CafeChatNoir

Why one, maybe two military jets just went screaming over my house at an exceptionally high rate of speed??

Very low altitude, almost looked like they were on afterburner.

Who else scrambles besides Andrews AFB - which is on the other side of the river from me?

of a nap.

At some point our society shifted. Sleep is for the weak. People who routinely get by on minimal hours have been elevated to cult status. I don’t know when it happened, but boy are they missing out.

I work anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day. Mostly mental/visual work. Very little actual running around. Yet, it is DRAINING. Physically and mentally. When I get home, I’m physically beat, and the hamster on a wheel that is my brain is still running at 100 MPH.

Bill Cosby did a sketch on sleep. There was a line that went something like this:
“I love sleep like I love a good steak.”

I’m totally with you, Bill.

Today was one of those days - not long, but mentally very consuming. After being home a while, I realized I was tired and feeling rather creaky, but it wasn’t even quite dark yet and my head was still filled with stuff. But the rack monster was calling, and who am I to ignore?

Off to bed for a bit. Now, there is something that just feels very indulgent about a nap from the beginning. You’re supposed to be UP and about and awake - they’re called waking hours for a reason. Stretching out and having my head sink into the pillow, only one thought came to mind.

Oooooooh, this feels gooooooooooooooooooood.

No radio, no tv, no noise, no visuals. No new inputs for a while. Some time to let everything filling my head just drift away.

I’m not even sure if I completely fell asleep. But I do know that 45 minutes later, I’m feeling a lot better.

The company I interviewed with called my boss for a reference today.

Just spent about an hour in my boss’ office, maybe 10 minutes on work, the rest just shooting the shit. I feel for the guy - nothing quite like knowing you’re getting cut, but no one will have the decency to tell you when.

Sideshow Bob is at it again. First, he is no doubt rather ticked that everyone left his “party” on Friday - hey, he was the one that went into a conference call never to be seen again. But today, it seems we’ve got a problem w/ our new billing formats with the new accounting system, the customers don’t like them. (Keep in mind, the customer is the government, they can have any reason they want not to pay.) So, we’ve got a couple options.
1 - Just go in and change the system settings to change the format.
2 - Set up each person in the billing staff with a mentor from Bob’s billing staff. Today. In Herndon.

We’re going with #2. No, I can’t say I know how it will fix the format on the billing either.

Gawd, it’s a beautiful day out there. Our lady goose is firmly ensconced in her nest and all seems to be right with the world out there.

Check for IRA is ready to go off to the brokerage, and my lunch is half gone. (Turkey on pumpernickle today, quite tasty.)

Here’s hoping the rest of the work day zips along.

It is SO nice to wake up with sunshine on a weekday for a change.

I think I have finally adjusted to daylight savings time, as I actually got up sort of on time this morning. Granted, that hasn’t stopped me from spending too much time over coffee, but hey, I’m up - what more can ya ask?

Today starts what I am sure will feel like an absolutely interminable wait on hearing about the job. (I did try and pry a date out of them when they thought it would be officially open, but could only get “a couple of weeks”. That part of this still bothers me)

Onward and upward.

I can now slack off without guilt.

Not that it’s ever really been a problem for me.

The shopping is done, the brokerage check will go out Monday, Discover isn’t due for a couple more weeks, I have no idea why I had that on the list. The kitchen has been wrestled into a more satisfactory state, and some laundry has been done.

Just have to decide on some plan for dinner. Right now, something quick and easy like Mac & Cheese just sounds good. Especially since I didn’t take anything out of the freezer last night. MUST get back into that habit.

Tim’s been off doing NRA stuff today and some work-social thing that he tried and failed to weasel out of, so it’s just been me and the critters. Poor lady next door is terrified of dogs and Eve SO wants to go out and show her the error of her ways.

I’ve got a bad case of the munchies and no junk food in the house. Time to go forage…

Posted by michael on Saturday April 12, @03:52AM
from the LOL-ROFL-AFK dept.
An anonymous coward writes “AOL, which only last week asked the FCC to forget about some of those mandatory restrictions put into place in order to clear its merger with Time Warner, apparently isn’t wasting any time. In a move that circumvents government-imposed limitations on “advanced” multimedia services, Instant Messaging Planet is reporting that AOL has already started beta testing video messaging services with “push-to-talk” and “record-and-forward” features.”

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/04/11/2053200.shtml?tid=95&tid=120

Let’s see….not only no, but HELL NO. There’s a reason I don’t have a webcam…

You were just dying to hear that, weren’t you. Unfortunately, I was so fixated on “don’t get anything besides the prescription” at Target that I forgot that the coffee I like is cheaper there. I’ll remember next time. And the only thing I got that wasn’t an “immediate” need was bread, but I’ll need it between now and next week. Put it straight in the freezer.

Found the two checkbooks that I have constantly been misplacing.

The rollover check to the brokerage won’t be happening today. Idiot that I am, I left it on my desk at the office. (Had planned on just sending it out from there and didn’t get around to it.) I was sure I’d put it back in my bag - WRONG! Ah well, it can wait until Monday.

Kitchen and laundry are still awaiting attention. Probably should do something about that at some point, I suppose!

Gawd, it’s a gorgeous day out there - I need to get off my sorry ass and get some things done.

- Need to go to Target and pick up my prescription
- Grocery store. Milk, bread, lunch meat, cat food, Cokes…
- Kitchen. Unmitigated disaster area at the moment
- Laundry. A constant.
- Banking… Check to brokerage. Discover bill.

Slept in kinda late this morning, and despite the strange dreams, feeling pretty good. Been spending too much of the morning obsessing with my checkbook, tho. See, if on the off chance that I do get this job, it’s going to involve a pay cut. (Which I was prepared for - it’s a new industry for me, etc, etc. The days of the 90s “never take a pay cut” have long since passed us by, IMO.)

So, I’ve been sitting here, mucking about with the budget to make sure I *can* do it. Which it would appear that I can. Barely, but I should be able to.

So, gonna have to be MUCH more diligent w/ the shopping, that’s for sure. Gotta stick with the basics. I can do that. I hope.

But this time around, I seemed to realize it was a dream and just sat back and enjoyed the movie rather than trying to figure it out - and I remember it.

I was working at CSC-Dyncorp again, with the same ops manager I’d worked with before. I was also in school full time again, and living in the dorms. The girls that lived next door to me were the same ones that have the cubes next to me at my real job. They’d put one of their dressers out in the hallway and it was blocking my door, and it took forever to explain to them that I couldn’t get into my room, so I was going in through the back door. (Nice dorms - all had back doors/patios…)

The project we were working on had something to do with gas stations and small airports. In the midst of this, I’m also trying to figure out the exam schedule for the end of the semester, and how I’m going to get all my stuff stored when the semester is over - which was all happening in the next few days. Oh, and still do all the stuff with the gas station/airport contract. I was spending most of the time trying to get between work and school and the project site and trying to find some time to sleep during all of it.

I woke up before it was over - never did get to the point of exams or actually getting my stuff stored.

I’ve got to take note of what on earth I’m eating before bed…

That was the sound of me crashing HARD when I got home - said screw it, left work before 4 and came home. Had more weird dreams, so it wasn’t terribly restful, but it was better than nothing.

The upside is that it’s not nightmares, the dreams aren’t disturbing, I can’t really remember anything about them except that they’re just really, really weird. Like my brain just spent all the time I was trying to sleep in high gear trying to make sense of what I was dreaming about.

My boss is too funny, I’d been telling him there was something awry with the fixed asset listing he had, and he looked at it, agreed, and then looked at me and said,
“You know that those very smart people you interviewed with yesterday are going to offer you a job. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’re going to take that job. So, why do you give a rat’s ass about the fixed assets?” LOL, yes, he’s got the short timers syndrome, too.

Not a thing planned this weekend except relaxation. :-D

I should have probably just gone straight home after the Herndon shindig - Mark did, and Andy did, too. If nothing else, I think I’m outta here at 4. I am just totally beat today. Kills me cause I DID go to bed at a decent hour last night!! At the moment, it is looking good for going home, feeding the cats and taking a nap.

I wasn’t up terribly late last night, but I still feel like I didn’t get ANY sleep.

Off for some forced socialization at the Herdon office.

So damn tired.

45 minutes with manager A
45 minutes with manager B
30 minutes with HR

Repeated use of the phrase, “You’re just what we’re looking for.”

Small glitch: The position isn’t officially open yet. Seems it takes a while to fill these for whatever reason, so they’ve started with the interviews so when it is open, they can hire right away, rather than opening it and then taking X number of weeks trying to get someone in. They have assured me that there IS a position, it HAS been approved, and it will be official in the next couple of weeks.

Yes, this bothers me.

However, I decided to take it as a positive sign that the HR woman told me this to begin with, though she didn’t have to. And that
- Manager B is apparently freaking out that they’re going to “lose me” before the position is official.
- HR lady told me (repeatedly) to PLEASE not take another job until I talk to them again.

She was also very upfront on the salary range, finally just pulling out the salary manual they’ve got and reading straight from it. (It was what I had suspected anyway, which is fine.)

OK, so, coming out of it, I still felt good. But, there is the fact that the position has not officially been opened yet, and there are still a few weeks to go. Unless they stop all interviewing right now, there is always that very real possibility that there is someone out there with a better resume, better background, and who may come cheaper.

So, while I’m feeling good, I’m not holding my breath. I’ve been jerked around enough by prospective employers that I *should* be able to spot a scam from a mile away, but I still am no good at it. So, we’ll see.

Good start to the morning, got up early enough, no rushing, leaving early enough so I don’t have to start rushing, hair looks pretty good, makeup on, clothes look good.

Let’s hope the day continues on this GOOD streak.

Actually, been up for a while now. The bleariness is starting to fade from my eyes, I’ve gotten my coffee and been able to attempt to wake up and become coherent.

The next challenge is trying to get some makeup on my face and see what the rollers did to my hair. It probably didn’t help that the Target tried to repeatedly remove them from my head overnight!

Well, off to continue getting ready… I need some more coffee…

because I’m *not* nervous about tomorrow. Maybe I’ve just done it so many times that it’s old hat. Who knows, but it seems decidedly odd.

Got my resume (3x), references (2x), and directions all printed out and in a pretty leather folder, all in my “fancy” briefcase. (I bought it when I got my first “real” job. I think I used it for about a month, and it has since only been used for interviews, LOL.)

I know where my clothes, wallet and keys are. I have the name and phone number of my contact.

My shoes are polished, and I’ve got my jeans set out to take with me to change when I get over to work afterwards.

I know where my makeup case is, and my hair is in rollers. (Pink foam ones no less, tres retro!)

I know when I have to leave to get there with time to spare.

All that is left is to set every freaking alarm clock in the house so I don’t oversleep and to get to bed at some point.

Ready as I’ll ever be it seems.

U.S. Army Spc. John Dresel from Oxford, Conn. is kissed by an Iraqi child in Baghdad Wednesday, April 9, 2003. The soldiers from the A Company 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment took over a section of northern Baghdad with a warm welcome from many residents, but under sporadic rocket and small arms fire. (AP Photo/John Moore)

An Iraqi man kisses an American soldier in downtown Bagdhad Wednesday April 9, 2003. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)