We're not meant to be alone.

Sometimes I hate the length of the subject line in Dreamwidth. There's another short line to that lyric, and it annoys me that it won't fit. Oh well.

Today I have a little planned. At work, I'll be doing my thing and then we'll have the manager bitchfest meeting and then the rest of the day. Afterwards, we need to take Yoda to the vet to get his flu and Cytopoint shots. Hopefully, he's feeling up to going to doggie day care tomorrow. If not, I'll move it to Tuesday. Then, tonight, we have Blades in the Dark, which should be a lot of fun. Still deciding if I want to get game snacks, since we won't have any other games that qualify.

Yesterday was also busy. I took a few calls, moved a few patients and then it was my time to watch the help queue and provide answers to questions. They were pretty easy, so it wasn't a bad time. Then after lunch I had the training for our new VOIP phone system. That is two hours that I won't get back. It was dull, self explanatory and could have been an email or a training. It was just brutal. My managers were also in the class, and they were back in the Rad Leaders chat just roasting the class. "Cringe" was the big accusation leveled against it. All in all, I'm glad it's over.

After work, I headed up to see my tattoo artist. She had a very cool drawing of what the tattoo would look like. I arrived at 4:45, did paperwork and Ronie got set up. I figure we started at about 5:15pm. I was done and in the car at 6:05. It was super fast. Then again, I tend to sit like a rock, so I'm an easy person to tatoo. She had set up her tablet with a picture of Boodle, that she superimposed her drawing on, so I have Boodles actual fur pattern on her chest. I absolutely love it. It's very her.



It still has the bandage on it, but I'll be taking that off tonight when I can submerge my arm in water. It usually hurts more than the tattoo did to peel off the second skin. Tomorrow, I'l have a clearer picture of it. Then it was home to eat and sniff the BPAL smellies that came in. I liked a lot of them, which was nice. Some I'm not sure about, but I'll give them second chances. I may try wearing some for Blades, though I have absolutely no idea what. I'd been wearing Scheherazade, because storyteller, but I feel like Blades needs something with an iron note. I'll save Scheherazade for the first Marchen game next Sunday.

Tomorrow, I have a pretty quiet day. I've got a game at 11am, Too Many Draculas. After that, I may drag Jess out for a late lunch for something tasty. 11am is too early for dumplings, so I will forgo our game snacks meal. I don't think next week, we have any games that we could do game snacks for, but we'll see. I might do them for Marchen and just take a little break early in the game when they arrive.

Sunday brings an early moring (9am) game. We might finish the Life's a Beach oneshot! (So far it's been almost 10 sessions. To be fair, it was supposed to be a quick combat, but we (okay, I) messed that up by blinding a dragon and bringing the big bad who we were supposed to end up chasing, down to the ground. DM's make the most chaotic energy as players. If there is away to completely upend your plan, it's going to be the player who DMs.

To be fair, for early games, I'm also fully on my ADHD meds, so all of my chaos is on purpose. I didn't zone and have to come up with something to do on the fly. That can lead to uncontrolled chaos.

Usually, I inflict that as DM on my nighttime games.

We're down to 27 days til cruise. I'm going to pull out my suitcase this weekend and start packing some things. Nothing that I'm still using, but I do want to see how much space everything will take up. But things like my slippers and nice shoes can go in the suitcase, as well as the fleecy leggings. I may pack a few pairs of regular leggings, but we'll see. Right now I'm focusing on the long sleeve shirts, fleece leggings and shoes as well as cosmetic stuff that will go into the carry on.

Oh, speaking of vacation! Last night, one of the packages that came in was my sister's Bento Bag. She really liked mine, so we ordred her one. Since I was placing the order because I had a 20% off coupon code, I saw that they had a bundle that included their fanny pack and got one of those, too.

I'm always worried when I order fanny packs, because I never know if the strap will be long enough to fit my fat ass. I opened with more than a bit of trepidation. I shouldn't have worried. The strap was fully extended, and it nearly fell to the ground when I put it on. I had to adjust the strap by about 16" for it to stay put. I loved it. I didn't feel fat for a few minutes. lol. It's also really pretty, a dark blue that will clash with the bento bag I got (which is pink).

I think we have all the stuff we need at this point. I've got my Doctor's appt on Monday, where she can order my Mounjaro, which will last for the trip. I've got one more vial of the lower dose, but I definitely want to try the higher. This just isn't doing enough.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll also cook another batch of food for Yoda. I think the next one is pork, so that'll be good. I can cut up the tenderloins I got yesterday, and maybe some oats and sweet potatoes. I found a dog-friendly pork broth that I can stew it all in. Maybe Sunday, I'll make him some goat and rice and veggies. I still have a few trays of ground goat that I can cook up to make him happy. I need to get another order of groceries from them, so that I can continue to make food for him. He won't need it at the kennel tomorrow, but next weekend when he has his long weekend stay, I'll need to provide him food.

I also have to find time to clean up in our room a bit. I have a large pile of clothes that I need to go through, so I will work on that some. The apartments want to come replace our balcony railing, sometime between today and May 19th. I'm hoping for somewhere around May 7-17th. That would be helpful. OF course, this is going to require cleaning up the living room, so that will be fun.

But for now, I need to do some studying. These articles aren't going to read themselves. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

It's Thursday, one more day til the weekend after today.

Thanks to an amazing game, and then being all hyped up after game, I did not get enough sleep. I fell asleep watching youtube videos about the cruise, but that had to be around eleven thirty, maybe midnight. As a result, I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. I will manage, but I'm going to sleep hard tonight. Of course today would be the day I have a two meetings. One is my usual meeting with the Quality team, and one is my Talkdesk training.

Then, after that, I get to get my ass together and go out to see my tattoo artist. As far as I know, we're doing the tattoo tonight. I will post pictures tomorrow or Saturday when I take off the barrier film that protects it for the first day. Then, I will come home and fall over. It'll be great. I'll be hopped up on adrenaline and endorphins and will sack out. immediately.

Of course, between now and the tattoo artist, I need to figure out placement. Inner arm, other calf? Over my heart? I will think on it. I want it to be somewhere I can see it. I'll see what it looks like when I see the stencil and how big it needs to be. Honestly, as long as she can source or create the gold color of Boodle's fur, I'm happy.

School starts today. I've got the class syllabus open in another taba nd will go forth and check it out when I'm done here.

One thing I've been doing in the lead up to the trip is buying way too many books on my kindle. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books does a daily list of book deals, ad I've "this book is $1.99" my way through many purchases. I've downloaded a bunch to my Kindle, so I will have reading material for the flight and airport and cruise. Yesterday, there was one called Dreadful, by Kaitlyn Rozakis. It's honestly the first book other than the Scazi book I downloaded for the flight, that I've neen super excited about. It's going to be difficult to not read it before then. Or maybe I will read it as stress releif as we count down for the trip.

I'm excited as hell about the trip, don't get me wrong. But as it creeps closer, I'm also getting anxious. With a little luck, I'll relax after Saturday when Yoda goes to his first Kennel day. (please be good, you little shithead.) That's my only real worry about the trip. I need to know that he's taken care of.

As Jess said, I'm kind of grateful that Boodle won't have to experience of us suddenly leaving for 10 days and a stranger being here. We can practice with Yoda, but for her it would have been a total surprise. So, we're just stressing one animal out. Honestly, I feel guilty enough about that. He's going to spend 11 days with no one to sleep with. We have to drop him off the day before we leave, and then pick him up the day after we get home. He's going to be so happy to see everyone.

A good chunk of my packages are coming today. I believe I am done with what I need to buy. Everything that I've bought shall arrive over the next two weeks so that'll be good. I do think I want to hire a housesitter. Just someone to come in every other day and get mail and to make sure things are okay. I don't expect there to be a problem, but then I don't have to put the mail on hold or worry that random shit that my sister bought from TEMU will just show up and sit.

Yesterday was pretty busy too, though. In the morning, I sat with the trainees for two hours and took calls, modelling good behavior. Then, in the afternoon, I covered the teams questions. I'm going to need them to announce my position soon, because I'm getting pushback in chat, and I can't even yell "Respect my authority!" because I currently have none, unless you look at my signature or at my teams info. And since no one ever fucking does that, no one but my one friend knows.

I got the good word that my other friend, M, got the job with us. She'll be starting on 5/11 with our team. Which means that right before Black Friday, I'll be getting another $1000. M says that she doesn't want any of it, since without me, she wouldn't have gotten the job. I'll see if I can convince her to take some of it between now and then. They sent her the offer letter yesterday, and it's all signed and done. It'll be nice to have her. I have missed chatting with her while we work. I wish K had been willing to apply, but she thinks she's too old to start over. She's sending a few people my way, so there's the possibility of future bonuses too.

Tomorrow, I have nothing planned at work but the Leadership Bitchfest meeting. It's been that kind of week, so I'm sure the bitching will be strong. Plus, we cancelled last week on account of lack of attendance, Since out of our seven person team, there were four.

I figure all of our stuff should be here by next week. If there's something that crops up that we need, I'll get it local or via same or next day on Amazon.

I need to make Yoda more food today. I'll go ahead and get the pot cleaned out and start some chicken gizzards and livers on the stove, ad see what we can make up. I need to add a little more rice to this mix as his poops are back to being soft since I cut back. I may try it with rolled oats for this particular recipe. I feel like the oatmeal will pick up the flavor well.

He won't be happy that it's not goat, but he'll deal. Saturday, I'll makd some goat for him, too. And then we can switch off. Then, I'll make some more chicken, and then I'll get more meats from the Punjab Market. Maybe see if Aldi has some pork tenderloins. I know he'd like that.

He likes pork better than just about anythign, even goat. Maybe also ground pork. That would be good for him. Oooh, and I could aslo get a bone-in turkey breast. That would cook up well, and provide plenty of meat. I neeed to get more butternut squash, too. He really fucking loves the butternut squash. Add in that with a little bit of spinach or greenbeans and some rice or oats, and he's a happy boy.

I may be trying to cook every day or two over the next few weeks. That's the only way I'm going to have enough food for our vacation. I just need 22 of them, so he can have breakfast and dinner. I should be able to to work that, but it could be a lot of work.

Tomorrow night, we have Blades in the Dark, moving to a Thursday for the first time ever. I'm excited to play-it's been a while. Tomorrow, I have 1 game, and then one on Sunday as well. In between all that, I need to make food for dog, and do school work. This should be fun.

I have a follow up with my PCP on Monday to see how the Mounjaro is working. I think I need a higher dose, because it's not really bringing my sugar down. Not enough, anyway.

We'll see how that does. If not, there's Jardiance we can also try.

It's only 28 days til we leave. At this time in four weeks, I'll be sitting in the airport lounge relaxing while we wait for our flight. Jesus, that's so few days. Oh! I have a link for you. I'll repost it closer to go time, but the link to my photo album will be right here. I'm going to uplaod the pictures to that file pretty regularly, so you can see some of the gorgeous views.

Okay, time for me to get a studying. Everyone have a stellar Thursday!