Yay! :D

We bought Rock Band the other day and I can't not play it. That is the MOST AWESOME game EVAR! 😁😁😁

Shadow's our front man and I LOVE to hear him sing. When he's not singing he's dancing. Nick plays bass and guitar (I think - but not at the same time) and I'm on drums. It's SO much fun. I don't even care what songs we play; I just want to play.

It's great because I haven't played anything drum-like in YEARS. You probably can't even imagine how much I've missed being in the high school band... mostly marching band. That was more fun than concert band (although that was cool, too). But anyway...

I own a set of drums, but I never had a clue as to how to get all my limbs to work together... so playing this game was sort of challenging at first because it has a bass pedal and all that jazz, but I'm catching on pretty quickly, I think. I'm scoring pretty good, (like in the 80's, AT LEAST - even on the harder songs). I think I've done as well as 97 on some of the less hard ones, though. It makes me excited because, hey - maybe one day I'll actually get un-shy enough to wail on my real-life drums. That would be nothing short of exhilarating.

Also, you get to create the rock star you play with so there's a bald drummer with taped up glasses and a skinny guitarist and a cute little mohawked singer in our band... which is called "The Sneak" btw. I wish I could put up a picture of our characters... I'll have to find a way to get our images - even if I have to somehow photograph them from the TV.

Now that you know what a dork I am I guess I'm done. Laterz!

Work...

Well, I'm working a whole lot. If I'm not at PetSmart, I've got books to do for a small company on the side, and also another project coming up after Thanksgiving. Needless to say - I'm busy, but things seem to be going pretty well. I'm still loving PetSmart... I feel like I'm learning a lot. Yesterday I did anal glands for the first time and I'm also getting better about trimming black nails (though they usually still end up a little long). I just really, REALLY don't want to quick a dog and with black nails it's just so hard to tell when you're close.

Anyway, the company I'm doing books for currently is pretty awesome; I'm SO excited to be helping them out. The man who runs the company is a big animal lover... he has a 14 year old German Shepherd who's back legs stopped working and since she doesn't seem to be in pain and is in good spirits he just carries her butt around for her with a harness. I like that he would do that for her... she goes everywhere with him so I know it's not an easy task. It's just nice to see that some people have it in them to care for their pets so much. And I know - some people would say that it's cruel to not put her down, but I say that it's no worse than the elderly in wheelchairs. Hell, I'd do it for any one of my dogs.

Well, I can't think of much else going on right now... it seems like all I do is work lately. I guess that's ok... no time to spend my money, right?? 😂 More later... 😊

I’m blawgin’ it.

Punniest Thing I've Done All Day... 😂

I'm Blu. 😂

I Kiss Girls.

Honestly, did you not see that coming?? 😀 And hey look - my psoriasis looks like a paw print. I don't think I've ever been more ok with having jacked up skin. 😝

Emma’s trying to catch a moth. 😂

Yeah... you can expect the rest of this blog to be that random. 😝

So... I've been sick. Feeling pretty terrible...

A little bit of nausea in my life

A little bit of snot dripping by my side

A little bit of TheraFlu is all I need

A little bit of tissue is what I see

A little bit of cringing in the sun

A little bit of cold sweats all night long

A little bit of coughing here I am

A little bit of flu makes me feel bad 😓

And yes - I totally just made that up. 😀

Anyway, I went to work Friday feeling terrible, but I didn't stay long. The manager called and I squeaked and croaked into the phone and he sent me home. I was RELIEVED. I needed to rest and so I did. And it helped. ... BUT... he didn't send me home before I got myself bitten by a Shih Tzu named Larry. I was totally out of my head from feeling so bad so I was an easy target. He didn't break the skin, but my thumb is still aching and he left a red mark in my nail. If I remember correctly all I said was "shit" and stood there gawking like an idiot.

Moving on... Saturday, we had a LOT of cute dogs. One, I shit you not, looked like an Ewok from Star Wars. And we had a Chinese Crested come in and she was SO cute and warm. Her name was Diva, but her hair held a striking resemblance to that of Cruella Deville. 😄 Do I even have to say it?? I want one of those dogs - if only to keep me warm.

Sunday we rearranged the house with the help of our good friends Jajuan and Janet. This is the first time since the flood (which happened in JULY!) that I've been ok / even remotely happy to be in this house. We've pretty much given a room to the pets (so me and Shadow can play with the dogs - Yay!) and made ourselves a new living room. Hopefully we'll put our new flooring down soon and in the mean time figure out who to go after for the damage to our other room. That would be nice. Now if only we could manage to afford a fence, life would be grand.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good today. Not at first... at first (and by at first I mean 6:30 A.M. - I had to get Shadow ready for school), I felt like shit. For some reason I woke up with a migraine. Then I took some Ibuprofen and laid back down since I didn't have to be at work until 11. But then I was woken up by the dogs going straight NUTS and someone banging on the door. It was the cops. Apparently, we Trick-or-Treated in the wrong place at the wrong time... there was a robbery in the neighborhood and someone said that our car was out there until 11:00 that night. That was complete bullshit... I told the cop that we headed home at 9:30 (which was wayyy too late in my opinion, but hey - it was HALLOWEEN!) because my kid had to be in school the next day. He asked if anyone could back up my story and I was all "Yeah, plenty of people could."

So... Back to what I was saying - at work my headache faded at some point. I'm glad about that. But I almost got bitten again. She put her teeth on me, but it didn't hurt. I'm sure she could have hurt me and damn if she didn't try. She's so grumpy that her owner even calls her "Pissy Missy." And yep - she was another Shih Tzu. Those little critters just are not happy. 😕

Pissy Missy

threw a hissy

and tried to bite me and Jennifer

but I hugged her tight - not without a fight

and we finally finished her

Oh, I am SUCH a poet tonight. 😂😂😂

Anyhoo, I'm really glad to be home (it feels like home again!) - and that in itself is a damn good feeling. It was great to come home to three wagging tails and lots of kisses. It also smells really awesome in here... there are these things that you can put in your air vents to make the house smell yummy... ours smells like spice cookies or something. I'm digging it. 😀 And I can't wait to put on something comfy and curl up on the couch with Nick and a blanket and some Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa (that shit is the shit - [I'm serious!] - but only if you share it) and watch some Scrubs. All is right in my home tonight.

So here it is:

Tomorrow is my last day at Artisan fucking Magnetics.

😁😁😁 I am STOKED! 😁😁😁

I know that probably sounds terrible, but I've been walked upon and shat upon for long enough. Three years is long enough, right?

For those who have somehow missed out on my periodic rants, let's recap: I worked my ass off and received virtually nothing (except the experience I'm walking out the door with) in return.

When I started the office area was in shambles. There was no organization, no method to the madness, no files set up (except for those that my co-worker created and used). But that's it. There were piles and piles of paperwork - in boxes or just stacked somewhere. Guess who had to organize all of that, and figure out what was in the accounting system or not, and what had been paid for or not? Me. And I did. And I did it well considering that this was my first bookkeeping experience straight out of college. (The teachers pretty much expect that you'll get a job working under someone with experience... but that didn't happen in my case. I was pretty much on my own and I think I handled things well).

Anyway, I've endured:

• being laid off at inopportune times
• the company randomly shutting down and re-opening
• Nick being laid off out of spite (because I stood my ground one day)
• stress and anger almost daily due to terrible management decisions
• being lied to
• watching the boss's family and friends getting paid outrageously and promoted

... and that's in addition to steadily taking on more work (including two other people's jobs) and not getting a raise IN TWO YEARS. There's (unfortunately) so much more that I could say, but I just don't want to get into the specifics. Not today, anyway - I'm in a fairly decent mood. So yeah... you can probably only imagine how fed up I've been. My main goal this year was to leave this place and I can't express how excited I am that tomorrow I get to walk away and not look back.

I know I probably sound really terrible for saying all of these things (and I realize that this is wayyy unprofessional - hence this being a preferred post), but this shit was affecting me. It was affecting my mood daily, and thus, my quality of life. Nobody wants to come home angry every day (or dread their days before they even start, for that matter). I know that I sure don't.

Things weren't always this way, though. When I first started I was excited and happy to come to work. As time went on I saw more and more ridiculous things happen and my "happy and excited to be here" started fading until it pretty much turned to contempt over time. I just couldn't do this anymore. I'd rather work part-time, or two jobs, or something - ANYTHING - to get away from here. And so that's what I'm doing - stepping out of my comfort zone and going for something better.  Things are changing and it's scary, but it will just have to work out.

P.S. If you have any odd jobs or hear of anything part-time or flexible - send it my way. I'm good at cleaning, laundry, bookkeeping, and handling animals. I'm not quite getting enough hours at my part-time job for the time being... hopefully that will change soon, though. 😊

Scruffy

Well, again with the new additions to the family. This is Scruffy - an adorable, sweet little fella who was thrown out at least twice that we know of. He was fortunate enough to cross paths with Shelby, (the groomer who has taken care of him for the last four months or so). He was brought in to the salon to be groomed and was never picked up. The owner left a disconnected phone number with us and later returned and left his rabies tags. Shelby at some point found out that this was not the first time that he'd been dumped out. Between the two of us we can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want him... he's house trained, sweet, good with kids and other animals, cute, appears to be neutered already...

Anyway, he needed a family that could keep him indoors and once I met him my heart just went out to him. I brought him home to see how he fit in and what everyone thought of him and it was like he just belonged. So as of last night he's our new baby... even though he's grown.

He and Shadow have become fast friends if you can't tell. Shadow likes him because he's cuddly and because he can walk the little fella without him pulling him all over the place. They're very sweet together.

Still haven’t been bitten...

but today, I had my lip busted at work. By a dog. 😂

I was trying to put a collar on a Great Dane who was very ready to go home and she was bouncing around a lot... she jumped up and her head hit me in the mouth. It busted my bottom lip pretty good. It's gashed open and bruised and swollen. But I'm ok. 😊