sketches & ghosts

Trip is doing the "scratch at briefcase to say he wants to go home" thing again ... it's 10:37. Yeah, I think we're at work until 6 today, buddy. I feel bad that he is lying down and licking his paws, but I don't know how to relieve his stress at, um, being in my office, which is not inherently stressful.

I already did my chocolateboxcomm noms, because I did not nominate anything I'm 100% confident someone else will (like, I don't need to worry about Machineries of Empire or Queen's Thief). I'm really hoping anyone requests either Spotless or A Girl and Her Fed (even if some of my noms were Rachel, Phil, Jason, Santino and Bell so that's kind of more books-ish) because that's what I most want to be writing except for original works.

Work is ALL ANNUAL REPORT ALL THE TIME and I have been hunting down missing data which is why I'm delayed in things I owe people. I promised two people beta reads on fics yesterday, and both of you will be getting them back today, I promise! I have read and enjoyed them, I just need to make my notes slightly more competent and less bullet points on literal post-its. I have a Yuletide treat I need to finish myself, and then decide whether or not I want to ask for a beta, since the only people I know who actually know the canon all can't do it right now ... except for the canon's original author, who said she might do it, but I'm not sure if that wouldn't be a little too weird for the recipient.

Beta reader who doesn't know the canon? Letting the actual author of the canon do it? No beta? IDK.

I was stuck standing in the 16 degree weather waiting for the M96 for half an hour last night and have still not actually recovered, because cold urticaria is the actual worst, but I had dressed like I was doing winter sports so that helped a little. Not enough to block a reaction, apparently.

Hello, New Friends: I'm sorry that this, the first public post you will see, is all complaining.


ETA: Since I have new people on my list and I do not have an about me, please feel free to ask anything you'd like here! Longtime readers can ask things too. I'm also doing the January meme.

Much to the delight of my becoming restless chair-eater, we seem to be actually leaving work on time today (though it is possible we'll be waiting for a late bus for half an hour, who knows).

The quarterly report that ended in June and was supposed to be in on July 1 was keeping me here late and worn out every day and I was spending weekends just worrying about it; now that it is all caught up and submitted, this workday has been nice and normal instead. We are also at an N=879 out of a required 900 and have temporarily suspended enrollment in the study. \o/

We may have even gotten another employee, I'm crossing my fingers.

For most of the day Trip has been hanging out under the desk (yes, my dog has his own twitter, and yes, it's because of the Democratic Socialists of America), but after someone from his daycare came over to take him for a better walk than I can do while at work and he came back up he'd been lying in the middle of my admittedly small office.

Two of my colleagues came in to talk about something, and that's right when Trip rolls over onto his side and starts licking his penis.

Thankfully he wasn't loud about it and no one else was looking at him, but after they left I explained to him that if he had to do that -- and since he had just been out and peed, he needed to clean up, that's okay -- he really needed to go back under the desk.

Still having arm issues. But Trip is wearing his new Chanukah sweater today while we visit mom, and he's super cute in it! (Though super sleepy in these images.)





Also, this is me practicing the fact that Dreamwidth apparently has a thumbnail embed function for posting images. You can click on them to enlarge and I don't have to go as far as to ... program a link myself ... it's not like it's DIFFICULT, but I appreciate this easier/lazier method.

I have about 300 things I should be updating about, and am behind on reading and comments and I am so sorry about the busy week, y'all, but instead I just wanted to show the internet that Trip's favorite thing right now is this squeaky fox toy he has.

( Pictures are under the cut but very poor quality because of bad lighting and dogs that don't stay still. )

Someday I will be able to get cute action shots of Dog and Fox, but right now I just have these Protective Dog ones. He never actually does the adorable moving things he does when anyone is able to take video, because he tends to be pretty video shy. After I took these he promptly took a nap, because I dared take a picture.

1. I quit my job without anything lined up because of reasons; my last day is the 20th. I rather abruptly got an interview for a position I'd love managing a SAMHSA grant for behavioral health integration ... this is on Tuesday, but it asks for such complex Excel skills (and they have told me there will be a test) that I'm very nervous. I also don't know how an Excel test would work, exactly, so I'm nervous about misunderstanding the question too.

The pay is not that great, but the program itself is pretty great, and that's kind of what you get with public sector. Which is what I want, anyway. I just hope it's good enough I can afford to live somewhere.

2. I STILL haven't gotten my thesis back from committee; it's a week late. I did do my presentation and have no idea how well I did.

3. We got Trip a shock-absorbent leash so while he's still Sir Pullsalotnoreallytoomuch, my hands aren't falling off. It's surprisingly effective.

Bonus 4. I still SERIOUSLY suck at commenting, but I read every single entry that goes by my eyes. I look at my reading page every day. I'm constantly starved for content I care about, so I never miss anything.

So, I have a dog now. The most important part of this post: here is his Instagram. He's actually extremely hard to photograph because he never holds still.

We meant to get an older dog; we ended up with a 6 month old puppy rescued from Grand Cayman, a hurricane refugee dog. We can tell he's had a really bad life, because he's afraid of everything. This mostly manifests in crying, pacing and being ridiculously destructive. We do have a professional trainer, don't worry, I'm not going to let down my neurotic dog. Just. Whoa. He's a ton of work. I love him but I'm covered in bruises, exhausted, cold and confused most of the time now.

Things Trip likes to chew:
- Socks.
- The couch cushions.
- People.
- Linens.
- The outside walls of his crate.
- Pillows.
- The embroidery on anything embroidered.

Things Trip does not like to chew:
- His own toys.

He's like ... 80% housetrained, but as a result of the hurricanes is afraid of wind, so he won't go outside if it's windy or raining. Which it mostly has always been. So he has TOO MUCH PUPPY ENERGY inside the house, and therefore the house is getting rapidly ruined and the space that we all inhabit is getting rapidly smaller as we opt not to let the dog into any of the bedrooms or the den full of antiques.

His trainer is pretty sure he'll still be able to be my PTSD and anxiety dog, but he has to get trained out of his anxiety behavior first.