Tag: anxiety

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Icetown

It just kept getting colder and colder today. I got to call 911 to test the office phone system, which was mildly entertaining. Summer joined Ben, Zach, Gary, and me for $5 salads at Ruby Tuesday. Then I met Aimee after school so I could try and recover files and restore her son’s old laptop. I ended up staying pretty late working on a stupid Chrome issue on an old music department computer, and it was super cold when I got home.

Autumn had her Christmas concert, but I didn’t have the nerves to make it back out. I had a drink and just mellowed out at home until they finished, and then Summer came by and took us to Waffle House for a late dinner.

Scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, topped, country.

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I’ll Never Forget About Larry

Summer had to work this morning, which allowed for me to sleep in a while. With Thanksgiving break nearly over, I let myself get a pretty slow start to the day. I had to get the girls from their friend’s house, but first I stopped by the Ridgewood Brothers to try and snag some brisket. Grant handed me a cube of it out the window as I approached, and it just melted in my mouth. I picked up a couple pounds along with some sides, picked up the girls, and took them home.

Summer got home just a bit after us, we ate, and then left the girls to clean house while we went shopping. My first stop was Bath & Body Works, where I dragged her around the store sniffing soaps. I had a coupon, a need for fancy foaming soaps, and a complete lack of shame for being the one that wanted to go shopping there.

Next we stopped at my house for just a moment before heading to Walmart for groceries and other shopping list things I needed. I ended up grabbing one of those Black Friday pressure washers that Julie was going on about, since they had a pallet of them left over. I wish we could have spent a little more time looking, but we had to get back before Harry got to the house.

When we got there, the girls were inside giggling about how he was driving up and down the road trying to find their house, rather than trying to help direct him to the place. Summer started cooking most of the meal, and I changed the oil for some sweet potato fries. The kids played the Switch a bit before wandering back through the house. Dinner was simple and good, though I was still pretty full from the late BBQ lunch.

We played a couple quick rounds of Stuff Happens and Uno before the girls settled in to watch The Conjuring. Eaddie was probably the most excited to watch a scary movie, but I knew the game. Harry ended up having to leave before the movie was over, so Autumn went to her room for the night while I helped Eaddie finish the movie. Once that was over, she beat me in some Mario Kart before awkwardly snuggling to some Luke Cage. She started to fall asleep in the middle of the second episode, so that was the end of the day.

Just trying to make up for lost time…

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Creative Methods of Procrastination

We didn’t have much of a meeting again this morning. I thought I was going to be sent off on my own to just work at the high school, but then Allen showed enough ineptitude that I took the opportunity to ride around with him for a while. He took me to the high school to take care of one urgent matter, and then we rode out to London to take a look at some audio equipment for a student. That was more or less a bust, but it got us nearly to lunch by the time we got back.

I suggested The 3D Cafe since I think I was the only person that had eaten there before. As we sat down I got an ocular migraine, so I just kind of quietly sat and ate whatever I could get stuck to my fork. I had the taco salad that seemed to be mostly grilled onions. I did get a piece of Allen’s fish that was pretty good. Out of three visits, I’ve been served chips and salsa one time, which was particularly odd to me because the table right next to us got some while we didn’t. The food was decent, but our server only came by like once after he got us settled in with our meals.

After lunch I went to the high school to work on some things. I wrapped up a really late day working on a stupid badge printer that kept me occupied for about three hours, then went home until Summer finished up with her day. I did get a worm trap in the mail, so I set it up hoping to catch some of the little guys that have taken over my shrimp tank.

On the way up to Summer’s, I got some chips and white cheddar bites from Zaxby’s to go along with whatever leftovers we could find for dinner. She showed up just after I did, and we ate and then watched a couple webisodes of some BSG stuff. Next up will be the TV movie Razer, which I wish we could have watched in order, but I guess this is fine too.

Why are computers awful?

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Babysitting the Runaways

Summer started her leadership retreat today, so I was left to mind the girls as they did their Sunday chores. I figured I’d let them sleep in a while first, so I had some cereal and hot tea, and played some Oxygen Not Included. When they finally did come out of their rooms, Autumn informed me that their father was coming to pick them up. There was an effort to maintain control. Eaddie at least got up and started cleaning the kitchen. I think Autumn cleaned her room, since she shut herself up in it until their father showed up.

I left right after they did, and went home to take care of my own neglected chores. I did a bunch of laundry and some vacuuming between peeping in on my little shrimplets. Finally something I could actually be proud of. They’ll never leave me.

Dinnertime eventually rolled around and I went to visit Mom. She was worried about Dad’s contraption to feed the semi-stray cats, because it had dumped food everywhere. I scooped up what I could and went inside to have a pork chop. Then I sat with her until Eaddie texted me wanting to know when I was coming back. They never said a single word to me all day, so I assumed they were still gone, but Autumn later told me they had been back for most of the evening.

With the girls off to bed for school tomorrow, I slid into a hot bath and studied some plans for Oxygen Not Included before eventually making it to bed myself.

There’s no time for better precedents.

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Downtime!

It’s been three days since my site at 000webhost was shut down for some unknown violation of their terms of service. I finally sent an email off to them to appeal the shutdown. I guess I’ll give them a couple days to respond before I try and migrate to a paid plan. Their free service has always been more than enough for me, and I figured it would be fine for the foreseeable future.

Not much else of note happened today. I went to Popeye’s for lunch with Allen and was reminded of the maddening inconsistency in the size of their tenders. After work I went to my parents’ house for grilled pork chops before coming home to clean house. I can’t let all these responsibilities keep slipping by. Maybe this is the year.

I can’t get no relief.

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Catching Death

Dead relatives seem to be going around at Summer’s shop. She got a call sometime in the night that lead to her having to work today, which meant that none of the many plans we had to choose from would come to fruition. I slept super late and got up to play with the shrimp some more. I managed to catch the ninth cherry and get it moved over, so now it’s just a waiting game to see if any others come out of the woodwork. They all seem to be getting along fine in the smaller tank though, and they’re much easier to find and count now.

I spent all afternoon sifting through my Google Drive and Photos to try and save some space, because evidently my 100GB HTC promotion runs out next month and I’ll either have to cut down what I’m storing online or pony up some cash for a storage plan. At least I still get free full-resolution uploads for having a Pixel.

Eventually I got cleaned up and went to Summer’s where she and Noah were settling in for some television. I made a couple salads, and we watched some Battlestar before bed.

If I could tuuuurrrn back time!

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I’ve Got a Package for You

I don’t know how, but I lost about 15 minutes this morning somewhere. At least it was nice weather, so I picked the Grom for the day. Today was the day for people to come and fetch me from my office. First it was a needy one from down the hall, and then it was maintenance from opposite ends of the campus. They came and got me while I was on the phone with Becky talking about her impromptu retirement and move to Asurion. We walked for what seemed like forever, but I did get to see the balcony at the Center in all its pitch blackness. The office makes for a nice, spooky hideaway. Once I fixed that wireless issue, it was off to the arena for more of the same, plus some printer fudging.

Lunch was there before I knew it, and I squeaked out just in time to catch Allen and Gary heading to McDonald’s. I tried the Bacon Big Mac after fighting with their WiFi and app for a while, and I was quite pleased with it. It didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks either, which was odd and satisfying.

When I got back to the high school, I dug into some software and got to brag about how smartly I created an uninstallation/upgrade package. Feelsgoodman.jpg

I rode home and unboxed a huge package from Amazon with a bunch of Tide PODS and aquarium goodies. The hang-on breeding boxes seemed really great, so I set one up for a betta in the bathroom, and then netted out three cherry shrimp to move to the Imagitarium. It seems like I lost several more of them, but it’s possible they’re just hiding really well in all the vegetation. Summer and Eaddie came over as soon as they could after their trip around town. Autumn had another appointment in Little Rock before a football game tonight, and Summer had to go by the shop to take care of some things at the end of the day.

Tech’s Family Night was happening at the train depot, and Summer wanted to go for the announcement of the winners of Paint the Town Green and Gold. The food truck selection was abysmal, but I managed an Old Post Bar-B-Q sandwich with great success. Eaddie went blue with some shaved ice. We weren’t there too long before we spotted a furry playing with any dog it could find. Then it was time for the announcements. Summer won Best New Participant with her painting and crushed cars at Superfast, and she was so excited to run up on stage.

We didn’t stick around for the pep rally since Eaddie had homework and I’m pretty sure we all hate pep rallies. It was back to my house until Autumn finished with the band. Summer started falling asleep on the couch while Eaddie spent like seventy two hours writing a single paragraph. I worked on the aquariums a bit more until they left and I got ready for bed myself.

I simply cannot express to you in words how low of a priority this is for me.

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On the Subject of Drowning

I got out a bit early this morning to bring Doug home after dropping his car off at the Cogswell Collision Center. He had a little fender bender the other day and asked me to give him a ride back. I actually made it to work just a few minutes late, which I thought was pretty impressive. It was all downhill from there.

All day I felt like I was just scattered and scrambling to make sense of it all. Ultimately I got several things closed out, but I’m still getting covered up with work orders and I haven’t had a chance to touch any of the 1:1 devices. The stack of repairs isn’t getting any shorter, and the anxiety is mounting. I didn’t even take a lunch, and opted for a bit of Soylent halfway through the day instead. It got me to the end of the day without too much trouble, which I guess was ideal.

Eaddie took the bus to the high school so I wouldn’t have to get her from the shop, and we went to my parents’ house for more spring rolls. I helped slice up the smoked pork and shrimp while Eaddie played on her phone. We didn’t waste any time, and ate as soon as everything was ready. Julie came by and finished up her beef spring rolls too.

I decided to take Eaddie out for ice cream after dinner, and we settled on Bocadillos for something different. She got an ice cream cone with mint chocolate and Nutella. I got a churro with strawberry cheesecake ice cream. It was all delicious and expensive. Then we stopped by my house so I could change before making our way to their house for the night. Summer spent all evening at Tech for some kind of involvement fair, so we made another stop to get her some Taco John’s for dinner. I was upset to hear they “couldn’t do Potato Olés” for some reason, but I don’t think they charged the whole combo price either.

It sounds like they’re still shaking things up at Splash, so it’ll be exciting to see what happens next. Right now all I can think about is my pillow.

House slippers in the summer just make me sweat.

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Ah, the Old Bait-and-Switch

Ben and I were supposed to go take care of a few older pending things at the high school today, but instead I ended up getting a scolding for not listing things on GovDeals during our busiest time of the year as we drove to the junior high to do just that. I definitely never meant for Heather to feel any anxiety about what was left, but it just didn’t seem like a priority to me when she was coming into the job not knowing how to do most of it anyway. I did feel tremendously guilty for not having my things out first, but I also felt an obligation to wait for Dale to leave before I started shuffling things around. The entire ordeal just kind of felt like a big mess to me, and I’ve felt nothing but bad about it all for the several months it’s been since I had been advised of the changes.

In any case, he and I spent all morning cleaning up her office before we went to Bocadillos for lunch. He had never been, and like the rest of my week, nothing at all sounded good to me. I almost feel like a tiny part of me has died and is just over food altogether. I’m sure that won’t last, but it’s a weird feeling at the moment.

After lunch, we finished up with what we were doing and then grabbed a bunch of phones to deliver to vo-tech. We didn’t realize – and nobody could tell us – that they had already delivered all of the phones to the campus, and even set them in place for the most part, which was another aggravation of mine. You’d think the project manager would have known, or at least would have sent the same crew to complete the job so they could report accurately what had been done. That’s not how we do things though.

I left work a bit late after all of that, never having the chance to complete any of my work. I went by Summer’s shop to see her, but she was super busy. The girls were there, but they didn’t seem bothered by my presence either. I ended up just slowly uninstalling a bunch of old crap from the shop’s laptop to try and help its poor performance. When it was all over, I felt so sweaty from just existing there that I had to go home to dry off.

I started immediately on just about anything I thought I could accomplish. I cleaned up some email, did some research, cleaned up some things, paid some bills, and finally made it to Summer’s house just in time for absolutely nothing. Everyone was asleep and I kind of wished I had just stayed home where I could have at least continued cleaning while I was still in the mood. Instead, I sat in the dark for my evening routine and eventually went to bed.

How dissatisfying.

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Church Rush

I couldn’t sleep very late this morning, possibly because of how bright it got in my room. I was still pretty tired though, so we laid around for a while before I got up and around. Summer headed out first while I got showered and everything, and then I went to pick her up for lunch. I hate going out on Sundays because of how busy everybody is, and the fact that many restaurants raise their prices for it. Chinese did sound good though, so we landed at New China where it actually didn’t seem that bad. I ran into Ian there, which got the adrenaline going a bit, but it was still good to see him.

We went back to Summer’s for a bit after we ate, and didn’t get back out until we had to go to Harbor Freight. Summer needed some things for the shop, so I brought the coupon game. The girls’ father dropped them off for us there, so we got to split the transaction three ways for maximum savings. I didn’t really get anything I wanted, but nothing I wanted was very urgent anyway. From there we went to Lowe’s so Summer could look for a shop vac and so I could pick up some paver stones on which to park the sailboat so the tires won’t keep sinking into the earth.

Lastly we stopped by Walmart so the girls could pick up a last couple school supplies, and then we went back to their house so they could do some cleaning before dinner. I fried up some chicken for them to make sandwiches, and then I headed home to do some more laundry before the first week of school. Thankfully I think I’ve gotten most of the mentally draining stuff out of the way, so tomorrow I should just be able to crush the bulk of my work orders. I’m still not looking forward to re-running cable for Ethan, but I fully plan on enlisting his help for that.

They’re like tiny machines that turn spinach into poop.