Is 2011 over yet?

Yeah, another fall off the planet moment. I blame work. No, really, I do. It’s still insane, as is most retail this time of year, and has been insane since the end of October. A few weeks ago, I managed to end up at the local urgent care from doing something messed up to my knee. a week of crutches later, plus pain killers, anti-inflammatories, and a trip to the orthopedic doc later, and I had a diagnosis of Pes Anserinus Bursitis – aka “your inner knee hurts a damned lot, so quit doing all that stuff for a while.” Well, there’s more to it, but that’s about what it ended up as. One week with the crutches, one week of being banned from stairs and ladders, and two weeks of physical therapy (I start my second week of therapy tomorrow). The therapy is helping, but I have a feeling that it’s not going to completely go away until I stop what I’m doing at work, which means getting a different job. Yeahhhh, fun times. :/

With everything that’s going on (Jared still looking for a new job, Mom having her own issues), it’s going to be a slim Christmas for us here. We’ve set a monetary limit on gifts for each of us this year for the first time in a really long time. If you’d asked me at the beginning of the year, with full knowledge of everything that would be coming out in the next 12 months, here’s what my list would have looked like:

1. Apple iPad 2, black, 16g, wi-fi only
2. Apple iPhone 4S, 16g for AT&T
3. Knit1 Oxford Gift Certificate (the local yarn shop in town that is awesome)
4. New cat tree for the kitties
5. Clothes, clothes, clothes!
6. Diablo 3 Collector’s Edition

I finally got around to making my list today, and for about 20 minutes only had one thing on the list: the gift certificate to Knit1 Oxford. It took me another 30 minutes to add on 4 books and a DVD set, and I still feel meh about adding them. Like I told my Mom when she was sighing at me, I -want- a lot of things, but they’re so improbable at this point, there’s no point in adding them to the list. What do I -want-? Everything on the first list, plus ethernet cables run through the old section of the house to get better wi-fi reception (old house walls made with chicken wire to hold the plaster = leaky Faraday cages). I also want a phone call from some place that I talked to back in October to say “let’s go on Round 2, you know, nm, let’s just have you start tomorrow, k?” I want no more stress from friends and family over money, cos they all have jobs that they love (or at least like) that they’re being appropriately recompensed for. I want time. Dammit, I want to be happy for more than 15 minutes out of a week, cos I’m tired of everyone around me having a crap existence right now.

Like I’ve said, it’s not the frostbite that gets you, it’s the frost-nibble, and dammit, I’ve been just about nibbled to death. :/

Bweh. Okay, off that. Something happy… Oh! So a good thing recently? I got to beta SWTOR, fell in love with the Sith Inquisitor like I thought I would, and before everything went to hell in a hand basket, paid for Jared and I’d Collector’s Editions in full. They asked me at the store “Why now?” My response: “We have the money now, and I’m terrified that if we waited til release day, it wouldn’t be there.” In hindsight, I was right and I rule. So come December 20th, Jared and I will have our CE keys and have been playing early access for 5 days and having a blast. Yey us. ^^; Hey, at least it’s something.

Trainin, trainin’, trainin’

Yesterday morning was a little, well, dull for my side of things. Jared did his thing with his job, while I sat in the employee break room at my new job watching training DVDs. It’s the usual training DVDs: everything is common sense as long as you’re not a psychopath. I ended up keeping myself entertained by trying to guess what year the videos were filmed in by the clothing/hair/makeup. End result? 100% success rate. HR seemed amused when I told her that, after she asked me if I’d fallen asleep yet.

I actually got an hour for lunch, much to my delight, so Mom came over from her store to get me for lunch. I got to get out of the employee break room and have a nice change of pace. Granted, I traded one store’s back room for another, but at least at Mom’s store, I can relax a bit.

After lunch, back to training I went, but this time it was on the computers in the back room. Interactive training! Yes! I can do this!

…Well I can when their connection doesn’t randomly quit or have script errors that make the training program crash. The funny part? The chapter that kept crashing? Yeah, that was the one that actually has something to do with my actual job I was hired for. /facepalm HR said it’s been like that for forever, and I’d just try it later. It randomly fixes itself. /sigh

So instead, I found myself dealing with regular store associate training, like how to use their cash registers. I’m 3/4 of the way through that training. It’s estimated to take 3.5-4 hours. Gahhhhh. And then I get to take a test on it today! Wooo!

The one thing that caught me off guard was the morning 10 minute store meeting. Everyone that’s “sales floor” comes to one of the departments after it’s been announced on the store’s PA. At the meeting, announcements are made, store goals for the day are pointed out, and apparently new visual people are introduced. I had no idea there was a store meeting since every other retail job I’ve had was in something a heck of a lot smaller than this place. I got introduced, announced that I was going to be working with the visual team, and everyone made pleased noises and clapped happily.

My response? I blinked at everyone, smiled gingerly and announced “Okay, now I’m terrified.” Thankfully, they all laughed. I was expecting everyone to either smile and nod, or just blink at me. Not “round of applause.”

So now I’m really wondering who all I’m going to be working with. I still haven’t met anyone from the visual team, although I’ve heard mutterings from various people to make it sound like there are other people than just me. Hopefully I find that out today, in between finishing cash register training and arguing with a faulty Flash script to just work already dammit!

The day did end nicely, though. I got to take Jared home after he picked me up from work, then drive out to the yarn store for Monday night knitting. It was a lovely way to end the day and just unwind. Everyone cheered my first day of being employed again and commiserated on the training videos. Everyone’s projects were admired and while the sock class chatted away, the rest of us lounged on the couch at the front of the store and happily knit. A friend of mine and Jared’s, Mike, called from the road while I was still knitting. He was completely punch-drunk from driving since the wee hours of the morning, but he was thankfully pulling over soon to get a hotel room and get some sleep. At least he’s home with Heather tomorrow and has the rest of the week off. ^^;

So here’s to today: me continuing training, Jared continuing work, Mike getting home to Heather, and the cats to wonder where the hell Jared and I are.

Happy Birthday!

No, it’s not my birthday. Mine was in May. But today is Jared’s birthday. Sadly, he has to work today, but that just means Mom and I have more time to run around and get things ready for our tiny celebration tonight.

But here’s some cheers and confetti for Jared to see later and roll his eyes at me over. Happy birthday, sweetie! <3

Hail and well met

The weather around here has been less than pleasant as of late. We’ve had hail at night twice now. And after having temps in the upper 70s and low 80s, suddenly going back to 40s and 50s is a bit rude feeling. Overcast and raining is not my idea of a good time. /sigh

Last night was really bad though. While Mom and I were in the living room watching TV, the storm was raging outside, making both of her dogs twitchy and one of them gave up and hid in the library behind the chair in there. We took pity on Lexi and moved her blanket in there so she’d at least be comfy. My two cats kept lurking around me, and finally ended up flopped around and on me, unwilling to be moved.

My main concern though was Jared driving back from work an hour away at midnight. I figured he had the sense to pull over it if got bad, which is exactly what he did. I’d have been up pacing til he got home, except my head was killing me (damned sinuses) and needing a dark room meant I fell asleep. (Okay, the nice warm kitties on me certainly helped the sleepies along.) Jared woke me when he got in, and I passed back out.

But this morning, once we got up and he talked to his HR person at work, we drove into town to get him a cell phone. Yeah, he’s been without one for most of his time down here. But with this weather and his driving back so late at night, I needed that reassurance of his having a phone with him. He picked out the HTC Inspire, and since he gets a discount on service through his company, we added a line and got him all signed up. And now he’s driving to work, new phone in hand, and I feel a lot better.

I did manage to get my latest project blocked and looking nice, but the stupid weather isn’t cooperating with trying to take nice photos, so that will have to wait until later in the week. Stupid clouds and rain. For now, I’m off to go crawl under a blanket and possibly knit. Possibly play Final Fantasy 13. We’ll see.