Yikes!!! in shiny things

Just....yikes. I have not made an entry in OVER TWO YEARS. Of course it’s not like I was making endless bunches of them before that, but still. I have forgotten how to do everything and just spent ages trying to find my instructions for posting pictures from Flickr, which I end up having to do every time I let months/years elapse between entries because it’s complicated. Now I’ve made a book here for instructions. That’s my sole “instructions” entry so it should be a bit easier to locate. For future entries that are not going to have two year lapses!!!

I really don’t know why I have let all this time go by. I loved writing here, I’ve missed writing here, and I miss reading everyone else. I think it just seems so overwhelming to even try to catch up with both reading and writing that I log in, stare at the page, and scurry away. To watch TV instead. No more! Well, not as much more. I vow to make at least a few entries a month. Vs a few entries every five years. Hahahahahaha!!!!

SO. Not much has changed / all kinds of things have changed. I am still at my same old job, although since my last entry we have moved yet again. Last time I wrote I was going on and on about our weird new offices which were tucked away down a strangely maze-like hallway far off from the main office. Which was both good - very little foot traffic/interruptions/annoyances! And bad - isolation/never knowing what’s going on/feeling like we’d been banished! Boy I miss our isolation/banishment/quiet times. Our ancient building is being completely renovated, so we’ve been “temporarily” (18 months minimum) moved to another building. This building used to be a dorm. Which I lived in during my sophomore year in college here. My old room is five doors down from my current office. I am ancient so it has been quite some time since I lived on this hall, and it has not changed for the better. Basically it appears that nothing more than slapping some fresh paint on the walls has occurred in that 40-whatever year span. Paint which isn’t even hiding all the cracks and chips. The floors look filthy due to having the same tile for .... well, forever, it was an old dorm when I lived here and had the same flooring. The lighting is bad, the toilets look nasty. They aren’t - at least I guess they aren’t - but they are also originals so appear to have come straight from a third world bus station. The radiators either don’t work, or in the case of mine, are blasting heat even when supposedly turned off. It was 90 degrees in here last week, and today it was 85 when I got here. It was like 48 outside. Maintenance came in Tuesday and supposedly fixed it, but it is definitely not fixed. Conversely I nearly froze to death before they turned the steam on - it would be down in the 50s when I arrived. I admit I actually prefer roasting to freezing at least. It’s also incredibly noisy, just because every single sound carries the entire length of the hall. And there are a lot of people in teeny offices here.

And even more annoyingly, if that’s possible, Miss Tattoo and I have to share an office, although we ARE still getting to work remotely three days a week and can stagger our days (so yes, all this bitching has been about a situation I only deal with on Wednesdays and Fridays!). This would be less annoying if anyone else was sharing an office, but nope. Just us. At first we were told a number of people would have to share due to space issues. Then it was nobody would have to share. Then it was…the two of us. Nobody else. Which does make it obvious exactly where we fall on the Importance Ladder. On the plus side, though, it is insurance that we’ll get to continue working remotely. So, again, I am bitching for no real reason, but it’s therapeutic! And I am a catastrophizer extraordinaire!

Aside from THAT… Baker B retired a year and a half ago! Why no, that hasn’t been annoying at all! Actually since we had the year and a half or whatever of totally remote work during Covid Times, him always being home hasn’t been much of a change. Except he gets to sleep as late as he wants and go hiking every day. While I either go to the office and work or stay at home and work. My time will come. Not for another couple of years, but eventually. Complaints aside, I don’t hate my job and don’t feel prepared for two slashes in income, although I probably never will feel ready for that. I WILL be prepared for sleeping as late as I want every day, though! I’m a night owl and having to get up early is pretty much the worst thing about having a job.

And on the sad news side, we lost our Cayce a few months ago. Like Eddie, she kept losing weight despite eating constantly, and even though she did have a thyroid problem she’d been on medicine for that for several years successfully. She was nearly 16 so getting older, but had been really healthy till then. She probably had cancer, like Eddie. So now Phillip is an only child, which is really odd. We haven’t had less than two cats at a time since we got Eddie and Cayce, 16 years ago. And only a few times for a year or so prior to that. Phillip definitely needs a sibling. I’m not sure what he will think about that but he really misses Cayce. He won’t eat canned food unless one of us stands there and pets him - he just started this after Cayce died, and he lost his dining buddy. They always ate together. Clearly he is also completely spoiled now.

Well I certainly have gone on and on and on. This was fun - at least for me, ha! And I swear I will continue soon. I need to talk about my writing group that I joined over three years ago, and how great it’s been! Although we’re going on a hiatus till March, due to a number of things, which is probably contributing to this sudden need to write here again. We turned in work to critique monthly so that kept me quite busy. I’ll go into what I’m writing next time too, since I’m actually getting somewhere with it, FINALLY.

Until then, a picture of our Only Child, the lovely and totally spoiled Phillip, sitting in my suitcase to ensure I do not ever leave him:

Last updated October 21, 2023