bunchofgrapes

A couple of months ago at work our division VP decided that we were going to a 9/80 work schedule. For those not familiar with this, it means that in our two week pay period (80 hours) we work 8 nine hour days and then one 8 hour Friday and get the first Friday in the pay period off. Today was my first off Friday and I have to say, score one for my division! I also like that my manager stressed that we actually take the day off and not look at the Blackberry. I kind of forgot about the Blackberry until just now.

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So 2011 definitely got off to an interesting start. Had a family issue yesterday morning/afternoon that, while bad for my youngest sister, made me feel pretty good as a big sister. Long story short, she was having a major anxiety attack and since I was the only one near her, my dad called me to help her. I wasn't raised with my half sisters (I was raised as an only child) so it's just within the last 10 years or so that I've really felt like a big sister. Knowing that I really did help my sister made me feel pretty freaking good! It also made me realize how alike we are and we agreed that we both need to get out of the house more.

The Capitals played the Penguins in the Winter Classic last night and much to the delight of Caps fans everywhere, we kicked Penguin butt. I have a lot of friends who were at the game and all of them have said it was awesome - even when Penguins fans threw beer on some of them after the game.

I am so not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. The part of the company I'm in used to shut down during the week between Christmas and New Year's. The part of the company I came from never did so the fact that I probably worked at most an hour on Wednesday was pretty awesome. There's always a price to pay though so I'm not looking forward to January. My business unit is reorganizing and I'll be the one coordinating it. Hmm, I'm thinking I'll just work from home tomorrow. And Tuesday. And Friday. That might make it a little less painful.

Watching S1 of CSI on Spike. Early Brass/Catherine flirtiness in Pledging Mr.Johnson is excellent. Brass with longer hair is also excellent. Like how he's generally not sporting a tie back then too. I miss the old Brass. One interesting thing that was mentioned on the Paleyfest DVD is that BP says his hair was white all the way back in 2001 however, Les Moonves wouldn't let him on TV with white hair so he had to color it.

And speaking of Brass, have done a lot of writing over the past week. Like maybe 10 pages on a Brass/Annie fic. Still don't have an ending yet so that's not good. Starting to make me feel like I'm plodding in quicksand.

Two amusing things happened tonight.

First, the building I work in has a fitness center for all the company employees. It's not very big, nor is it very busy so I like it a lot. Tonight I go in and there's this one other woman in there. I've seen her in there before but I've never run into her at work. She tends to go to all the different machines and does a few reps with a lot of weight for a short period of time. I got in, I put in my earphones, and listen to my iPod while I do time on the bike. She gets on the elliptical and must put it on the highest setting because she's really working at it. Ok, no problem. I'm listening to my tunes and biking up a hill. As she's doing her workout though, she's making these noises and honest to God, it sounds like she's in the throes of an orgasm! I'm afraid to turn around (the elliptical is behind the bike) for fear of what I might see. And I mean, she's loud and it's kind of squicking me out. Another guy came in and she moved over to the weights. The noise wasn't quite as bad - more like grunts and groans - but now when I go in there and she's in there, I'm not going to be able to look at her without bursting out laughing.

Second, I decide to call in an order to Moby Dick's, an excellent local kabob place, and pick it up on the way home. I do this so much that I have two Moby locations programmed into my cell phone. So I call the one close to work and say "I'd like to place and order for carry out", like I always do. Only the guy didn't understand the word, "Carry-out". He must have repeated it back to me three times before I finally said, "Carry-out. I come in and pick it up.". Then he got it. But in the meantime I can hear him repeating the word and the people behind him are repeating it back to him. So when I go and pick it up, I have to give him the last four digits of my cell phone (that's how they identify the order). So I give them to him. Now my cell # starts with a 0 so I say 0xxx. The same guy I spoke to on the phone is the one asking and he says, no, the last FOUR digits. I repeat the last four digits. He says no again. And this time I count them off on my fingers. He finally got it but while this was going on, the guy who was working behind him was smiling at me and shaking his head. Apparently, this happens a lot with this guy.

And yes, I did watch CSI tonight. But I'll put that under the cut.

( On with the show )

I almost forgot to post tonight. Actually, I didn't forget, I just let time get away from me and didn't get started until 11:30. And yes, I did edit the date.

( Technically it was the 8th when I started this. )

I don't have a fireplace so the fire isn't so delightful but we definitely have let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

( I cannot tell you how happy this makes me )

Today was the first "normal" day at work since...the end of April. I left at 6:45pm, got home around 7:15, and cooked actual food for dinner. I remember days like this. They were pretty okay.

The all-nighter last week went until 4am so it wasn't quite all night. I got home around 4:30 and didn't get to sleep until after 5am. Then it was up again at 9:30 and back to work. We got the bulk of the spreadsheet done. It's massive, with something like 20 tabs to enter data but a good chunk of it is locked. Everything has to tie out, which was complicated enough, but compounding that were formula errors that made it a little hard to tell if we were tying out. I found out today that the errors were only in our spreadsheet (we were provided this specific spreadsheet by the Division). Anyway, we made all four deadlines, the last one going in at 11:45pm. It was a long couple of days. And it just continued into this week. Monday night I didn't roll out of the office until midnight and last night it was going on 10pm. Now you see why I was so excited to get home so early?

My cats have been super clingy since I got back from CO. With these horrendous hours, I think they think I'm abandoning them every time I leave the house. My girl, Sophie, has been glued to my side every night.

Just posted part 2 of the Brass/Annie fic, Forgiveness. You can also read it over on brasslove.

I leave tomorrow. Hopefully, I won't be running for the plane. There's just so much to do at work and I hate leaving it on someone else but dang. I've already worked so many hours this pay period that I can take off half of Tuesday and all of Wed - Fri without recording anything. And I'll still have overtime. Except I don't get paid for overtime so it all means nothing.

So anyway, while I was printing off my boarding pass this afternoon, United offered me an upgrade to first class. So I took it. I'm waitlisted so there's no guarantee I'll get it but what's the point of having all these frequent flyer miles if I can't use them? If I don't get it, I'm in Economy Plus so it's all good. But I like first class better. Reminds me of all the flying I did when I was a kid. My first solo flight was at the tender age of 5. I flew from Tulsa to Chicago where I met my mom and new stepfather and then we flew to Montreal. It was the late 60's and people still dressed up for flights and flight attendants were still called stewardesses. I got wings from the captain and sodas and snacks and got to sit up at the front, with the stewardess. That was the start of my flying career. I was one of those kids who got shuffled between divorced parents and my dad lived in Cleveland and then DC so I logged a lot of air miles. I loved flying and planes so much that for most of my elementary school years, I wanted to be a pilot. I even did some sort of airplane cockpit thing for my 5th grade science fair project. It was lame but I loved to sit and stare at the poster of the cockpit.

I just had the worst week at work ever. Thursday was probably the worst day--or at least morning--I've experienced in my entire work history. On the positive side, all the stress has caused me to drop a couple of pounds.

I was looking up this street that my friend, Jack, lives on in Milan and I couldn't believe that there is a picture of it. Piazza Sant'Erasmo. Click on the link and then click on street view under the picture that pops up on the map. For those interested, when my friend and I went to visit Jack, he was in the villa at the end of the Piazza (tile roof house with two chimneys. In the upper left hand corner of the picture you can scroll the view. The entrance to the courtyard is right about where the yellow van is. The gate still said "Basehart" when we were last there. During our first two visits to Milan, we spent a lot of our time in that house. Jack always had us over for dinner or just to hang out and talk about his dad. Richard never lived there but he did pick Jack up from the house when he came to visit. Jack was always very protective of us too. On one of our trips there, we were staying at this hotel in a quiet part of the city. Jack insisted on taking us back there after dinner so he could check it out and make sure it was safe. And then of course, we'd find out later that he had paid for our stay.

Going back to the Google map, if you look to the left, above the roof of the villa (you might have to click on the "full screen" button in the upper right corner) and you'll see a terrace. That's where Valentina, Jack's mother and Richard's second wife, was living when we met her. Actually, that's also where Jack was living the last time we saw him back in 2004. He moved out of the big house the previous year, I think.

Seeing this street, the house, and the memories it brought back made me very sad because I really miss Jack, Milan, and Italy. Jack's health hasn't been the best these last few years and I'm afraid something will happen to him before I can ever get back to see him again.

So here are the random highlights of the last few days:

( Cut because my random is a long, long, ramble )

So yesterday was kind of horrible and I had kind of a late night and today I'm kind of sick again. This time it's sinus crap. Yay.

I was in a decent mood when I got to work yesterday but that went downhill when I got to my office. It mostly had to do with email and a 12/30 deadline on another data call and me being really, really sick of these data calls, especially one with a 12/30 due date.

So what was the silver lining yesterday?

* Three of my best work buds and I went to Maggiano's for lunch yesterday. Two of us were in a bad mood, one of us said "I want to kill everyone" and one of us was fairly positive. Did I mention we are all in Business Management? Yeah, this time of the year is not a happy time for business management. When our waiter asked us how we were today, I answered without hesitating, "bitchy". We were actually pretty funny (and very honest) and we gave him a generous tip for having to put up with us. Lunch made me happy. It was nice to be with people who understood the stress and the frustration. Trust me, that helps when it comes to venting. And since one of those people is my manager, that makes it even better.

* Seeing two of my friends open their presents and really liking their gifts, especially since they had no idea what I was getting them.

* When I left work last night, I won't be back in the office until January 5th. That doesn't mean I'm off--just don't have to go into the office.

* Getting a massage. This has been the one thing that's kept me going the last few months: my bi-weekly massage. And seeing my massage therapist. She's such a cool, fun person.

* Going to a party and seeing a very good friend I haven't seen in a couple of years. His dad hired me almost 21 years ago. I was the second person he came out to (I felt very honored). He's hilarious and when we get together, we're awful. But we laugh until we almost wet ourselves and last night was no exception.