...should be dragged into the street and beaten like a rabid yard dog.

I had every intention of joining ATR... and then life reared its ugly head and things got complicated.

My boss did his magical girl transformation into the world's largest GENITAL WART. I would've said "dick" but those actually have a purpose. Genital warts are just nasty and unwanted.

I'll spare you all of the boring details, but just bear in mind that I had been working at this company in LR for 3 years. I was offered a local job with comprable pay with an assurance of steady work. So I took it. It was great. I was thinking that I could get my son back into local schools. No more commute. No more hectic mornings. It looked awesome.

Over the next six months my new boss proceeds to waffle back and forth between \"I-don't-give-a-damn-what-you-do-because-I'm-your-pal\" Guy and \"I'm-going-to-give-you-directionless-instructionless-projects-that-you-don't-have-the-time-to-do-and-then-patronize-insult-and-micromanage-your-position-into-the-ground-for-no-better-reason-than-I-can\" Guy. Yes, it was stressful and annoying... but it was steady pay and I NEEDED it to keep my house.

Then... after five and a half months... I get no warning, no heads up, no nothing. I cornered him to talk about how I'd been shorted on my pay. I explain the whole situation and he just brushes it aside like the previous five minutes of conversation had never happened. He looks at me and tells me "The thing about that is... We've been looking at other options." He doesn't tell me he's getting rid of me. He's just going on about how surprised he was at how reasonably priced CPAs were. I'm just sitting there looking at him and thinking "This has absolutely nothing to do with my paycheck..." After a few more tottering statements about the affordability of CPAs, it finally dawns on me. I confirmed my suspicions and asked him "When were you going to tell me? Where is my heads up?" No reaction... he just says, "This is your heads up."

...

The violent and malicious thoughts that ensued in the next few moments... I can't even begin to describe. I can just say that I'm glad it was at the end of the day and I'd already finished my stuff.

What an ASS! To sit there with this dead-pan emotionless expression on his face and not even have the BALLS to just come out and say that he was letting me go. To not even think so much about my needs as a person as to even pretend to be sympathetic... to not even think me important enough to warn me that I was about to lose my job... to have such total disregard for someone else. Yeah, I'm pretty cold. Yeah, I'm blunt to the point of being painful on occasion, but that's only to people I don't like and who have proven themselves to be untrustworthy.

I had just pulled this man's company out of an $80,000+ hole, completely self-taught myself how to work in my position, straightened out the mess the last lady left... and did it all in less than six months... and he behaves like this.

*~*~* But Wait! There's More! *~*~*

I work out a part time deal with one of my co-workers. She's cool. She agreed to sub-contract me to help her get/keep everything in the stock room organized and whatnot. I'd had my freak-out moment. I'd already gotten me a second job. I sat down and did math for a bit and figured that I could probably still keep my house with a couple of jobs. Tough, but still livable, right?

We made that deal less than a week after I discovered my boss' intentions. My boss waits until I have two and a half days left before I'm supposed to do the whole Part-Time change. Again he leads off with a totally unrelated request and performs a rather shaky segue into when my last day will be. I inform him when it is (even though it is clearly written in bright red ink on the calendar on the wall in front of his face not two feet away). Then he tells me, "We're gonna try and work it out without the part time." I'm a little confused. I'm thinking he's talking about keeping me in my current position... which was really odd. So I asked him about what payrate I'd be working under and he says "We're gonna try to do it without you working part time." Then it made sense. He'd already gone and told Sharon that he wasn't going to allow her to hire me (on her own, not for the company) to help her out.

Now it's fucking personal. The initial outsourcing could have been written off as econonics. So he couldn't afford to keep me... okay. It's a tough swallow (what with me being the one doing the books and all), but I'll buy it. It's at least an almost legitimate excuse. But when Sharon would be sub-contracting me... he wouldn't be paying me. She would. Economics was now no longer a factor. The only reason he could possibly have for not allowing her to spend her money how ever she saw fit, would be because he had some problem with me... personally.

Two and a half days to find another job. Two and a half days...

And, get this, both times... BOTH TIMES... all of the service techs and install guys knew before I did. He had mentioned this shit to the service techs and install guys... before he ever bothered to mention it to me. BOTH TIMES

I have... no more words. Just... no words.

So... if any of you know anybody in the Central Arkansas Area looking for part-time work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, let me know will you? I'm kinda in the market for a new job.

I've been stumped for the last week or so. I've been battling with whether or not to attempt the OCT - Artists at the Ready. I really want to join. It would be an awesome opportunity/excuse to draw lots and be spontaneous. It would also help settle me down into a style and reacquaint me with some of my OCs. I think it would be tons of fun... but I work so slowly.

I actually surprised myself last night. Usually it takes me a long time to draw and/or ink anything - much less a full body lineart. But, last night, I not only lined and inked a full body pic of my OC Doc, but I also managed to make some real progress on my ref sheet for Lanalia (and still got to bed on time... well... as "on time" as I ever am).

I've had a lot of personal things going on here recently in all areas of my life from my spirituality to my love life to my professional life. Nevermind the physical problems I've had (with my ongoing wrist problems being the worst)... Needless to say, it's made focusing on any one thing a rare occurence at best. I've had a couple of breakthroughs and bits of good news on all fronts here in the last couple of days. Honestly, I attribute those things to my renewed artistic zest yesterday (and, hopefully, today as well). May they keep coming! XD



On a totally unrelated note, and I will be gathering all our lady friends and having a "Girls Night" this weekend. This pleases me. I haven't had a stress-free evening in a while. *nods* Yup. I look forward to this weekend.

Until next time, don't do anything I wouldn't do without me. And, if you do, don't get caught.

~ciao~

~* :: UPDATE :: *~


Alrightey then... If you're not familiar with the ongoing story, skip to the bottom and read up. If you are familiar, read on.

Over the last few weeks, Nate has been absolutely stellar. He has fully woken and he is beginning some light physical therapy to retrain his brain on how to move his body where/how he wants. He is progressing as well as can be expected. They'll probably step up the PT gradually over the next few months. Hopefully he'll be walking again before the year's out. *crosses fingers*

He's really come from behind and there's no indication that he's giving up yet. To go from "I don't think he's going to make it..." to "He may still be able to lead a reasonably normal life..." in just a few weeks is simply amazing. The whole family is excited for him. We'll see how it goes.

~ciao~



It's looking pretty good for Nate so far. ^_^

The last word was that the doctors had taken him off of the paralytics and then had to actually slow down his body's response because he started coming out of it much faster than they had anticipated and they were worried he might hurt himself coming out of it that fast.

So, like I said, things are definitely looking up for him. I'll put up what I hear as I hear it.




The theory being tossed around right now is that it appears as though the step-grandmother had a heart attack while behind the wheel and the vehicle edged out in front of a log truck. She died instantly. And, what they're thinking happened to Nate is that the force of the crash sent one of the logs the truck was hauling through the vehicle and it hit him in the head. Now he was either ejected from the vehicle or had enough cognizant thought to get himself out of it after the crash. (The latter would be a bit of hope that he's not too bad off.)
That's the theory anyway.

They'd had him on paralytics for a while until they got his head straightened out. They took him off of those last night and he showed "Purposeful movement in all four limbs". This is a good sign. It means he's not braindead. We'll have to wait and see what he's like when/if he wakes up to assess whatever permanent damage, if any, was caused.

So... *crosses fingers*... here's to the next few days.





That's about all I could think to say last night. And it's still the only thing I can put to words today.

The story:
I was sitting at home last night crocheting (yes, I know that's what old people do... SUCK IT!) and watching Melissa play Lost Odyssey when I get a phone call. There are only two people who will usually call me after 9:00 pm and this wasn't either of them. So, I knew something was up the moment my phone started ringing. It was my step-dad.

The first words out of his mouth were, "Mom's gone down to Children's. She's headed out there with Cass and them. She took her ID badge to see if she could get some inside info..." There's only one reason Mom would snag her Arkansas Children's Hospital ID badge (she works there as a Respiratory Therapist) and head into work at 9:30 at night. My first thoughts were that something had happened to Conor or Vera, but my step-dad went on to explain that one of my younger cousins, Nate, had been in an accident.

Nate might be 9 or 10 years old. He was out with his step-grandmother (??? it's his step-dad's mother so I'm assuming that's step-grandmother) around Pine Bluff when their vehicle was hit by an 18-Wheeler. The grandmother didn't make it and they're not sure if Nate will survive either. The last that I heard this morning was that he's still very touch and go. I suppose the rest of him is about as good as can be expected, but their main concern is his head. They've put a shunt in his brain to relieve the pressure... but they're still not very confident that he's going to live.

Even now when I think about it, the only words that come are "That's a damn shame...". Of course there's anger that something so senseless happened. And there's worry and sadness at the thought that he might not survive. And there is the hope that the resiliency of youth will somehow be able to tip the tables back in his favor. But the only thing I can put to words is what a shame it is... such a damn shame.

No thanks, Ollie.

That must be what someone was thinking last Sunday. I was chilling in the house recouperating from our trip to the Buffalo River the previous day and my roommate, , heads out for a bit. She gets home later and tells me that there are puppies wandering around our yard. I look outside and, sure as shit, there are three scrawny puppies huddled at our front door.

Someone had driven out into the country and just dumped three female puppies. Why do people do that? They're so pathetic. (Not the puppies... the people who dump them.)

Anyway, the puppies are all starved for food and starved for attention. It's sad, but I can't afford to take them in and feed them and neither can Melissa. They got a little trial by ice yesterday when we busted out the water hose and gave all three of them a bath. We think we may have found homes for them, too, but we'll have to wait and see. If we can't find a place for them in about a week, we're gonna have to take them to the animal shelter or something.

They look like they might be Scottish Terrier/Rottweiler mix puppies. One is the spitting image of a Scottish Terrier and she's sweet as can be. One has Rottie markings, but lacks the thick head and is a nippy little thing. And the third one... I think she got the short end of the stick. XD She looks like a Scottish Terrier until you get about to her shoulders and then her body and coat turn into the dark, Rottie body and then her feet have little featherings and start looking more like Scottie feet. She thinks she's the biggest dog in the world and she runs the show. But, for all their Rottie appearance, they don't look like they'll get all that big... maybe medium-sized at best.

So, if you know someone in the Central Arkansas area looking for a cute little mutt to take in, let me know. We've got three.

That would be the name of my roommate's Chipom (1/2 Pomeranian, 1/2 Chihuahua) puppy. He's like a giant ball of fluff... well.... as giant as a ball of fluff might get. I suppose he's more like a growling dust bunny. XD Anyway, I brought him into work with me today and he's currently napping next to me on the floor.

I finally got around to drawing Wolfwang's other arm last night. It turned out okay. I'm not 100% pleased with it... but it's there and the lines are too dark to be changed now. I used my new scanner and cropped it and what not last night. So... now all I guess I'm waiting on is for me to pick up and/or borrow a flash drive so's I can get it up here to upload it. I figure I'll probably pick one up next week or so...? It just depends on how my budget looks after I make my first house payment.

Now I'm pondering what I should play with next. Like I said before, I'm feeling a writing mood coming on and I'm getting interested in my old TF fanfic. (Yes, TF. You heard me. I am not ashamed.) But I kinda want to draw more, too. I spent about fifteen minutes last night just doodling different eyes to see what different expressions I could make with just one eye... from different sides and different angles, etc... Meh. But I kinda wanna do something different. I want to branch out a little and get better at making/showing different textures just using coloring techniques as opposed to using actual textures.

Aaaaaaanyway... I need to get back to work. Maybe I'll figure something out later! ^_^

~* ciao *~