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unseen raise and phantom abdominal pains
Thursday, October 28 2021
It was just me and Jason in the office today. Jason asked if I would be attending the head honcho's retirement party on Friday and I said I would, adding, "I don't know what I'll do, because I don't drink." "They're'll be food," I added not-especially-helpfully. Then I added, "If it makes you feel any better, my wife is coming and she doesn't drink either." "But she'll have you to talk to," Jason replied. That was the a very lonely thing to say. Poor Jason; the closest thing to a plus one he has is a woman he's visited occasionally (and still visits despite the fact that they've broken up) in Rumania. I then mentioned that my wife is good friends with my boss Alex's wife, and that was how I met Alex. Jason then asked a series of questions that had me laying out the history of my relationship with Alex, starting with our first meeting (I said it happened in 2004, but it might've been in 2003) and continuing on through the years I was his web developer for his keywording business.
Later Alex invited me to join him in walking his dog Winnie. We mostly talked about things like the new head honcho, who was to have flown in this week from Canada but had to cancel when told by immigration authorities that she could only visit one destination, and she selected one in Connecticut. She's apparently had no contact with anyone in the company except for Marcus, which clearly had Alex wondering about the longevity of our "legacy" department. He also said that everyone had gotten an automatic 2.5 percent raise except him, which he attributed to our failure to deliver on our long-running nightmare of an application. Alex asked if I'd gotten a raise, and I said I didn't know.
Back at my desk, I went to Paylocity.com to look at my paystubs on file and saw that the most recent one was somewhat bigger. Doing the math, I determined that it was 2.5 percent bigger. I'd received a raise and been completely unaware!
Other things that happened during my workday included a visit to Bubbie's for a burrito, which I was able to eat outside due to the sunny weather. Also, for some reason YouTube's algorithm decided to start giving me ADHD-related content, particularly from How to ADHD. I watched obediently, hoping to learn some things that might help me secure a prescription of adderall some day. In so doing, I realized I actually do have a number of ADHD-like traits, particularly with regard to organization and planning.
And then YouTube decided to feed me some videos about youngish people dying of liver failure after allowing their alcohol consumption to rise to liver-damaging levels. From the cases given, it sounded like the liver-killing consumption level for men is around a fifth of liquor per day, while for women it's closer to a pint. My liquor consumption is nowhere near that high, but nevertheless watching these videos unnerved me and gave me phantom pains in my abdomen. Maybe, I thought, I should quit drinking again, just to ratchet everything down a notch. So I didn't end up having a road beer on the drive home (as normally is my custom) though I ended up drinking anyway, just not quite as much.
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