Peak 2022

 Eh, I guess I can talk about the past few months.

I mentioned back in September that the QA I worked with since February would be relocating. I believe it was early October when she did. The week after she quit, we got one of our people back who had worked for a couple of months earlier in the year, and who was pretty good. She was so out of practice though that I had to retrain her a little bit to get her back into the groove.

The week of my birthday was alright, but would've been better had I not been on Qelbree that week. Qelbree is a non-stimulant ADHD medicine. It was definitely effective, but it also made me not want to eat anything.

• At work that Sunday, I ended up vomiting after lunch because I ate and drank too much, except it wasn't really any more than normal.
• That Tuesday after work, I went to see Napalm Death and Brujeria. I got a 20 piece Chicken McNuggets from McDonald's on my way to the venue, and ate them when I arrived there. It was really ten pieces too many, but I managed to keep it down. The show was a lot of fun. I wish I could've seen them at one of their Texas dates, because MDC opened on the Texas dates.
• That Thursday, I had a therapist appointment in the morning, and went to see The English Beat that night. I went to Taco Bell for lunch and just got a Chicken Quesadilla, and could barely finish it. Went to the Best Buy up in St. Matthews to look for movies, and found out they don't carry movies anymore, so I went elsewhere to go movie shopping. I ended up having a massive headache the rest of the day. Went to Smashburger before the English Beat show and got three chicken tenders, and could barely finish them. Got to the show, talked to a few friends. I really only know four English Beat/General Public songs (Mirror In The Bathroom, Save It For Later, Tenderness, and GP's cover of I'll Take You There). I was ready to leave early due to my headache, so I looked up their setlists from previous shows, and discovered that they actually do my three favorite songs early in the set, and did my least favorite towards the end of the show, so I decided to stick around for my three favorite songs, then left.
• I went to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that Friday, and did some shopping. I ended up vomiting when I went to the bathroom just before going to bed that night. I decided that night that I was going to quit taking Qelbree.
• That Saturday was one where I was scheduled to work, but I ended up calling in, partially due to being sick from the Qelbree, but also because the drastic change in weather had me fucked up. It was unseasonably warm that week, which I didn't mind at all. But we went from being in the mid-60s Friday afternoon, to fucking snowing on Saturday morning, and I couldn't deal with it.

This year was the first year that I had both Thanksgiving and Black Friday off since 2008. Thanksgiving was weird, mostly because my parents are weird. My dad is an asshole, and my mom's memory has been going to shit, which in turn greatly annoys my dad. My mom's memory problems supposedly stem from her meds, and not any dementia or Alzheimer's. As for Black Friday, I've been determined that if I ever had a Black Friday off, I'd spend it being a lazy motherfucker and just watch movies, or maybe just one long ass movie. I finally got around to watching the director's cut of Wim Wenders' Until The End Of The World, which is almost five hours long, but probably took a lot longer than that to get through, due to having to take an occasional nap or break from the movie.

We actually got Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas off, and I used my Floating Holiday for the 27th, so I had that whole week off. I was glad we had that time off, since a shitty snow/ice event that weekend made driving hazardous. I went nowhere between the Thursday afternoon before Christmas, and the Tuesday morning after Christmas, and ended up doing Christmas with the parents that Tuesday.

New Year's weekend was fucking stupid. Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday that my shift would've normally had to work. You'd think they would've made us work the following Saturday, which was the 31st, but thankfully they kept that as B-Shift's Saturday, so we got New Year's Eve off. Here's where it gets stupid. I've had every New Year's Day off since I started at this place. Since New Year's Day this year fell on a Sunday, it was decided that NYD would be observed that Monday, the 2nd, so the Monday-Friday people would have Monday off. I would've had no problem taking NYD off and coming in that Monday. What they did instead was have Outbound come in on Sunday, and they gave us Monday off. The only reason I can think of for this is that this year, they've decided to give us time and a half if we end up working on an observed holiday, instead of giving us a Floating Holiday like they had been, and I guess they didn't want to pay us extra to come in on Monday. Since Sunday wasn't observed, we wouldn't be getting holiday pay or time and a half for working on Sunday, so they made us come in on actual New Year's Day. It's hard enough to get people to come in on a regular Sunday morning, having them come in on a New Year's Day that falls on a Sunday is downright moronic. Meanwhile, Inbound had New Year's Day off. I don't know if they had to come in that Monday, and at this point I'm beyond caring. But anyway, we worked less than half the day because we didn't have that much work. They should've just bit the bullet and had us work half the day Monday. Oh, and I was doubly miserable coming in on New Year's Day because I didn't get enough sleep, if at all, though not for lack of trying. I wasn't even up late or anything, I just couldn't sleep.

I've never had MLK Day off. I was prepared to work on MLK Day this year, even though my employer has made it a paid holiday. The Monday before MLK Day, my supervisor told us that we had MLK Day off, so I was looking forward to having it off. The next morning, he told us that they got an e-mail from our client telling them that they wanted my shift to work on MLK Day, so only the Monday-Friday people would be off. This really pissed me off. I assumed that all the Monday-Friday departments would be off, but they all ended up coming in. The only people who didn't come in were my supervisor and our two Monday-Friday QAs, so it was a normal day aside from those three people not being there. It would've been fine if my boss hadn't gotten my hopes up the week before.

The only reason I even stay at that place is because I'm a slave to this country's shitty for-profit healthcare system. I need the insurance, and I can't afford to pay COBRA premiums if I leave for another job. This is not a problem in any other advanced country. But I also feel like I'd just end up in another shitty place similar to it. It doesn't matter where I work, I'm going to be miserable. Hell, the Photo department at "Main ex-Employer" was the best job I've ever had, and I was even miserable there!

I have an appointment with my therapist coming up. I don't think I'm going to continue seeing him after that. He's fairly liberal, which is a plus, but he's too old to be relatable to, and he talks too much. At my last appointment, he started saying something before I was finished making my point, and I had to talk over him to finish my point. But it's really more me than him. I don't see the point in going if I'm not going to put in the work to really change my situation, and just end up talking about the same shit every time.