Hulk no smash no more

So yeah, that last post.  Kinda intense.  This is what happens when my rage beast gets loose.  My personal beast is a dinosaur.  I was used to calling her a T-Rex but I recently learned of a dinosaur with a name that is something like suckosaurus and I think that is a better fit.  I really needed to get that out somewhere and I was hoping that by spewing all of my venom here I would refrain from spewing it at my friends.  Unfortunately, that didn't work out.  We had our cage match and everything is okay now.  I am still amazed.  From my upbringing, I was taught that if you make people mad at you or disappoint them, you can never get the relationship back.  Every mistake was a drastic end to the opinion of you held by those you love.  This whole have a fight and then apologizing and making up stuff is still fairly new to me, but very AWESOME!  Being allowed to make mistakes and then talk about what happened and why is a revelation.  In my family we don't talk about stuff.  Ever.  We get mad, we ignore each other for awhile and then we pretend it never happened.  That doesn't work for me.  Thank every higher power in existence for my friends.  I love you guys.

I am NOT always the bitch!

So I am pissed.  Seriously, royally pissed.  About something trivial and stupid and so not worth the energy I am expending fretting about it.  I am also paranoid that it might end a great friendship, or at least strain it.  Here's the story:
I am in a book club with five friends.  We have been meeting at 9:30 pm on Sundays.  Of the six of us, THREE are inconvenienced by this time, because we work early on Monday mornings.  ONE is convinced she cannot get off of work any earlier, even though she doesn't put in a request.  She just decided that her boss would say no, so she doesn't bother.  I am the only person willing to bring up the fact that we should try to have the meetings at another time, and I am told that I am mean, I am whining and I am making the ONE feel badly.  Well she should!  If you can't even be bothered to make the effort to try to get off of work earlier to compromise with your friends, YOU SUCK!  The greatest thing is, she loves to moan about how she can never have Sundays off, then she was off last Sunday.  GRRRRRRRR. 
I know, it's a tiny thing but the reason I am so angry is that, once again, I am the bitch.  She is putting her own needs above those of THREE OTHER PEOPLE but I am the bad guy.  She refuses to even try and I am horrible and making her feel bad.  Seriously?  Plus, the other two early Monday risers refuse to speak up when we are all gathered.  At other times they will talk about how it's too late and they can't do it anymore but never in front of the ONE.  So I am the bitch.  Now, I admit that I have been getting pissed and have not been nice about my recent protests.  But the last time I tried to be nice I was told to quit whining.  So if I ask nicely I am whining and if I am forceful I am a bitch.  And now she is whining on facebook about how she is tired of being bitched at.  FUCK YOU!  OMG YOU ARE NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THIS GROUP!  When three of us are saying this doesn't work you don't get to tell us to suffer! 
Okay.  Breathing now. 

I'm like a rock star!

Yeah, I got an encore request today.  For reals, y'all.  Update on the job stuff:  I am currently somewhere in the process of 4 jobs.  The perm job was supposed to have made an offer by the end of last week.  I'm gonnna go ahead and guess that the offer was not made to me.  Two are HIGH paying contracts, but I haven't gotten any feedback on either.  #1 wanted someone to start today and I had another company call about it after I'd been subbed.  Generally, this means they don't like my resume and are still looking but couldn't be bothered to tell my recruiter that they are not interested.  #2 is stalling.  Word is that at least one person involved in the decision is on vacay this week.  Last but not least is a decent paying contract I was subbed for today.  This sounds like the best set up of all three and has a decent chance of going perm.  Basically, I am all good with the Job Opportunity gods right now, but not so much with the Actually Getting Hired gods.  While I would love to get a HIGH paying job, like way high, like LOTS OF MONIES, I would settle for adequate and full time.  I'm going to try to sneak in 40 hours at my current "part-time" job this week.  That might get derailed by interviews, though.  It's a roller coaster folks, but I am glad to be riding.  No matter how stressful it gets, I just remember that last year at this time I felt stuck in a job I hated with no future.  This year I am making more money for less work AND going to school so I can has career in a year or so.  Even when I worry about the bills getting paid I still know that I made the right decision to go temp.  School is most important.  The jobs I have now are a means to an end;  that end being the career I am studying for.  In a year or two I will be happily doing a job that I studied and worked hard to get, beginning the career that will hopefully last the rest of my working life and wondering why I worried so much.

I went camping

Camping and I do not get along.  I am opposed to dirt, bugs and using the Great Outdoors as a toilet.  I do not sleep on the ground and I find sleeping bags too confining.  I am also a bug bite magnet, despite all efforts with sprays, lanterns, torches, etc.  So why did I spend my Labor Day weekend camping?  They made me.

My friends banded together in a mass effort of pleading and guilt.  Oh, wait, that was just N.  Honestly, I went camping because it wasn't really camping.  I slept in an air conditioned Airstream.  On a very comfy bed.  There were flush toilets.  I got to drive a golf cart around the campground.  This is the only type of camping in which I am a willing participant.  The campground itself was pretty awesome.  Despite a "no permanent buildings" rule, there were some pretty sweet summer homes.  One person had a sign in the front proclaiming that he is "White Trash".  Another lot included a rickety looking wooden shack featuring at least 5 non-working surveillance cameras.  The "streets" in this campground were named after long-time lot owners.  Unfortunately, from our camper the sign for Cody Pass read "COD ASS".  And then there is Trixie's Marina, also known as my favorite place in all of Kentucky.  This lovely little dive is right next to the campground and easily accessible by golf cart.  They sell snacks, soda, beer and the BEST diner food I have had in a good long while.  I had this double-decker BLT that make my tummy sing.  All of the people who work there are awesome, including "Sweetheart" who is a ringer for Albert Ingles and the owner herself (not named Trixie) who has a photo shopped pic of herself with Brad Pitt hanging above the register. 

The surrounding area is also fodder for entertainment.  The campground is located near a state park called Big Bone Lick.  I am so not kidding.  So there is a Big Bone Lick church, road, etc.  I giggled like Beavis and Butthead as we passed each sign.  There is also an area called Beaver Lick, which is home to the Beaver Lick Baptist Church.  Yup.  The campground is on Gunpowder Creek which empties into the mighty Ohio River.  Boating on that river was amazing.  So much of the land in that area is still undeveloped so it was all trees and birds.  While I really wanted to get a look at Squalor on the River, I was actually in Kentucky and across from Indiana, so no dice.  But speaking of dice, we did boat past the massive casino complex in Rising Sun.  The riverboat is only a small part of it, people.  It's HUGE.  The friends we were staying with not only own two camp lots, each with air conditioned trailer, they also rent a share in a private island on the Ohio.  So we went there too.  They are also friends with my new favorite couple ever.

Manly and Judy are the nicest, funniest, most real people I have met in a good long time.  Manly is in his 70's and Judy her 60's.  They have been married for 50 years and boy does it show.  Judy is the sweetest person you have ever met, until Manly starts in.  She gives as good as she gets and made me howl with laughter.  Manly is....  How can I describe him?  He is part good old boy, part dirty old man, and all genuinely friendly and nice guy.  I loved him so much that I wanted to bring him home with me. 

To sum up, I had an amazing weekend doing something that I didn't want to do.  Now, camping in a tent on the ground and peeing outside is still not on my list of things to do.  But this "camping" with these people in this place?  I can't wait to go back!