Newsflash: Skindecent saves woman's sanity

Today sucked. I'm out of my antidepressant and for some reason, my Hyphenated Corp. health insurance is suddenly invalid, today was my first day back at Mom's office and I had to do payroll taxes, and the icing on the cake is when I got home and discovered that one of the dogs chewed up at least one of my rubber duckies.

If it hadn't been for my pre-layoff Skindecent order on my front porch, I probably would have totally lost it. As it is, I'm opening it as I listen to the stupid hold music for A(ssholes)E(at your)T(ime and give you)N(othing in return but want)A(ll your money) insurance's so-called "Customer Care" line.

I'm on the verge of tears, as I have been since I left the pharmacy without my Lexapro, but right now, they are more tears of gratitude for the kindness of Marliss, the genius behind Skindecent. Not only did she send samples of the Lush dupes for Sultana and The Olive Branch, she sent me an entire Girlfriend's Stress Relief Kit. Marliss has always provided amazing products and customer service, but this kind of thoughtful detail is truly amazing.

And now, since the insurance person wants the pharmacist to call and the pharmacist is being snarky about not wanting to call, I'm going to go huff bath products and hope that tomorrow is a VAST improvement over today.

A few good things

can make a huge difference.

Yesterday was the most Mondayish Monday I'd had in months. Littlefoot woke me up several times overnight because he had diarrhea, we had computer problems at work, I have an ear or sinus infection that is giving me severe ear, jaw and head pain on the right side, Little Miss did something so gross I can't reconcile it with my cute babygirlpuppy who sits on her haunches and pulls up her paws like a little bunny, I realized I forgot to tell Imp I am not able to get to WV for Turkey Day, I missed water-walking, and it just sucked.

Today, while I was a little hurt that three co-workers I thought were friends deliberately excluded me from lunch, the servers are back up and I was able to burn through all the work I couldn't finish yesterday and still bring some OT stuff home with me. Then, on the drive home, the radio station played three of my favorites in a row--Jesse Cook's "Havana," Keiko Matsui's "Black River" and "A Song for You" by Christina Aguilera and Herbie Hancock, plus I got to hear the traffic report after I was safely out of it. I am going to spoil myself tonight, and re-paint my fingernails, then use an entire Lush French Kiss bubble bar instead of only half, and finally I am going to go to bed early.

Six books, eight volumes, ten days...

Brrrrrr!

And hooray for that. It's 63° F right now, and I am happy to have a leetle cold front visiting. Plus, it's raining, so I don't have to go water my plants. The less I have to do at home, the better, because I am swamped at work.

My very first looseleaf publication builds on Friday, and of course, the idiot lawyers who are authoring it didn't get their final pages to me until mid-day today. It's four volumes with a CD, and I have to get it all done tomorrow so I can put it together on Friday. I'm seriously tempted to go smack these guys!

*deep breath*

Instead of thinking about work, I'm going to think about fall, which has always been my favorite season. I've always loved the look of the Harvest Moon, so I ordered the 2008 version of that scent from BPAL. As my darling Kogi always says, "It could smell like accord of ass and I'd still buy it" just for the associations with autumn. I want to smell like a fat round gold thing on a cold night!

Speaking of BPAL and associations, I keep running into phoenixes. I love BPAL (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab) perfumes, my current favorite bath & body product scent is Phoenix from Julphia, our proprietary software at work is called Phoenix, I pass an office or something for the University of Phoenix every day on my way to work, and a new second-hand car dealership just opened up down the street from me called Phoenix Auto Sales. I can hear my little brother saying it's just coincidence (Hi, Captain Crossword!), but I can't shake the feeling that maybe it's more than that...

Skindecent saved my life last night

Reallytruly.

I'll tell the story in a moment, but I have to preface it by telling Scott that if he makes one freaking comment about inside dogs, I will burst into tears and kick him sharply on the ankles. Stuff happens, I need to vent about it, and I don't want any extra grief. So there!

This has been a difficult and draining week at work. I've got one book that is the first revised edition in seven years, and another where the authors wanted an extra month to get us really lame content revisions and the head office wants us to still have it out by August 30th. Add to that my night-of-not-sleeping thanks to Ophelia's canine soulmate, and it's been hard.

Last night, I came home, had coffee, let the dogs in & out and fed them, ate dinner myself and went to water the plants. To do that, I have to bypass my fancypants new water softener, which involves a trip to the basement.

Down in the front half of the basement, aka the dogs' half, there are two room-sized pieces of carpet from when Mom & I re-did the bedrooms. They are down there because I felt guilty locking my dogs up on concrete floors all day. In the last 3 or so years, there have been some accidents, but I've cleaned up right away and it hasn't been too awful.

That is, until yesterday. When I went downstairs, I could both smell and see that someone had been very sick on both pieces of carpet. I switched the water over, zipped out and watered the tomatoes, then went back downstairs to deal with the mess.

On closer examination, it was very clear that the carpet was unsalvageable this time. Back upstairs I went, and then I returned to the basement with my good snips. I grabbed a couple of rags, cleaned up what I could, and then cut both pieces of carpet in half. Then came the bad part.

I had to get the carpet upstairs and out last night, because my trash pickup was early this morning, my city will only take one room's worth of carpet per pickup, and I didn't want all of it sitting around until next week. Not only was the carpet disgusting, it hadn't aged well--years in the basement had cause the backing to dry up into thoroughly rough and scratchy burlap.

By the time I had wrestled three of the four pieces upstairs, I was filthy, sodden with sweat, itching from head to toes and still had to get the blue pieces out to the curb. After I'd done so, all I wanted to do was remove all of my skin and hair from my body and grow in new stuff.

There was no way I was taking a bath in that condition, so I rummaged around in my bathroom cupboard, found a sugar scrub and bath cream in Pillow Fight scent from Skindecent, used it in a cool shower, and finally felt clean and human.

Then my dad called. When I told him what I'd been up to, he said in a very sweet and slightly chiding voice that he would have come over to help. I told him I knew that, but it needed to be done right away, and I wasn't going to haul him out of the house just to help me deal with something that was the fault of my dogs. He said he'd try to recover from the hurt feelings. ;)

We had a lot of thunder, lightning and wind last night, plus a teensy amount of rain. My plants didn't get any extra water, but my trash can got knocked over, the cardboard I had out for the recycling truck got wet, and the carpet got unrolled and wet. Bless them, the trash guys picked everything up anyway, and next week I will be securing the carpet with duct tape.

I'll get the last piece out of the basement after I duct tape it first so it doesn't unroll on the stairs, and then all I have to worry about is Kentucky tort law!

Super Enabler

In the world of bath product fan/addicts/fanatics, "enabling" simply means to get someone else interested/intrigued/addicted to a particular scent or brand. I've done most of my enabling to Skindecent. Mallie, Maresche, Doc, Amy and Vintage Girl are all hooked on assorted products or scents from this truly amazing company. Second is Julphia, to which I have lured KellyGirl, Vintage Girl and MaryMargrt. By the end of 2007, I hope to have my Super Enabler cape, decoder ring and merit badge.

A while back, I did a swap with someone and got my paws on a lovely perfume (Autumn Romance) from Patrician Treasures. I wore it to work one day, and Blondezilla went absolutely Librarian-poo over it. I sent her the link to the website, and about fifteen minutes later, got this wistful little e-mail saying, "There's so many scents! How do you choose?" Bwahahahaha! You get one of everything that sounds good, of course!

*whew*

Today was my quarterly review. I still have a job, I have some things I need to improve, and in 2008, I will be responsible for all analytical material for the state of Kentucky. I'm also now the team librarian.

I had very weird dreams on Saturday when I napped, or one long weird dream involving (in order): rock concerts, Britney Spears, Jack Black, Jon Bon Jovi, a zoo, the seaside, singing, Egypt, facing down Set, killing a bad guy and spiders. I'd blame it on work anxiety, but it's more likely that Lush lavender gives me odd dreams.

My guest bedroom is full of boxes, each labeled with a name and filled with presents. I'm waiting for an order from Skindecent so I can tuck the last few items in, and then I will be ready to mail out most of my Christmas presents. The rest will be personally delivered when I go to Pickypants Manor for Christmas Day, to work friends at work, or to my friends Amy & Doc whenever I can lure them over here.

All in all, I'm feeling that this particular Monday could have been much worse.

Yum!

My wonderful Saturday started with me sleeping in until 6:45, which was extremely good for me. Then I put in my time at Mom's office, and I was appalled to discover that where Vegan Lawyer has all the 2008 law books from Hyphenated Corp, Mom's are all from our biggest competitor! Shame on you, Bosstopus!

After work, I had a wonderful lunch with Maresche and KellyGirl at The Melting Pot. We had cheddar/beer/garlic/mustard fondue to start, then salads, then chicken breast strips in coq au vin broth. Everything was perfectly yummy. We were all too full to try the desserts, but I think it's probably worth a visit just for the chocolate fondue someday.

After lunch, Maresche headed home because she had a beastly headache turning into a migraine, and KellyGirl and I went over to Lush Beachwood. I was fairly restrained and bought some Christmas presents and a few things for me.

Speaking of presents, not only am I almost done with my Christmas shopping, but I have found birthday presents for Mallie, Percy Pickypants and my mother. As soon as I have the money to buy them, I'll be all set. *grin*

Oopsie

I attended my first ever dinner for Hyphenated Corp tonight and I seriously overindulged. I had three cups of coffee! It's going to take both Benadryl and a hot bath to get to sleep tonight, that's for sure.

Overall, today was a very good day. I got my hair cut & styled before I went into work, and then just worked straight through until it was time for the dinner. Scary Boss Lady complimented my haircut, and then told me that the peanut-butter filled pretzels I've been bringing in were addictive. I rode up in the elevator with Mr. Rubicund, the bigbig boss who's in from the home office and I don't think I made a complete fool of myself. I fixed all the goofs from earlier in the week and got my book ready to build on Friday and fixed an error in one of the other books I'm working on.

Then, at the dinner, instead of sitting with my team, I sat with a mixed group from other teams and got to know some people I'd only seen before. One of them was nice enough to say that we'd spoken in the elevator and that I was charming. Plus, one of the other women at the table is now interested in Julphia, so I'm going to take in my sample bag tomorrow and let her sniff things.

Tub time!

Happy Halloween!

Cool day today. My costume won me an honorable mention and a $10 Chipotle gift card, our Skindecent order arrived, and my goodies from UK Lush Retro were waiting on my doorstep when I got home.

These are why my pumpkin didn't win a prize, they're amazing:



This is mine, nice, but in no way in the same league:



And my costume:

Happy, happy autumn!

The last few days, I have been harvesting. My volunteer grape tomato plant has provided me with dozens upon dozens of tasty tomatoes, my lavender is ready to be cut down for the winter, and this past week I have harvested nearly half a cup of morning glory seeds.






The lavender is going in my linen closet and to co-workers, and the morning glory seeds are being divvied up into packets for next spring. I am going to plant some of them, some are going to Mallie for her new house, and the rest are available for anyone who wants some very pretty vines with dark purple, red-streaked flowers.

The cold fall air makes my evening baths much more enjoyable, and now I can use all my glorious fall scents. So far, the winner has been Julphia Soapworks' Sandalwood Vanilla, followed by Red Egyptian Musk from Skindecent. I am also very proud to announce that I was one of the forum contest winners for Isle of Eden's holiday collection. My suggestion, called Tucked In, is a pretty layered scrub, is currently one of the top ten best-sellers on the site, and I get a free jumbo scrub!

I built my very first book recently at work, and I am now responsible for three more. Even though my name doesn't appear on them anywhere, I still feel a real sense of pride in them. I'm also amazed at how much I am learning. And earning, for that matter--overtime is not only permitted, but encouraged, and so I have been bringing work home with me. I'm sure I will get tired of it, but right now, it makes me feel very grown-up to bring a book home with me and work on it. There is one annoyance that is not going to change any time soon--the software which converts data to PDFs for our books automatically adds "ISBN #" despite the teeth-grinding redundancy thereof. I get little angry quivers when I think about this, so I shall try not to think of it!

To paraphrase Berke Breathed, "L. R. Jammies, signing off and heading for the tub!"

Sometimes, I wonder what I did...

What did I do to deserve having my car rummaged through and all of my stuff touched? Actually, I know what I did to deserve that, I left the garage door open by mistake Friday night.

Less easy a mystery to solve is what I did to deserve the wonderful friends I have. Today was my training in Hyphenated Corp's proprietary XML-based system, and I did some serious brain-stretching today. At the very end of the day, when I was presented with the first book for which I am responsible, I had to spend about ten minutes discussing with The Nurturer what exactly the author was trying to do. In a section with fourteen footnotes, said author (an attorney) wants to add a new one, delete two, add three more, and tried to "help" by incorrectly re-numbering the footnotes. I think I have it figured out, but I didn't want to try it and screw something up at the end of a long day, so I will tackle it tomorrow morning.

On my way home, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel. The U. S. Postal Service is now requiring signatures for all deliveries from Canada. I guess someone has gotten wind of the insidious Canadian plot to take over by sending large quantities of moose poo through the mail. When I got home with my non-moose-poop-holding box, I discovered another box on the steps (apparently, UPS is unaware of any plots originating in New Jersey, other than a deep desire on the part of its citizens to get out). The Canadian parcel was from The Heather, and the NewJerseyian parcel was from MaryMargrt.

The World's Best Heather(™) sent me a Frosty Glitter bubble bar and a French Kiss bubble bar from Lush, two packets of lovely pens with different colored inks, a ten-pack of Playdoh(likewise ™), an Aspen Flower candle, two Italian soaps and six pairs of socks (one of which has frogs on it, and another of which is a lovely soft hot pink chenille--this woman gets me!).

As if that weren't enough, MaryMargrt is not only psychic, she's presciently so. Just last night, I was looking at bath fizzies from Propaganda Bath just last night, and today, I got her package, which had five of the little darlings in it--Orion, Cygnus, Diva, The Movie Star and Sadako's Snow. She also sent goodies from Isle of Eden, Fantasy Bath and a couple of yummy-smelling goodies from an unidentified company.

I don't know why I am so lucky to have such lovely friends, but tonight, I will smell almost as good as they made me feel tonight.

My fancy pants don't fit

When Mom & I went to Gabriel Brothers, I was very excited to get two brand-new pairs of Lane Bryant pants for $2 each. One was turquoise twill, the other a black and white extremely fine check and both were size 24.

I'm now sure that they were at Gabes because they were mislabeled--both pairs are about six inches too big in the waist. It's a bummer because I really liked them both and they were one heck of a bargain, but good from the weight loss/morale point of view.

Despite the lack of fancy pants, my first week at work went well. I caught two errors in different books that caused other people to tell me "Good spot!" and generally felt useful. I'm overwhelmed by the jargon and acronyms, but I've grown up a lot since my last stint in corporate America, and I am not afraid to ask for a translation into English. There's a great mix of people on my team in terms of age, background, ethnicity, interests, and while everyone keeps warning me that the next few months will be a time of pressure and possible misery, I have enough lead time to brace myself and get settled in before the rush begins.

I spent this morning at the other office with Bosstopus, and we got much done. She went home for a four hour bike ride, as she is building her endurance for the MS Pedal to the Point in two weeks, and I came home and napped. *grin* I saw both a Monarch butterfly and a Swallowtail butterfly flitting around outside, but didn't manage to get any pics. I'll have to keep trying.

Josh is currently cutting the grass, and sadly, Amy did not come with him. I've got a lovely bag of Skindecent goodies for her birthday, as the scent she likes isn't currently available. I've also enabled Mallie, my friend Doc, and possibly a co-worker. I need to get a SuperEnabler suit (no cape).

As long as the size is marked correctly! *grin*

Edited to add the following, which I forgot to post:

Bigfoot poked the bathroom door open Thursday night while I was taking a bath. He sniffed the water, grunted sort of dismissively (and it was carnation, too!) and left.

None of this would be a problem, but he doesn't shut the door behind him, it's directly across from my curtainless kitchen window, the window looks out onto a major street, and it was night and all the lights were on.

I have no idea how many motorists I flashed before I could grab a towel and shut the door. Eep.