RL things I love

[Tinuviel]

I might actually be able to get a permanent-permanent teaching gig, rather than long-term substitute jobs.
Fuck yes.

[Bobotron]

Food.
I love food.
I love that I've found youtube chefs that give their recipes away for free.
I AM GOING TO GET SO FAT OH GOD.

[Auspice]

(a) More a gratitude thing... Apartment building across the courtyard-y area from mine had a fire (from people not following the smoking rules GO FIGURE). I'm just so glad it wasn't mine, 'cause oh man my kitties.

(b) So I went to check out this "brewskeeball" thing after work today. It's like a bowling league? But... for skeeball. Tonight was the signup party. Only one other girl from the local 'Lady Geeks' group so we just enjoyed the free beer and free skeeball, but! We found out that Wed/Thur nights are free play all the time, so we're gonna try to get the other ladies interested to at least play with us on free play nights and who knows, by the time the next league comes around? Mebbe we'll have a team!

...but hey, for the first time since I moved... I went out blind (I'd never met any of these people before tonight and I've still only met one, but hey!) and hung out and did a thing.

But I learned about brewskeeball! And I talked to people! And enjoyed myself! I mean. The free beer helped. But hey.

ETA: Oh... the Full Circle Bars (other cities host skeeball leagues too and I guess that's like, the common bar names?) also host... Major League Dreidel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vsVnBQo31s

[mietze]

Watching a single “coach” manage 19 3-4 year olds and try to teach basketball skills.

I helped but over extended myself (pneumonia sucks) so back to bed for me.

But it was adorable and hilarious.

[Sunny]

I am bouncing off the walls this morning because an old friend is coming back to mushing. Bouncing. Off. The. Walls.

My boss asked what was up. I told her. She UNDERSTOOD and was excited for me.

I have the best job ever.

[Deleted]

This post is deleted!

[Ganymede]

@mietze

[Sockmonkey]

A year ago, we took our two year old cat, Hiphop, to the vet for his check up and they detected a heart murmur. They told us to take him to a cardiologist which we did .. at which point we got the really shitty news that he has HCM. My husband and I were crushed -- even though he was acting perfectly fine and some cats can live years before going into heart failure, HCM is a progressive disease and when it's diagnosed in cats as young as Hiphop, it usually progresses pretty quickly. But we wouldn't really know anything until we got him checked again in a year's time, assuming that he didn't become symptomatic before then.

Fast forward to tonight.

We took him back to the cardiologist for another EKG. The best we were hoping for was that there hadn't been any thickening of his heart but we were bracing for bad news (even though he still has been acting like his adorable, snuggly self). I even told my boss that I probably would have to work from home tomorrow because I would likely be too weepy because OMG HIPHOP WHHHY NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

But somehow? The measurement of his left ventricle had gone down from 8mm (last year) to 6.5mm, putting him in the mild category.

The doctor was surprised, a little confused but very pleased. Cats with this condition don't improve so the initial reading was just wrong for some reason -- granted, the measurement is thick enough that he still has the disease but it puts him in a much less dire place than he was before and it's unlikely that there was much change in his heart over the past year.

So we're all cautiously optimistic that Hiphop will be with us for a few (several?) more years. Which I RL love. I mean, just look at this stupid face:

[surreality]

@sockmonkey That is wonderful news, and OMFG FLOUFY FACE! Floufy faces are extra always.

[Aria]

I am going to go visit my RP bestie of almost four years next month and help turn his awful breakup/months of couch-surfing into a "bring all your friends over into your furniture-less new place and we'll have a big camp out/slumber party in your empty living room" housewarming bash. Followed by a full-on Macklemore visit to the local thrift shop to help him get new stuff.

I am excited. ^_^

[Auspice]

I've always been that person at jobs that just clocks in, does their thing, and clocks out. But I've made myself be more social at work. I go to the parties. I've even gone out after work a couple times with coworkers.

On shift, I don't spend the whole day with headphones on. I bullshit around with the guys (I'm the only woman on the team currently; not for lack of trying and we do have other women in the office, just not on my team).

They're actually happy to see me come in. Like literally one of them said "Hey! [Auspice] is here! Awesome!" yesterday. It's... kinda great. And new to me. Or something I've just never been able to notice before due to depression and lack of good enough meds.

[Miss Demeanor]

@auspice I too work in an atmosphere dominated by men. It can be hard to break through that gender barrier, especially if there's any decent amount of age gap present as well. But yes, that feeling you get when greeted by name or being invited to join them in whatever is happening is pretty damn awesome. So kudos to you for stepping out of the comfort zone and getting there!

[Auspice]

@miss-demeanor said in RL things I love:

@auspice I too work in an atmosphere dominated by men. It can be hard to break through that gender barrier, especially if there's any decent amount of age gap present as well. But yes, that feeling you get when greeted by name or being invited to join them in whatever is happening is pretty damn awesome. So kudos to you for stepping out of the comfort zone and getting there!

I am one of the older people where I work. There's a guy in his late 40s. Me in my early 30s. Our local manager is in his late 20s. The PM in Sacramento is about the same age I am. And then the Sacramento team (which has a handful of women) and the rest of our team locally are all in their 20s.

But being into sports, video games, and an overwhelming knowledge of internet memes won them over.

Also buying pizza on Christmas Eve. I think that helped too.

EDIT: I've carried over one of my rules from staffing into being a team lead in that I continue to just hang out and bullshit with them. I'm not full management. Yes I help with training. Yes I'm an escalation point. But I want them to be comfortable bringing things to me. And they are.

[Miss Demeanor]

@auspice Yep, that's kinda the boat I'm in too. One of the managers is in his 50's, the other two are late 30s to early 40's, one guy that works with us is in his late 40's... but I'm older than everyone else... including my direct supervisor, who is 27. So yeah, the ability to hold conversations in THEIR areas of interest has helped. And donuts. I bring in donuts like, once a month. They love it.

[Testament]

Somehow, I wound up working for a five year old start up that's pretty much monopolizing the service we provide, because, well the company I work for owns the patent.

I work in the lab during third shift, and I notice that everyone is more or less my age. I think there might be one or two people older than me, but older as in two-to-four years older than me. As far as I can tell, there isn't anyone 40 and older, unless you start looking IT or HR or some of the more cushy positions. Down on the lab floor, it's everyone more or less my age.

Which is bewildering, that's never happened to me before. But I can say it's not horrible.

[Ganymede]

I think I'm the youngest person at my firm.

I'm 38.

[Arkandel]

I've been reading up on D&D 5E as part of running a new campaign in RL... and it's so much fun. It's a well written system in general - every class looks cool, full of stuff I'd love to play with and work towards.

Dammit, I wish there was a good 5E MUSH around, or running an online campaign wasn't a pain in the ass due to schedules. It's easier to arrange it iRL since junk food makes for a powerful motivator to get together.

[Lithium]

@arkandel There was a 5e game that was up for a little while, but the head wiz was a complete fucking psycho who would make beautiful comments like:

Rape isn't so bad in an apocalypse, the women get protection for providing a service.

And other gem's. I had heard there was another 5e game in the works, but I dunno what happened to it if it's stalled or doa or what.

[Arkandel]

@lithium Meh.

I just wanna get more regular fixes of 5E, dammit.

[hedgehog]

I just booked the Gothsicles to play for my kid's birthday.

And Brian seemed delighted to be asked about it. Like, genuinely so.

So...the Gothsicles. GenCon. DragonCon. Terminus. Kinetik. Ridgeville Park District.

But, really, a roomful of little kids all doing the otter dance and saving dat mermaid? Kind of awesome.