Life Events Thread

[Burgundy LaRue]

I have the occasional bad dream.  But last night, I had three--

1.) I was back at my old job, and was sitting around talking to various people when we look outside and see a tornado heading our way.  We run for cover, getting under desks and telling each other to get down.  I can hear the tornado above us, but I don't know if we survived.  The dream ended at that point.  I assumed we died.

2.) For some reason, a wrestler becomes a person I actually know and they're a co-worker.  The wrestler decides to leave their current job to join the Navy as a nurse.  My former job had nothing to do with nursing/medicine.  The wrestler is shipped out as part of some war and not long after, we receive word that their ship was lost at sea in a storm. 

3.) Whenever I mention a certain topic, my mother attacks me.  I'm talking cut my throat, choking me, throwing me to the floor, watching me writhe in agony.  She's never angry--just calmly vicious. I crawl to my bedroom and into a corner, hoping she doesn't come after me.  She doesn't, but I'm too scared to even leave the corner.  I actually had to scream a bit to wake myself up from this one.

 

Weird stuff.

 

 

 

[Technico Support]

A "tell us your recurring dreams" topic would be pretty great.

Me, I often find myself at an old job, totally different career than where I am now, and absolutely horrible at it.  Just fucking up left and right.

[Bustronaut]

Three times a year we pick a new work schedule.  I was actually really happy with my picks for the fall board, but now they've announced that all PT drivers need to REPICK because they forgot to include 13 additional runs from the full time board.  I asked if we could keep our runs if we're happy with them and was told "hopefully they'll still be there when your time comes to repick."

 

This is the first time I've been annoyed with my company.

[CSC]

The lady and I went to a financial planner last week to figure out where the fuck all of our money is going.

We're both full-time employed making decent salaries and have just been at a loss that we're constantly living paycheck to paycheck.  Broke down every single transaction in August and thankfully there's some pretty simple changes we can make to save thousands a month (oh man do all those restaurant trips add up quickly without realizing).  It's going to be an interesting September basically attempting a full on life change but we're both all in so at least we can be miserable together.

[OSJ]

52 minutes ago, CSC said:

The lady and I went to a financial planner last week to figure out where the fuck all of our money is going.

We're both full-time employed making decent salaries and have just been at a loss that we're constantly living paycheck to paycheck.  Broke down every single transaction in August and thankfully there's some pretty simple changes we can make to save thousands a month (oh man do all those restaurant trips add up quickly without realizing).  It's going to be an interesting September basically attempting a full on life change but we're both all in so at least we can be miserable together.

When I took (very) early retirement we took a huge hit for the two years it that it took for my disability claim to get approved with the end result being that we went from six figures a year to about a third of that. Yeah, we're talking major lifestyle changes, including moving from a huge house in Seattle to a duplex in Gallup, NM. Difference in cost? $1600 drops to $650 a month. We figured that dining out three or four times a week couldn't be that bad, since we don't drink. (I do recall $150.00 dinners wherein the food part was only about $40. (a bottle of a nice house wine with dinner ain't gonna break the bank, but the two or three cocktails before dinner and the I-have-no-clue-how-many after dinner will run up the tab in a hurry.) However, going somewhere decent is going to run about forty bucks for two and if you're doing that there goes an easy $160 a week, $640 a month... Think about that for a second, going out to dinner four times a week equals almost what I pay in rent! 

Mrs. OSJ was a big believer that take out from Mickey D's for breakfast or Arby's for lunch was a money saver until I saved the receipts and added 'em up at the end of the month. Keeping in mind that we usually ordered the "specials" or got stuff from the dollar menu, for some reason every one of these "money saving" forays ended up being around $15-$20 every time. Figure it half the time at $15 the other half at $20. So we have $70 times 4.3 weeks per month, and there's another $301 spent  on stuffing our faces... Nearly $1000 a month going to restaurants. Oh, we both quit smoking and went to vaping in February, that dropped the expenditures from $400 a month on smoking (pack and a half between us per day) to about $30 a month... So, moving to a small town in a State with a depressed economy and cutting the restaurant visits by 50% and dropping the cigs saves us $1600-something a month. A couple of lifestyle changes and we save about $20K a year... Yeah, even minor stuff like going out to eat adds up to a ton of money.

[Matt D]

We had to eat out much more than normal as the A/C was out of commission for about a month while we were getting a new one (etc. etc) and it was frustrating not to be able to use the oven. We fall to take out now and again like anyone with a small kid would, but we at least try to limit that to the weekends. 

[Matt D]

So the summer of fun continues. Wife's diverticulitis has flared up again. She's super young to have it, but have it she does. If it can floor Brock, you can imagine what it does to her.

[Red is Dead]

so in the previous fuck you life events thread, i talked about my cousing with anorexia and depression.

she just linked me these.

http://missioncompetition.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/i-am.html

http://missioncompetition.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/glasgow-eating-disorders-unit.html

Depressing yet ultimately worthwhile reads. 

Pic on left was her at her worst, pic on right is her now - so proud of her for recognising that she had an issue and got help.

[OSJ]

This year really sucks. We lost our #1 cat, Capt. Nemo down today. He's 15 and just went downhill seemingly overnight. I can tell he's miserable and I don't want him to suffer. We lost his "brother", Dr. Nikola not too long ago and I was hoping he'd make it a couple more years, but it's time to say good-bye. I'm just fucking gutted, he's slept next to my pillow every night for fifteen years. Smartest cat I've ever seen and in a totally un-catlike manner, loved to go for rides in the car. Used to ride to the office every day with me. Jumped up on the bed and cuddled with me one last time, then he walked into the living room and died in Kathy's arms. You had a great run little buddy, I'll miss you terribly.

[Control]

I am working five poorly paid, part-time academic positions this term. The workload is rough, but doable. It leaves me no time for research. The bitch of that is that research (and more specifically, publishing that research) is what gets you grants and full-time work that isn't so poorly paid. So it's a bit of a trap.

On the side, I've also started volunteering, teaching classes to inmates at the local penitentiary. That's pretty cool.

[Super Ape]

Welp, after four years, we've got bedbugs again. I'm scheduling with an exterminator soon, but every day that passes is sheer hell.

I also don't know how we're gonna be able to buy two new beds AND pay the exterminator. I think maybe I got them from my job (welfare office), but there's nothing I can do about that, and the management has outright said there is nothing they can do about it.

[Ramsey]

I work a dream job for some (morning radio dj) and I have for 17 years. I am pretty much the biggest fish in a tiny pond. I'm a well respected (for the most part) local celebrity. I make more than decent money, I'm home when my kids get out of school. I should be thrilled.

I'm burned the fuck out. I am finding more often than not that I find no joy in this gig anymore. I'm miserable being "famous." I'm miserable being the only person than can do the job of being me. I know this sounds oddball. Shit, as I type it, it looks nuts, but this is the truth. The sad part is, I'm not qualified to do much else. I'm 43 years old and feel absolutely trapped in a job that tons of people would give a body part to land.

Boo hoo cry baby pity party done.

[Cristobal]

Sounds like it's time for you to join the UFC.

More seriously: There's nothing wrong with looking at your current career and thinking "Man I'm OVER this." Other than the obvious problems involved in finding a new one.

[Dewar]

Having one of those days were I want to tell pretty much everyone I work with to fuck off. Thankfully there is only 40 minutes to go, and I get to leave for 16 hours...

[Matt D]

On 9/26/2016 at 8:17 AM, Ramsey said:

I work a dream job for some (morning radio dj) and I have for 17 years. I am pretty much the biggest fish in a tiny pond. I'm a well respected (for the most part) local celebrity. I make more than decent money, I'm home when my kids get out of school. I should be thrilled.

I'm burned the fuck out. I am finding more often than not that I find no joy in this gig anymore. I'm miserable being "famous." I'm miserable being the only person than can do the job of being me. I know this sounds oddball. Shit, as I type it, it looks nuts, but this is the truth. The sad part is, I'm not qualified to do much else. I'm 43 years old and feel absolutely trapped in a job that tons of people would give a body part to land.

Boo hoo cry baby pity party done.

I'd say that your job is uniquely suited I allow you to make some changes and innovate and find new angles.

[OSJ]

On 9/26/2016 at 6:17 AM, Ramsey said:

I work a dream job for some (morning radio dj) and I have for 17 years. I am pretty much the biggest fish in a tiny pond. I'm a well respected (for the most part) local celebrity. I make more than decent money, I'm home when my kids get out of school. I should be thrilled.

I'm burned the fuck out. I am finding more often than not that I find no joy in this gig anymore. I'm miserable being "famous." I'm miserable being the only person than can do the job of being me. I know this sounds oddball. Shit, as I type it, it looks nuts, but this is the truth. The sad part is, I'm not qualified to do much else. I'm 43 years old and feel absolutely trapped in a job that tons of people would give a body part to land.

Boo hoo cry baby pity party done.

An easy fix, buddy! You're still doing stand-up gigs, right? I will pass on the same advice I gave our former board member, Patrick... Rather than allowing yourself to sink into the rut of repetition and eventual self-parody, it's time to not just shake things up, but well and truly upset the applecart. Here's an important question to ask yourself: At 43 years of age, how's your throwing arm? Can you throw a turd? Comedy has gotten way too safe, you have punkass motherfuckers like Carrot-top and Gallagher splashing people with veggies... Oooh, that's so edgy... Fuck that, comedy needs its own GG Allin to make things dangerous again. You can be that man...

See that Boise hipster with the handle-bar mustache sipping on his fucking chocolate/pumpkin stout? The dude needs to be hit with a turd stat! Full-on heel turn time! You've heard it said that great comedy will make 'em laugh, make 'em cry, and make 'em think. Really great comedy does that and more, you can make 'em RIOT!!!!

[AxB]

Found a dead bird under my bed. Looks like it had been there a while, it was all dusty and that. No idea how it got there, the cat isn't allowed upstairs and she's rubbish at catching birds anyway. Pretty sure I've never had a live bird fly into the bedroom ever though, and if one had done that and died, it should have been on top of something, not hidden under it. It didn't smell or anything... haven't noticed an excessive number flies around in the summer or anything.

Have I had a Voodoo curse on me all this time? And will I suddenly be living a charmed life now I've got rid of it?

[Greggulator]

...

[offspring515]

18 hours ago, AxB said:

Found a dead bird under my bed. Looks like it had been there a while, it was all dusty and that. No idea how it got there, the cat isn't allowed upstairs and she's rubbish at catching birds anyway. Pretty sure I've never had a live bird fly into the bedroom ever though, and if one had done that and died, it should have been on top of something, not hidden under it. It didn't smell or anything... haven't noticed an excessive number flies around in the summer or anything.

Have I had a Voodoo curse on me all this time? And will I suddenly be living a charmed life now I've got rid of it?

Did you happen to get on the bad side of a forgetful warlock? 

[AxB]

Don't remember.

[JLSigman]

So Hurricane Matthew keeps trying to come visit my house in Columbia, SC. I keep telling him it's not cleaned up, I don't have a space for him to sleep, etc. He's being very pushy. :-p

 

Mom and I are Getting a Plan together, along with Sub-Plans and States of Emergency. I am trying not to let my anxiety and depression wind me both up and down at the same time (it's a talent).

[CSC]

Strange things happening at work have been both excited and horribly nervous.

I split my time pretty much 50/50 between IT and Special Events.  There's been restructuring of the Special events department where the catering manager has more or less been moved into the venue manager position and my boss moved to pretty much doing what my job used to be.  So I was displaced from the office but actually ended up with a new nicer one.  They are supposedly expanding my IT position to full time (which my IT manager is extremely excited about) - and really that's the position I always wanted in the first place, but they want me to stay with special events and "help out" until the end of the month. 

But after being blindsided by these changes, I don't trust management at all.  I know my job is safe because there's no one else here that can run the AV aspects of the museum anywhere near what I can do, but the other half of my time I feel like I've just become the office bitch for anyone to dump off their work on because I'm here with nothing else really to do yet.  I have a bunch of ideas of projects I've wanted to do and never had time for because of the split in jobs, but every time I bring them up I get the old "yea, that's a good idea - we'll have to see about that."

It's probably not as bad as I'm making it sound.  My job is safe.  I've fallen into the position I wanted in the first place (not that they're going to pay me more for it; pop-profit blues).  I'm actually in a bigger, nicer office now.  But it's change and general uncertainly and today is my first day of it so my brain is just going crazy. 

[Ryan]

You'll be fine, Chris, just remember that one time you saw Jessica Biel at a basketball game while in high school or whenever and all will become clear. I guess.

[The Natural]

On 05/10/2016 at 2:12 PM, JLSigman said:

So Hurricane Matthew keeps trying to come visit my house in Columbia, SC. I keep telling him it's not cleaned up, I don't have a space for him to sleep, etc. He's being very pushy. :-p

 

Mom and I are Getting a Plan together, along with Sub-Plans and States of Emergency. I am trying not to let my anxiety and depression wind me both up and down at the same time (it's a talent).

Take care x

[Greggulator]

My mother-in-law was hit by a van last Friday. She came to town for a visit. We took her immediately from the airport to her favorite place to eat in Philly. I have no idea what happened but I heard a loud van and then my wife scream.

I ran across the street. The only feeling worse than "I'm going to see my mother-in-law die" is "my wife is going to watch her mom die." Thankfully, that didn't happen. But she was banged up real bad. She somehow stayed conscious but her leg was Paul George/Kevin Ware/Joe Theismann bad.

She's a tough lady and is totally herself. But she's stuck in the hospital for a few weeks. She's already had one surgery on her leg and is going to need at least another. And she broke some vertebrae in her back. There's no threat of paralysis but it's really painful. And there are also some broken ribs. We have no idea how long she'll be in the hospital.

Her house is also pretty much on a direct collision course for Matthew. So we had to scramble up here and make sure someone took the precautionary measures. It's maybe a blessing she's up here and doesn't have to ride out the storm. But it's still really rough knowing your house might be destroyed.

Count your blessings and always know that your life can really change at any given second without any hint of a warning. And also get a list (or make sure your parents have a list on them at all times) of prescriptions you may take regularly. We had to scramble for that, but that's something doctors need to know because of interactions.