The Insanity Continues

Man has it been a year! And we're only twelve days in.

This all started the week of Christmas.

The Monday before Christmas, myself and most of the employees of my company came in to find we no longer had access to Kronos, the website we use as our time clock. One of my teammates, AR, found what we thought was a work around. Late afternoon, we received notice that the issue had been fixed.

What caused the issue to begin with? Someone at corporate decided it would be a good idea to change our legal name two weeks before not only month end, but quarter end, and YEAR end. It broke literally everything to do with payroll for several people.

My manger was on vacation, so I had to get her boss to approve my timecard changes for Monday and that was an ordeal all on its own.

We get paid weekly but my bank will give me access to my pay on Thursday unless it's a holiday, then I have access on Wednesday. This is important for later.

With the chaos of the issues with Kronos, and working late so I could leave early Wednesday, I forgot to check if my timecard was submitted/approved. The only reason I realized this, while driving to my mother's house Wednesday afternoon for Christmas, is because my check hadn't been deposited in my account.

I had been checking all morning, but it wasn't until early afternoon that I realized the reason the deposit wasn't showing. So, I called AR (she's in charge of our team when W is on vacation) and asked her if she knew who I needed to contact about it. That had her realizing she hadn't checked if her timecard was submitted/approved after the Kronos issue was fixed.

She said she could see her stub, so it looks like payroll has a failsafe for when this happens/someone forgets to submit their timecard.

I wasn't able to check right then, since I was, ya know, DRIVING, I thanked her and when I got to my parents, I used my dad's computer to look in Kronos. And, sure enough, there was my stub.

I fully expected my check to be deposited on Thursday, but it wasn't deposited until Friday.

Then the next week, my paycheck wasn't in my account on Wednesday, AGAIN. I went into Kronos and made sure my banking information was correct and saw that my paycheck was for $.00! I contacted payroll and asked about it. Their response, when it came (hours later) was on the rude side. I had been checking Kronos every hour and the response basically said I must be blind because it's there. And it was. And they started taking the new insurance amount. On a check for hours worked in 2025, they took the insurance premiums for 2026. I was like what?! But didn't feel like questioning it; it was only a difference of $.34 so not really that big a deal.

So, I figured my check would be deposited on Friday like the week before. But it was not. I crashed the fuck out!

I, once again, checked my banking information, then emailed payroll, and then called my bank. I felt like they weren't understanding of my issue and said that I'd be getting a new bank. Turns out they weren't at fault, at all. Once I figured out the real issue, I called the back to cancel the claim they had opened to look into the issue.

Several hours passed and payroll hadn't responded, so I sent a teams message. THAT's when they responded.

The reason my check hadn't been deposited? My banking information didn't transfer correctly so a paper check was printed and mailed to the corporate office. In Virginia. And they would overnight it to me. Later that day. I fretted until I had that check in my hands because I needed to pay rent.

At some point Friday, I realized that I should let my apartment office know about this issue. I have never in my whole adult life paid my rent late, nor have I ever asked for an extension. I've also been a good tenant while living here. Based on all that, my office agreed that they would waive the late fee THIS ONE TIME should I need it. Luckily, I didn't need it.

FedEx delivered my check midday Saturday, so I was able to pay my rent on time.

I went into this year fully planning on getting back to not only eating properly (when I went to the store, I bought a bunch of diet food, so I have been eating better), but getting up and walking, making my bed, and possibly getting dressed. But with this go round of Mounjaro (my doctor increased it to 7.5), I have been having massive leg cramps. And I can't sleep in my bed for more than a couple of hours. So, last week I wasn't feeling it.

Through all this, I have been impatiently waiting for reveals of fandomtrees (three people gifted me this year!) but they have been delayed a week (so far). I wrote a sequel to First Kiss. It will also be two chapters, but I'm having trouble with the second one. It's almost as if Derek and Stiles don't want to have this particular conversation.

And on top of all THAT! I am having difficulty responding to the snowflake challenge questions. And I mean all of them. This has never been an issue before.

I've also been trying to get myself motivated to clean my apartment, I'm planning on moving when my lease is up in August and do not want to have to lie about just coming out of a depressive episode to explain how messy it is. Along with that, I bought my first Christmas tree in about twenty years this year and did what decorating of my place that I could (I don't have much). When I opened my water heater closet to get the few decorations I have, I found two HUGE mounds of dirt on either side of the water tank and what I'm afraid might be rodent droppings. *shudder* Now, I have yet to actually see a mouse/rat, but that doesn't mean there isn't/wasn't one. Before I can put Christmas away (there is no way my tree will fit back in the box since I cannot remove the legs), I need to clean the water heater closet. But the thought of that scares me a bit because I don't know what those mounds of dirt are.

And, several months ago, I had to get rid of my iPod and while reorganizing my playlist on my phone, I accidentally deleted it. And I cannot find the energy to rebuild it. I mean, all my songs are still in my iTunes account, it's just my playlist that's gone. A playlist that had nearly five THOUSAND songs.

Why yes, I am the girl who puts her songs in a specific order so that it plays like a concert, why do you ask? ;-P

All this to say, each week is a new opportunity to start over.

I had been hoping to say that I got up and walked this morning but I can't.

After sleeping for nearly four hours, I got up and my back hurt so much, I had to walk bent over. Then I couldn't fall back to sleep until nearly 4am. It's a good thing I chose not to walk this morning because I woke up just after 7am feeling ill.

But tomorrow's another day.

I bought myself a Christmas tree a week ago and put it up this weekend. I purposely got a 4' tree so I could decorate it easily. It barely comes up to my shoulders. I have it on the wet bar right now and my mom is giving me a small table to put it on. I plan on buying a 5' tree next year and putting this one in my room unless I have a two bedroom apartment and then I'll put it in my office.

Last week, we were told that B is being laid off come January 2. Then today, we were told that we have a new employee starting. And when you look at the org chart, there are two new names (the one introduced today and one other) under my manager's name. It looks like they're both located in India and this worries me that the whole company is being sent overseas but even if they're not, I fear I'm going to be let go next because the reason given for letting B go is that the company is downsizing.

The new person who was introduced today is replacing a member we lost last month (she was sent to a different team) which keeps us at six until B's last day. So, maybe the other new person is to keep us at six, which W has said she prefers?

Whatever the reason for this is, the optics look very bad considering that B is still here and she was included on the email about the new person!

I don't understand why my blood pressure is so high when it was in the normal range at the doctor on Thursday.

Reveals for fandomgiftbasket took place Sunday. I received three gifts. One in Stargate Atlantis (possible John/Evan), one in Teen Wolf (possible Stiles/Derek), and one in Hawaii Five-0 (2010) (possible Steve/Danny). Please take a look if you're so inclined (they are locked to registered users only). I think they are fabulous. If you agree, don't hesitate to let the authors know.

And I wrote something in Teen Wolf (definite Stiles/Derek). It was originally supposed to be just the first chapter but when reveals were pushed the first time, I got the idea for the second chapter. Of course, the idea was already kinda, sorta, there by the time I finished the first chapter but when the delay happened, I just couldn't say no and not write it.

The person I wrote it for has already let me know they've read it at least twice. They told me that they had had a rough week last week and my gift made them feel better. Their comment made my day. The hardest part about writing for someone else, especially in a situation such as this where you have to wait for gifts to be revealed at a specific time, is waiting to see how the recipient likes it.

Sometimes our internal reporting system glitches and some sites don't poll. When this happens the importing doesn't go through and we have to manually key those sites. This happened this morning but the import eventually went through. At 10:30.

My manager has decided that we will not be importing until 10:30 from now on. When we only have one day to 'key' this isn't a problem for me. But I'm the only one who said I already struggle to get everything done. Which isn't the whole truth.

Some weeks, I'm done with my VIPs by 9:30 on Monday. And some weeks it's nearly 11. I just never know when I'm going to have one of those mornings where concentrating is difficult.

When we first started having some of our sites imported, it was at 8 or 8:30. Then it was pushed to 9 because some sites didn't upload into our internal reporting system until then.

I was having to sit and twiddle my thumbs so much before that I pushed my start time back to 8 so that it would be closer to 9 when I was ready to 'key' my imported VIP sites. Now they want me to wait until 10:30!? Excuse me, but no.

Also, I've been told to off load a couple of my VIP sites to one of my coworkers who for whatever reason only has one VIP. While I don't mind that, it means I will now have fifty-five sites and I already struggle with having enough work Wednesday-Friday every week.

Plus, not being able to 'key' the imported sites until 10:30 means that I have to change the order I key all my sites in. Right now I 'key' my VIP sites first because they HAVE to be current four days a week, then 'key' my imported sites, and then key the sites that do not import.

I know exactly how long I need to key each section so that come Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I know when I can stop keying to read my book, watch TikTok, or mess around on the internet. If I have to change the order I key, this will mess all that up.

Not to mention, when will W process for the draft? Right now she does it around 11. But if we cannot 'key' our imported VIPs until 10:30 she might not be able to at that time. And there are times she has to process early and she DEFINITELY won't be able to do that if we cannot 'key' our imported VIPs until 10:30.

Plans for the weekend:
My oldest niece married her girlfriend on Saturday so I didn't plan to do anything.

The ceremony was lovely and after we went to lunch at Olive Garden where my nephew-in-law (he's married to one of the sisters of the one who got married) paid for everyone. I didn't find this out until I tried to pay. Turns out everyone already knew. Did he tell them he was going to do it? Did his wife text everyone during dinner but not me?

I already know that my family doesn't like me and I am frequently the butt of their jokes but SOMEONE could have told me when I started asking for the little computer thing to pay my bill instead of waiting until I started getting upset that I couldn't click on the tab marked 'pay'.

I totally planned to get up and walk this morning. I even told myself I should just stay up when I got up to pee at 4 but I didn't. I did take a shower and make my bed, though. So I guess that's something.

I'm quite upset that my blood pressure has gotten so high again. And I'm surprised that my glucose isn't through the roof. I bought some Drumstick ice cream cones at the store yesterday. And ate them all.

Plans for the weekend:
Laundry
What got done:
Most of the laundry. I have two loads that still need to be folded and put away.

I am a part of the fandomgiftbasket community here on DreamWidth and for the past couple of years, I have not had anything to gift because my muse was AWOL. But this year, I got an idea for a prompt and wrote it in just a few hours. I posted it several weeks ago and have been not so patiently waiting for reveal day. Only for that day to come and the mods to say that it is being pushed back a week because not every 'basket' has two gifts. *pout*

BUT, this has given me time to write the second part that started bugging me recently.

Only it's not going so well.

See, the person I've gifted this to has first person POV listed on their 'Do Not Want' list and I have never written a sex scene in third person. In fact, I started writing in first person back when I wrote my first ever slash sex scene because I have a hard time keeping track of body parts!

I'm hoping to have it finished this weekend but I don't think I will.

Around 4 yesterday, the maintenance guy I really like showed up to look at my AC unit. Turns out that the drain line was clogged. Now, the drain pan might have been loose, but the actual issue was the clogged line. Mario cleaned it and we're all good now.

I forgot to take a picture of my glucose before I removed the test strip and that's why the screen is white instead of black.

I'm guessing my glucose has been high for so long that when it is closer to 100 my body reads it as a low glucose episode because I'm feeling slightly dizzy.

Plans for the weekend:
Clean my room
What got done:
My room! All of it. I even washed the mattress pad. Although, I didn't vacuum as well as I could have, nor did I dust my dresser very well. But in my defense, both were done late in the day (dresser Friday night and vacuuming last night before bed).

I had every intention of getting up this morning and exercising, I paid for a 28 day chair yoga plan and have yet to use it, but my body had other plans. I had been in bed just under an hour when I got massive charlie horses in both legs. They lasted just long enough that I was more awake than sleepy so I watched Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (although I should watch it again because I dozed off during part of it) and a couple of episodes of a series from a couple of years ago about a family that bought a funeral home to turn into their house. I finally forced myself to go to sleep around midnight.

BUT! I did take a shower this morning and made my bed, too!

I forgot to mention earlier that I received my electric bill for August and it is not as high as I was expecting. I was seriously expecting my bill to be $200+ but it was only $169.67. So, that's good.