Five on Friday #236

EINS - Random Shit

If your job posting is listed as "entry level" and requires a Bachelors degree + 3+ years of experience....

THAT IS NOT AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB, GO FUCK YOURSELF.

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Based on my lack of motivation to do physical activity, it must be fat week.  Runs have been mostly out of the question, but I did roll my rolls out of bed to walk with Teh Bestie and walked the beasts, even if they only got short loops.

Teh German started running in the AM since the 9Rounds he was going to officially closed (which makes me sad for him, but I won't say I didn't get a small bit of satisfaction from the situation after how the owner fucked me over when I went to Germany last year).  Unfortunately, he's still getting up at his gym time instead of sleeping in a little.  Fortunately, the dogs have decided they are tired of our early wake up shit and don't even bother moving until the last person finally gets up and goes downstairs, IF THEN.  It's fabulous.

But you better believe that if no one is up by 0645, Meri will let you know.

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After MUCH debate, I cut my hair.  Like A LOT of it.  As in, most of the blue/color is gone.  

Not only is a drastic change, butttttt it also means I get to go back to washing my hair daily.  I'm sad and glad, but mostly glad.

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I bought a large container of blueberries recently.  Teh German pulled it out to have some.  He asked me if they needed to be washed, I said yes.  Then he started doing weird shit and I straight up called him out... 

M: Are you just going to pull out what you want and wash JUST that portion?

T gives me a confused face: What else would I do?

M: IDK, wash ALL of them?

T: I can't put them back in the container.

M: Yeah, because you should put them in a bowl...

WUT?  Why is this so hard?  It's like we've never had food that had to be washed before eating it in our house before.  Why not just wash it all at once so that way it's always ready to eat from here on?  Why does putting the washed fruit in another bowl not just come to mind immediately?  So much confusion.

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So kind of on purpose and kind of out of ignorance, during an initial interview, I don't ask about salary.

Ignorance because for some positions, that all has to be worked out with HR.

On purpose because it gives me a reason to contact the interviewer later with a question (assuming they've told me to reach out with any questions I may have (which is standard)) and to pop back up on their radar.

I'm not like a professional, but I may have some tricks up my sleeve at making people notice me.

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There are people on my FB feed that I refuse to hide because I live to hate on their posts.  It's petty, I know.  I know I should hide them and then I wouldn't see their garbage, but then I'd have to remember to go to their page to make fun of the shit they share and that's too much effort, so I have to leave it in my feed.

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I hate when my blood sugar bottoms out, out of nowhere.  Like I'll be fine, fine, fine.  Ok, yes, it's almost lunch time, then it's 15 minute later and I'm shaky and unable to concentrate and yelling at everything.

Like, it's earlier than you ate yesterday, can you take it down a level, Body?

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Despite changing my Amazon password, there is still a strange charge from Amazon Video that I did not make again this month.. and with some investigative work, I have determined that someone signed up for a Prime Video service that requires a subscription and I was paying for it.  /facepalm

Figured it out while I was on the phone with Chase to report the fraudulent activity.

Like, I'm glad I don't have to get a new card, but annoyed nonetheless.

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I blow dried my hair this morning and I'm feeling super pretty.  NBD.  Sometimes the effort is worth it.

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I accidentally went grocery shopping while I was hungry.. but now we have Swiss Cake Rolls and my heart ain't hurt about it.

ZWEI - Money Shit

-Groceries

-Hairs did.
-Chiro

-KFC for lunch because when I called my fave mexican place to place my order, they didn't have lengua.  Fucking rude.

-Dog food

-WoW

DREI - From My Phone Shit

You see how close that drip is to the edge of the plate.. that's HOW CLOSE it was to almost being ON MY BOOB.  Whew.

Willow was drunk this week.

DOGS

The body pillow life chose me.

When you held a puppy but your Beast Army thinks you cheated on them and need to be cleansed of all sniffable scents.

This bed is causing a LOT of drama.
Sandy insists that it is HER and has a tantrum when others lay on it.
I'm about to move that thing back to the living room.
Hard knock life for everyone.

My bestest Monkey-Doodle.

Meri got eaten by the couch.

Moose insisted on being full body petted while he supervised my work.

Then, the next morning, he insisted on supervising my work again.

These bitches actin' like they weren't creating a ruckus outside the bathroom door because I had the door shut.  Look at Sandy's face, like, "HOW DARE YOU?"
Please also note how incredibly difficult it is to get a non-blurry photo of Meri when she isn't asleep.

VIER - From the Internet Shit

For real, this happens way more often than I care to admit.
The processing time is REAL.

This explains my last 2 years of schooling, LOOOOOL

PREACH.
Also, for me, this applies at work.

FÜNF - Things that made me happy this week

1. Both of my projects were in a week-long planning meeting.  It was glorious.
2. Interview (even though I did hear something about 5-6 months for background checks, FML).
3. An investigator accidentally calling me and as their penance I made them discuss the potential for how long until my clearance is adjudicated... and also gave them some helpful information to make their job easier.
4. A new work friend who might be a good connection, we'll see.
5. Demands from my Moose for attention and lovins.
6. The arrival of medals, even if it means I need to do a half marathon now, so I can put my Divas medal on the rack.
7. The return of hockey.
8. Jeans.
9. Potential for rain. Ok, some might call it a hurricane, but as someone posted on FB, a hurricane right now is the most normal 2020 thing of the year, so I'll take it.
10. Not having to get a new credit card number... again.

Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.

Books Books Books! 1st half of 2020

Because I was late posting last time (and yet again), these are actually Feb-now's books. Which is pretty much Winter-Now.  /shrug  What the fuck ever.  I read some shit ok.  It was hard enough with just school, but toss in a helping of stay-at-home and my brain was D.U.N., done.

I'm 3 or 4 books behind on my Goodreads challenge and I'm about to give it the 2020, fuckyoualotamus, because principle, and I don't like to stress myself out about trivial shit these days, when I have PLENTY of other major issues to focus on.

I've actually started listening to my audiobooks while I play WoW.  Talk about a real multitasking adventurer, that's me, Gentle Readers.

Me + Anxiety.

Ultimate TLDR** 
Definitely Read:  

• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown (because if you are white and not self-educating about race issues, you are part of the problem).

Maybe Read:  

• Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
• What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon 
• The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Rating scale*:

1/5 - Hated it, DNF (did not finish).
2/5 - Tolerated it on principle to finish, didn't like it.
3/5 - Eh, didn't love it, didn't hate it. Had some good parts/kept me interested/finished it on principle.
3.5/5 - I liked parts of it.
4/5 - I liked the whole thing.
4.5/5 - I liked it a lot, but not sure I'd read it again.
5/5 - I LURVED it and I'd read it again.

*Subject to change based on my mood, the phase of the moon, or other unpredictable variables.
PS. Possible spoilers included in reviews.

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover   3.5/5 (Audible, audiobook)  

I was torn between being impressed that this wasn't overly YA and then feeling like it was too YA. Roller coaster. Overall, I enjoyed the story though and I appreciated the solid resolution at the end.  That said, who ever the narrator was for the Mom had a voice that absolutely drove me up the wall.  IDK why, but it did.

Where the Desert Meets the Sea by Werner Sonne   2.5/5 (Kindle, ebook)   

This book probably would have done better as a screenplay because of the way it is written in short bits then moves on to another character. I didn't feel any attachment to any of the characters other than a curiosity about what would happen to them, but I didn't care either way. Things that seemed like they were supposed to feel significant just felt like, huh, ok that happened, moving on now.

This review accurately surmises how I felt about this book:

"The history is correct, but the story told through these fictional characters is very bland and melodramatic. It flip flops all over with hyper hot-headed Arabs and Jews massacring each other while the British smoke cigarettes and ignore the mess that they have created by their 31 year Mandate in Palestine. Israel's history is complicated, and deserves to be told in a more balanced story where the people are more than paper dolls wanting to survive. In this book, everyone is the "bad guy" and that's just not how it was."  ~Mollie

It might be relevant to mention that this book is written by a German author and translated into English.  Experience has taught me that authors from other cultures don't always write in the same styles as English-speaking authors.  Specifically, Swedish authors aren't my jam and I have had to accept this life.

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti   3/5 (Kindle, ebook)

I didn't love this book like everyone else did.  I wanted to, but this is also part of why I wait until the hype has died down for popular things.  My interest was piqued from the beginning, but as more of the story was told, I was less and less interested.  Sam (which is what I will call him despite everyone calling him by his last name for 99% of the book) was a shady character that I 100% could not relate to.  He got shot for valid reasons that were self-inflicted so I had zero sympathy for him.  Throughout the chapter about how he felt no attachment to Loo (which I will get back to), I was like, I'm only finishing this to find out what happens, I don't even care anymore about why/how he he got 12 bullet wounds.

Loo vs Lou.  FUCKING STUPID.  Because I listened to this book, I just thought the girl's name was Lou and that was fine.. and then there was the part in the book about the spelling of the name, which probably cleared up the confusion if you were reading the book, but did zero things for me except make me question, WHY name your child something that you hate?  Ugh.

Finally, I didn't like the ending.  Everything in the book was so certain and then the end was like, did they live?  Did they die?  YOU DON'T FUCKING KNOW.

Life and Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagán   2/5 (Kindle, ebook)

As a queen of being over-dramatic about shit, I get you.  But this book was over over-dramatic-ed.  We get it, you were wronged.  I hate books where the crux of the issues in the book are purposeful lack of communication, it's just a simple crutch to use and feels lazy to me.  Maybe that's the over-communicator in me.

Mostly, this book annoyed me. I get that Libby wanted to handle things her way, but maybe someone should have told her that being obsessed with another person in the way she was obsessed with Tom was mmmmaaayyybee a little bit unhealthy? IDK. And her "Devil Wears Prada" job felt cliche. The end felt wholesome, but also like a relief to finally be done with Libby's shit.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid   3.5/5 (Audible, audiobook)

I love TJR and this book was SUPER hyped up, so I was skeptical because I don't always LURVE what everyone else is raving about.  Someone else stated that they felt like they were watching a VH1 behind the band type of show (or whatever it's called) and that is what it felt like, so for that, it was a win.. But I've never been into the drug, sex, and rock 'n roll life, so it was hard to hang with some of the things that occurred.  I get that's the rock 'n roll life, but it's not that appealing to me.

I do remember feeling satisfied when the book was over, so there's that.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown   4/5 (Audible, audiobook)

I didn't think I was going to like this book, but I ended up liking it. I didn't really love the way it ended, but I didn't hate it. I appreciated that Nellie's story was closed. This was actually a pretty quick listen since I spent a lot of time in the car. I was surprised I listened for as long as I did while driving because generally after an hour or so, I lose interest. Maybe it was the dual timelines that really helped. 

I appreciated the history "suggestions" for women and scoffed after most of them, but I know that times change... and APPRECIATE THAT.

Recursion by Blake Crouch   3.5/5 (Audible, audiobook)

I listened to this and the last 2 hours were recursively painful. Otherwise, I very much enjoyed this book. As a computer science major, I know of recursion, so I was curious how this would play out. 

Helena and Barry made for a good story and I didn't expect the end to be what it was.

Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera   4.5/5 (Audible, audiobook)

Listened to the audio version and loved everything except Anne's Canadian "o" sounds with her southern. It was distracting, otherwise, LURVED the narration. Felt like being in South Carolina. 

The story was fantastic although I was disappointed by the end and how everything was just solved and no one cared that this poor white woman just shot a rich white man... also the hunger strike? Meh

Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha #1) by Tomi Adeyemi   3/5 (Audible, audiobook)

Ever read a book that you know you are supposed to like, but just can't get into? That was this book for me.  I understand the symbolism that was happening and how extremely relevant it is RIGHT NAOW.. but I didn't love the characters or story really.  IDK.  

Watchers by Dean Koontz   3.5/5 (Audible, audiobook)

This was a recommendation and I wasn't sure at first because there was a lot of murdery things happening and that's not really my jam. Ultimately though, I got into it despite the killing.  I also felt like the symbolism of The Outsider being the ugly things about humanity was solid.  Also, the main character being a dog didn't hurt my heart.

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon   4/5 (Kindle, ebook)

I didn't love this book at first. It took me a bit to get into, but once I was hooked, I was hooked. Anne travels back in time after going to scatter her grandfather's ashes in Ireland. This book was like a history lesson with a hug and it gave me the happy ending I wasn't sure I was going to get... and THAT is the real reason for 5 stars, I got a happy ending that I wasn't actually sure would happen.

I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads but had to go back and look at my review to write this, so while it was good, it was good at the time although not overly memorable.  /shrug.

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan   4/5 (Library, audiobook)

Cute. It started off slow and throughout most of the book I was confused at how these stories were going to be related, but it came out in the wash.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates   2.5/5 (Library, audiobook)

Maybe I just needed to pay more attention, but I didn't feel drawn into this book. Maybe Hiram was too distant, even for the reader. I was interested in what happened to him at first, because my heart-strings were tugged on, but then after that, I mostly just got confused with the flashbacks and his rather comfortable life.

Untamed by Glennon Doyle   10/5 (Library, audiobook; hard copy, own)   

Sometimes a book comes to you when you NEED it and that's exactly what happened with this one.  I'ma be honest, I had never heard of Glennon Doyle before but I had heard good things about this book and I loved the cover, so I requested it from the library and waited 29482921023 weeks and DEVOURED IT.  I loved it so much I bought a hard copy.. and not like an Amazon hard copy delivered to my door, a local bookstore hard copy that I had to venture out of my house during the quarantine period to pick up.

Also, straight up, I had NO IDEA what this book was about.  Didn't even realize it was nonfiction.  Just hoped that several other bloggers wouldn't lead me astray.  

I loved that Glennon talks to herself and calls herself by name (like I do).  I loved the way she framed things.  Yes, some of the conversations with her kids were like, do you really talk to your kids like that?? Nahh.. but maybe?  IDK.  It's not my business.  I'm in it for the words on the page and those words SPOKE TO MY SOUL.  I listened to this book during one of my runs and I was sobbing and running at the same time.  Kinda makes it hard to breathe.  

I actually re-listened to about half this book because my app didn't sync up with the computer and so I was hours behind when I started my run and I didn't want to be skipping through the book during my run so I skipped some of it and then just re-listened from there.  

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown   4/5 (hard copy, own)

I bought several race conscious/education books in 2018 and never got to read them because #School.  Rude.  Anyways, after continuing to fail at reading White Fragility, I finally pulled this book off the shelf and read it instead.  Good life choice, Megan.

Brown writes about the un-obvious obviousness of being a woman of color.  Some of the topics were items I had considered within my own female view (being the only female in a room of males) and as someone who cannot identify with but could understand, being a person of color or a woman of color.  These are the topics that need to be discussed.  

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert   1/5 (Library, audiobook)  

DNF. Couldn't handle more than 30 minutes of the audiobook, read the summary and wasn't interested in the sex life of someone in the 40s. Life's too short.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson   4/5 (Library, audiobook)  

I needed a palate cleanser after so many socially conscious books and a DNF and this quickie was perfect.  This book was under 10 hours, which made it feel less tedious (maybe I really should start reading shorter books).  At first I thought the book was going to be too weird to finish, but once we finally met the fire kids, everything panned out.  I was sometimes annoyed by Lillian's flippant way of being, but she was ultimately redeemed. 

This was a good, quick listen. 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson   3.75/5 (Library, audiobook)  

Sometimes, I felt bashed over the head with the "early 1900s in Kentucky" setting (abuse of women, poor mountain people), but ultimately powered through.  The absolute worst thing about this book was the narrator's pronunciation of Appalachian (which was wrong, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh).  I appreciated how Cussy sacrificed so much for everyone else, even if I never could get used to that name.  

I will say, this book felt very similar to The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes,

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton   1.5/5 (Library, audiobook) 

Truthfully, this was a hate listen. I hated this book. I hated being so confused for so long at WTF was happening, but I stuck it out for the premise of the book and then the twist at the end had me rehating everything. When the library took this back I almost didn't even bother to renew when I was at 75% complete, that's how disgruntled I was. 

Everyone raved about how good this book was, but I didn't like it.




Currently Reading:  

• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad  (Kindle, ebook)
• A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz (Kindle, free ebook)
• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (Audible, audiobook)

**TLDR: To long, didn't read.

Five on Friday #235

EINS - Random Shit

There are 2 types of people.  Those who view their email in an individual view, where each email is it's own line, and those who view them as threads when they have the same subject line.  It is often VERY easy to see who uses which by who replies all and who doesn't.

________________________________________

Sooo, I'm not the queen of keeping work/personal life separate, but when a coworker posted this in our work chat,

"Not a good day.  My Dad would have been 90yo today.  He passed away last year on July 25th.  Sure do miss him terribly."

I was like, wuuuuttttt?  Of course, in another channel, I started shooting off messages like WTTTFFF??  This is NOT your therapist's couch.  There had been no other chatter that morning, so that was the ONLY message in chat as people started signing on.

This individual and I have had several interactions and almost none of them overwhelmingly positive.  I blame this on generational communication differences.  You see, they are an older person and I am less old.  As a Comm major, I do try to be receptive to different communication styles and this person's style feels very much like, "You are young, you are a woman, and you obviously need to be kept on top of to do your job."  Anddd wellllllllll, I do NOT do well with that.

________________________________________

Teh Ginger posted on FB (ages ago now) about how if you fly a Confederate flag, you are not supporting your heritage, you are supporting racism... and I 100% agree.

FOR EXAMPLE.
South Carolina flew a Confederate flag at the Statehouse from 1961 (put up for the Civil War Centennial and then left up the following year to PROTEST the Civil Rights Movement) until 2015, when it was taken down after the SC Emanuel AME shooting and moved to a museum.

If you're telling me that the Confederate flag doesn't support racism, you need to read some history books (like well researched ones, not the ones that you had to read aloud in middle school that were written by people who want to gloss over the nasty things (which is called whitewashing, look that up too)).

________________________________________

Being told the way we have been doing documentation for over a year and a half is probably going to be going away and we'll start using a new method which has been available all along that we refused to use because we had our own way is incredibly demoralizing.

Same for doing a job that isn't actually your job.

________________________________________

It's hard coming back to this space and deciding what to say and what not to say after saying nothing at all for so long.

________________________________________

Bestie: I've still been kinda looking at places for you...  

Me: Oh, I know you have.

Bestie: ...Hoping that nothing comes up too soon.

________________________________________

On MWF, Teh German and I work out.  Teh German goes to the gym and I do my run and then we meet back up at home.  On days when Teh German works (all days except when he is on unpaid COVID leave), I manage walking the beasts... But when Teh German is home, he walks with me on my rounds (plural because Big Booty Judy walks like a white-girl-wasted sorority sister who also had a hit of crack, so she has to be walked on her own, then I/we go with the other 2).

Big Booty Judy pooped while we were walking and I picked it up.  In our neighborhood, trash pick up is on Tuesday.  I feel that if your trashcan is still at the curb on Wednesday morning, it's fair game, so I tossed the bag of poop into an unsuspecting trash can, rather than waiting to get to a construction plot bin.

Teh German: Why would you do that?

Me: They should have brought their trash can in.  That's the way it works.

________________________________________

Sandra Dee decided that she's too good for kibble because she's an asshole.  I tried another type of kibble and it was still a no.  Then I tried cooked chicken and rice.  She ate the chicken and refused the rice.  Pax and Meri have enjoyed her rejections.  Then I was giving her cooked chicken + freeze dry raw patties from her SHUG Godmother.

Because I hate the smell of cooking meat, I finally just decided that Sandy will be going on a raw diet.  Fortunately, Teh Sister is all over that shit since she feeds her wiener army raw.  She mathed out the ounces of food that Sandy would need and now I just need to find the different types of meats she needs (muscle, bones, organs) and chop it all up (ugh) for her.

So now I'm that lady.  I'm trying to decide if I just want to move all the beasts to raw or not, but I'm just not sure.  Such a hugeeee commitment when they don't have any issues eating kibble.  So they probably won't move to raw because I'm lazy AF.  But everyone should know, I considered it.

________________________________________

I wore jeans yesterday without the intention of leaving my house.  Granted, I did leave to go out and hunt for Sandy food, buttttt I just felt BETTER which meant that leaving for any reason wasn't an impossible goal.

It took me a few weeks to get into a COVID groove with the teleworking/working out/showering/etc.  That sounds silly, but it's true.  When this all started, I'd get up and go downstairs and feed the dogs and never go back upstairs so I'd be in my PJs all day lookin' dumpy without even brushing my teeth and I felt gross.  Did not like.

So I switched it up.  Each day, I insisted on brushing my teeth and putting on non-pj clothes before starting work.  Dress for success or whatever.  Really it was just "when you wear a bra you don't get such horrible under boob sweat, so just do it, ok?"  

Then I started MWF run days with my accountability partners (Teh Bestie and Teh Running Advisor) and those days became hair wash days.  Also, I don't leave my house without brushing my teeth, nor do I appreciate funk breath while I'm huffing and puffing, so I always brush my teeth before a run.  That meant on T/Th, getting up and brushing teeth and showering or not and then going downstairs for work.

All that time though, unless I was leaving the house, or sometimes even if I was leaving the house, I'd put on stretchy waist pants, be that pj pants or gym pants, and a t-shirt.  Within the last week or so, the culmination of that blah feeling had crescendo-ed to the point of lethargy and depression.  Not to say my clothes were making me depressed, but the appeal of putting on stretchy pants had diminished over the last few weeks. Wearing stretchy pants is comfortable, but at the same time I judged myself over it.  Harshly.  For no real reason.  

Just like the day I wore my interview dress for the entire day, I felt BETTER wearing jeans.  I felt like leaving the house wasn't such a monumental event... it wasn't as hard as it was in days prior wearing stretchy pants. 

ZWEI - Money Shit

-Groceries

-Food scale for #SandyProblems

-Sandy food, ugh.

-Burger King for lunch, because if I leave the house, that's what I do, pick up food.

-Mooosage

DREI - From My Phone Shit

I have repaired the bunny 2x now.
Once more and bunny goes to heaven.

DA MOOOOOOOSE

Melted dogs are melty.

Solar charging and grazing....

VIER - From the Internet Shit

FÜNF - Things that made me happy this week

1. The children hanging out (aka napping) in the office with me during the work day.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.  I never mind unless there is licking.
2. Sandy being still while I cut out her mats.  I'm not really sure how they got there, but they were in sensitive places that I knew she wouldn't tolerate detangling, so I just cut them out.  Goes well with the massive shaved zone on her back... Siiiigh.
3. Light work load.  I focused on tolerating stupidity this week instead of trying to do it all.
4. Scheduling a head/scalp add-on to my massage.
5. Jeans.  Whoda thunk?
6. Accepting that it may be the end of August before I hear anything about final offer.
7. Teh German applying for jobs.
8. Rain.
9. Afternoon naps.
10. Sandy playtime where she does her wobbly zoomies in the loft and sticks her entire head in the toy box in search of the perfect toy.

Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.

Some Shit You Missed...

June Things

Ran a local 5k for a medal.
It wasn't virtual because it was a tiny race anyways.

Husband (finally) received his "graduation" present...
a new exhaust for Lars-Ludwig.

LOTS of motherfucking running in June for a challenge.
Hooray for accountability partners...
even if we burned ourselves out.

Bestie Visit!

Teh Bestie and Teh Chief Smartass came to visit and we played games and had Willie Jewell's and endured 6 dogs being chaos monsters.

Bread pudding + ice cream!

Treats for the beasties

Mexican Dominoes was a huge hit!

Teh Bestie has gotten into golf and I love her so much I endured 18 HOLES.  That said, I was Teh German's driver and IDK if you know that golf carts are all-terrain vehicles that are meant to be pedal to the medal at all times.. but now you do.  Did you also know that I have the special ability to make a golf cart skid?  I do.  Teh German grumbled about my golf course etiquette but he didn't get slung out a single time.

These ridiculously long dog toys are greyhound viral right now, so we made a trip all the way to Mt. Pleasant to pick up a wide selection for Teh Ville and for Teh Bestie to bring back to MD.

Fire + hot dogs + smores.

Holy City Brunch after Teh German made the mistake of showing me the menu.

Dog pics on principle.

Non Photo Things

I rage applied for A LOTTTTT of jobs at the end of May when I had had enough.  I had lunch with the Citadel Alum who liked my research presentation and an interview with his company for a Tech Writer position that I wasn't really interested in.  A few calls trickled in, a few interviews were scheduled/completed. A LOT of currently company work frustration continued on, I gave a coworker a nickname because of the way they act which everyone agreed with.  There were several days that work made me cry which is the fucking worst.  I kept applying for jobs.  Company recruiter put me in for some company jobs on a different contract and I even applied for different jobs at Company.

July

Riding Things

Tail of the Dragon Trip

Some of Teh German's Biker Gang (one of them he's in), decided to go on a weekend trip to ride the Tail of the Dragon, a super curvy road (311 curves in 8 miles? or something like that, IDK) in E.TN/W.NC.  We did not coordinate anything, only paid for our room of the AirBnB before we even saw where it was in proximity to where we were/where we were trying to be... and I'ma be honest.. if I had looked, we wouldn't have stayed there since it was almost an hour from the Tail, but lawd it was beautiful, even if it was out of the way.

The trip itself was good.  Teh German and I had some serious talk at the beginning of the drive, which was nice to clear the air of those topics and then we could focus on fun for the rest of the trip, which is exactly what we did.

Dat mountain sunset

I could definitely live with this being the way I start my mornings each day.

We only did one day of riding, but we rode for over 10 hours, so we were pleased with the trip.

Dog things

Head tilts while listening to the songs of our ancestors (wolves howling).

She learned this from Olive.

Pax is giving my computer the stink eye since he knew that work had me EXTREMELY upset.

Meri hates when Sandy does this.
Makes me laaauuuuggghhh

She wanted me to get out of the bed and play with her.

In non-photo dog things, Sandy has decided that she's too good for kibble and her hunger strike stressed me out for LOTS of days.  We've finally come to an agreement that she will eat raw since she also doesn't go for rice either.  A real princess. 

Non-Photo Things

Received 2 job offers.  One that paid a lot of money doing tech writer things, which isn't really what I want to do, nor was it a flexible position that included teleworking/etc, AND I was confident I'd 100% borked that interview so to even be offered the job was strange to me.  Then I spoke with the director and someone else I'd be working with and quickly realized they didn't want ME to work with them, they wanted SOMEONE to work with them... and I wasn't sad about passing on that one... especially after the lady tried to guilt trip me into accepting the job by saying they'd have to repost the job and have to go through the entire process again.  See: things that are not my fucking problem.  Also, how was I the only candidate?

I accepted another offer that did not have such good pay, but background checks have taken so long that I'm over waiting, but I realize this is the process for a govt job.  I'm trying to carry on with my current job without letting anyone know I've got my toe holding the door open and some days it is quite challenging.

Accepting the conditional offer spun me up into a dervish and I made a stressful situation worse by getting ahead of myself (because I didn't know better).  I was house hunting and getting pre-approved for a loan and realtors were calling and it was all too much.  The conversation that Teh German and I had on the way to TN was us deciding that until I have a start date, NOTHING is happening.  NO.THING.  It's hard because I want to plan and move forward and I literally cannot.

After I get a start date, then we will sell the house.  So ya know, if you're looking for a house in the Charleston metro area, I know a great place.  Well taken care of, technologically advanced, freshly painted in blue hues.  While the house is closing, we will pack up our shit into storage and relocate to live in Teh Chief Smartass/Teh Bestie's basement while we house hunt/close on a house.  

Just a shout out to Teh Chief Smartass and Teh Bestie for offering to take us in, there are good people out there, but then there are like really fucking awesomely good people, and I'm glad they are really fucking awesomely good people.  No way we'll ever be able to pay back this huge favor they are doing for us, but they will have another free dog sitter option!!

I was also referred to the hiring manager for several other jobs that I am waiting to hear back from, spoken with several recruiters for various positions, and have an interview scheduled with another agency at the end of the month.

Through all this Morgan Harper Nichols has keep me chugging along with, sometimes, extremely relevant daily emails.