Post solely for the purpose of seeing my new icon.

Thanks Shael!

How many times can you lose the same person before they become lost forever?

Current Mood: depressed

My Uncle Jim passed away Friday night. He was 57.

I had a nice weekend between visiting with Chris and my roleplaying group meeting this afternoon.  And yet things continue to be horrible with my family to the point where I dread going home.

Jenny, Anna's mom, stayed behind after Anna went back to Vegas. Jenny and Jim have been divorced for twenty/thirty years, and she was supposed to "help" my grandmother. She was sick before Anna left and my mom and grandma both said it was a bad idea. And yet no one bothers to stand up and speak up and tell her to go home.  So Saturday jenny calls 911 and checks herself into Washington hospital with pneunoia.

So now Jenny is sick in one hospital and Jim is ill in another. Creating additional burden on my mom and grandma.

My cell phone died on Friday, so I was out of touch while all of this crap was going down. Heard about it Sunday night after the fact.

I feel sick. Physically I'm hurting and I had a bladder infection last week, which I'm on antibiotics for, so technically I can't blame that anymore.  My mom is also a mess, as is my grandma.

People and their rampant stupidity that just makes life worse...pisses me off and leaves me baffled. And of course, I'm really rather helpless. Not much I can do other than observe and just shake my head as people continue to destruct around me.

I feel weirdly guilty about having left a couple hickeys on Chris' neck. I got carried away.

Going to bed. I have a full day of nice relaxing auto accidents ahead of me tomorrow. Scary how my job is something I can view as an escape from home.

Current Mood: exhausted

My Uncle Jim is in the hospital, dying, probably of a failing liver.  My mother is too upset to talk about it, so I arrived home from work to the drama, and yet am pretty much in the dark.  I don't know exactly what to feel, but right now I'm mostly drained. Just this emptiness, and I suppose that I'm secretly relieved that this happened while my parents were in California instead of Arkansas.

Additionally, my little sister got hit in a parking lot accident tonight. She called here crying and after she talked to my dad, it got handed off to me.

I've determine using my Claims Adjuster Super Power that Jessica is not at fault.  Also had to walk her through what information she needed to get from the guy that hit her, and will probably get stuck reporting the claim.

I talked with Chris twice today, which is a lot considering that we were talking to each other twice a week before last weekend. It makes me nervous.  I like this guy a lot but he's heading to a job in another state, and I really don't want to be anything more than sad when he goes.

Public update:

Ally returns tomorrow from Florida. She is coming home early because Mark is going to have knee surgery this week.


In a clever fake-out, Sean nailed my chin with the top of his head, slamming my jaw shut and my upper teeth cutting into my lower lip.  I now have a fat lip to go with my general sleepiness.

Long weekend, but good.  Very good.

Heading to bed. Over and out.

But it's so cute!

It came in the mail from Amazon today along with a sports armband. Gotta say, vast improvement over running with your phone and three feet of cable that tangles persistently and consistently.

It takes less willpower to run two miles than it does to walk past a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie, and leave it unmolested.

Previous parts here

Title:  Sanrio Knights

Author: Acerbic

Time: Post Chosen / NFA

Rating: PG-13 (A swear word or two)

Notes: Feedback makes me write faster. Lavish praise makes me write really fast. ;-)

Jess is home from school for the next two weeks, which is pretty cool. The boys get to sleep on the floor and couch in the bonus room, which for them is just like camping. So far as holidays go, this one has just rocked. I'm employed and as happy as I've been in ages, especially finally being free of that terrible relationship I had with Brett for so long.

Went to San Ramon this morning and spoke with a tech recruiter. Still no word on the Clarity position, but I'm trying to cover my bases. The work with the PWA is gone, and they haven't renewed my contract for next month. So I'm trying to be forward-looking. Preparation, what it's all about!

I've gotten into a debate over on poor_skills that is pretty amusing if only for the total lack of reasoning skills that some people demonstrate. (For the sake of illustration: One poster has insisted that she can "logically" deduct *my* beliefs on adoption, reproduction and family values from my stance that responsible pet owners do not allow their animals to breed while thousands of animals are put to sleep every yar in kill shelters.)

Mind you, that's all I've commented on: animal reproduction. I've said nothing on orphanages or people, and yet this girl thinks she can know my mind based on a single stance. The original poster is now agreeing with the second, insisting that it must be true because they say so.

I've an opinion on reproduction, which is fairly apt with regards to these two, and it goes something like this: Some people should not breed.

And that's entirely aside and apart as to "the why" of my beliefs about pet reproduction.

Edit: Bummer, didn't get the position with Clarity. Apparently, they were unable to find anyone that met their requirements exactly, and so the position will just go unfilled. I'm disappointed, but not devastated. If it'd been meant to be, then it'd have happened.

So...

I run out of work at work this week. I haven't been told *not* to come into work on Tuesday, so hopefully, they're thinking about finding something productive for me to do.

No word on the Clarity interview yet.

Took Seth to his preschool party on Friday morning, and the kids were so cute, exhanging presents and practicing their song. Then that night my mom, Sean, and I attended Seth's little Christmas pagent. The two and three year olds were funny and cute, but not very musical. The four year old classes did much better, and OBVIOUSLY Seth's class was the very best!  *G*

I'm one week into my new exercise program. Been trying to walk at least once every day. It's really helpful when my parents are out of town to take Sparky out for a spin. (While I am more of a cat person than a dog, there are simply certain functions that a feline cannot perform.)

Attended the writer's club luncheon today and the speaker was awesome! I got so much out of it, and it's werid how just a couple hours can be so inspiration. I'm watching pulp fiction now, but once it's over, I'm gonna get going with some writing.

Okay, so short update, cause I'm height challenged!

Had my interview with Clarity Medical yesterday, and it went pretty well. They were nice people, and didn't have that crafty/deceitful quality of the people at ABB.  After so many unsuccessful interviews, I'm naturally cautious about making too much of it. They had pretty stringent requirements for software engineering documentation, but I had everything else they wanted in terms of medical device documentation. They're doing interviews this week, and are supposed to make a decision by the end of the week/beginning next week. Wish me luck!

Seth has a Christmas party with his preschool this Friday, and then a pagent Friday night. Little people singing! It's gonna be so cute!

And Sean...Sean's been in nonstop trouble for weeks. It's like he's said to Santa, "I DARE YOU!"

Got my new phone today!

Had a job interview on the phone today with a software engineer for Clarity Medical.  I have a real life interview Friday afternoon. It's tech writing, full time, contract, and here in Pleasanton. Doesn't get much better than that. So fingers crossed.

Not much else to report other than a head cold.

My Holiday fic is up at Noel of Spike.


I got a new jacket today at Macy's. It's lambskin, and Jones of New York. 40% off the original price, and then another 20% off of that. It's chocolate and buttery soft, and I'm very pleased.

Rented S1D1 of Bones from Blockbuster.

The Munsters come home from Fremont in about an hour. Then the peace of the house shall be shattered with a joint whirlwind of noise and activity.

Oh, and I've announced a fic request raffle. The first person to guess the very first BtVS ship that I ever wrote fanfic about wins.

(And Elanor, you're excluded from this special limited time offer. ;-))

The sales today were pathetic. I saw a couple things at Fry's that I would've bought if I'd been willing to stand in a line that wrapped around the entire inside of the store. But I wasn't and I didn't. Scoped out Toys R Us and Best Buy as well as two independent game stores. I walked out of all four empty handed other than for some DS Lite styluses. The regular DS styluses are impossible to find, and I had to buy the Lites out of desperation even though they're too fat to fit in the DS slot.

Lesson learned: the stores are being stingy this year with the deals, and Ninetendo sucks.

Ultimately placed a large order of games from Amazon because they had the best pricing overall. Also ordered some of the correct styluses from Target.

And that pretty much wraps up my shopping for the year, other than needing still to pick up a present for my dad and uncle. In all likihood, those presents shall be found at Costco, which has a unique talent for carrying Stuff That Men Like.

ohmigod. I shopped; and now I have dropped. Four hours and five stores later.

This is sorta sad, but I'm gonna put my call out here. Anyone into roleplaying who'd be interested in playing Spike opposite Buffy? All of this Buffy writing I've been doing has me in the mood to try my hand at her in roleplay.

and in other news, I'm almost done with my xmas shopping. just a few things left on my list. mostly for my dad, and the boys. Oh, and I need to find something for my uncle....

I never seem to be able to manage to post fic to LJ without some sort of problem. This morning I posted part 5 of Choices to Seasonal_Spuffy like some sort of attention crazed maniac, totally not respecting the sanctity of whoever's day it is. So for that (if anyone noticed before I hit delete) , I apologize.

I have graphics envy. It feels like every other author has some cool banner for their stories/series. I'm bannerless. boop.

Am off now. With any luck I can shower and get the kids over to the theater in time to get tickets for Happy Feet.

Happy Feet! eeeiiieee!