Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

Well done! It’s a very overcast, cool, and slightly drizzly day today and it is oddly pleasant? It seems to just make everything calmer. I’d say it wasn’t the best day for the community yard sale day, but it didn’t seem to be slowing anyone down.

And as I type this, it is only 10:30* and I’ve already done the coffee run, hit the farmers market twice, and got to the grocery store. And good news, I saw some cobra chickens!

It did not rain on me at the farmers market because I had a hat, windbreaker with hood, and umbrella in my bag – I am wholly convinced that kept any rain at bay.

I showed a little more restraint this week at the farmers market, but there was still a hella haul. Salad stuff, grilled chicken empanadas for dinner, some strudels, strawberries, and ALL THE SHORTBREADS!

Pulled into the driveway at home and realized I’d somehow forgotten to hit up the bread bakery stand… At that point, it was only 9:15AM, I still had to go back out to the grocery store, and the farmers market is literally 11 minutes away, so…LET’S GO AGAIN! Put everything away, figured out what I needed from the grocery store, and off I went.

Got my breads, and maybe accidentally got some apples, some salsas for the empanadas, and some of the most refreshing ginger-lemonade from the Kiwi meat pie stall. (Next weekend: Kiwi meat pies for dinner for sure.) And that lemonade plus the strawberries? Divine.

I so love farmers market strawberries because you get ALL THE SHAPES AND SIZES. Plus they still have dirt on them, so you know they’re good.

And I am realizing that the folks at the farmers market must think I’m an extrovert, cause I am SO DAMN CHATTY THERE. But the fact of the matter is, it’s been another long winter without much to do that is Covid safe, and the farmers market is a big ol’ dopamine hit. (Note to self: Remember that a large part of this is fresh air and exercise and get your ass out for a walk more often.)

Have a lovely day!

* Yes, I know, I’ll get distracted and forget to post this until 3PM, LOL.

OK, maybe me having shortbread for breakfast. The fantastic shortbread lady had a new flavor this season – coconut lime. And I wasn’t totally sure about the combo, but thought it was worth a try, and later remembered they did make a whole song about putting the lime in the coconut, so…

Oh they’re so good!! You get this great sweetness from the coconut and then just enough lime to keep it from being *too* sweet, and it just…lifts it? I don’t know how else to describe it, but it’s delicious.

Oh, and the Jamaican jerk pork I picked up yesterday was very tasty, though my brother did describe it as “Spice Level: Burke.” But still – good!

Thursday I had to go to T-Mobile to see about replacing my phone, cause the battery has done that “overheat and expand” thing, which isn’t great – they said the replacement should be in store in a day or two – I got the notification that it shipped Friday, but it’s not in yet – I kinda spent all day in wait mode yesterday.

“Wait mode” is so weird, but honestly, once I found out it was actually pretty common and had a name – I felt a lot better about it. It’s been very interesting over the past IDK, 5 to 10 years as I realized how many things I though were personal failings were far more likely to just be ADHD and/or it’s various and sundry friends.

I’m at a stage in my life where I don’t really think it’s worth it to get an official diagnosis, but just finally realizing it all has made quite a difference. I guiltlessly engage in various coping mechanisms to get things done, and I am a LOT gentler with myself.

Like “wait mode” – sometimes I can gently talk myself out of it to get a few things done, and sometimes I realize fighting it is going to cause me far more stress than it’s worth, and I just let it go. And today is one of those days – waiting to hear if the phone has arrived, but also, some things need to be get done… So, today I’m just going to focus on “how about I just do the next thing on the list” because no one thing on the list will take that long and I can easily finish any given task and pivot to picking up the phone if it arrives.

I just have to remind myself of that. A lot. 🤣

But it’s all good. I’m not lazy, I’m not a slob – I’ve just spent most of my life running under a bad set of assumptions about how my brain works.

Be good to yourself today.

Popped into the market this morning to grab some proteins to go with the farmers market salad stuff and saw a sign with “A Message From The CEO” – the tl;dr is they’re making changes to checkout due to a “significant increase in crime and theft”…

Dude, you have fallen for that right wing talking point of “EVERYONE IS CRIMING” hook, line, and sinker.  And you do understand that by perpetuating this dangerous myth of ”criminals everywhere” – this is how people get shot, right?  Do you get that?  Some armed psycho is going to decide he doesn’t like the look of someone in the market, decide they’re stealing, and fucking shoot them.  

You have fucking insurance for this shit – everyone knows it. The company isn’t in dire straits due to shoplifting.

Here is the question I’d love for you to ask yourself – but I bet you won’t.  “Has our company’s engagement in price gouging right along with our suppliers – while blaming it all on inflation – made food unaffordable?  Should we continue with that?”  I mean, the parent company netting 2.5 BILLION euros a year might not be enough, so yes, definitely keep it up.

And by the way, if I think I see someone shoplifting, no, I didn’t, and I’m gonna go three aisles away and accidentally knock over a display.  

Don’t treat your customers like criminals.

I knew they were opening soon and I’m glad I double checked last night and discovered it was TODAY!!!

And I still cannot be left unsupervised there. I realize part of it is that it provides a HUGE dopamine hit for my weird brain. It’s a combination of the fresh air, exercise, that good feeling you have supporting small local businesses, and FOOD!!

The first couple weekends can be a bit sparse, cause it isn’t until the first week of May that all the county markets are open – but not this year. Couple produce vendors weren’t there yet, but the rest of the market was full. Love to see it!

We now have TWO empanada vendors! Two more bakeries! A JAMAICAN FOOD VENDOR! Stephanie’s Bite Sized Bakery with it’s awesome shortbread is back!!

My salad greens vendor also had some cherry tomatoes, but I resisted those – it’s far too early (*sob*) and they were a bit anemic looking – I knew they would be disappointing – but it won’t be long before they’re properly ripe and awesome. And I am just now realizing I saw strawberries, got distracted, and forgot to loop back around for them. Next weekend!

Dinner is sorted thanks to the Kingston Cafe – jerk pork!! (I got two orders – I probably could have gotten away with one, cause OMG, they are huge portions – food for the whole weekend may be sorted.)

First weekend is so fun just because everyone is like me – all smiley and a bit giddy because it means winter is well and truly gone. Definitely worth celebrating.

I got out of work ON TIME and my weekend has started!!

And, thanks to it being a fairly normal workweek – I’m not completely exhausted either, which is VERY nice.

Never heard back from support, so that’s certainly not critical. (Sure hope she’s not waiting for me to chase her down on this, cause that’s not happening. I have enough to do without chasing more work.)

Set my Teams status to “Appear Offline” because I’ve discovered that apparently it’s been showing me as available when I have been offline for hours. Really don’t need folks thinking I’m somehow online & available when I’m not working.

After the last month of ridiculous nonsense, it’s time to re-establish some boundaries.

And I am very relaxed and chill and thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the sofa for a bit watching Iggy trundle around and do his thing. (Yes, easily entertained.)

YOU MADE IT! I MADE IT!! WOOHOO!!

And it’s a half day Friday around these parts, so my ass isn’t logging on until 9AM, because working 7AM-1PM on a “half” day really isn’t a half day, LOL.

Wednesday’s end of day “oh can you jump on a meeting as you’re trying to get out the door” issue hasn’t come back up again, but I have a feeling it will crop back up at 12:45PM today. The fact that I heard nothing yesterday tells me that as I knew – it isn’t an emergency.

But, I can’t stay late, cause I have an appointment this afternoon! Hair appointment, but still an appointment, and that’s not getting fucked up.

Welp, time to go just put my head down and get through 4 hours as quick as I can, cause though it’s been a quiet week, I am ready for the weekend.

You have a great day!

Will I have the customer data requested?

Will anyone ask about the other case I dealt with yesterday that never should have escaped support?

Will I get to just do my regular job, or will a department that I left 3 years ago continue to plague me and convince me that yes, moving was the right choice?!

We shall see!!

You have a great day and don’t let folks drive you up a wall.

Or just petty boundaries?

End of the day, support analyst wants me to jump into a meeting with a client.

No, I can’t.

A. I was already smack in the middle of something, trying to wrap it up so I could log off, and my status message shows my working hours – which I was already past.

B. It is the point of the day where I am no longer at my best, and as such, I should not be in a client meeting on zero notice.

C. I know enough about the situation that I know it’s not an emergency, and I cannot help via a meeting.  I need the underlying data.

I’m really not trying to be an asshole – but meeting with clients with no data and no notice at the end of the day is a recipe for disaster. Helping support is part of the gig, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean drop-everything-unfettered access to me.

You want me on a meeting? Schedule it and make sure I have what I need ahead of time – and maybe we won’t even need the meeting.

Told the analyst to grab the data, send it to me, and I’d look at it first thing in the morning, and logged off.

I’m sure someone is pissed, but I know enough that if I’d gotten on that meeting, the client would have expected me to work it all night – it’s not an emergency, and I’m not walking into that.

Dominion Voting Systems settled their lawsuit against Fox News.

When all you have to do is write a check and you make as much money as they do – that’s not a consequence, that’s a nuisance. Hell, it’s probably covered by insurance.

I’m not saying this isn’t big for Dominion – it’s literally 45 years of revenue for them.

But people really, really needed to see what Fox was doing, and the trial was going to do that. I know Dominion had something along the lines of 7,000 exhibits – I don’t know if that is part of the public record now or not – I don’t know the legal mechanics of it all, if they had to be entered before the trial started or what.

But I’m not going to sit here and pretend this hurts Fox News, because it doesn’t, and since they can just buy their way out of it – they’ll do it again.

Damn that came around too quick this week. My weekend was the perfect mix of very relaxing and getting things done and just not quite long enough – but it never is…

But, it’s a half day Friday week in which I (possibly foolishly) scheduled both a dentist appointment and a hair appointment on the same day. Granted, they’re very far apart and it really shouldn’t be a problem, but also, what the fuck was I thinking? Oh, I think I know – “No, I cannot work late because I have not one, but two appointments.”

Hopefully it won’t be an issue at all and it will be calm this week. Though I did just look at Teams and I’m getting “why did you put this bug in this spot” and that’s because that’s is what the farking instructions said to do? If it needs to be fixed by X release it goes in X spot? Did that get chucked out the window already?

Ah well, minor annoyance at best.

I hope you have a very calm day.