November 14, 2024
It looks like today is the 7th anniversary of my first Everyday Life diary.?
5:50a – I wake up a little bit stiff, needing to stretch. I knew that I had a long, detailed dream, but cannot remember any of it. I wish they could hang around long enough for me to document, or something. I feel dehydrated, so I get up, and grab a glass of water from the kitchen. The glass out of the cabinet has crud on the side, and I worry that we will have to call maintenance, and have them install a new dishwasher. We just did that in 2019 I think. Do dishwashers only last 5 years??
6:05a – Last night I started the movie Scarface while waiting for my partner to return home from an out-of-town work trip. I’m so glad she made it home ok – it was raining badly in Southern Indiana and the hills and tiny roads weren’t helping. I stopped it when she arrived, and there is an hour left, so I decided to finish it while continuing to wake up.?
7:00a – I attempt to catch up on some news but it’s too disgusting and physically irritating to watch much of. Matt Gaetz, really? I need to get used to being back in that mindset from 2017-2020 where whatever the worst case scenario was, that’s what would happen.?
7:10a – I am trying to not go into a stress spiral; I now have just shy of $X0,000 of credit card debt, and I don’t know how I will climb out of that. I had to rack up a decent chunk of that to survive as both my partner and I regained proper jobs after having both lost our jobs last November. I throw $X00/month at it, and it is more than the minimum, so that will have to do for now. The key is to make the rest of my paychecks last until the next one comes around, so I don’t feel tempted to use the cards for everyday stuff. This on top of trying to save any money is tricky. I am choosing to think that things are not that bad; we have been on quite the emotional and financial uptick this year. It doesn’t help that today is day 14 of the pay period. I get more money tomorrow, but I ran out back on Saturday. It’s been a rough several days. I’ll feel better in the morning when I wake up and pay off several things.?
7:20a – I pop on my audiobook of Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”, and go into the kitchen to make coffee. While that goes, I unload and reload the dishwasher. Fully ½ the clean dishes are not, so I think it’s clear something is going on with it. I fit in as many new dirty dishes as I can, and set it going. I look out the back patio door, and those Halloween jack-o’lanterns really are dead. I wish I hadn’t thrown away that snow shovel, because I am sure these things are too squishy to just pick up. All they need is to be moved 15 feet into the stand of trees behind the building here.??
7:45a – I keep on with my book and have the coffee. I get a whiff of cat poo, and am reminded that someone here needs to clean the cat boxes before people are here tomorrow night for our regular game night. I checked the weather – 52 now, headed to 57 later. I am that guy that wears shorts all year, and I’ve worn proper pants to work every day this week thus far; I really want to be comfortable today, so I am weighing how much side-eye I might get at work today for the shorts. Pretty quickly I realize I don’t care. We are there for our ability, not our expressions of who we are (I sometimes like to joke that shorts ARE my gender identity.).
8:00a – Time to get ready for work. The usual plan is to leave out by 8:30, so it’s time to get moving. Teeth, hair, pits, clothes – the outfit’s yellows, greys, and browns recognize the autumn where my bare calves refuse. That Bo Burnham song “Comedy” is stuck in my head. Dawkins is talking about cargo cults. At 8:23, I feed the cats, and get dressed.?
8:30a – My partner sets an alarm for 8:30 every day, so she is awake to kiss me goodbye for the day. I go into the bedroom, snuggle her good morning, and take my leave. During the drive, I think about:
- Spotify loves feeding me Nick Drake for some reason.
- Do I annoy people when I talk about things? I once explained what *the song playing right now* was about when it was immediately obvious what it’s about just from the lyrics.
- I wonder how Jocelyn Knudsen is doing.?
- I wonder how quiet today’s work shift will be.?
- I’m really happy my job is quiet and slow, but should I feel guilty about that? I see coworkers running around with their heads on fire. I guess workplace trauma is real…coming from my last job that was on fire all the time. I am glad I am not micromanaged, and my supervisor trusts me to do this job.?
8:55a – My usual morning ritual is to run through the drive-thru at Dunkin Donuts for an XL coffee and sometimes a breakfast sandwich, but I drove straight to work today, to save money. That was part of the reason why I made some this morning at home before I left. So for today, I took the knock-off Stanley tumbler my work gave me, and filled it at the water station. Maybe that will in some way satisfy my need to have a morning beverage at my side while I start in on my first work tasks. I always feel like I am making ALL the right health decisions when I drink water! How many steps do I have so far today? My work-study staffer lets me know of her Thanksgiving week scheduling needs, and I let her know everything will be fine with those.?
9:15a – I have this piece of equipment here in my office that I really need for my job, but I have no idea how it works, and no one here around me does either. I need to make it a point to figure it out and get it going, so that this 1 crucial part of my job can finally happen. I am listening out of my office door, to 2 co-workers having some kind of impromptu walking meeting, saying how some unidentified things “are a bit of a mess right now”. Again, I feel like I lucked out here, having MUCH fewer things going wrong in my very slow department-of-one(plus my work-study). Also luckily, as slow as my department-of-me is, my company is not allowed, by law, to exist unless my department is here. So I probably have the safest job in this whole building. I have a job they can’t get rid of, and a supervisor that is way too busy to keep any kind of tabs on me, and wouldn’t know what she’s even looking at if she did (because she doesn’t have the specialized education needed for this position – I’m not coming down on her here; she is a lovely person). It’s very comfortable here, being the only person in the building that does what I do, so I am pretty much left alone to do it.. Don’t get me wrong – I am not lazy; I am not afraid of doing work, as long as it is worthwhile. Several people here, supervisor included, have commented very positively about how many good new changes are being made, and how much more activity there is in my area.?
9:40a – I plan on lunch at 11. My work-study person leaves at noon, and my partner has a meeting at 1, so it will be good to both get back in time to not leave my department unattended, and get out of my partner’s way before her meeting. Reminding myself now to look through doordash options in an hour or so. There is a credit on there I’m going to use (they screwed up last night and returned $33). I love how grey and quiet it is outside.?
9:50a – I run downstairs to take care of one of the daily tasks. TIme to move around some. One downside to my job is how sedentary it is. Good Lord – only 438 steps for the day. That’s sad. We can fix it, though! OK, it’s 695 now with plenty of day left. I turn on Richard Dawkins again; I’m only 55% of the way through it, so I’d like to get on with it. Since Trump was elected, I have felt the need to find solace in the good places. So I’ve been reading this, and I will start “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism” soon. HOLY SHIT the Onion bought Infowars – that’s amazing! I listen to the book while I continue to hold things down, and read news, poke around to see what the Facebook Muncie Awareness group regulars are on about, attend to minor work tasks like emails, etc., and generally be available for the time being.?
10:45a – My partner messages me, letting me know her meeting is canceled, so she wanted to know if I’d want to meet her for lunch somewhere, before she then goes to grab some house things at Target, her favorite store – she gets paid 2 days before I do. I immediately jump at it, YES, let’s do one of our patented Panera work-day lunches. I’ll wait until about 11:10 to leave, so that the work-study will be gone when I get back…and will have no way of knowing how long I’m gone. I do NOT abuse lunch breaks, but is there really THAT much of a difference between 55 minutes and 65? I am salary after all, and I assure you the time spent working evens out in the end. I finish a CNN clip, where they are talking about how spectacularly unqualified several of Trump’s new cabinet picks are, and at 11:05, I head to my car. I’m now 61% through Dawkins.?
12:20p – Back in my office. OK, so lunch was 75 minutes. Everything’s fine, I worked 9 hours on Tuesday.. I made the quick jump up to McGalliard, waited maybe 2 minutes in the Panera parking lot, for her to join me, and we went in. She was in a great mood, as was I to be there doing this. We ordered, sat down, and chatted about whatever – her aunt getting out of jail in March, a prank I pulled on an ex-coworker, some of her office drama, being excited for putting up the Christmas tree this weekend, my hypothesis that she will be able to guess any gift I give her based only on its wrapping, and needing to look for a butter ornament, because she has used a ton of it this year, baking. I realllllllly wanted to blow off work and join her for the afternoon, but other days coming up required my PTO more. Instead, we hug a little at my car, and she heads off towards her errands. My work-study is gone, so now I will emerge from my office to sit in the public-facing area of my department. I have my Pepsi refill here by my keyboard. And I grabbed the water too, so I can continue being reproachlessly healthy. People in here are busy, contentedly attending to their own business. There is a little bit of a murmur coming from the main hallway, out the door and around a corner. Watching people come and go from this huge picture window. It’s nice and peaceful.?
12:28p – I guess the running theme of this day is “good little things”. Things that really don’t matter in the grand scheme, but make it a nice Thursday. So, I suppose then that means they really DO matter.?
1:09p – Up to 1,237 steps now for the day. I need to take a walk or something.?
1:35p – Prepping for this one regular meeting I have every Thursday at 2. Kind of a silly bureaucratic thing that higher-ups like doing because it makes things look good I guess? I also checked on a friend who was having kind of a rough day, yesterday, with her anxiety. The acoustics in this room do not absorb sound at all, and my 1 coworker can really project…I wish he’d stop talking, but it’s his job. Maybe if he could pull some of the force out of his voice…he’s on a Zoom, he doesn’t need to talk to them like they are me, way on the other side of the room.?
2:32p – My meeting is done. We were able to turn the meeting into something productive, including potentially adding a couple of new tools to our department’s work stations. But anyway…back at my post now. I am wondering if I SHOULD include thoughts of Muncie here in these EDLM diaries. Admittedly I really haven’t considered this city at all during the day. If something like that pops up, I’ll include it. But I think the point of these is to just document what we do and think about…it’s not required that any certain thing be included.?
3:13p – Still at my post. My partner is on her way to a work thing in Richmond. Her job is work-from-home except for when she has to go to 1 of the counties she covers for her organization. Some weeks she doesn’t leave the house, and some she’s all over the place. This week is one of the ones out in the field. My anxious friend replies back saying she is doing a lot better today, which is great to hear. I also replied to another friend who approached me last week about me running a DnD one-shot for them. I had some initial questions for her, and so now we are working out those plans.?
3:50p – People are starting to leave the building for the day, and I want to go with them! As grey and chilly as it is, it’s time to go home and get comfortable. Maybe I should work out what we will do for dinner tonight. My partner won’t be back until 6:30-7, so I could try and get something going for when she gets home. I really am sick of ordering out. I begin looking for a good crock pot recipe, until I leave at 4:30. But in the middle of this, she messages me, asking for her favorite, chicken McNuggets. So, that solves that!
4:24p – Finally get to go home! Walking out to the car now. Spotify gave me a November playlist, it really matches how dark and cloudy it was outside. On the way home, going up Wheeling, a Mustang leaving Lahody’s meats was hanging way too far out into traffic. I move over to miss the car, then swerve back into the lane, emphasizing their error. I wondered for a second if the car would follow me, out of anger, but it didn’t. I finish the drive home, and put away this morning’s dishes. This time, maybe 75% got washed. Better! I loaded it again with more dirty dishes, but it wasn’t enough to run again, so I flipped the magnet to “DIRTY”. Having changed into loungey clothes, I find something to watch with the cats, until my partner gets home. Being a male “childless cat lady” is just fine with me, fuck you very much, JD Vance!?
4:53p – She calls me, letting me know her work thing is over already. She says most of what needed done could have been emailed to her. Annoying! At least she’s getting that sweet sweet mileage reimbursement. And, she’ll be back home all the quicker! I sat down to a few Oreos and Good Mythical Morning. And the video showing the moment Alex Jones found out he lost Infowars to the Onion. Delicious.?
6:15p – She arrived at 6:15, and showed me her new purchases from the day. She brought me some new socks, because she knows I’ve been grumbling about how none of them match anymore. I only hope I repay her thoughtfulness and kindness; she certainly deserves it. Then we ate and watched a UFO abduction miniseries on Netflix. It made me want to look up books on UFOs – not the crazy Ancient Aliens ones, but I was wondering what the most legit, scientific look at UFOs would be. We did that until…
8:30p – The final 2 hours before I passed out were pretty much as relaxing and recuperative as the last 2. My partner and I were there hanging out. She called her sister in Terre Haute for a few minutes, and then went to the spare bedroom to begin assembling the new Christmas decor she has been getting, in preparation for Sunday. It’ll be a cute time. When sleep hits me, it hits hard. Within the span of 3 minutes I go from wide awake to dead. After having a pretty early morning, we shut everything down, feed the cats, and head to bed. All day I felt very lucky to know my partner.?
I ended with 1,707 steps.