Boy Date

What a fucking fantastic day I had today. The best one in quite a while. And it's all a blur. It started out first thing this morning with me finishing up a project at work that's been sitting on my desk. It's been annoying me that I haven't had enough time to get it done, but I did (at least the annoying part of it, I should say.

Next up was being able to go downstairs to one of the conference rooms to watch that little thingie that was happening in Washington DC today. Something about this guy swearing at people or something. :-) That cut a nice hour or so out of my workday and that's always a good thing. It's even a better thing when I actually feel good about this country. It's been a long time. A very long time.

Then the best part of the day. Lunch. I had a boy date with my new BFF, Sean. I wrote about it in an earlier post. We were supposed to go out last week, but life got in the way, so we rescheduled for this week. Today specifically. So at 1 o'clock we met in person, officially, outside my building. He only works three streets up from me. We're practically neighbors. I picked this chopped salad restaurant around the corner to go to. I'm still trying to behave and it took everything in my being not to suggest we go for pizza. But I'm glad we did the salad thing because I had three of the best things in that restaurant. 1) A great time with Sean, 2) bleu cheese and 3) bacon. We spent an hour just talking and I swear that when I noticed it was 1:55 on his watch, I was sure it was wrong. It didn't seem like an hour. It barely seemed like fifteen minutes. It flew by so fast. I'm soooooooo glad Sean is a talker, because I'm not. And I'm especially not at first. And we barely scratched the surface of any one topic. There was so much I wanted to talk about. But that leaves the door open to more and more lunches. Sean in person is so different from Sean in the pictures from his blog. If you notice, he looks serious there an awful lot. But in real life, he's bubbly and fun and smiley and adorable. I felt much more comfortable than I expected, though I was still somewhat clunky. He claims I wasn't, but trust me, I was. When I got back to the office, I was convinced he thought I was a freak and that was the end of that. But he didn't. Yay me! :-) I really meant to snap more pictures at lunch, but the clunkiness set in and I didn't get too much. This one is really horrible, but it's the best I got. I look like Gigantor to his Tiny Tim. Next time we'll get better pictures. Oh, and what you can't tell in the picture, we're both wearing the same designer... Graphitti Designs. I have something from the Brian Bolland collection while he's in something from the Alex Ross collection.



I had other things to say, but I'm blanking and I'm getting sleepy and I have some trash tv to watch. Maybe tomorrow. :-)

Don't forget to check out my 365 Days of Walt. It's just so fascinating.

Sunday

I love when Sunday falls right in the middle of a weekend. I don't have that 'I can't believe the weekend is over' feeling right now and that is cause to smile. Tomorrow night at this time I'll have it, but I'll worry about it then, not now.

I don't know how or why, but this was one hell of a difficult week. It started out strong and just turned to absolute shit by the end. Naturally I'm referring to my work week. I think I mentioned the other day that I cranked out the overtime in a big way this week. What drove me was a panic over money. Last week we got our heating bill for December and it was the single biggest heating bill we had ever gotten. And this is for December. We haven't even gotten into the cold months yet. So that put me into a major panic and I made myself work as much as I could until I couldn't stand it. I was anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours early every day and stayed at least an extra hour most nights this week. I have to tell you, by Friday, I felt like I was the walking dead. I was so tired. And the more tired I got, the more everyone was annoying the shit out of me. On Thursday I asked one of the supervisors I like if it was ever appropriate to punch someone in the workplace. I was told it was generally frowned upon, so I kept my hands to myself. :-) But it was starting to feel like I wanted to smack someone. Without getting too specific, at work, I'm support staff. What that means is if someone needs me to do something, I do it. I float around between a few units and help them with whatever they need help with. I'm just a lowly clerk, but I don't care. I love my job and I have a good time with it. This week, though, I spent a HUGE chunk cleaning up the mess of one of my co-workers. He really has no business working here because he's such a fuck up. But this being the State, no one ever gets fired. When they fuck shit up, they get moved. Well, Fucky here is stuck in his current position because he's been every place else already and no one will take him back. Hurrah. He's a higher classification than I am, too. So why is it I'm spending most of my week double checking (and correcting) his fuck ups? It really got to me this week. I made a point of bringing over every single mistake to his supervisor, who has just about had it with him. But because of the way things work where I work, there isn't much she can do. Her hands are tied and I really do feel bad for her because she's one of the nicest people I work with. The more irritated I got this week, the more I noticed who does work and who likes to go smoke. All day. And who likes to consider their work schedule "optional" and just show up whenever. I really do work with a bunch of scumbags. Like I said before, normally it doesn't bother me, but when I wear myself out, it really gets to me. Next week is a new week and I'll be fine again.

You know, if something did go right this week, it was watching the trials and tribulations of FrankenKlinger. She's gotten herself into some serious hot water, and while I know nothing is going to come of it, I've been enjoying watching her being beyond miserable.

I know I had other stuff to say, but my mind is blank right now. I've had a headache all day today and it's just not going away. I think that's a good sign that I should go lay down and watch some bad VH-1.

Despite That Hair...

...I married him anyway.


And speaking of pictures, I'm trying to take a picture of myself everyday for 2009. I've been posting them over on my photoblog. Here's a handy link to bring you to 365 Days Of Walt.

A New Week

I haven't written anything in almost a week. I'm not sure why. I can't use the excuse that I didn't have anything to say because I usually don't have anything to say. It doesn't stop me from writing, though it probably should. I guess I've been uninspired and feeling a little hermitish.

So what's new with me? I'm tired. Tired tired tired. Though I guess that's not really new because I'm always tired, it seems. But I'm extra tired right now. My entire sleeping routine is broken and I don't know how to fix it. I know this sounds ridiculous, but I don't know what time to set the alarm for in the morning anymore. In the olden days, I would set the alarm to go off just before seven. That gave me time to get up, shower, take care of the cats and then wait for Ken to get ready before we'd head to work. He'd drop me off to be at work by 8:30 and then go to his own office. Then he changed his schedule and we don't carpool anymore. I was still getting up at the same time but rather than wait for him, I'd walk to the bus stop and catch the bus to work, still getting there on time. I've been going in early lately for the overtime and I don't have a specific time I set the alarm for anymore. So I don't really know what time I should be getting up. Add to this Ollie's new routine of climbing on me at 5:15 - 5:30 every morning to start kneading and licking my face. So that's about the time I've been getting up. And it's starting to take a toll on me. I could fall asleep right here and right now.

I'm learning more and more about my stupid sciatic nerve. I was back on the steroids as I'm sure I mentioned here. That helped quite a bit... until yesterday. The nerve started acting up again and I think I know why. My desk is right next to the radiator and I like sitting with my legs stretched out on top of it. I've noticed that sitting like this for an extended period makes the nerve hurt. It's a terrible habit I've developed and it's been getting hard to break. Right now I'm sitting like a normal human being and it's making me antsy. I want to sit like I was, but I can't. Today at work it was feeling better for most of the day, but late in the afternoon it started twitching. That's when I realized that I was slouched so much I was as close to laying down in my work chair as humanly possible. I need to learn that I'm not 20 years old anymore and indestructible. Old habits die hard. I'm not happy about it, but I'm trying to actively change these bad habits.

And speaking of which, I've noticed lately that some of my old eating habits are trying to force their way back into my life. It's scaring me and depressing me and I need to put a stop to it before I start doing any real damage to all the hard work I've accomplished. Overall, I did extremely well with all the crap food that's usually around during the holidays. That's not to say I abstained, but I tried to keep the snacking under control. But lately I've been eating things I really shouldn't. Things I've had little trouble avoiding are screaming to me. Hell, I've managed to avoid Girl Scout Cookies since starting my diet, but in a moment of weakness the other day, I ordered a couple of boxes from a co-worker. (Thin Mints and Tag-Alongs if you were wondering). As tasty as they are, I don't need them. Sure, I want them. This week I'm making a concerted effort to get myself back on track. Wish me luck.

I have a date. It's kind of, sort of, almost like a blind date. Because of this person, I found this person's blog. Turns out he's a local boy. We got to chatting and found we have a whole lot in common. Way too much in common, in fact. We both work in the same area downtown, separated by three streets. Next week, we are officially going to meet in person and go have lunch. I'm really excited by this and not nearly as freaked out as I should be. But I have a whole week to get all freaked out, so I'm not worried. Last Friday we we kind of, sort of met in person, but it doesn't really count. I left work and walked across the street to wait for Ken to come pick me up. While killing time, I went to read Twitter and saw a message saying he was leaving work and walking down the hill. Immediately I started scoping out the foot traffic. Nothing... Then Ken showed up and I got in the car. As we were turning down the road, I saw him. Ken asked if I wanted to pull over and I said 'yeah' which freaked Ken out because it's so out of character for me. I rolled down the window and proceeded to ambush Sean. "SEAN!" I yelled out to him. I'm sure I freaked him the fuck out. Here's this freak screaming his name out from the passenger side of a car. I know I totally caught him off guard. As we drove off, I started to freak out that he had no clue who I was. He assures me that this is not the case and I believe him. I don't know who possessed my body Friday afternoon because that's not the shy and timid Walt that usually resides in it. :-) We tried to set up a lunch date for this week, but it wasn't working out. But we have one set for Tuesday, Inauguration Day at 12:30. I hope to leave the awkward Walt in the office and just bring the fun Walt.

Monday

Well, it's not Monday, but for some reason it's felt like it all day. I don't know why.

I got up at my usual time this morning, looked out the window and saw that it really wasn't as snowy as promised. I considered going to work even though I was approved for today off. I fired up the computer to check out the latest weather report and the call for afternoon icing was still there, so I decided to stay home. The weather, while not great, turned out to be not nearly as bad as they predicted. I could have gone in and saved a day, but fuck it. I sat around like a bump on a log today and I have to tell you, it felt great. I did absolutely (almost) nothing today. I did throw in three loads of laundry (because someone asshole I happen to live with finally unpacked his luggage from his trip to Kentucky three weeks ago, even though I asked him to do this the weekend he got home.....)

When Ken got out of work tonight, we needed to go pick up his car from the shop. Neither of us had eaten much of anything today, so we decided to go out to dinner. I was hungry and I really overdid it. I ate way too much. Started with a salad, cup of seafood chowder and some cole slaw. Oh, and a huge ass piece of bread. Then my entree, which was seafood stuffed salmon and a sweet potato. My stomach feels rock hard now. I hate that I shoveled the food in. I fear I haven't quite banished all of my old ways because they seem to pop up every now and again. I'm going to promise myself now to get back on the wagon tomorrow and not freak out if I bounce up a couple pounds this week.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. I have a whole bunch of shit on my desk and I'm sure there was more piled up today. I'm not complaining, I'm just not sure where to begin. I hope to get a couple hours extra in tomorrow, too. And when I get home, I should have a nice, shiny new box of comics waiting for me. It's been three weeks since my last delivery. I'm getting very excited!

Tomorrow

So I did it. Before I left work today, I put in a time request for tomorrow. We're supposed to have a decent size winter storm, which really should have no effect on whether or not I work tomorrow. I don't drive to work, I take the bus. I don't have to walk far to the bus stop to catch the bus or walk far from the bus to work. The weather has minimal impact on my ability to get to work or do my job. But I just came off an almost two week vacation and I really wasn't ready to go back. This is just an excuse to lay around the house one more day before I refocus and get back to work. You know, people who take every weather related day off piss me off. I don't know why, but they just do. It's probably from my years in retail where shitty weather meant nothing. Deciding whether or not to work wasn't an option. I still have a lot of that retail conditioning in me. I still feel slightly guilty for taking tomorrow off. I don't know why. I have almost ten weeks worth of accruals just sitting there, rotting.

Sunday night was pretty miserable for me. It's when I realized that I barely touched the mental list of things I wanted to do around the house while on vacation. The list wasn't that long to start with, but the realization that I dicked away all that time made me feel pretty low. I think part of my justification for taking tomorrow off was that I could work on doing some of those things. I know that it's not going to happen. But it sounds good.

Another reason I really don't want to go in tomorrow is the horrible, nasty woman I sit near. Today it was a joy being there near her because she got called into a meeting with her boss and her boss's boss that she thought was about a new work procedure (only about 10% of it was) only to find out it was a meeting addressing her bad behavior, her unprofessionalism, and her general shitty attitude. I only realized the meeting was about this when she stormed to her desk, called her husband and started venting at him about what just happened. She told him she stormed out of the meeting blah blah blah. Then she grabbed the union reps on the floor and dragged them back into the meeting with her. When I tell you that ALL work in the section stopped when this happen, I tell you the truth. Everyone stopped and gathered and starting talking about it and laughing and having a really good time. Now, knowing how things work there, nothing will come of this, but it's really nice to see the fucking nasty skank whore taken down a peg or two. But being around her tomorrow, post counciling session, is just going to be painful. I'm sure she's at home right now plotting and planning out her revenge of those who did her wrong. Tomorrow will be all about her being the helpless victim and I can't deal with that.

I'm Not Sure How I Feel...

Saturday Night

I don't feel so good. Not horrible, but certainly not all that good. I think I ate something bad at dinner tonight. It's the only thing I can think of as to why I feel this way. On Saturday nights, Ken and I like to mix it up and try different places that we wouldn't normally go to. The last couple of weeks we haven't really ventured out. He's either been away or the weather hasn't cooperated or it's the holidays. Whatever reason. Anyway, tonight we decided to venture down to Kingston, where my family lives. They live about an hour south of here. When we went down for Christmas, Ken nearly passed out from excitement when he discovered they have a Texas Roadhouse restaurant there now. He was just at one when he was in Kentucky a couple weeks ago and he loved it. This is the first one any place near here. I called a couple of friends who live down there and asked if they were interested in joining us. They passed (one was sick, plus they've already been there and weren't impressed.) So we went. The two piles of vomit out front should have been a warning. The predominantly obese hillbilly clientele should have been a warning. But I took my chances. I ordered a half rack of ribs and a baked sweet potato and a salad. Ken ordered the New York Strip, a sweet potato and a salad. My ribs were fine, nothing spectacular. My sweet potato was cold. Ken's steak was undercooked so he sent it back. It came back out undercooked and extremely fatty. He ate about 1/3 of it. Shortly after leaving the place, my stomach started doing things. Right now I feel like I need to lay down. Ken already is. He's not feeling right either.

You know, I have nothing against chain restaurants. Nothing at all. Some are good, some suck ass. I'm afraid I'm going to have to file this one under Sucks Ass.

I had something else I wanted to mention, but it's completely left my head now. Maybe it'll come back to me if it's important (which I'm sure it wasn't.) I think I'm going to go lay down and put on a dvd and fall asleep.

Resolutions

It's the first day of the year and it's customary to make a list of resolutions for the coming year. It's also customary to toss them all to the side of the road by the fifth day of the year, so I don't bother doing it. Sure, there are plenty of things I really want to work on this year, but it's no different than wanting to work on them last month or even last year. Why pick January 1 to make a list of things you want to work on? Well, with that being said, here's my list of things I'm working on for myself, not necessarily beginning today. I want to continue watching my weight. I'm in my goal range and I want to stay there. I want to work on keeping my house in a somewhat cleanish state. All the clutter and all the mess is getting to me. I know this means more about working on Ken than anything, because as I've stated before, he has an uncanny knack of trashing the entire house within seconds of getting home. Already I know I'm struggling because the other day I finally got around to cleaning off my desk and already I've got a new pile of stuff started. I want to work on staying in touch with people better than I do now. I'm not doing horribly, but there's lots of room for improvement. I want to work on making a decent first impression. Sean, you're going to be my first test! Basically, I guess, I want to continue working on making myself a better man. It's an ongoing struggle, but it's one I can definitely make progress on.

Okay, I know I freaked out a bunch earlier this week about my holiday weight. Well, this is a photo from when I stepped on the scale first thing this morning. It's my starting weight for 2009. I have to say I was shocked and very pleased. It's going to be a hard number to strive to stick to, but I'm game for it.

A Little Help In 2009

Intervention with Kristin Chenoweth by Kristin Chenoweth