the deep moans round with many voices

I was looking through papers on top of my file cabinet today and discovered a scrap of longhand fic I wrote at work on June 2nd, in response to a 15-minute fic prompt. It is not remotely a 15-minute fic anymore, but I've spent the evening typing it, editing it, and extending it. I'm a little stumped on a functional ending -- yeah, yeah, story of my month -- but it's more in the general sense of "How do I end this conversation?" than "Oh god themes what help WHY?!" mess I was in with my anonymeme story. Because in real life, conversations tend to just kind of drift off, or meander onto other topics. They don't have clear-cut endings. So it's always a bit of artifice to construct such a conclusion.

I also got hung up by timeline issues for a bit, because this ficlet is Shezan and her mother discussing whether it's advisable for her to court Ilgamuth, and the time period in which she's expressed interest but not yet accepted a gift and thus essentially declared them engaged is... um... limited. And also overlaps exactly with the time period of her grandfather's death. So. Awkward. But I think I've solved that problem.

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Real life meanders onward. I have pulled together all the necessary documents for filing my unemployment benefits request. I have also pulled together the information for asking STNC to roll my company pension into my IRA account -- or at least, I think I have all the relevant information. I guess we'll find out when I call them tomorrow. I also need to tell them I want to continue my current health insurance via the COBRA extension program, and ask how much I owe them, what name I should put on the check, and when and where to mail it.

I ran into problems with getting my own internet service. It turns out that Verizon runs a "port to port" service in this area, whatever that means, and currently there are no more available ports so I'm shit out of luck getting anything from them. (And this despite knowing that Upstairs Neighbors R & A are going to cancel their Verizon internet account at the end of the month. Gnrgh.) So I'm looking into Time Warner Cable instead, but their plan options webpage is not very helpful if you have no fucking clue what a cable internet connection entails in terms of hardware. Like, they run a cable into the apartment. Great. What does it hook up to? And do I need to buy whatever contraption they attach the cable to, or do they supply it? And how does a wireless router figure into all that? Their website just assumes you already know all these details. It is very annoying.

I walked into town in pouring rain today to deposit a check, and also because I've been trying to get a two-mile minimum walk every day. I mean, I've been in the habit of walking two miles daily -- one to work and one back home -- so my body is used to it. And also exercise is good for mental as well as physical health. Anyway, I stopped at Collegetown Bagels and bought a cupcake and some milk because I felt I deserved something nice after getting drenched... and then of course I got even more drenched on the way home. *sigh* Such is life.

And now, I think, to bed.

Well, I have applied for unemployment. There were a few snags -- like the one where their form did not allow me to properly characterize what I actually did in my job, because they don't recognize "clerk" as equalling "does every goddamn task in the store except the drinks inventory because the manager claimed that one as hers," even though my official job title was "clerk" and that's a pretty accurate description. I mean, I worked the register, counted inventory, placed and received orders, acted as cleaning staff, did a bunch of other general maintenance, reconciled daily profits, did some banking, verified invoices and statements and transfers, did a bunch of other miscellaneous office work (financial and otherwise), and advised customers on the relative merits of various purchase options.

That doesn't fit well on an automated form.

I also got timed out before I could register for the direct deposit payment option rather than the card thingy -- seriously, I do not need more cards, cards are a fucking mess, just put the money into my checking account, thanks ever so.

And, because Mr. Speakerphone decided that losing your job sucks and so he'd give all the former smoke shop employees the equivalent of one week's pay added on to our last paychecks, that counts as severance pay and now I need to send a copy of his letter (and maybe the pay stub?) in to the state department of labor for verification.

And my printer isn't working. Which I just discovered this evening. Apparently I need new drivers so it can talk to my new computer? Or something like that. Weirdly, the HP support FAQ assumes everyone uses Macs, which is utterly loopy since I'm pretty sure the majority of American home computers are still PCs running Windows. *headdesk* Also I might just be out of ink, since the printer won't act as a photocopier either -- it sucks in the paper just fine, but it spits it out as blank and white as it went in. (This is bullshit, btw; there was plenty of ink left before my old computer died. Or at least plenty of colored ink. The black was getting faint... but not even the orange masthead on Mr. Speakerphone's letter showed up, so. Grrr.)

In other news, I couldn't get anywhere with continuing my health insurance via COBRA, or having my company pension rolled over into my IRA, because the one person at STNC who understands that kind of financial stuff is on vacation. All week. I will have to wait and call her on Monday. *double headdesk*

Oh, and I got bitten by a mosquito on my way home from downtown, right between the base knuckles of my left middle and ring fingers. That was at roughly 6pm. The area is still hot and swollen and itchy as fuck two hours later, and this despite the no-itch gel I applied within two minutes of the bite.

...

So yeah, that's been my day. How was yours?