Still alive

[oselle]

Thank you for responding to my food-poisoning hysteria yesterday. It has now been 24 hours since I consumed my potentially toxic meal and I think that if I do not feel sick yet, I'm probably okay.



The good news is that, with the thermostat turned all the way up, the freezer can hold a temp of between 0 and 10 degrees. So any food that I thought could survive the freezing process, I stuck in there.

The bad news is that the fridge is down for the count, only going as low as 50 degrees which is really too warm for most food storage. So stuff like eggs, butter, creamy salad dressing and mayonnaise all had to go in the trash. Luckily I'm a lazy grocery shopper so there wasn't really all that much in there. Right now I've only got a bottle of Pepsi, water, peanut butter, jelly, and a package of pecans in there. They'll be fine at 50 degrees.

I've got a guy coming on Saturday to fix it. He said that if the freezer's still working it's probably just a clogged drain line, which is pretty easy to fix. Hopefully he won't have to replace the air blower. I called a few places and he was the only guy who seemed to know what he was talking about and who didn't sound like a con artist who was going to charge me 300 bucks to fix an eleven-year-old piece-of-shit appliance. He was also the only repairman who didn't have even one negative review online. He's from Brooklyn and he works out of his house. I think either his wife or his mother answered the phone. "It's fah you, Pete!" It was kind of adorable. I didn't think guys like that existed anymore. God bless the internet for making it so easy to find the last old-school neighborhood repairman in the entire city.

In other news, I saw a beautiful man on the subway this morning. I am not joking, he was Jensen-pretty. This is noteworthy because the morning rush hour is almost exclusively composed of morlocks like me. The professionally pretty usually don't start emerging for their casting calls and rehearsals until late morning. I have found that 11:00 AM is prime sighting-time for models and actors, yet here it was 9:00 am and there he was. I actually noticed his hand and arm first. I was standing there in my usual subway-coma and then on the pole I see this beautiful hand and beautiful arm. I thought, I gotta see what this is attached to. And seriously -- Jensen-pretty. At 9:00 AM on the Manhattan-bound M train. It was like seeing a frigging unicorn or elf or Martian. I immediately averted my eyes, not because I thought he'd notice but because I didn't want anyone else noticing my noticing. I knew HE wouldn't notice -- women like me are literally invisible to men like that. But I don't know, I'm self-conscious. I just didn't want anyone else seeing me looking at him and thinking, Yeah, sister, WAY outta YOUR league. Like I don't know that. Anyway, he got off at 53rd Street and vanished and that was that.

In more other news, it was a horrible day at work. Someone I work with got promoted. She totally deserved the promotion in every way and I don't begrudge her for it. But she's been there for FOUR YEARS and she got bumped up to Director and I've been there for ELEVEN YEARS and only got one bullshit title change that doesn't even mean anything. I am so angry and humiliated. Way to make it obvious that no one values my work. Everyone was giving me weird looks all day because it's so obvious that I just got shit on. I went out and had a two-margarita lunch and then left at 4:45 with a pile of untouched work on my desk. Fuck me? Fuck you. My boss chose to "work from home" today even though it's the last week of issue closing and we're totally swamped -- I know she did it because she's a fucking coward and didn't want to have to see my face today after that memo went out. I'm sure she figures I'll have cooled off by tomorrow. We'll just fucking see about that.

Comments

[morganslady.livejournal.com]

Keep Mr. Pretty in your head:) Sorry about work being so sucky..

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[caoil.livejournal.com]

That's rubbish about your work.

Don't feel bad about looking at pretty people. Remember, men stare all the time, and not always at faces. You sneaking a look or two is nothing in comparison.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I know, and they do it so shamelessly. They don't just "sneak a look," they STARE, not infrequently with their tongues practically hanging out of their heads.

[kinkthatwinked.livejournal.com]

Happy to hear about the averted food poisoning, and the classic 'old school' plumber.

You know the same women who might silently mock you for staring at the Adonises know damned well they wouldn't have a chance with those guys either. And the men who scoff probably wish they could get someone to gawk at them like that. So screw 'em. God decided you deserved some live and in person Jensen-pretty today. Enjoy!

Since I really don't know you or your situation that well, feel free to take the following with a grain of salt: your boss is a wuss. If she made a good call with the director, she could have at least had the guts to stand by it when the news broke. She also could have taken you aside before the memo went out and had a frank talk about why your coworker was promoted over you. But, hey, what do I know about leadership or keeping up morale in the workplace?

Keep your head up.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I should clarify that my co-worker was not promoted over me. We were both marketing managers, she on the digital side and me on the print side. She and I have different bosses. The point is that her boss clearly values her team member enough to push for a promotion, whereas my boss adores the status quo and would never, ever stick her neck out for me, even though the neck-sticking in a case like this would have been little more than a minor inconvenience for her. She cannot have a "frank talk" with me about this because she knows that she's crapped on me but she's too fucking complacent about her own position to do anything about it. I know that if I bring this up, she'll sit there with her classic -- and infuriating -- "where is this coming from?" look on her face, the one she always trucks out whenever any little inconvenience drifts into her whole smooth-sailing existence, which she only manages to maintain by being utterly and permanently unsympathetic to every human being around her.

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

There are a large number of fanfics that start just like your subway story. /sigh/ If only our lives were fanfics.

Sorry about the job bullshit. I've pretty much had a major hate on for that place you work since I've known you.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

It wasn't such a bad job once upon a time but the past couple of years have just been abysmal. What makes it worse is that I know they don't feel like they have to do anything for me because I've been there so long that by now I'll never be able to leave. I hate that this is true and I hate that they know it.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping the fridge will be an easy fix. God, I hate it when appliances go bad.

Your boss is a coward. What a shitty thing to do.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Yes, she is a coward. Funny thing is, for years I thought she was just "easygoing," but it's only in the past couple of years that I realized her hands-off management style is based on making things as easy for herself as possible, regardless of who that screws over.

[amber1960.livejournal.com]

An elf!! You saw a subway elf. How lucky was that? Surely the rest pales into insignificance after such a momentous occurrence...

[oselle.livejournal.com]

LOL, a subway elf!

[ramalama.livejournal.com]

Okay, first: bollocks. Unless some horrible, disfiguring accident has occurred since I last laid eyes on you, YOU, whether you like it or not, are rather attractive.

Second: word. When I was booted from the den of Satan--what, seven?--years ago, it was just after my 9-year anniversary. "Congrats and get out!" Ain't no gold watches no more.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Unless some horrible, disfiguring accident has occurred

I call it "middle age." I was a stripling of about 35 when you saw me last.

Ain't no gold watches no more.

Well, I decided I'd just use this latest offense as one more excuse to care even less. Today I came in at 10:00 and took a little nap at my desk in the afternoon. I do have to admit that it's been terribly amusing to watch my boss NOT MENTION IT AT ALL for nearly a week. And I know if I brought it up, she'd give me her classic, "Why, whatever are you talking about?" face. LOL, so predictable.