I’ll admit that I’ve been in a meh mood about blogging lately so I haven’t been around LJ often. Part of it has just been a pullback after all of the fandom b.s. over the last several months (and taking a breather). Part has just been that frankly, I don’t have a lot I’ve felt like writing about. And really – in a lot of ways I just don’t feel like I have anything interesting to say. *shrug*
That being said, I hate that with the exception of a few very filtered entries, my journal has really only been filled with dragon eggs for the last several weeks. And that needs to change. I’m also debating whether to start posting most stuff in unlocked entries again, and just say “eff it” to all of the crap that’s gone on. Filtering myself into a lockdown, and then forcing myself to further filter due to the people who were on my friends list has honestly hurt my writing style. A lot.
Thankfully, I’ve done a lot of sweeping. And I’m thinking I’m okay.
So for giggles, here’s just a “what’s Mel been up to lately?” life recap post…
Writing Stuff
I’ve been doing a lot of writing, both fanfic and casual fiction, but not getting anywhere near where I want to be. That’s frustrating. I’m now two months late on my Support Stacie fic – mostly stuck because NC17 was requested, but I just can’t get my brain to go that route right now. *sigh* (and of course, forcing makes it even worse). I’m now also late on an OT3 fic, although the deadline was a bit looser on that one. I do think that my OT3 writing is being affected by the Stacie fic situation. I’ll just try to keep plugging… somehow.
Once these two fics are done, though, I need to take a break from fanfic for a while. Just to focus on other projects, I think.
Travels
This past weekend Erich and I headed to Chicago to celebrate the wedding of our friends myownwench and jgulner. We had a great time, despite some extremely crappy weather on Saturday and Sunday. Neither of us had been to Chicago before. To be able to fly from snowy teen-degree Rhode Island to a sixty-five degree Chicago and sprawl out on the Navy Pier on Friday, complete with mini-icebergs in Lake Michigan, was a blast.
The wedding itself was very nice – a pretty and heartfelt ceremony for two fantastic people, followed by a good party that went past midnight with lots of dancing and goofing off. Really can’t beat it.
Oh – and if you ever go to Chicago, you must eat at Glenn’s Diner. We saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network just a week before heading out west… and it was fantastic. It’s a bit pricey ($17-22), but very, very good and worth it in my opinion. Some very different fish selections than you’ll normally see.
Work
Work’s been stressful, and I admit that I’m very frustrated with the situation. I love the company I work for, but I’ve got a growing resentment regarding the people I work with… and having gone to my manager about it, now know that I have absolutely no solutions beyond the traditional “put up and shut up” about it.
I know I’m good at what I do, and I take pride in my work. I’m not just there to get a paycheck – if that were the case, I definitely wouldn’t be traveling 90 minutes each way. The downside of being good at what I do and taking pride in my work is that because I’m willing to take the responsibility, I see the two people I work with taking advantage of that. It’s expected that if a project’s going to go later than our scheduled hours, I’m the one staying. We’ve been on an adjusted work schedule since October when our receptionist went out for double hip surgery. One of the women I work with volunteered to work every morning starting at 8:30, and then the other two of us work the afternoon shifts. When early morning admin is off or having to cover the mailroom because THAT clerk is out, then the two of us who cover in the afternoon have go come in early. Well… I’ve wound up having to cover six of those so far this year, and nine since October, including working THROUGH the office Christmas party. The other girl has worked that extra phone shift… once.
And when I pointed this out to my manager, I got absolutely no help on it. In fact, she claimed that both of them are getting glowing reviews – completely OPPOSITE of what I’m hearing from people, who come storming to me to complain about the stupid mistakes and attitude they get from the others. I suggest they take it to my manager, but they tell me that they get blown off about complaints.
So yeah… despite carrying a heavier workload because extra afternoon person sucks, both personality and work-output wise… I’m just expected to put up and shut up. More and more people are either waiting until I’m by myself in the administrative assistant cube to give work, or just not bringing it to our department at all because they don’t want the other two working on their projects.
And of course, I’m happy to do the work. BUT… I’m also getting major attitudes from the other two, who of course, I’m making look bad by actually DOING MY JOB.
The whole situation is souring me. I’m tired, I’m frustrated, and just need a venting session. I keep reminding myself that I need to be thankful I have a job. That because I live in one of the states with an over 10% unemployment rate, I can’t do anything to risk it.
But it’s getting harder to get up in the morning, knowing that I’m going to have to put up with the crap again.
*sigh*
Health
On the downside – I really need to get in soon to get my blood pressure under monitoring. Three separate times over six months, my reading was at roughly 140/90. Considering I was at 115/75 consistently (even at my heaviest weight) until very recently, I’m wondering what’s up. I’ve been watching my sodium intake in the meantime, since it’s the easiest thing to keep an eye on.
On the upside – I’m somehow down two dress sizes. My clothes still fit me, but I’ve gone down a couple dress sizes… and a bra cup size. Not complaining about this. Not sure how it’s happening, either.
But I’ll take it.
And I’ll look forward to the weather getting better so I can take advantage of it and get some good walking in.
So yeah, that’s basically everything going on in my head these days.
