she is having trouble with this, how is she going to keep a roof over their heads? Which of course has B in a wrecked state. She is worried about her sisters, pissed at both of her parents, upset about life in general, etc.. She has an extreme case of guilt because she worries that if she hadn't moved this wouldn't have happened. Which of course is total bullshit. Her mother was hiding so much from her that even if she had been there, it wouldn't have helped much. She would have ended up in the same place. Regardless, it made B an emotional mess yesterday.

I took her to lunch to try and take her mind off things and that was annoying as fuck because of the football people. Fucking hate football. Most useless waste of time ever. THE PEOPLE IN THE BOX CAN'T HEAR YOU SO STOP SCREAMING WHILE I AM TRYING TO EAT LUNCH. Fuckers. Thank god it's over for a while. We stopped at Target after lunch and she was starting to feel better. We got home and she got some more texts which threw her mood back off. I stayed out of the way. It was just easier. I went and putzed around on here for a while. Just safer that way. We watched some TV while she tried to calm back down. I ended up reading an entire book yesterday in an attempt to give her space. Horrible book. It was one I bought her for Christmas. I read it in probably 5 hours total.

We had leftovers for dinner and headed off to bed. She was trying to make a list of things she needs to bring home with her and that led to a discussion of possibly renting a storage unit back there for the time being. Just move things in and then ship them slowly. That would be easier than trying to ship everything at once.

She also got some work emails later in the evening that bugged her. Some stupid stuff about process and procedure. She got all flustered the same way I do when I get bullshit stuff late on a Sunday night.

All in all, an emotional day. Hopefully things will even out here in the next day or two.

Y5 D239

Great day yesterday. We got up early and headed down to the flea market around 7:30. We got there a little after 8. Nothing was quite setup yet and it was actually really enjoyable walking around in the quiet. No big crowds, no crazy heat, just being able to scope out what things we might be interested in and getting a lay of the land. While we waited for everyone to get setup we had some breakfast. I had a great chorizo breakfast burrito. It was quite tasty. When we were done more vendors were ready to go. B was looking for a purse she decided. She also wanted to find some boots for her trip back home. I decided I was going to find her anniversary gift. We walked and talked until about 1 including a lunch break - tamales and rice and beans. We ended up leaving with new boots for her ($20!) and I did find her anniversary present. I haggled at three different vendors until I got the price and package I wanted. I got her a working N64 with two controllers, memory pack, and three games for $90. She loved it. I had been wanting to find her one for Christmas but things just didn't line up. We headed out from the market and had to make one quick stop on the way home. Our friend went to the dispensary to pick her up something. Luckily they live pretty close to the flea market and it wasn't a big deal hitting their house on the way home. Once more we had an east coast/west coast moment for B. When my friend handed her over the jar of Purple Cadillac she was amazed at the quality. She also remarked on the way home how easy it was to do all that where as back home it would have involved four phone calls, meeting in some secret location, etc. Not a nice jar with a UPC code on it. Got home around 3 and we both decided to nap. I woke up at 4:30 and around 5 ordered pizza. B woke up at 5:30 and we were sitting on the couch and she looked at me all sad and said "I can haz food soon?". I said sure and left it at that. She gave me a quizzical look but didn't say anything. 10 minutes later there's a knock on the door. Tada. Food.  After dinner we decided to play scrabble. OH MAN! First draw, first word, seven letters. Bam off to a 99 point lead. While B was frustrated at my opening move, she kept playing. Final score? 383 to 209. A good game for her, but a GREAT game for me. We then watched TV for a while and headed to bed around midnight. I had tried making bananas foster for dessert but I only had little bananas and it came out too dry. When we got in bed we laid there and talked for quite a while. It was nice. We talked about the past present and future which was nice. I think it was finally around 1 when we fell asleep.

Today we have nothing planned. Should be a good day.

Y5 D238

Yes, I am awake way too early but for a good reason. We are off to the flea market and I want to get there early! I want to be able to miss some of the crowds and not wait an hour in line for parking. I know it's crazy and I am not going to rush B this morning, but I want to at least get there early enough that I am not stressed out. Plus the earlier we get there, the earlier we leave.

Class went okay yesterday. I don't know if it's me or just the class, but I didn't get the kind of energy I am used to having. I think because it was a one day class and it was all new students. When I have multi-day classes I can usually get their energy up to my level by the end of a week. This week I had three different classes all with unique students which meant I never had them long enough to get them to the woo level I like. It's okay. I mean they got the material, everyone did well, and we made it through. That's all that really matters, right?

Right as class was ending they showed up with my new dishwasher. Took them about an hour to install but it got done. It's a newer model then what we had which makes me happy. I did a test run last night and everything seems to be looking good. When they were done, I took B to her favorite place for dinner. Chili's. It makes her happy. When we were done with dinner we headed to the mall and the Disney store. I was looking for something for the kid's birthday and ended up buying myself an almost life size Olaf. Yeah yeah, I know. But he is awesome. We wandered around, went to Target to get stuff we needed for the house, and headed home. We got home around 8 and relaxed. B wanted to go to bed early because she knew I would wake her up early this morning. Speaking of which, it be time to wake the sleeping beastie...

Y5 D237

It's Friday, yay! I am not usually one to care about day of week, but this week has been long and it's my last day teaching for the week so YAY. Plus today is the day we are supposed to have our dishwasher replaced. You don't realize how much you rely on certain things until they are taken away from you. It's been a bear this week having to wash dishes by hand. We could have been lazy and spent the week eating out, but we decided to be good and just deal with having to wash dishes. Smart but annoying.

Taught all day, took it right up to the mark. Ended up taking a short nap after class. B got home right before I finished and she was already napping when I was done. Man I love having someone in my life who appreciates a good nap as much as I do. When we both woke up we worked on the puzzle. Finished! 2000 piece puzzle finished in 8 days. Not too shabby.

I also went on a bit of a video hunt yesterday. I ended up finding 8 Disney movies I didn't have going as far back as the 1940s. In addition I found every episode of an animated show I used to love called Stickin' Around. Lastly, I found a DVD rip of Fast and Furious 6. Pretty good hunt and find overall. I now have almost 200 Disney movies including all 53 full length theatrically released animated. My friend also found me a DVD rip of Frozen. I do so love this time of year when GG and Oscar movies get put out there in clean formats.

Made pork chops with pineapple, a parmesan risotto, and veggies for dinner.  Watched some TV after eating and finally decided on where to go this weekend. We are going to the flea market. That may not sound like much to some, but this flea market has been around for almost 60 years and is one of the largest permanent flea markets in the state. B has never been, I haven't been in close to three years so let's do this. Last time I went was with friends after a show so we were exhausted. This time we are going fully rested with cash in hand. We were going to get a hotel and do the whole tourist at home thing, but we decided we would rather drive the 45 minutes and have more cash to spend at the flea market. This should be fun.

Just have to make it through today first.

Y5 D236

Same shit different day. Nothing new or exciting to report. I taught all day, B worked, we napped, we ate, we worked on the puzzle, we got a hankering for cheesecake, went to the cheesecake factory, came back, ate cheesecake, watched TV, worked more on puzzle, went to bed. There. That's our whole day in a nutshell. Seriously. I wish there was something more exciting to write about, but that's it. The days blend together and become one. And it's going to stay that way for a while I hope. 

Look, I am really not complaining. If I go back and read a year ago, two years ago, I was in a shitty place. While things may not be very exciting, at least they are stable. I am doing much better mentally, financially, emotionally, etc. I don't have the spirals I used to have. This is a good thing. I have reached a point of balance. Not every day is sunshine and sprinkles but they are consistent and stable and that's more important. The extremes were killing me and you know it. I was either on the edge of suicide or elated beyond belief. Now I am finding middle ground. Middle ground is good. I don't go out and drink myself to sleep any more. It was just a few short years ago where the only way I could sleep was by passing out. 

I have evolved. I have grown. Or maybe if you look at it another way, I have found peace and acceptance. When you find acceptance you find middle ground. I am happy with the way things are. I could be going like this for a long time and not regret. That's something isn't it?

Y5 D235

Not a whole lot to talk about this morning. Another day of training complete. Made it through without any issues. Nothing exciting. Three more days to go. B worked all day, I trained all day. Finished up at 3, worked on the puzzle. Made chicken for dinner, watched some tv, went to bed. Honestly that's all that went down yesterday. It was a pretty boring day. We did try and plan something for this weekend. Originally we were going to go to Disneyland but then we found out this is marathon weekend and said the hell with that. We then spent about an hour thinking of other places to go. Nothing really seemed to work for both of us. We will see if we figure something out. Dinner was pretty good. I made a dish from my new disney cookbook. One of the recipes from Epcot. The whole house smells like oil now though because I had to use the deep fryer and the oil needed replacing. It made the whole place stink. I spent like two hours draining and cleaning the deep fryer afterwards. Oh the excitement around here. Look out, it's off the hook.

Whatever.

More teaching. Nine new students today. Bring it.

Y5 D234

Don't want to be awake right now. Too sleepy. I forgot how annoying it is getting up at this time of the morning. Been spoiled the last few weeks. Class went well yesterday. No real issues. One of the students is a little dense but otherwise things are okay. Today is day two of the same class and if I do things right I should finish us up a little early. Which means I can take a small nap. B had the day off yesterday and she enjoyed herself. She worked on the puzzle and watched TV while I taught. After class she went out to the store to replace the pot she burned the other night. Ended up getting two pots to replace one. Different sizes which is nice as we needed the other size too. I made an apple bourbon pork shoulder last night and served it with tater tots and veggies. We ate, worked on the puzzle, and attempted to watch a movie. I say attempted because we finished up the Fast movies we had and since we didn't have the last one, I switched us to another movie. Unfortunately she didn't approve of my choice. We have very different tastes sometimes in entertainment. We can mostly agree on TV shows, but movies we are worlds apart. Not that big a deal, just kind of sad that I can't seem to pick a movie we can both enjoy. Whatever. Not going to lose sleep. We compromised and watched some shows both of us like. I really need her new pills to kick in. If you notice we haven't been having sex lately. It's because she switched birth control pills and her body is out of whack. Hoping this will stabilize soon enough and we can get back to business. I am not going to push or rush her, but it's starting to get frustrating. For both of us. More teaching now.

Y5 D233

Back to the grin of 5am awake time. Teaching all this week so I am back to normal hours. Normal being relative to me of course. The next two days I am teaching one of my favorite classes. At least it is material I am familiar and comfortable with teaching. I will slide right back into the groove.

Yesterday was nice and relaxing. We had a marathon of some of B's favorite movies. She has been after me forever to watch the fast and furious movies. We ended up watching 4.5 of them. I can now say I don't like them with something to back that up. And when I say 'watch" I mean they were on and I worked on the puzzle 99% of the time they were going. There were a few moments here and there where I paid attention but for the most part, it was background noise. I kept getting frustrated with the lack of realism in the movies. It's one thing for a movie to be completely unreal. I can suspend my disbelief when I am watching something that is clearly not possible - like a Sci-Fi movie - but when it's supposed to be in current times, in a real place, then it gets hard to swallow. There are so many things wrong with the plot that it drove me nuts. But I watched them and she is happy. Why did I sit through four and a half of them? Because my OCD wouldn't let me just watch one. It was one of those things where once I started I knew I was going to have to watch them all wether I was interested or not. Principle of the issue.

B attempted to make chicken and dumplings for dinner last night. Let's just say there's a reason I do most of the cooking around here. Also I need a new soup pan now. She was upset that she burnt dinner but I did the right thing and ate a bowl anyway. It wasn't horrible, just burnt on the bottom. It's my job to eat whatever she makes regardless, and I did my job.

We went to bed around 11 and I slept moderately well. I woke up a few times during the night mostly from stress about waking up on time for class. It's been 3 weeks (4?) since I have had to get up at a certain time and I get paranoid about it.

Class time. Whee.

Y5 D232

Busy day yesterday. After B left for work I spent the entire time cleaning the house. I know I said we have been trying to clean as we go lately but there was still a need for a deep cleaning and I did that yesterday from about 10 until 1:30 I cleaned like a son of a gun. I cleaned baseboards and windows and nooks and crannies. When B got home she was so elated she treated me to lunch. It was nice waking up this morning to a fully cleaned house. I mean like super clean. Like I was a mexican housekeeper getting paid clean. It smells clean.

One of our friends came over around 3:30 and cut B's hair. She wanted a trim. When we met she had this nice long hair. Now it's short with a blue streak. It's her hair and she has the right to do whatever but I know it will probably never be long again because once you cut your hair short most people can't go through the grow out period to ever get it long again. Oh well. Her head her choice.

When they were done we went over to a different friend's house. He lives about 45 minutes away and is usually the one driving to everyone else so we decided to give him a break and drive to him. We got over to his place around 6 and went out for Indian. I haven't had Indian in a while and it was tasty. Afterwards we went to a pie shop for dessert. We ended up back at his place until about 10. Nice fun night without any craziness.

Got home and B collapsed. The day caught up with her. She is so excited because she has two days in a row off for once. She has both today and tomorrow free. I am letting her sleep as long as she wants today.  It's only 8, I say she gets up around 10. Let's see how I do.

Since the house is clean and there is food, we should have absolutely nothing to do today. I am seeing much puzzle work in our future.

Y5 D231

It's Saturday! Woo! Not that it really means all that much to me. All the days blend together. But the upside is we don't have a show tonight. We get our Saturday to ourselves. That's always nice. No worrying about going out at 10pm and getting home at 3.

Good day yesterday. I worked on my docs and B worked. She got home around 2 and was craving a sandwich from a particular place so we made that happen. Came back, worked on the puzzle and she fell asleep. I was really craving fish last night. I needed fish. I realized since she has moved in my fish intake has decreased. Mostly because she is not a fish person. But I need fish. Seriously. It helps my body. Fish and tomatoes. I need them. We went back out around 5:30 and had some fantastic sushi. I was in heaven. She had tempura which made her happy. Afterwards, we went over to our friend's house and hung out with them for a while. We played CAH for a couple of hours and caught up. They used to be on cast with us but since they left we haven't seen them as often as we would like. It was nice hanging out and catching up.

Got home around 10:30 and went off to bed. Good day.

Things are feeling a little better for me in terms of my physical issue. The fish helps. Everything helps. I will beat this like all other things.

Y5 D230

Oh no I lost a "friend" on Facebook. My life is over, woe is me. Sarcasm at its finest. I know who it was that left too and frankly I don't care. Not the end of the world. Spent the day working hard yesterday. We are near the end of the week which means I really need to get one last set of files completed. I have almost everything done except this last file. I made it through a really large one yesterday. My boss called me yesterday to go over the next few weeks. Everything is looking pretty good for Feb and March. We just need to firm up a couple of things here in January. I may have to go back to Vegas the week of the 20th. We need to see if the client is willing to accept the numbers we gave them yesterday. If so, then I will spend four days in Vegas.

Well just heard back from the client. They now are looking at Feb. That sucks. We were hoping to block out more Jan time. Oh well.

When B got home she napped. She had a bad headache. I kept working. Around 6 we sat down. I wasn't hungry nor was she yet. Later I made an egg sandwich and then had to go to the store to make sure she had eggs for the morning.

All in all a boring ass day.

Now, on a side note. I have something wrong with me that I hope is going to correct itself. It has three more days to do so or I am calling a doctor. The last few days old age has attacked. I think there is something wrong with my prostate. 89% of all men experience an enlargement in the prostate after the age of 40. Things like alcohol and caffeine don't help. I am trying to limit/eliminate both of those to see if the effects reduce naturally. This by the way is the most common treatment. Home remedies. If it is really bad they will go in and reduce the prostate but usually they give you home treatments first. Hence, me waiting for symptoms to correct on their own. Don't worry, I will keep you posted on this.

Y5 D229

B did something yesterday that's extremely challenging - she surprised me. She bought me an early anniversary gift. Yes, she wants to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. It's coming up in a couple of weeks. Where has a year gone? Regardless, she ordered something and since she didn't want me to hate it and not be able to return it, she had me open it yesterday. It was a gorgeous watch case. It holds 20 watches, 10 visible through a window, 10 in a drawer. It is amazing. I love it. And I was completely surprised by it. I never in a million years expected it.

She had the day off yesterday and lounged about. I had work to finish up and managed to get through one more document. Only two more to go and conveniently there are two days left in the week. That worked out well.

We also managed to get all the laundry done yesterday. She likes me to do laundry when she is home so her work clothes can get washed. Not a problem. For dinner I made a carnitas lasagne. We worked on the new puzzle and I got her watching a new show - Lie to Me. She had me watch a show she liked, Leverage, and Lie to Me is one of the recommended ones (if you like this, you'll like this). She watched four episodes yesterday while I worked. We tend to have different taste in TV so it's nice to have one of mine that she enjoys.

Around 8 she was on Pinterest and saw this thing for berry monkey bread. I looked at it for five seconds and said "I can make that". We decided screw it, let's do it now. We headed off to the store, got the ingredients, and came back home to make it together. That was fun. It turned out okay. I am not a fan, but she likes it. That's all that matters.

Went to bed around 11. I had a headache as I am trying to reduce my rockstar intake and it gave me a bit of a caffeine withdrawal headache. Worth it if I can get off these damn things. I am trying for one or less per day. Yesterday I drank a half a can which is a huge reduction for me.

Today more docs, more puzzle, more life.

Y5 D228

Back in the grin of things. Emails coming through, requests for my time, etc. Regular business again. Good. I was starting to get a little bored. See, I am one of those people who will get things done but only when they need to get done. Give me too much time to do something and I will procrastinate and dawdle. I know it. It's a character flaw I accept. Not that I will wait until the last minute, I am not that bad, I just know that if something is "get to it in your free time", I won't get to it until someone says "hey we need that thing next week". Okay, now I have a deadline, let's do this. I managed to crank through three documents yesterday. I have two more to do this week and still have three days to finish them. If I do it right, I will have them all done today. Bam. Then I will have tomorrow and Friday light. In addition to getting stuff done yesterday I also managed to have a little spa time, buy a new puzzle, and relax.

B got home around 2 and napped for a little while. She has today off and is still sleeping. She earned a day off. It's getting slower at her work finally and will stay relaxed for a few weeks. This is good. We had a pizza for dinner, worked on the new puzzle, and went to bed around 11. Boring day for our boring life. Also good.

Some days I miss my wild stories but at the same time, I don't need any more wild stories. I need calm relaxing days. I am getting them.

Y5 D227

Finally heard back from my coworker yesterday. Just in time too. He didn't want me to work on a particular set of files that I had already started on. Saved me from doing useless work all day. Instead I started on a different set of files. I tried to run a couple of errands but multiple places were closed. Seems like first day back of the new year and everyone wanted to do inventory and the like. Whatever. I did get one thing accomplished; my contacts came in. The last time I ordered contacts it was such a fiasco in how long it took because of screwed up orders that I was shocked as hell they came in only one business day. It was Friday I went for my eye exam and here they are in the office by noon monday. Well done eye place, well done. B came home around 1:30 and she had a doctor appointment. I went with her but since we are not married I sat in the car. It was that or the waiting room and I preferred the car. After we grabbed a sandwich for dinner and headed home. It took her almost 2.5 hours at the doctor which is why we were ready for dinner by the time she finished. Came on back home, watched TV, talked, laughed, fell asleep. Ah back to the regular grind.

Y5 D226

With the exception of a small foray to the grocery store for chips, we spent the entire day inside yesterday. It was wonderful. We were in what's known as the Rocky Coma. Almost everyone on cast experiences it after a particularly intense show. We have given so much at the show that we have nothing left for Sunday. It happens to all of us at one time or another. Since I was emcee, I was drained. All my energy went into that performance. Nothing left to give. We stayed in, worked on the puzzle (finished it!), and ate chips while watching tv. A very lazy sunday. No remorse either. We both needed a do nothing day and we succeeded. B talked with her mother. She has plans to renew her license while she is back home and needs her mother to get the papers together. Let's see if she takes care of things. Of course talking to her mother brought up anxiety about this trip. While she is looking forward to going back home, there are some people she doesn't want to deal with while there. She is worried about her dad and his parents being assholes to her and trying to convince her to stay. Wrong. She just doesn't want to listen to their bull. I told her to remember this is HER vacation and she needs to tell them that. If anyone is being a pain don't listen or spend time with them. She is under no obligation to spend time around people who are going to make the trip anything less than fun. Hopefully she will be able to handle that. I doubt it but one can hope. Had IHOP for dinner last night because she was craving waffles and I didn't feel like cooking. That turned into a bit of an adventure. They had a cook call in sick and had one cook for the whole place. Things were a little backed up. The food came out okay but it was a slow meal experience. It was okay with us. We weren't in a big hurry anyway. Hit bed around 10:30 and talked a while. This is when all the stuff about her trip came out. But we will get through this. She will enjoy this vacation even if I have to call everyone there in advance and yell at them.

More documents today. Still haven't heard from anyone. Now I am starting to wonder what's going on. If I don't hear from anyone by end of day, I will start branching out my emails.

Y5 D225

WHAT A NIGHT! I had my debut as emcee and wow. First off, it is a lot harder than people think. You can't see anything from the stage because of the spotlight. You have an entire room hanging on your every word or being bored to tears by you. All eyes (all 400 of them) are watching your every move. You are for those 20-25 minutes the center of the universe. What a rush and what a scare all at the same time. I loved every minute of it.

B worked from 8-4 yesterday. While she was at work I cleaned the house and put away the last of Christmas. This did not make her happy when she got home. She wanted the tree to stay up longer. I personally was tired of looking at it. Sorry, but when Christmas is over, it's over. Put it away for another year. After doing that I practiced my stuff for the show. I blew up balloons, read over my lines, made a note sheet, and stressed myself out all day. Which is weird because I am so used to talking all day that you'd think this would be no big deal. But see paragraph one. This is different than a class of people who are paying specifically to hear you talk. The audience is there for the movie and the emcee is a distraction in some respects. So I practiced and paced. Worked on the puzzle. I was such a  bundle of nerves I didn't even plan a dinner. B made mac and cheese for herself for dinner and I eventually made a sandwich. I just was all over the place. We got ready about 9 and headed out at 9:30. The rest of the show went well and we got home around 3. This by the way is something I am proud of - I kept the timing of the pre-show going at a good pace. No dawdling, no messing up. Did my schtick and done. Everyone said how good I did which made me happy. There was a little tension from one of the performers because she had also auditioned for emcee and was surprised she wasn't in the rotation. Not my issue. Our director had to take her aside and talk to her. As long as there is no animosity towards me. I am sorry you didn't get picked but you also do three other roles in the show on a regular basis so let me have this okay?

Got home and crashed. Today's plans included finishing the puzzle and marathoning some TV. Look out, we are wild!

Y5 D224

Saturday I think. Right? Ugh. Everything is blending together. Seriously. I sent my boss an email yesterday morning checking in and haven't heard anything back yet. I know he has been on vacation and his level of care is as low as mine, but I hoped to hear something back from him. I sent up new training guides to him for review as well.

I had a conference call from 8:30 to almost 10 with a client. Follow up from one of my training classes. He was trying to implement something he learned in class. Turns out his data isn't formatted in a way that was going to work but it was a good learning experience for the client. He even sent an email afterwards saying how much he appreciated the time I spent with him. Nice way to start the year with clients.

After him I had an eye doctor appointment. Yay! I have been waiting thanks to insurance. I had to wait until the new year rolled over. Good news is that my eyes are doing fine. No change in my contact prescription at all. Nice. My new contacts will be here by Wednesday and I will see again. For giggles I looked at glasses while I was there. Yeah, there's a reason I haven't bought new glasses in years. The ones I liked where $500 - $1000 for the frames. I know I can find some nice ones elsewhere but it cracked me up. No thanks, I will take my $109 contacts thank you very much.

After the eye doctor I hit Target. Had some stuff for the house to pick up. By the time I got done with all that, B was home from work. She needed to get some things so back out we went. We were home by 3:30 and I started a roast for dinner. For dinner I made a roast and also had a crab. The crab was for me and the cat. I offered B some but she didn't want it. More for us then. She was quiet through dinner and I didn't want to say anything because I didn't know what was on her mind. After she was done eating she leaned back and said "that is the greatest roast I have ever had in my life. I don't want to ever stop eating it. If this were a restaurant I would order that every time". Okay that explains the quiet AND made me feel pretty darn good.

We relaxed after dinner, worked on the puzzle a little, watched some TV and the retired to the bedroom. But sleep we did not. We had our fun thank you very much. I earned roast sex apparently. We did talk after about some stuff. She is worried her birth control is causing her problems. She is going to make an appointment next week to take care of some things and see if everything downstairs is okay. Women have it so much harder then men when it comes to that. We just have things flapping in the breeze. They have all this plumbing that needs constant care and attention. I feel for all women.

Fell asleep around 11 and woke up at 8.

Tonight is a show and it's my DEBUT AS MC! Yes, I am nervous as hell, but whatever. That's why god made vodka.

Y5 D223

And the first rent payment of the year is sent. Whee. We had a long ass discussion about this last night. B was reading an article about a couple who "made sacrifices" in order to minimize their debt. We both agree they took it to extremes. The wife made a bed for crying out loud. She asked friends and family for power tools. They moved to a smaller place and walked to work. They also only needed 20,000 for a down payment on a house. Yeah right. I need 120,000 for a down payment for anything around here. But I like the fact that we can talk openly and honestly about money without fighting. Something X2 and I could never do. You have to keep a bit of perspective. It doesn't help (or maybe it does?) that we have been watching a lot of Grey's Anatomy lately. Seems like the whole point of the show is sleep with coworkers and don't go to a hospital or you will die. It does give you some perspective on life at the same time. You watch it and realize, yeah, I could die tomorrow. Would I want to go knowing I enjoyed myself without being annoying or that I drove everyone crazy trying to be so frugal? Balance man, it's all about balance. Plus we looked around the house. There aren't any luxuries to give up. We haven't eaten out in a while, we don't have cable, we use as little gas as possible, we don't have a $300 heating/electric bill ($89 for december thank you very much), and we have been really good about being stupid with money. One resolution still holding. Bills are pretty much due today and after paying off EVERYTHING for the month except my car payment (which will come out of the 17th check) I should have at least $800 left but then out of the 17th check, I will be doing okay. Trying my best people, trying my best.

In other news, worked all day. The kid stopped by. She and KBF went to visit her family and friends for NYE. They originally were going to go skiing but there wasn't enough snow on the ground. From the mountains to the desert. She told me all about her mother and how much of a bitch she was being the entire time they were there. Gee, I am so surprised. B came home while she was here and we all sat around talking. Things are so much better between everyone now that she is living on her own. So much more relaxed. Less drama and pain. Makes me happy. After the kid left, B napped while I finished up work.

After dinner B and I started the puzzle she gave me for Christmas. It's from the park and is Beauty and the Beast. While it's a 1000 piece puzzle we both agree it's 'simple' in the colors, shapes, etc. It doesn't have endless sky or water pieces. Things are easily identifiable which makes it go quick for puzzle people like us. In a few short hours we did the border and three or four major sections. We worked on it until about 10:30 then headed to bed.

I am up this morning for a conference call, followed by an eye exam. Fun stuff. I also need to check in to see what's planned for this month. As of right now I have one week on the calendar but that's it. Need to get things back rolling.

Y5 D222

Today is 222. Funny since B and I were talking about Room 222 the other night. Yeah, I am old go away. Anyone else remember that show? Good because then you'd be old if you did. We were talking about Golden Girls and Maude and how everything back then was a spinoff of everything else. For those who don't remember Happy Days was actually a spinoff of Room 222. There's your useless trivia for the day. Enjoy.

Anyway, yeah I am in a pretty good mood today. We took care of B's birthday present yesterday. A month early, but we had to do it. I am sending her home for her birthday for a week. I took care of the plane ticket yesterday. This will be the first time she has seen her family since June. She is super excited even though it is a month away still. As a result we ended up going on a bag search yesterday. We went to the mall and to a couple of stores. She found a nice 19" wheeled carrier for only $70. It is perfect for her. Light enough to carry around airports, small enough to almost go under a seat if need be, but not too bulky if it has to go in the overhead. Success.

We also looked at rings while we were out. Yes, those kind of rings. She is a very realistic person thank goodness. She isn't one of these women who wants a $5000 ring and is a spoiled brat about it. Sometimes it's nice being with someone from the midwest. They have much more realistic expectations about things. She found some nice ones from $1500-$2000. Doable. Still crazy, but within reality. Plus it made her happy to be looking at them and that's what really matters.

We had a quick dinner out of some greek food then headed home. We then had another Grey's marathon. She loves that show. I find it amusing at times but also a bit whiny. There are certain characters and story lines I don't like, but I don't hate watching it.

So far this year is starting off pretty well. Only 364 days to go.

Y5 D221

According to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and a plethora of other places this morning, it's a new year. Boy how would I have ever known without 800 people all wishing me a happy one? Boy, thank goodness for online technology! Sarcasm, still working it in 2014. Jesus. 2014. Amazing isn't it? Yes, time is an arbitrary concept of man, but wow. It seemed so far away when it was 1974. Even 1984. Yet, here we are.

Had a boring ass day yesterday. Things dragged so slow. NYE is one of those awful days because everyone wants to go woo but nothing really starts up until 10 or later. So you find yourself all edgy all day waiting for the fun to begin. Or maybe that's just me. But that about sums up yesterday for me. Waiting waiting waiting.

B got home around 3 and napped until 5. Smart thing since we didn't get home until 3. Which is also weird because yesterday was Tuesday. Fucking midweek holidays. We watched Grey's Anatomy, ate dinner, and started getting ready around 7. Headed out about 9:30. The show itself was pretty good except for one issue where we realized our speaker system got left at the other theater. I can't be blamed for it because I was stuck in Tampa our last show. But that meant I had to spend countdown and midnight in the booth. Luckily everyone was understanding and B was in the booth with me and they let me open a bottle of champagne up there. Other than that mishap things went okay and we got out of there around 2:30.

Today we do NOTHING. Thank god everything is closed today. Zero reason to leave the house.

And happy new year bitches.