Judy is apparently the person who requests that Ben's file be expedited. We're waiting to hear from her, later this afternoon, hopefully. The NVC says their normal processing time means they'll get back to us in 6-8 weeks. We're hoping they'll be able to get him here in four weeks, but that's not based on anything other than hope at this point.
Bank One offered me a job, and I accepted. They're going to pay me more than they are now, plus benefits, too. I get to wear jeans every Friday and poke around on the net between calls. My work space is one of those little low-walled blue/grey cubes amongst a whole whack of other cubes... I'm trying to decide if I ought to get a red Swingline stapler.
Back on the diet. Pout.
That item is the LAST BATCH OF PAPERWORK for Ben's application.
Paul is calling the Congressman tomorrow. September 1 is the first day of school.
I can hardly contain myself!!!
No job offer yet.
Talked with Alasdair on the weekend. He's going to be calling another Knight sometime this week to see if this other Knight will foster me. This means the other Knight (if he agrees) will take over responsibility for my training, though I would still be Alasdair's squire. It was really good to see him, and very good to have the chance to speak with him. He told me he's trying to find work back in Texas (where he's from ) and is hoping to move before the end of August. I can understand being homesick. :o( Owroo.
I'm temporarily not following the diet. It's just been too stressful and it was one thing I could let go of a little bit.
Inhale...exhale... repeat as necessary.
...but without the lineups.
Suffice it to say that Robin, the Passport Office Ombudsman ROCKS. I'm staying home from work tomorrow, having been told to expect it by FedEx. I don't want take any risks with getting this thing DONE. Once I have it I'll drop it off with Paul at his office and head in to work. He gets to do the last batch of paperwork and send it in.
Working late tonight so no fight practice for me. I'm going to go home, eat and go to bed. I'm exhausted from NOT doing anything gory to a bunch of very deserving idiots.
230.0
NOW the passport office says call TOMORROW because it still wasn't sent. Snarg!! Let's dress up like pirates, board the scurvy dogs, make a couple walk the plank just for kicks, and make off with the passport and whatever other booty catches our eyes. Eye. Yar! Polly wants a freakin' passport.
231.0 again. But we ate cheeseburgers last night so it's hard to complain.
We wait: Ben's passport is ready and we'll have the tracking number tomorrow. We could have it as soon as Thursday. I'm beside myself!!
We wait: I filled out the job application today at Bank One. I don't know how long until I hear about an interview.
We wait: I will be seeing my Knight in person this weekend, so we will have the opportunity to discuss things face-to-face. It'll be good to have that sorted out; it's been tough to go fight with this unresolved.
Patience is a virtue, or so I hear...
Hugs.
229.0 on Saturday, 231.0 today. Oops.
I got Paul's tunic done, and wow! does that style of neckline really suit him!! Now, on to pants for me then I'm finishing up Paul's SCA pants.
I've been looking around on the net for patterns and things... and I found *things*. :o)
Cunnan
Angevin Treasures
Frankish costume
:o) Whee!!
231.0
Not much new on my mind today. This weekend will be sewing and maybe seeing "Van Helsing". Missing my friends. Enjoying the storms...
Have a good one folks!
231.5
Capri-length pants. Seems like everyone in my office wears them; that's all the stores are currently carrying. I just need a plain black pair of normal work pants. It's always been difficult to find pants to fit me, but NOW they're all even shorter than usual! Argh.
So after I finish the SCA outfit I'm making for Paul, I'm going to make myself a pattern for work pants. Then I'm going to make my own freakin' pants and all those short-pants-making stores can just go warm themselves in heck. Nyah.
By the way, the "pants game" is pretty simple: take your favourite movie/book/song quotes and change a word to "pants". Under the right conditions, it's very funny. Under any other conditions, it's just plain silly. :o)
So Darth Vader says, "Luke! *I* am your pants" and frankly my dear, Rhett Butler just doesn't give a pants. A recent book (and movie) is "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Pants" and Gene Kelly danced with a lightpost in "Singin' in the Pants" ... you get the idea. Sorry.
Bumpersticker of the day: "It's time to pull over and change the air in your head"
I'm going to apply for the open position here at Bank One... though it's a call centre (and therefore bleah), the pay is good and the people are nice. We'll see how it all works out.
There's a lot of water around here. My current mini-project is to find out how much of it that's nearby is usable for things like paddling.
Not too much exciting. I'm ok with that! :o)
Bumper sticker of the day: "Earth First. Make Mars Our Bitch"
232.0
I don't normally do online quizzes. I'm not sure why I this Trickster one, but I'd *love* to be like the description that came up.
BenBenBenBenBenBen... I want to rush home right now and see if the passport is there. I want to hover behind the person processing it and hurry them along. I want to call the Congressman and beg him to *get Ben here* for the start of school.
C'mon, passport people!!!!
232.5 and feeling like my weight problem is pretty damn insignificant.
I have a very good friend in Thunder Bay, whose father is an alcoholic. She's been to various support groups over the years and knows all the necessary stuff about dealing with it without letting it ruin her own life. She's been working really hard with this issue pretty much forever, to come to terms with it. She's had some pretty decent success, too. But there's been a problem the whole time...
She loves him and wants to help him.
My friend is a person who would feed the whole world if she could. She feels guilty if anyone is cold, hungry or unhappy, and she does her best to help. Anyone. 'Recent developments' are pushing this issue into her face, and it's gotten to the point where she has to deal with it... her task is to let go taking care of her father. I don't know if this will be the toughest thing she's ever done, but I know it's going to be brutal.
I've never been to any of those support groups. I don't know any alcoholics (that I know of) and I think I've only really known one other than my friend's father. I'm watching my friend have to do this from 10-hours drive away and over a vast rift of no-experience. For support, I expect what I can do will amount for very little.
I intend to do it anyway.
If you know anything about getting through this issue and want to share some words with her, email me and I'll see that she gets it. Or post a comment here so anyone who visits here can benefit from your experience. I might not know diddly-squat, but I know YOU and you might know something that'll help.
Please take a moment. My friend is oh-so worth it.
Thank you.
Yay!! I'm happy(!) to report the Canadian passport office says we should have Ben's passport in hand in 2-3 weeks!! Add two months US government processing time on top of that, and Ben can then move here!!!
Oh my god what a ride this has been. What an ordeal. I'm so glad to be able to see the end of it now.
There aren't even words.
236.5 Paul tells me the scale has been inaccurate and having problems. He replaced the batteries and so apparently *now* it's fine. Harumph. I liked it the old way better. I decided this morning that I'm going to stick to the phase one meals until I'm down to 230 pounds. It seems like a do-able goal and not too far away, so I should be able to succeed with minimal whining. :o) Poor Paul.
What's on my mind today? I miss my friends. I'm lonely. Paul's thinks from yesterday got me thinking too, and I too need to put more efford into my friendships. My friends are wonderful people!! This blog is part of doing it, so you-all can stay in touch with me a bit, but it's not real and it's not individual.
I've never been good at it, so I NEED HELP!! Here's a question: how do you socialize/stay in touch with friends; both those who are near and those who are far away? Feedback happily accepted! :o)
No cool bumperstickers of late at all.
Take care, all. Keep breathing! :o)
237.0 Welcome to the land of just before that-time-of-the-month. But think about how tasty it could have been to actually eat 6 pounds worth of FOOD!! Mmm...
Various people have given me advice, both solicited and unsolicted, about what to do about my relationship with my Knight (see my previous entry "Red Belt Blues" for more info). All of it begins with talking with him, and I absolutely agree that it's necessary. I'm not trying really hard to get in touch with him because I feel really awkward; how can I talk about this over the phone? A conversation this serious needs to happen in person...
How much right do I have to probe? How much obligation? A good friend of mine has done something way off the beaten path for him. After digging, his friends have discovered other info that makes his recent choices look even worse than they did at first glance. It feels as though his social circle has changed after gathering more and more info, from supporting him, to wanting nothing more to do with him.
I don't feel that I need to understand and approve of all the choices every person I know might make. I don't believe that those of you who are my friends must explain or justify yourself to me, although I would love to be given the opportunity to understand. I have to be able to trust that you're doing what you think is best and right, and I have to know that you trust me to do the same thing. I don't want to just wig out on you because I don't like what you're doing, even if I don't understand. I have to believe my friend is competent to run his own life and make his own choices, because *I* am certainly not more qualified than he is to run his life for him!
All that said, there is a "line". At some point, I have choices to make too, as a result of what YOU do. What things can I accept? What not? If not, what then? If you do something I don't get, then it's up to me to understand if I can... but then what? What would I hope for from you? That you'd come to me, say, "Whoa, this is totally unlike you. What's going on?" Once you hear me and try to understand, then it's up to you to live with me AND my decision, or not. If you can't I'd hope you would tell me you can't live with or agree with what I am doing, you can't accept it, and we can't be friends, or Knight/squire (or whatever) any more. Then I guess you take your ball and go home...
Do I want to take my ball and go home? Not entirely. Do I like what he's done? No, but not relevant. "Can I remain his squire" becomes the real and central question, because at the root of all the other stuff is: however much (in my opinion) he may have messed up, I'm not prepared to write him off. People do things, to themselves and others, that look impossible to make sense of from the outside of their own skull. I have to trust he's doing the best he can. If it doesn't look like a very good best to me, I have to remember that I don't really know what's going on inside his head.
"Can I remain his squire?" I'm not sure. More thinkage required...
231.0 and struggling. How pathetic is that - I barely have control over my own stomach.
The Bristol Ren Faire opens this weekend. Paul used to always work weekends for Faire Paire Tights, but has been unable to because he has devoted so much time to driving to Canada. I feel very bad about it actually; this isn't just a job for him, it's also a social circle he only gets to see in this context. He has friends he hasn't seen for two years because of me. :o( Admittedly, the income would be great and would be really useful over the next few weeks, should he choose to work a few weekends, and it woud be great for him to be able to see his friends. I'm leaving it to him to decide what he wants to do.
I'm either heading down to the Faire site with Paul to help Ginger (owner of the tights shop) set up or I'll be being domestic tonight (shopping for groceries, cooking, cleaning, etc). Whee!
233.0 On the down side, I'm feeling kinda stupid - I forgot to take the pills this morning. :o( On the up side, I discovered Crystal Light. Yummy! I'm not famished and the cravings are keeping it to a dull roar today. I wonder if panang is vorboten...
Going this weekend to Ohio. The main purpose is to get started on my outfit for the wedding-reception-thing. We'll be staying at Robyn's (that's Paul's sister) place, and visiting with her, and with Finn and Tamara. I'm assuming Tamara and I will be fabric shopping and I'm hoping we get some fighting in (Finn and Paul and I, *not* with Tamara. She's not an armoured combatant, but something even more dangerous... she's not known as The Evil Countess for nothing ya know).
It's not a bad day at work today. People are generally being nice and the problems are either easy or interesting. My legs ache less. Ben is having fun.
I haven't been seeing any fun or cool bumper stickers lately. :o(
Take care, all. It could be *much* worse.
235.0 and counting. Dreaming dreams of suger-free fudgesickles.
Homesick today for Canada. It's not that I have a particular place there I would rather be, it's just sometimes overwhelmingly strange here. No CBC radio (boy, it's amazing how much those familiar voices mean. I've been listening to them for *years*), no Hockey Night in Canada or Air Farce on TV, English-only packaging, different stores, different brands in the grocery store... It's all little things, but so are snowflakes and an avalanche can squish ya. Every now and then, all thse little things squish me some. Anyone want to email (or mail) me some pics? Anything Canadian, even Canadian-ish will help. :o) Thanks!
Paul is my hero: "By the way, I have a solution to the chocolate thing. Russels Stover makes low-carb candy now, and they have it at Walgreens and in the little store downstairs (here); they use sugar alcohols and no actual sugar, resulting in ... well, I have the bag for truffle cups here which are .2 carbs per piece. Other flavors are peanut butter (they taste just like reeses peanut butter cups), milk chocolate and almonds, french mint, solid milk chocolate, toffee, mint patth, and pecan delight."
Mmm, chocolate. Things are looking up. :o)