It's payday, and I didn't get paid. Well, actually, it appears that I did get paid; or rather that a direct deposit was generated for me, but the money never made it into my checking account.
My bosses are looking into this, and I trust them. I trust our new Oracle payroll system a lot less; and my little local bank, which was just acquired by a large regional bank, I don’t trust at all. But no matter who is responsible for this little snafu, someone has my money, and I would like to have it back, especially since I fully expect to be furloughed in a few days.
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But let's talk about the good news, shall we? College swimming kicks off today, and we're on our way to Durham NC for Marymount vs. Duke vs. Boston College. Duke and BC are both D1 teams so Marymount is the most under- of underdogs. But do not count them out. Those Saints have heart, I tell you what.
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It's Saturday now and we're on our way home, a long drive on a very rainy day. The Saints finished last at Duke, as expected, but there were some good swims, especially from our freshmen in their first college meet. My son did well, a little off his best times, but very solid for the first meet of the season. His medley relay split was especially good, faster than both BC swimmers.
And I got paid, too, thankfully. I'm spending money like a highly paid person with rock solid job security and not a care in the world, as opposed to what I am, which is a mid level individual contributor for a nonprofit quasi government foundation who is about to be placed on unpaid leave in literally days. I should be hanging on to every dollar. Instead I'm out here taking road trips and staying in hotels and having dinner and drinks in a bar at 930 on a Friday night. Reckless is what it is.
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The paycheck issue was resolved, followed immediately by another minor financial issue - minor enough that it won’t really hurt me but involving enough money ($300) that I can’t just let it go. I’d tell you all about it here, but I won’t because it’s boring. But if I haven’t gotten the responsible corporation to give me back my $300 by the end of the week, then I might need to write about it in detail and at considerable length, just to assuage my feelings and to feel like I’m sticking it to the man. You have been duly warned.
It’s Sunday morning now. It’s peaceful and quiet, though very messy, in my backyard - it rained hard all day yesterday and the patio is a little bit of a disaster. I’ll clean it up momentarily. Meanwhile, yesterday was just a very difficult day for many reasons that I also won’t write about here because the reasons are pretty much all in my head and you’ve probably seen just about enough of the inside of my head. I certainly have. Meanwhile, I’m probably going to be temporarily (one hopes) unemployed in 48 hours, so let me just go shopping.
LOL. JK!
Maybe.
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It’s Monday morning now, and I would ordinarily be working right now but I am having technical issues that I am waiting for the service desk to resolve.
Other than that, today is a better day. I did buy one little thing, a little thing that I don’t need but that also didn’t cost much money. I pulled myself out of yesterday’s funk with a whirlwind of housework and yard work and grocery shopping and cooking. And the aforementioned frivolous shopping, of course. Now I just have to worry about whether or not I’ll have a job after tomorrow, and that’s honestly the least of my worries given all of this (gesturing wildly, as usual, at everything).
Meanwhile, I’m working from home today but it’s 8:40 and I still can’t connect to the network so I might have to go in. I’ll change into work-from-work clothes, and I’ll try again at 9, and then I’ll just go to the office. Honestly, I’m probably better off leaving the house today anyway.
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I did end up going into the office. The VPN problem was universal, but the onsite network was fine. Even though I got a late start and even though I was distracted, checking for updates on budget negotiations approximately every five minutes, I powered through quite a bit of work. Then I went home and cleaned an already-clean house. And of course, I kept obsessively checking my phone for news updates, with MSNBC on the bedroom TV.
I know, I know. I can’t do a gosh-darn thing about the budget or the appropriations bill or the continuing resolution or whatever the heck we are calling it today. At this point, the House Republicans are not even in Washington, which makes a shutdown at midnight tonight a near certainty. And I’m not all that worried about it from a financial perspective, because I have money in the bank, and I have a working spouse, and we’ll be fine. The uncertainty is challenging for me. I don’t like not knowing what I’ll be doing tomorrow. And if a shutdown goes on for longer than a few weeks, then I will have to start worrying about money.
But not today. It’s Tuesday. It’s still September. If it happens, it happens, and everything will be fine. And now, I’m going to go touch grass or read a book or something.
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Well, what do you know? The government did shut down, and I still went to work. I learned at about 6:30 on Tuesday night that I had been added to the essential personnel list (yes, even contractors can be essential personnel) and I reported for work as always. And because I work for a foundation and not directly for the military, I’ll be paid as usual. It’s a relief.
Oddly, traffic this morning was heavier than usual. The base looked much as it always does, which didn’t surprise me as much as the traffic, because NSAB is a medical center, so it operates as usual during government shutdowns. There are certain functions associated with my job that I cannot perform during the shutdown, but I’ll be covering for a few furloughed Federal employees, so I’ll be quite busy. I’m very grateful that I’m still working. If the shutdown drags on for weeks like the last Trump shutdown, then they’ll probably have to furlough me at some point, but in uncharacteristic fashion, I will worry about that if and when it happens. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
