So I generally like to avoid the kind of "personal update" posts like the one I'm about to embark on, but firstly, I'm crazy busy lately, meaning almost no one who might regularly have some contact with me has any idea of where I am and what's happened to me, and secondly, I hate that the most recent post on the site (which I've just spent the past few months working on driving new people to) is a link to a questionable rough draft of a really creepy story I wrote in the middle of the night. I do like the story, which has as a working title of "Andrew" (no relation, honestly, to any Andrew I've ever met), but, judging from the lukewarm reception from those who have read it, I think it has a face only a mother could love.

The other story, "The Best Man", opened to much better reviews, despite the sore need for improvements which have been racing to my mind. The day after I churned it out, I was completely excited to get busy editing, but the next night, I wrote "Andrew", and soon after started in at Border's where, as we prepare to open on November 16th, my hours have been much longer than anyone could have expected.

So, some quick, and relevant updates.

• The job is good. I'm happy-ish with my pay, relieved to be working so close to home, thrilled to be working in a bookstore, and challenged by and respected for the work I do. I have an office. People suck up to me (I control their paychecks.) My boss is impressed by how quickly I'm catching on to the work, as am I: you never think you're capable of doing things until you have to, it seems. I'm considering making moving up in this company my practical career goal, settling on this for my main source of income. It's hard to tell whether or not I'd be happy for life in a place like this, having only been there about a week now, but I can see it happening, and that, well, that's a first. Plus, it would be nice to stop worrying about where I want to be in the future, and start focusing on what I want to accomplish in the future, in terms of, for instance, my impractical career goals, among other things.
• The dog got neutered on halloween and, in my opinion, his behavior has already improved. There's a post waiting to be written about the events leading up to this finally being pushed through the financial red tape (with shocking photos!) Hopefully, I get to this in the near future, being that I have some time off this weekend (Sunday's off, and only eight or nine hours tomorrow!)
• The latest few e-mails I've sent out have gone yet unanswered, which leaves me wondering about my status with the people I sent them to. I thought I'd give this a bullet, just in case it might speed up the process of finding out where I stand.
• I need to talk to my mom to find out if she can help me pay to get my hormones tested and buy a custom hypnotherapy CD. I've stopped seeing my therapist, who was supposed to be helping me with the vaginismus, for a variety of reasons-- the biggest of which involving her extremely inconvenient location, but before I did, she suggested that balancing my potential overload of estrogen might ease the pain I feel with arousal. As for the hypnosis, Border's will let me play CD's in my office (did I mention I have an office?), and I'm thinking about taking the audio from a hypnosis CD and layering it behind some musical tracks with an audio editor like nero or something, to achieve a subliminal effect. I hope to give me, and everyone who comes into my office with a direct deposit form, a better chance of getting laid in the near future. sex is good. sex is natural.

I guess the point of this post is to let you know that I haven't abandon you, whether you're a new reader who's starved and confused without your daily serving of Me (An average of 65 grams* of goodness in every post!), or someone who has the misfortune of knowing me in real life. I will emerge soon, squinting, into the light of real life.

If you need me before then, I'll be in my office.

On with it.


*Daily value not established.