My ISP, Comcast, won’t hook me up until the 7th…silly me, thought it would be like phone or electric and transfer my service in a day or two. Eh, live and learn. (Or pillage and burn, but I’m still working on settling into the new house, which means I’m too exhausted, even for a good pillaging.)

So the blogging will be few & far-between, as I’m getting my Internet fix next door either at work on my lunch break, or at the World’s Best Ex’s place…even if he never updates his LJ. *grin*

Three solid days of busting ass (on many people’s part, at various times - including Robert, Jenn, Beanpole, Karel, both demonspawn & their friends, and of course me & Geoffrey) has gotten us mostly moved, and most of the old place cleaned. There are still some things to be retrieved from the kitchen & garage at the old place, and there’s almost nothing actually put away at the new place, but at least the beds are all set up and we managed to locate necessities like toothbrushes & bath towels amidst the sea of boxes. The demonspawn have been rather fussy & cranky, which I forgot was part of the grand moving tradition, and the kitties are anxiety-striken & skittish, which I remembered is part of the joys of moving.

Thank heavens that Molly tossed some Flexaril my way. *sigh* I’ve gotten enough exercise to last months, and I’m not done yet.

Saturday night Beanpole took me to the NIN concert! Yay for Trent Reznor! Yay for stunning stage shows! Yay for my new NIN t-shirt!

Not so yay for a few other things. The opening bands (both of them) sucked. One was a new-ish band called Autolux; their music was actually pretty darned good, but they have absolutely no stage presence and they were stupid enough to advertize their inexperience by announcing they’d never played for a crowd so large before. I liked that their female band member was the drummer (and good at it, too!), but she really needs to sit up straight & quit staring down so much - or they should put her & the drumset up on a high platform, so it appears that she’s actually looking down at the audience instead of her hands. The second opening act was Queens of the Stone Age, and while their stage presence & showmanship was fairly impressive, their music was gawd-awful. So Beanpole & I spent most of their set out in the beer garden, smoking.

NIN was terrific. Trent sounds every bit as good in person as on his CDs, but the delightful surprise was watching him - he moves oh-so deliciously! I can’t really explain it…it was sexy without being sexual, aggressive without being threatening, and hugely self-confident without being cocky or arrogant. Everyone in the band was energetic & physically-expressive; the show rode that fine line between engaging the audience and provoking the audience. Visually, it was very hyper-active; lots of effects (smoke/fog machine, strobe lights, a projection curtain), and a variety of light displays, with flagrant use of the colors red, purple, blue, and yellow (lots of purple, yay!).

It was also really, really loud. I felt half-deafened for the rest of the night, but since I very rarely go to concerts, I’m not too worried about permanent hearing difficulties. I do wonder how the band can do dozens of performances like that in a year and still have any hearing left!

When I got home, I found out that (just like the last time we moved) my white noise machine, without which I can barely maange to sleep at all, hadn’t made it over to the new place. Last time, I didn’t go retrieve it, and wound up startling awake at every little sound from the other people in the room, getting very little sleep, and being quite unhappy about the whole situation. This time, I drove back to the old place to get it! I think that, in the last few years, I’ve come to put a higher (and more appropriate) priority on my comfort & contentedness. Maybe I’ve finally learned the lesson on not making myself miserable just to avoid inconveniencing or upsetting someone else …not in the way of being so selfish as to not consider others’ wants & needs, but rather taking responsibility for my own happiness while expecting others to do the same for their own happiness, instead of arranging my life to suit their wishes. I can only hope the lesson has stuck this time.

I’m going to be moving this weekend, AND (this is so entirely fabulous) going to the NIN concert on Saturday night (Beanpole is simply divine for having snagged a ticket for me!), so I most likely won’t have time to blog. But this bit of humor was too good to miss out on…especially considering a good percentage of my friends are non-monogamous!

10> Drawbacks? You’re kidding, right?

9> You: Thinking of threesomes.
They: Still won’t do that.

8> It takes Bismarck’s strategic genius to get hold of the remote control.

7> Make one mistake and the “I’m sorry” flowers can bankrupt you.

6> Nothing is more exhilarating than failing to satisfy two people in bed.

5> Do you really want several more guys who will forget your birthday?

4> With a bunch of wives, you can’t GET the bathroom.
With a bunch of husbands, you don’t WANT the bathroom.

3> Sure, now you can have your wife’s sister too, but where’s the fun when you’re married to her?

2> Controlling that many “wives” will require a sheepdog. (Montana only)

1> You give one of them an orgasm, then they all expect one.

We had our official team meeting at work today, and a lot of talking was done but very little was said. It all boiled down to, “The department isn’t going to be changed significantly in the foreseeable future, and the only likely change that could happen is that your work shift will start about an hour earlier to accomodate other departments, enabling your desks to be utilized by an evening shift.” Oh joy, I so love having a desk-share. (That was sarcasm, in case anyone wondered.)

So my job isn’t on the chopping block, and the worst that (officially) will happen is that I’ll have to be at my desk at 6 am instead of 7:15. Wow, that would suck a LOT, but it’s better than being unemployed - especially at this time of year!

And yesterday I got one of those dispute letters that makes my job so entertaining. I’ll excerpt a bit of the 5 pages of it (with original spelling, punctuation, & grammar intact):

I purchased two cell phones for my 13 year old and 15 year old children. the agent told me I could drop the internet before the 30 days were up. I then called 611 w/in 30 days they told me on that call, as well as 10 other calls, that the internet was not available on either phone. For a year and some months I battle w/your company about the internet still being accessible on the phones. [snip of long section of whining about technical misunderstandings, which she never did comprehend] I told the children not to get on it but they are kids. I can only take the phones from them. Then I am paying over $120 a month for 2 phones not being used. Plus, I was told the bill would only be $79 a month. It ends up for both phones being over $120 a month. [snip of long section of whining about how the payment arrangements offered were not “fair”] I am a single mother of 2 trying to take care of them alone. I am far from rich heck most days we are just trying to be comfortable. It is obcene for anyone to think I am liable for this bill.

Here’s the reply I wish I could have written (but, of course, didn’t - because I am a professional):

How very nice that you decided to get cell phones for your 13- and 15-year-old kids. I got a (single) cell phone for my (then) 11- and 15-year-old kids to share, so I understand that part. Of course, I disabled the phone’s Internet access on the first day, by simply reading the owner’s manual and also by exerting a little common sense, in deleting the access number that the phone uses to connect to the Internet. I mean, how do you think that a cell phone accesses the Internet? By magic?! But then, you probably didn’t think. I understand that, too - I see it constantly in the disputed accounts that I process every day.

So, having not bothered to prevent your children from running up huge bills by physically disabling the actual equipment, you told your children not to use the Internet access feature on the phone but they did anyway. Hmmm, when I gave my children their cell phone, I told them not to send text messages, not to download ringtones, and not to use daytime minutes unless it was an emergency…and that if they broke the rules, they’d lose the phone. I see that you considered this option but couldn’t stomach the idea of taking your children’s shiny toys away from them.

Gee, some people consider it spoiling a child when you let them get their own way much of the time, and as there didn’t seem to be any actual consequence for disobeying you in your children’s minds, one might conclude your parenting style doesn’t include disciplining them. Funny how my kids have never run the phone bill over the base rate, not even once (because they knew I’d make good on my promise to take away the phone)…but your kids managed to disobey you so constantly, for months on end with apparently no real consequences, that they ran up a $1400 bill. You know, if you’d shown a little backbone and taken the phones away from them, I’m quite positive they wouldn’t have been able to run up a $1400 phone bill.

Regarding the cost of wireless service…there are these things called “taxes” and “government fees,” which wireless companies are unfortunately unable to remove from your bill. Anyone who thinks that a cell plan advertised for $80 is actually going to bill out at $80 is incredibly naive, foolish, and obviously hasn’t bothered with details like reading the service contract they signed. We don’t try to hide these costs, mind you. If you live in California or New York or a few other states, you will pay a small fortune in taxes, and if you live in those states, you already know that. But somehow the sales tax & other assorted fees that you pay for other services just magically won’t show up on your wireless bill? Puh-lease, grow the fuck up.

As for your family life, well… I’m also a single mother of 2, and have been since my husband died when my youngest was just a few months old, but I don’t try to use my life experiences or my children as an excuse not to pay my bills. Truth be told, what’s really obscene is the entitlement attitude that people like you display and teach to your children. Try adding a little sensibility and responsibility into your life, and perhaps you won’t have these little problems (or $1400 cell bills) in the future.

I know damned well that even if I could have sent that sort of reply, it wouldn’t have done an iota of good…but it sure is satisfying imagining it, anyway. (And, just in case anyone thinks I’m a big ol’ meanie, I’d like to point out that, in the course of my job, I daily apply credits - of anywhere from a $25 reactivation fee, to several thousand dollars worth of roaming or other charges - on the accounts I work, when they are justified. My job is basically fixing other people’s mistakes, and if an employee in my company screwed up, I will credit whatever it takes to make it right for the customer. But I won’t do it because someone is whining, having an entitlement attitude, and/or making excuses to get out of a valid bill.)

Supposed to move in 3 days and not even close to being packed up. Luckily, only 1 more day of work this week, then I can pack all day Friday…I hope I can stay motivated.

Karel & I had an early evening out - scrumptious dinner & scrumptious company, but wrapped up our visit sooner than we usually do, which is actually a good thing since I’ve been yawning since 9 pm. I’m going to meander down the hall & into bed before I start nodding off on the keyboard.

The team meeting that was supposed to be Tuesday got rescheduled for Thursday, so tomorrow I’ll find out if upper management has any new & interesting bombs to drop on us lowly peons. But I have a hovering suspicion that I have absolutely nothing to look forward to until after 4 pm tomorrow, when I get off work. At least some snuggly time with my beloved and a brand-spanking-new episode of CSI are worth some happy anticipation!

Good news: I got my Neopets account back, and - what a relief! - none of my items or np were taken. It’s nice to know that’s back, and I have Darlene T at Neopets customer service to thank for straightening that out.

Bad news: The union orientation meeting was today at work, and wow, was there bad news to be had! We’re officially union now, and the union is going to be “negotiating” for benefits & raises. Doesn’t sound bad, right? Oh, except for one little thing - as I’d feared, pay schedules & promotions will be entirely based on seniority, not on merit. Which means, no matter how good I am at my job, someone with more seniority will be paid more, regardless of their job performance. AND, no matter how qualified I am for a prospective job that I might apply for within the company, someone with more seniority will get the job instead of me if they have what’s considered “comparable” skill sets, even if they have zero experience and I have previous experience with a past employer. Seriously Not Okay.

And here’s the other craptastic news they gave us today: Except for one department (PF, which makes outgoing calls to customers), there will be NO jobs other than taking inbound calls, at some point in the foreseeable future. Yup, they told us “informally” that somewhere between 1-6 months from now, everyone in my department who hasn’t applied for & been hired to the PF department will be back on inbound calls - on a late shift, probably 12-9 pm.

NO WAY. I didn’t bust my ass on a year of part-time inbound calls, and do everything in my power to get into a full-time days shift with a department that didn’t take inbound calls, so that I could be bitch-slapped right back into it after working my ass off for the department I’ve been with for nearly a year now. If I’d wanted to work for the PF department, I’d have applied there instead of the department I’m with! And I absolutely will NOT go back to working a shift that gets me off work at 7, 8, or 9 pm. Fuq’ing hell, I only get to see Geoffrey for an hour daily, tops, as it is - if I work a later shift, I will literally NEVER get to see him during the week at all! I am utterly and thoroughly Not Okay with a job shift that means I only get to see the man I live with for maybe 30 waking hours a week, and that’s only if he & I spend every waking minute of our weekends together!!!

So I guess I will be socking away every spare cent for an emergency fund, hoping they lay me off prior to the first of January (so I can get severence pay), and plan on putting in my 2-week notice when they announce for certain that I’m being moved to inbound. Even if I don’t have a job secured to go to elsewhere, I seriously doubt my sanity will cope with 40 hours a week of inbound calls, and so if I have to scrape by without a job for a short while, then somehow I’ll have to manage without that particular income. The worst thing will be losing health insurance, even temporarily, since most companies don’t cover your health insurance for between 90-180 days after hiring.

I just have this sinking feeling that I can’t have everything go well. When my home life improves, my job falls apart. When my job is making me happy, my social life goes to shit. When everything else is holding steady & contentedly, a financial emergency slams me. Some days it feels like I just can’t win.

I’m so tired, I’m surprised I haven’t slipped into a coma. But it was for a good cause; my goal for this weekend - to get the entire foyer, living room, dining room, and master bedroom painted - was achieved! We even finished up a few hours earlier than I’d estimated we would, despite having to put a second coat of paint on the foyer walls.

Now one of my long-standing dreams is true: a bedroom with purple walls!!!

And we still have a half-gallon of the light purple, and over 2 gallons of the light grey (which is damned-near white, as it turned out…those paint sample cards they give you at the store lie like a cheap rug). But that means I can still paint the kitchen (not much actual wall-space to paint, though, as there are tons of cupboards) and downstairs bathroom…when I get the motivation, anyway.

Geoffrey and I, with help from Angst & Molly, really kicked ass on this. Next weekend…the actual move. The cats are already nervous, the kids are already hyped up, and I am already exhausted. Wheeee!

There are more pics of this weekend’s adventures in the townhouse gallery, including a little discovery we made when looking up at the second floor in the back patio area - there is a window in the master bedroom! Some idiot just decided to stick a (no-longer-functioning) air-conditioning unit in it, and then slap up panelling all over that entire wall, including over the window! (We’ll be ripping out all the panelling…just not this weekend.)

Based on the results of this test, it is highly likely that:

You prefer your romance and love to wild and daring rather than typical or boring, you would rather be pursued than do the pursuing and, when it comes to physical love, you concentrate more on enjoying the experience rather than worrying about your performance.

This places you in the Lover Style of: The Exotic Lover.

The Exotic Lover is a wonderful Lover Style, and conjures images of the exotic, romantic hero out of a romance novel, or perhaps a slightly dangerous and deadly sexy femme fatale from a noir mystery. The Exotic Lover loves pleasure and is a treasure to date, though it can be difficult to do so because they sometimes tend to be mysterious and reluctant to commit.

In terms of physical love, the Exotic Lover can be quite surprising, as they are often more exciting and adventurous than predicted. Given a little freedom, and the right lover, the Exotic Lover can be a delight in bed.

Best Compatibility can probably be found with: The Liberated Lover (most of all) or the Devoted Lover, or the Romantic Lover.

Link: The Lover Style Profile Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

Cordy is one of those characters who’s sometimes misunderstood. True, you have a healthy self-interest, and an interest in the finer things in life, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a heart of gold and a bit of passion in your soul.

In later years, Cordelia proved just how loving and good a woman she was, and (whether man or woman), I suspect you’re kind of like her.

Link: The 4-Variable Buffy Personality Test written by donathos on Ok Cupid

Wow, and I only took each test once. I always did like Cordy best. Sure, Buffy was more selfless & noble, but her relationship history was all drama & misery…Cordy may have been a bit fickle, but she (and her boyfriends!) certainly seemed to enjoy their interactions a lot more.

As Cordelia said, “When it comes to dating, I’m the Slayer!”

Wow, it’s already the eve of the painting-party weekend! Tonight I found out how much a 5-gallon bucket of paint weighs: half a metric butt-ton! Yes, Angst and I went to Home Despot to get paint and painting supplies; a gallon of Beyr’s color “Innuendo” (a light purple, and what a perfect paint name for my bedroom!) and 5-gallons of Beyr’s color “Quietude” (a light, shimmery grey…and I can only hope the name influences the atmosphere of the rooms where it will be painted).

I remembered everything that I wanted, in the way of painting supplies; the only exception was that I didn’t think about disposable face masks (to help prevent breathing too much paint fumes) until I was halfway home. Well, I thought of everything else, so I guess we’ll just have to have windows open while we paint. And hey, a semi-cute older (40-ish) guy flirted with me in the parking lot, which made me smile.

Lyse (she of the rarely-updated LJ) called last night, in a giddily-excited flurry, to tell me she’d gotten the keys to her new house, and a couple of roommates as well! I was amused by the thought of the Most Hetero Girl Ever having a pair of lesbians as housemates, but it got a lot funnier when she mentioned one is Jewish and one is Christian…seeing as how Lyse is Pagan, the holidays should be damned amusing at her house!

Karel took me out to dinner last night, which was scrumptious - not to mention quite possibly the last relaxing evening I’m going to have for a solid couple of weeks. Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and efficiently - but if not, I’ll grin & bear it. I’ve once again been reminded that life is too short to waste time on flipping out over the little things…as I also got bad news last night, namely the passing of a truly sweet guy named Randy Prinslow, who was instrumental at keeping my spirits up with the occasional lunch date when I first moved to Portland and nearly everything else in my life was not-so-great for quite a while. Randy once courted me very persistently & cheerfully, without being the least bit grumpy about me turning him down. He was enormously quirky and wonderful to talk with; the world will be rather less interesting without him.

Thirteen years ago today, after a mostly-easy labor spent in a jacuzzi (but making a grievous error in deciding to get out of said jacuzzi to actually give birth), my 9-pound daughter slipped into the world, a week early but about an hour late for lunch. Her sister thought she was the neatest toy ever.

That tiny bundle of joy is now just the barest bit shorter than me, and is definitely living up to the nickname with which I dubbed her about a decade ago, “Amazon Princess.” She’s clever, considerate, deeply caring, eminently practical, just a little dramatic, and generally an absolute delight. I can’t take all the credit for the wonderful kid she is, despite being her only biological parent since she was a tiny baby; I’ve had much-appreciated help along the way in various parenting aspects from Robert, Lyse, Geoffrey, Molly, and even her big sister.

Time to update the mantra again, the one I use whenever there are small shrieky children around…”Thank heavens my youngest is 13!”