A Busy Bear

Currently Reading: The Theban Plays by Sophocles

First of all, yes, that's right, Sophocles. I know a lot of you log in to this blog and shake your heads wondering just what on earth I'm reading now. Never let it be said I'm easily pinned down to any one particular type of literature. In this case, I can't even remember why I got the idea to read these plays again. I must have seen the book at Borders and decided right then. I haven't actually read them since high school, EARLY high school so we're talking 1984? 1985 maybe?

For those who aren't familiar with the work, there are three plays and you'll know the title of at least one: Oedipus The King (sometimes listed as Oedipus Rex), Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. After this I'll probably read something a little more modern but I do plan to read The Aeneid by Virgil (which is about the founding of Rome). It's always good to touch base with the classics from time to time.

Speaking of time, I haven't had very much of it lately, which I'm sure many of you have noticed. CC left for Manila on the 19th taking the first flight out (6:30 am!). We had to be at the airport by 4:45 which meant I had to be up at around 4:00 just to make sure we got there. Why do we always follow the rules like this? Because CC is what you might call a difficult case at the airlines. She doesn't have a US passport because she's not a US citizen. At the same time, because she's a legal resident, she doesn't have a visa either. When checking in at the international counter, what are the two pieces of identification that the little scanner will read? You got it, a US passport or a travel visa.

The procedure usually runs something like this. We walk up to the counter. The clerk tells us to use the little touch screen thing to get the boarding pass. So we go through the motions of trying it knowing full well that it won't work. We do this once for each bit of ID she has then tell the machine we don't have what it wants. This summons the clerk who then goes through the whole thing again once or twice (I guess to make sure we're not stupid or something) even though we've explained the problem. FINALLY after 15 minutes or so, the clerk takes CC's ID and keys in the information in the little terminal behind the counter. Another 10 minutes later she's got her boarding passes and her luggage is checked. Every time this happens. You'd think just once they'd actually listen to us and skip to the part where they type the stuff in themselves.

*You may have noticed that I didn't really have pictures that match this blog entry. I put in some generic shots of The Philippines instead*

She went to Manila a little earlier than she needed to. By arriving in the middle of Holy Week, she was able to spend a few days with her family and get in a little vacation time at their house up in the mountains (it's actually a big volcano that's not really active). Up until today, she's had it fairly easy, just the usual office work. But the boss arrived a few hours ago and everyone switched into hyper mode. I probably won't get to hear from her nearly as much now.

At work, nothing too dramatic has happened. Our one little adventure had nothing to do with the actual job. My boss is having some family problems. More accurately, her family is having health problems (I won't go into the details). Some of the problems have been building over time and wearing her down, little by little. Friday she had one more added to the pile and she pretty much snapped. It wasn't a serious breakdown mind you but it was fairly obvious the stress was just a little too much for her. I went and got the general manager and told her all about it because really, apart from CC, I'm not very good at dealing with all the emotional stuff face to face. You have a crisis, get the emotional people out of the way, turn me loose and I'll solve the problem. I can do that. Dealing with someone having a nervous breakdown? Not my strong suit.

Anyway, the GM calmed her down and pretty much sent her home for a few days so she could get all the family stuff under control. That left the rest of us to cover the holes in the schedule. Ok, that left ME to cover the BIG hole in the schedule. Saturday I pulled a 12 hour shift. Just wasn't any way around it. She couldn't handle it. The other groomer wasn't available. We had customers. So there ya go. In exchange for that though, I got Sunday off, which was nice. That allowed me to visit with MY family a bit and celebrate my niece's birthday.

So now you're all caught up on things around here. Any gaps in the story you can just fill in with boring, mundane housework, which is what I've been doing. With CC gone again naturally I have to do the chores that she'd normally do and since I'm not really a pig like most men, it means I have to clean.

Oh yes, I do get to play War Craft as well. That's how I relax between chores and work. And there's the reading of course. But until CC gets back next week or so, I doubt I'll have any adventures to post. Sorry about that.