nightrythm ◾ ◾ What a weekend

I managed to accomplish a lot, be busy, and be restfully happy all at the same time (more or less). I started, or more correctly, ended my week in the 7th level of Hell. And somehow managed to end my weekend somewhere close to heaven.

I spent all of Thursday and Friday doing one thing in the office – coding. Essentially, I spent 16 hours checking, cross checking and verifying codes from various excel documents against my main database. After I was done with all the checking, I had to copy and paste the excel document into my database so I have a record for the future. *argh!* This whole thing takes a lot of focus, as it is an incredibly precise activity.

Of course, while I’m trying to pay attention to this ONE THING, everyone in my office needs me for the SOS (same old shit). You know, asking for help because their legal sized document won’t print on legal sized paper – all because the moron couldn’t figure out how to choose the correct paper size on their printer? Yeah, that. And lots of it. I was finally force to send out the following email:

“It's that time a year again when I'm knee deep in coding. Because coding requires so much of my concentration, I will only be responding to emailed requests for assistance. If I do not respond within 15 minutes, I am focused on something else. I will respond as soon as I am available.”

Then I put on my earphones and played some music and ignored Everyone! I also had to fight the little voices in my head. The ones that tell me to just get up, walk into the boss’s office, open my mouth and utter some variation of “I quit”. Lucky for me, I have a strong sense of self preservation. But, I do keep the phrase “I’m sorry, I don’t feel well, I need to go home now. I will be back tommorrow, but I really need to go home – goodbye” ready to go at all times these days. *Le Sigh* It’s time to find another fucking job.

The rest of my weekend was good – really. I was so out of sorts on Friday that at one point I almost started crying when I was talking to Patch on the phone. At the end of the day I called for the usual, “I’m headed home” and he offered to pick me up. Not only that, he brought flowers! See, he loves me, yup.

Saturday was up early ‘cause the gas guy was coming to hook up the dryer. The only trick was, the dryer was still in my truck. The other boys had taken off to the con already, forgetting to unload the machines – or maybe I forgot to ask. It’s hard to tell these days. So anyway, Patch and I wrestled the dryer into the house. Of course I manage to hurt my back during all this. On the upside, it was just an ache that stuck with me and made me dilicate over the weekend, as opposed to any horrible debilitating damage.

After that, I went shopping! Big Lots, Target, Anna’s Linens and Virgil’s Hardware. I spent about fifty bucks in each store and the only thing I can remember buying are my curtains. I spent far more money than I intended, but since it was in small chunks, I didn’t really notice. And even though I can’t recall most of what I got, I know that it made me happy.

I got to come home, show Patch my finds, watch some “Space Teevee” (Farscape), rounding out the night with a visit to the Thompsons to make sausage. Saturday was good, long and somewhat tiring.

Sunday managed to be almost as long, almost as tiring and even better. I woke earlyish, went grocery shopping for necessary miscellany. Prepared my dish for later that day, Jello Cool Whip Pie – showered, napped, snuggled, had ‘za and puttered (not necissarily in that order). Then we went back to the Thompsons to watch the firework mania. And I do mean mania. They live in LA City, where fireworks are NOT ALLOWED. The neighbors on all sides were shooting off nifty mexican fireworks. The kind that rocket into the sky and explode into pretty flowers with a resounding boom. Someone in the company kept refering to “Little Beruit”. It was so bright, the street light shut of at various points throughout the evening. It was loud and lasted till almost midnight.

Monday was still kinda long and involved more work, but was greatly satisfying. I got up and puttered and then spent a few hours shopping with Mom. We made the big mistake of going to IKEA. The place was having a sale. We had no idea. I haven’t seen so many people in one place, since.. well, since… I don’t even know. I got home to find that Patch and ExecutiveGoth had headed out to Home Depot to buy a missing connector to hook up the washer. After they got home, a couple of loads of laundry were accomplished and ExacutiveGoth unpacked while Patch and I cheered him on.

Then one of us (me) recommended we clean our “new” Bar-B-Que and have grilled Salmon for dinner. The “new” Q was a handmedown that had been living in a garage somewhere for an unrecorded number of years. So the three of us, set about to blowing the spiderwebs off the thing (with cans of air) and burning the spider sacs (fire!) and essentially scrubbing the grit and grim off the thing until we could see the original paint.

We finished off our evening with a trip to Costco for various and sundry items, including briquettes and salmon. The dinner was soooo yummy! Patch grilled. ExecutiveGoth managed the pasta dish. I steamed some frozen veggies. It was mucho good. On one level it was gratifying to know that if SushiCaddy disapeared on us we wouldn’t starve to death. (Don’t you dare go anywhere Caddy – I need you! Please!)

We also had a lovely dinner show – the Manchurian Candidate. ExecutiveGoth gave us some schooling on film design and directing, as well as some insider tips, while we took in the film. I went to bed after midnight AGAIN, but wow, it was a good weekend.