I don’t live in the states- and as I’m on a 0 hours casual contract, the effect of any complaining or insistence on being paid for the crap he pulls would be no more shifts, so basically no job, and it’d be very difficult to fight.
I know I’m basically letting him get away with dodgy crap, but I can’t afford to argue right now- I spent too long unemployed in recent tears.
Great typo, Filbert, and sorry you have to basically put up with crap. I hope the pay is enough to live on (and to get drunk once in a while).
Sometimes that’s just what you have to do - put up with the crap, and keep looking for better.
Best of luck with the looking! 
I know that you know this, but it is not your fault that you got pre-eclampsia. I felt the same way after my first was born. I spent a week in the hospital playing we’re-inducing-you-today-no-we’re-not-tomorrow-for-sure-actually-your-numbers-look-better before they finally started it. And then I was in labor for two days, including 4 hours of pushing, before they gave up and did a C-section. The experience was dreadful, and I spent years blaming myself for it. When I finally got pregnant again, I was gung-ho to have a VBAC, signed up a doula that would support it - and three days later, was diagnosed with placenta previa. I ended up in the hospital for nine weeks before the baby was born, and I spent most of it alternating between blaming myself and blaming the doctor who decided it really was time to induce me the first time around.
Now I just blame myself for wasting all that time and worry instead of enjoying my newborns.
I’m sure that you feel like you could have avoided it if you’d just done some weird thing that your sister-in-law’s cousin’s best friend’s midwife advised. But you didn’t. And you still have a wonderful baby, who is a miracle right there in front of you. There are no do-overs for what has already happened, but you can put your time into grieving what you didn’t have instead of obsessing over how you could have “fixed” it, and into doing this part the way you want to. Please do that. I promise you, the other way is no fun at all.
My car is filthy and I’ll never be able to wash it again. I put my rain suit and a sponge by the door. If it ever rains again, I am going to run outside and try to at least wipe some dirt off it.
Pathetic rant: A few weeks ago, I did some legal consulting for a friend of my boss, all through email or phone calls. Through the process, we hit it off enough that we started discussing meeting for a drink or something some time. The only thing is, the only time he ever communicates information is around 6:10 or so, when I’m already on my way home or might have made other plans. When I was helping him with his problem, he was accessible any time, but I think that was because he was so worried about the issue at hand. Now, he’s much harder to reach.
Yesterday, he sent an email asking if today would be good. I responded within three minutes, asking about a time and location, but didn’t receive any response. Likewise, today has been utter silence. I called once and left a voicemail, but didn’t try again, so as not to seem overbearing. Meanwhile, I’ve had invitations to two other things, but since I’ve tentatively made plans, I’ve had to decline both.
I just know that he’s going to fall through. Thing is, he’s the one who keeps pushing the “meeting” issue, so I don’t feel like I’m hounding him or trying to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do.
I know everyone is different, but if I send an email and I get a reply within five minutes, asking for a quick reply, I’ll respond immediately. Or, if something has come up in the few minutes since I had been checking my email, I’ll make a point to respond to it at the earliest available time. I just hate having to decline invites for “sure things” because I’ve made a tentative acceptance to something else, especially when it looks like the initial plans may not occur. I don’t know the guy, so I hate to blow him off, since for all I know, he’s had something major come up. It just seems like common courtesy to either confirm plans or cancel them, so the other person isn’t left hanging.
At this point I would send him another email saying you would love to get together sometime but you need at least 24 hours’ notice. And leave it at that. If he can’t be bothered to give you that much courtesy, why do you want to hang out with him in the first place?
Good point. He seems to possibly be one of those “Let’s do something after work next week. We’ll figure out details later” types, and then the next week comes and you don’t hear anything until the last minute.
If it wasn’t my boss’s friend, I’d be much more apt to write him off completely. I just want to make sure that nothing comes back to bite me in the ass somehow.
I think you know enough about this guy’s style to not turn down sure-things for him any more - maybe in the future an acceptance of plans with him could look something like this: “That sounds great! Let me know the time and place in the next half hour, and I’ll see you there!” If nothing in the next half hour, you’re free for the night.
I too get annoyed by people who are not careful with my time; there’s ways around that, though (like not making firm plans with people who won’t be nailed down).
I painted part of my basement floor today, with results I probably could have anticipated.
It occurred to me as she strolled across the wet floor the first time that I probably should have locked her up somewhere until the floor was drier.
I’m sorry, I was already laughing when I clicked on the pics. I knew just what to expect. 
I once painted a room without locking Fred out. That was a very bad idea.
How bad was the clean up? Fred walked through a painting tray full of latex paint, then ran over carpet. Getting latex paint off kitty paws isn’t fun, I’ll bet concrete paint is even worse.
We were planning a nice relaxing weekend at home, but suddenly Bill had to fly away to stomp out some fires. This time, one of the protesters sucker punched one of the evil earth raping pipeline guys. The protester got punched back. No surprise there.
The big surprise when we watched the video was that we were able to clearly see that the protester started complaining that he was hurt and needed someone to help him up. The protester unlocked himself and when the EERP guy bent down to help the protester clocked the EERP guy with a chain. He had clearly planned to hurt someone.
Long story short, Bill flew out to be sure that the protester is charged, that his crewman is OK and to settle things down with the rest of the crew. I knew it would be like this coming in. I was used to our long distance relationship and didn’t think I’d miss him so much, but dang. It got different somewhere along the line.
Not too bad - Jim wiped off her paws after he caught her and sequestered her, and she only got a little bit of paint on the rugs. I’ll touch up the floor tomorrow and see how it looks.
…well, duh…you didn’t paint a bare concrete floor, you just repainted it. I was thinking the thick stuff that is used on bare concrete.
Well, anyhow, cat rants are always valid 
That floor is a rant all of its own - I think carpet was pulled up, and the glue left behind. You can’t sweep it or wash it or get the fuzzies or hair off of it - all you can really do is paint over it and make the glue disappear.
We just got back from India. The trip was absolutely wonderful - got to spend time with family, see some stunning, inspiring sights and the kids got to experience a whole other culture, with all its warts and beauty. Of course, they also got to experience diarrhea like never before. We didn’t drink the water, but the food wasn’t quite what they were used to, resulting in a gastrointestinal revolt. My daughter got over it quickly, but my poor son had it for a day and a half, up to the time we got on the plane when it finally subsided. The flights went smoothly, but I spent most of the 22-hour flights and layovers pumping him with Sprite to replenish his liquids and asking him if he needed to go to the bathroom and when he did go to pee, asking him if something else came out, too.
Finally, we got home. He was fine - his system had calmed down and he was well hydrated. And then I got it. Goddammit. I’ve been up all fucking night. After being awake for more than 24 hours. Oh, well - small price to pay for going to India. But I thought I’d gotten over it last week. I’m not sure if it’s good (I’m trying to lose weight anyway) or bad (methodology is flawed), but I’ve lost almost 10 pounds this trip.
I went to the bank today. I am often astonished by just how many people at the bank don’t know how to stand in line properly. Also, on the bus ride home, a girl was cutting her nails on the bus. 
Why do people do that in public? I saw a guy doing that in a library once.
You can buy a big can of Gatorade powder that you mix with water to keep yourself hydrated - I went through about half of one the last time I had a serious bout of diarrhea.
To the person who broke into my car last night, I really hope you enjoy your new 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer owner’s manual. I’m sorry that I didn’t have much change in my ashtray, but at least you got a belt out of the deal.
Additionally, I’m not sure as to why you bothered to unscrew the pens that were in my glove compartment and leave the components scattered around my car, but… ok.
The only thing that sucks is that they also took my apartment key (it’s on a separate chain from my car keys, b/c we need to use a fob to enter our complex’s garage) and there were some random documents with my apartment’s address, so until the complex can change my locks on Monday, I’m going to be a shut-in. This might be my excuse to go to RedBox and rent “The Stick of Truth” and binge-play it.
Goddammit, it’s snowing again. This winter is never going to end. It’s the end of March and the ground is covered in snow. I am not dreaming of a white Easter.
And my wrist still hurts. Doctor wants to give me a cortisone shot, but the last time I had one of those I passed out in the doctor’s office. No thank you.
Very WAG: Looking to see if components of any of them could be repurposed into a crack pipe, in some fashion?
