Couch 234: Ready, Set, Go!

I always thougth that American hot dogs didnt have skin because we have skinless hot dogs over here and they always labelled American hot dogs.

Thanks i thought i was largely over this.

IIRC, the skinless ones became more popular as the baby boomers arrived.

L didn't send me a reminder email yesterday. I'm struggling with SH thoughts. I think it's her planning her wedding and also moving offices. However, I really need her right now because of all we're processing. She's just not as available anymore.

Yeah, the baby boomers ruined everything.

I woke up with a yucky cold this morning and a headache to boot. Of course, I was stuck on phones again today. Ugh. I sent h out about an hour ago for cold medicine, so at least I have that now. I am praying we don't have to be on stupid phones all day. Although if we do I am seriously considering calling in sick for half my 10 hour shift and just going to bed and staying there til Saturday when I have to get up and log back on. I have tons of overtime on this timesheet so losing out on 5 hours of it won't be a big deal. I hate January.


I need to get out of this negative spiral quickly or it's gonna be a miserable work day.

I am reading this novel (Night Film by Marisha Pessl) and I’m enjoying it, except there are a lot of words that are italicized for no goodreason and it’s starting to get to me.

For instance:

“Unless she has wings and can fly over an electrified fence, that girl’s not going anywhere.”

Why are any of those even italicized? And why all three? And why are there multiple instances of sentences like that per page?

Why are any of those even italicized? And why all three? And why are there multiple instances of sentences like that per page?

Fixed it.

Nah, you left a few out:

Why are any of those even italicized? And why all three? And why are there multiple instances of sentences like that per page?

Well, if you want to be thorough about the matter...

Why are any of those even italicized? And why all three? And why are there multiple instances of sentences like that per page?

Reading the passage, I think it's a case of italics for emphasis, but the author went overboard. It would annoy me too.

Hmmm. Maybe I should go whole hog and change my user name to atisketatasket?

Working on finding the positives: I get an hour lunch break every day, which I am enjoying right now. Yay! My paycheck a week from tomorrow is going to be awesome. Yay! Only 2.75 more hours of calls after lunch (because I get a 15 minute break in there), then my 2 hours overtime is on my normal job. Yay! I am off tomorrow, and can sleep all damn day if I choose. Yay!

omgosh one of my good friends just told me that her 3 year old son has COVID now. he's not feeling too bad, but sick enough for her to test him. so far the rest of them aren't sick so that's good but still. I'm fighting so hard to stay positive and quickly losing the battle. How much longer can humanity ****ing deal with this and not just collectively lose our sh it all across the planet?! I know I'm reacting badly now from working so much and having to be on the phones but it's like part of me doesn't want to get positive again wants to just wallow in the negativity for awhile. That sucks even more than feeling the negativity. Blech. Feel free to ignore me.

HUGS, Artie.

So sorry Scarlet. HUGS.

Winnie the Pooh books do this as well. Madness I say

Hugs all around to those who need/want.

I thought that was mostly when Pooh was singing?

art...think of how many times in history humanity has dealt with tough stuff and lost its **** all over the planet and still come out the other side (not necessarily better, but we survived). Wars, genocides, epidemics, pandemics, they're all in our trophy case. That doesn't make this less tough of a feeling but it should give hope.

I just over-italicized a sentence in dear t and i must admit that doing so made me feel a tiny bit better.

Now how else can I be silly this afternoon....

Perhaps that author needs to read the Style Guide for one of the journals for which I edit: "Use italics for emphasis sparingly."

I think she is trying to say something about the narrator (like he's a drama queen or something? or unreliable?), but the italics are everywhere--narrative, other characters' dialogue, etc.

It's making me actually not want to read the book anymore, and plenty of online reviewers feel the same way or even stopped reading.

@@

And here i was trying to save apostrophe strokes

___ (stationary wagon)
@@

___ (wagon in motion)
@@

Googled ideas to cheer myself up and couldn't believe some of the suggestions. To be fair, I'm not sure anything would appeal to me, but many of them sound like the author was trolling. Like "make that doctor's appointment you've been putting off." How is that going to make me feel better? That just means I'll feel dread on top of everything else.

So instead, I'm drinking champagne and having some weed. Probably not great but what else am I supposed to do? Apparently have a bubble bath in a kiddy pool, send postcards to my nonexistent friends, and do a vision board.

Began the day dealing with some idiot clients and have two more meetings today to look forward to. Oh and my psychiatrist has me cleaning one section of my house every day and I have to send before and after pictures. If it was the weekend, I'd be lying in bed doing nothing. Since it's a workday, I'm lying in bed dreading interacting further with people and procrastinating putting in my billable hours.

You know, part of it is that things have been slow at work and I can only find so many things to take up my time. I have to stay available online, so I end up stuck doing nothing and being prevented from filling up my time with something else.