I'm Better

Or rather, I'm getting better. . . er... I mean, I will be getting better at posting here. I promise. I've been a little bit busy here being a "Big kid" and doing the training for the new hires at work. It's a lot of stress but it's a huge opportunity for me and I'm really loving it. It's challenging work and while most of the content of what I'm teaching is the same, it's never the same trying to teach it to a different group of people all the time. The good news is, they're "geeks" or.. techies, if you want to be specific about it. This means a few things; first of all, they get my off-the-wall humor most of the time, and even when they don't they just laugh AT me. I can totally handle this. Secondly, I can make references to things that they DO understand (and that I do too) so that they can get what I'm saying. Lastly, it means that I have to be on my toes as far as the second week of training goes, as that's when it gets into the really technical stuff that I wasn't 100% on when I came in. But they're helping me learn a lot.

So, basically, I've got a grown-up job at the moment and I'm loving every minute of it. I really hope that I do well enough to keep this position, as I'm not sure I could handle going back to the phones after this sweet, sweet paradise that training has provided me.

As far as other things go, I'm winding down in school - that is to say, theoretically I should be done in October ready to walk at graduation. I'm going to do that in Arizona, as it's the closest OU location and c'mon.. I've got friends in AZ that I'm sure would love to help me celebrate.

Also, I'm starting to get crafty again in my sparse free time. I picked up a wooden trunk (Small... so, more like a box) this week and stained and painted it. From a few pictures on facebook, now I've got people wanting me to paint other things for them. Must be I don't suck. Also, I've posted a few things of my chainmail on Etsy.com. . . and plan to post some of Kobold's leather stuffed animals, maybe some other bits-n-pieces. Kobold has taken to breaking apart/burning/shaping old silverware into jewelry and it looks pretty darned good. I keep getting asked where I get my jewelry and I tell them that for a low, low price they could have one too! Look at me be entrepreneurial! Look at me spell entrepreneurial!

Lessons Learned

For those of you who don't follow me on the facebook, you weren't aware that my boss has completely lost his mind, allowed me to be 'abducted' by the training department and kicked me out of my desk. That's right, I'm desk-less, but I couldn't be happier. Why? They decided to let me teach this last class of new-hire technicians. There were 24ish to begin with, but we ended up with 16 going into the week-long training bay. Everyone passed the class and I'm proud to say that I have had very little negative feedback. I'm terrified that they decided that I was a responsible adult in any fashion, but I'm proud that I did a good job (or at least, I think I did). At the very least, I'm not fired yet, so I can only assume that because I haven't been canned yet, that I did at least a passable job teaching. IT's a good thing.

So work is going well, I'm still in the market for a life partner but that'll come with time.

I've got a new phone which is rad and allows me to surf the interwebs for hours and hours (dangerous!). It also involves a new phone number, so if you haven't got me listed as a 702 number, please contact me so that I can give you the new one.

For now, that's all. More later, I promise.

I'm Gonna Explode

There are quite a lot of things going on right now in my life. I'm struggling a little bit with school, I'm currently near-panic as I'm due to facilitate a class tomorrow morning for the first time ever... this class is going to be full of people that either A). I already know and may or may not respect me and B). have no idea who I am and may not grasp what I'm teaching. Group A has already heard the material, so I'm not terribly worried about them, but I am a little more than slightly nervous. If I do well here, then I may be in line for a new job posting that will make me very happy/make me more money. In addition to that, I've been "taken indefinitely" by my manager's boss to be on her team (in charge of training) and given some pretty hefty tasks. I'm up for the challenge but I REALLY don't want to fall flat on my face and have to go back to answering the phone for a living. It makes me pretty darned miserable.

Aside from all that, I'm still looking for someone to spend my time with who isn't "just a friend" if you catch my meaning. I'm a very social person and I get that need filled but I am lonely despite having a roomie, friends and family in town. It's rough, here folks so any mojo/praying/sacrificing chickens that you do would be greatly appreciated.

Listen here, men....

I understand that you men try to be up on the latest trends and try to dress nice to impress girls (we notice, I promise) but when one idiot says to another idiot "ooh! You know what would be REALLY cool and would be a sure-fire way to get girls' attention?? We'll show them our underwear! But not.. like.. flash them our underoos. We'll just pull down our pants so they can see that we have fancy undies. I'm SURE this is a good idea!" ... let's not just jump on that bandwagon.

I'm not sure how this whole thing started (Kobold says it's a prison thing.. as in, the guy who wears his pants down past his butt is someone else's..er.. girlfriend) but it needs to end. Now. It's awful. Not only is it awful, it makes me want to give you a GIANT wedgie... or pull down your pants all together because we know with all that extra fabric and a belt, there's no way you could chase me and I'd have ample time to escape.

I think the worst part about the whole sagging thing is that there are now at the very least 2 distinctive types of sagging. 1). the "thug" sag - oversized pants, giant shirt, belt and usually a sideways cap and a lot of 'bling.' 2). Skinny emo kids who have bought pants that are exactly opposite of too big, but still somehow manage only to pull them up to - at maximum - the middle of their rears. W.T.F.?

I can only assume that this whole idiotic thing started from someone watching too much Mary Poppins as a child. I know I'm not one to talk, as my parents magically disappeared my copy of that same movie when I was about 10... but the movie never influenced my dressing habits. Let me explain with visual aids:

Bert, in the garden dances with penguins. He pulls his pants down like so -

In order to be more like the penguins. This is what I call the "SIP" or Sag In Progress.

Next, he dances with the penguins in the pants which are now ridiculously sagged down; exhibit B -
and hilarity ensues. Of COURSE this was not meant to be a serious fashion statement... but I'm sad to say that it is incredibly prevalent here in the West and I'm sure it has unfortunately spread like a venereal disease throughout the US and the world.

I don't get it. I really don't. How do you walk? Even Bert addressed this issue in Mary Poppins - he had to pull his pants back up AND tighten his belt in order to locomote properly! You people wear belts to keep your pants strapped around your thighs! What on earth is wrong here? Does this not impede your ability to MOVE? I also have noticed in some further ridiculous cases, it is customary to wear MORE THAN ONE pair of underwear. Is this a plumage thing? Is it a money thing? 1). You are neither a peacock nor a millionaire. 2). If you had feathers sticking out of your 3rd pair of underwear, I would be more scared than impressed 3). Because you can afford to buy and wear and wash more than one pair of underwear does NOT impress me!

And upon doing some research for my rant here, I found that apparently men are not the only culprits. Holy god, it's spreading to females too... ugh!




I leave you with other pictures of horror... men, take note. DO NOT DO THIS!




I really don't understand the need to tuck a kerchief into the front of the jeans here.. do you have a wound that's oozing? Is it soaking up the venereal diseases that you've got by letting your wang just flop about?!

If you think any of the above pictures are cool... or you look at the picture below with the man whose belt buckle says RAPE!!!!! and think that it's a good idea to dress like them, please seek psychological help.

Slow and Steady

They say that slow and steady wins the race, but I'm getting tired of plodding along. I'm getting close to being done with my degree, I'm getting close to being settled in this new apartment, I'm getting closer to being ok with myself and mending the tears in my soul from old wounds and ones that weren't quite as old as the others, but I'm tired of being a student - tired of being half-way settled and tired of being broken and mending. Still, I can't say that no progress is being made. There are a few prospects here and there that are helping me see the brighter side of things and I've got lots of loved ones both here and remote that love and care for me no matter what - people that are helping me be more the person I want to be and less the person that I had become.

So I move on and continue to tread the path of 'working on it' and hope that everything turns out all right in the end. I had an interview this past week with a company that would have flown me to Budapest, Berlin, Cannes and other lovely places for work AND let me work most of the time in jeans and in the company of dogs, but that didn't pan out. Too bad.. but I do have a job and they did give me a raise and RSU's... I think those are stocks, but I can't be too terribly sure, as I'm not 100% on any of that financial stuff.

We're now officially in the new apartment, which is beautiful and which I get to paint/decorate/actually unpack into. My room is sufficiently large and the closet is enormous... and I'm decorating the bathroom with an obnoxiously pink flamingo shower curtain and accessories. Pics to follow, because as I know, "pics or it didn't happen."

I suppose the only thing that is really truly lagging behind (at least in my mind) is the search for someone to spend my time with in a 'boy-girl relationship' sort of way. Kobold doesn't count because a). he's my cousin (however many times removed) and b). he's got a girlie friend and c). while he is an excellent cuddler, it's just not the same. There have been offers etc... but while I love and/or like the people that have attempted to make the next step to a relationship with me, there is always something a little bit off and it makes me hesitant. Of course, I don't want to just jump in and marry the first guy who brings me flowers or holds a door open for me, but I would like some kind of companionship aside from friends and family. It's just hard being alone, especially since this past month marked the end of both of my major relationships.

Life or something close

All right, all right. I'm tired of complaining, I'll get out and play the field. I've done all my whining and kicking around and the boys (Kobold and Ghryc) have decided it's time I go do something about it, so I'm going ahead and trying to line up a few dates here and there to get myself out on the market as it were.

In other news, Kobold and I are moving to Nellis and D.I.-ish area, so if anyone wants to come help us nest/settle/hang out, we're not in the ghetto anymore and you shouldn't be afraid to swing by, as there shouldn't be any drunks passed out in the hallway at the new place. We're breaking the lease early at the old place and getting the heck out because of many reasons, with the most important being safety.

Also, I'm happy to announce a new addition to the family; Bristol. She came to live with us on Valentine's day and it's been great ever since. The people at the shelter were calling her the "Cut and Paste" puppy, as none of us are really sure what she is. Kobold and I are leaning toward Dachshund and Australian Cattle dog, but we're really just guessing. She's long and short with soft hair, brindle black and tan on her head and legs and her body is dark black... your guess is as good as mine, but she does have characteristics of both breeds. She likes to 'bury' things in her crate and the lovesac (she does so by pushing fluff/blankets over her bone/precious item with her nose, no digging involved) and when Kobold and I are out with her, she tends to 'herd' us together.. we can't be more than 5 feet apart or we get herded back closer.

Work is still work, school is still school and the weather is warming up, though we have had 'enough' rain for the year already which is promising.

Also, my friend Denise is coming to town for spring break, which will be rad as we won't have to sheild her from the drug dealers or worry about her coming in/out of the apartment while she's here.

Not As Promised

I know I promised more elaborate details about the even a few weeks past but something more pressing and upsetting has sort of taken over my life. After nearly a year of bliss with minimal contact from my ex (I won't name him but most of you at least know of him), he emailed me out of the blue the other day. The subject line said "2 things." I hesitated but opened the email.

The first "thing" that he was contacting me about was nothing major - he was requesting that I use some of my 'rennie' contacts to find him a long bow. Normally, I don't have an issue with this, especially since I know quite a few people who a). sell them or b). have one they're not using and might likely part with for a good price. I considered my options here as I continued to read further to the second "thing."

It was a mention of money that I still owed him - and that he'd like to start seeing some of it. Shocked, angered and doubly depressed that he has yet to learn his lesson and become any kind of functioning adult with any thought beyond himself, I disinclined to reply to him. I might've gotten around to it in a week or so when I'd had some time to cool off, but in a few days, I spied another email from him. This one simply asked if I had received the first email.

Still angry - and doubly so because now he was clearly just trying to get a reaction out of me, I stewed about it for a while, assessed my monetary funds and sent him a payment of $5.

A day later, I get an email - angry subtlety in the language - asking if I had made a mistake and sent him $5. I did not reply, thinking that if anything, he now knew I had received his email and had sent him some of the money "he'd like to start seeing."

Then came the email with the curse words. Basically, he said at the rate of five dollars a month, it would take years to pay him off, that he'd been pretty patient up until now and that I was annoying him.

I finally replied with an email stating my circumstances - that food, lodging and bills are more important than he is at this point, that I don't have money extra to send him and basically, that I was more than slightly annoyed at how he had requested we start payments again in such a flippant and irrefutably selfish manner.

Let's review, for those of you who don't have a grip on what exactly the situation is. I lived with this man for 3 years. I often had problems with my money, as I was paying 1/2 the rent, my car insurance and payments, cell phone bill, etcetera as well as paying for 1/2 the groceries (most of which he insisted on buying the 'good' stuff that I simply could not afford, despite several talks with him about buying off-brand just-as-good food). During this time, he worked only when he felt like it. He quit his job because his father offered to continue to pay for his 1/2 the rent, his college education and all his bills. Why we couldn't split the remaining 1/2 of the rent between the two of us while he kept working AND got money from his father is absolutely beyond me. Our relationship eventually self-destructed to the point where I would come home from a long day at work, he would tell me he had skipped class because he hadn't felt like going, how he had played video games all day, then had the nerve to get snippy with me when I didn't particularly want to clean/do dishes, etcetera (never mind he had the chance to do all this while he was at home all day playing video games and/or dicking around with his friends).

At the moment, he is still not working, still living off his father and as I understand it, still going to school when he feels like it, playing video games, going on trips with money he gets from his family and... he has the nerve to bother me for money.

It's not that I still have any sort of feelings toward him (ok, maybe disdain and/or anger), it's that he has the gall to sit back in his comfy chair in front of one of his two brand new computers (neither of which he himself paid for) after a long day of playing halo and/or WoW and/or rock band... and ask me for money.

So.. yes, I'm angry but more than anything, I cannot believe I once was ever so desperately lonely and/or thought I was in love with this man. I absolutely should know better - and now I do! I'm worth more than he ever tried to give me.

All I have to do now is find a man who's worthy.

I'm Lazy

At the moment, I'm dead tired. For right now, please enjoy the photo album from this weekend's lovely event. More elaborate details to follow. Pictures

Holiday Wrapup

So, I had the opportunity to meet up with mom, dad, Jason, Taylor and the bebe, Nessa over the holidays. Initially I was snowed out of the Kansas City airport on Thursday morning, but I did make the flight in on Friday morning. There was only a minor delay flying in and despite the fact that Kansas and Kansans in general are not well equipped for the snow, we managed just fine... being that our family is from "the Great White North" and all, we knew how to get around a great deal better than the Kansans, but that doesn't mean we didn't get the car a little stuck-y-poo for a minute or two. Important bonus: My vinyl bright-freakin-pink combat boots are waterproof. Win for me.

It was nice to be able to get away from work for a while and very nice to be able to see everyone, I wouldn't trade it for the world. That being said, it's very nice to be back in the big city.

I've also started another blog, called "I eat too many" ( Here ) that details the culinary adventures of myself and my roomie, Kobold. We're getting pretty good at this whole blogging thing and someday hope to be able to write it off as a business expense/become independently wealthy beyond all measure. Yeah... right.

At any rate, I'm still single, still living the good life here in Las Vegas, with a few minor interruptions from drama here and there. Generally speaking, it's nothing gigantic and should be left at work, for the most part.

I've had to take a few deep breaths and go stomp around outside the call center like an angry dragon - this generally seems to work. This and the fact that when I take a problem to my manager, if I can explain what's going on and what I think I need to do to fix it and/or what he should do to fix it, he's behind me 100%. Can't beat that with a stick. That and he gives me candy. Candy fixes almost everything.

Continuing on, I've been talking with a few old friends from here, there and everywhere and I've apparently been marketed as a welcoming person who happens to live in a rockin' place to visit. Not complaining here, kids, just thought it was worth mentioning. Bring me your tired, your hungry and.. other things. Eff it, bring me your Asians with rope skills, bring me your Floridians with time off and very little balance on their credit cards!

Also, I'd like to add here that we're prepping for a Renn event in the middle of this month in Umbira (aka: Phoenix) and I'm super-jazzed about being able to see my gypsies/Mr. Puck/The Jenn.. not only that, but I hear that Ms. Shahara (her Imperial Pointy-hattedness) is selling garb. I am SUPER excited about this, as I do so need new garb and it's bound to be ridiculously pretty. . . gypsies don't dress plain. The only issue may be that I'll have to spend money on books in a minute here, for my classes and.. well.. books do come before looking pretty, despite what other people may think. Stupid learning.