Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

Like a karate kick to the solar plexus, yesterday I was bowled over realizing how utterly, horribly, behind I am at work and with all the new things that are hitting at the same time, I'm in a constant state of near-panic.

I'll get it reined in but in the meantime I'd like to request that the constant anxiety-based overyawning and the stress headaches while I'm trying to sleep cut it the fuck out ASAP. 

There's a more detailed description of the jackass that assaulted the woman around the corner from where I live. The guy better be long gone because the police in HP are good as well as it's a tight community of people that will be watching. I'm still nervous though since he nabbed the woman in a well populated area in daylight. I'm wondering whether it would be worth getting something like pepper spray or whether that would be more of a problem. Hm.

Anyway, then some excitement this morning. I walk into the building at work to a very weird smell which got stronger the closer I got to our suite of offices. Evidently one of the ballasts on the lights was smouldering and about to start a fire. Before I arrived a bit before 8am, four fire trucks had already been here and gone and we're waiting for the useless Rutgers facilities folks to come check it out whenever they get around to it now.

The really scary thing? I was the last to leave the office last night. If I had left the lights on, there's a high chance that our building would've burned last night since right below those lights are shelves with books - some over 140 years old. What we think happened is that the cleaning lady got in to start her job between 5-6am and when she came into our suite to collect trash, she left the lights on since we come in not long after that. 

Hoolleeee crap.

I'm not looking all that forward to this afternoon's rescheduled faculty/staff appreciation thing. For one, I've heard it through the grapevine that the "fabulous gifts" are complete shit (he was sworn to secrecy as to what they are but he's not the type to mislead). We've also heard that they're actually going to recycle the week plus old popcorn and feed it to us. Additionally, we're going to have to file outside and get nametags and tickets then sit outside and listen to the higher ups bluster about bullshit at length before they'll bother to give us the promised shit prizes. It's like forced mingling. Yes, attendance is optional, but you know that it really kind of isn't optional since it's "expected" that you show up and put on a happy face.

On a personal note, I'm not looking forward to this afternoon since I really don't want to run into the guy I recently blocked on FB. Fortunately he's not tried to contact me via other means so I'm crossing fingers that either he's not showing up to this thing today or that he'll leave me be. Since it's outside and it's sunny today, it'll help a bit that I'll wear my sunglasses and maybe a hat (oo - like a celebrity!).

Anyhoo, it is so typical of this place that to show their "appreciation" for our dedication or some such hoo-ha that instead of giving us a little monetary bonus or sending everyone gift cards to someplace, it has to be some sort of self-serving bombastic "party" that no one here down in the trenches really wants and as usual, is tossed together all half-assed but we'd better appreciate our appreciation and not complain, daggonit! 

Mondays are always so...so...very MONDAY, aren't they? I busted butt this morning to get two people transferred from their temporary jobs to full-time ones, speeding the process along per request of their boss. All yays and thank yous until it dawned on them that they'd be losing a few vacation days because they didn't use them up before the switchover. Cue the drama and the pouting and stomping via email. I stood firm, though, that if they were concerned about this, they should've inquired before signing the offer letter. They also bellyached that until July of next year, they'd be getting .25 days less per month of vacation due to policy. Again, the disclaimer was stated in the letter that they each signed. 

It was the bummer to have to lay down the law to essentially tell them both that it was their responsibility to check and that the process has already gone through and can't be cancelled. They pretty much knew they were shoo-ins for these jobs for a couple of months so there's no real excuse for them not to have checked before things were already done.They stopped grousing...for now...but if I get any guff from them, I intend to point out that if they're all about disclosures, that the clock starts on their new probationary period as of today. If they piss off their boss guy, they are still at-will employees for the next 90 days. 

There's other work-related annoyances but again - Monday - so it's expected. Ah well.

But as far as looking forward to the weekend, on Saturday I'm hopefully going to be going to the wonderfulness that is IKEA and meeting up with buddies. Huzzah! Not that I need anything much but hey, it's IKEA. If nothing else, for the meatballs, right? Also, it looks like the weather is going to get colder again and yesterday I bought one of those mini ice-cream scoops to use to make uniform-sized cookies. I'll be experimenting with using a stevia-brown sugar blend to try to reduce the sugar content. Anyone ever bake with that before? Sure there'll still be butter in them since I'm not THAT insane but I thought some experimentation was called for.

I do wish the pilot light on the oven was slightly less fussy but once I get it going, it seems to keep a nice, consistent temperature so I'll deal with a reluctant pilot. I hope the weather outside is decently chilly come Thanksgiving so I don't have to counteract the heat inside with AC to make my little meal that day. It'll likely be me and the kitties again but I would like to observe the day when it comes. 

I always get amused when I stumble across things where our people get research money from odd organizations.

Evidently one of the dudes in Environmental Science got a grant from the International Potato Center. Who knew there even WAS one - and heck, it's existed since 1971

Rutgers, helping make potatoes even more awesome than they already are. 

I should go take a walk or something but bleh...can't be bothered. I should've gone home and gotten some kitty snuggles at lunch but it's too late to head off now. Ah well.

I emailed that apartment complex to ask about a few things. It was a little disconcerting that it took hunting down three emails before I got one that didn't bounce back but I did get an answer quickly once I finally got one that worked so eh. Since it didn't note on the site what's included with the rent, I asked and sewer/trash, water AND heat are included as well as one parking space is included which is nice. I did also clarify that I'd be ok to have two kitties which yes, it'll cost me an extra $40/month for each but I'd rather be honest right from the get-go. Especially if the place is decent enough to stick around there a long while. It was obviously too early to know about availability come September but they put me on the list to contact in July and I should know by then whether I'll be able to move or whether I'll have to hold off for another year. I'll start crossing fingers come the end of June and will work on tons of spring cleaning and clearing over the next few months.

Our new business dude starts on April 7 so that's good. He seemed nice so hopefully Bosslady's cursing doesn't scare him off. Upon advice of the HR gal and Peggy my other Bosslady, I emailed Bossman to ask about what he envisions my job becoming with the merging of departments and let him know what both Bosslady and I thought would be a good idea (also dropping the suggestion to get the office a lower level admin). He actually responded that we should talk in the next couple of weeks about it. He's off with his wife having some sort of surgery this week so I was impressed that he emailed back and does want to chat about it. I know that Peggy will give me a good review to Bossman, hopefully Bosslady cooperates.

Update on the cussing challenge: need to reinforce paying attention. I've had too many slip ups and since the new dude looks to be a church goer and since it'd be a good idea to sound more professional, it'll be good practice.

Going to have some yummy Chinese food tonight with a buddy that I sorely hope does not run late like she tends to do. I'm kind of twitchy about that.