Hello, friends! What’s good in your lives? Or good in general?
After about an 8 week hiatus, I’m trying to get back into a strength training schedule (at home, not in an actual gym). 2 of 4 workouts done this week. I know in a few weeks I’ll start feeling the benefits of this, but right now I am like I am ooooollllddd and faaaattttt and everything is sore.
Another good thing – the Christmas gifts I mailed 12/5 are finally within 150 miles (~240 km) of the recipients. Still not in the same state, but getting closer!
I’ve never been one to have a lot of friends (I define “friend” as someone who actually knows you on more than a surface, social level and vice versa), but the few that I do have are close, supportive and I would lie down in traffic for them.
We got bonuses early (and at all) at work this year. Company is doing pretty ok thru covid, and my department is actually getting new business so I’m stupid busy, when I’m not trying to use all my PTO before the end of the year. Grateful for that.
I got most of my clinical hours signed off on today and the rest will be signed off on Monday! One step closer to getting licensed.
I received a random package and it turned out to be some chocolates and cookies from my job. It was a nice little surprise. I guess it’s their way of making up for the lack of Christmas party this year.
I was able to swing getting all my clients some small gifts. Five Below comes through on inexpensive but fun gifts. I’ll be dropping them all off on Monday. It’s going to be nice to see them in person even if it’s from a far distance and only for a couple minutes.
The gifts I sent to my nephews arrived. I only know because I got delivery notifications, not because anyone said thank you so I guess it’s only 1/2 a good thing.
I got to have beers w/ 2 of my best friends today, 1 that was fighting cancer for last few years & now seems to be out of the woods!
my youngest just got a $23,000 per year scholarship to an amazing college that I would love for her to attend.
we got selected to give Covid shots to our areas medical workers in the next round that aren’t covered by their workplace. Not a big money maker but great for our community.
Yay scholarship!!!!!
The only reason I wasn’t completely fucked in my 20s was that I had a mix of scholarships and Pell grant funds sufficient to cover most of college.
Congrats to youngest on her scholarship!
congrats!
although, being an old, I’m not entirely sure what $23K gets you nowadays, but I imagine it’s still quite a boon.
Similar to @brightersideoflife, I was lucky enough to get some grants, so that my student loan payments were just merely exhausting, and not suffocating or soul-crushing…
Yeah, she just got home & showed me all the costs & still not enough to make it a great deal but puts them in the can possibly do category. Crazy how expensive education is in this country.
That’s all really good stuff!
Best day I have had in awhile.
Suffice it to say I had a good day.
my direct boss actually stood up for me
sent out a company wide email that im stuck in packaging having to lift heavier loads than are legally allowed here every day and that this shit needs to be fixed before they break me
almost brought a tear to me eye that did
now i figure….at management speed… something will change about 35 years from now… sooner if i do actually break myself and go on long term sick leave on their dime (i love having a lifers contract) but hey
its the thought that counts 🙂
fwiw tho…i dont mind being stuck on packaging for the time being…still getting paid to be a tech
and asides from the lifting this is a pretty easy jobby… also doing the final quality check is surprisingly entertaining to me as every machine has a lable that includes which tech built it…. i kinda enjoy walking up to them and asking them if they can figure out what they fucked up
My new job seems to be working out fairly well.
A few years ago, I was in a really bad place, my previous job had gone to shit, and was just consuming all my time and energy, despite only being part time. New people doing the same stuff as me were getting paid something like 1.5x what I was. Plus I was the unofficial “emergency person” – if something unexpected happened that needed handling, it fell to me, regardless of what other plans I may have had. The past 2-3 years at that job pretty much killed my meager social life, as I couldn’t plan anything in advance, and almost always had to cancel plans with no notice.
So, having lost all of my soft benefits, hating a job I used to really like, and feeling resentful about training people making significantly more than me, I asked my supervisor if I could get a raise, or perhaps a reclassification. That did not go well. I tried to stick it out a bit longer, but just couldn’t, so eventually I turned in my two-weeks notice. To top things off, I was stiffed on the last week of work I did, despite making a good-faith effort to complete everything asked of me and ease any transitional difficulties.
Was unemployed for a year, completely exhausted the retirement funds I was surviving on, and was maybe a month away from homelessness when I got my current job offer, and started working there almost a year ago. So, that was incredibly lucky. Plus, when COVID hit, they were able to find ways for us to “work-from-home” for a couple months, until we returned to work (it was pretty spread out/safe), so I’m doubly lucky not just to get a job, but one that survived COVID without much hardship. So far most of the people seem cool, supervisor seems pretty decent, and I also got trained on a forklift, so that’s kinda cool. There is a bit of a physical aspect to the job, and I get to move enough heavy things around often enough that I frequently have an achy/sore muscle group or two, plus it’s conveniently located for me to do a bicycle commute (only partial for now, but someday…), so I’m getting some much needed activity after nearly a decade of minimal/no activity.
Wife, who works at a hospital, got her COVID vaccination on Wednesday.
Unless things change drastically, my guess of being back in-person (probably some sort of hybrid again), at the school around mid-January appears accurate😃
Our state’s governor announced that he’s allowing elementary schoolers to be back in-person again after MLK day–in other words, two weeks after “winter break”😉…
Basically what I expected, when many districts (my workplace included!), went OUT to remote-only back at Thanksgiving… that we’d be out until a couple weeks past the normal holiday break end, so that folks who got exposed by traveling would have a full two weeks to get the virus or be ok.
We’re gonna have to wear extra PPE–apparently ALL staff will need to wear face shields in addition to our masks… not quite sure what else it’ll be yet…
But I’m glad we get to have our kiddos in-person again soon… even if it will most likely be one day a week per kiddo…
Because there are just some things we really CAN’T work on with Pre-K’ers, if we’re not live with them–social skills aren’t easy to work on–ESPECIALLY when your kiddos think they’re watching TV, rather than interacting with an actual person😉