A Grievance

Because I know you are really very interested in what pisses me off.

There is a young man who lives in our surrounding neighborhood with some of his bruhs. For the past few months, this little shit has been tearing through the neighborhood in his modified Cadillac hoopty at unforgivable hours of darkness. It is ridiculously loud and wakes us all up.

You know what? Be young. Have fun. But do that crap somewhere more appropriate. Not in a neighborhood of families.

We are loosing sleep by being shaken out of sleep anywhere between 4 and 6 am. And it scares the kidlet - not just wakes her up, but scares her. She is hesitant to go to bed because of that asshole. And she doesn't want to go back to bed when it wakes her up.

I left a voicemail with "code enforcers" and I hope there is something done. Can't really get a shot of his plates because it's "snore-WTF!-darkthirty-o'clock". I was able to catch a glimpse of his car one day and then we started scouring the neighborhood.

I know where he lives.

So, Those Goals

Do you remember my goals? I do. 

Lose weight.

RUN a 5K.

So I started the Couch to 5K. And everything was going really good. 

Well, with the exception that my knees and shins put up a fight. 

So I decided that I should try kinetic therapy (or KT) tape to help. 

I wasn't a large difference but it did help. 

The end of February and beginning of March brought on some new challenges. 

I got sick. Being sick and running = not happening. 

Financial situations also made it necessary that I obtain a job. 

By the way, I rocked that interview while still sick. 

And then we had a weird week of snow. 

Getting used to a work schedule made running difficult. 

And then wham! The Color Run was here!

While I didn't run the whole thing, I did several running spurts.  

Besides, I had Ivy (which I wasn't originally planning) and the whole point is to have fun at your own pace instead of a timed race. 

As far as the weight loss goes, I've lost 14 pounds so far. 

(As always, I run for my dear Survivor Aunt)

My body hurts so much. A lot of things are telling me no not torture myself over running a 5K. My knees are telling me to just not do it. Running/jogging/training has not eased the pain in my legs. I'm disappointed that I had setbacks and didn't do what I set out to do for my deadline. But I'm also not mentally torturing myself. I'm ok with not meeting my goal. I can just try again. 

Burning Questions

Shhh, I think she's still sleeping.

A lot of stuff happened within the past two months. Due to last year's fiasco, I was granted unemployment benefits. I also had my student loans placed on 'economic hardship' so I wasn't making payments. And while I did send out resumes and go on interviews, I was not offered any teaching positions. Fine by me. This allowed me to stay at home with Ivy. 

But benefits only last so long. And my loans went back into payments. At. The. Same. Damn. Time.
This made it necessary for me to find something, and find it fast. So I started looking around and sending out My Awesome Resume. I got a response that same day and an interview for the following day. That had to be the best interview ever. I was offered the job but there were phone calls on their end to be made before it was official. I started work two days later.

But then we had to find childcare. We ended up signing Ivy up for preschool which has been for the best. Because that picky little eater has been expanding her palate as well as her mind. It's amazing! She'll start kindergarten in the fall and I think she'll do great because of this experience.

Back to the work thing. I now work at a public library. Besides finding books and helping people with the computers, I've also done some storytimes and it's been pretty fun. And let me tell you about the stress level... wait, what stress level? I’m now in a line of work in which I am directly involved with the public. And I can say a great and many things about working with the public.

And now I present to you: Burning Questions that just MUST be answered
Alternate subject title: Troubleshooting the Stupid
Alternate subject title: Stuck on stupid

I had the opportunity to assist a lovely woman with an internet query.
“Why is it that every time I get on Google Maps here, it’s in San Jose, California?” considering we are situated half a continent away. So I started off firing questions to troubleshoot. 
“Do you have a home location associated with your personal Google account?” 
"No."
“Have you signed in to Google?” 
"No."
"Do you have a Google account?"  
"No. I don't think so."
So my clever response is that “It’s Google.”

“Well, that’s not an answer. Why is it that every time I get on Google Maps here, it’s in San Jose, California?”
“Let me clarify. If you have not given any details such as signing into your account and creating a home location on Google Maps to Google [for memory purposes], Google will assign a starting point.”

“You’re still not answering me. Why is it that every time I get on Google Maps here, it’s in San Jose, California? And this is on other computers too.”
At this point, my internal monologue is using some choice language.
“Ma’am, I guarantee you that if anyone else opens Google Maps without their log-in information, it will also take them to San Jose, California.”

“But why San Jose?”
Let me help you “Have you entered your desired address y-“ My hands pause in mid-air, mid-type.
“I KNOW HOW TO USE GOOGLE MAPS.”

“Ma’am, it’s Google. They’re likely using their location as a starting point of reference if there are no credentials.”
“Well, that’s still not—“
“Ma’am, I’m sorry, I cannot help you any further in this matter. I am not a Google employee and we have closing procedures to complete at this moment.” Bye Felicia. 

It was made abundantly clear that this was not pertinent to her internet query. She just had a burning question and, as my supervisor said, was “stuck on stupid.” I guess she also felt the need to try to make me feel stupid which didn't work. I decided to go back to my own computer and, well, ask Google - something that any rational human being can do.

Uh oh!

Our computers are automatically cleared of browsing data after every person logs out. They’re like Alzheimer patients. If there is no data to start with, Google is going to do... Google.

Snow Bunny

Last week's snow, ice, and slush melted and we reached 70 degrees. We picked Ivy up from her grandparents and we made snow ice cream, like I had promised her. I even made a snow angel in her stead.

(You already saw this one).

She started preschool this week because I got a new job at a library. I've yet to work a full week because of our, ahem, interesting weather. 

And wham! We get hit again!

But this time, she got to play in it herself!

(Tracks of another kind: wabbit)

And we were finally able to build our very first ever snowman!

We can finally check those off our life list.