EXHAUSTED

As some may recall, I have chronic insomnia. This is quite possibly one of the most frustrating conditions a person can have. Not sleeping leads to stress, memory loss, and the complete inability to deal with things rationally. I can usually fall asleep okay, but some.damn.thing wakes me up in the middle of the night every night. As soon as my feeble brain realizes I'm semi-conscious, it starts running - "Hey, you're up! Here's a bunch of stuff to worry about! Annnnd...GO!"

I have yet to find a way to turn off the ongoing chatter in my head. Crossword puzzles, books, and Bejeweled on my cell phone don't work at all. Going downstairs to watch TV sometimes works, but not always. I think that option just exchanges one set of mind-ramblings for another.

Suggestions would be most welcomed.

Work has been a PITA this week and last. We've hired several new people, and with the amount of money I'm going to be forking out on payroll, they'd better be reeeeeeally good. Anyone who doesn't measure up will be fired within their first week here. I don't have the time nor the money to waste on people who aren't getting the job done.

Kids are doing great. Ry has been nominated for NJHS, and I'm so proud of him. He is growing up much, much too fast.

Hubby has joined Facebook, which bugs me for some reason. I have a stupid stalker, so I don't want to join myself. Maybe I'm projecting.

Maybe I'm exhausted.

Yeah, that's it.

STUFF

• Dai, thanks for the link to the article. The Houston Chronicle had one that said similar things about resellers being exempted from lead testing. Sadly, both articles are outdated and have been replaced with "oops, my bad." The bottom line, apparently, is that the CPSC has the right to cause widespread panic among retailers while they sit back and do nothing. Asses.

• TMEA conference in San Antonio was fantastic. I am so proud of those kids - they've been practicing that music for two years, and it showed. I'm even going to order the DVD version of the concert this time. Never done that before, as I always found it silly to spend $25 a pop on someone else's videotaping. Alas, I forgot my camcorder this time, so suddenly it's not quite so silly.

• Gary (my business partner, y'all - I blogged just a few short months ago; how could you have forgotten?) and I have spent this week interviewing candidates for eBay, warehouse, and merchandising positions. My butt is sore from sitting so long. And my back isn't appreciating me right now, either. Yesterday I was wracked with spasms on the lower right side of my back; today it's still sore, but not nearly as painful.

• K had to wear his ROTC uniform today (every Thursday, oohRAH). He also has to act out the part of Marc Antony in english class today, which means he has to put on a toga over his uniform. He was working on it this morning, and it was hard for me to stifle all my giggles. Love you, kiddo, but you looked ridiculous.

• Ry has been nominated for National Junior Honor Society. That's my boy.

• Pey is enjoying all the downtime from choir right now. She's still in violin two days a week, but gets to sleep in an extra half hour the other three days. She loves making up her own fashions, which makes for ... interesting ... clothing choices. I've pretty much bitten a hole right through my lip.

• Hubby spent time practicing for a Wii bowling tourney his office is having. Then he found out that his left-handedness would be a drawback. So he hasn't gotten to play yet. I've sure enjoyed all the bowling we've been doing at home, though - hubby and I are both Pros now.

• Lots of Wii-time makes you hurt every.damn.where. I'm just sayin'.

• Our nephew Drew turned one yesterday. Happy burr-day, baby boy! We love you!

• Better get back to calling all these interviewees. Please, someone, send me the right people so I can stop doing this. Bleh.

UP AT THE CRACK OF DAWN

As I type this, it is 5:45 a.m. and Pey is on her way to school to catch the butt-early bus to San Antonio. I've been up since the alarm went off at 5:00. I am a chronic insomniac, but of course last night was the first night in weeks that I didn't wake up in the middle of the night. So the 5:00 a.m. wake-up call was an unwelcome one.

Despite my grogginess, I'm very excited for Pey's choir. She woke up in a very good mood (it probably doesn't hurt that she gets to miss school for this) and is pretty stoked about today. She will get to ride home with her dad and me instead of taking the bus all the way back to Houston, which should be fun for her.

This post is probably not grammatically correct.

So, yesterday sucked.

1 - The old eBay person sent me an email stating that I had no right to hold her last paycheck despite the fact she signed a contract. I wasn't going to keep the check forever; just until she came in and wrapped up her obligations. Which would have taken her all of fifteen minutes. I've got an attorney backing me up, so whatevs, beyotch.

2 - The new eBay person has worked 36 hours over the past week. During that time, she cleaned up the office (one hour) and inventoried 102 eBay items (six - SIX hours!). The latter would have taken me two hours, tops, as most of it was clothing. She spent two hours shipping out items that I asked her to ship. Actually, I had told her to ship every item that had sold. She stopped at six items for some reason. When I asked her the next day if she had completed the shipping, she said "no." I told her she had to finish all the shipping, which is when she copped an attitude with me and got very rude. She said "you told me to stop shipping and put up some listings instead." When I asked her specifically when I told her to stop shipping, she said "yesterday afternoon." I told her no, I did not tell her to stop, and in fact I had repeatedly told her to get it done. She then started whining about being confused and said that I "just didn't understand." By the way, she worked four full days before I told her to get everything shipped. During that time, she took several pictures but did not put up one.single.listing. Not one. So now I'm out a week's salary on this loser, and have pretty much nothing to show for it.

3 - New eBay person was subsequently fired. She left a letter stating that she "regretted the time she spent working for us." Newsflash: We regret it, too.

4 - Yesterday one of the new guys (Andy) at the store messed up the computer, and I had to go up there late last night to fix it. He should have just picked up the phone when the mistake happened and let us know. He didn't, and it cost me and Gary valuable time and aggravation trying to rectify the problem.

There were more crappy things that happened yesterday, but I'm too tired to remember it all. I'll post more when I remember. After all, crappy days make better blogs.

Off to San Antonio - Ciao!

CLARIFICATION

Hubby wasn't trying to break my arm the other night. He says he was either dreaming about squishing a bug, or trying not to fall off a mountain. Actually, he put those suggestions out there as possibilities - he has no recollection of the event at all.

Poor guy.

Work has been stressful. We hired an eBay person a couple of months ago, and she did a not-great job. Then she decides she's going to get another job, but still keep the one with us part-time. Then she doesn't show up for a week. Last night I received a Dear John email from her (including, of course, the requisite "let me know when I can come in to pick up my last paycheck."). I fired right back with "you signed a contract, so get in here and finalize these auctions." She'd better show up - I'm in no mood for crap today.

Yesterday we had to purge the store of all kids' toys because of a highly-confusing CPSC ruling about lead testing. As a consignment store, I obviously do not have the money or time to lead-test every item that comes in. At least we sell enough other items that we won't go bankrupt because of this. It's sad, though, that we won't be able to sell toys anymore. Some clothing is on the chopping block, too, but I am not yet sure how we're going to deal with that.

My feet are killing me from all the housecleaning we had to do in the store yesterday. I worked on a concrete floor for about 10 straight hours. Anyone know a good masseuse?

Off to work now. Have a good day, y'all.

Thoughts for the day...

• Pey is going to San Antonio for a choir performance on Friday. Three elementary school choirs out of the state were selected for the TMEA conference, so it's a huge deal. I'm so proud.
• Pey went for the 5th-grade visit to the junior high yesterday. She's starting 6th grade in the fall. For anyone who thinks time doesn't actually fly, well, you're wrong.
  
• Ry is playing guitar now. He's also grown six inches in about four months. Sweetest 12-year-old you'd ever want to meet. Still likes giving hugs and kissses to his parents and grandparents.
  
• K starts driver's ed soon. (See "time flying" reference.) He's a great kid, loves to work out, and at 15 years old and 5'7", he's super helpful to have around the house.
• Happy birthday to my youngest sibling. Tree is 29 today (really, he is). He's dating a superbitch (she'd make GREAT blog fodder), but he is still a good guy. Hopefully he'll see the light soon.
  
• Work is great. And awful. Love my work; frustrated with my staff. Hate being lied to. If you don't understand your job, say so. I'm more than happy to help. Geez.
• I'm so thankful we're not filing for bankruptcy like the rest of America.
• eBay still sucks, but it does help pay the bills.
• Hubby tried to break my arm in his sleep the other night. He does lots of weird stuff in his sleep, but this was the first time he actually hurt me. He didn't mean to, of course, and he feels awful about it. As for me, I'm sleeping with one eye open these days. Heh.
• Less stress in our lives would be much appreciated.
  

More later!