So I'm the office spaz. I always secretly knew that, and everyone in the office worked it out when I spilled tea on myself and had to put goo on my thigh, but today was really... wow.

So I went to go get lunch at Whole Foods today, got my salad together, waited in line, went to pay...and realized I left my wallet at the office. Then this afternoon some guy held the door for me so I didn't have to get my keys out to get into my building, which turned out to be a good thing, because I left my KEYS in the office when I left work. D'OH.

Also, because I fall down a lot.

(Um, so my cold? From a month-ish ago? Creeping back. I'm coughing and full of phlegm again. Do. Not. Want. But in good news, Rachel and I are going to see the Yankees again this weekend! Hopefully the will suck less than they have recently. By which I mean all season.)

A big hooray at work: I've been allowed to do editorial stuff, finally! I'm editing and footnoting a transcript. This is great, because I've missed actually doing editing things; I like all the webstuff I do, but, ya know. Editing is what I'm actually sort of vaguely qualified for. Not really. But it's what I do anyway and like best.

( So here's how I ended up with a gooey thigh at work today! )

So I survived the week! It was actually only the last couple days that were particularly bad, though everything was intense. Like I said, Thursday I was at work until 11; yesterday, until 9. For those playing along at home, my actual hours are 10-6. And this was the kind of intense work where you don't leave your desk, pretty much. The company is good enough that it acknowledges t his, at least, and bought lunch and dinner for us every day, but still. Tiiiiiiired.

The upside is that we got all of our deadlines met so I'm not in the office now. Next week will also be pretty lengthy and intense, but not as bad. And next week (if I have my dates right) is the Spice Girls!

I just feel completely drained right now. The apartment has to be cleaned because I was way too tired and stressed to care all week. Rachel and I just bought groceries for the first time in months (yeah, months -- but I can also actually eat now, which for some reason I hadn't been able to do reliably for about a month). And I feel like I should do laundry or go out and be productive, but what I actually want to do is take a nap, or play Paper Mario. Or maybe one and then the other.

(I'm someone who needs a lot of me-time. I haven't had ANY this week, I've been too busy to think.)

I got home from work a bit less than eight hours ago. (To be fair, I left work at 11, but the A train was running screwy so instead of about 40 minutes, it took an hour and a half to get home.) I didn't sleep well, as I fell into bed without any time as a buffer between work and sleep, so my brain was still turning over nonsense about what I'd been doing all day. And now I'm getting up to go back there and potentially stay all night again, with the hopes that we'll get all of the weekend deadline stuff done so I won't have to work all weekend.

Not sleeping enough makes me feel like poo. Ugghhhhhht.

If you never hear from me again, it's because work has killed me. For serious. There's a massive AIDS conference next week; I've been told to "emotionally prepare myself" for basically twelve-hour days for the next two weeks. Whiiiiiiine.

However, I have trouble totally whining because Rachel bought a Wii and it shipped today. Neither of us has ever had any sort of gaming system before; we are super psyched. For real.

And now, meme. From lielabell:

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!

BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.
( questions )

So here's how I was a grownup today! Actually, here's how I was a grownup a few months ago, and it paid off today: I got a mysterious letter from my old insurance provider in the mail that looked important and like I might need it to get future insurance...and I did not immediately lose it!

In fact, today I thought, gosh, I'm sending in my insurance forms -- perhaps I should bring it with me. So I a) found it, which was easy, because I hadn't lost it (crazy!) and b) brought it to work, where it turned out I needed it to get my insurance processed properly.

HA! I WIN!

So VH1 has finally finished their insane Top Model extravaganza THANK GOD, and is now showing a "top 100 videos of the 90s" countdown. One of them is "Virtual Insanity" and among other commentary was this from Chris Kirkpatrick:

"I was like, 'That's so cool, how are they doing that?' and then Justin was like, 'They're moving the walls, stupid.'"

...Okay, it's funnier when you see it. The disgust in Chris's voice (with himself? Justin? who knows!) was perfect.

Also, we had this conversation at work on Friday, which makes me giggle:

R [editorial assistant]: What are you doing over there, creating a whole parallel website?
Me: Uh...sure.
R: Can you make it about something less depressing than AIDS? Like...
Me: Ponies! The internet's most complete resource on ponies!
M [managing editor]: Yeah, with subject areas like, "How ponies are transmitted," and "how to test for ponies." "Ask the Ponies," perhaps.
Me: Fact versions fiction: pony myth or reality?
M: "I've heard that some ponies have horns, is that true?"

(poisonivory's ETA: "Can you catch ponies from a toilet seat?")

queenitsy ...you know, I bought Live Free or Die Hard today, but I kind of just want to watch Newsies.
harmonyangel Well. You could mash them up into one movie. "Open the gates and seize the RANDOM BRUCE WILLIS!"

In other news, my managing editor sent me an email from the train on the way home:

Subj: Damn
Text: I'm sorry for this week.

The earliest I left work this week was half an hour late -- tonight I was there for a little over two extra hours. We had a giant last minute...thing, that had to be made live today, and didn't get designed until Monday. So. Tired.

Work this week is really, insanely slow. The boss and half the office staff are away at a low-pressure conference for the entire week, which means that it's very very quiet, and the conference doesn't have any deadlines for reporting on it for a change, so it's all very low-key. Basically, for those of us still in the office, it's being used as a week to catch up on projects...Except I don't have any to catch up on.

So instead, they bought me a giant book on advanced CSS and suggested I spend the week reading it and bulking up my knowledge. Which means I'm getting paid to develop skills I wanted anyway. Which is AWESOME. Also, it turns out I can read about CSS for six or seven hours on end with nary a break and not get bored, and in fact, then get annoyed when the subway is too crowded to continue to read.

Yep. I'm a big ol' nerd. That is not exactly a surprise to anyone, though.

(In nano news, for those not following temira, I'm more than a fifth of the way through--almost 12,000 words, actually. It's...interesting.)

Today started off poorly--getting a passive-agressive email from your boss stating that she's "worried about your performance" will do that. But said boss did not come in to the office today, so work itself was fairly peaceful. And then after work, I went out with coworkers and spent the next, um...five and a half hours being awesome. By which I mean, at various times, slightly drunk, extremely nerdy, and briefly both at once. I had already really liked my coworkers; now I'm in love with them. So the day ended awesomely.

Of course, as we were walking thirty blocks for no apparent reason (long story), it started to pour, so for the rest of the night we were all soaked. I ended up springing for a cab home. I am now banned from spending money (but finally paid all my bills).

So overall, today gets a win.

(Okay, I was informed, just now, by harmonyangel. Shh.)

Scott Porter (Jason Street of FNL) is playing Rex Racer! You know. Racer X? Secretly Speed's older brother who left home years ago? This could only be better if Zef was playing Speed! (Alas.)

In other news, I am not mature enough to work in an office. Because the editor in chief and the managing editor had this conversation, and I did nothing but giggle from my desk:

EIC: Look, we have to be more specific. First off, does the question specify if it's a male-male or female-male blowjob?
ME: It doesn't specify, but it doesn't matter. The question is about receiving, which is male or female.
EIC: Now, wait, do you mean receiving as in, receiving the blowjob? Or as in receiving the sperm?
ME: According to our style guide, receiving means receiving liquid.
EIC: Now, really, I think the problem with this blurb is that we need to make it more interesting. Why do people care about giving blowjobs?

(And on for a good ten minutes. Luckily, it's not just me; one of my coworkers informed me that everyone giggled through the safe sex pamphlet they published. Our style guide specifies, by the way, that blowjob and watersports are neither hyphenated nor spaced.)

My job went much better today, clearly.

I am oddly interested in the spam I just recieved (from one Kid Buddha), subject line, "inexorably cowboy." Something about that just sounds interesting. I'm not sure what it is.

Work is starting to go well. I officially passed my trial period and was invited to stay, so yay! I'm slowly being phased in to regular office...things. I have a computer login and work email now, though they don't do me a heck of a lot of good. The only free PC in the office is approximately eight years old (and that isn't hyperbole), so it has nothing useful on it...except access to the network. The Mac is much newer and more functional (and also, you know, a Mac), but has no network access. So I spend much of the day finding stuff on the network, emailing it to myself, fixing and updating things on the Mac, then emailing them back to myself to save on the network. (They're checking to see if a new PC is in the budget.)

I'm learning all the things they want me to learn, and fairly quickly, at that. So neato, I guess.

Meme from kelbebop: Comment in this post and I will choose seven of your interests I would like you to explain more clearly in your journal.

( Read more... )

So, the super came by yesterday to fix the toilet. As it happened, he came by exactly as I was getting out of the shower. And, realizing it was him and not wanting him to disappear into where ever it is supers go when something is broken and no one will fix it, all I had time to do was chuck the cat in the bedroom, hoist my towel up, and open the door to say, "Can you come back in five minutes?"

Yeah, he could.

This is not the first time the super has seen my dripping wet with a towel around my hair. The great flood happened when I was nekkid, too, though that time I put on pants and shirt and sprinted downstairs. (Barefoot, I think.)

Anyway. This was at about 9:05. I generally leave at 9:15. He didn't get back until 9:20; I was starting to fret about being late to work, as it's a very new job and all. So I emailed work to let them know what was up (oh, and got dressed, obviously), and he finally returned, said, "Hmm. I'll be back," and left again. Once again, I sat around, wondering how late I would be to work (my boss emailed me back saying it was no big deal), and at 10:00, the time I was actually supposed to be in the office, the super returned, with his cousin for backup. It took all of about 15 minutes to fix the chain, by which I mean entirely replace, and then they informed me there's a crack in the caulking around the tub and they'd be back this morning (any minute now!) to fix it.

Rather frazzled by being late to work by at least an hour, I took off running. Then, halfway to the subway, realized Lilly was still locked in the bedroom. (We really aren't supposed to have a cat. So we throw her in there whenever the super comes by, and he politely pretends not to see her food and water bowls or the litter box. It's a fun charade.)

Anyway, that's why I'm up and ready to go this morning, an hour before I need to leave for work. (I'd normally just be dragging my lazy ass out of my bed at this point.) And let me just say I'm grateful for my office's 10:00 opening time, and the fact that it's only about 40 minutes away. Last job was 9 AM, and well over an hour. That extra hour of sleep? Fantastic!

Yet somehow, I'm still exhausted. Like, waking up feeling sick to my stomach tired, which normally only happens if I get less than 6 hours of sleep. (I got almost nine last night, and around eight most nights.) And it isn't my general food...issues, whatever those are; I've been eating three meals a day (with varying food groups and everything!) the last few days. So...wtf? Meh.

As for the job, despite showing up an hour late, I ended up leaving an hour early yesterday. I suspect I do the work they want me to much faster than they thought I would. I'm not sure if that's a comment on me working quickly or other people being fucking slow. Whatever.

(...The super is still not here.)

My toilet is broken. Unlike the Great Flood, there was no water leaked or anything. This time, it's the chain in the tank, which (at least, usually) connects the handle to the rubber valve that lets the water from the tank into the bowl when you flush. It no longer does that. It's no longer connected to the handle at all; the chain snapped. So technically my toilet works, but in order to flush it, you need to take the top off the tank, reach in and pull the chain manually.

No, that's not annoying AT ALL. (Of course the super will come tomorrow when Rachel and I are both at work.)

In unrelated news, I bought a book on Flash, as my job has asked me to learn it. Which I'm happy to (being paid to acquire new skills = yay!). The book comes with a Flash trial CD. I checked; it's supposed to work on a Mac and all. But when I went to install it? Pshaw. Nothing. Thus I have to download it from adobe.com, which went REALLY SLOWLY, as the install is now. I'm highly irritated.

Speaking of the job, there seems to be fairly little editorial responsibility to it, though some may be added later, as they don't quite have my actual duties nailed down. Last week was actually pretty sparse; I fiddled with some flash stuff, but nothing complicated. I updated a bunch of graphics advertising their conference coverage. I put together a few slides. I typed up some podcast transcripts. I did the HTML for both of their regular newsletters.

Everyone has been nice, and I think once things settle down they'll be able to actually fit me in to the general workflow. Right now, it's crazy; the people in charge spent all last week gearing up for a conference and will be gone this coming week, but at least I will be kept busy by everyone else.

Regardless, I've begun having anxiety dreams about losing my teeth again. And three different dreams involving, in some way, High School Musical. I've had to ban myself from listening to the soundtrack for the last few days, though that hasn't helped. (Let's see, there was one where "The Music In Me" saved the world by bringing music to the people--seriously--and one where Kenny was a woman, kind of (don't. ask.), and one where I was at work and worried about creating a Flash presentation about Chad/Ryan. (What? How does your brain interpret anxiety?) But I finished posting the fic! And...may have written 12 pages smut. That I don't know if I can bring myself to post. Um. Cough.

Okay. Finishing this installation, and then bedtime.