I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit that I'm not looking forward to Cathy's birthday to-do.
You see, I called Nicole up, and found out that the plan is to go and play pool. I might have mentioned that I am not a big fan of playing any sort of competitive games. They're a sure-fire way to get my adrenaline going, and I'm a sore loser. Many ugly scenes have happened over competitive games. Playing Monopoly with Katie when we were younger was one of the few things I could handle, and that was because we didn't take it seriously at all. In fact, we used to fill up the board with her mother's little figurines, after we ran out of the little hotels and stuff that the board game provided. We didn't have a very firm grasp of the rules either.
So, I'm probably going to stand on the sidelines and watch, unless I can convince my competitive streak that I am not, in fact trying to win. Instead, I will tell myself that I am trying to make the game as humorous as possible. Because I know I'm going to suck at it. I've only played pool a couple times in my life, and I embarrassed myself each time.
And I made Dirk cry because of this whole "girl's night out" deal. You know why it's "girls only"? Because none of them have boyfriends and Jerri (one of Nicole's friends) made a big issue out of me bringing Dirk along. She's jealous. They all are, really.
Before you chalk me up as one of those conceited bitches on the sitcoms that you want to punch, let me explain: Cathy has actually admitted to this jealousy, as has Nicole. They deal with it, in whatever way good people put jealousy aside. I'm the youngest out of our group of three, and I'm the one who's done the most stuff. I don't have the tethers of religion and parental love and guidance holding me back. I'm also a hell of a lot more stubborn about getting my own way.
And whenever I hang out with them, Jerri seems to feel a need to point out every semi-attractive guy. When I point out the fact that he looks like a gorrilla/has the worst acne scars I've ever seen on a living human being/has stood there picking his nose in public for the past fifteen minutes and seems to be making a sculpture with the "treasure" he finds, Jerri gets snotty. "Well, you're just being picky because you've got a man," she informs me tartly.
Then she starts going out of her way to aggravate me. I assume she does this because I have reminded her, yet again, that a quiet, unfriendly girl who wears jeans and tennis shoes all the time can get a boyfriend when she, an overperky, overdressed bimbo, cannot. I'm being bitchy. I need to calm down. Otherwise I'm going to be at Cathy's birthday outing with a bad attitude, and I don't want to ruin the evening.
But I made Dirk cry. See, all summer long, I refused to go go-cart racing with him. I'm sorry, it's just not the sort of thing that appeals to me. When he found out that I was going to be playing pool with "the girls", he got mock-angry with me. In response, I yelled at him. He got upset, and started crying, because I honestly don't yell at him very often. (And no, this is not an insight into his submissive nature, people. I cry when he yells at me, too. And if you tell me guys aren't supposed to cry, you need a few lessons in reality.)
So, I felt bad. Granted, I'd had an awful day, thanks to Alex taking the day off. And granted, Dirk had already put me on the defensive as soon as I got to his house. He pointed out that I am chronically a half-hour late these days. But that was no reason to shout at my little Dirk-doo. (It's alright to gag. I won't think less of you.)
Neither of us had any money last night, so we didn't do anything. Dirk's bank screwed him over, yet again. This time, they told him for the past week that he had $126 in his account. So, today, he withdrew $50. Now, his account summary is saying that he has -$53 in his account. Fucking bastards. Dirk needs a new account, pronto.
My payroll office has screwed me over, too. They still have not paid me the money they owe me from their screw-up. It's been a long fucking time now. I'm really angry at this point. This is a government agency, not some private business. They are supposed to be more efficient than the private sector. If they don't cut me a check, instead of this fucking bullshit about depositing it directly into my account, I'm just going to burn this building down.
Which brings me to a little section I'd like to call Stress Management Skills. I got utterly bored yesterday, so I decided to amuse myself by attracting roaches to Alex's desk. We've got roaches in my office, and I think they'd feel more at home at Alex's desk. So, I got a couple of chocolates and loosely placed them in a tissue. I then hid these little treasures in hard-to-reach places in Alex's cubicle. Under his desk, for example, behind the paper recycling box. And above the light on his cabinet. It has an overhang in the back.
I like to think that Alex, should he learn of my efforts on his behalf, would thank me.
I'm feeling petty today.
I just got to play guidance counselor to a woman who, in broken english, explained that she'd had a dispute with her immediate supervisor. When the problem was brought to the store manager, the manager told this woman outright that she wasn't going to listen to anything she had to say, and if there were any complaints about her in the future, the woman was going to be fired. Her exact words were, "This is...this is making me sick, you know? I don't even want to go to work anymore, you know? But I need this job..."
I felt so bad. I did my best to help her. But I'm not trained for this. The other agencies she called should have helped her, not referred her to the personnel department of my agency. Money should be spent on this sort of thing, not military garbage.
On the diet/exercise front: I actually walked up three flights of stairs, and down five flights. This is a huge change from my usual sedentary existence. I don't do stairs. As a reward, I bought myself a pack of sugar-free gum. Of course, the sugar-free gum has saccharin, which theoretically will give me cancer.
That's if my smoking doesn't do me in first, right?
I need to be mad processing training forms right now, so more later.