The Anticipation Is Making Me Crazy(er)

Every day, sometimes several times a day someone asks "Did you get a letter yet?"

Nobody can say for sure if they have sent them out or not or when they will. And every day I go out and get the mail with a little knot of anxiety in the pit of my stomach.

I'd like to promote... I think. I suspect that I would be at least competent at it and at best I might just keep someone from getting hurt. The worst thing that could happen is someone will say "Hey, you really suck at this, dude."

I just want them to send out the dang letters so I'll know if I get an interview and then get the interview over with.

After that, waiting for their decision will be a cake walk. That will be the easy part. I know I'll be up against some stiff competition. The Watcher and Abel and Stubby and T. Wayne and Miz Havoc on days. More of them I can't think of right at the moment. Plus anybody that might try to transfer from another camp. I don't really look at them as "competition". I look at them (the ones from here, anyway) as friends who are trying to promote at the same time as I am.

Personally I hope they all make it and I will be happy if and when they do.

I just want to get the preliminaries over with. It's making me crazy.

Here's the weekend lineup:
Saturday: National Pizza With The Works Except Anchovies Day, National Gaming Day and National Domino Day.

Sunday: National Indian Pudding Day, International Tongue Twister Day and World Kindness Day.

Monday: Operation Room Nurse Day, Loosen Up And Lighten Up Day, National American Teddy Bear Day, National Girls Day and National Guacamole Day.

Hmm... Girls, teddy bears and guacamole? Sounds like fun!

Waiting To Breathe

It was my last day of work before my vacation started. I was in the 2-10 spot in 4 house thinking to myself "Okay, I can coast through this day and then I'm off. No big deal. I can get out of here before count time and be home."

And for the most part, that was how my day went.

Did some wing walks. We were all caught up on cell searches for the month so I didn't have to worry about those. Went down to dining and did some pat searches for awhile then walked around inside the chow hall.

So far so good.

One of the many (too many) Assistant Wardens came up into the bubble and hung out for awhile. Not on any kind of mission, it seems, just doing a routine walk through and killing time until he could go home. That wasn't bad.

Right after he left I was thinking about going to do another wing walk when Gums got up and said he was doing one so I decided to jump on the 'puter and clear out my email. I usually get about ten to fifteen emails a day on the system at work. 99% of them are complete garbage to me and I delete them sight unseen. I mean, what do I care if the fax machine in District 9 is broken? But they still send those out to everybody in the state, then another one later to say it's fixed. What a bunch of........ snap.

I'm going to be off for the next nine days so I figured any emails I could clean out of my inbox before I left would be that much less I had to deal with when I got back.

It's a good thing I went and looked. I'm in recert training the first two days off vacation.

Oh joy!

I have nine days where I can sleep in and then two days where I have to be up by six a.m. and in by eight. Nifty. Ah, well.

I was thinking "If that's the worst news I get, I'm okay."

Then Lt Gerber calls me and says "You have to go up to 1 house and relieve Miz Maybe. She's sick and has to go home."

So I toddle on up there and get her out of the house. Then I look around. There's no sergeant and it's just me and Chopper and Galahad in the house. And Chopper and I are both in the 2-10 slot. Oops.

I can't leave with only one person in the house, so I call Gerber and offer to stay late of he needs me. He says "No, I got it covered, I think. Maybe. If nothing happens."

Mr Peepers rolls in the door as Chopper heads out at 9:45. Me, I'm still waiting, wondering if I'm going to be here for awhile. I still can't leave. It takes three people to count. Two to count and one to open the doors.

Finally somebody rolls in from a house on B-side at 9:55. With five minutes to spare. Whew! Peepers takes over the bubble and I'm relieved! Yay! It was a close call.

So my vacation has officially begun. Nine glorious days with nothing to do but some woodworking projects and replacing the living room carpet with laminate flooring.

Oh boy isn't that going to be fun! Maybe I'll take some before and after pictures for you.

Let's check the calendar before I toddle off to bed, shall we?

Oh... crap. Well... Saturday is National Corn Chip Day, which isn't too bad. I like corn chips as much as the next guy. But Sunday is Escape Day. Oh man, I'm glad I'm not going to be there for that one! Yikes!