jebbypal

Seriously, managing is tiring. sometimes it's good and it feels like winning a tetris piece, and other times, I want to have the ability to shake people to alleviate my frustrations

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So suprise: I haven't been able to write anything because Murphy.

The first day of work post-buy my computer -- one of my team resigned. And not just anyone. No, my immmediate junior who was overseeing the largest portion of the business. which resulted in 2 weeks of extra travel and dizzying amounts of onboarding. and another 2 weeks since then of trying to balance the work 1 person down when me and the replacement we moved in from another team do not know the history or intricacies of the account.

Good news: a new person starting on MOnday that should hopefully help with that though they don't know the therapy area either. Also in another week another junior person but they are green as grass but still. we have scut work that must be done as they work.

Worse news: wow the amount of travel i have in the next 3 months. Also, my not cleaning for 6 mos has caught up and somehow ants are getting into my sink. My dishwasher is on verge of breaking again. I haven't mowed for 5 weeks between TIRED and migraine and TRAVEL. and i have 10 more hours of work to do this weekend in addition to everything. and travel for 2.25 days next week. and fitting in the onboarding of new person (who the fucking IT guy did not set up her email on friday so i also have to spend part of monday making absolutely sure she has all meetings she needs. thanks useless waste of tech space)

Better news: 12 more days and I'm off work for a solid 5 days (including 2 of weekend) and will NOT be doing work or taking calls.

so that's ministate of nation.

So until I checked just now, i'd completely blanked that I'd posted 2 weeks ago. Yeah, it's been that kind of a quarter.

In past 2 weeks, I've been to Boston twice for work -- once an overnight to cover an all day advisory meeting, and then just a day trip for a couple of business meetings. Which would be fine except for the curse of travel to Boston in which all flights leaving Boston destined to Newark airport and surrounding region are ALWAYS delayed. You can get there fine, but you won't leave on time.

First trip: 2 and half hour delay.

Second trip: 5 hour delay that since I also had to be back at work the next morning, I finally convinced my work colleagues to cancel our flights and rent a car to drive back, especially since I assumed it would end up cancelled due to crew flight time limits.

Which of course ensured that it took off on time after all the delays so we arrived by car at the same time that our flight landed. Ugh. Got home at 2am which made me happy i got to sleep in car (given i'd been up since 4 am since i had day trip while my colleagues had arrived day before for other meetings). My work colleague who drove is weird though....he didn't put on the radio at all for the 5 hour drive. I finally had to put my headphones on since I couldn't hear the front seat conversation well anyways.

So as a result, I was VERY lazy for my 4 day 4th of July holiday. Granted, I'd never planned anything anyways as I'd expected that we'd have to work the weekend due to client's crazy insistence on an early launch ready date for a label expansion (which still hasn't come yet), but still, I had no energy to deal with humanity. So I bought food on Friday evening and proceeded to not leave my house at all the entire weekend (even though it was beautiful out). I made my annual hot dog extravaganza complete with homemade chili, and played video games all weekend. Finished Uncharted 4 again, and then decided to buy the Horizon Zero Dawn game.

Okay, video game rec time. If you like the Witcher, the Last of Us, and/or Mass Effect (and probably Morrowind, though i never got into that one much myself), I recommend you buy Horizon. It's post-apocalyptic/neolithic open world. Lots of different weapons. Much strategy required to decide how to take on the monsters (which are basically machine based dinosaurs. Seriously, complete with a machine like brontosaurus that you have to climb). Plus strong female playable character. I'm really enjoying it, whereas i frequently end up putting down Witcher and Morrowind from boredom (i've never even gotten to a quarter of the way through either one).

Horizon has also proved to me that I just really dislike the Frostbite engine. I didn't really care much for the fighting etc in either DAInquisition or MEAndromeda. Not compared to DA2 or the original Mass Effect series. I don't know exactly what the difference is between frostbite and the decima engine but I find the fighting in Horizon much more enjoyable than either of the frostbite based games i've played.

So that's that. This weekend I need to do some of the housecleaning i avoided this past long weekend. And then figure out what I may need to take for my planned weekend adventure with fleshlycherry in mourning celebration of the coming end of her "bachelorhood". Not that she really has qualified as that for a couple of years now, but still. :) And I still need to buy plan tickets for London september adventure and start planning that. And yikes, still need to buy hotel August too! wow. okay.

As of Saturday morning, my dishwasher is once again operational after being broken for about 2 months. Which, given the amount that I cook from scratch due to my allergy, this development is awesome.

Things that amused me about the process though: repairman, upon being informed I don't use white vinegar but rather apple cider vinegar informed me "well you don't want to do that -- it will stain the dishwasher". Dude, I don't care if the dishwasher is stained. i do care whether the fumes cause me to have issues breathing. :P

To celebrate, I actually did most of the week's cooking yesterday (as a method of procrastination against work). Also remembered that as hellacious as Whole Foods is on a normal Sunday, there's a reason to avoid it the Sunday of the Superbowl. Gah.

Used last night to catch up on Elementary rather than watching Superbowl (as I've only ever minimally enjoyed it anyway as a group activity, but in the era of concussion research, I can't stomach supporting a sport who does so little to protect and inform its players). ( Elementary spoilers )

I have a feeling I will regret my procrastination this week, because that is typically the case, but I know this week will be crazy through Wednesday. But my workout and post workout nap, I was still comfortably brain dead.

Happy Birthday to me. Definitely just another day this year, though I expect that if the universe cooperates, Cherry and I will celebrate when she visits in a little over a week. Wheee!! My yearly cherry visit!! Better get my pimping list ready :):):)

So to celebrate, give me some fic prompts to work on. Definite fandoms I can work with: firefly, farscape, burn notice. Willing to give it the college try: SGA, supernatural, haven, continuum

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Other than that things are still going swimmingly at the new job. It's nice to be around people again, but moreover to be around people person people. For all my introvert tendencies I really do need regular doses of extroverts to get myself out of my head. The team I'm working with right now (covering for someone on maternity leave so it may not be "my" team for more than a few months) is very fun but gets the work done. The diverse workplace is a nice change too -- very happy out and loud about it JB, plus several different nationalities, plus people who haven't lived in NYC area all their lives.

The commute doesn't drag on me other than the fact that I'm really only home for 10 hours or less a day, but I still can't see myself moving based on the 1) hassle of moving, 2) cost of moving -- rents will only get more expensive and rarely will be a 1:1 trade off with my commuting costs, though I'll have a better idea of that once I know my monthly metro card bill. I still need to find safe restaurants off the ordering place that I can get food from when I need to though. Especially since while the building cafeteria, which has a salad bar, is insanely expensive. They charged me 8.25 for 2 cups of romaine lettuce with nothing else. Bleh. Hate to see what it would be if I actually put anything on it.

The only main gripe I have is just that the water, even from the "filter dispenser machine" tastes like fishy ass. Even putting it in a bottle where I can't smell it, I have to be dehydrated as hell to make myself drink it. Fortunately there is a stash of free bottled water though it's often out. But I have no guilt taking it since I don't partake in the office perk of free candy, most of the free food, or the free soda.

Had my first 2 days at work and survived. The commute went better than expected. For a 2 hour one-way trip, I don't think you could have an easier one. 6 blocks to train station, straight 40 minute or so shot to Secaucus station, Up stairs, Down stairs, get on train to Penn station. That's the most painful change since it's luck on the draw on how fast train empties, how long you have to stand on the hot platform waiting to get stairs or escalator up to main sections, then trekking across the station and finding the right nook to go into to go down to subway, Then straight shot on the 1 down 5 stations to work where I have only a block or less to walk from station to my building. So not bad. Just requires me to get up no later than 5:30 every morning.

Of course, yesterday I did do dumb blond thing of thinking it was too risky to take my 10 one way NJ train passes to work with me and so only took the 2 I needed for the day, Somehow I managed to use the 2 from the previous day so I had to purchase new tickets. So I decided to just say "f it" and use only my phone for the tickets now on and go ahead and quickly transition to the monthly pass since my transit benefit goes directly in my bank account so there's no reason to wait. But frankly, that's better than getting on the wrong train so I'll call it a draw rather than a fail.

Train is too bumpy to decide yet if I can work/write on it. So we'll see.

Work itself is off to good start. Everyone is nice, they have a nice amount of work, I got thrown in directly to client politics due to sitting in on meeting on Thursday and hearing that there's some in fighting between departments over whose in charge of what etc. So par for the course. And yesterday introduced in the afternoon to a project that is midway that needs information to complete a portion of it by end of next week. So I have my first official assignment.

Biggest issue is that due to the client I'm working with, my computer is a macbook. It's nice and light since its an AIR, but it's a macbook which means none of the commands I'm use to work exactly as I think they should and omg the mouse is awful and gah. I'll adjust but still.

The biggest thing from the commute is the realization that a rolling briefcase on it is a waste and I'm glad I put off buying anything other than my free one from my past life. Switched to my small backpack suitcase yesterday and it was much better though i'm still sore. Need to get a larger one so I can fit my lunch into that and have my hands free. Hopefully.

Anyway, now starts the weekend of errands that thanks to bergen county all have to fit into a saturday. Dry cleaning to pick up, trip to post office, freezer delivered, house cleaning, slides to fact check from old job before saying adios to them, cooking, food shopping, and then back to the rat race on Monday.

Also glad I held off on any gym memberships. Because at this rate, I wouldn't be able to go in am, and it looks like i'll be consistently getting home at 8pm so i won't necessarily want to go at night either so will need to see if I can get into frame to do most of it at home, if that's enough to lose a couple of inches i need to around my waist for health reasons, or what else I need to do that I can fit into my days with the understanding that I know I don't want to be doing shit outside come winter since my face/teeth are not down with that without causing me lots of pain.

And I am so ready. Sales is getting to point of being passive aggressive about everything. I've got all the work done that I needed to so I'll mostly be fiddling my thumbs after this morning unless more slides from faculty came in. I do have the exit interview today and need to harass HR to determine when I'm getting my cobra stuff etc.

I still remember the relief of hell biotech but that was different in that it was an abusive environment. And there was no wait factor since they decided resignation day was my last day but that got dramatically shortened after boss's wife had her crazy cursing screaming melt down at me and I said Frak this and went to HR to report her for everything shed done.

This is more just general dislike, but the 2 weeks of waiting for it to be over when there is NONE of the bittersweet feelings that I had leaving MTM is a slow form of torment. 16 more hours and it's over though.

And the new place is certainly throwing me in to it as they already scheduled a 5 hour client meeting for me the afternoon of my first day!

Sooo, one of the annoyances of current job has always been tech -- their exchange server is beyond finicky, and may be related to HAL.

It occasionally decides to do something that makes it not work with iphone syncing. None of the settings will have changed, it just won't work anymmore. And the only fix is to delete the info, and reinput it exactly 9 and 10 times until it decides to allow you access again.

It did this to me like every 2 weeks, and then every 2 days last year, until it knocked it off.

This week it started again. And I decided, frak it. A week to go. Nothing urgent.

So I have deleted the account from my iphone :):):):):):):)

So, Sunday night I slept like crap. I'd had tea at 4 pm, but it had to have been the nerves about resigning etc. I hate when I know I had to have gotten sleep, but I wake up so much in the night that it seems like I couldn't.

Monday, I went in early so I could catch my boss first thing (and did, after being at work for an hour). She was incredibly nice about it -- asked if there was any possibility she could negotiate with me to leave and then asked about reasons etc. Also directly told one other coworker, my project manager for most of my things, L, who was also incredibly nice about it.

The head of the office had his panties in a twist, though not to me directly -- got a call while at the grocery store from the recruiter who hooked me up with this position asking me to explain the terse email he'd received about my resignation. And then proceeded to have a 20 minute or more exit interview with the guy. *head desk* It was fine - nothing bad, just a lot when I really wanted to buy food and go home.

So, I got home later than I intended. And I was wiped from bad sleep and the poor decision to include some jogging in my 2 mile walk on Sunday. Now, I've been walking a mile or more almost every day for about 3 weeks now, so I thought "oh, jog a couple of blocks, won't hurt nothing".

WRONG. Owwwww! My quads are only slightly less painful than if I'd done squats. My back muscles are sore and angry like I've done too many lat pulldowns. And oww! Definitely not the time to have figured out that my gut issues this year have directly been linked to the 600mg ibuprofen that I had, and it will be a couple of days till my naproxen comes in.

Owwww. :(

But last day at this job will be June 20. None of the sales folks have been in work yet, and I'm letting my boss handle telling them, so I still have that to look forward to. Assuming it doesn't get postponed a 3rd time, boss also wants me to go ahead and be on a gap analysis pitch with a pharma company on the 25th. And then the 26th will be my first day at the new job.

1) whatever has been up with my stomach the last 2 and a half days, can really stop right now. Thought I was in the clear since dinner went fine last night, but back to gurgly impending doom again. And can't figure out what I did that triggered it which means a virus is more likely than anything else (though exceeding 2 pieces of semi-safe pizza at my going away party yesterday was not my smartest move ever)

2) I have apartment \0/ And am cleared to move in after 27th!!! Despite my mother's misgivings, after seeing it again on Wed when I went up to sign the lease, I am more in love with it. Plus, landlord was there (he was apparently there the other time, but works nights and so had just woken up and was not coherent at that time on Monday), and got to find out that the wood flooring, in addition to looking awesome, has radiant heat underneath it. I have hope that my feet might not freeze constantly all winter!! :):)

3) In the karma balancing scales of 2013, this means though that in addition to my current stomach troubles, I had near death experience on way to sign lease. Traffic was going well, and we were all traveling at 75 mph which is what you do on any non-curvy interstate in NJ (or you die, trust me). Suddenly all the tail lights in front of me (fortunately some distance away --- 3/4 or 1/2 mile or so) turn red. Cue me standing on my brakes, lots of smoke and squealing, and I managed to stop within 10 feet of car in front of me and not get rear ended (since as I said, traffic was light). However, after this, my car developed a distinctive sound like a flat tire at low speeds, and bone jarring vibrations through steering column and under my seat at normal speed (65+). Needless to say, this isn't comforting when I have a week of 3 hours of driving to look forward to. So, I'm off to car dealership early this morning.

4) Going away party with my team was lovely yesterday. Got a house plant, a picture frame, and a 100 gift card from macy. So i'm half whole from the $$ I dropped on snuggies for everyone as going away gifts. (half joke, half necessity as cold as it gets in our building in the winter...or hell, even in summer).

So needless to say, if you don't see me around here much, it's because i'm getting internet disconnected, and moving. Fortunately i will be able to check in on iphone.