Phew!  On a break from day 1 of the Ops Conference I mentioned yesterday.  Of course I returned to a desk full of work, which I expected.  I go back at 2pm.  I'm hoping I'm out of there no later than 4:15pm.

So far the presentations have been pretty good, if you can call Anti Money Laundering, Cash Management and Human Resources good. :-)  I learned a lot and I have a lot to convey to my staff in our next staff meeting.

Next up for me is two hours of Compliance (industry rules and regulations).  Can't. Wait. 

And don't forget my generous offer from yesterday to allow any of you to come over and bring or fix me dinner tonight since I'm going to be wiped out from the conference. HA! 

I bet a nickel I end up fixing my own dinner tonight.

It's that time again.  Every year around this time we have our annual Operations Council Conference at work.  Friday shouldn't be too bad.  I think it ends at 3pm, so I'll be able to bail at my regular time. Tomorrow is going to be a really long day as we have a speaker and Q&A that doesn't even start until 4:15pm.....So that means the last two hours tomorrow are going to be "Compliance" (rules and regulations) and then a Division Manager address, then Q&A.  I can't even leave early because I need to be there for that stuff.  At least I got out of going to the dinner and I can just go home afterwards.

So, hey if you want to meet me at my apartment around 5pm tomorrow with an already cooked delicious dinner or if you want to come over and cook me dinner, please feel free

:-) 

Gotham likes bacon, so if you could bring some along for him, he'd appreciate it.

Seriously though, it will be really nice to see some of the other Ops people.  I only get to see them once a year and they're a great group and a fantastic resource when I need help.

Okay - new topic: Is it me or is it rude to want to come into my firm, present to my people, yet refuse to pay for lunch, have me print all of your presentation materials (in color), supply you with a projector and laptop, load your presentation onto the laptop for you  AND bring an extra person in without letting me know (so I didn't order them lunch).  It's just me, right?  That's not rude AT ALL.

Oh well, all in a days work.  A long day's work.  In fact, this week seems to be a really long week.

Happy Halloween from Gotham (Or why my cat will eventually kill me in my sleep)

Here's my horoscope for the day.  My only comment?  RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT, I wish!

<<Wednesday 26 October 2011: Someone seems to think they can wear you down. Adverse circumstances are eroding your confidence. I cannot promise that the cosmos will wave a magic wand, but I can predict a distinct reduction in pressure. Think about the one area of your life in which things actually are going rather well. That's the kind of experience you will soon have more of. Some of this change will come naturally, and some will be the result of a new idea that is slowly dawning on you. Be brave. Be bright. There is hope on your horizon.>>

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  Over the past three weeks or so I've had three separate groups of plans fall through over the weekends and it's left me in a less than happy mood.  Oh sure, I tell people "No problem, things come up, don't worry about it" or "Hey, you just let me know when you want to re-schedule, my calendar is pretty light".  What else am I going to say?  Is it worth an argument with a friend you've had for years and years?  No, it definitely is not.  "Suck it up Robin and go with the flow.  
Anyway, I'm being too sensitive.  Things happen, right?  It's not like it was on purpose.
I'm also really upset that I lost an earring that was half of a pair my parents gave me when I turned 18 ( a looooooooooong time ago) and graduated from high school.  Now, most of you know I'm not able to wear much metal, but for some reason these earrings are now ok.  I didn't used to be able to wear them, so I was excited when I put them in and I didn't have a reaction.  It was so nice to take advantage of some of the gold jewelry I had stored away for a change!  I received a lot of compliments on them, which was a new and cool thing to happen.  Well, about a week ago, I got home in the afternoon, changed and went into the bathroom to take off my make-up and earrings and the right one was gone.  I have no idea when I'd lost it since my hair covered the earrings (stupid long hair).  I retraced my steps for days.  In fact, I'm still looking for it whenever I'm walking around.  I checked my clothes, my shoes / boots, desk at work, my car, every inch of my apartment, everywhere was searched.  I was even on the gross streets of downtown LA with a flashlight at 4:45am looking for it.  I alerted the building I work in, employees on the different floors I'd visited that day, all the cleaning crews I could find, people at my apartment building, everything.  Nothing came up.  I may have to go over to the jewelry district and see if I can find a place that can make a mold of the remaining earring and duplicate it.  I dunno.  Here's what it looked like- pretty, right?

It's not the best picture (took it with my phone).  I know it's a plain gold hoop earring, but I think it's pretty and it has a lot of sentimental value.  Plus, knowing my parents, it's all real gold and I bet the pair cost a lot of money.  I can't even go back to the jeweler they got it from since he retired a while back and his shop is gone.

The Epilepsy walk went ok a week ago.  I feel bad that I went, participated and bailed.  I just wasn't up for socializing with people.  Officer Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) was there.  He's there every year!  Raises a lot of money and awareness for Epilepsy!!!  I raised a little bit, not as much as I'd like, or as much as I did last year, but I'm not good at asking people for money or to sponsor me at things.  Even though I didn't raise a ton of cash personally, the event raised over $160,000, which is amazing.  It's probably more by now as money still tends to come in for a few weeks after an event is over.

So with all the cancellations, really shitty days at work, not raising what I'd wanted for Epilepsy, the loss of my earring and other stuff, I've been in a sad mood for the past few weeks.  Note, I said a sad mood, not a bad mood.  There's a difference.  I've been able to smile at work and chit chat and stuff, but my hearts just not in it.  We're coming up to Halloween, then the other holidays and, while I'm going to try, I don't see anything improving much.  I really hope they do though.  This weekend (Halloween) is going to be especially crappy, it's my favorite holiday.  

I'm probably going to cut back on my blogging over the next few months.  This will (hopefully) be the last time I mention all this melancholia crap.  Let's face it, you guys don't want to hear about it and it doesn't help for me to go on about it.  It will be back to pictures of my cat and silly stuff like that.  In preparation of that, here is a picture I took of Gotham years ago, when I still lived in my way cool apartment that had a ton of problems with it in K-Town.  Yes, he's wearing an official red Pee Wee Herman bow tie:

Yes, I have to cover the couch when he's laying on it.  And here's another one, he's attacking his arch enemy, the little white mouse (that we still have bits of):

Here he is right after I got him, before he hid for three days because he hated me:

Okay, now I'm just going through pictures I have on my computer.  Here is the wallpaper I currently have up.  I think it's fitting.  

Here's me, on a bright and lovely day, at Cardiff Castle in Wales. I know, it's a dumb pose.  Wow, my hair has grown out quite a bit:

I had so much fun on that trip.  Who knew that, to quote Captain Jack Harkness, "Everything Changes", not just in the 21st century, but about 6 months after this trip.  That reminds me, I STILL need to get my passport renewed.  I've been putting it off for a year and a half.

Have a good day you guys.  I'm going to try and have one myself.

Wow, today is a profoundly "meh" day.  Not a bad day, but not a particularly good day either. 

I'm finally giving up on getting my eBay issue straightened out.  I had a buyer in Bulgaria (Damn it!  I thought I put "no international shipping" on the auction)! whose daughter paid for the item before I could invoice her and she WAY overpaid for the item's shipping.  It's only cost about $14 to send it and she paid $45 for the shipping.  I emailed the buyer to make sure she meant to pay that much and she was very thankful, since her daughter didn't tell her what she was doing.  The thing is, Ebay charges fees on the total amount (auction AND shipping), so I was charged a pretty high fee that wasn't credited back when I refunded the money, then I got charged again when I sent an accurate invoice.  Ebay is double-dipping!  I think I'm going to give up, but going forward, I am adding "Please do not pay for your item before I send you an invoice" to all of my auctions.

Ah well, live and learn, right?

The day is almost over, so I have that going for me, right?  I have three stops on the way home, but they're all close to each other, so I should only have to park my car twice (one place is right next door to another one).  Yay!  I'll be able to take care of things really quickly.  Two of the places are just pick-ups, the last one is the post office to mail that dumb package to Bulgaria.  I hope there isn't a line.  Maybe I should go there first?  ICK - I just checked the temps and it's almost 90F at my house.

Since it was forecasted to be really hot yesterday and today (100F), I decided to drive in to work both days.  Taking the train in the heat is a nightmare.  Since mine is completely underground, it's hot and it really stinks when the temps rise.  Anyway, when I drive in I park across the street (south) of my building.  It's cheaper than parking in the building where my office is, and it takes debit cards, credit cards and cash, so I don't have to carry money with me like I do if I park in the building ($10/day cash only, you have to arrive before 9am, leave after 1pm for that "earlybird" rate too!).  So after work, I walked across the street and to the payment machine (it's like a big vending machine) and I found a Mercedes parked right in front of it (not a parking space), with some dude in the passenger seat with his feet up on the dashboard and a woman, probably in her 50's, at the machine.  Yelling at it.  Cussing at it.  Asking it why it was so expensive.  She did this for at least 10 minutes, then pushed the button to call for assistance, where she proceeded to yell at, cuss at and berate the woman trying to help her.  The best part is, she kept saying "why is it so fucking expensive?  This is bullshit, why the fuck do I have to pay so much goddamn money?" over and over again.  Then she added that she's unemployed, waiting for her unemployment check, has no money and that it was too fucking expensive.  When the attendant asked her if she had her parking validated she said, "of course I had the fucking ticket validated.  I just ate at Arnie Morton's and they validated it".  Okay, you drive a Mercedes and just ate at Morton's (where my boss had also just eaten lunch to the tune of $280 for three people), you're rude and loud...I don't feel that bad for you.  She was on the security camera the whole time and I don't think she was going to get a lot of sympathy from an attendant shut in an office down in the basement of a parking garage.  She ended up paying the money with her credit card and cussing at everyone the whole time, jamming her finger over and over on the buttons.  I just stood there, looking at my shoes, at the garage, at traffic outside, etc.  The weird part is, the dude in the car didn't do anything, apart from near the end of the ranting, when he said "Hey you shouldn't cuss".  All of this went on for over 15 minutes, in the heat.  I couldn't wait to get out of there!

I left, drove home, opened all of the windows, turned on all the fans, showered, washed my hair, put on shorts and a t-shirt and tried to keep cool for the rest of the afternoon/evening.  It's October!  When I was growing up, October meant lot's of wind (kite flying!) and crossing your fingers that it doesn't rain on Halloween and ruin trick-or-treating.

Probably more of the same today (without the rude lady).  I think I need to go to Rite Aid or CVS on the way home.  I hate running errands on the way home when it's hot outside.  My car stays cool while I'm at work since it's in a parking structure, but if I run errands, it gets all hot and gross, so I get all hot and gross..... plus I get home later.  Maybe I can get out a couple of minutes earlier so I can still get home at the same time......  Getting home after 4pm sucks!  I've been averaging walking through the door around 3:50pm if I drive and there's no traffic, a couple minutes after 4pm if I take the train.  I'd say that I'm spoiled, but since I get up really early and am at work by about 5am, I'm not.  Actually, I made a promise to myself, that if I ever had a good reason, I'd change my work hours to going in later and going home at the same time so that I worked a normal number of hours every day (10+ hours every day is way too much when you don't get overtime).  As of yet, I don't have a good reason. LOL.   :-)