Yes, I'm back. You knew I would be. Because I'm a big hypocrite liar who can't keep her word on anything. Plus I forgot that before quitting I'd signed up for Februarium. Bad timing to have a hissy fit, of course.

I will attempt to not whine so much about problems I have no intention of solving with a Decisive Assertive Action so much, but since this is me we're talking about, yeah right, how long will this last. Though you may be actually sorta impressed with me by the end of this entry, who knows. I wasn't a complete spineless worm in the past few days.

On Friday, they held a lunch meeting to notify people on the latest budget stuff. They apparently know very little, which was ever so helpful for me to start calculating my layoff chances with. All I really found out was that anyone who gets laid off gets first priority at interviews for new positions and may even get some job training. They did that the last time the state had layoffs and managed to rehire half of the unfortunates. Which is a cheering thing, I guess.

Even though I admit that I get rather bored at my job and do want to find something more interesting to do someday when the economy stops sucking, I'd like to keep staying here for a few years. Working for a large organization that does stuff like that impresses me, and the benefits are fat. Definitely nice in the event of actually getting married (for those who are wondering, now it's approximately spring/summer 2004 or 2005, depending on how jobs and moving work out this year).

This is my first weekend at home in who-knows-how-long, and so far I am boooooooored. (Hence this entry.) I even cleaned my room and started updating the weblog. Hell, I even got jealous of Dave for going off to the vampire game on Friday, even though he said it was boring and nobody was there. At least he got OUT.

Speaking of which, I have decided to cave in and buy a much-vaunted membership after all. Dave had heard that there might be the possibility of me being able to use his member number as a "guest" a couple of times a month, but no, that won't be happening after all. I think it would make things rather awkward if I didn't pay up and then Dave felt obligated to not go to games because I didn't want to, and it's not like we'd be doing anything MORE interesting if we didn't go. It's not like I haven't wasted $20 before either.

I don't much like being here and having nothing much to do, but It's Cheaper, so I must. Even though I already blew the "cheaper" bit by going out to lunch with Hill yesterday. We had the laggiest waitress I've ever seen in my life. Took ten minutes to get around to seating us, and wouldn't come over (she was hanging around an empty table while the restaurant was half-empty) until Hill started banging on the table and grumbling about can we get some service over here. The chick made no apologies, either. We had to give up waiting for Madame Layabout to bring over the bill and had to storm the register to get her attention. Hill left $1 tip, and not only did I not go back and add more money to it, I had to restrain myself from not taking back the dollar. I know you're supposed to ALWAYS tip well NO MATTER WHAT the service is, but that girl so did not deserve it. She irritated me, and I am pretty dang tolerant of waiting follies. (And no, we didn't have time to go find the manager and complain, since the waitress dragged ass so long Hill was nearly late to work.)

I managed to resolve two crises in the last few days, much to my amazement. Or at least, they're resolved for now but will probably come back up again in the future.

Crisis #1 was Dave falling madly in love with an $800 bed and wanting us to go halves on it. Admittedly, he desperately needs a new bed, as his current one is trashed beyond trashed, causes him much pain and he ends up in the emergency room in pain about every other month from sleeping funny. But, well, I don't have the $400 to spare between bills and a possible layoff to go in on this, and like I've said before, things like this should really wait until we're living in the same town. I managed to win the argument, even though I feel bad for essentially telling him, "Too bad you're in pain, you're just gonna have to suck it up if you don't want a cheaper bed" about it.

Crisis #2, on a similar note, was me freaking out when I found out that Dave had spent most of his alloted cash for the time being on lunches and dinners during work, i.e. "Quizno's is expensive." He is not totally broke, but with a week left to go and five more days of work until another paycheck, guess where the rest of it is going. I ended up making him cry, even though I restrained myself and tried to be as rational as possible. Not only did I get rather freaked at how much it was, I had one of those totally evil moments that I wanted to slap myself upside the head for. Inside I was thinking, "Whatever happened to 'Since you had to do everything for our anniversary, I'm going to do a lot for Valentine's, and get your present then?'"

I am so ashamed of myself. I don't want to be a greedy, whiny, I-want-presents girl here, nor do I want to be Whiny Disappointed Girl because her boyfriend didn't take her out for Valentine's Day. I've already done that number every time I had a boyfriend on the day anyway (this will be the first year I will actually be able to SEE a boyfriend on the day in my life), I don't need to keep on doing it. Presents and being wined and dined so I don't feel like a loser on National Leave-Other-People-Out Day are NOT important here.

So we had a chat, and he came up with a reasonable plan to hold on to more money in the future for other things, and for the moment, things are resolved. (We'll see how they go in a couple weeks, of course.) Though I did take the opportunity to lay down a few rules of my own I wanted to make. One of which is: no more presents. He doesn't get to give them to me, and I don't get to give them to him any more. Neither one of us should be spending money on gifts. I've done too much of it, and we both need to direct our money elsewhere. Plus this way there's no "Well, so-and-so should be getting me a present" crap to worry about. He REALLY REALLY REALLY didn't like this one, I have to say, but finally kind-of caved in with a "Fine, but if I see something that would really be cute on you, don't expect me to pass it up." Er, whatever.

Is this actual problem solving on my part?

I am still rather bummed that we probably won't be doing anything for Valentine's Day now- my alloted money for the time is going towards getting the professional photographs done the next day- but oh well. How much could we have done on the most crowded restaurant day of the year when I don't even get into town until 8:30 anyway?

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