A Week’s Worth of Events

Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out. ~Anton Chekhov

I love Anton Chekhov.

Things have been busy and dull at the same time. The rash continues to improve. The oral steroids they gave me really helped take away the itch. However, it created an insomniac. I’ve never struggled to sleep, until this week. It was rough. However, I took the last pill this morning, so the sleep should commence easier now.

This week was good. The furnace repair man came out three times this week. I rather annoyed by the second visit. The third visit just made me angry. He had to come back a third time because he forgot to turn the gas back on. Simple and minor, so I should be thankful for that, but still annoying.

I didn’t swim, bike or run this week, as I really want this rash to heal. Therefore my evenings have been really quiet and calm. I came home from work each night and piddled around the house. To be honest, I really sat down and read my old entries in here. I was reliving my final two years at university. Rereading the adventures I had with my friends and all the fun we found. I’m truly thankful I kept this journal during university. I wouldn’t have remembered a good portion of the stuff I experienced. It was a great stroll down memory lane.

Such a good stroll that it moved me to email Manny. I haven’t talked to Manny in probably three years. Last I knew he went back to India and to work for his dad. Needless to say, I shot him an email, and he quickly responded. He’s working and well on his way to getting married. He invited me to India for the wedding. Wouldn’t that be something, to go there and experience an Indian wedding? I’m tossing the idea around in my head. I’m planning on getting more details, but definitely mulling it over.

Things in the office haven’t cooled down any; Jenna is still annoying most everyone. She has a meeting she runs twice a week and proceeds to be rude and alienating to most everyone. She has taken to snooping on people’s work. This has caused stress and anger for a lot of people.

So much so that I have taken to venting to Lenin. The other day she annoyed Lena with something so Lena vented to me. Then I sent Lenin a note and cc’ed Lena, “We have come to a consensus. From time to time you refer to a certain individual as our sister. From here on out, we will no longer recognize this label. However, we will recognize the label of “Evil Step Sister.”

He and I were taking the piss with one another as I was leaving work and he helped me come up with a nickname for her. He told me to share it with Lena the next day. I shared with Lena and she found it funny. Later that day he emailed the both of us, “Ask your sister about the new nickname I came up with. However, you never know, next week you might be best friends and eating lunch together.”

Lena informed him that doing so would be a form of torture. I asked him if he had some insider information that we didn’t have. He said you never knew what happened, people forgive people all the time. I responded with the question, “So you think you and Zman will patch things up anytime soon?”

Zman and Lenin are mortal enemies and I knew this would hit home, not in a hurtful way. His response, “Wow, I sense some hatred. Who is this Zman you speak of?”

There is no hatred, just annoyance, contempt and general dislike.

As I was leaving work on Friday, I stopped by Lenin’s desk, par usual, to drop off my penny. He had someone there, so I just set the penny near his desk. He stopped what he was doing and told me to have fun next week. The gentlemen standing there just observed the conversation. We chatted a bit about next week and then he asked something about the Jenna situation, I said my note was pretty spot on and also added that it had been the Best Staff Meeting Ever.

He looked intrigued, and informed me that he would call me later. He thought I was referring to the Jenna situation, I was referring to the Lenin and Zman staff meeting. But I headed out for the day and drove home. I stopped at the house to pick up some coupons and ran to the store to pick up some necessities. As I was shopping my cell phone rang, it was Lenin.

“Bella.”
“Lenin.”
“So what went down in staff this week?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You said staff was the best ever.”
“Oh no, I was referring to the staff meeting with you and Zman. That was the best staff meeting ever.” you could hear him laughing to himself, “I mean, seriously, he had a complete come apart and you were cool as a cucumber. I think that is truly the best staff meeting of all times. I’m not sure anything else can top it.”

We continued to talk as I finished my shopping. He was headed to his mom’s house for a family dinner, they were celebrating his brother’s birthday. At some point in the conversation it turned to Eastern European women via the Zman conversation. Lenin had dated one at one point in time and he was laughing about how crazy they are.

Due to him dating this woman, he knew an answer to a Trivial Pursuit question at my birthday about the television show, Sex and the City. He informed me at this point in time that because of her, he knew the answer to this question. He then informed me that he didn’t really understand that show at all. I agreed with him, I told him that I think I had seen a total of 20 minutes of one episode and that was enough for me. They were all just skanky and perhaps I was a prude but it really just didn’t draw me in. You could hear him laughing.

We chatted a bit more and then parted ways for the weekend.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week. So much so that you wouldn’t know it was February, one would think it was mid-Spring. Therefore, after my shopping excursion Lena and I had a Chiminea Friday. This has become a practice at my house during spring, summer or fall. My friends come over on a Friday night, we light a fire in the Chiminea, sit around drinking and talking. Very laid back and very therapeutic. So we commence the activity around 7:30 and she left around 11:30.

I woke up this morning to meeting Master Pleasure for brunch. We met at Larry’s. Larry’s is a restaurant owned by a man we worked for in high school. He ran a different restaurant at that point in time and we were servers there. It was good to catch up with Master and see how life is treating him. He is still the same intense individual he has always been. I’ll write more on that later.

I leave for LA on Monday. I have to go out there with my boss Joe and my co-worker Benji. This is bound to be an experience. For now, I’m off to pay bills and start laundry.