Words on a screen are real people, too.

This past Sunday, friends I met a few years ago came over to meet my babies and just generally hang out. I ‘met’ J, the female half of this couple, yeeeeeeeeeears ago; she read my blog and we emailed occasionally. She is also from Country A, and we met in person when she was over here in Country B visiting her then boyfriend – now husband – who lived here.

It’s funny. I said to TMD that looking at her is a little like looking at a slightly younger me. Back in my university days, I was very into the internet. Which is fun, considering that back in those days the internet consisted of nothing but skeezy AOL chatrooms, personal webpages (all with ‘about me’, ‘links’, ‘pictures’ – all the same), and some stuff for hardcore weirdo internet people, like myself. Namely, talkers.

Talkers were like primative chatrooms, except they were for people who had brains. You didn’t go to a talker to have sex, you went there to be all mysteriously quirky, intellectual, etc etc. I made some very meaningful and long lasting friendships that way – and in fact, ended up with a boy from Country B coming over to Country A to meet me and eventually propose. That’s a story for another time.

I guess all of our lives twist and turn. There are so many ways to connect with people.

For me, Sunday was a reminder of how great it is to see people in person. How wonderful to see your children asking to be picked up and cuddling with these people you’ve known for years, even if you have only seen them in person twice.

I am thankful for these two people….and hope they move back to Country B real soon.

After years of training to be a counsellor, I step out of the job market. I AM A BABYBABYMAMA.

I know I need to tell my job I’m not coming back, but I am so reluctant to do so. I know it’s not just about the whole ‘pain’ thing, as even if I was running marathons daily and baking wholesome treats on the side, I would still be dragging my feet (in a peppy sort of way) to tell them this ride is over.

I think it’s because right now I can pretend I’m still a counsellor at the best charity in the world. Oh, yes, I am still doing family therapy, couples counselling, one to one, play therapy. Oh yes, look at my active caseload. I get to glue shit to sticks and play make believe and get paid for it. My goodness, aren’t I just a high flying star on her way to the wonders of therapyland?

Of course I would rather stay home. Like, times a million. I guess I am just having trouble breaking up with work, which is a joke since in the two years I’ve been employed this June, I will have had a year of maternity leave, five weeks of leave over the accident, weeks of leave over morning sickness, a week off for fake appendicitis, and on and on and on. I AM A STELLER EMPLOYEE. The joke being that at my last job, the one I didn’t like, I was never fucking sick. Ah, pregnancy totally fucked over my current job, it did, it did.

I think I already have the panic flutters over having to haul my ass back into the working world in a few years. I told TMD I want to be a stay at home mom even once they are in school. She laughed at me.

Not having the internet for those couple of days last week really helped my little romance novel grow. Because when I have the internet, I have an inability to not take advantage of that*. Hell, I’m looking up Cookie Monster hoodies on eBay, I’m reading trashy mean forum threads about politics, I am finding new and annoying Facebook games to play, I am wishing I had The Sims installed on this laptop. ALL DANGEROUS THINGS.

I was just going to say I would stay off the internet today, but then I realised what a dumb thing that would be to do or say. Why, there are So Many Interesting Things on the internet, but I know one thing there is not…..an email to my boss saying I need to have a chat with her. Ha. I did have a dream about her last night, so no doubt The Talk (TM) is coming.

*This is like a double negative situation, and upon rereading I had to read this sentence a few times to make sure it said what I wanted it to. Even now, I’m not sure it does. Blame it on the codeine, yeah, yeah….

Something you could have lived without.

Another day, another dollar. I’m sat at work with, essentially, nothing to do all day. And, horror of horrors, my computer still does not connect to the internet. That means at random times I switch desks to check my work email. And come here.

Not connecting to the internet was awesome when I had loads of work to do that I had been putting off. Nothing says ‘procrastination’ like an internet connection. But on a day when I have so little to accomplish? I think Freecell can only go so far. We’ll see. I haven’t played it in like ten years and experienced a thrill of delight when I found it on my computer yesterday.

This is fast paced,  urban excitment right here. Any minute now sirens will be screaming, video cameras will be swarming, I will somehow become famous. In the meantime, I’ll be thinking about how I forgot to bring my lunch to work today.

Shitting in someone else’s chair. Another definition of empathy?

Dear god. My work computer will not access the internet. So far, in order to resolve the problem I have:

called the IT help desk.
(twice)
unplugged my cable.
crawled under my boss’ desk to plug it into her computer.
sat on top of her desk to wiggle the cable to the power outlet.
laughed on the phone with Joy.
(three times)
called the CEO of our company.
arranged for him to come over tomorrow afternoon.

This means that I am currently logged in as an administrator on someone else’s computer. Consider this: I am alone in the office. We have four computers. I am logged into three of them in order to do my work.

Grouchy me.

However, Halloween arrived so at least I have that to look forward to! Not having access to the internet seems to be a really good thing in terms of my general productivity, but it sure is a bitch when I actually NEED access. You know, for mere matters like submitting court reports or referrals. Friggers.

I am now going to shut all personal windows and wipe the memory that I was ever here off the system – cross your fingers.

—-

Oh HELL no. I cannot copy and paste flair on this computer. CHEAP SHIT. I was just thinking, ‘Oh, Michael Myers, I look forward to this computery day ending and us spending quality time together’ when I looked up at the door and fake-imagined I saw him standing there.

My stomach is now cramping up and I may have to shit on the floor. He is so scary. Brr.

God bless Firefox add-ons.

I just pumped my right arm into the air and yelled, ‘Yes!’ when I saw on the internet (on a site I have open most of all day, every day) we were expecting thunder this afternoon.

I fear I may be losing my street cred with my peeps at work. On the other hand, I find people are endeared to weirdos.