Day 996: Shenanigans

This week has been full of them. I worked super hard this week, and yet this has also been the laziest week of my life, or so it feels. I just...wasn't motivated at work near the end of the week, and I even showed up to work "late", as in right before eight instead of before seven thirty (I still beat big brother into the office). I really, really need to get my CLEs done, and I need to care about some of my other cases, but...yeah. I spent almost twelve hours in the office one day making calls to clients, and my persistence has paid off as all but one client for the big case has called me back. I finished my first draft of the brief, but I need to add another argument and wait for the rest of my evidence to arrive, so that's kind of important. I spent a lot of time peeking at my phone and itching for the day to get over and avoiding cranky coworkers (which makes me feel bad), but in the end I got a lot done. Big Brother has been super nice to me this week, laughing and joking and even coming to talk to me in my office instead of summoning me to his, and he keeps sending emails saying "good job!" or "great work!" when I get things done for him, and one time he even called me to his office just so I could listen to him thinking out loud. Dude. I think he thinks I'm one of his "friends" in the office, as friendly as we're allowed to be. I just need to be grateful I have a job at all and do the best I can. Sometimes it's hard when I'm so tired at the end of the day, and I'm fretting about bills (I've never had to do that before, and it's freaking me out, and wow, I've really had it easy up to this point, haven't I?), but I have a job when a lot of people don't, and I'm living comfortably, so that's all that matters. Although Cody and I worked it out, and I'm making $12 an hour, working fifty hours a week.

Yeah.

That's as much as Cody makes at the glass shop, although I went through three years of law school, the bar, and a crazy amount of debt to earn the privilege of taking home that kind of pay.

I keep telling the new little law students, unless you really, really want to be a lawyer, pick a different profession, because these days it seems this one is less and less worth it.

But this week was a good week. Why? Because Angela was in town. I'd forgotten she was coming till she sent a random text message, but she showed up on Tuesday night after training, and we went for post-training Burger King like old times, and she crashed at my place. On Wednesday night I was supposed to go to Brielyn's farewell, but I ended up helping Angela get her car fixed (for the price of new parts and a case of beer), and then we went out to dinner with her friends and met some random friends of friends while we were out. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings, which does not exist in Utah and Angela's friends (originally from Omaha, but now in Utah) missed it dearly. I got to see Angela's friend's baby boy, and we had good conversation. I've realized, for all I'm an introvert and hate networking, for the most part I'm pretty darn good at plunging into an unknown social situation and making the best of it, at least when we can be casual and no one feels the need to impress or intimidate (as happens at networking functions). It was good times, and I ate way too much, but we had fun conversations. In the parking lot, Angela suggested we set her friend Breezy up on a date with Sensei Raymond. So we did it. I exchanged a flurry of text messages with him, and after some initial misunderstandings, got it all set up. When Angela and I got back to my place, we giggled about it like teenage girls. I never realized setting people up on blind dates could be fun.

Wednesday had a down moment or two, too. Cody sent me a cryptic text message earlier in the day about his internship, saying there was a sudden twist. Wednesday was the last day of his internship, and I wondered if something very terrible had happened in the lab. As it turned out, after the bosses said farewell to the interns, they kept Cody behind and asked him to stay on through mid-October.

Yeah.

Mid-October. I know, right? I was hurt. It was irrational and stupid, but it felt like February and March all over again, when I found out he wouldn't be coming to Omaha over the summer, and it was like he was choosing school over me. I was pretty mad, but he at least asked me what I thought, and I know if I'd told him to forget it and move here, he would have. My mom was obviously upset at the news, to the extent she had dad call me and try to talk to me about relationships, and I informed him Cody had actually asked me before he made the decision to stay, and he hadn't done so unilaterally. If he'd gotten on the ball sooner, this time like the time back in February, he probably would have something in the way of decent employment or an internship here, but we made his choices, and we have to deal with the consequences. I was super mad about it all day Thursday, but by the end of the day I realized we're both afraid, and we've made it this long - a little longer won't kill us. Besides, these people he's working for seem to really like him, and they will give him a good recommendation for grad school, which is a while away but will be very beneficial in the future for the good of the both of us, so I reckon the sacrifice is worth it.

On Thursday I stayed super late at the office to make phone calls (and naturally none of my clients called me back), and afterward I went to the church to clean. Only I got there early, so I hung out in the parking lot practicing with my staff. Honestly, I need to practice combat techniques a lot for testing, because I never feel good about those, but in November, assuming I pass my August test, I will need a staff form, and I want it to be awesome. Also, even though I love fighting with a sword, a staff was my first weapon, back when I was a scruffy tomboy sparring with Justin, Bryan, and Russell in the back yard, and I sort of love the sensation of wielding one. We got the church cleaned in pretty good time, and I got to say goodbye to Brielyn, and then I came home and talked to Angela a bit. I'd spent the day reminding Sensei not to welch on his blind date, and then Angela and I were super anxious about how it was going. We thought it would be safe if they met at the pub across the street from my flat, so afterwards Breezy could walk back and Angela could take her home. But a couple of hours into the blind date I got a message from Sensei who said he and Breezy were going into CB for Shenanigans (the name of a bar, incidentally, but at first I was very concerned due to his tendency to disregard grammar rules about capitalizing proper nouns) and he'd let us know when she needed a ride home. I fell asleep, ready to wake at the first alert of a text message...and woke up Friday morning to a horrific storm.

And no sign of Breezy. Poor Angela had stayed awake all night waiting to hear, and nothing. We figured either Sensei took Breezy home himself or they had waaaaay too much fun. When I asked Breezy how it went later that day, she said "good". When I asked Sensei how it went, he said "really good". So...Angela has good instincts about setting people up. Angela and I have often talked about how Sensei deserves a nice girl, and we finally made good on our plans to set him up. The situation was pretty hilarious.

Friday was long, and kinda slow, and there was likely more social chatting than necessary, but there you go. Afterward I went visiting teaching, briefly, and then came home. Angela and I ordered pizza and watched Stargate, like old times.

Saturday was awesome. Angela and I woke up and went to Tomie's for training. We worked on staff stuff, and the more he shows me, the more I really, really enjoy fighting with a staff. I like it lots. It's nostalgia and new ninja awesomeness all in one. He showed me some stuff I can use for a form, which I need to buckle down and choreograph some more, and I am excited for November. We're thinking we'll put red tape on the ends to make it flashy, and he'll drill holes in the ends too to make it whistle. After the others left, Angela and I stuck around because Amber was calling on Skype from Scotland. We got a virtual tour of her flat, and then, over Skype, we all played a board game together (Amber won, even from far away). After she disconnected, we spent hours playing more games, while Tomie's wife Jan made us eggs and pancakes and bacon, which was all super tasty. Tomie took off to the Lair for D&D, and Angela and I ran some errands, and then we went back to my place, cooked, and binged on Stargate. I was super sad to see Jonas go (I was glad he didn't die) but I was also super glad to get my Daniel Jackson back and unharmed. (I saw the guy who played Martouf on an episode of White Collar a while back, and it made me smile.) I want to see more of Jack O'Neill junior, but Angela says it doesn't happen. (Surely there is webfic on the issue, y/y?)

And then I stayed up for almost two hours talking to Cody. We have fixed a wedding date (bonfire night, this year, we're thinking - less chance of him, say, forgetting our anniversary; a little V for Vendetta goes a long way), and muddled through things like planning. We're going to buckle down and make this work. It's going to be hard, especially since we're working on a really compressed timeframe, but I am super excited. It occurs to me, just now, I'd better make sure Dad is back in the country for said wedding. Hmmmm. This could be problematic. But I'd rather be married sooner than later. And just because we're not officially engaged doesn't mean we can't start planning now. Cody's mom is sick, and he's worried about her, but it's nothing life-threatening, so we're glad.

Man. Life is about to get crazy. I can't wait.