Generally speaking, if it’s not dairy, it will be fine on the counter overnight.
ETA: If that turns out to have been your final post, I will host a pot-luck in your memory. 
I worry I’m going to die from stress. April is just too fucking much. Work is kicking my ass. I agreed to write a federal grant due the 24th. Federal grants are like… a whole thing. They are intense. I usually cry at least once (will today be the day…? outlook looks grim.) Two solid weeks is pushing it, and I barely have that. I was supposed to be on vacation next week because my MIL is in town but I don’t see really being able to relax until after this fucker has been submitted. My biggest, deepest concern is people will not deliver what I need on time. There’s also another project that they’ve decided is urgent despite obviously having no fucking clue what the funder wanted them to submit for. AND I FUCKING WROTE THE THING ONCE ALREADY. Now they are saying that’s not what it’s supposed to be for. And I have MDHHS quarterlies and semi-annual reports (which I’ve never done before) due on the 30th.
But that’s not all, no no no. My son is being evaluated by the school district on the 13th for autism, and he is having his ADOS on the 28th and he starts therapy on the 17th so I’m going to have even less time to write this grant hauling him to therapy and back. Four sessions a week from now on. His Dad is covering one day and I’m covering the other day. Also I have two stress/overeating-related cavities which I have to have filled on my fucking vacation time that I’m probably not going to have anyway. I am so tired of cavities.
I am having ADHD from hell. I need to talk to my psychiatrist about upping the dosage. And I have been so anxious about everything going on in my life I’ve had to Ativan myself to sleep every night. That’s not a good thing. I usually take it for maybe a week or so to get through tough weeks but it’s been probably a month and a half of taking it most nights. I just lay awake worrying about a) my son or b) work.
Gosh, did I miss anything? How about my stupid fucking addiction to the internet. I started posting on reddit again. I’ve been trying to set up my app blockers to really get this taken care of, I set it up on my phone this morning to block me after 1 hour of usage, turns out I had it blocking the WEBSITE, not the app, there goes two fucking hours.
Thank you I just needed to get it out.
I want to make it clear that our beef is with the incompetents that run the system and not with the staff on the ground who did as much as they could to help.
I pit South Western Railway. They are the company that (I think - it is not simple) runs the rail link between Southampton and Leamington Spa.
Yesterday, my wife, in her wheelchair and with a small wheeled suitcase, was booked to travel on that line. At Southampton she was told that there was no service between those stations this side of Easter, The best they could do was to take her part way, then put her on a replacement bus to Oxford. At Oxford, someone would decide what to do from there.
After an hour’s wait, she set off, only to grind to a stop in the middle of nowhere due to a mechanical problem. They sat there for an hour and a half and then, finally, made it to Didcot (about 30 minutes drive from Oxford) where the train was terminating. In the meantime, I drove down (a 90-minute drive) to meet her. She was too exhausted to carry on.
Not even a small wheeled carry on?
.
[Gotta run, sorry I couldn’t stay to feel embarrassed by what I did there… I do feel for you and your wife, but I couldn’t resist.]
I think I may be getting arthritis. I sometimes do stretching exercises, and recently my joints have hurt during them. Guess I will have to consider myself officially old.
We have tried hooking it on the back like a trailer, but reversing was a bit tricky… 
Jeez, I came here to bitch about the McDonald’s breakfast bagel I just got (yeah, I know … don’t judge me, they used to be delicious and I was craving what I remembered) but dang, @Spice_Weasel and wife of @bob_2 got it way worse. I’ll just shut up and eat my stale bagel sammich.
I actually feel a lot better now, if it helps. This is really just temporary insanity. It helped when I remembered that panic is a perfectly natural part of the process of writing a federal grant, and not indicative of the outcome. It also helped to remind myself that it’s highly unlikely that this grant would be funded even if it were the best written thing in the world, so I do not need to do an A+ job if it comes to that. The reason I suggested we go for the grant is because if nothing else, it would force us to hammer out the details of this program which we could then use for future funding opportunities.
I’m still worried about my kid, ironically I’m worried they are going to tell me he’s not autistic and therefore he won’t get the help he needs. Insurance will not cover his therapy without a diagnosis. My husband says there is no chance of that happening and he has clinical experience with this, so I’m taking his word for it. But it’s just stupid, he’s made some progress, some really good progress including some language gains, and a little pretend play with his stuffed racecar, and I should be celebrating but instead I’m worrying it will invalidate his diagnosis somehow. “Sorry, your kid put glasses on his stuffed racecar. Not autistic.” I will feel better when the evaluation process is over, at least until the next evaluation.
I’m quite sure that scenario isn’t realistic.
Thanks for the sympathy, but note my opening remark. It was pretty traumatic for her, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse if it hadn’t been for the efforts of the staff who went out of their way to help as best they could.
I have also discovered that one of the problems that caused the delays and cancellations was some poor guy who was hit and killed by a train on a crossing. This caused major disruptions. Not only do they have to get various crews to a very rural scene, but the engine has to be inspected and the driver relieved before anything can move.
I fully support your right to bitch about your sammich regardless of whatever else is going on in the world. Just sayin’
Thanks, @Broomstick it kinda sucked, esp. for what I paid.
{ old ppl rant } It used to be tasty! And cheap!
Now get offa my (nonexistent) lawn!
/{ old ppl rant }
I agree, probably not realistic (though in combination with other things, who knows?), but the underlying sentiment is both genuine and reasonable. I remember the struggles we had to get our daughter the services she needed back when she was in elementary school. It was an uphill battle all the way, with what seemed like a never-ending series of hoops to jump through, if I may mix some metaphors. At one point she needed to do badly on a particular test to qualify, and I remember–nearly thirty years down the road–our worries that this time she’d actually do okay, because that’s the way the universe works. So I completely get where @Spice_Weasel is coming from. Hang in there, SW.
Thanks. It helps that we sent a list of our concerns and a some videos to the evaluating psychologist. She couldn’t really come out and say, “Yeah, this kid is clearly autistic” but she said she can imagine we’ve been going through hell trying to get him services and she hopes to help in this regard, and she uses more than just the ADOS to make her diagnosis and will DEFINITELY be using the videos and our letter too, and she understands some autistic kids have pretty good eye contact and are better with adults, and she doesn’t expect the teachers to notice as much as the parents, basically everything I was worried about she addressed in one way or another, so I SHOULD feel better…
And of course after this there are even more hoops because the insurance company is making us go through this twice. This diagnosis only counts for them as temporary authorization for services until we get him evaluated at an official Autism Evaluation Center, so we could get a diagnosis, get him services and a year from now, they could take it all away. Sigh.
On a much more minor note, THEY have decided that all “Diet X” drinks must be replaced with “X Zero” drinks. The soda powers that be in my province has just decided to stop selling my favourite, Diet Dr. Pepper, ENTIRELY in favour of the much-less-nice “Pepper Zero,” and more and more if I order a Diet Coke in a restaurant, I’m hearing, “We have Coke Zero, is that okay?”
The rant is broken down:
- They are not equivalent tastes. The Zeroes are too sweet for me and rather unpleasant.
- I think the switch is sexist (I suspect the “diet” is too associated with women in the minds of their marketers) and ageist (I also suspect the “diet” is too associated with middle-aged people in the minds of their marketers).
- There is no reason to make this change other than the frivolous desire to make a change. Nobody’s complaining about a product that’s been selling well for 50 years.
- There’s no way for me to order the product I want from the places that are still selling it, which is ridiculous.
- I fear it’s a matter of time before my second-favourite, Diet Coke, goes 100% zero, at which point I say goodbye to my good friend demon caffeine altogether.
Have you considered telling the people who are supposed to provide you stuff that on such-and-such date #1–in advance of the absolute last acceptable nanosecon that stuff can be delivered for you to still get the job done in time–if said people have not delivered said stuff to you, you will, on such-and-such date #2 send a reminder to them with a courtesy copy of said reminder to said people’s supervisor?
I need to quit going to the grocery store on weekends for my weekly shopping. It’s crowded, people don’t pay attention to where they’re going or what’s happening around them, people are bringing their fucking dogs into the store, and the store management decides that’s when they should stock the shelves, rather than overnight when the store is deserted.
I need to start going at, like, Wednesday night at 9pm. Might be a lot better for my stress level.
The person I used to copy on these nagging emails no longer works there and they didn’t replace her role. And usually these folks are the senior leadership…so it’s harder to call people out. But I’ve never minced words about this kind of stuff, if it continues to happen there will be a conversation about it. I have a boss but the nature of my job often requires me to manage my superiors… It’s an interesting place to be, and I guess why the new CEO felt I should be treated as senior leadership too. I just have major anxiety around deadlines and people taking their sweet ass time ramps it to eleven. If I were the only person needed for a grant, I would have it done three days ahead of time!
How dare you challenge the foundation of marketing? Why, next you’ll be saying there’s no need to update software and user interfaces that are working perfectly well.
I’ve written a few grants (and failed to get the majority of them). Federal ones are definitely the worst!. I have told my superiors on multiple occasions that if they don’t actually want the grant then I am the person to write it!
My favorite is when the grant is for some pittance. In my opinion anything under $100,000 isn’t worth the effort. The reporting requirements are onerous and chew up way to much of the funds.
Good luck!