In which I’m trying to become a night person because I don’t have Bread around waking my ass up at the asscrack of dawn. Ack!

I’m online, which means I’m back at the coffee shop. It’s four in the afternoon, and I did not make it to the unemployment office today but I have a meeting shortly with Seminar Crowds for a possible temp job in their IT department, so I feel only mildly guilty about not doing what I said I’d do today.

NLW and the ever-gorgeous Mr. J took me with them to Scrottumwa the other night for a dinner/movie date. We ate at Applebees and saw the new Pirates movie. One word, people: Johnny motherfucking Depp. Rowr!

Sunday I lazed around most of the day, but I did manage to get all three dogs washed. What a chore! Dog-washing makes you sore in weird places, because you end up standing hunched over in weird positions trying to wash their armpits and things. All three dogs are still totally, utterly lousy with fleas. I’ve got Shiva on children’s benadryl and a topical wound treatment and he seems to be feeling marginally better, but he’s still bald and all three dogs are still squinching themselves constantly. I’m going to try to find some diatomaceous earth and dust the hell out of them with it.

Last evening Gorgeous called and invited me to pizza at her place with her and her daughter and AmmZon. I hopped in the shower to get the dog hair and mud off, then dressed and drove to town. Daughter was grounded and had to stay in her room cleaning. Gorgeous and AmmZon and I played Scrabble, then moved to the basement and played Yahtzee!. (I love Yahtzee!, I truly do.) AmmZon left at midnight to go can pickles and relish with her aunt (they do that in her family, put up preserves in the middle of the night when it’s cooler); Gorgeous and I stayed up until a quarter to three and she caught me up on all the juicy gossip (fights, breakups, hookups) — and she had to work in the morning! I drove home. The dogs greeted me as if I’d been gone three weeks instead of six hours and then I cranked up the A/C and crashed.

Today I got up and fed the dogs and had some breakfast, but since I’d slept in I decided to hang out a bit before going to town because I didn’t want to get to the unemployment office during the lunch hour when they’d be closed. I went back upstairs to the bedroom because it’s SO GODDAMNED HOT AND STICKY AND MISERABLE OUT RIGHT NOW, OMFG and the bedroom is air conditioned…

…and fell asleep. Which is why I’m so damn late making it to town.

I spoke with Bread today. The guys have moved to another company and are now selling roofs for MR ROOF. Bread said the new company needed a combo secretary/IT person and asked if I was interested, but I said I wasn’t sure. “I can’t tell if it’s just the Fairfield vortex or a real intuition, but I feel like I should stay here and live in our house and take care of our THREE DOGS AND CAT rather than go get a ten-dollar-an-hour office job in Indianapolis.” He said I should think about it, mentioned that the guys had a line on a house to rent out there, and then we talked about our overdue bills. He said he’d make some calls and get me some cash in a day or two. I guess he’s going to ask either SF or his mom for enough to cover the car insurance and truck payment for now because he’s not expecting a check for another two weeks.

So, I feel rather lame for not making it to the unemployment office today, but I’ll be there with bells on tomorrow morning because I plan on not staying up until nearly three talking my face off. (I’m such a night person; I really need very little schedule deviation to find myself sleeping all day and staying up all night. I just lean that way. Left to my own devices I find it harder and harder to get up at seven or eight. Knowing this, I’ll have to nip it in the bud immediately and go to bed on time tonight and get up on time tomorrow. Either that or just get a damned night job already.)

I’m so far behind on my blogroll it’s absurd, but I’m never online lately. I miss you all and will get caught up eventually, and your comments her make me all warm and fuzzy. I miss my IM buddies too – you know who you are! *smooch* Soon I’ll get my shit back together and will resume my virtual life on the Internet, yea verily.

On the subject of friends, I’d like to gush again. Since I’ve been back I’ve been surrounded by awesome women who have offered me everything imaginable: companionship, friendship, meals if I need them (they all know how broke I am right now), support, help finding a job, and love. Raybo stocked my fridge with several meals, Gorgeous fed me last night and got me a meeting at her company, Nanner told me to come by and eat at her place whenever I need to. It’s enough to make a girl mist up a little. Not to dork out too totally, but it makes me feel all squishy inside and I’m abjectly grateful.

Here’s to the benefits of hard times! It helps you remember what really matters. Now, if I can avoid filing bankruptcy, that would be totally hot.