Hump Day

ei34

How's everyone? Hope things are not too crazy!

ei34

I have DS's triennial (every three year CSE re-eval) meeting at 11, I'm a total ball of nerves.  His teachers and I are on the same page but they're still hard to go through.  
Tonight is the final holiday concert of the season, one of the DDs is in her school's Treblemakers chorus, so even though it's the 7th grade concert and she's not in 7th, she's in it.  Like the others it should be lovely, and/but I'm also glad that they have wrapped up.  

Coworker holiday breakfast was a lot of fun.  My secret snowflake liked her gift.  I just had fruit but there are a lot of yummy treats in our dept office waiting for me (for after the CSE, my stomach couldn't handle anything now).  The cinnamon rolls were a hit. 

VarunaTT

I'm in a mood.  No particular reason why, just am.  I got my aunt's gift ordered yesterday to be here by Friday and I'll go pick up other aunt's gift on Saturday at the tea store.  IDK what's wrong with me and holidays right now, but I am not enjoying them fully and would really rather just be hibernating.

I just finished reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang last night and wow.  It's a sharp satire with an unreliable narrator, who is really unlikable for me.  It was difficult to read; I recognized myself and other people in the main character, even though you really want to believe the main character is someone pushed to extremes when really, she's not.  I think it's a pretty important read for white women, TBH. Everything is told though the first person, so actual plot and actual writing are not paramount, so much as the inner struggle and justifications going on in the mind of the main character.  So it's a pretty fast read, but I had to take breaks b/c it's just a heavy story.  Anyway, highly recommend, 9/10, only lowered because it's an excellent satire piece that tries to be a bit of a thriller too and fails on that part.

Otherwise, SSDD.  I have 2 doctor's appointments tomorrow.  I was supposed to go get a blood draw this morning, but I slept too late, so skipped it.  Will hang out with Mom in between appointments, b/c they're a bit too far apart to stay on the medical campus, but a bit too close to drive all the way back to my place.  Mom is just a few miles from the clinic, so that means I'll get to check in on her.

MyNameIsNot

Those cinnamon roles sound amazing, but I'm not asking for any recipe that involves turning on the oven at 4 am, lol. 

Not much going on today. Work is busy in the way where people are scrambling to do a bunch of stuff before they leave. At least a lot of people got a clue and started cancelling recurring meetings for the rest of the week. 

In fun news, we found out that my FIL has a 90 day fiance situation going on. SMIL passed a year ago. We're not super close to FIL because he's generally kind of shitty, but he called yesterday to let us know he's engaged to a woman he met back home and it's going to be a quicky wedding because she got a fiance visa and is moving here. I cannot wait to meet this woman. I'm guessing she's about 25, but H thinks she's the long term side piece. 

CharmedPam

Good plan @VarunaTT! Can you work from her place or taking the day off?
That’ll be fun to watch @ei34

i’m finally coming around to my old self again with videos, meme’s, reflections and most importantly girl time.
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I sat down and wrote all of S’s narc traits and red flags that should have made me run! I have 5 word document pages.  WITH “narrow margins” because I hate word’s default margin width. And these aren’t the lies even. That’s a whole different document. Did I tell you I thought he was thinking of taking her to Germany. He told me he and a “friend” were going but he didn’t get his passport on time, but there’s no way it was a buddy of his. All his “friends” (if he even has any) are international pilots.  He didn’t expedite her passport for her because I’m sure he realized he didn’t have her hooked completely. And how can he keep the mask on the whole time they’re together? Girl would have seen the true him like I had on our last night together, which was my turning point. 

Anyway, that’s how I process things. I write them down.  Looking at them in writing gives you a full picture. I’m so glad I got out when I did.  I think he would have discarded me anyway. I seriously pieced everything together and knew to much.  

I stayed up late watching elf. I have elf trivia tonight and I hope I can contribute.  But my memory is baaaad. 
Edit; words 

Casadena

N has gotten pretty savvy at quietly coming in our room at night, situating himself in the middle with a pillow and covering himself up without waking us up. I'm not a super heavy sleeper so he's pretty skilled. This is the 3rd night in a row I've rolled over and been surprised at like 3am. I'm not die-hard about kids in our bed (although I do take him back to his room when i wake up) and it's been pretty sweet. 

Having dinner with our good friends and their kids at a fast casual place tonight, hopefully the kiddos are better behaved than last time - we're switching up the seating arrangement to hopefully help keep things calmer. 

I'm skipping my neighborhood book club tonight bc i need to wrap presents, give away unused toys, and generally organize my life a bit before my whole family is here (sis gets in tonight, parents tomorrow). G got so many awesome presents for his bday but need to thin out some older ones that dont' get used much to make room. especially with Christmas coming and a couple grandparents that have a tendency to go rogue with gifts, lol. 

I have my work holiday party tomorrow night that i don't have an outfit put together for yet but found some fun rhinestone bow earrings that i'm excited to wear. Off Friday to shop and hang all day with my mom and sister while the boys are at school. Looking forward to ALL the things the next couple weeks, but will also be relieved when we're through the craziness. 

CharmedPam

MyNameIsNot said:

In fun news, we found out that my FIL has a 90 day fiance situation going on. SMIL passed a year ago. We're not super close to FIL because he's generally kind of shitty, but he called yesterday to let us know he's engaged to a woman he met back home and it's going to be a quicky wedding because she got a fiance visa and is moving here. I cannot wait to meet this woman. I'm guessing she's about 25, but H thinks she's the long term side piece. 

*sits down with a fresh bag of popped popcorn* please keep us updated!

Casadena said:

N has gotten pretty savvy at quietly coming in our room at night, situating himself in the middle with a pillow and covering himself up without waking us up. I'm not a super heavy sleeper so he's pretty skilled. This is the 3rd night in a row I've rolled over and been surprised at like 3am. I'm not die-hard about kids in our bed (although I do take him back to his room when i wake up) and it's been pretty sweet. 

Ok that IS kinda cute though 

levioosa

Sending you good vibes @ei34. 

H had jury duty today. I dropped him off on the way to work. My goodness that man has a lot of words at 6:30 in the morning. We are not the same. lol. 

For some ungodly reason I stayed up late watching Pride & Prejudice, a movie I have seen like 150 times, instead of going TF to sleep. I'm paying for it today and I have no one but myself to blame. But I love the movie so much. 

Otherwise SSDD. The staff person they are trying to assign to me is refusing to switch clinics. Like was told to report here and then no showed and then kept showing up at the original clinic. So that bodes well for me. Otherwise SSDD. 

Keep giving yourself grace @Charmedpam. I know you said writing it down helps you process, but don't let that turn into a self beratement because you feel like you should have pieced it together before. People like that are very good at twisting emotions and words. 

Lol @mynameisnot I love family drama that has no real impact on my personal life, but is a dumpster fire to watch from afar. 

CharmedPam

levioosa said:

Keep giving yourself grace @Charmedpam. I know you said writing it down helps you process, but don't let that turn into a self beratement because you feel like you should have pieced it together before. People like that are very good at twisting emotions and words. 

Good advice! They are masters of their craft for sure. 

banana468

It is (checks notes) 7 DAYS until Christmas.  Counting today, there are EIGHT working days in this calendar year and I will be off for 3 of them.

Why are projects with short time lines getting dumped in my lap!? 

short+sassy

@ei34, I'm laughing you all are "snowflakes" instead of "santas" for the secret gift exchange.  I also at first misread "Treblemakers chorus" as "Troublemakers chorus" so that was funny for me also.  Good luck with DS's triennial.

@MyNameIsNot, about the only reality shows I like are all the 90DF ones.  I am also looking forward to updates!

Here is a friend's 90DF story.  Unfortunately, I knew him years before any of those shows came out and in hindsight I wish I had asked more questions.

He was one of those "poor me, why are women in the US so awful and don't like me" kind of guys.  I personally never sensed what was turning women off, other than that attitude.  Which I assumed he didn't say on dates/in relationships.  But then, we were just friends and I never dated him either.

He started looking internationally for women.  He was chatting it up with a Russian woman for awhile.  Her profile said flat-out said she was looking to marry an American/Canadian/Brit/Australian man.  Ya know, I can respect that.  It's honest and sometimes romance can blossom even in a transactional relationship.  He didn't like she occasionally asked him for small amounts of money.  He asked me if I thought she was using him just for money and to get a green card.  I looked at him wide-eyed, "Yes. Yes she is.  She literally says that in her profile.  She might genuinely like you also, but her goal is to get out of Russia via marriage."  He didn't like that and stopped talking to her.

His new focus became Laotian women.  I'm making up names.  This is where it got more serious.  He did start a K-1 visa with a woman there (Jane).  He told me one of the requirements for the application is he had to spend at least three weeks with her.  It didn't have to be all in one stint, but that was what he chose to do because of the expense/time involved in traveling to Asia.

He went on a 3-week trip to Laos to see her, so they could get her visa rolling after that.  It went well, but he wasn't sure how into him she was after the trip.  After he got back to the US, she started flaking on doing her end of the visa and he was becoming disenchanted.

Meanwhile...

He had met a number of her friends while he was there and stayed in touch with one of them (Mary).

"Friend" Mary starts fanning the flames with stuff like, "Yeah, Jane isn't that into you.  I think it's mean how she is leading you on.  You're such a great guy and she's so lucky.  Suurree wish I had an American guy who liked me that much."  She was pretty aggressive with the "hints".  She played this guy, who had always felt so unwanted, like a fiddle.  He fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Last I knew, he was trying to "correct" whatever initial paperwork he'd done for the K-1 and make it look like it was for Mary, instead of Jane.

Alas, that was about when we lost touch so I don't know whatever became of this nonsense.  I also have to face I am a horrible person because I regret letting this friendship die.  Not because I miss his friendship, but because now I will never know what happened, lmao.

CharmedPam

banana468 said:

It is (checks notes) 7 DAYS until Christmas.  Counting today, there are EIGHT working days in this calendar year and I will be off for 3 of them.

Why are projects with short time lines getting dumped in my lap!? 

You mean there’s people out there who haven’t checked out yet?

short+sassy

The client's holiday party was a lot of fun yesterday!  I enjoyed hanging out with my coworkers socially which I rarely get to do, especially my coworkers who are client employees.  It was at a brewery.  The food was great and so was the beer.

I tried a mango sour beer that was awesome!  Truly perfection.  It had a strong mango flavor and some sweetness (without added sugar), but still tasted like beer.  Then there was a decent amount of sour flavor also, not too much, that balanced perfectly with the bit of sweetness.

I also tried a barrel-aged peaches/nectarine sour beer.  Did not care for that.  I couldn't taste peaches or nectarine at all.  But what an experience for what barrel-aging does to a beverage!  It tasted way more like whiskey than beer.  I told my H about it later.  He wasn't surprised.  He told me whiskey gets a lot of its taste from the barrel-aging.  Apparently! Lol.

I really like the dress I got for my work's Christmas party, but it's strapless and bare arms are not my friends right now, lol.  That is surprisingly (to me) where I ended up having a lot of sagging/flabby skin after my weight loss.

I cut it a little too close, but ordered a black lace bolero jacket to go with it from Amazon on Sunday.  The party is on Friday.  The original delivery date was Thursday, but it actually came in today.  Phew!  It's cute and fits perfectly.  Double phew! 

My pet peeve for ordering a shirt/jacket.  The most important measurement for determining fit...at least for me...is an upper arm circumference.  But is that ever a measurement included in a sizing chart?  Perhaps sometimes, but I've never seen it.  This has always been pretty true, no matter what size I wear.  If it's fitted sleeves in the upper arm area, I often have to go up at least one size.

banana468

CharmedPam said:

banana468 said:

It is (checks notes) 7 DAYS until Christmas.  Counting today, there are EIGHT working days in this calendar year and I will be off for 3 of them.

Why are projects with short time lines getting dumped in my lap!? 

You mean there’s people out there who haven’t checked out yet?

It's my own coworkers trying to check of fiscal write offs and looking at upcoming predictions for the new year.

I want to tell one guy he needs to send his son here to do my gift wrapping if this is expected.