Some stuff

I have managed to be caffeine-free for an entire week now. This time last week, I was sick as a dog, and unable to eat or drink anything. For the days that followed, I drank water, ginger ale, and soup. Since I was already pretty much ahead of the game on dealing with caffeine withdrawal, I simply chose that time to quit. It's been tough, and I almost slipped once out of habit, but except for the occasional piece of chocolate, no caffeine has been consumed. I'm proud of me.

I decided to put my bumper stickers on magnetic sheets and put them on my car that way, to prevent damage to my paint from adhesive. I put the stickers on the magnetic sheets, and then found out that my bumper is made of plastic. I'm so very bright.

Crafty

I'm addicted to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and any other crafts stores I can find. I walk in there for one item, and walk out with a whole bunch of supplies to begin a whole new hobby that has absolutely no practical application in my life.

I went in to one of the stores today to look for magnetic backing so I can put a bumper sticker temporarily on my car. I ended up standing in another aisle, drooling over these little machines that take these cookie cutter-like inserts (sold separately) so you can make cut-outs in cool shapes. I found myself coveting them. Now, what could I actually, practically use this for? I could cut shapes... out of paper! ... and felt! ... and magnetic backing! ...and other stuff! It doesn't matter that none of this is practical and worth spending over $100 in supplies. I want it!

I managed not to buy it... but I feel all the craft-loving molecules in my bloodstream drifting to the northwest side of my body, toward Michaels.

*sniffle*

I have been a very bad blogger. I have neglected my blog and its 3 readers for a very long time. This is due to the stress of my most recent temp job. I do not offer this as an excuse, just as an explanation.

I will endeavor to post more often, so that perhaps Mr. K. will put me back on his "blogtacular" list.

So what's so stressful about this job? Taxes. I'm correcting and reprinting W-2s for an insurance company, and mailing them out to groups, who invariably find more to correct. Then they want them overnighted NOW. The corrections are very often things that they could have resolved 5 months prior when the error first appeared on their monthly reports, but that would entail actual reading of said reports, which busy businesspeople think they're above doing. They instead expect other people to psychically determine where discrepancies are between their own thoughts and the thoughts of others, and adjust accordingly.

So the bigwigs say "what's so difficult about this? Just correct and reprint." This is infuriating to me, because they are not aware of just how amazingly screwed up it all is. The groups are not aware of how things are set up at the insurance company, and the insurance company is not clear about how the groups want to be set up. Some groups have claimants under 53 different division names with 48 different tax IDs, and of those, the company is handling the FICA taxes of 27 of them, and of the remaining 26, the employer agreed to print their own w-2s for 12 of them and the company is to print the w-2s for the others. But wait, no! There was a miscommunication down the line, and really one of the FICA matched groups is not supposed to be FICA matched, and one of the ones we're doing the printing for is supposed to be FICA matched except for Joe Schmoe, SSN 234-56-7890, who was really supposed to be under a different group, and Jane Doe SSN 789-12-3456 whose 4 w-2s belong to 3 different divisions and only 1 of them is FICA matched. Oh yeah, and 14 of the divisions changed their names for 2005, so after everything's printed, switch it all to this other convoluted structure that is inadequately explained on this fax that was cut off halfway through, thanks!

I was trying to give up caffeine. I had weaned myself down to 1 can of diet cherry coke a day. Then came this stressful job that demands overtime, and I am now up to about 4 cans of diet cherry coke a day.