If being in my jammies at 7 pm is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I've calmed down since my last post. I also have moved things around in my house in a mostly-successful attempt to be able to get NBC on a tv upstairs. It isn't perfect and the channel sometimes freezes at inopportune times, but it's better than nothing. I still think NBC is doing a crappy job, but I'm glad I can at least unmute the tv when it's finally an actual event to watch instead of having to hear all the dumb commentary. My evenings have boiled down to dinner, pajamas, tv watching/book reading, sleeping. That's it. Olympics fever for two weeks around here. I've enjoyed what I've been able to see. The swimming has been what I'm focused on, mostly. But I did catch the US women win gold in gymnastics. Good job to them. And I saw some diving. Jumping off the platform is scary to watch. A friend of mine knows one of the American divers that dives from the highest platform and so we're all going to try to sit around and cheer for her when she's competing next week. I don't know how people who actually know an Olympian or are related to these people can stand to watch them compete. Especially the divers. I'd just have to close my eyes or turn away if a close friend or family member was jumping off a three-story tall platform into a pool. It's too much.

The week hasn't been too bad. Monday was the worst, but it was expected. After getting through that day, everything else has been really good. Monday was the fifth anniversary of the day my mom passed away and every year I have a tough time with it. I am loads better with it than I used to be, but it's still hard to get through the day. This one was especially weird because 2012 is exactly the same calendar as 2007. So, this is the first time that the anniversary of her death has landed on the same day of the week as when she died. I didn't realize that we were already back to the same calendar as five years ago. I was just figuring it would be later, but of course not. Leap years make years align differently. It was also weird because this was the first year that I couldn't take the day off of work. I always have done so in the past, because my mood tends to be really dark and gloomy. I was already heading into it on Sunday night with the Olympics frustration post, but I used to get much worse. Still, this year was different in that I have no vacation days yet so I had to work. I was gloomy and tried to stay as upbeat as possible. It wasn't easy, but my co-workers inadvertently helped me through the day. They had planned a potluck lunch for several of us that have just been made full-time employees. It was done to act as sort of a 'Welcome to Work' party. They randomly chose Monday as the day, so it was somewhat of a distraction to pig out with my fellow co-workers when the clock was running through the hardest part of the day for me. My mom died at almost exactly noon. I remember looking directly at the clock before the family walked into the ICU room after we knew she wasn't going to make it out of ICU. And it was like, 11:57 am or so. And I have that clock image stuck in my head and it pops back up every year on July 30th right around lunchtime and it makes it difficult if I'm not doing something that can pull my focus away from that image. But, my friends and co-workers were great and we discussed Olympics and pets and I listened to one of my friends discuss at length the procedure he recently had to get two wisdom teeth out and how he could only eat soft, squishy food at the potluck. It sounds kind of awful, and the description was, but it was something so random and gross that it was a good distraction from where my mind was traveling. I later told a couple of my friends how much I appreciated the  potluck and that they had helped me through a difficult day. Initially, I wasn't going to tell anybody that I was having a rough day, but in the afternoon, once I was feeling slightly better about everything, saying a little 'Thanks' didn't seem like quite enough. I really appreciated their kindness that day. I have pretty awesome co-workers.

And today, I found out I have a pretty awesome workplace. I went to New Employee Orientation and found out about all the perks I get as an MU employee. All sorts of discounts, including an extra 15% off my cell phone bill! I get pretty decent health coverage, including free money from the university to help pay for random expenses above and beyond the general health insurance. Nice! And the vacation, sick leave, and personal days are great, as well. Not to mention the discounts at the Rec Center, which I'm hoping to be able to use soon. The orientation was good. I had heard conflicting opinions about the necessity of going to this half-day session, but I'm glad I went. I don't have enough experience in the working world to yet be jaded enough to assume they won't tell me anything I don't already know. I frankly don't know squat about benefits, retirement, or life insurance policies. Actually, I guess I know slightly more than squat now, thanks to my orientation!

So, "Call Me Maybe" is STILL getting crazy amounts of airplay and dubs and things. The Harvard baseball team didn't know what they were starting when they created that little dance. I still like that one the best, but this is pretty damn awesome. Apparently this dude has tons of time on his hands and he takes Obama's speeches and dubs them over various songs by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. It's super impressive, I think. Here's Obama's version of "Call Me Maybe":





Aaaaaand, Batman's version of "Call Me Maybe":