I saw recently that there was a kerfuffle over Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey movie, because he dared to cast Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Meantime over here the non-racists are like "Yes. She is definitely one of the most beautiful women in the world-I can see that." People are stupid. I probably wouldn't go to war for her, but I'd definitely inconvenience myself for her.

It's Wednesday, and the whirlwind of games begins tonight. Tonight's, I'm not playing in, but Jess is. I tend to minimize my weekday games as much as possible, because 5 am comes early. But then, the rest of my week is an orgy of work and games. Work tomorrow, then game at 7. Work Friday, then game at 7, work Saturday morning, then games at 2 and 7. Sunday, I at least am not dming, but game at 12. At least Sunday I can sleep in a bit!

Speaking of work, it was an interesting afternoon for me. About 4 weeks ago, before the dept head mentioned "another pay bump rather soon," I had put in for a tier 3 job (I'm currently tier 2) with either PT&Rehab or Concierge medicine. Yesterday, I got an invitation to interview. I was conflicted. I don't really want to leave Radiology, but since I don't know when the job might be posted, I didn't want to give up this opportunity.

So, I went back to A, the dept head who I've struck up a friendship with and laid it all out. I let her know I had the interview, but told her I'd rather stay in Radiology, if she's fairly confident with this pay bump.

First, she said she wanted to be careful what she said, then apparently she gave up on that. So, radiology has two approved tier 3 positions that will be going up soon. And then she out and out told me that these positions were created for me. So that she won't lose me.

She sent the jobs out to be listed right away, so I can put in for it as soon as it's up. She did suggest doing the interview, just for practice, so I'm going to do that.

But if I were to get it, it sounds like the head of Radiology might fistfight the other departments for me. A sent me a screen cap of the big boss' reaction to hearing that I had an interview, which was an all caps "What? No!"

So it sounds like one way or another, I'm getting a promotion soon.

After IKEA, where I applied regularly to various leadership and specialist positions only to be turned down with shitty reasons every time, I guess I kind of internalized the "you are not good enough." Mind you, since I left, the second tier manager I was under was fired for torpedoing internal candidates that she felt were "too valuable in their current role."

And here, I know I've taken on more stuff than I actually need to and made myself indispensable, but sometimes that translates to stagnancy.

But not here, apparently.

The pay band is up to like $33/hr on the one I'm currently interviewing for. I assume Radiology would be comparable, but sometimes, our pay bands are higher, so we'll see. It could get me up to $68k/year, which would be amazing. Like an extra $800/mo.

I'm 100% in uncharted territory now as far as pay. Every little bump I get is the most I've ever made. Right now, I'm making about $57k. Which is really good for someone with no degree. I'm pretty happy with that. But now it'll be more, and that's exciting.

I had a glass of wine last night to celebrate. It was very tasty. I will get a bottle of bubbly for when I get the contract on one of the jobs. I'm still a little aflutter.

The thought that there could be two or three depts fighting over me is a bit overwhelming. Like I said earlier, my personal choice would be radiology. I know the workflows, I know who people are, and while I don't know what the actual job is, I know some of it is what I'm already doing with the Cardiac slots. So, the reason we're currently hiring is that we're backfilling for someone who left recently and the two people who are about to be promoted. I don't know if they have someone else they're planning to give the other job, so I sent a message to my friend and let her know to keep an eye out and update her resume.

Today and tomorrow are going to be tough to sit through, knowing that I'll have an interview on Friday. It's unfortunately an in-person interview, but I think I've got my outfit planned. I'm looking at a nice green top, a black pinafore dress, some black tights and my cute flats. It'll contrast well with my purple/red hair, and look professional-but-quirky and hopefully memorable. I definitely want the bidding war for my services.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get a shower and get myself together. Everyone have an outstanding day.

It's Monday again, and I am girding my loins. With the snow last weekend, we were super quiet last week with plenty of cancellations. Today, the kids may go back to school for the first time since January 22. I mean, there's two weekends in there, so it's just a week, but still. I have doubts about them going back even now. There's some streets that are just not well plowed. But if the kids do go back, our lines are going to be very busy.

I think I'm going to have to take the antibiotics the doctor game me. I'm hesitating because I'm afraid of being allergic to them. I've never taken Doxycycline, but it makes me nervous. I'm allergic to Sulf to the tune of hives, but I'm allergic to cefaclor in a deadly way. I stand by the fact that I should have been hospitalized when I had the anaphylaxtic reaction, but my doctor thought he could manage it with steroids and antihistamines. I didn't die, which is a bonus, but every single night for weeks, I had serious reactions where I'd have trouble breathing. And my mom gamely gave me the inhaler, and benadryl. It was terrifying and I don't want to do it again.

And I don't have an epipen. I may send a message to my doctor and ask for one.

I was going to just butch it out, but I've had a 3 day headache, and my cough seems to picking up again. So, I'll consider it.

I spent a good chunk of the weekend napping. Saturday, I slept for a couple of hours, Sunday, i was back in there dozing. I was just really sleepy. After Saturday's adventure, we stuck at home on Friday and orderd delivery. First one was from Mucho Gusto in Towson. The fajitas were excellent, as was the chips and guac and Elote. Very tasty. They forgot our tortillas, but I didn't really care as long as we had the chips.

Dinner was L&L Hawaian BBQ, wich was kind of a mixed bag. My loco moco was okay. The burger was very dry, and even the gravy and egg yolk couldn't save it. My sister's looked pretty good, I think she ate all of it, so that's something. Jess' ribs were fucking amazing. Korean style Galbi beef ribs. They were tender and delicous. My favorite thing, though was the Spam Musubi. It was just rice, teriyaki BBQ sauce and a slice of spam with a strip of seaweed holding it together.

I created and have been moderating a Facebook page for our upcoming cruise. It started out just me, then slowly enlarged. It's had a lot of growth since then and now we're up to 50 members! I just put up a poll to see if people want to meet up either the night before we board or on the ship. I'm hoping that maybe I can find someone I like who would want to come with on our whale watching, since we still have two slots open in the private tour.

I've got an in person doctors appointment at 4:30pm today to get my psych meds. He only makes me come in the office once every 6mo-a year, so I can't really bitch. I think I'll send that request for an epi pen so I can pick up everything all at once at the pharmacy.

After work I have to see what I want to do with with sirloin steat tips. I'm thinking some beef in a nice sauce with a side of pasta. The tough part is: what sauce. I'm thinking maybe a gorgonzola, or alternately using the Boursin that's been in the fridge for a bit. That would probably make a tasty rich sauce. Especially if I chop up some onions and cook them down a bit add garlic, and then add the gorganzola to melt, and then finish it off with a bit of milk for smoothness. It might be good.

I'll need to get some gorganzola. Oooh, or a feta pesto. I will think on it. I'll probably use the boursin, since I don't need to order it.

Next weekend is a big game weekend. We've got no less than 4 games going, three of which I'm running. They're all modules, so not as much prep. Then, the one I'm not DMing is our high roleplay game, so I need to be on point for that, too.

It'll be a lot, but we'll manage. At least I don't have a Saturday until Valentine's Day. My sister and BIL are going out for a concert with their favorite blues artist, so we'll be home for Valentine's day, ordering from somewhere nice.

We're probably going to have our Valentine's date on Friday the 13th or Sunday the 15th. I'm okay with that. My sister also deserves to get to go out, and Vanessa Collier was only there on the 14th. I'm wondering if anyone is available on one of those nights to play something. Especially the 14th. We're going to be up dogsitting late anyway...

Okay, time for me to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have an awesome Monday!

Good morning and happy Saturday! I actually got to sleep til 6:30am! Boodle was being kind this morning, which I appreciate. I was technically awake at 6, but I was feeling lazy and just kind of rested there until Boodle insisted.

Today, we're going to take it easy. Depending on how they feel, Jess does have an appt at 10 to get their suit altered. They had a pretty gnarly migraine last night, so if they're not up to it, we'll reschedule. Aside from that, maybe a nice lunch out? I'm pretty okay with taking it easy this weekend.

The baking bug may bite me today, as I've been considering making bagels, but that's fun, not work. I was thinking about making egg bagels, but I haven't found a recipe that sounds good, so it'll probably just be topped plain bagels. I've got everything seasoning, and some roasted garlic I could add it.

Tonight, I will probably use the beef stew that I got from Costco. Unless we go out for dinner, in which case my sister is on her own. Unless she wants to come with. That is also a possibility.

Tomorrow, we have game at 5:30pm, which should be fun. It's one of my favorites, where I get to play an 11th level bladesinger wizard, who is about to be in for a world of angst as he goes back to meet his estranged family.

At some point, I do need to hang a new shower curtain liner. The old one just isn't cleaning up well and a new one is super cheap, so we'll go with that.

I'm on the third book of the Fourth Wing series. It's not bad, though a little less action oriented than the first two, but has higher stakes. I'm about 50% through it, so we'll see where it goes.

I'm enjoying that my brain is engaged enough that I've been able to read so much in a few days. I think the part of my brain that is fannish is only let out a little these days. I'm fannish about D&D, but that's about it. I just haven't found anything else that hooks me. I think SPN broke me.

I miss being able to just come up with a plot and write it out, but it's much harder now. And since there's nothing I'm really fannish about, I'm using that part of my brain to come up with D&D games. Still, there's that little part that misses being able to whip out 100,000 words within a month. Now I'm lucky if I get 1000.

I'm having a lot of trouble writing the module that I planned to possibly sell. It's a lot of work, and I'm trying to flesh it out, when my tendency is just to write the bare minimum so I'll remember the scene, what I'm trying to accomplish and then move on. I may need to do that and flesh it out later because the current campaign is to it's last arc, and then we shall start the new campaign.

It'll be hard saying good bye to the Arvandor crew. We've been playing them for years, first through some one shots, then through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. It would have been tough had we stopped after Mad Mage, but the Arvandor campaign has really been stellar. In D&D you're lucky when you get a session where things are just clicking and you can truly immerse yourself in the story. When you get good emotional beats as well as cool combat. Arvandor has been a game filled with those sessions. I know I've said it before, but my players are amazing. I came up with a cool plot, and remembered to give space for those beats, but the players took the ball and ran with it. They added backstory, and gave me plot hooks that I could then pull in, and let them get their emotional closure. I'm prepping for the next arc, which is going to pull in two or three more backstory hooks, and I'm going to enjoy that.

We just wrapped up the one player's backstory arc, where the character killed the man who enslaved them as a child, but also had them taught to be an artificer. Plus they revealed their goblin heritage, and fell in love with one of the party. It was a good arc, meaty. So far, I've been able to hit everyone's backstory during this game. It's been awesome.

I'm just hoping I can stick the landing for the final chapter. Make it epic and dire, and just bring the house down. That's my goal.

And on that note, I shall go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!

It's Thursday or as we like to call it, Friday Eve. It's been a weird week thank to the snow. Work has been almost quiet, and we've had the ups and downs of the week. Yesterday was definitely more of an up. With a little luck, we'll end the week strong.

I got up and texted a dude that my BIL's sister had used. He texted me back by 8am and got the info about the job. He quoted more than the first dude who ghosted, which I didn't care even a little bit about. He said he'd be over around 12pm, so I let my boss know I might need to step away for a few minutes right before lunch.

Then, I went to work. At 9:30, I got ahold of the pharmacy, which was indeed open. Whoohoo! They said they'd get my meds together and deliver them to me! Double Whoohoo!

At around 11:30, I got a text that the dude who shoveled our snow was going to be there at 12:45. Cool. During my lunch, that's awesome, I can go out and meet him and observe a bit. Then, at about 12:15, he texted saying that he had a flat tire. Ooookay. Starting to worry about being ghosted again, but he says he'll be there as soon as the flat is fixed.

At 12:55, he says he's on his way and will be here in 10 minutes. To my utter shock, in 10 minutes, Emmanuel pulls up in his truck and gets to work. It took him 1 hour to dig both cars completely out. Then, we moved them down to the far end of the parking lot so that the maintenance could plow the spots clear.

While Emmanuel was working hard, my prescriptions showed up. Trpple Whoohoo!

I finished up work, and headed out to pick up my sister from work, as she had to Uber in with her car stuck. Fortunately, since schools were out, the traffic wasn't horrible. After that, a trip to the dispensary, and then home to rest after what was an eventful day.

I ran out of my sleep pills, and tried Jess' "Relaxing Peppermints" made by Dixie. Let me tell you, those fuckers are so relaxing that I switched to them from the sleep tablets. They knock me out fast and hard. I approve of this. I did have to switch up the time that I take them. The sleep tablets took forever to kick in. But these are super fast. Last night, I was antsy. I took my pills, and we started an episode of Shmanners, and I was just out about 10 minutes in. That's better than the prior two nights where I fell asleep before we did a podcast.

I don't like the second book in the Empyrean Series as much, though it's still very readable. Mostly I dislike the addition of a bog-standard mean girl who's after the main character over stealing her man. (The man broke up with her before he started dating the main, so it's just her being jealous about losing so much power.) It's just not the most pleasant to read. I'm still reading it, it's just annoying. Hopefully the third book will be better.

98 days to Alaska! I need to start getting out some cash, so that I'm better able to tip. I figure it'll take a few visits to get everything I need. I need some $5, $10, $20s and some $50's.

the little bills are for the waiters and bartenders and housekeeping in the pre and post hotels, the $20s are for the cabin stewards and then the 50's are for the drivers. All totalled, I want about $1400 in cash to go with, mostly small bills.

I could just go into the bank, but I'd prefer not.

Today, we're going to have a nice day, which will be quiet and pleasant, right?

Time to put on pants! Everyone have an outstanding Thursday!

It's Tuesday! I slept considerably better last night, so I'm not quite as sleepy as I was yesterday morning. I have a little headache hangover from last night, but that'll go away as the morning wears on.

Yesterday was the exact opposite of what I thought it would be at work. Instead of being nonstop calls, it was mostly quiet. I did a lot of call outs and even with them, I did half the calls I normally do. I did get about five people in for STAT appointments, so that was good. In the end, they closed our outpatient radiology centers yesterday, which is for the best. It was pretty bad in Maryland. We got about 8" of snow, and then another 1" of sleet and freezing rain. So the snow is seriously solid. I was watching our maintenance workers trying to shovel the walks, and they had two implements--a snow shovel and a garden spade to try to break up some of the ice. It was very effective and the sidewalks are clear. The court is a mess. Even the plow couldn't clear everything, so it's pretty icy.

I do have to go to the pharmacy today, so I'm figuring on doing that at lunch when the sun is at it's brightest and maybe some of the ice will be slush. It's going to get up to a balmy 25 degrees F. I'm not looking forward to cleaning my car off. It's going to be cold and the snow is going to be heavy. Hopefully, I have time to clean and still go to the pharmacy during my lunch break. It'll definitely be a bit of a race.

I don't think I'll have the benefit of lightning striking twice at work. It'll definitely be a litlte busier, since the centers will actually be open. There will probably be some cancellations. The roads still aren't 100% clear.

I'm still debating on what I want to make for dinner. I've got a few options, though I'm low on sides. A good chunk of it will depend on if I am able to make it to the pharmacy at lunch. If so, I'll make an actual dinner. If not, I may be picking up something on the way home from the pharmacy in the evening.

Today is 100 days until we leave for vacation. Tomorrow, we'll be in double digits! This is both exciting and terrifying. We have an appt in 2 1/2 weeks to meet up with the dog sitter, so hopefully that goes well and Yoda is a good boy. It'll be on Valentine's day, so hopefully he'll find love in his heart for the sitter.

I started a Facebook group for our sailing. For months, it's been just me, then one or two other people. But now as we get closer, the group is growing. it's up to 42 members now. It's interesting, seeing who people are and what they're planning to do for excursions.

I think our itinerary is the best, but I'm biased. There are people coming from Australia for this cruise! That blows my mind. They were talking about not knowing what to tip as Australia is not a tipping culture like the US is. We were trying to give them an idea of what to expect.

100 days! Good lord, that feels soon.

ION, I finished a book! The Fourth Wing wasn't bad. The end was nicely done, and I really enjoyed the story. As a fanfic writer, I wrote a ton of Mary Sues and self inserts (thankfully both are lost to the annals of a now defunct wrestling fanfic board. I didn't really mind it though. I enjoyed the dragons, and had fun reading it, so I don't car if it is wish fulfillment. 4 out of 5 stars. Now I shall start on book 2.

Okay, time for me to hop off and get ready for work. Everyone have a stupendous Tuesday!

This month seems to be lasting for years. And nearly every single day, some new atrocity pops up; some new bit of barbarity. And through it all, we don't have time to breathe, or grieve, because we're all bracing for the next assault. And we still have to do mundane things, like work and cook, and do laundry, because what else are we going to do? So we find small victories and little pieces of joy where we can. I tend to focus on the joy, because it's far, far to easy to me to obsess and damage my mental health. So instead, I do what I can to bring myself and others happiness.

I started journalling daily because my mental health wasn't great, but I also am one of those people who will slap a bandaid on and never tell someone that they're bleeding. Back in those days, it gave me a place to be honest with myself. And the two years that Dad needed the heavy duty care, it was somewhere to vent. To talk about my frustrations and anger and feelings of being stuck. It helped to be able to pour out those feelings somwhere. And now, it's just something that I do. It's still for my mental health, of course. It's from here that I've noticed that my current ADHD med isn't lasting as long as the old one. I'm wondering if we could consider another dose of Ritalin so that it doesn't wear off quite as early. It's getting me through work, but it seems to peter out while I'm trying to cook dinner, which means I'm getting overstimulated when my sister comes home.

It's snowing here. Looks like about 4 inches so far. We'll see what we end up with. According to the meterologists, we're doing snow, then later, sleet and then freezing rain. Totals still TBD. We'll know on Monday when the front pushes out.

I'm not looking forward to attempting to walk the dog today. He is not a fan in general, and this may be up past his belly.

I worked my four hours yesterday, which was fine. Turned out there was nary a crisis to be had, so I just took calls. We were busy, with people calling to check their appointment and if we're open. Tomorrow is going to be cancellation central. I have to see if I'm going to get in my car to go get prescriptions. I'm really low on my inhaler, and they had to order it for Monday. Which is annoying.

I'm trying to decide what I have energy for this morning. I'd really like to bake something this morning, but I don't know what. I got some fresh yeast, so maybe something that requires a rise.

Aside from that, we're just going to take it easy and relax. Not much else we can do while it's actively snowing or sleeting or freezing rain.

After work yesterday, we had game. My players were in a bit battle, which wrapped up rather quickly. So, I sent them back to Arvandor which was under attack by a beast. (AKA Tarrasque). It was a chaotic battle, during which I completely forgot to use any legendary actions. Which was dumb of me, but it was still a good fight.

Once that was done, we decided to just go grab dinner rather than go to the world of pets expo. We went to the Peppermill, which is a very old-fashioned restaurant. The food was pretty good.

Tomorrow, work for me, probably not. for my sister, though. We'll see.

Okay, time for me to think about baking. Everyone have a warm and safe Sunday!

IT's TGIF!! We've almost made it to the weekend! I'm looking forward to having two glorious days off. Tomorrow, I have a couple of errands to do and a game to play, but it should be good.

Yesterday was again busy. I took a lot of calls, made a lot of calls, and got some people in. I've got a few people to call today, but that's okay. Hopefully, the day will go faster.

I really need my body to stop being a dick. I know I had the flu or whatever, but the last couple nights, I've been really tired, and yesterday, I had an sudden migraine,that kept me from joining my work games night. I'd like that to cease for tonight. I'd like to go out for dinner, but we'll see. Hopefully, my body will behave.

Assuming that we do go out, I could do one of my errands today and stop at the dispensary for my sleepy pills and some pain gummies. The sleep pills are awesome, and the dispensary only occasionally gets them. I usually get 4 packs at a time when they get it in, so I'm covered for a month.

Tomorrow, I need to go to the regular pharmacy and pick up an inhaler. Then, off to get my hair trimmed. Then we have game and that's about it. If I don't go to the dispensary, I'll have to go tomorrow.

I'm debating what I want to do with my ill gotten gains from working on MLK day. I could put it towards paying on my car, but I feel like I should do something fun/frivolous. I was considering putting it towards getting another ASMR back scratching experience. Or as the downpayment on a phone that has a better battery and bigger hard drive. Or I suppose I could do something productive. I don't know what, but something? The bills are covered by the main check, so the extra few bucks I could have fun with. Or I can get a second dresser to put some of our wayward clothes in--that is a thing that I know we'd like to do. Turns out, we have a lot of clothes, go figure. Plus, I've gained a couple of pounds lately (which I'd like to lose) and I've had to go up a size to be comfy, so we've gained even more. Ideally, if we could get rid of the shelves that are holding our pants, then we could have room to hang up some nice clothes and maybe not have the shirts overly crammed in the second closet. I might do that, since it's sort of pressing.

Sunday, I have a game, but I figure most of my attention will be on the snow, seeing what we actually end up getting, and if there's any ice on top of the snow. I've seen so many wildly varying forecasts, even as we get closer to the storm that I'll believe the totals when they're on the ground. I may or may not bake during the morning, we'll see.

I'd like to bake. I love winter baking, I just haven't had a day free to do it as of late when I wasn't coughing my brains out.

Of course, now I see that I may have a second chance on it. They're talking about a potential storm coming the weekend of the 6th, so I may have more wintery weather that will make me want hot cocoa and pastry or bread.

I discovered last night that Jess did not know about the upcoming Street Fighter movie, so I acquainted them with the shitshow that is going to be. Mind you, I unironically can't wait to see it. Same for the new Mortal Combat movie, which sadly is going to be coming out the day before we get on the boat. If we have energy after sightseeing, I may see where there's a theater in Vancouver and go see it before we leave. I'm that dedicated to the bit.

It looks like a big-budget shitty action movie and I love those. If they're tied into something from my childhood or early adulthood (looking at you He-Man trailer) all the better.

Plus, I love a lot of the people in both movies. Karl Urban as Johnny Cage? There for it. Two wrestlers, Orville Peck and David Dastmalchian? Yes, thank you

I've done a couple of announcements for CONfab now, and I'm kind of excited about the trip now. Now we need to figure out what we're doing on Thursday and Friday. Chicago is such a great city with so much to do. I'd honestly love to do the tearoom again, but I don't know if people will be up for that.

I'll have to decide what game I want to run this year. There's so many systems that any could be fun. D&D is a possibility, as is Monster of the Week, or call of Cthulu. Or we could go with an entirely new game system. Though if Monsters of Murka is out by then, I might pull one of their little oneshots out and play it.

I also have to think about panels and if I want to do any. I've done panels on D&D, but not on other game systems. I'll think on it. Maybe a panel on DMing? We'll see. I will consider my options.

I already booked my hotel room. Next up flights. I'm just waiting for Jess to decide on whether they're coming with. If they do, we'll just have the dog sitter come in a few times a day to walk Yoda so my sister won't have to deal with it.

The exterminator inspection took all of 2 minutes. Yoda barked ferociously from the closet. We see the Orkin dude when he's doing other buildings in the area, so he knows Yoda well and asked where his buddy was.

And on that note, I suppose I should hop off and get ready for work. One more day! Everyone have an awesome day!

It's hump day! We're almost halfway there! We're one day closer to the weekend (which for us looks like it's going to be a weather filled weekend.

We're still about 3-4 days out from the storm, so I don't know how accurate the forecast is yet, but they're talking about upwards of 12", maybe closer to 20?!?! That's a lot of fucking snow. The temp is going to be in the teens, so they're saying probably powdery snow, with a decent amount of wind. I have nowhere to go after the projected start time. I do have to go get my hair cut on Saturday morning, but that should be fine. Then, we have game til 3. I think the snow is supposed to start in the evening, so we might have time to go grab dinner. It's restaurant week, but we haven't made it anywhere. Then we shall hunker down and relax and wait to see how much snow we end up with. It's going to snow all day Sunday, so it's a good time for hot cocoa and maybe some baking. We'll see. I've been low key wanting to make my cinnamon rolls again. I might need to get some more yeast first, though. I need to see how long it's good for. Apparently it's only good for a couple months, so yeah, I'll need another small jar of yeast. I want my rolls to plump up nicely.

Yesterday was busy at work. Mostly answering calls, though I did fill in a few cardiac slots. Apparently the Columbia office is going to start doing Cardiac MRIs, which is awesome. We're booking into April, so all the help they can give would be great. The tricky part is that they're only doing limited diagnoses. There's a list of about 15 things that they will see patients for.

Right now, that's perfectly fine, as I'm the only one filling these in, and I can read and follow directions. But in the coming weeks, they're going to open it to general scheduling. And then, it is going to be a clusterfuck. I like my coworkers, but some of them are dumb as hell. We're going to mess up the template right off the bat. And then there's the fact that some patients schedule through mychart. I have no faith that the system will be able to understand what Columbia wants. In this case, since these are my circus and my monkey, I'm a little bit nervous about how it's going to go. Because if it goes poorly, it's probably mine to fix.

While I wait for my "rather soon" pay bump, I did apply with another dept for a supervisory position. It's in our concierge office, which would probably be a handful. I don't want to leave Radiology, but I do want more money. I figure if I were to get it, I could come back to Radiology and ask for a counter offer. That's what the assistant manager suggested, at least.

We watched the first episode of Heated Rivalry last night. I really enjoyed it. Not sure if I'm going to end up fannish about it, but we'll see!

I'm very much ready for a vacation. I've still got 106 days to go. Though the NY day trip is in 87 days, so that's good. I'm looking forward to both trips. I've not been to a Broadway play in New York in *forever*, so that's exciting. I think our last one was to see Joey Fatone in Rent, probably...15 years ago? Maybe?

I do want to start going more often. I really enjoyed Phantom when we saw it in Baltimore a few months ago. I liked Rent. I want to see Hadestown and maybe Beetlejuice, so that'll be on my list.

And of course, I cannot wait for Alaska. It's going to be so relaxing and fun. I'm looking forward to every part of it, except the flights. I'm not a fan of flying, so that might be a bit sucky. I wonder what we'll be able to see from the plane, though. Will we fly south enough to see the Grand Canyon? Will we be able to see the Rockies? What does the Pacific ocean look like? I've never been further west than Texas.

If the flight goes well, I may consider doing more things in the future. Spur of the moment trips to different places. Like Boston or Toronto. Then, in the fall, we have CONfab in Chicago, which should be fun.

And on that note, I have some CONfab news to post, so I'm going to go forth and do that. Everyone have an amazing Wednesday!

It's Monday again! Today is Martin Luther King day, which is technically a day off for me. Buuut,the call center is open. We had the option to work or not. The benefits for working are pretty steep, though. First up, we get paid time and a half for any hours worked. Second we get the 8 hours of holiday pay as PTO. Which, when you add it up makes the day more like Double time and a half. Plus it's usually pretty chill. I enjoy working it, honestly. I like having a jump in my PTO right away, and time an a half is always nice. Which reminds me, I need to put in another vacation day using it for the cruise.

I'm going to be so close on the number of vacation days I have. I will have like 7 days,and I need 6. I'm spending most of my spring doing my best to stay healthy. We do have the broadway play in April, but we're masking and renting a driver up and back to minimize contact with people.

This was such a lovely weekend. I told you about Saturday's game, which ended with the players racing the clock (from the weapon that they rigged to explode) and in a fight against a high level cleric, thief and a demi-god. They're carrying along the king that they knocked unconscious who has a dead-man's switch that will do...something. He was pretty vague about the actual consequences, just that it would be bad for Arvandor. It was awesome, and so much fun. The players are really sweating it. After that, it was a day of rest, where I did exactly nothing.

Then, Boodle let me sleep til 6 yesterday! A whole hour late! I chilled, got McDonald's breakfast and did my thing until it was time to get the crab feast together. I threw three pans of crab into the oven, set up the table with crab accoutrements. Got drinks, and everyone settled in to eat.

I am on a GLP-1, so my abilities were minimal. I managed two clusters. I think everyone else managed at least three.

Just as last time, the Dungeness did not disappoint. My brother in law declared that he liked Dungeness crabs better than lobster. I would get three bags next time, I think. Or have enough space in the freezer for some. All in all, though, the taste is sweet and buttery with just a hint of the sea, and the shells are more like a snow crab, where it's very easy to crack them. We got a "deluxe crab picking kit." It's awesome. It has the hinged cracker which easily breaks even the toughest claw, plus the zipper type cracker, plus a little metal stick. On one end is a little fork, for stabbing meat. The other is a flattened and lightly curved thing that looks like a coke spoon. It's perfect for getting into those ends and getting all the meat out. The BIL seemed to really enjoy himself.

Afterwards, we talked a bit about the cruise. I printed out our itinerary. so he knows what's going on, and we discussed that a bit. I told him about our upgrade at the hotel, which he was wary about. He looked at the hotel's website and saw what their prices were, so he's concerned about how much it's costing. I let him know that I got a deal (Which I did) and that it was not $600. But we're going to start our trip out in luxury, dammit.

I had a full list of our vendors and where we would be and when as well as any landmarks we were planning on seeing, and what our transportation for the day would be for each land day. We talked about food onboard, and the various venues.

I will probably add to it over the next few months as I come up with other things to do. I'm still debating on Mendehal Glacier. On one hand, glacier. On the other, it's officially receeded enough that it no longer touches the water, which is sad, so I'm not sure. Probably will, but we'll see.

After the BIL left, I took a little nap, and then we got Lebanese food. I had chicken schwarma, which was excellent. Then, it was time to go forth and play our Prophecy of the Nine Omens game. The game was entirely made up of one battle, because poisontaster did not go easy on us. At one point, my bladesinger was down to 38 hit points, which was alarming since we were outnumbered. Still, we were victorious, and my wizard got to wreck shit. We're 11th level now, wich means a 6th level and two 5th level spellslots. I used them all, dealing a shit ton of damage. Steel Wind Strike is an awesome spell that lets you hit up to five people with decent amounts of damage. It's quickly becoming Irsu's signature. Which is thematically appropriate, since he is a bladesinger, which is a wizard who can use a sword. But with 6 level, now have Disintegrate, which I'm looking forward to using.

When I took my spells, I wanted to make him mostly offensive spells. Bladesingers live to deal damage, be it by their blade or by their magic. The character sheet came first. Then, much later, after playing him for at least a year and a half, the background and his reasons for being like he is came. Granted, his backstory is very close to that of William Laurence from the Temeraire series. (great books if you've never read them.) Before that, his backstory was that he was a bounty hunter, but not good at it. Later, his full story came out. Second son of a duke, bound for wizard school from the day he was born, so that he could serve as his brother's personal pet wizard and diviner. He got to school and found that he couldn't do divination to save his life. But offiensive magic, yes. Then, he found out what a bladesinger was, and that was that. Then, he left school to become a bounty hunter, and instead stumbled into adventuring.

Now, I have MLK day and then, I shall cook dinner. But for now, it's time to start getting myself together. Everyone have an amazing Monday!

It's Saturday! Whoohoo! I'm so glad, considering this crud that never ends, that I was out the day they called for availability for Saturdays. I'm not scheduled at all this month, and I'm grateful. I've really needed the weekend for rest and recovery.

I'm still coughing, I had two rough stretches yesterday where I coughed until I threw up, and some more where I coughed my ribcage into a muscle spasm. That sucked on both counts. Towards the end of the night, my voice just dropped out for a while. It seems to be back a bit now. I think I'll be okay for D&D at noon. It's not great or normal but it's something. I may message the nurse practitioner and see if she thinks I need a chest xray or antibiotics. I know people are saying the flu this year is lasting, but it's been 18 days of feeling kinda blah. I still am coughing, I still feel kind of run down. I've been abusing the hell out of doordash because I just can't get the energy to cook, and I'm sick of it. I want to be normal again.

Today, as I said, D&D. We have our Arvandor game today. This is my first full homebrew campaign, and I love it. My players are amazing and are roleplaying. It can feel kind of silly at first, to talk in character, but they're past that, and the vulnerability they're showing is just inspiring. It's like a ever growing circle of energy. The more energy they give the characters, the more they interact with the world, the more energy I want to give back. These games leave me energized and make me feel creative and like a good DM.

Objectively, I know I'm a fairly good DM, but there's that imposter syndrome that just about every DM has. We all look at the popular TTRPG podcasts and want to be Brennan Lee Mulligan or Matt Mercer. (For me, I want to be a combination of Griffin McElroy and Aabria Iyengar, with just a smattering of BLM.) I think my strength lies in the improv, in reacting to the sometimes frankly bonkers things the players come up with.

Writing out the next campaign has been interesting. I'm writing it as a module, so that if I wanted to replay with another group, or publish it on Drivethru RPG, I can do it. It's been different. Normally, my notes are minimal/nonexistent. I tend to write scenarios, and then they develop from there. For Arvandor, I wrote them as scenes, which worked well. The players filled in the blanks with roleplay and investigation. I created the cast of characters and the players interacted with them and brought them to life.

Today, I'd like to do a little bit of work on that and maybe vacuum our bedroom. I'm not plotting more than that, because I know I won't do it, and if I make a huge list and fail, I'll just feel bad about myself.

I do want to make dinner tonight. I've got three Denver steaks to cook. I've never had this particular cut, so we'll see how it goes. (Yeah, last night I doordashed--no energy to cook.)

Tomorrow at lunch shall be our crab feast. We've got 8lbs of Dungeness crab, and several full set of crab picking tools. I cant wait! I'm excited about being able to introduce BIL to them. I hope he enjoys them. I know I will.

I think I'm taking on a little more with CONfab this year. Social media is expanding. We're going to step up and promote the con more and also we'll be starting a new monthly newsletter. I'm planning to write most of it. Nothing earth shaking, just info about the con, and about the con discord, stuff like watchalongs or game nights, hangouts. The con is in October, and I'm looking forward to seeing Chicago again.

It'll be a lot of work, but I feel so bad that last year, I kinda fell down on the job. So once we lock in dates, I shall begin the publicity machine.

Okay, I'm going to work on the next module for a little while. Everyone have a wonderful Saturday!