Damn, I am tired. (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Two hours of fitful sleep started off my day. I got most of the bills done by 4am, and I have a few more to go. Then I have to balance the checkbook. Oy.

Actually, I was decided to go to bed at around 3am, but I was having a kind of mild anxiety attack over bills (even though nothing is actually worse than it's been since on average since 2000... it's weird) and didn't get to sleep until maybe around 4. I even took a shower to calm down.

I got up at 6am, like normal, and since I had only taken a shower two hours earlier, I didn't need to take one again. And I was actually awake and alert for most of the early morning like I had gotten my usual 6 hours of sleep. I wasn't tired until about 9:30, and then it hit me all at once. I drank some coffee, but my stomach had shut down again, and so coffee just sat in my stomach fermenting.

But thanks to many shifts with FanTek security back in the day, I remembered that when coffee doesn't work, try lots and lots of water (thanks Tad). At the very least, you will have to stay active to drink the water and run to the bathroom all the time to pee, but it somehow will wake you up eventually... or at least stabilize those blahs one gets when one only has a few hours of sleep. And the water is effectively neutralizing that acidic coffee.

Still... I am going to bed early tonight for sure. Posted in: bills , financies , money , sleep

I hate doing bills (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I am in a mental war whether to do bills, or not. I have to do them, but another part of me resists, and the whole thing is making me very depressed. It's 1am, and I am barely doing anything but staring at a pile of bills. I don't understand what the problem is, and I seem to be unable to force myself to do them, which means I will be up all night until I make myself do them.

This weekend was an odd mix of being on call, getting paged, and all kinds of silliness. I had a very relaxing time babysiting for the Heare kids on Saturday. It was the first time I really bonded with "SR," as she will be known in my blog, because that's what aksident calls her over IMs (the others are K-Man and Spike). She's nine, very astute, and also a lot smarter than she lets on. Fandom teaches you many things, and one is the measure of true intelligence and wisdom versus arrogance or personification, because we get assaulted by a lot of examples of all those qualities in their various exaggerated forms. SR is damn smart and has a scientific bent she shows from time to time, but keeps this card folded close to her chest for reasons I can only guess at.

So on Saturday, I introduced her to a non-Newtonian fluid mix of cornstarch and water. She was mesmerized and played with it for almost an hour; describing out loud the experience as she experimented with doing different things. Like the mind of a scientist, and not the pink foo-foo Barbie model we thought she may end up as because she was very pink foo-foo Barbie girly at a young age.

I didn't get home util 1am, and then I had to do some online work until 4:30am because the new DST time change has fucked up computers (the OS is usually okay, but the software we use never got a patch when the bew DST changes were made by Bush, so they all crashed).

Then I got invited on a spur-of-the-moment thing and ended up at Hooters with a bunch of erotic toy and sexual aid distributors (long story, har har). I am not really a fan of Hooters, mostly because I am not into sports or ogling girls. While our company was nice (we're all going to new Orleans next month), I was still a little creeped out by the single men who eat there. People who look like "Larry the Cable Guy" sit there, eating and drinking alone, watching the skinny and busty women like lions watching elk. Yeeesh.

Then I got a migraine, got really depressed, and now I have to do bills so here I am. Posted in: bills , heares , science

I am really tired this morning (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I nearly passed out twice on the Metro, and again when I tried to walk uphill to work. I don't think from anything more than sheer lack of sleep, although I got about 4 hours last night, which isn't that unusual for a weekday. I just can't "get in the game," as it were. Part of the problem may have been that this weekend I tried in earnest to get up early on weekend mornings instead of sleeping late. I did this to increase some of my time to do work.

I had a lot of financial crap to catch up on. It's almost the end of the year, and I have to balance my home financial sheets. I had this long post about it, but it got depressing, and I am just going to say in 2008, we're going to massively tighten our belts. At least I got caught up on what we owe NOW, and then 2008 I am going to work on getting those credit card balances down. Posted in: bills , finances , sleepy , tired

Three hours of sleep and stupid is no way to go through life, son. (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I was up until 3am doing bills. I hate bills. Luckily, American Express may be able to help me out with a consolidation at 5.99% fixed while the high credit card is 18.9%. I am going to have to ditch that card; 7 years ago it was only 11.9%.

Here's an odd one: Wachovia, which has our equity loan we used to replace the damaged deck, did not send me statements for two months. So I called them. "We didn't get your payment for July, so when that happens, we don't send you any new statements after one is missed. You are now two payments behind." I am two payments behind? "If you don't send a payment that was due August 16th..." Was due? Don't you mean "will be due?" Silence. "Sorry sir, we made a mistake, we will wave the late fee." Uh... wh... you know what? Never mind. How about I send you what I think I owe you? Like July's payment and this month's? "Okay, sure... [pause two three four...] wait, what?"

Hire the stoned: they are fun to converse with. Posted in: bills , credit cards , finances , loan , money , stoners , wachovia