I sold the Renoir and the TV set

I’ve had a busy week.  It wasn’t *supposed* to have been a busy week, but it turned out that way.  Everyone was *supposed* to be all occupied with a conference (at which our program was, well, involved in about a million different ways—everything from playing host to presenting crap, to directing tourists to the bathrooms, regardless of whose group you belong in).  Of course, I bowed out of all of the hostie stuff, ‘cos I have things to do, and can maybe actually GET THEM DONE FOR ONCE with everyone occupied.  Them all being this occupied meant that I was free to do all of the little petty things I am usually too busy to do, like actually getting signatures instead of forging them (oh, let’s not talk about that—it’s all in the past, really), having two THREE HOUR LONG WITH NO BREAK sit-down talks with DURR about the state of Job II’s union, fixing everything DURR wanted fixed (even if it isn’t mine), writing this, and that, and other stuff, and sleeping once or twice.  That sort of thing.  Plus going out to this conference (which was fairly local sort-of, which is why We-Alls were playing hostie and asked to volunteer to be on thrilling projects like the Coffee Kitty Committee…screw it; we were the slave labour) and listening to people talk and trying to not fall asleep because I’d only had three hours’ worth of sleep the night before.  

‘Pants was there—she came in especially for this ‘cos this is the last round of stuff with us that she has her name on, and plus her new advisor has authored like, ten books in this field, so she had to go with her new group, besides.  But she ended up hanging around me for the whole time, ‘cos I’m cooler.  ;-)  Seriously though, she was with me 98% of the time, and it wasn’t unpleasant.  She’s changing, and I’m happy about that.  Well, at least I *hope* she’s changing; I *think* she’s changing.  We had a couple of decent snack minutes and liquid lunches in this beautiful area there, and that was nice.  And she got a kick out of the stupidity, which she has the luxury of doing now that it’s not affecting her directly.  Go to hell, ‘Pants, and I mean that with love.  

Butsoanyway.

And it’s annoying, but I also had to show up at some really boring-ass presentations (think: Planning to Plan and Seventy-eight Reasons Why Dust Is Your Friend) for purely political, “who loves you, baby?” reasons.  Those are the worst of all, ‘cos you want to fall asleep the most.  They suck.  If they’re boring (which they all too often are), the lack of sensory input to your ears results in you focussing on things like how numb your butt is getting, how your feet aren’t comfortable in any position, how hungry you are, how much you are paying for parking, &c.  

Plus, I was looking forward to getting away from the convention centre off and on because some things were just too brutal to have to face.  Whether it was the weird guy who kept making comments that were a little quasi-perverse and asking me if I wanted to go swimming (no, I am not kidding) to wanting to duck-and-cover after one of our group’s presentations, ‘cos I had nothing to do with it and I thought it went horribly, and it was clear that A Certain Person was talking out of her ass, and yet here she’s got our project’s RCMP logo on her presentation…oy, vey.  Made me just want to run out with the presentation schedule in front of my face, saying “No pictures! No comments!”   Notes scribbled with ‘Pants read,

Ancodia:  omg, pls tell me she didn’t just say that!
‘Pants:  Holy shit
Ancodia:  get me out of here!  they know I’m with her!
‘Pants:  Holy fucking shit!!!!
Ancodia:  omg omg omg why won’t she shut up?!?
‘Pants:  Oh, this is bad
Ancodia:  why in the hell did you let me sit up here? we can’t sneak out!
‘Pants:  That was your idea to be supportive, not mine.  
Ancodia:  oh, shut up.

Aha!  *That* is why they gave me this conference bag—to hide my head in!  :-) They should cut eyeholes in them.  Bastards.  

And naturally, *my* stuff has the same logo, don’chano.  

So on the last day, today, I went out early; the plan was to wear a wig and fake moustache (ok, I’m kidding) go to two lectures, and then go get roaring drunk for a few hours with ‘Pants in a nearby Overpriced Hotel Bar, then maybe go walk around and make asses of ourselves, and maybe hit their local mall or something and drink some more.

Like I need to go shopping whilst drunk.  Yeah.

Then I remembered as I was driving out there this morning that I *can’t* do shit, ‘cos I have to leave at two to drive back to campus to talk about What Ancodia is Doing to a smaller undergrad “lab group” (I wouldn’t call it that, but whatever), something I volunteered to do about a month ago. ‘cos they need the experience, or whatever.  Long story.  Anyway, I had remembered it faithfully for all this time, to have it slip my mind at the last second.  Typical.

Butsoanyway.

And I *needed* to get drunk, ‘cos I’ve put a billion miles on my car this week, I’ve sat through things that have been hellish, and I had to put up with Sophie’s stupidity and temper tantrum, which is an epic novel in itself.  I’ll write about that later.  

So my week just vanished, I’ve little to show for it ‘cept this nice commemorative bag that I have poked eyeholes in whilst sitting in the back row of a lecture using one of the gift envelope openers one of the vendors was handing out, and I didn’t get to get drunk.  Phooey.

And I have to get to sleep, so that I can get to Eviljob tomorrow.  Oh, hell.