Everything fun is wrong? Yes, it is.

I'm in shock. I purchased a pack of cigarettes on Wednesday. It's now Saturday afternoon and I still have one to smoke. It is my last, but after 72 hours... Well, I should have -40 cigarettes left in this pack. Instead, I have this final cigarette in the pack. Don't misunderstand: I'm not quitting. At least, I'm not consciously quitting. But, I have slowed down drastically and not even on purpose. It's weird. I don't know why this is happening, but I'm pleasantly surprised. If I can make a pack last three days instead of only one, then a full carton of cigarettes could possibly last for an entire month. That's madness and extreme savings. Instead of paying in excess of $150, I'll only be shelling out about $50. This is madness. I keep saying that, but it's true. This is madness. Now that I'm actually thinking about it, the pack before this one lasted about as long. So, it's not a fluke. It's more of a phase, I suppose. Although, I'm not sure what prompted it and what is maintaining it. I haven't been suffering through cravings either. Sometimes, lately, I simply forget to remember to want - or need - to smoke. Bizarre.

I did some cardio yesterday. It was a moderate program. I have a goal, too. I would like to try to lose 70 pounds in 7 months. It's intense and ambitious and probably insane and impossible, too. But, I'm going to give it a shot. Anyway, regardless of how achievable/impossible my goal proves to be, I'm definitely going to get an exercise program going and make it part of the routine. We'll see if I'm still at by the time my birthday rolls around again. Like everything else, I get obsessed about something only until I lose interest or get distracted by the next thing. Worth a try, anyway.

You may have noticed that I recycled a former pup background and updated it a bit. I really enjoy that stuff. Alot of my creativity is abstract, so being able to work with something slightly more concrete and immediately observable is lovely.

Since nothing ever came out of the whole third roommate thing, I've moved my bed into what used to be the upstairs office and has now become my sleeping room. Everything else remains in my actual room, which I will no longer refer to as my bedroom since there is no longer a bed in it. Actually, I might refer to the room I moved my bed into as my bedroom or sleeping room - whichever. The other room will just be my other room. The room my bed used to be in is directly over the garage and becomes about as cold as it is outside during the winter months - despite the efforts Nurse Egg and I have made to heat it. So, it's almost November and that room has become a walk-in freezer. So, now I have a sleeping room that's actually warm enough to sleep in.

Just a moment. Marco Polo is growling at me. He very rarely ever barks. If there's a sudden knock at the door or other very loud disturbance, he might bark. Otherwise, he just growls or whines. If he is trying to get my attention, he will growl to alert me to his needs. Usually his only need is going outside, so that's what we'll be doing for a few moments. I'm also going to smoke my final cigarette from this pack. Very, very exciting. Be right back.

I've consumed nearly 500 ml. of coffee from this enormous mason jar. The conversion rate equates this to about 2.5 cups or 20 oz. I'm freakishly energized now. Goodness me. I'm giggling for absolutely no reason at all. Wow. Yes, I'm doing more cardio this afternoon. I'm an atomic riot.

I've been working through my Netflix queue at the behest of Nurse Egg. She thinks we have to consider this with quite a deal of urgency. We've been rapidly watching everything from Gordon Ramsay to Hoarders to Walking Dead. We watch far less movies than television episodes. It's what we do.

I start work on Monday. This will be my fourth new hire orientation of the year. Fortunately, that's as ridiculous as that number is going to get since the technical level of this job will require a training schedule lasting into the beginning of next year. Still, that's four times the number of orientations that I would have liked to sit through. It's also four times the amount of human resources paperwork I would have liked to fill out. Anyway, I'm semi-excited to be starting a job yet again and absolutely excited that I will be employed at least until next year. I do not enjoy job hunting. Interviews I don't mind so much. I'm brilliant at job interviews. That's the easy part to me. Getting these bastards to call and ask for an interview in the first place, that's the worst for me. It's absolutely aggravating. I'd almost prefer them to call and say I'm ridiculously unqualified for the position or they just don't see a point in interviewing someone with my tragic employment history for the past year. I'd prefer either of those to no response at all. I don't want to nag them. I wouldn't want to be nagged constantly. It's one thing to be enthusiastic and driven about pursuing employment. It's quite another thing to be obsessed or seemingly entitled about it. Maybe that's just my experience in management and dealing with staffing needs and the entire applicant process, but I can't possibly imagine someone in management would actually want a potential applicant to practically stalk them in order to seriously consider hiring them. Ridiculous, but that may be just my limited perspective. I don't know. I don't get it. Anyway, I'm starting work on Monday. Semi-excited.

I haven't had too much to do with the family lately. Honestly, I haven't had anything at all to do with them. I've been entirely focused on the employment situation. They're a distraction. They are a huge distraction. I'm sure I'll see them for one of the upcoming holidays, if not both. Oh shit. I just realized that I'll be here for two major holidays. I will be expected to attend these family functions. Oh shit. What a disaster. That just ruined my day. That should be a fantastically horrifying and hilarious series of posts to expect. Lucky us. You don't have to live through it, though. Yeah, I do. Awesome. Probably going to be drunk for that, if possible.

Well, that was quite an update. Decent post here. Outstanding.

My dog is cuter than yours.

Fantastic news! Marco Polo is officially one of the cutest pets of Trumbull County (out of the 76 that entered the contest). He placed sixth, overtaking his arch nemesis "Spa Day" in the final week of the contest - which greatly pleased his owner. Nurse Egg had a serious vendetta against "Spa Day". I honestly didn't think it was going to be even remotely possible to close the gap of 300 or 400 votes that "Spa Day" consistently lead by. But, I think they had a similar mentality and just gave up on the final week of voting. That was a mistake, because we won't stop no matter how impossible the odds are. The more certain our defeat, the stronger our resolve to fight against it. We are stubborn and thick headed, which makes us formidable opponents indeed especially when we combine forces. Anyway, Nurse Egg is thrilled to death.

Unfortunately, the newspaper did not contact her until today to let her know she had to appear in person at the newspaper office to claim her prize (two tickets to Disney's Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever!) by 6pm. Also, the show is tomorrow. Well, Nurse Egg was nursing until at least 6pm and no one else could claim the tickets in her place. Also, Nurse Egg's (second step/adoptive) mother is in the hospital in Cleveland being treated for a brain tumor. So, she had already asked for and received the weekend off, but she had very specific plans to spend the entire weekend at the hospital. So, basically, she won a prize she can't use. Fortunately, it wasn't really about the prize for her. She just wanted some external validation that her pet was not only cute, but one of the cutest in the county. I don't know why this matters so much, but it apparently does. Hurray, I guess.

Thinking of reverting back to an older design for this page. It's been a few years since I've changed the layout for this blog. I'll probably already have that done by the time you read this, but I've just been browsing my photobucket albums while posting and found an old background from the pup days. Those were good times. I was a raving, posting lunatic back then.

Nurse Egg wants a house. The condo is a little expensive and we could definitely rent a house or pay a mortgage for far less than what we're splitting now. So, we've been looking. We've walked through several properties. Nothing has wowed either of us yet. We've liked things about a few of them, but we also hated things about those same properties. Anyway, Nurse Egg already spoke to her bank and has been pre-approved for a loan/mortgage. Whatever, I don't know anything about this stuff. It's all very exciting, though. Well, except for the part about committing to living in Ohio permanent like. Horrifying thought, that. Yikes. But, it might be happening.