Stressful Week Diary

10-18-12

I wake up around 11:30. Check online stuff. I get an email invite to be a guest at next year’s WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO show! I put together a bio, headshot and sample image and send it. Its up on their site in no time, making it 100% official! I make the proud announcement on FB and Twitter. Then I record my morning show and upload it. By then, the bots is off the bus and the wife is getting ready. I have to head to the day job for an hour meeting about a lube company. (True)

I head to work and sit through the meeting. The wife heads to the grocery store and stocks up on stuff. I get done and wait for her return. I learn that there’s a meeting later next week where we are all gonna sit down and discuss our “issues” with the place and each other. UGH. I’ve been through those types of meetings before. Its never fun. The wife returns and we head back home. I start working on the computer but its continuing its slow and sluggish act from the day before. Then does a hard freeze. I attempt a reboot but it goes nowhere. I try a few different things for a couple hours and its no good. She’s dead Jim. So I email back and forth with Eric, my official tec guru about what I did wrong when I tried installing a new HD before. I think I ironed out my issue and I make plans to go back to Best Buy tomorrow and try again.

I play with bots and the baby and they both pass out. The wife finishes her Sex in the City marathon and I plug in Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. She’s never seen it before and is laughing in all the right parts. I love Don Knotts! I pass out around 3am.

10-19-12

I wake up at 8:30 and talk the wife into some breakfast. We head to Dennys to eat and wait till Best Buy opens. Finally at ten, the doors open and I get a Seagate Barracuda 1TB HD. Then we head home and I start the process again. I open up my lovely, and take out her old HD. Then put the new one in and start the installation. A crucial step I left out last time was formatting the new HD. All the walkthroughs I saw never mentioned it at all! But whatever, now I know! So I format it and install Snow Leopard. Then use my Backup via Time Machine to restore all my settings, files and more. It goes quite smoothly and after about four hours, I am up and running like normal! I download updates and just check around to see if everything works. Meanwhile, the wife takes bots off the bus and heads to Target and gets a carpet cleaner. She returns and puts it together and cleans the carpet. She gets a TON of dirt and stains out of our poor abused carpet! Amazing! Finally after a long day, we pass out around 2am.

10-20-12 – 10-22-12 I cannot recall at all. Suffice to say I worked, artworked, pissed at one point and had fun.

10-23-12

I wake up at 9:30 as the wife is leaving. The baby gets up and we do a feeding. My boss got me to agree to come in tonight and tomorrow for extra work shifts because they fired someone. I am starting to regret it due to me looking at the upcoming week’s juggling of schedules and realizing I am in for 3 hours of sleep a night! UGH. I get bots off the bus at noon and he’s extremely moody. Then he gets cool and acting normal. I sit with the baby and watch new episodes of Toy Hunter and Comic Book Men. Then dilly dally around the house while catching up with new Joe Rogan podcasts. The wife comes home after 6 and I get dressed and head to work. I work my shift and leave at 2am. I head to Walmart to get some stuff for bots to eat for the week and find a major soup sale going on! I stock up on goodies and get home, put it away and hit the pillow by 3:20.

10-24-12

I get up at 7:20 to get bots ready and on the bus. He gets on and I give James a feeding and I watch a biography on the history of M.A.S.H. the TV show. I’m itching to watch the series the whole way through. I lay down and doze off from 9:30-11:30. The wife texts to say they are delaying her bonus for possibly another three weeks due to her six week pregnancy leave. I get pissed cause I know that’s our only chance to pay off bills and get the apartment fees paid now! UGH. Fucked again. I get bots off the bus and noon and he’s in a surprisingly good mood! I update blog, change and feed the jimmy boy. Basically go on autopilot all day until 6 when I head into work. I take a break and head and get comics, which makes me feel good and ready to get some art done this week! I leave at 2am and pass out by 2:30 at home.

10-25-12

I get up, put bots on the bus and attempt sleep but the baby ain’t letting me sleep beyond forty-five minutes. That’s okay. I get bots off the bus and I am on kid duty all day until the wife finally arrives at 4:50. I announce that I HAVE to get out of the house before work and go somewhere quiet to get some art done. As I haven’t touched anything art-wise in six days! So she lets me head out to work early. I leave and hit the Arbys just drawing light pencils on a few commissions and shooting pics to the client for approval. Then I head into work. I work from 7-11, and I take a break. Outside on my car is a personal attack note that I gather has to be someone who knows my car. I start to worry that it’s a customer stalking me and I feel very unsafe and threatened at the one place I am supposed to feel safe. The note itself was full of personal attacks on my physical appearance that I could care less about the content of. What bothered me was the fact that someone scoped out my car and messed with it. Well, my WIFE’s car! (and when she finds out, oh boy!) I call my boss and my wife who both freak balls. I try to get the incident out of my mind but I am beyond pissed and worried that its someone stalking and harassing me. I convince the club owner to come and watch the cameras with me and in no time, I easily see who the culprit was. And it was someone I completely didn’t expect. Someone who I never had a problem with and was always nice to. I was taken aback and shocked.

Club owner excuses himself and deals with the situation. I am left to stew all night and by the end of the night, I am not feeling happy at all. But I talk myself down and say that at this point, I just want an apology and for him to confront me face to face like a man, with the promise that he leaves my shit alone. I feel its more than fair. I feel more bad for my club owner, as its someone pretty close to them. And I feel bad for my co-worker I was training tonight, because he’s gotta wonder what kind of place he has just got himself into! Great. I leave and drive home. I get home and tell the wife what happened and she’s livid. She wants me to quit and then the bots gets up. He’s up starting at 4:50am and I am just exhausted. I attempt sleep, with the bitter thoughts racing through my head. And I know deep down no matter what, I am not returning to work tomorrow, possibly not ever again.

10-26-12

I get up after an hour of sleep and the wife leaves for work. I deal with a moody bots and get him on the bus. Then I feed James and we sit and listen to Beatles music. All morning I am wrestling in my head about what to do. I don’t want to go back. I consider what my options are as to where to go for renewed employment that would work around my wife. I field a few messages and phone calls of support and well wishing and I make some inquiries about new employment. At noon I get bots off the bus and I make the decision based on my lack of sleep and stomach ache that I am not going in. They can write me up if they want, but I am just not gonna be able to go in. I call the place and call off. First time I've called into a job in over 8 years. Moments later, the area supervisor calls and wants to know what happened. I tell her. She calls back and said she reviewed the footage and asked what I wanted to do. I say all I want is an apology and a promise that this shit be over. We hang up. Couple hours later, the club owner calls and apologizes on their behalf and say that the dude involved will be punished, a bit more than what I needed but I appreciate their swift action on the matter. Makes me feel a bit more valued there than I’ve felt in a long time, honestly. My area supervisor calls back after a time and follows up on all that is gonna happen. I’m cool with it. I say that I’m all good and will return to work on Monday. But for now, I just need the weekend for myself as I am still feeling tired as fuck from no sleep and still having stomach aches. She agrees and we hang up. I am glad the matter is over. I’m getting what I want and I am ready to let it go for sure. I’m not butt hurt at all about it. The wife returns and takes over baby duties as I finally curl up in bed and get some long awaited sleep.

Around 10pm, I wake up from the baby crying. The wife feeds him a bottle. I decide to crawl out of bed and get to work on my REAL job. It will make me feel better to get some actual work done. So I sit down, toss out a few emails, update blog and get to work. I get a few cards colored when the baby gets up. I feed him about 4 times and he just won’t go to sleep! So I continue to color cards and complete the Fantasy Art set in between putting the pacifier back in his mouth and grabbing him for a feeding. Finally around 3am, I give up the cause and the idea of a long night of catching up on artwork. I pass the baby to the wife to take over and I pass out on the bed by 3:30.

10-27-12

Wake up at 9:30. We get dressed and head to the Halloween Store to get bots a Halloween costume. He chooses DARTH VADER (sniff, so proud!). We drive to Ponderosa but it doesn’t open till noon. Bots starts a wobbler, and we drive back to town and go to Fire Mountain buffet. It tastes artificial and bland and its just a ruined bummer of a day. We head home (driving past our new home to be just for the view) and the wife attempts a nap. I scan the Fantasy Art cards in and shoot them to Jason, along with an invoice. One major deadline beaten yet again!  The wife wakes up from her nap and heads to work. Bots tries on his Vader outfit and likes it. I pull up the coffee table and draw some new stuff for the adult strip and a couple sketches on commissions. Bots gets into everything, meanwhile. He later wakes up the baby and James eats and eats and eats and eats. Literally around 26 oz of milk! I put bots to bed and keep feeding Jimmy. We watch High Fidelity and parts of Conan: The Barbarian. Finally around 11:20, Jimmy falls asleep  and wife comes home from work. We watch the tail end of Conan and then parts of the remake of Dawn of the Dead. Then she hits the hay and I draw a couple more sketches for commissions and layout pages for another commissioned story. Finally around 1:30, I am feeling really tired so I decide to hit the bed. What a long, stressful week its been!