"Internal Capitalism". Google It.
My workplace is still the same, hanging in limbo.
We can now use our computers, but only to monitor captionists and not much else. No email, no internet, no payroll. We all wonder how long this can go on. How much work we'll have to catch up on when we get back to "normal". Some people want a job where they don't have to do anything. I find it stressful. The days drag, and I'm constantly wondering whether I need to worry about how things will turn out.
Nothing to be done about it now.
Jameson's birthday went pretty well. Considering that his gifts didn't show up and the ice cream cake I custom-ordered for him was the wrong flavor, I guess at least we had cake. At least we had a tracking number.
His gift was an Indow. They're a special kind of window insert that blocks sound. We have one in the bedroom to help block noise from the vacationers partying in the rental house next door. Jameson's studio is on that same side of the house, so I thought it would be a nice surprise to get him an Indow for his studio. His parents went in on it with me too.
Although it ended up showing up late, I have to say that the crew at Indow managed to singlehandedly salvage the birthday celebration.
Check out this adorable video they sent!
What company does something thoughtful like this?? We were amazed and humbled. Thank you Indow, for making a great product and for being empathetic human beings in a sea of poor work ethic and entitlement.
Anyway, I thought it was a nice birthday. I wish we could have had his friends over, or gone out to eat. But it is what it is. Yes, I'm disappointed that so many aspects didn't go the way *I* wanted them to. But we still got to celebrate Jameson, and in the end that's what matters.
When the cookies did arrive a few days later, they were beautiful and incredibly delicious!
They did get a little smeared during the journey, but you can still see how exceptionally detailed they are. I was especially amazed by the strings on each guitar, and the little "Bethlehem star" too. They were very fresh and tasted like they had just been made yesterday! If you look carefully at the guitars you can see that they were made using a unicorn cookie cutter. Lol! Made by @crafts_by_tyler on Instagram if you're interested in ordering.

I was relieved when the work week was over. It feels like there's so much going on and I'm barely hanging on. Everything going wrong for Jameson's birthday, and then this weird purgatory at work, and now there is this covid-related Thanksgiving awkwardness looming on the horizon. Everyone is tiptoeing around, trying to be considerate of people who wear masks or who don't or who is comfortable with what. Like a lot of people this year, we're not going anywhere. With cases climbing back up it's just too risky. Plus a lot of companies are making their employees quarantine if they go somewhere out of state. I can't afford that and wouldn't want anyone else to have to consider it either. Easier to just ride out 2020 the best we can, and have a zoom chat on the holidays.
My parents were going to visit my sister in California, but it seems like peoples' politics and "values" are getting in the way of their desire to spend time with each other. My parents live in a very rural, very red part of Pennsylvania. Neither of them seem to take covid that seriously on a personal-threat level. Which, fine, in your own house do what you want. But in my opinion, when your pregnant daughter asks you to get a rapid test and/or wear a mask in the weeks leading up to your visit to her family including her 1.5 year old child, it seems to me that if you have even the smallest love for your family, you will wear the stupid mask and take a few small precautions. But from what I've heard through the family grapevine this is somehow a contentious issue.
I'm biting back so much on this right now that I may bite through my tongue before we even hit turkey day. For context, my pregnant sister is a grade school teacher who has seen the effects of covid on her students and their parents. My younger sister is an OR nurse in PA, and she has literally spent hours putting on PPE in order to treat covid patients. She has even intubated a few patients who could not breathe. And I work for a company that captions live phonecalls for the hearing impaired, many of whom are elderly. So while I can't disclose what I hear, you can probably imagine a lot of funeral arrangements, emotionally crushing final zoom conversations with loved ones dying of covid, and people calling each other to find out who has died of covid this week.
What I'm trying to say is, my sisters and I know firsthand that covid is not a f*cking joke. It's not a conspiracy by anyone. It's a reak f*cking disease that is really f*cking killing people. And if you are so selfish, and so ignorant, that you can't understand this by now, you deserve whatever comes to you as a result.
All of that said, I still love my family. Even the parts of it that are, uh, less than ideal. So I'll try to zoom chat with them on Thanksgiving, and we'll see how it goes. But if things start getting nasty, I'm out. I'm so over all of the uncalled-for political posturing this year. There's enough drama already without having to rip our family apart over whether or not you wear a piece of t-shirt on your face for a few days (just wear it, good God).
Anyway, it's only Jameson and I here for Thanksgiving, but I'd still like to make it special.
My plan is to make a traditional American Thanksgiving meal, just sized down for two people.
Since this is my first attempt I'm not doing anything too crazy (no whole birds for example) but I will be making some things I've never made before. Here's the menu so far:
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We can now use our computers, but only to monitor captionists and not much else. No email, no internet, no payroll. We all wonder how long this can go on. How much work we'll have to catch up on when we get back to "normal". Some people want a job where they don't have to do anything. I find it stressful. The days drag, and I'm constantly wondering whether I need to worry about how things will turn out.
Nothing to be done about it now.
Jameson's birthday went pretty well. Considering that his gifts didn't show up and the ice cream cake I custom-ordered for him was the wrong flavor, I guess at least we had cake. At least we had a tracking number.
His gift was an Indow. They're a special kind of window insert that blocks sound. We have one in the bedroom to help block noise from the vacationers partying in the rental house next door. Jameson's studio is on that same side of the house, so I thought it would be a nice surprise to get him an Indow for his studio. His parents went in on it with me too.
Although it ended up showing up late, I have to say that the crew at Indow managed to singlehandedly salvage the birthday celebration.
Check out this adorable video they sent!
What company does something thoughtful like this?? We were amazed and humbled. Thank you Indow, for making a great product and for being empathetic human beings in a sea of poor work ethic and entitlement.
Anyway, I thought it was a nice birthday. I wish we could have had his friends over, or gone out to eat. But it is what it is. Yes, I'm disappointed that so many aspects didn't go the way *I* wanted them to. But we still got to celebrate Jameson, and in the end that's what matters.
When the cookies did arrive a few days later, they were beautiful and incredibly delicious!
They did get a little smeared during the journey, but you can still see how exceptionally detailed they are. I was especially amazed by the strings on each guitar, and the little "Bethlehem star" too. They were very fresh and tasted like they had just been made yesterday! If you look carefully at the guitars you can see that they were made using a unicorn cookie cutter. Lol! Made by @crafts_by_tyler on Instagram if you're interested in ordering.

I was relieved when the work week was over. It feels like there's so much going on and I'm barely hanging on. Everything going wrong for Jameson's birthday, and then this weird purgatory at work, and now there is this covid-related Thanksgiving awkwardness looming on the horizon. Everyone is tiptoeing around, trying to be considerate of people who wear masks or who don't or who is comfortable with what. Like a lot of people this year, we're not going anywhere. With cases climbing back up it's just too risky. Plus a lot of companies are making their employees quarantine if they go somewhere out of state. I can't afford that and wouldn't want anyone else to have to consider it either. Easier to just ride out 2020 the best we can, and have a zoom chat on the holidays.
My parents were going to visit my sister in California, but it seems like peoples' politics and "values" are getting in the way of their desire to spend time with each other. My parents live in a very rural, very red part of Pennsylvania. Neither of them seem to take covid that seriously on a personal-threat level. Which, fine, in your own house do what you want. But in my opinion, when your pregnant daughter asks you to get a rapid test and/or wear a mask in the weeks leading up to your visit to her family including her 1.5 year old child, it seems to me that if you have even the smallest love for your family, you will wear the stupid mask and take a few small precautions. But from what I've heard through the family grapevine this is somehow a contentious issue.
I'm biting back so much on this right now that I may bite through my tongue before we even hit turkey day. For context, my pregnant sister is a grade school teacher who has seen the effects of covid on her students and their parents. My younger sister is an OR nurse in PA, and she has literally spent hours putting on PPE in order to treat covid patients. She has even intubated a few patients who could not breathe. And I work for a company that captions live phonecalls for the hearing impaired, many of whom are elderly. So while I can't disclose what I hear, you can probably imagine a lot of funeral arrangements, emotionally crushing final zoom conversations with loved ones dying of covid, and people calling each other to find out who has died of covid this week.
What I'm trying to say is, my sisters and I know firsthand that covid is not a f*cking joke. It's not a conspiracy by anyone. It's a reak f*cking disease that is really f*cking killing people. And if you are so selfish, and so ignorant, that you can't understand this by now, you deserve whatever comes to you as a result.
All of that said, I still love my family. Even the parts of it that are, uh, less than ideal. So I'll try to zoom chat with them on Thanksgiving, and we'll see how it goes. But if things start getting nasty, I'm out. I'm so over all of the uncalled-for political posturing this year. There's enough drama already without having to rip our family apart over whether or not you wear a piece of t-shirt on your face for a few days (just wear it, good God).
Anyway, it's only Jameson and I here for Thanksgiving, but I'd still like to make it special.
My plan is to make a traditional American Thanksgiving meal, just sized down for two people.
Since this is my first attempt I'm not doing anything too crazy (no whole birds for example) but I will be making some things I've never made before. Here's the menu so far:
- Cocktail shrimp (appetizer while we wait for the main course. Idk about you guys but on Thanksgiving I only eat one giant meal in the middle of the day!)
- Turkey breasts (one for each of us) OR one breast and one leg, slow-cooked in a crock pot with apple sage french bread stuffing
- Chef John's perfect mashed potatoes (Allrecipes)
- Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and pecans
- Green bean casserole
- Candied carrots
- Cranberry sauce (Jameson LOVES jellied cranberry)
- Crescent rolls (from a can)
- Paula Deen's pumpkin pie
- Apple bourbon turnovers
- Vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream
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