health & fitness

Phone Fun

Not on time to work today. Ah, well. Took a 45-minute lunch to compensate.

A couple days ago, my boss came in while I was on the phone with
a particularly pissy bank manager. She just kept bitching about how much
there was to do, and how understaffed she was, and how long it took just
to open one account… and all I could do was sit there and take it. I mean,
what else can you say than "I understand completely" and similar
platitudes? Suck it up, lady; you’re not the only one with too much to do
and no time to do it!

Anyway, my boss caught me giving a couple inaccurate facts, and
stuck around until I was done on the phone to straighten me out. While he
was doing that, he made a point of telling me to stick up to these people.
"You’re not here to be a whipping post," he told me. I’m not sure
why, but that really kind of made an impression on me. People have told me
before that I need to be more assertive, aggressive, stand up for myself,
et cetera… but for some reason, hearing it from my all-too-passive boss
just really hit me a certain way. I do need to be more assertive.
And I’m here to help, not take their shit.

I did crack someone up on the phone today, though. I’ve decided
that explaining things in my normal Diana way will be the easiest and most
beneficial, instead of trying to sound all poofy and professional. So, as
I was explaining to an Area Operations Manager how to tell her employees
to clear items off of a report, I heard myself saying, "Now, here’s
the funky part…" She had to stop completely and repeat my phrase to
her subordinate. 🙂 I’m not sure if I gained or lost credibility through
being myself, but I think I brightened their moment, anyway.

I worked out with my weights yesterday, and I can tell which
places I worked more than others. My pecs feel stiff, like I just got back
from a drumcorps camp. Everything else ranges from not sore at all to only
mildly feeling worked. I think tonight I’m going to work the stuff that’s
not sore: shoulders, triceps, back. And crunches, too.

I’m confused about how I feel about my body right now. In a given
day, I can go from feeling frumpy to feeling fit. Sometimes I can feel the
fat settling about my neck and hips, and other times I can feel like my abs
are getting tighter and my waist is getting smaller. I did get another compliment
at work today, though, from my old boss’s boss — she was proud that I’d
kept my weight off during the holidays. I didn’t have time to tell her about
my two spoons’ worth of sweet potatoes, which is just as well.

Off to watch HGTV for a while…

the ongoing saga of my job

Go me.

Pretty good day today. Got to work on time for the first time
in a long time: 8:01am. (That’s instead of consistently being 8 to 10 minutes
late.) Brought one of my yummy Chocolate Covered Coffee Bean candles to make
my desk nice and smelly. Started feeling more comfortable talking to banking
centers over the phone about Patriot Act stuff. The bad part came in the
middle of the day, when I had to eat honey roasted peanuts out of the vending
machine because I didn’t bring a lunch. But, when I got home, I made myself
a burger with provolone cheese and sauteed some mushrooms and red pepper
to go with. I got all fancy on myself. *tee-hee*

Oh, here’s a gross story from one of the ladies who works in
the same room with me: She and some of her friends (keep in mind, they’re
in their fifties) went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans for a vacation…
and ended up in a strip club. Not a For-Ladies-Only male strip club—a
guys’ strip club with nasty, skanky ho’s. (I know, "ho" isn’t possessive,
but I had to put an apostrophe because "hos" looks retarded.) Anyway,
one of the guys she was with got his eyeglasses taken by the nasty ho, who
then proceeded to put them on and around all her nasty places. All the people
at the table were joking with him, telling him he’d better not put those
back on when she was done. But she came back and put them back on his face
for him… and he didn’t take them right back off like any sane individual
would, for later sanitization. No, he left them on.

And had a sty by the next morning.

Ewwww.

crafty

Kinda Bored

Lots of shit I should be doing. Don’t feel like doing any of
it. Definitely bored.

Yesterday, I concocted my best candle fragrance yet, I think:
Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans. At first, I thought I was making a Cafe Mocha
scent, but it turned out different than I had expected. Guess I need some
different fragrances for that one: maybe some Hot Cocoa, Caramel, and Cappuccino
scents together. As it is, though, my candles turned out pretty smellerific.
I like.

Oh, I know what I need to do. I need to figure out what bills
will get paid when, so I can keep from bouncing my dang checkbook. I’m going
to end up counting on the good graces of our landlords again to not cash
my check before the first of the month (I get paid on the 15th and the 30th).
And, since I work for the bank, if I bounce three checks, I self-terminate.
That’s right—I fire myself. Cute way to put it. Kind of a "you
know the rules, and if you break ’em, you pay the consequences" kind
of HR bullcrap vibe. Not that I disagree, though; working at a bank, you
should have control of your own finances.

Oh, yeah, and I need to print out my check stubs and bank statements
for Saturday’s appointment with Mortgage Man #2, John at NOIC.
Here’s hoping we can get a house by April 1st… otherwise, we’re either
staying here one more year or renting a house for a year or two. *crossing
fingers*

Off to take care of business…

randomness

A New Year

Not really much to report. I’ve enjoyed bummin’ around and having days off in the middle of the week for the past two weeks. Next day off: Monday, January 19 for MLK Jr. Day.

I’ve been working on building a website for selling my soy candles. I’d considered doing the PayPal Shopping Cart thing, but I don’t think that would work out so good, since I’ll have to confirm with the customers that I do still have the container in stock, yadda yadda. I’ll probably just end up asking how they intend to pay: check, money order, or PayPal—then invoicing them via e-mail or through PayPal. My Aunt Sammie has already said that she may put me on her business website under the “We Highly Recommend” section, which might actually get me a decent amount of business.

Have you seen the Shrek 2 trailer? I thought it would be stupid, but it actually looks really
funny. We’re gonna have to go see that when it comes out in May.

Aaron compiled both of our bootleg collections into one giant database at eTree.org.
He still has to transfer our good stuff from cassette to CDR and add them to the list, but we’ve got a pretty good collection just on CDR.

But, yeah. Other than that, not much has been going on. I made my New Year’s Resolution to pay down my credit card debt and maintain a balance of 25% of the limit. (I’m at probably 95% of the limit regularly.) I also made some more minor resolutions to take better care of my teeth and to exercise more, but I won’t beat myself up if I slip on those once in a while.

And that’s about it for now. Have a happy new year, all.

randomness

Weird Mood

I’m in the mood to write fiction, but I’m resisting the urge to free write, because I will undoubtedly end up with smut. Yep, that’s me,
Diana, the budding smut novelist. Sigh. My brain takes the weirdest turns
sometimes.

I had a whole little sheet of paper full of what I wanted to
blog about today, but I forgot and left it at work. Same with the Post-It
where I listed everything I ate today and at what times. That was helpful.

I remember a lot of what I’d wanted to say, but I find I don’t
really want to say it anymore. It’s all kind of dumb thoughts in passing,
like how annoyed I am with the women in whose room I work. And our broken
toilet, which now only flushes by lifting up the tank lid and fishing for
the broken flush arm. And the scanner that my computer won’t load anymore.
And, oh yeah, my student loan bill this month is more than my rent. Thanks
for the fisting, Department of Education, can I have another?

I need to chill out on the candle thing, too, unless I intend
to make some sort of game plan for marketing and distributing my wares. Christmas
only comes but once a year, and unless I’m going to be the weird lady who
gives candles to everybody when they come to visit, I couldn’t justify making
candles because it’s fun and just gifting them year round. I’ve already spent
probably a hundred bucks on candle supplies as it is.

I am in one funky-ass mood. Not depressed, and not quite bored,
but definitely on the dark side. Not down on myself (for once), but not in
a positive mood in the slightest. OK, maybe the slightest…

Oh, and guys? Even if the "blog" craze is settling
down, I’ll probably keep doing this thing. I keep a journal anyway, and sharing
it with people seems like the thing to do. Granted, there are some things
I don’t write here that I would write in a private journal, but those are
rare. If it weren’t for blogging, I probably wouldn’t even be keeping a journal
right now, because I usually only write in a paper journal when I have an
emotional crisis to solve. 🙂

No, I’ve changed my mind. I am bored. Which, by my definition,
means nothing I can think of to do sounds good. Guess I’ll go bum around
until I can come up with something.

later…
I attempted to cure my boredom with some websurfing. I’m not
nearly as good at it as I used to be. I forget where my old jumping-off points
were.

Anyway, I downloaded some random stuff on WinMX, too, and found
a techno version of the Sesame Street theme (not the best one I’ve heard,
either). Somehow from that, I ended up thinking of that early 80’s kid’s
show, The Great Space Coaster. Most of you won’t know what the hell I’m talking
about… but for those of you my age or a little older, here’s some nostalgia
for you:

Baxter (with the Huggles)
Gary Gnu (No Gnus is Good Gnus…)
Knock-Knock
Goriddle Gorilla
photo blatantly ripped off from the website of Jim Martin, puppet performer
Speed Reader
The Great Space Coaster logo

Bring back any memories? Man, when I was in Kindergarten through
second grade, this was my FAVORITE show. I’d forgotten. I don’t have any
desire to collect VCDs of it or anything, though, because I know it would
sully my memories of how great it was. I’ll just look at the pictures and
listen to the theme song and remember
how great it was to be five years old and sitting in front of the TV…