Monday, part II

I'm listening to a new CD today, actually, it's a CD that my friend Adam lent to me. It's by The Dears. He had it downloaded on is iPod last week and had me listen to one song which sounded JUST LIKE Morrissey. The other songs don't sound like Morrissey at all, but if you heard the one on the radio you would bet big bucks that it was Morrissey. Adam has introduced me to some great music over the past few years: Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, and now The Dears. I'll have to talk to Glen to order it for me, since I do have to give Adam his CD back. Especially since he's leaving me to move to SoCal this June. It's always been a threat as he hates Michigan's winters, but the threat became a reality when his girlfriend started interviewing for jobs in CA and OR. She accepted a job, so they're off to the Golden State. *sigh* I shall miss him, as he's a good friend.

One of the songs has a line about "blood-sucking leeches" which for some reasons makes me laugh.

The cafeteria at work infuriates me. Somehow they win the contract every year even though their food sucks. Even though there are tons of Indians here, their vegetarian selections are always slim to nasty. And they're the only place that doesn't make lentil soup vegetarian. I mean, really, is it necessary to make it with HAM and CHICKEN stock???? Give me a friggin' break. My daily exercise is walking down to the cafeteria, walking through it and then out again in disgust. It's unbelievable how God awful that place is.

And I have my own official stalker. It's been going on for close to three years now, but it's reached a fever pitch, and I've reached the end of my rope. I met this guy 3.5-4.0 years ago when we had the same meeting. We used to talk about hockey and stuff like that. I never thought anything of it, as I considered him to be too old (read: stuffy) for me. Well, one day I was walking home, as usual, and this car pulled right in front of me and the passenger window went down. It freaked out a little bit, but then saw it was this guy, so I relaxed a little bit since it wasn't a complete stranger. I shouldn't have relaxed. He asked for my number and being the complete wuss that I am, I gave it to him. It's not like it wasn't listed. Well, for about a year every time he called (not that often, thankfully) I would be busy, so I was always thankful as I am a lousy liar. Finally, about two years ago, he called and I figured the best way to get him to stop asking me out was to go out once and then make it clear that I wasn't interested. Trust me, it wasn't a date date. I invited him to join my co-workers and me up at the bar. He showed up wearing an Izod V-neck sweater straight from golfing. I was just trying to get through the evening and I am so happy that Charles and Julie never abandoned me. And when they decided to leave, I decided to go with them. I said Good-bye to the future stalker guy, thanked him for the beer and the nachos and stuck out my hand. Now, IMHO, that should have been a huge hint that I wasn't interested, but instead he grabbed my hand and pulled me to him for a hug. OMIGOD, did that piss me off. I went out the front door with Julie and Charles, as Stalker Guy's car was out the back way. I am a firm believer in that the woman in such situations dictates the level of contact, and if she puts out her hand for a handshake, she's not interested in the guy, in the least little bit, and just because he bought her a beer and some nachos to share does not entitle him to anything at all!!!!

He then started walking past my desk every day. My downstairs desk was right on a main aisleway and lots of people would walk past it, so even though it annoyed me, it was right down from an outside door. I just got really good at being enthralled with my computer screen around the time he would be walking past. Then a month or so ago, my desk moved upstairs, and I figured I was safe. His desk is downstairs and all his meetings are in his direct area or another building completely. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to walk past my desk and he's been doing it every day now. I about lost my mind when I was on my way to the coffee room last Thursday and he was walking toward me. I should have been completely unsubtle and turned and walked the other way, but I didn't, I kept going and had to go through the whole, "Hello, Kathleen!" "Hello Stalker Asshole." "How are you?" I didn't respond, but I almost lost my mind. And then today he walked down my very own aisle!!! Not the main aisle, but MY AISLE! And trust me, just as there's no reason for him to be up here at all, there's really no reason for him to be walking down my aisle! It dead ends into a window!!!!! I really lost it today, as I almost ran smack into him. Two of my co-workers tried to calm me down, but I have seriously lost my mind on this. I'm going to take to hiding under my desk around 11:20 everyday until I see his highly-polished stalker shoes go past. I wish Bill still worked over here because he knows what Stalker Asshole looks like, so he could tell me when he had done his walk-by.

I don't understand! If I find out a guy isn't interested me, I make it a point not to walk past his desk so that he doesn't think I'm a complete freaking loser who can't take a freaking hint.

This is stressing me out which I don't think is very good for my shingles which have decided to make their presence known again. The past two weeks haven't been good in that regards. I've had to give up completely wearing a bra again because that makes it worse, and that considerably shortens my work wardrobe. I hope everybody likes my fleece because it's going to be worn all week long over whatever shirt I choose.

My mom told me yesterday that maybe I should go to the Pain Clinic. I told her NO WAY IN HELL would I be going to the Pain Clinic. "Well, it helped me." That's nice, but "there's no way in hell anybody sticking a needle anywhere near my spine." NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!! Especially since ibuprofen seems to be doing the trick. I have determined that the pain pills that my doctor gave me do keep me up at night, so those are just gone. I'll stick with ibuprofen and get some sleep.

I am going to try darn hard to get to the gym this week. The boxes in the apartment will still be there and maybe I'll be motivated when I get home from the gym. We'll see how long of a workout I can get in after being off for six friggin' weeks.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my weekend – which was all good, except for laundry which wasn't hideous, just laundry.