r3dbar0n3ss

While dealing with the ups and downs of my daily 9-5 grind, I started getting notifications that things were going badly. As I sit here in my living room getting caught up, I’m appalled. Some of us told you exactly this would happen. You didn’t listen. So here we are, on the brink of history, and I’m pissed. I’m pissed right the f**k off at lack of logical action that we’ve seen for the past four years.

In June of 2016, Dan Harmon shared a tweet that I then shared to those in my circle. It was funny at the time, but I had an underlying sense of foreboding when I saw it because I knew it to be true.

I’m not going to be at this post for long because I want to get back to watching history, but I just wanted to get out some preliminary thoughts while we get Civil War II underway. They, be warned, are rambling. I am seething.

• Yay, 45 finally got a well-deserved restriction on Twitter. Where the hell was this years ago?
• Subsequent great sound byte from one of the ladies on CNN – I regret that I don’t remember who it was:(paraphrased) “Trump is off Twitter so we have no way to hear from him.” Ain’t it the truth?
• Are we going to start arresting white people now?
• Holy shit, this entire presidency has made W. seem like a cakewalk now, huh?
• As much as we can’t hear from 45 right now, this is probably the one time I’d like to see what he’s up to.
• I live in the worst possible province for cross-border stupidity.
• How… I mean… HOW can people in this day and age still have such an antiquated mindset?

Oh, and before I go, a prediction. Biden will, of course, win out. He will make a cromulent president for sure. But I think there’s something more at work. I will not be surprised if a year, maybe two into his presidency, Biden gets ill. Very ill. Deathly ill. He will have handily made way for the US’s first female president, and a woman of color to boot. I hope this isn’t the case because I bear no ill will to Joe Biden. But it would be the progression the US direly needs, that it is clear due to a large portion of the population thinking confederate flags are still a good idea, will never happen on its own.

Be well, people. Stay safe. Stay sane. Keep your masks on. Fight the right.

xx R

…and it’s been more than six months since I posted last.

Things have been crazy.

I ended up quitting my job because it was about to drive me around the bend.  Things never got better after the merger and more and more decisions were made by powers that would not listen to basic reason.  These are decisions that as a manager, with ample experience in the payroll realm, should have been mine, or at least should have relied on my consultancy and input.  The final decisionmakers were akin to your auto mechanic making the final call on your home foundation repair.  Anyhow, I’m carrying on.

As it happens, that decision came just at the right time because shortly thereafter Rob got a promotion at work that meant a relocation to sunny, exotic Edmonton!  It was definitely time for a change and the promotion was ridiculously well-deserved.  We moved back to the prairies in mid-December.  It’s great to be back amongst old friends and family.

I’m still on the job hunt.  It’s kind of odd going from a market where you know all the major players on the scene to one where you know virtually nobody.  It’s just a matter of getting my name out there, and if throwing a resume at anything that comes along is the way to do it, I’m just going to keep on chucking.

On the heartbreaking front, just before we were set to move to Edmonton, our beloved Olive passed away.  She was four years old, which isn’t particularly elderly for a guinea pig, but we think that perhaps because she was the runt of her litter she may have had some underlying health issues we may not have been aware of.  She died peacefully in her sleep, taking a big piece of my heart with her.

However, any house of ours can only remain petless for so long, so two weeks ago we got ourselves a new furbaby, Violet.  She’s just a wee little thing at the moment, but I keep telling her that one day she will grow into a big pig.  She’s still warming up to the apartment and getting used to our day to day routine, bit she’s already super comfortable being handled and runs laps around her cage when she’s excited.  She hasn’t yet learned that food comes from the fridge, but it’s just a matter of time.  Picture enclosed for bonus adorability points.

My colossal headaches, for the most part, have become manageable with a strict regimen of pharmaceuticals.  Glory be to that.

A large orange man-child has become President of the United States, which upsets me greatly as I find him to be one of the most vile and repugnant creatures to crawl out from whatever cesspool he came from, but his name has no place here.  Let’s just say I’m registering my complaint.

Well, that should pretty much catch you up.  I’ll endeavor, again, to not be such an absentee blogger.  

Love,

Robynn 

Okay, so I just went to look at my site and it’s been over a year since I posted last.  That’s pretty atrocious.  I used to be way better than this.  I’ll try to not be such a stranger.

Things are still… well… things.  I still get my stupid atrocious headaches and my job is still kind of a clusterf**k.  Actually, it’s a total clusterf**k at the moment and takes a lot out of me.  Life trudges on.

There are things that are good.  Rob is good.  Olive is good.  Stressful work life aside, I pretty much have nothing to complain about.  I’ve got a trip booked back to Edmonton in a couple of weeks (note to self: plan some kind of event) and am looking forward to seeing some friends and family.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much else to say at the moment.  I’ll try not to be so terrible at looking at this thing and get off my butt and write more often about things more fun than this.  In the meantime, have a .gif that accurately describes how my day is going.

I feel like I owe the whole universe a bit of an apology for not being my usual self and decided that there’s nothing better than a good old-fashioned rant to get things off my chest and clear the air.  Ranting *is* one of my mad skillz, so sit back and prepare yourselves for my off-cycle, non-Festivus-related Airing of Grievances.

First, there’s a very real possibility that I may find myself jobless in the relatively near future, through zero fault of my own and for no legitimately good reason short of where I’m located.  My company is going through a merger at the moment.  Communication around the changes that are going to take place has been extremely limited and, frankly, inadequate.  The only thing we know is that Vancouver is no longer Head Office and that Toronto will be our primary hub now.  The morale around the office is atrocious because we’re basically dead in the water until the hammer falls.

This is frustrating to everyone on staff, of course, but especially on us admin people who aren’t deemed “critical” to the company’s day-to-day operations (even though if we suddenly stopped paying everybody I’m sure it’d be noticed pretty damned fast.)  We’re stuck in a holding pattern, not knowing what we’re working towards or if it’s even worth continuing to care.

Generalized frustrations notwithstanding, let’s get a few things straight.  First, I love my job.  I love what I do – it’s why I’ve chosen it as a profession.  Second, I love my company.  We’ve got a pretty nice, happy family here, and by and large it’s enjoyable to get up and come to work in the morning because I’ve got a team of people with whom I generally like working.  Of course there are troublemakers, but that happens everywhere and we’re no exception.

Now, because I love my job and my company, there are certain sacrifices I’ve made over the past couple of years.  Things have not been a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination.  My department has spent the better part of the last two years short-staffed and struggling, mostly because in times of trouble, we put our noses to the grindstone, rallied under pressure, and performed the work of four people with only three because people have to get paid.  We were so good at this, in fact, that we had to fight tooth and nail to get a fourth member added back to our headcount because the company legitimately forgot we were supposed to be a four-person team and allocated the extra head elsewhere.  It came to a head because we could no longer balance our lives with the huge workload and amount of overtime required to keep things afloat.  Long story short, we have WORKED OUR BUTTS OFF to keep this department going, and the thought that all of our hard work may be entirely disregarded because we don’t live in Toronto is incredibly disheartening.  It’s a slap in the face and it’s getting increasingly difficult to keep going.

So on top of all that, there’s the health side of things.  Today marks FOUR HELLISH WEEKS that I’ve been stuck with a headache of epic proportions.  And not just a regular run-of-the-mill headache, nope.  When I do things, I go ALL OUT, people.

Anyhow, I’ve been tentatively diagnosed with this lovely little thing called Cluster Headache.  Some of the highlights from Wikipedia include, but are not limited to:

• repeated attacks of excruciatingly severe unilateral headache pain
• the disease may be the most painful condition known to medical science
• those with cluster headaches may experience suicidal thoughts during an attack as a result of the pain

And underneath all this, I’ve got a migraine.  So, long story short, super fun times all around.  I’m a goddamned joy to be around, let me tell you.  Anyhow, I’ve got a CT scan tomorrow and am still waiting on some specialists’ appointments to figure out why it feels like there are fire ants forming a colony behind my left eye.

WARNING: the image below is so accurate an analogy of what a migraine feels like that it may actually trigger migraines on its own, so maybe don’t stare directly at it for too long or anything if you’re prone to that kind of thing.  But this is exactly what I’ve felt like for a month:

On the positive side, Rob and Olive are awesome and I love them.  Without them it’d be virtually impossible for me to keep my chin up at all and I’d probably go curl up and hide in a closet until everything blows over.  It’ll all blow over, right?

-R

Why doesn’t Starbucks call their Frappuccino Happy Hour “Frappy Hour”?  This seems like a gross oversight.

Best beloved is out of town for the weekend, so Princess Von Chunkybutt and I are having the ultimate girly weekend – Harry Potter movie marathon and pedicures!  💜