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sdrawkcaB

I dragged out of bed this morning, and pretty immediately felt sick to the stomach. I got to work about half an hour later than I have been, but still within the parameters I was given, so I didn’t bother messaging ahead that I’d be late. I brought a container of some leftover rice, chicken, and veggies for lunch that looked a lot more like supper, but I was a little bit afraid to eat it.

I had an anxiety attack early on. Then I had a couple of meetings to sit in on, and felt mildly productive with some other things as well. I hope people like me.

I happened to go downstairs to warm up my food a little late and ran into Elizabeth as she warmed up her own. We ended up sitting in the breakroom to eat, and then Janice joined us. Elizabeth made a comment about someone who was voted one of the top nurses in the state, and then showed me a picture of my old friend Tiffany. I guess she’s dating Tiffany’s father, or something of the sorts.

The afternoon went by a little quicker, though I stayed a bit late and then got hung up in traffic for the second day in a row. I thought about stopping by Taco Bell to pick up a Tuesday deal I scored, since it would expire overnight, but ended up going straight to the house instead.

Summer and Eaddie were working on a chicken salad for pitas, and some guacamole for dinner, but it looked a lot more like lunch. It was really good though, and Eaddie brought Noah over to join us since he wrecked his car today, only then learning that his insurance had expired.

I took Muad’Dib for a run, visited with a little corgi named Kaylee, saw my parents, then made it home for the night. I gave him a good bath, and then tried to get to bed as quickly as I could. That was when I remembered Taco Bell. I couldn’t place a future order, and the kids wouldn’t pick it up for me, so Muad’Dib and I ran out to get it. To make things worse, the closer restaurant couldn’t make it, according to the app, so we had to drive all the way across town.

stank boys

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Blue Berry Cake

It was a bit rainy on the way to work, but that was the last I saw of it. I was greeted at the door by Joel’s new puppy, so I had my opportunity to talk about bringing Muad’Dib to work with me. He said they used to have several people that brought them, but only one that comes every day now.

I thought I would meet Shane today, but he wouldn’t be in town until the evening. Other than that, I had my first little meeting with some of the staff in the afternoon. I brought a bologna burger to finish up some of that stuff, and learned a bit more about some very non-IT systems just to be able to support people.

The morning dragged on more than the afternoon because I wasn’t super well rested. Janice made a cake for Teisha’s birthday, so we all met in the breakroom for some of that after lunch. I worked a little bit late, and then ran into some super slow traffic on the way home.

Summer wasn’t feeling great, so I made some rice to go with our leftover ribs for dinner. Then Dad texted to offer phở, so I fixed Summer’s plate and then took Muad’Dib out for a run and then ate with them.

I had laundry to do, so I went home to do that. I guess the washer was unbalanced, because it took way longer to finish than it should have.

Too tired for floury prose.

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Super

I made everyone get up a little early today so we could get breakfast, hoping that we would make time for lunch or dinner later in the day. They had the same offerings as they do during the conferences I’ve attended, except for the addition of custom omeletts. I don’t recall having those during ACOT. The food was good, though I missed out on the poppyseed bread when they changed that out for cinnamon. My omelett was great.

After breakfast, we all got packed up and checked out. We had some time to kill, and it had been a little rainy, so we went to the Park Plaza mall. They weren’t open yet, so we waited in the parking lot for a little while before going in to browse. Summer kept chatting up a mattress sales guy in Dillard’s, so we were stuck there for longer than I wanted, but otherwise it was a fine time. We made it to the food court so they could get bobas, and I grabbed a pretzel and frozen lemonade.

Once we left that mall, we went across town to the Promenade to walk around. We really only went in to two stores, and one of them was the Apple store, so it didn’t really count. I felt a little bit conned because the girls had been talking about being excited to go shop, but then neither really jumped in to any of the stores, nor buy anything that I recall.

As movie time approached, Summer and I went in to AMC while the kids got ice cream. I got our snacks ordered, and then we got seated with plenty of time. Unfortunately I had been dehydrated all day and drank too much before the movie, so I couldn’t make it all the way through.

I thought Superman was awesome. It was a pretty big departure from anything we’ve ever seen, which was fine. It really dove head-first into a new, existing universe, and did so unapolagetically. It was pretty funny to watch a fight happening in the background while Lois and Clark talked in the foreground. Just another day in Metropolis.

After the movie, we headed back home and I took Muad’Dib out for a quick run before dark. Then he had a great bath when we got home. I’m trying so hard to reinforce behaviors, but it’s difficult when the girls don’t follow the same patterns. He knows who lets him get away with stuff.

It was tough getting everything done and ready for work in the morning. It feels like the girls forget that I’m tired too, and that I don’t like how little sleep I get while they’re already in bed for hours.

Man…

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Horn Corps

Summer had brunch planned with Trent and his new gal pal, so we met them at Stoby’s. It was a relatively short meal with them and her little girl. When we got home, we packed for a night in Little Rock to watch the Drum Corps International competition. Eli came over and we got out of town a little bit later than I expected, but we were still ahead.

We checked in to the Embassy Suites and had time to sit in on the Manager’s Reception for a couple drinks and some snacks. Then we went to dinner at Cheddar’s just a short distance from the War Memorial Stadium. It wasn’t terribly hot after the sun went down, but it was super humid with an hours-long event sitting on stadium bleachers. The bands definitely got better as the night went on, and I was surprised to learn that the Carolina Crowns were there. I was only familiar with them through one incredible YouTube video I saw nearly a decade ago. This was a much larger ensemble, but they were great.

Traffic wasn’t terrible getting out, but I may have inadvertently cut somebody off. It was a short drive back to the room, and we had a mix of people crashing and cleaning up before bed.

I expected more drums.

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F is for Family

I had to disable an account today, and it seems like the employee process could use some work. It’s also possible that having government regulations involved actually made schools more security-focused. The rest of the day, I spent mostly worried about being in way over my head compared to the last guy. I may have had another anxiety attack, but I also might have been remembering yesterday. At the very least, we are two very different individuals with brains that function very differently. This seems to be a theme lately.

It’s me. Hi.
I’m the problem.
It’s me.

I got out for some McNuggets for lunch, and then the afternoon was super quiet and difficult to stay focused. I meant to go to Casey’s for a slush after lunch, but forgot, so I stopped on my way home. I stopped again in Atkins for another one because the first one ended up being mostly air, but their machines were off. I stopped to see when Summer would be home, then got another one at our Casey’s after waiting in a checkout line that wrapped through the store.

Mom was making phở, so Muad’Dib and I ran over, arriving just as Julie did. Summer and Kevin both sat it out because they said it was too hot after spending all day in the heat. Food was good, but then Julie started prying about our issues at home. I mistook it for a safe space to vent, but it felt more like I was being grilled and blamed, so I walked out. Muad’Dib and I finished the walk, made an extra block to avoid a small, yappy dog, and opened some Vine stuff before putting the girls to bed.

Drink to the foam!

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Roll On

I went straight to my office this morning. I definitely had an anxiety attack. A little while later I went downstairs for coffee and a bit of social…ism? It didn’t take long before I had questions coming at me, for programs which I was barely familiar.

I brought a bologna croissant, then spent a fairly long, fairly lonely, fairly cold afternoon upstairs.

The kids were gone when I got to the house, but Eaddie had received my Onewheel from UPS. I put it on the charger, brought Muad’Dib inside for a vacuum and to wash his paws, and then we went for a run.

We went around the block before going to Sonic for some mozzarella sticks. Summer was nearing quitting time, so I texted her and she actually met me there to get a corndog. We ate, and then Muad’Dib and I chased her down the road toward home. I had to wave her off to keep him from overexherting himself, and it was a slow walk the rest of our time out.

We zig-zagged a bit around our usual course and stopped at my parents’ house. Mom was asleep and Dad was out, so we waited for him to get home. I had a little bit of his scalloped potatoes, and then we made it back to the house where I gave him another good vacuuming and a spritz of cologne before bed.

Do it again. Only 14,669 to go.

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CTRL-C

Soylent, banana, bologna burger, Power Automate.

I might have had another anxiety attack. I can’t remember.

The girls were at the gym when I got home, so Muad’Dib and I stopped by my parents’ house for some potatoes. I washed his feet when we got home, then baked potatoes to go along with leftover ribs and chicken. The girls were preoccupied, so I ate alone, took out the recycling, and eventually made it to bed long after them.

CTRL-V

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Strangers Again

Muad’Dib didn’t want me to leave without him this morning. He followed me out and laid down behind my car, so I backed out slowly and tried to drive away. He ran after me, so I backed up to the driveway and Summer had to come get him. He laid down in the street, so she picked him up and carried him back home.

I had an anxiety attack sometime in the morning, and just sat at my desk as it passed. I sat in that room all day, staring at the screens in front of me. I had brought a bologna sandwich for lunch, and then had a conference call with our HubSpot rep at the end of the day.

It kind of seemed like Shane was a little slow to answer the rep’s questions, possibly because they hadn’t really had a sales strategy before, or at least not a formal process. This felt a little odd to basically be told that the business was doing really well without even trying. Obviously I’m still new to that world and lack any context, but it seemed to me that building an efficient and effective marketing and sales strategy could make things explode. I just hope I do a good job for them.

When I got back to town, I stopped to check on Summer at Superfast. She expected to be home after closing, but ended up right behind me when I got to the house. I waited until Mom was home from work and then headed over for dinner. Muad’Dib wanted to go out, so I let him run beside the car. He listened really well as I called out directions to him, and we got a couple stares from people we passed. I ended up stopping to pick up some poop, then drove him the last block.

My parents had left for the grocery store when we got there, so I dipped my toes in the pool while we waited. Once they got back home, Dad and I ate the chow mein while Mom did some more cooking. Then we headed back to the house so I could give Muad’Dib a bath.

It was a quiet night after that, though I would have liked to go to bed a bit earlier. The days feel like they’re getting longer.

left for dead

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Holdout for Worse

I don’t think any of us slept great last night, except maybe Muad’Dib, who stayed curled up by our legs. It was humid and sweaty all night long. When I got to work, I spent a ridiculous amount of time cleaning out hundreds of email drafts because Outlook gets really happy about saving nothing just in case you want to go back to nothing and start from nothing.

I didn’t leave all day, surviving on a cup of coffee and a single slice of cold, leftover pizza. I spent the afternoon read historical emails between waiting for access to systems. The problem is that I haven’t really had to do anything in any of the systems I’ve gained access to so far, so I still don’t know what I’m doing. It still feels like this is less of an IT job and more of a generalist catch-anything role, but I can be good with that. It’s a nice change of pace. I just need to find my ambition in something that calls to me.

For some reason, Eli was blocking the driveway when I got home, so I waited for him to clear a path for me to get in. Then I found the three of them on the couch just lounging around. I got changed, vacuumed the dog, and pretty quickly got dinner started for Summer and myself. The kids had already eaten one of the steaks, so I ate the other while Summer had chicken wings and a rib. The kids ate the two remaining baby baked potatoes as well, so we just had croissants to go with our greasy meat. It was all very heavy and particularly unpleasant for me, anyway.

Summer and I ended the night with an episode of Ironheart and then she went to bed. I had laundry to finish, among other chores, before bed.

Looting this item will bind it to you.

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Smoke and Fire

Summer made us bacon, egg, and cheese bagels this morning. I didn’t feel great for most of the day, but she wanted me to smoke some ribs. I had pulled out a frozen prime rib last night, and I figured we could go to the store to get ribs and anything else we wanted to smoke.

Muad’Dib really wanted to get out, so we took him and just let him hang out in the car while we went in to the Neighborhood Market. We got a couple racks of ribs, potatoes, asparagus, corn, a couple sausages, some chicken quarters, and a couple steaks since a lot of it was on sale. When we got to the house, Summer cleaned the potatoes while I got the smoker going.

I managed to fit both ribs, the chicken quarters, and the prime rib on the grill for smoking, and let it go for about four or five hours. I probably could have turned the temperature down even lower, but I didn’t get started as early as I intended, and I wanted to make sure everything finished on time. The chicken came off first, and then I had room to add the corn and steaks. As everything was finishing up, I turned the heat up to cook the corn and asparagus.

I guess the massive amount of meat had dripped enough grease that I immediately had a fire start burning out of control. Luckily I had the fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and that put it out really quickly without any fuss. The sausages and steaks were really the only things that got black from that smoke, but they should still be fine.

Eaddie had Eli over and the four of us all sat down to eat way too much. We didn’t even touch the chicken, but I bet it will be good to take to work with some rice. It was pretty quiet after we ate. I had been feeling extra depressed all day, so I just wanted to avoid any more interactions. I eventually took a shower and went to bed.

Yù Yī