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kindkitI haven't posted in ages, sorry. I've been doing physical therapy twice a week (which is helping a lot, but it's tiring and, since my sessions are on my days off, makes me feel like I never have a day off), plus work has been . . . well, more on that later, and it's all left me with not much energy to spare.
1) I did take a four-day weekend for my birthday. That's the most consecutive days off I've had for a non-medical reason in literally years. It wasn't nearly enough, but I'm needing to save my PTO as much as possible for when I get top surgery.
My birthday also featured takeout from Paper Dosa, a restaurant I've wanted to go try for ages. I got the Dahi Vada (lentil fritters in spicy yogurt sauce, which for some reason has disappeared from the online menu) and the Mysore Chutney Dosa, plus a side of lemon pickle, and it was all delicious.
2) I am officially a candidate for the Board of Directors at the co-op where I work. I think I've mentioned before that my nemesis (the manager who persistently misgendered me, or avoided using pronouns for me at all, and then came over all Cis Woman's Tears* when I got testy about it, to the point where HR got involved) is also running. We shall see--I don't know of anyone who works in the store who wants her on the Board, but she's been there for donkey's years and, as the front end manager, is pals with a bunch of the customers. (All co-op members get a vote. A lot of the staff are NOT members, because employment doesn't include a free membership even though it should. But I know some folks are planning to join just to vote for me.)
But here's the other thing: a few weeks ago, one of the sitting board members resigned, leaving a vacancy that the board could fill by appointment. I applied. Guess who got the job? (Full points if you guessed Nemesis. Nul points if you guessed me.) I know that Nemesis has pals on the board, as well--at a recent meeting one board member mentioned how happy she was the Nemesis was running for the board--and I am seriously irked at this development. Especially because I know they've been wanting an employee board member to take over chairing the Board's Staff Engagement Committee. And apparently it hasn't occurred to any of these fools that having a manager--a manger notorious for micro-managing, petty obstruction, and vindictiveness, not that the board would necessarily know any of that--chairing the staff committee might have a certain chilling effect. There was a Staff Engagement Committee last Tuesday, but given that (a) it was the first day of my long weekend, and (b) I'd just found out about Nemesis's appointment, I didn't have the heart to attend even though I knew I should.
If one of us wins, I hope to god the other loses, because I do not want to serve on the board with Nemesis. Especially since I've heard, from several people, that she's been using her new board member status to bolster her bullying micro-management at work. Her latest feats include dress code enforcement (which has been relaxing ever since the new store manager took over last summer, and since COVID has been largely non-existent) and breaking up employee conversations whenever she sees them. Because our morale isn't low enough, apparently.
(*Cis women's tears = my riff on "white women's tears," a phrase used by Black women activists to describe how when white women are called out for racist behavior, they often weaponize their distress to portray themselves as the injured party. In my case, Nemesis literally got tearful [which I can somewhat sympathize with, as someone who cries easily] and announced that she felt "attacked," which I have no sympathy for whatsoever.)
3) My doctor recently approved switching my testosterone from topical gel to injected, as the gel wasn't doing much but give me horrendous acne on my shoulders, back, and chest. On Tuesday of last week I went in to the clinic and got shown how to do all the prep; today at the follow-up they had me do everything myself, including the injection, which a nurse did last time. I was worried I wouldn't be able to, but actually it wasn't too bad at all. The injection goes into the thigh, which has lots of muscles and not too many nerves, so it wasn't painful. I'm pleased with myself, and very much hoping that I'll start to see real results. (Also, the shoulder acne is clearing up; I think it was an effect of having the hormone directly applied to the skin there. I know I'll still have acne--probably more--but at least it'll be more evenly distributed? Acne is definitely the not-fun part of this; I mourn for how nice my skin used to be. At least the mask hides most of the pimples on my face.)
I'm going to start catching up on some of the question a day meme here, skipping anything I find uninteresting.
August 22: Do you think everything happens for a reason?
No. NO. What a horrible idea. (I mean, I believe in causality, as in "these wildfires and hurricanes are partly a consequence of human-made climate change." But I don't believe in reasons in the sense I think is meant here, as in "these wildfires and hurricanes are some divine force punishing us or trying to teach us a lesson.")
August 25: What three fictional characters (from film, TV, or books) do you most strongly identify with?
At the moment: Martin from The Magnus Archives (the insecure, either trying too hard or not trying at all, attempting to buy love with cups of tea part of myself); Jon from The Magnus Archives (the curmudgeonly, useless with people and often not very fond of them, intellectually snobbish part of myself); and . . . I dunno? As I think through characters I'm hugely invested in, it's often for reasons other than identification as such. Sometimes it's aspiration or admiration, sometimes wanting to be their friend or boyfriend or whatever. And also, most of my fiction intake is genre fiction, and those characters have to be a little bit larger than life, typically, for the story to work. I used to be a slightly bumbling academic like Rupert Giles, but I was never a powerful sorcerer with a dark past like Rupert Giles.
August 28: Do you write in cursive?
Barely even my signature. I was taught cursive in elementary school, but handwriting was always really hard for me (I can't draw or do other stuff requiring fine motor skills, either). I avoid writing by hand when I can, and when it's unavoidable, I write in a weird hybrid of printing with cursive elements for speed. It's often illegible even to me.
1) I did take a four-day weekend for my birthday. That's the most consecutive days off I've had for a non-medical reason in literally years. It wasn't nearly enough, but I'm needing to save my PTO as much as possible for when I get top surgery.
My birthday also featured takeout from Paper Dosa, a restaurant I've wanted to go try for ages. I got the Dahi Vada (lentil fritters in spicy yogurt sauce, which for some reason has disappeared from the online menu) and the Mysore Chutney Dosa, plus a side of lemon pickle, and it was all delicious.
2) I am officially a candidate for the Board of Directors at the co-op where I work. I think I've mentioned before that my nemesis (the manager who persistently misgendered me, or avoided using pronouns for me at all, and then came over all Cis Woman's Tears* when I got testy about it, to the point where HR got involved) is also running. We shall see--I don't know of anyone who works in the store who wants her on the Board, but she's been there for donkey's years and, as the front end manager, is pals with a bunch of the customers. (All co-op members get a vote. A lot of the staff are NOT members, because employment doesn't include a free membership even though it should. But I know some folks are planning to join just to vote for me.)
But here's the other thing: a few weeks ago, one of the sitting board members resigned, leaving a vacancy that the board could fill by appointment. I applied. Guess who got the job? (Full points if you guessed Nemesis. Nul points if you guessed me.) I know that Nemesis has pals on the board, as well--at a recent meeting one board member mentioned how happy she was the Nemesis was running for the board--and I am seriously irked at this development. Especially because I know they've been wanting an employee board member to take over chairing the Board's Staff Engagement Committee. And apparently it hasn't occurred to any of these fools that having a manager--a manger notorious for micro-managing, petty obstruction, and vindictiveness, not that the board would necessarily know any of that--chairing the staff committee might have a certain chilling effect. There was a Staff Engagement Committee last Tuesday, but given that (a) it was the first day of my long weekend, and (b) I'd just found out about Nemesis's appointment, I didn't have the heart to attend even though I knew I should.
If one of us wins, I hope to god the other loses, because I do not want to serve on the board with Nemesis. Especially since I've heard, from several people, that she's been using her new board member status to bolster her bullying micro-management at work. Her latest feats include dress code enforcement (which has been relaxing ever since the new store manager took over last summer, and since COVID has been largely non-existent) and breaking up employee conversations whenever she sees them. Because our morale isn't low enough, apparently.
(*Cis women's tears = my riff on "white women's tears," a phrase used by Black women activists to describe how when white women are called out for racist behavior, they often weaponize their distress to portray themselves as the injured party. In my case, Nemesis literally got tearful [which I can somewhat sympathize with, as someone who cries easily] and announced that she felt "attacked," which I have no sympathy for whatsoever.)
3) My doctor recently approved switching my testosterone from topical gel to injected, as the gel wasn't doing much but give me horrendous acne on my shoulders, back, and chest. On Tuesday of last week I went in to the clinic and got shown how to do all the prep; today at the follow-up they had me do everything myself, including the injection, which a nurse did last time. I was worried I wouldn't be able to, but actually it wasn't too bad at all. The injection goes into the thigh, which has lots of muscles and not too many nerves, so it wasn't painful. I'm pleased with myself, and very much hoping that I'll start to see real results. (Also, the shoulder acne is clearing up; I think it was an effect of having the hormone directly applied to the skin there. I know I'll still have acne--probably more--but at least it'll be more evenly distributed? Acne is definitely the not-fun part of this; I mourn for how nice my skin used to be. At least the mask hides most of the pimples on my face.)
I'm going to start catching up on some of the question a day meme here, skipping anything I find uninteresting.
August 22: Do you think everything happens for a reason?
No. NO. What a horrible idea. (I mean, I believe in causality, as in "these wildfires and hurricanes are partly a consequence of human-made climate change." But I don't believe in reasons in the sense I think is meant here, as in "these wildfires and hurricanes are some divine force punishing us or trying to teach us a lesson.")
August 25: What three fictional characters (from film, TV, or books) do you most strongly identify with?
At the moment: Martin from The Magnus Archives (the insecure, either trying too hard or not trying at all, attempting to buy love with cups of tea part of myself); Jon from The Magnus Archives (the curmudgeonly, useless with people and often not very fond of them, intellectually snobbish part of myself); and . . . I dunno? As I think through characters I'm hugely invested in, it's often for reasons other than identification as such. Sometimes it's aspiration or admiration, sometimes wanting to be their friend or boyfriend or whatever. And also, most of my fiction intake is genre fiction, and those characters have to be a little bit larger than life, typically, for the story to work. I used to be a slightly bumbling academic like Rupert Giles, but I was never a powerful sorcerer with a dark past like Rupert Giles.
August 28: Do you write in cursive?
Barely even my signature. I was taught cursive in elementary school, but handwriting was always really hard for me (I can't draw or do other stuff requiring fine motor skills, either). I avoid writing by hand when I can, and when it's unavoidable, I write in a weird hybrid of printing with cursive elements for speed. It's often illegible even to me.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 01:50 am (UTC)So does that mean she still has to be elected to be there for the next term and her current appointment just fills out the end of the previous board member's term?
Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 08:32 am (UTC)Happy birthday!
Not having horrendous acne on your shoulders sounds like a significant improvement.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-09 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-10 10:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-12 03:35 am (UTC)And also, your Nemesis sounds like someone who needs to be resolutely documented and then complained about constantly for each and every one of those things.
Preferably by someone who isn't you, because you're already suffering enough.