A post in which I spend a quiet evening at home

Knitting a flag... no of course not.

I made it through the day today with no Ibuprofen! That's been a long time coming. I was pretty damn beat when I got home though.

It was a most stimulating afternoon, if not particularly good for my blood pressure. I had a fraud guy try to get one past me today. Now that hasn't happened in a long time. Apparently he had acquired a defunct company to use the credit history as a front, but hadn't done his homework very well. The company he acquired had lousy credit. So he spent a good portion of the afternoon alternately yelling at me and trying to sell me the snake oil to get shipments going out. That in itself isn't particularly unusual on my desk, but he was just so URGENT about the whole thing. When I got off the phone, I thought to myself hmmmm, he was acting like a fraudulent account... I did some checking, and sure enough, the 800#'s they gave me rang to nowhere, his cell phone was un-traceable, and the website was a dummy with no content. It was so unbelievably ironic that he had chosen me of all people to try to get past that I was very amused. (I am the resident fraud buster and go-to guy on our staff. I also have kind of a rep within the industry. Trying to defraud me with that pitiful setup is kind of like attacking the US Navy with a paper boat.) When I told one of my co-workers about the incident, his comment was "That would have looked really bad on your performance review if he had gotten past you." Which of course it would have. Hilarious.

I stopped by CVS on the way home to get some stuff I forgot yesterday and pick up my allergy prescriptions. Usually there are five people working there, milling around and doing whatever the hell it is they do, but no one will actually give you your stuff. Today there was one on the counter, one on the drive-through, and the sexy pharmacist. He never condescends to speak to the public. I noticed as I was waiting today that he graduated from the University of Florida. He looks the part. I'm sure he was a stud on campus. I had plenty of time to think about such things because of the woman in front of me.

I had thought when I came in that I was in luck. There was only one person in line at the counter, which is just unheard of. Apparently, however, this woman had the sickest child in the world. She had a pile of prescriptions in front of her on the counter, and was on the phone for ten minutes trying to figure out what they were missing, and if the kid could make it through the night with only the foothill of drugs she had, rather than the mountain they apparently had on order. (The kid didn't have cancer or anything, he has bad allergies and an upper respiratory infection. He's prone to whooping cough.) OK, now I have sympathy that the child is sick and all, but Lordamercy wouldn't you bring a list if you had that much to keep track of? Of course since there was only one person working the counter, I just had to wait. Never mind that both of my prescriptions were on auto-refill (Wouldn't this be another option you would look in to with a kid with that much wrong with him? I mean it wasn't like it was a surprise that he needed this stuff..), and that it would have taken me about 45 second to check out if I could just have gotten up there. Of course when they finally worked it all out that they had enough to get by on, she wrote a calligraphy check, etc. And she had the nice counter lady. And of course having the nice counter lady she wanted to tell the whole story of this kid's medical history, life from the incubator, and conception. Actually, had she actually discussed the conception I would have at least been entertained during the eternal wait.

When I finally got out of there, the combination of the stimulating, yet tiring day at work, and the extra energy required to keep from just yelling "OH, COME ON, ALREADY!!" in the pharmacy had me completely sapped. Then I remembered I had to go to the grocery store. I didn't have fruit for tomorrow.

I fed the yowling cat and resignedly put my pants back on. I was feeling very put-upon that I couldn't even get myself a treat for being a good boy and going to the store (since I'm supposed to be on this diet.) But I knew if the sofa got me at this point there would be no escaping it. So I did the errand. Fortunately all the slow people thought I was in for the night and didn't come out to get in my way.

When I got home I poured something to drink, put on my jammies, and opened my book. And that's what I did. I did finish a load of towels and put them in the dryer. But I didn't turn on telly or the computer. I had to force myself to go to bed. This book is so good it's like ripping out my own placenta (if I had one) to close it. I promised myself I could stay up and read as long as I want tomorrow night, and turned in.