Extended vacation

I just had a full seven days off work. And not for anything good.

We had Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving, like the rest of the country. Same with Saturday and Sunday. (Except for those poor bastards forced to work in retail.) I locked myself in my house with the blinds down and the TV off and played MapleStory every waking moment. I started a new character who is already a level 27 magician. Woot! And my pig is almost ready to level up and start talking. I'm going to name him Bacon. Needless to say, the cat was thoroughly disgusted with me for ignoring her the whole time.

Monday I woke up and got ready for work. I went out to get the mail from Friday and Saturday (see, I never even so much as opened my door for four days) and found snow and ice on every freaking thing in sight. Since I hadn't had the TV or radio on, I never heard the forecasts. So what did I do? I skipped work because I didn't want to drive on ice, and I stayed home and played MapleStory some more.

Tuesday. Tried to catch a bus. It never came. Went home and played MapleStory some more.

Wednesday. Tried to catch a bus. It never came. Went home and played MapleStory some more. Then I decided to get studded tires so that I could make it to work. I slipped and skidded my way to Les Schwab and blew $401 on studded tires. Then I drove around on all the curvy, hilly, icy roads in my 'hood to test them. They rock. No sliding. Yay me.

Wednesday night. More snow.

Thursday morning. Shock and surprise. No snow. All melted. And I'm out $401. And it probably won't snow again for the next 8 years.

So now, on the off-chance that it does bother to snow again any time soon, I can make it to work and not get to play MapleStory all day. Damn it all to hell.

Celebrating, lazy blue-collar American-style

My company won a tidy little sum of money from the defense department for research purposes, so a group of us went out yesterday to celebrate. We hit the Pioneer Square Saloon and drank to our heart's content on the tab of one of the engineering guys. I think I had about 5 glasses of beer, then went to the gym. Funny, it actually seems easier to do 35 minutes on an eliptical and then lift weights when you're drunk. The drawback is that it is easy to overdo it. Boy, do my shoulders hurt...

I have a four-day weekend coming up, and I fully intend to waste it in my typical style. I'm going to rake leaves, clean out the garage, muck out the rain gutters, bleach the hell out of the bathroom, stow my summer wardrobe, and play MapleStory waaaaaay too much. And quite possibly play Final Fantasy III on my Nintendo DS. I believe it will be a very full four days. (Of course, I say that I'm going to do all of this, but chances are that I will just watch TV, eat, and play MapleStory waaaaaay too much.)

Most importantly, the season premier of Scrubs is on Thursday night! You know where I'll be for that hour.

Speaking of eating, I am not celebrating Thanksgiving. I couldn't really care less about the holiday. I'm not going to my parent's house because I'm selfishly keeping my time to myself this holiday. I told them originally that I had only one day off because I thought that I had only one day off, but I was wrong and I'm not about to correct that. I want four days to myself. They can have me for Christmas.

However, I will be well-fed. I have rediscovered how much I like to cook. I was very lazy for the last two years because my free time was taken up with homework and other assorted undergraduate-related crap, but now I'm getting back into it. On Sunday I made a pot roast (I use Guiness, so you know it is heavenly) and a spicy butternut squash-white bean soup, and I have leftovers to last me through Friday, so I may do some more cooking on Saturday. I don't know what I'll cook yet, but at least I'll be able to go grocery shopping in the post-holiday lull rather than during the feeding frenzy today and tomorrow.

This is not going to help my Seasonal Affective Disorder

You can't quit the gym!

First, apoligies. Yes, the title of this post is a reference to an episode of "Friends." Now, onward.

I joined a gym. I had a choice of two; the one near home and the one near work. The one near home is $12 a month. The one near work is $35. I knew that if I chose the one near home, I would bag out as I drove past it each day on the way home. It is also smaller and very crowded and doesn't have the incredible range of ways I can hurt myself that the one near work has, including classes (yoga and BOSU leap to mind) and a sauna. All of this lead me to choose the more expensive gym.

"Why did you join a gym?" Well, I have only two real hobbies - hiking and video games - and you have to be in top physical condition for both. I'm getting older (not that I'm counting the days until I'm 40 or anything) and the last two years of school and strange eating habits have taken their toll from health and aesthetic perspectives. I'm not going to magically get back into condition, so I decided on professional help. The gym that I joined provides quite a lot of one-on-one training as a part of membership, and I am going to take advantage of it. I figure that if I can get in there three times a week, I'll get my money's worth.

Still, I wonder how long I'll last. It is a bit inconvinient. I either have to leave work at 4:30 so that I can work out and still make the last train, or I have to go during lunch and then shower and fix my hair and makeup before I can go back to work. I imagine that I'll do the first option - I hate doing my hair and doing it once a day is more than enough. I would rather ride the train with messed up hair and no makeup than do my hair twice. I do not have hair that I can just brush and go, unfortunately. It is extraordinarily high maintenance. I should shave it off and get a wig.

How was that for a digression?

Sickness and death

Tis the season for flu shots. I never used to get the flu, and I never used to get flu shots. But for the last two years I have come down with near-fatal cases of it five days before Christmas and in neither instance did it go away until more than a week after New Year's Day. Then I had laryngitis for a week or two each time.
So this year, I decided to have a flu shot in hopes of visiting my parents over the holidays without a box of tissues in hand and constant mucus running out of my nose and mouth. My company offers them for free, so I took advantage. Me, a big old needle-fearing freak. And it didn't hurt a bit. My shoulder feels a little warm, but I'm guessing that is fine. I don't think I'm going to pass out any time soon. That was the big news of today.

The big news of tomorrow is that I'm going out with friends to see dead bodies. After work we're going to head to "Bodies... The Exhibition." One of my friends (my ex-officemate) has a strange fascination with death, and the other one used to be an undertaker. My ex-officemate is bringing her significant other, my other friend is bringing a friend, and I have two other friends who may join us there, so we may have quite a crowd when we go to dinner after the exhibit. I haven't been out with a crowd that size in a while. It should be quite a treat. I'm wondering how the exhibit will affect my dreams. Here's hoping it doesn't.

New addiction

Maple Story. Online anime-like multi-player game.

These are my characters so far.
There will doubtless be more.
Hey, that one on the right looks a little like me...


Can't talk. Must play.

Die evil mushrooms! Aieeeee!

Lets call it a social experiment.

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. This has been the worst year yet. There are a few things that happen to me every year, right around October.

1. I want to eat nothing but red meat, cheese, and bread.
2. I want to drink. Preferably dark beer.
3. I want to smoke.
4. I want to sleep. More specifically, I don't want to get out of bed.

There are also a couple of things I've noticed that tie to this fun little list. I completely quit exercising, though I know that if I do exercise, it wipes out the symptoms almost completely.

So I'm going to do a little experiment. On the way home tonight, I'm going to pick up a pack of cigarettes and a gym membership. Which habit do you think will stick with me the longest?

The truth comes out

I went to our Wisconsin office to learn a particular portion of my job. When I got there, the person who was supposed to train me told me that I am doing only one part of the job, and I didn't need for him to teach me that part. He then proceeded to refuse to teach me anything else on the grounds that there was no need for me to know any of it. The co-worker with whom I was traveling contacted the controller and asked him what I was supposed to be learning, and her interpretation of his answer was the same as the guy who was supposed to be training me.

Yesterday, I spoke with the controller myself, and it turns out that I am supposed to be taking all of the fixed asset work off of the WI guy's hands. All of it. Not just the reconciliation - everything. So basically, he either lied or he misunderstood the directions from the controller, and I traveled for a week for nothing but a nice new pair of boots. Now the controller is going to speak with him personally about it, and I am going to have to return for some actual training.

Here's the thing... This guy who is supposed to train me did some questionable accounting transactions in 2004 that caused the company to restate its financials, which is like the touch of death to a publicly owned company. It lead to SEC and investor litigation which has only recently been resolved in favor of our company (whew!). There is a possibility that he is refusing to hand over this project because he is hiding something. Or he may just be a control freak. Or he may be trying to hang on to it for job security. Who knows. Whatever his reasons, he's going to have to hand it over completely to me in the next two months and get over it. I had a feeling that my taking this from him would cause friction, and I was right. Sometimes I wish I would be wrong about these things.

Final notes on Wisconsin

I took very few pictures while I was there. Here's one of the sunset pictures. If it wasn't for the power lines, it might have been a nice shot.

I escaped the Mall of America in Minneapolis without spending more than $150.00. I bought a pair of brown suede boots, a pair of black suede shoes, and lunch. We only walked the first floor. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and it didn't have any stores that I don't have access to here, so it wasn't a particularly unique experience.

The flight back was standard, complete with a guy sitting next to me with his elbow crammed into my ribs most of the way back. Same guy kept getting up to get things out of or put things into the overhead bin, each time rubbing his crotch on my shoulder. Not pleasant. Maybe I'll just plant my elbow in someone's crotch next time it happens. Then I'll sue them for molesting me. That is the American way, no?