Sometimes, life stinks

You would think from the title, this post is going to be cranky. Sure my laptop died and sharing a computer is tough. Sure I need to read 178 FEMA applications in a week.

But that's pretty much all there is to complain about in my life. Life is good! I just got to see my sister and her new husband and had an awesome time hanging out with them. I spent time with my fantastic parents, whom i adore. My boss let me make up the hours i lost by going home for the weekend so i don't even have to expect a pay cut on the next paycheck. I am having such a good time at my job--it really is what i would have described if anyone in the world asked me what i wanted to do. Brian and I are doing great and I am quietly planning our wedding (which always makes me happy). We've made good friends here and its only 4 more months until we move to Paradise.

So why does life stink? Because I am a very gassy person. I've got two gassy stories to tell, but I'll tell the less funny one first.

We're hosting a student who is considering Ann Arbor for his own graduate studies. He's a Korean-Canadian named Jay and is very nice. Since its recruitment weekend, most of the first year students are hosting candidates. Part of hosting means that everyone had to go to an awkward party at the department chair's house. She doesn't have enough seating for everyone, so people end up standing and trying to eat Lasagna. Kevin the Texan and I did not want to go, despite the fact that our partners had to. So Kevin the Texan and I instead decided to get Qdoba, have a beer and watch movies. It was fantastic...until i remembered that we were sitting on the futon, which was where Jay was going to sleep...and Qdoba gives me gas. Hopefully it had enough time to air out before Jay went to sleep. Whoops.

Another funny but still gross story is about work. I haven't posted yet describing my office (i wrote a whole post that got eaten by my laptop when it died, so i'm waiting to get the data back first), but I'll summarize the important part. We have a few cubicles called "fish-bowls." They are glass on two sides, have walls and a sliding door that go up about 10 feet. I have been deemed temporarily important, so I have an assistant from February 15 to March 5. She does the paperwork and answers the phone for me. Its nice. She's very nice. But every morning, she wants to ask me a quick question while I'm on the way to the bathroom. I can't help it, I try to keep in the gas, but it needs to come out. I try to stand outside her cubicle, but she always wants to show me something on the computer or on the paperwork. So i always leave her in a fishbowl o' stink.

Let it snow

As a social worker, I'm pretty much trained to give folks the benefit of the doubt. When most folks would look at a person who is facing difficulties and say that they brought it on themselves, I'm supposed to (and usually do) say that there's other causes of hardship. You never know what someone's life has been like or what their options where when they made what we now know is a very bad choice.

But sometimes, I'm not such a good social worker.

Take the city of Detroit for example. The social work part of me says that Detroit current problems have less to do with mismanagement than they have to do with the effects of racial tensions that have never been addressed, a reliance on a single industry rather than a diversity of economic options and a lack of funding for education--significantly impacted by the aforementioned problems.

But today as i drove to work, i found myself blocked from the main road in front of my building. By a snow machine. Pumping out snow all over the park in front of the office.

There's apparently some sort of winter carnival in this park every year in the last weeks of February. There's ice skating and some sort of snow hill situation (despite the fact that the park is literally flat cement). Perhaps I could understand making artificial snow to help stimulate the business of local shops and restaurants. But with a forecast of 6-8 inches of snow over the next two days, spending thousands of dollars on artificial snow just makes me think that Detroit has brought at least some of its problems on itself.

Up chuck

I haven't posted much lately because my computer has given up on me. It no longer wants anything to do with turning on or even lighting up. As a result, Brian and I are attempting to share his computer. Its not easy, especially because the computer is used for work, school and his main source of gaming recreation. But last night I had a few hours to myself on the computer.

Because Brian was throwing up.

He must've eaten something at the Superbowl party we went to that made him sick and his face all puffy and red. There wasn't much I could do other than get him glasses of water and work on the computer in the next room.

Listening to him being sick.

In five years, I have never been in the same building as Brian when he was vomiting. Usually it only happened when he went home to visit his folks or when I was out of town. So now we've broken what probably is the final barrier of personal space between us.

I'm not that excited.