Tag: anger management

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The Long Way Home

We got up this morning and packed to leave. Summer took most of the stuff down to load onto the bus while I got ready, and by the time I got out, I didn’t really have time for breakfast. We took the junior high and the losers from the high school back to the Riverwalk to shop and eat, but this time we got to actually ride the bus there, which made it much more pleasant.

The high schoolers were pretty much jerks all day, and their chaperones didn’t seem very worried about it. Summer, Hannah, Dylan, and I all walked all the way to the end of the Riverwalk, stopping at the bi-level area so Dylan could get an electric massage, and then again so Summer and Autumn could go on a VR “ride.” Then we made it back to the food court just in time to gather everyone to eat. Johnny had kept the district credit card, so it was up to me to pay up front again. Disappointingly, all three of my cards got declined for fraud prevention, even though I specifically called Discover to make sure that it wouldn’t. We made it through eventually though, and I came back with two foot long sandwiches from South Philly Steaks & Fries. Summer really liked her chicken, and I really enjoyed my Philly, so I considered that a pretty big win.

The varsity team showed up right around that time as well, so they ate, and then we all loaded up onto the bus to say, “goodbye” to New Orleans. Aimee was worried about flooding along the way, so she played it super cautious by going through West Memphis, which probably ultimately added an hour to our trip. We never really stopped for food, and even told the students not to buy anything when we had to stop for fuel, but of course they didn’t listen. Everyone was really beat and anxious to get home, but I wasn’t quite ready to pass out. While the others slept, I unpacked and tried to put most of the stuff away before bed.

Fix it.

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The Junior High Issue

Just as I started to drift off, someone knocked loudly on our door. Summer and I both scrambled to our feet, and I peeked out to see who it was. I only saw one of the girls, but soon found out it was several of them outside our door, shaky with adrenaline. Johnny was there with them, and the first words out of his mouth were that this seemed like a junior high issue, so he would be letting us handle it.

Summer and Hannah jumped right into action, kicking ass and calling parents. I wasn’t sure what my place was, so I just laid back in the room waiting to see if I would be called. I started to doze off a little, but without my CPAP I ended up exhausting myself more. I don’t remember what time Summer finally came back to bed, but it was really late, and I knew that even sleeping a bit later we would still be deprived.

They kicked four kids out for vaping, including some star players, so they knew the rest of the team would suffer for it. It was a bad deal all around, and a part of me felt like maybe it was a bit much drama for some vape pens, but rules are rules, and these kids are used to a system without repercussions. I was glad they stuck to their guns, and had one of the kids out the next morning after having her sister drive all the way down overnight. It’s anybody’s guess whether the parents will actually do anything, but at least they could rest assured they did the right thing here.

I got down to breakfast just before they closed, and then ended up babysitting the three remaining kids with Dylan while the rest went to their game. I was excited to be in control of some punishment, though Dylan got them started with copying newspaper articles. After a while, I added a modifier by having them write with their non-dominant hands. I got the feeling that only one of them was really taking it very hard, but I’m not much for empathy anyway.

When the team finished, we walked to the Riverwalk for lunch. We didn’t really have time to do anything but eat, and I was still full from lunch. My ciabatta was pretty terrible, and I was just overall disappointed to be eating food court food in New Orleans anyway. Without time to shop the mall, we headed back so they could continue their day of games. It was so hot and humid that I was excited just to be back inside.

Once those games were over, we went back to the Riverwalk to let the kids shop for a few minutes before eating. Unfortunately we found out they would only be open for about another hour, so Summer, Hannah, Dylan, and I went to the opposite end of the mall for some frozen slushed wine first. Summer and Hannah had to go back to the hotel immediately after we got them though, because a second player’s parents were coming to pick him up. Johnny had also screwed up their plan to pay for dinner, but I was able to get everyone fed with my own card.

Dylan and I carried food back for the girls, and lead what was left of the group back to the hotel safely. We ended the evening with some more Mario Kart in our room, but we kept getting interrupted by kids knocking on the door. The delinquents continued being shunned for the most part, while the rest had a little get-together party in one of their rooms. We had to shut it down early too, partly because they were being loud, but also because the adults were too tired to exist any longer.

I’ve never seen a group of coworkers so divided before.

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Basskitball

Crawford and Oakland had their staff basketball game this morning. I thought it was after school, but they reminded me that nobody would show up if it was after hours. They all bussed all of their kids to the high school arena, and had a rowdy game with an eagle mascot, and cheerleaders, and everything. Ben was playing for Oakland, so I tried to get the others to join me, but nobody cared enough. I noticed pretty quickly that nobody was around taking pictures up close, so I jumped right into the photographer role again. All I had was my phone, which was pretty terrible at catching the fast motion of the game, but I did what I could. I should have tried turning off HDR to see if it improved, but it’s too late now. The game went into double overtime and ultimately they agreed to end it in a tie where nobody went home a loser. It felt like the perfect analogy for public school.

After the game, I went to the junior high for a while and took care of some things. Summer and Autumn were going to leave for lunch, but I got stuck working on a phone issue and then got frustrated with some whining, so I just skipped lunch and went by Oakland, and then to the high school to work on keyboard bezels with Dale. He got some news that Ryan accepted a job with Thomas in Bentonville and sent a video of me working on laptops. Ryan replied with something about a timer and I had been curious for a little while, so I checked myself in at about six and a half minutes.

I left there a bit early and went to the shop to drop off a Chromebook. When Jason left, Ben, Gary, and I went upstairs to check out the refurbished auditorium. It looked better, but not great. The reverb on stage was too much to handle, and made basically everything incomprehensible. From there, I went to my parents’ house and had some leftovers before coming home to get ready and pack for New Orleans. Travel anxiety is always worse with other people involved, but having a checklist premade from previous trips made it easier.

Traveling on a bus for this long is going to be a challenge.

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Stress Ball

I started this morning at the high school, repeating three different data entry tasks in a meticulously crafted beast machine of over-documentation. Dale seems to have accepted that things will probably change pretty quickly after he’s gone, but more importantly it seems like I’m going to have to be demanding some additional buy-in from certain people. At least I feel efficient with the way that I perform his processes.

I could have worked through lunch, but he clocked out and ate some leftovers. I didn’t really feel like doing anything, so I went home and warmed up a frozen chicken slider that was pretty gross. Afterward, I came back a bit early to perform some intake and output of replacement parts and serviced laptops. I’ll have to do some more of that I think, before I really grasp the full process. The most aggravating part about any of that is the physical paperwork. Needless to say, 2019 is going paperless.

When we finished with that stuff, I left for the junior high to deal with needy esports kids. I gave two more PCs to the library for distribution, but I wish I had some face time with the parents at least to explain what it is that I’m doing. Summer had most of her room packed up, and then left with the kids so Nick could take them all to dinner. She ended up wanting CiCi’s too, so I met her there and stuffed myself to make up for the particularly terrible lunch. I ran into David and his tiny baby family there, and it was really great to see them. It pleased me that they seemed to be doing so well as such a young couple.

After dinner, I went to my parents’ house to pick up some mosquito larvae for my fish and banana trees for Tammy. I dropped them off at Oakland on the way home so I could check my blood pressure. It was surprisingly only “normally” high, but I did give myself a really long period of time to rest first. Then it was home to fight with a ridiculous cat box. I can’t be done with that nonsense soon enough.

It’s aight.

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Sad Pickles

We got up and around today to go to the Atkins Pickle Fest. It seemed smaller than I remembered, and it’s possible that there were more people there yesterday. The girls weren’t too excited about it, and Autumn was especially cranky the whole time. I finally got to try fried gator on a stick, which wasn’t bad, but was mostly breading. When we got back to my house, Eaddie and Summer went to ride bikes while Autumn sat inside on her phone.

When they finished, Summer left to go to the gym and I took the girls to Walmart. I had learned of an adapter to modify their bikes’ Presta valve stems to work with the standard Schrader pumps that cost under $2. Eaddie got particularly moody while we were there. Autumn had the idea to surprise Summer with dinner, and I spotted a load of clearance items I wanted to check out. A couple hours and $300 later, we wrapped things up and headed back to my house.

Summer had finished working out and went home to shower. I tried cleaning my kitchen to cook dinner, but then gave up and decided to take it all to her instead. It was rainy, but not too bad, and still way easier than actually cleaning my own house. Hopefully I’ll get some time to do that tomorrow.

Autumn didn’t end up helping with dinner much, but it was relatively easy anyway. I threw a whole package of six boneless, skinless chicken breasts into the instant pot along with some taco seasoning, Rotel, and a bit of chicken broth. That pressurized and then cooked for 20 minutes while I chopped up an onion, cilantro, and serrano peppers, and made a creamy cilantro lime sauce to go on top. The chicken shredded up perfectly, and everyone seemed to really love the tacos. We got some slaw mix to go on top, which made the whole thing feel really fresh and healthy, but I lost count of how many tacos I actually ate. Next time I should probably use two packages of taco seasoning, and either drain the Rotel or omit the chicken broth.

After dinner, Autumn went to her room claiming she didn’t feel well while the rest of us watched a few episodes of Parks and Rec. Then Summer and I played a couple games of Magic before bed.

Who proposes at Pickle Fest?

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Pickup Lines

I rode to the high school early this morning to help with the laptop pickup. As I was walking into the building, Al stopped me to ask about esports, and wanted to know if we could do it during their advisory half hour. I kind of laughed, half-heartedly at the thought. At least his gut reaction to my response was that I shouldn’t be doing it for free. I’d just like to see some kind of number from someone that actually makes decisions.

The laptop pickup went just as it should have, I suppose. I was upset because we didn’t have the student help desk kids to help with power adapters. They were all seniors, and have basically all finished school already, so it’s all on us now. I’m not sure who I’m going to have to pester to fix that, but I know I don’t want to be touching 1300+ devices any more than I absolutely must.

Dale and I went to an early lunch at Taco John’s, where I had a steak and shrimp burrito that was just excellent. Doubly so, because it was free after filling out my punch card. We thought Allen was coming too, but he had suggested KFC, and probably ended up at McDonald’s.

I stuck around the high school until their last pickup, when I had to leave for esports. I stopped by on my way out to check my blood pressure, and came in averagely high. Then I rushed by Oakland and had to do some work there that got me a little frustrated, so on my way out of there I measured frustratingly high, and I could feel it on my skin.

Finally at the junior high, I ran across the building to check it again, knowing I didn’t have a proper rest period. I thought for sure I was going to stroke out during esports. I made it to the lab a bit late, so the kids were already rowdy. I had to yell at them at one point because of a usual yeller in the class. Some of them just get too excited, and haven’t been scolded for it enough I suppose. It makes the experience worse for those quiet ones that are in there for serious competition. Next year, we’ll have to weed out the club from the teams.

After work, I ran by Summer’s to try and help load the extra chicken strips into her freezers, but she had already done all of the work. Instead, she took the last case that wouldn’t fit, picked the girls up from karate, and met me at my house so we could stick it in my freezer. Then she was craving Stoby’s, so we all went out for dinner. I tried the PB&J burger, which was actually really good. The sweetness of the jelly with the jalapeños really did it. I could have gone without the peanut butter though.

Finally it was back home for the evening to cool the jets after a long, but fast-paced day of running around.

Nobody nose whistling like I do.

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I Want a New Duck

It was really slow again today, but I spent most of my time trying not to hulk out instead of cleaning or doing much of substance. My morning systolic blood pressure was pretty good, but my diastolic doesn’t like to hang out much below 90. I stopped by Sonic to get some Ched ‘R’ Peppers for Summer and a free fresh cherry lemonade that I stuck in my fridge to sip on over time. Jessica finally got power for her TVs outside the library, but I had to climb up to reset the Chromebits.

Allen wanted Dairy Queen for lunch, so I met him and Jason there. They had a promo chicken and waffles meal that was super good. The waffle was really crispy on the outside and perfectly soft in the middle, and I even got some gravy for the chicken strips. Even the fries were hot and tasty today. I felt that it was a great accomplishment to order a 4-piece meal instead of the 6 that was offered. Baby steps.

A little while after lunch, I had to go back to the doctor to let them take my blood pressure a couple times until they found a number they liked. The bad thing is that they kept my diastolic blood pressure of 80, which is an all-time low that I’ve only ever reached once before during a reading where I was distracted and taking a phone call. I always just assumed that one was bogus and should be thrown out. In any case, they wrote me a proper prescription for the 10mg of amlodipine besylate I’ve been taking, plus a new prescription for 25mg of hydrochlorothiazide. I’ve only got one more double-shot of my original prescription, so I guess I’ll wait a day and take my new ones together so they run out at the same time.

Summer had a really rough day and was super frustrated with everyone, so I took the girls with me while she went to the gym. We stopped by Walgreens so I could pick up my prescriptions, and then I took Autumn home since she was dealing with a bad attitude as well, and Eaddie wanted to join Summer and me for bún thang at my parents’ house. The soup was great, but it’ll be interesting to see how my body deals with the extra spice tomorrow.

After dinner, Summer took Eaddie home and I went to my house and did a little cleaning before setting up my replacement TicWatch E. I really love my Pebble more though, so I may try to sell the TicWatch and come back to Wear OS later in the future. A big part of me is frustrated by how many interests I’m trying to juggle right now though, and just wants to sail off and disconnect for a while. At least I think it does. I suppose it’s possible this is just another one of my many interests that is feeling neglected at the moment. I haven’t been on the water in a while.

One that’s never gonna try to migrate or escape!

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Hamburglar

It was no surprise that Jason didn’t have any projects for us. That’s probably not totally fair to say since a lot of that has to do with nobody else asking for help doing anything, but he’s already made himself an easy target. I went on about my own business and spent most of the morning at Oakland with my best blood pressure yet. Then I went to the junior high a bit before lunch so I could get a hamburger from there for lunch. I’m pretty sure that if I had timed it right, I could have had a free hamburger for lunch every single day this week.

I spent most of the afternoon there until it started raining, and I went back to the shop to pick up a badge for someone. Just as I was about to leave, Ben and Dale got back with a truck and trailer load of carts from Thomas, so I had to help unload those. Then we went across the street to give Brenda our best for her retirement. The snacks helped, but I feel so guilty going to those gatherings just for the food, so I always try to make an effort to chat a bit with whoever we’re celebrating. It’s still super awkward if I’ve never spent much time with that person though.

I delivered the badge on the way home, and then it wasn’t long before Summer and Autumn got there so we could all go to dinner at the shop. We got rained out of the park, so Ben got Summer’s crew together to grill ribeyes in the shop. It probably would have been less awkward in the park, but it wasn’t an awful time. I don’t know that anybody stuck around for a super long time after they ate. We left to go get gas and stop by PetSmart.

On the way home, Eaddie texted Summer and said she had forgotten her homework in her locker, so we went by my house to get the keys and then picked Eaddie up from her grandparents’ house. We got into the middle school, and Summer slipped on the wet floor and hurt her knee pretty badly. Then almost inevitably, Eaddie’s homework wasn’t in her locker. We took her back, then came back to my house for bed.

It’s too cold to be out running this early.

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Underpaid Factory Work

It was rainy all day, so I decided to start at the high school. Dale was expecting a bunch of keyboard bezels in today, so we had the afternoon to start that. I spent most of the morning trying to augment his barcode scanning sheet so he wouldn’t have to scan both the library tag and the laptop serial tag, and instead have it auto-populate the serial from a sheet with the complete inventory CSV.

He had to leave a bit early for lunch with the super, so I went to Oakland to work on a couple things. I ended up sitting and chatting with Sharon, Stephen, and Marcia for a while before getting back to the science room to fix the issue. By the time I got back to the front of the building, everyone had pretty much eaten all of the barbecue they brought in. I managed to scrap together a ham sandwich and sat in the lounge watching the rain outside.

Afterward I went back to the office and got around to checking my blood pressure. One of the diabetic kids was in there, and we laughed about how we were dying. He started rambling a bit about his mom, and as Leslie was turned around seemingly ignoring us, I told him he should run away. We both turned to look at her still facing the computer, and giggled that she wasn’t listening. Of course she turned around laughing, and told him not to run away. My numbers were pretty high, so I tried to chill out the rest of the day.

Back at the high school, Dale and I started tearing into the repairs. We had a pretty big stack of bezels come in, and he showed me how to replace them. Something like 27 screws and some calloused fingers later, I had the old part out. Then it was just a matter of doing it again in reverse to put the things back together. My back hurt from leaning over to perform this mindless task, and I found myself really hating it. If I’m going to last there any length of time at all, they’re going to have to let me come inspect them throughout the year so I’m not stuck rushing through it all over the summer.

We left work a bit early since Dale had a haircut, and I worked through most of my lunch. I went home for just a little while before having to get back out in the rain to make it up to Summer’s house. She had taken the day off and made a nice dinner for everyone. I never really got to feeling better about my blood pressure all afternoon, and that carried over into the evening with the kids being of normal volume. I couldn’t be mad because they were all behaving relatively well, but I just couldn’t decompress the way I really needed to.

Eventually everyone made it to bed. At least tomorrow morning I’ll have a break from the already tedious labor I’ve been assigned, but I imagine it will be back to that old grind stone in the afternoon again.

I have learned absolutely nothing today.

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High School; High Score

I went to the high school this morning to see what Dale was doing. They were just starting to pick up senior devices, classroom at a time. This all leads in to the busiest time for them, and I’ve somehow got to wrap my head around all the RMA processes while also learning a massive new campus. To make things even more difficult, I won’t properly be able to do my own part replacements until I get my A+ and Lenovo certifications. I can already tell I’m going to miss a lot of time that I have traditionally used to learn new things. I kind of hate it, but I’m still hopeful it won’t be that bad.

Teacher appreciation week is here, so Dale and I mooched off of their catered lunch from La Huerta. Then I left to go to the junior high for some work. They were serving hamburgers, so I grabbed one for later while Ben, Jason, and Allen were there. Then I went to work. On his way out, Ben said he basically gave his blessing to move the technology office into a closet, which really got me pretty angry. Evidently it was enough to earn myself a new high score of 200/112, so I went straight back to my room and kicked back for an hour. I tried calling my clinic, but the nurse line voicemail said they only check messages at the end of the day, and I wasn’t sure if I should treat it as more of an emergency. I gave it some time and checked my blood pressure again at a more normal high of 184/101.

Chrystal convinced me to call the clinic again, so I left the voicemail and went back to work. Eventually they did call me back, and told me to double my dosage to 10mg. It’s still not a lot, but the 5mg didn’t seem to phase me at all and I feel like I’m flush more often, or at least more consciously aware of every twinge and ache in my arm, chest, and brain helmet area. They want me to come back in a week instead of the two and a half weeks later for my 30-day checkup.

After school, Summer left for the gym while the girls went with me to my parents’ house. Eaddie came and sat next to me on the couch for the first time, and we both played on our phones until Summer got there. Mom made spring rolls with some pork that Dad smoked, and I filled up on leafy greens. I feel like the fish sauce may have nullified some of that, with a bedtime reading of 150/100. It’d be great if I could keep my diastolic out of the triple digits.

Maybe I’m just too intense.