the deep moans round with many voices

Yesterday morning I gave blood, after which I was so tired I decided not to go do any office work, let alone stage any apartments.

This, I think, is a side effect of getting older. It used to be that I could donate blood and then work a 9-hour retail shift the same day, but in the past couple years I have been noticeably draggy for a day or two after a donation.

I was still pretty tired today, but I hauled myself up to do coffee hour cleanup at FUSIT. It was more of a production than usual, since coffee hour was doubling as a presentation by the environmental committee and a representative from Cornell Cooperative Extension about energy efficient heating systems and was therefore held up in the annex instead of in the parlor. That meant the hospitality team had to use the annex sink and sterilizer, which are part of the youth group room and don't have much actual kitchen apparatus around to make things run smoothly.

It was starting to rain by the time we wrapped up at 1:15pm, which of course increased my desire to sleep. However, I had pre-purchased tickets to a 3pm chamber music concert by the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, so I ate lunch instead of napping. Today's concert featured a Brahms string sextet and a Schoenberg string sextet (from before he abandoned keys and jumped into tone rows). I made the mistake of sitting next to a radiator and almost fell asleep several times, but the music was very good and I am glad I went.

For obvious reasons, I took a 2-hour nap immediately upon returning home! I have since then been puttering around doing nothing in particular, but the afternoon/evening rain seems to have finally let up, so it's time to take the recycling out to the curb and go to bed.

As of a couple years ago, I accidentally got myself onto all four of FUSIT's hospitality teams.

The idea behind hospitality teams is that you sort the congregation into quarters, and each quarter does ushering, coffee hour, etc. for one month before handing off to the next team. Taking summer services into account and doing either September or May on an ad hoc basis, this means every member is only on the hook for a few small things on a couple weeks each year, and hopefully it spreads the labor across a broader swath of the congregation. In practice, there are some stalwarts on each team, a bunch of other people who will maybe volunteer for one task one time per year if you poke them multiple times, and a LOT of people who ask to be removed for whatever reason -- that's standard for any opt-out volunteer project.

But because I actively enjoy washing dishes, I tend to volunteer for cleanup on every week my team is up -- and because the people coordinating the teams noticed that, I got put on the "will fill in when needed" mailing list, and made an official member of every team.

This is not really an issue -- like I said, I actively enjoying washing dishes, and I usually volunteer to bring snacks as well, because baking brownies or buying some cheese and crackers is not a hardship for me. But it does mean that once tax season gets into full swing, I have to remind people that nope, I can't do cleanup until tax day. I am going to be at work instead.

Today was the first day that really kicked in, so I did a quick drive-by to drop off this week's cheese and crackers and then vanished to the sound of lamentations :)

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My shift at Not the IRS was very boring. I had no appointments, and there were no phone calls. The only thing of interest I did was scan some documents for other tax preparers, since I have been stuck sitting at the desk with the scanner because the computer in the cubicle where I prefer to sit has been broken for three weeks now.

I mostly killed time by watching some videos for a Coursera class I am taking for free (Christian women's spirituality in the European middle ages), and reading another chapter of Bridge and Tunnel Boys, which is a book about Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. The course is interesting, but I need to watch the videos with subtitles. The book is also interesting, but DESPERATELY needed another proofreading pass.

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I left work a bit early, after blocking off my schedule with a fake appointment. (I have begun using Nick as my placeholder client.) I had to resort to this scheduling sleight of hand because management did NOT take me off the schedule even though I told them two weeks ago that I wouldn't be available after 2:30pm.

I then attended a chamber music concert by the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. I very nearly decided not to go -- this is because I parked, got out of my car into the pouring rain, and then suddenly realized I'd forgotten to bring my ticket. By the time I got back to my apartment to retrieve the ticket, I was feeling grumpy and uninclined to go back out into the rain. But I reminded myself that animals need enrichment in their enclosures and that I knew I would enjoy the concert, and managed to prod myself back out the door.

I did, as predicted, enjoy the concert. :)

Today at work I staged, photographed, and videoed an apartment. Staging is always a bit tedious (and involves carting heavy boxes around), but I have developed a system and an aesthetic, and it feels good to do something efficiently and well.

Tonight I went to a NYS Baroque concert, which was lovely. To quote from the NYS Baroque website: Robert Mealy, violin; Beiliang Zhu, gamba; Leon Schelhase, harpsichord. Jean-Philippe Rameau's exquisite yet earthy trios, the Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts, with their musical depictions of a colorful cast of personages and places around the French baroque court.

Tomorrow I have three tax clients??? One is a person whose taxes I've done for several years, another is a couple whose return I started because their usual tax preparer (Office Grandpa) is out with a broken/replaced hip and I guess they wanted a sit-down appointment with someone rather than a virtual video appointment. Anyway, I know what questions to ask so that shouldn't be too difficult. And the third is a new client to the company, so who even knows what's up with that.

I also made brownies tonight and will drop them off at FUSIT before heading to work. I considered going to buy some fancy cheese and crackers after tonight's concert, but it was cold and dark so I just came home instead.

And now to bed. :)

I have been kind of flirting with burnout for the past couple weeks -- normally the end of tax season restores some of my free time, but at the rental office we are running four weeks ahead of last year, and last year was the fastest we'd rented in, like, twenty years, so. It's been hectic, though presumably this does mean we'll have a slower summer.

Church has also been hectic as we approach the annual meeting, and honestly I bailed on last month's board meeting because I had about -5 spoons. (I mean, I set up the minutes template for someone else to use, but I just could not face a 2-hour meeting.)

Church has also just recently had a minor explosion due to member discussion over whether or not to approve/accept the proposed 8th Principle. Staff had to shut down a Facebook discussion group and suspend all emails via the Breeze system to stop people from yelling at each other and spamming the entire congregation with manifestos. It is a mess. :(

Also this morning there was a widespread power outage over sections of Ithaca that included several of the rental company's buildings. One of those buildings is where my office is located. So that was fun. Given that I couldn't do any useful work in the office, I went down to the Commons where I staged a vacant apartment, took photos, shot a video tour, and then packed all my staging materials back into storage. By the time I was done with that, NYSEG had restored power to all of our properties, though several traffic lights were still out, creating a bunch of impromptu 4-way stops around downtown Ithaca.

I think we have finally caught up on our backlog of leases, and I was finally able to print my move-out forms -- this requires creating a specific spreadsheet and then executing a mail merge. I could probably copypaste the spreadsheet together in about 10 minutes, but I do it slowly and by hand so I can check each apartment as I go. This is our final point to catch errors like date overlaps and other glitches, so that focused review is important.

Anyway, I have my spreadsheet, I have my move-out sheets, and I have my security deposit return address forms. Tomorrow I will take the spreadsheet and create personalized labels for key return envelopes. Then I get to put the labels on the envelopes and assemble the packets (one move-out sheet, one return address form, one key envelope). Hopefully I'll be able to distribute the first round on Saturday, after which I will shove the remainder at Mr. Geniality to distribute on Monday.

This is a lot of tedious nonsense, but it reduces holdovers and improves key return immensely, so it's worth the bother. (Also, it's good to catch date glitches NOW instead of, say, in August when someone shows up to move in on the first day of their lease but the current tenant's lease doesn't end for another week. *headdesk* We fixed that, btw. It's much easier to fix in May before anyone's nailed down their travel plans.)

Tomorrow I also get to poke various people for various missing forms, waving the stick of "You cannot pick up your keys and move in until we receive this!" over their heads. *sigh* We are very clear and up-front about what forms are part of our lease, and what information is legally required for various purposes. And yet, some people always forget one piece or another until we remind them multiple times.

...

In happier news, today my parents bought a house in Minnesota! It's a two-level townhouse in a suburb of the Twin Cities, and it looks very nice despite a bit of silly buggers with the ceilings and roof line. God willing and the creek don't rise, they will close on June 6, which happens to be the same day I will arrive in Minnesota for my summer vacation -- I should therefore be able to see it in person before we drive up to the lake. :)

...

I refuse to talk about national or international developments of any type on the grounds that I am avoiding all news to save what's left of my mental health. :(

Things and stuff:

1. We had a small church Board meeting Saturday morning to meet with a UUA representative about [various topics redacted], which I think went well though I had to bail early in order to get to work.

2. Company Owner has been raising rents at a rapid clip, much to my and Mr. Geniality's mutual frustration, because it makes us look like jerks to prospective tenants when we have to tell them a quoted rent is no longer valid. Also I have to update all the numbers every time -- in our internal spreadsheets, on our website, in our internal databases, and in all of our online advertising through multiple third-party websites. Anyway, we stalled him for a couple days on the most recent raise because of [reason redacted], but I will need to spend all of Monday fucking around with numbers, argh.

2. On a tangentially related note, Landlord Dude and I signed my 2022-23 lease extension this afternoon. He's raised my rent by $50/month, which is actually more than fair because as a leasing agent I can assure you that my rent is still significantly under market rate for the size and location of my apartment. Such are the benefits of being a long-term tenant. :D (Also Landlord Dude tends to forget to raise my rent for several years in a row, so instead of getting small annual increases, I get larger ones every few years.)

4. Tax Day approacheth, and I have been doing a surprising amount of actual work at the Not the IRS office. I guess online appointment scheduling does make some difference... and also my colleagues know that I am really a level 3 tax preparer though my official certification is only level 2 -- I keep forgetting to test up -- so they're comfortable throwing various clients at me even if the official matching software won't pull up my name.

Today I had to give some bad news to a client who started doing some self-employment stuff in 2021, hadn't realized how that affected their tax situation, and wound up owing the IRS a fair chunk of money. Hopefully my advice has put them in a better position for 2022!

5. I started on a blood pressure medication a week and a half ago. I have no idea if it's doing what it's meant to do -- I will have to pull out my home blood pressure machine and check on that -- but so far I haven't had any dramatically awful side effects. The main thing has been... uh... okay, I'm going to cut this next sentence. ( cut for body-related TMI ) This does seem to be settling out a little, and some of the cramping may have been related to ovulation (yes, I can track that; my cycle is irregular but my body believes in adequate warnings *sigh*), but it's something I intend to keep an eye on and report to my doctor if it doesn't fully clear up in the next week or two.

6. I think I mentioned a while back that I had started hate-playing the NY Times Spelling Bee. I have since stopped hate-playing and settled into just playing -- mostly because I realized I could lie down on my bed and use my actual physical dictionary to help me find suitable words. :D I also use the hints section religiously, because I don't care about bragging rights -- I just want to find all the words and be done with it.

I have learned some ridiculous "words" that I don't think are real words but turn up a lot; run into several perfectly cromulent words that are, I think, much more common than some NY Times-approved "words" but are not accepted; and have sent some grumpy emails about "How can you not have allowed [redacted] as a word -- here it is in the dictionary and on Wikipedia, so what the fuck!" (but, you know, politely). I have also determined that I have two reactions to learning which words I missed (when I miss any) from a previous day. The first is, "Okay, fair play, that's on me," while the second is, "Oh fuck you, that's nonsense." *wry*

7. The Collegetown office of the rental company has FINALLY found a new hire. I have been doing some training this past week -- I got yanked up to Collegetown on Thursday because Aunt Boss was on vacation and one of Mom Boss's kids was out of school sick, so we needed coverage -- and I have high hopes that he will work out. He won't get a nickname for another couple weeks, though, and for the moment he remains New Hire... uh... 6.

For reference: New Hire 1 was super nice and drove me to the hospital when I had my kidney stone, but had scheduling conflicts and didn't work out. New Hire 2 was Miss Goldberry, who was awesome. New Hire 3 thought office hours were suggestions and was fired during the trial period. New Hire 4 was Miss California, who was also awesome. New Hire 5 found the office too fast-paced and quit.

8. My sleep schedule got kind of misaligned for a while, but I have begun to wrench it back into some kind of order, as part of which I took a nap this evening and will shortly return to bed so as to get a solid 8.5 hours of sleep. And on that note, adieu!