WoW

I just found out that Blizzard is hiring people for in-game customer support right here in Austin, TX. I know that I won’t be hired by them anymore than I’ll be hired by the other 4 companies I applied to today, but at least I can apply. Previously all the opportunities involved needing to live in Irvine, CA. I’m not really ready to relocate for a CS job.

You know what the best part of the IGRS job is? You don’t have to listen to customers whine on the phone! You communicate with them in-game through a typed-chat client. I already have to decipher all sorts of illiterate drivel here at work, and at least they’d be talking about something that I care about. I’m going to stare into space now, and day dream about getting a response to my resume.

GRRRRR

You know what’s even cooler than having your manager ask you every day about one of the seven jobs he’s assigned you? Finishing one task, and going to start another one only to find a hand written note from said manager, “These need to move. When? – Ira” I saw that and wanted to write back, “When you figure out how to take care of it yourself, cause I quit, you stupid dickhole.” I restrained myself. I wrote back, “I’m working on it.” and then bitched to my supervisor. I explained that maybe if I didn’t have 1 critical task taking up all my time, almost every day, that perhaps this other thing would have been done faster. Poor guy, he’s not used to my crazed bitching yet. Still, he’s gonna have to get broken in sometime, so I guess today is as good a time as any. He seems to be recovering okay. He even came back to my office after that, so I didn’t totally scare him off. I think my supervisor even sympathized with me a little bit.

So Sugar-Free It’s Saccharin

I feel the need to mention that today is my Sweetie Pie’s birthday. (Don’t tell anyone, but he’s 31 years old today.)

The problem is I know what I want to do. I want to talk about how we first met, and all sorts of squishy-lovey-dovey stuff. I’m not really that girl though, and our relationship wasn’t really one of those by the numbers kinds of things. So I’ll just tell you what I remember.

Jeff used to live on the same floor in Jester as the guy I was dating when I moved to Austin. I guess we saw each other in the halls, elevators, and out on the slab. We didn’t really talk though. I’m not a very outgoing person, and I pretty much only talk to people I already know. Well that guy from high school became an ex during the spring of 1995. When I went back to UT that fall I still hung out at Jester, but I had to make some new friends. Things were a little weird with the ex, and that meant things were a little weird with all the friends that were his friends first and mine second. I don’t remember exactly why I decided that I wasn’t going to date anyone. It could have been because of the stupid ex, or maybe I just decided all the guys that were interested in me were freaks (in a bad way).

In steps “sensitive ponytail guy”, played by Jeff. We all know SPG. SPG is the guy that listens to his female friends as they cry over various exes or bitch about men sucking. He’s the guy that you grab for lunch, or call after some weirdo makes a pass at you. He nods in all the right places, and he doesn’t get any action, because he’s such a good friend. Only something went wrong, because somehow we ended up dating. We slipped very easily from friends to more than friends. The only awkwardness was in the fact that Jeff’s room in Jester that year was directly across the hall from my ex. There was no denying that I had moved on.

Things were so gradually sudden that we don’t even have an exact date to celebrate for when we started dating.… Neither of us know exactly when it happened. (If only the blog had been invented back then.) Together we came to the conclusion that we started dating in September of 1995. Hell we had a whole month to celebrate, which is better than just one day anyway.

At least I had the forethought to write on a calendar when we got engaged. Jeff asked me to marry him on Christmas Eve in 2002. I hope when we finally do get married that I remember to write that day down, because knowing me I’ll forget otherwise. Still it’s nice to know that it wasn’t history teachers failing me all those years; I’m just really no good at remembering dates.

So it’s been eleven and a half years since we first started reading comics together. They haven’t all been easy, but I’m glad that I’ve shared them with him. We’ve had an interesting ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Happy Birthday Jeff! I love you.

Doll Knits

I went shopping Tuesday after work at the Hancock Fabrics that is closing. I heard that they had knitting books, and that they would be on sale. I picked up 4 books, and I think they are all worth it. One is a scarf book that was mentioned in my knitting class a week and a half ago. One book is a stitch dictionary type book, no patterns just technique. One book is a knitted bag book, I might have an idea for DQ's b-day in there, and it's not girly. But it's the fourth book that I really want to talk about. I have no practical reason to purchase this book, but I was drawn to it, and I could not resist.

I purchased Knits for Barbie doll by Nicky Epstein. I don't know if I even have any Barbies right now. If I do they are hiding in some box being eaten by spiders or something. I did love my Barbies growing up though. I never had very many, but I had a decent number of accessories. I wasn't even very kind to them at times. I remember one of them sacrificed her head to become a pencil topper that I gave to a fellow Flag.

This book has some of the most beautiful clothes that I've ever seen for Barbie. Just look at that jacket on the cover. There are 75 patterns in this book. There are sweaters, jackets, hats, dresses, and even blanket and rug patterns. If I had a Barbie home she would getting a rug ASAP. I still feel it's an odd purchase, but it was 30% off. I never would have bought it online, but being able to check out all the patterns in advance convinced me that I wanted to own it. My current favorite is the Loop Ensemble on pg 86.

Riley Lost His Initiative

House tonight was pretty good. I had a hard time taking it seriously because the patient was Riley Finn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Watching House need to pee for most of the night was a little odd, and I'm not sure that I want the show to turn into the Chase and Cameron porn half-hour. We'll see what happens next week. It must be spring because there will be a pregnant mother on the next show. I believe the actress playing the mother will be Anne Ramsay, the same actress that played Lisa in Mad About You.... Ah, the hours of television that I've watched.

House of Pain

I don’t know that it’s necessarily a source of pride, but I can pretty much do my job in my sleep. If I can keep my eyes open and my fingers tapping away at the keyboard then all is well. I’m not boasting that I’m that good mind you, it’s just that my job is that easy. I have no idea why we can’t seem to hire anyone else that can do it, but it is not a hard job at all. I usually feel like I’m babysitting people that can barely tie their shoes, so I’m not surprised when they can’t figure out a computer.

It turns out that although I am able to work while hyped up on caffeine, or falling asleep at the console, I cannot work through dental pain. I had some fillings done yesterday morning and around noon I thought that I was going to be fine. The numbness was wearing off, but I wasn’t hurting. By 1 pm I was a whining crybaby that just wanted to go home. It felt like I hurt in 3 fifths of my head. The lower left half of my jaw was fine, and part of my upper left head was okay, but mid-eye over all through to the right side just freaking hurt.

I tried to work for a while. I had things that were somewhat urgent that I felt I should take care before I bailed, and I did what I had to. I made so many errors doing ordinary transactions that I’ve done billions of times before. By the time I drove home I wasn’t really able to hold a conversation because I would lose track of what I was talking about. I probably shouldn’t have driven, but I had to get home somehow and I had the car. I got home and eventually managed to take some ibuprofen and over the course of a few hours the pain subsided.

It was so strange. I’ve been in worse pain before. That pain was nothing compared to the aftermath of my root canals or having my wisdom teeth removed. I just couldn’t function through it. It’s like the nerves were shooting signals right through some vital part of my brain, and disrupting everything I tried to do. I am completely better today, and just in awe of how one fixed tooth brought me to my knees yesterday.

P.S. - There is supposed to be a new episode of House on today at 8 central.

Mug Wins

Look how lucky you are! Julie was sweet enough to send me a photo of Stella unwrapping her purse at her birthday party. I swear she liked it, and she's not sleeping in this photo. If you look along the bottom edge of the picture you can see the top of a red mug that was another gift. It was pretty obvious by the end of the party that the mug was a new favorite. Stella kept smacking it on the table, and then pretending to drink out of it. This is a behavior that Erin and I were all to willing to encourage. At least you can tell Tim liked the purse, and although Julie is on the wrong side of the camera to be in the picture, she says she likes it too.