Rest and Recovery

So, late last week I found myself "under the weather".  Actually, I think that is a bit of an understatement.  I was sick, y'all.  As in, I was seriously contemplating going to the emergency room, which is something that, those of you who know me well, know that I just don't do.  It wasn't the "I ate something bad" kinda sick - it was the kind where every breath burned and made me cough, and I just couldn't get enough air to breath no matter what I tried.

I did something else I never do - I canceled an event that I was supposed to DJ.  That event was Naked Night at Exile.  To be fair, Lioness had sent out a notice earlier saying she was also ill, and I logged in briefly to ask if a host replacement had been found.  I didn't want to cancel if one had. But, after hearing that no one had stepped up, and after the encouragement of Master for me to take the night off, I decided to do just that.  Master forwarded some cash to my Paypal so that I could go and get the meds I needed, because I was between paydays, and with my nasty-tasting liquid salvation in hand, and under a warm, fluffy blanket, I curled up on the couch and watched some shows with Master - a new series he found called "Recruits", about getting onto the police force in New South Wales, Australia.  Let me just state, for the official record, that I could not do it.  Wow.   We've been continuing to watch it after I get off of work in the early morning hours (USA time), before bed.

To everyone who sent me warm fuzzy best wishes, thank you so much.  :)  They helped, if by just making me smile to know that you guys care so much!   To those of you who wanted to slam me for canceling Naked Saturday ... meh.  :)  I've got better things to worry about than your opinions - like, my health for example!

I am feeling better now though - still not 100%, but I am getting there! And I am looking forward to seeing you all again at my DJ shifts on Friday and Saturday this week.  I missed DJing for you, and just seeing you all in general!

~R

Hmph!

My all-day sucker lied.

It only lasted half a day.

Playing Catch Up ... Again.

So .. I haven't been in-world for 3 days now.  Something I plan to rectify later.  With the drama of Saturday, I just haven't felt the need or want to be there.  I know I should be, but meh.  Nothing like drama to spoil one's desire to do something.  Plus, I haven't been feeling the best in the world. No, I'm not ill, per se, but a bit of depression has set in.  Holiday stuff.  The holidays are still hard for me.  Daddy has been gone since 2007, but it was just before Thanksgiving, and I still miss seeing him at the holidays a lot.

And, I am really fortunate to have a Master who understands all of that!  He's been nothing but sweet and kind and supportive of me, which is something that means so much.  I doubt he even realizes how much it means, because it means that much to me!

Speaking of Master, we celebrated our two year partnering anniversary this week.  :)   We have two anniversaries - this one, and my collaring, which was in October.  There's just something about the sound of his voice when he wishes me a happy anniversary that makes me go gooey and stuff inside, and I get the hugest grin.  Something else to be thankful for, is that I have a Master who actually remembers important dates!  Hehe!

Apparently, Jynxx has had a Thanksgiving accident - she broke her foot!  I won't go into all of the sordid details here, but suffice it to say, only Jynxx! Ha! Darn those turkeys! ;)

At this point in my day, even though I just woke up a couple of hours ago, I am seriously contemplating taking the example set by my dogs and curling up for a nap.  I'm not sure if its a side effect of the holiday blues or what, but I constantly feel as though I am not getting enough sleep. Napping should be an Olympic sport, darn it!

On a side note ... I think my memory is going.  I had my Christmas list all ready, and I only wanted two things, so  I didn't bother to write it down.  I can only remember one of the two things!! LOL Help!! I think I remember telling Jynxx - Jynxx, if you remember, please remind me.  Tortilla press and .......???

I'm excited though, I found some amazing-looking recipes online to try out, and my friend Mary is going to send me some Finnish recipes to test out.  Should be a great time in the kitchen soon! BTW, Jynxx, I found most of my pan lids.  LOL

All of that said, I am going to end this post now, and make some coffee in lieu of a nap, or maybe I will do both.  Not at the same time of course.  That could be dangerous.


~R

Staff Meeting ... Oy.

Let me start out by saying that I adore my staff at Exile.  Most times.  OK, to explain that, I adore the majority of my staff ALL the time, but some people ... there are times that I just want to leap across the table and choke the living shit out of them for a brief moment in time.

Last night was just such a time.

We were having our monthly staff meeting for Exile.  The subject of hosting came up.  It was said in the staff meeting that "At some of the other clubs I work at, the owners stay up and cover shifts if no one can do it, even if it means that they are up at 4am like the owner of club so and so that lives in the UK."    I very politely explained (AGAIN) that Yannis lives in Australia and works until roughly 10pm my time, and that I work overnights and sleep during the day, so unfortunately, that isn't an option.  I also explained that, there was a time that I used to do that, a lot.  It really dragged me down, I was getting next to no sleep, and was barely functional.  Apparently said staff member, Frenzy, thought she was being "shot down" to use her own words, and was nothing but snarky for the rest of the meeting, despite being basically BEGGED by both owners and the GM for her input on things.  Then, another staff member, Ashley, asks if a comment I made (basically telling ALL staff, and I did say ALL staff, that if they don't offer input and opinions, that they don't get to bitch and complain about things later) - asking if my comment referred to Frenzy's blog.  I replied, several times, no, my comment had nothing to do with her blog - Frenzy had actually brought the bloody thing up by saying something like, "I reserve the right to state my opinion whenever I want" or something along those lines.

So then her blog today gets brought to my attention.   After saying REPEATEDLY that I was not talking about her blog, she posts that I "barked about her blog".   WTF?!  Really?  First of all, what part of "I was not talking about your blog" don't you understand, and secondly, see first question!

Let me explain something to you, darling.  I don't give two shits about your little blog.  Its full of emo drama and sadness most of the time that I don't have time to read.  You have never shown me the remotest hand of friendship, so why would I be interested in any of that?  The ONLY reason I even look at it, is if someone tells me that you are badmouthing Exile.  In the immortal words of Sweet Brown - "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

And I have something of my own to ponder.   Here I was last night, a 44 year old woman, sitting on my couch, crying because I was so upset over the snarking at the staff meeting.   As I have said before, Exile was started with the intent to keep the family together, and to make that family larger, and more inclusive.  I have constantly felt stabbed in the back by people who are supposed to be friends, supposed to be close, supposed to be working towards the same goal that I thought we were all working towards.  People that I trusted.  I have given up countless hours of my time, and my Master's time, to try to make sure that people have a place to get together and hang out with friends and other like-minded people.  I have spent my own money on this venture - not funny linden money - REAL money, to make sure it stays open and has cool stuff.  What do I get in return?  Snarkiness and back-stabbing and tears and accusations of things that aren't even remotely truthful.

Is it worth it?


~R

What a Week!!!

Yes, I know, its been a week since I posted last!  But I have a really good reason.  The reason is that, Jynxx was here visiting me in RL!!   Oh, the things we did ... the places we saw ...

OK, not really on the things and places.  We just really sort of hung out most of the time, but it was a complete blast, and this visit was about 10 years in the making.  So of course, we had a lot of fun.

This is a map. (Duh!)  Jynxx lives way down in the green state, and I am that little pink state in the middle. The purple line is how Jynxx got here.  She had to go up to Atlanta, and then over and down to Houston, before she got to me. Then on the way home, it was the blue line.  She had to leave me, and go to Chicago, and then to Pittsburgh, before she got home! My poor Mommasan spent hours and hours on a plane, twice, just for me.  Did I mention, she doesn't like flying?

But, back to the fun part.  She got in on Monday night, about 10:30pm.  Upon arrival, she told us that her cane had been stolen by some woman in Houston, as we were walking to claim her luggage.  Really? How are you gonna steal someone's cane??   Then we get to baggage claim .... and her baggage is nowhere to be found.  Apparently, it decided it wanted to stay in Texas for a while longer.   So with the promise that they would deliver it to my house the next day, we set off for home, which is about an hour away from the airport.  It was really dark, and she didn't get to see any of the landscape at all, but she seemed fine with that, heh.  (Seen one cow, you seen em all, right?)   We got home without incident, and she went to bed not long after, because she was a tired Mommasan, and I went to work.   

I was hoping that she would get some good sleep, because my dog, Achilles, was making a lot of noise.  For some reason, starting about 3 weeks ago now, he gets anxious when people come to the house - almost like having a doggie panic attack.  And he whines and makes a lot of noise.   Apparently, he settled down for the night as soon as I left - in her bed no less, with Loki, my other dog.  They all three cuddled up and went to sleep.  When I got home, I went to bed.  

When Jynxx got up on Tuesday, she was bored.  So, she decided to go to the store down the street, grab a few things, and then she came home and cleaned and re-arranged my kitchen cabinets!! (Momma?? I can't find the lids for the pans still!! LOL)  We all loaded up into the car and went to Luigi's for dinner - yum!  I finally got to introduce her to Sophia - I've only been telling Jynxx about Luigi's for years now.  Best Italian food ever.  Vito either wasn't around or didn't come out of the kitchen, so I didn't get to introduce them.  Maybe next time!  We also hit Goodwill to see what treasures they had there, and I scored two more blue glass vases! (I adore blue glass.)  When we got home, her laptop got fixed, and then we hung out, and later, she went to bed and I went to work.

Wednesday, I got up, and she had made a meatloaf for dinner!! YUM!  It was really tasty, and I totally want the recipe.  There was more hanging out, and we talked to Master on Skype, and just general goofiness was going on.   We also went to Hobby Lobby, which is MUCH better than Michael's.  I grabbed some yarn for a baby blanket that I am making for my daughter's girlfriend's sister, and she grabbed a matching set of little vase things for us, and materials to make a Mardi Gras mask, complete with feathers, and a few other things.  Wednesday night, she went to work with me, and threw some newspapers around, and we listened to my Harry Potter audio book in the car.  Heh.  She ended up falling asleep towards the end, and I have a picture, but she has said I am not allowed to show that picture to anyone, so I won't post it here.  Got home, and she staggered off to bed.  I stayed up a while and chatted with Master on Skype, and then I went to bed also.

Thursday, we got up and went to Monterey's for dinner ... Mmmm, Mexican food!  We had to rush home afterwards, because it was gaming night for Darkain, and the guys were supposed to be here around 6pm.  Only one gamer showed up tonight though, because the rest had tests coming up and needed to do some hard-core studying.  So they were in the other room playing Magic, and we stayed in the living room with Achilles, who was having another doggie panic attack, and did some crocheting and chit chatted with Master on Skype.  Oh, and Darkain introduced Jynxx to WoW. She has a Pandarian Rogue to play around with now, heh!  We all ran thru the panda starting area together.  He made a shaman, and I have a hunter.  Then came work again, so she went to bed and took the dogs with her, and off I went to deliver the news.

Friday I got up to a full on Thanksgiving dinner!! Yep, turkey, stuffing, veggies, and even a cake for dessert!  OMG I was sooooo full.  And yes, there are left-overs.  But that wasn't the only thing I woke up to! Ha!  She had decided to re-arrange my living room for me, and it looks great!  Also, Friday morning after I had gotten home from work, we had decided that it was time to move Exile to the new build.  So, I walked in, microwaved some mac and cheese, and we got on with the task at hand!  It was me, Master, Jynxx, and Satre, and then Shanique and Eldric showed up as well to offer support and guidance.  Eldric dropped another Dutchie chair for us (I love those things!) and we all chatted a while after it was moved.  At 7pm slt, I had my 80's Flashback set at Exile - the first event in the new build!  We were celebrating Shanique's birthday during my set, and she had put some lindens on the board for a contest.  Then at 9pm slt, Master had his "Aussie Style" set.   It was a lot of fun, and it was great being in the new place finally!  I will say, its definitely not a "depressing black box" anymore!

Saturday, I got up and made chicken tortilla soup for everyone.  It was the second time I've made it, and I have to say, I think I love it more than the first time.  Jynxx really liked it too.  (Remember Momma, the recipe is on Ree's website!)  Then, came Naked Saturday at Exile.  There was 2500L on the board, and we had a lot of fun! It was Manda's birthday and so Perse had set up a birthday display for her in the corner of the dance floor, and we all yelled "Surprise!!" when she came in. TJ also came on board as a new dancer - he's really good!

Then, got home from work today, and had to take Momma back to the airport to go home.  Sad Panda!!  Came home, talked to Master for while, as he played Uno with Lioness at Exile, and then I took my ass to bed! 

Now, I just have to find those lids....

~R

TGIF!

Fridays are always fun, everyone thinks so.  I really enjoyed mine this week!

After getting up, I hung out on WoW for a bit until Master woke up, and then we listened to the news together from AU, over Skype.  Then, it was time for me to DJ my weekly 80's set at Exile. The usual suspects were there, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Fitch and Frenzy come in towards the end of my set!   Master was hanging out for a bit down at the new build, but he was camming up to vote and tip the staff, which had us all chuckling.  After my set was over, I had ranked on the SHX Top 40! YAY!

Then came Master's "Aussie Style" set, and he rocked the house!  Fitch and Frenzy ended up leaving to go and see the new build about halfway through.  Rosie came in, too, and hopped up on a pole with Shanique, double the dancer fun there!  Then we were all introduced to the Melbourne Cup via Master and Rosie, which was fun.  And at the end of Master's set, he also made the SHX Top 40 - and kicked me off in the process! Ha!

Work in RL was pretty dull and uneventful, but when I got home, Master was waiting at Exile, and we cuddled up in the awesome Master's chair that Sir Eldric dropped there for us.  I love that chair, honestly.  Shanique was there for a while chatting, but left to go shopping about an hour after I got home.

After about another hour, I was feeling very cuddled and loved and drowsy, so I went on to bed.  I think Master stayed on for a while longer - not sure, because I was asleep, dreaming happy naughty dreams about being with him! *Grin*

And thus, was my Friday!

Hey Jynxx!! 2 days!! Woot!!

~R

Early Morning Building - A Graphic Novella