carvedangel.net

there’s a lot contributing to the surreal feeling of summer this year. work is insane and chaotic, with these flurries of activity and change. i’m psyched but scared. that seems to be the theme running through everything. and we start trying for the baby this month, a tropical storm is coming our way, etc. psyched but scared. yeah.

i keep hoping like hell that fay doesn’t hit until after i get home tomorrow, but i’m betting it’ll be sooner. tomorrow is my birthday and there’s going to be a shindig with cake and everything here at work. also, there’s a big meeting i have to attend in the morning. i was just going to skip work on the day of the storm, but if it’s tomorrow, i can’t. (what? the library shouldn’t be open during a tropical storm/hurricane in the first place? ohhohoho.) i was so excited that it looked to be coming our way, but now that i know it’s probably going to get here on my fucking birthday, i’m pissed. i’ll have to go to work in a huge storm and i probably won’t be able to go out for my birthday dinner, either. i was trying to be optimistic about my chances, but it’s looking like this birthday is pretty much going to go the way of the last few: it’ll suck out loud. we’ll see though.

also, just so’s you know, this is my last entry on my work laptop. i have to turn it in soon. so i probably won’t get to update as much. boo. i’ll miss you, laptop.

the odessa trip was good. a lot of eating and getting drunk, as usual. and no-chan and i went to the dali museum and she got me these neat earrings. and before that, we went to this little brunch place downtown that had a bloody mary bar. i’ve never had one before but it was good. and i had butterscotch pancakes which was weird with bloody marys but good. and we went out again and she bought me these nice flip flops and a pretty new dress. i wore the dress when we went to see chris’ mum. that was a nice visit too. i can’t wait to live near all my loved ones again. our baby step niece was at mum’s house, and she was sooo cute. she loved brumby, too. i’m beginning to understand the wistful feeling infertile women get around babies. being around her made me want my own baby right now. i’m trying not to get too worked up over that in case it doesn’t happen for one reason or another.

anyway, there was also a moonlit boat ride on dad’s new boat. (yeah, he bought another one.) it was really nice. and no-chan had three versions of the oklahoma song mariah (the boat model is mariah) which looped to play a total of nine times. it was pretty funny. the lake itself was empty of any other boats, but i’m sure the people on shore wanted to kill us. but we were already drunk and drinking champagne and didn’t much care. i think it’ll remain in my memory to keep til i die file. it was a beautiful night.

then there were the presents. sohei got a ps3 and the aerosmith guitar hero pack as well as some clothes. i got a pink nintendo ds and godiva truffles and a bath set in warm vanilla sugar. how she knew which scent i buy is beyond me, but she said it was a lucky guess. (i’ve been told i smell like vanilla even when i’m not wearing perfume or anything, so maybe that’s it.) anyway, it was a nice birthday.

and, aside from stupid shitty things that keep happening, work is alright. i just keep reminding myself that i got the assignment i wanted, i got the schedule i wanted, and i have a sweet desk next to a window. (i moved all my stuff over to my new window desk yesterday. it’s huge and i have two sets of drawers now.)

little less than a week til my birthday…

okay, i’m feeling less upset now. when t-sensei got to work this morning, i jumped on him straight away to ask how m-senpai was doing. here’s the story: m-senpai was on his way home from his “lunch break” around 5:00 (he works from 1:30-10:30), and he was going through a green light at the same time some moron decided to turn across the lane. he didn’t see the guy because of another nearby car, and he had the green anyway. (the other guy was at fault, in other words.) so he ran into the guy, which apparently flipped the douchbag’s car, and totaled m-senpai’s. both drivers were relatively unharmed. i don’t know what happened to the other guy, but m-senpai escaped with a bad cut and a goose-egg on his eyebrow and a broken nose. from his airbag deploying, i guess. but one of our coworkers was riding past on his bike and saw him standing there, blood running down his face, and stopped to stay with him. (so at least he was standing. that’s good.) he went with m-senpai to the hospital and the police called work and told whoever answered which hospital he’d been sent to. but there was some confusion and t-sensei didn’t find out where he was until later. after calling both hospitals and going to them and being told by both that m-senpai wasn’t there. but anyway, he finally found him and drove him and the coworker home after he was released. after they stopped and filled his prescriptions. and it turns out his keys were still in his car, so t-sensei had to climb through the tiny bedroom window to let him in. and after m-senpai was settled and they had something to eat, t-sensei took the coworker home.

then, today, miss daisy and i were going to visit him on our lunch break and get him some supplies at the grocery store, but he said he wasn’t really up for visitors yet. poor m-senpai. his face is all swollen and stuff, so i completely understand. but at least we know he’s okay now. the chest x-ray and mri came out normal and stuff. so it’s just the various bruises and lacerations… i hope he gets well soon.

so…

the good news i was all set to share yesterday is this: i got my first choice in the great assigning. and was one of the only people who did. also, i was the first to find out, and was sworn to secrecy. most people have found out where they’re going now, and a lot of them aren’t happy. i feel incredibly lucky. and it gets better (for me). my new schedule is 9:30-6:30 on sunday and 7:30-4:30 monday-thursday. i didn’t even have to beg this time. they were going to give me that anyway, except they had me doing saturdays rather than sundays, but i explained how that setup only allowed me to spend time with sohei one day a week. and they all felt bad and said i could have sunday, and that it actually worked out better because they needed someone else on sunday anyway. i am both amazed and grateful at how well this whole upheaval has gone for me. i strongly suspect t-sensei had a lot to do with it, but i’m not sure. when he does show favoritism (or what i reckon might be favoritism) he’s so subtle about it that i’m never certain. after learning that not everyone has it as good as i do, i’ve stopped telling people what i got. and i just act like it’s no big deal when they ask. i don’t need rumors flying around.

the meeting wherein i got my assignment was weird. it was me and t-sensei and the hr girl. and i was really excited and t-sensei told me where i was going to go. while the hr girl was explaining my new position, i kept glancing at t-sensei, and he was just looking at his hands or the computer screen. i thought he maybe looked kind of sad or wistful or something, but i’m bad at gaging that kind of thing. hr-chan (why not?) told me that she and b-sama (the next biggest boss to the director) had the most fun at my interview, because i’d been so happy and excited about the prospect of change. i thought that was pretty cool, except that i think t-sensei is getting tired of hearing how thrilled i was about getting out of his department. or maybe he doesn’t care at all. i can’t tell, because his poker face is excellent.

i sent him an email last saturday, because we’d been discussing the reorg a lot that week, and i wanted to make sure he understood why i felt the way i did. whether he knew it or cared or not, i wanted him to know that it wasn’t at all personal. he replied somewhat noncommittally, so i decided to drop it. i wish i didn’t over think things so much. regardless of whether he had anything to do with my recent good fortune, i’m going to try to thank him before i leave today. because i’m pretty sure he did.

and, tonight: to odessa for birthday celebrations and much drinking.

i was all set to write about how lucky i am and how great things are, but then i read my email. one of my work friends was in an accident, and he’s injured. and his car’s totaled. he’s my dad’s age, and, in fact, reminds me a lot of my dad. he’s one of my favorite people at work, and i’m worried and pretty upset. i don’t know how badly he’s hurt, but i do know he lives alone with his cats, including a kitten he just adopted. he’s such a nice man, and this is so unfair… i’m supposed to leave town tomorrow, so i don’t have any food around to cook for him. not even all the ingredients i’d need to make cookies. i’m kind of hoping i can get someone to go with me and visit him tomorrow, maybe at lunch time. and we can bring him some lunch or something.

maybe i’ll share my good news later. i’m too sad to do it now. get well soon, m-senpai.

wow. i’m getting insane amounts of comment spam now.

i still have no idea where i ended up in the great assigning. they’ve known since at least friday, and i’m not going to find out today, either, because all the librarians are in an all-day meeting. bloody hell! i just want to know where i’m going! send me an email or something. if i want to ask questions or bitch, that can wait. it’s the not knowing. i do know i’m going to yell at t-sensei tomorrow for putting me through all this goddamn waiting when he knows it’s driving me nuts. i do love him in general, but some days he pisses me right off. he’s been acting kind of manager-y lately, so i’m getting suspicious… i hate when he’s like a boss instead of a friend.

i haven’t heard anything back from the medical library yet. they haven’t re-advertised the position, though, so that’s good. at this point, if it weren’t for the six-month paid maternity leave, i’d just say fuck it. i don’t do well with responsibility (yes, i realize i’m saying that in the same paragraph as “maternity leave”), so i’d almost rather stay where i am. whatevs.

i’m feeling less depressed now. i knew i just had to wait it out. it helps that we’re going to odessa this weekend, of course. also, sohei’s still being pretty good. he makes me fruit salads almost every day. i hate cutting stuff, and he cubes the watermelon, honeydew, and pineapple so nicely. he’s making tortellini for dinner tonight. i want to go home and eat all day.

but! after work, i have to go pick up some books i ordered from the public library. just in time for my trip! the library didn’t have them, so i made an interlibrary loan request. and every time i go to that library, i also go to the asian market since it’s right there. maybe they’ll have yan yan today. i also have to go to that dumb beauty supply store to get developer. my car’s a/c has been broken for over a year now, so running errands in the summer really sucks. but it’s not terrible with the windows open, and going out is fun.

speaking of going out and having fun, sohei’s birthday is on friday, but since we’re going to be out of town, we celebrated last weekend. we hobotakued on saturday, as usual. then we went to the dollar theater on sunday (like we did last weekend) and saw iron man this time. it was good. i don’t see the point in paying $10 – or more – per ticket to watch a movie with a bunch of idiots. the $1 price tag makes it rather less aggravating. anyway, after the movie, we went to dq and got cheeseburgers and blizzards. yum. and sunday night, we went to old mexico, which is our favorite restaurant in town. i drove, so he could drink. we had a pitcher of margaritas and i accidentally drank too much. since the restaurant is a couple of minutes from our house, i went ahead and drove us home. i’ve never driven drunk before, and don’t intend to do it again. still, it seemed about the same as driving every day, which probably says something about my driving. oh, except i laughed a lot more.

this was really long, wasn’t it?