Stressed

So I am getting a super late start this morning, as it is my birthday and I milled around the house rather than get ready and do my normal routine.  I took the day off from work because the intent was to pick my wife up from the airport as she was flying in at noon.  Unfortunately however that flight was cancelled due to weather… and she is not slotted to get into Tulsa until 9pm.  This kind of puts a huge dent in the enjoyment of my birthday as I was expecting to get to spend at least half of it with her.  However I got pinged over IM from a friend with this message… you think you get to take the day off from blogging just because its your birthday? So I guess I need to hustle along with my morning post.

Laptop Strikes Back

So when I last spoke about this yesterday, I was a bit chipper as the laptop guy had gotten back ahold of me and apologized for not responding.  He said he had been selling his car and busy dealing with that, but would be able to meet up Monday after he got off work at 12:30.  So we arranged a meeting and I took a late lunch to go meet him at 1:30.  I was feeling kind of crappy yesterday… extremely dizzy but I drove out to meet him and upon pulling into the parking lot I feel my pocket buzz.  When I pull out my phone I had received a message from him.

Hey man.  I can’t sell the laptop anymore.  Sorry for wasting your time.

So after all that hassle… the little fucker flakes out on me again.  If you have been following me for a long time… or read the link I posted to an old blog post…  I went through this exact same shit last time I tried to buy a laptop for myself on craigslist.  However we can seem to buy stuff for my wife anytime we want without major issues.  I feel like I am just cursed, and I have simply learned my lesson faster this time.  I flipped a big finger to the process of buying a laptop for myself through craigslist and went searching online.

To be truthful I had done a bit of this already when I thought the guy had flaked out… and found a slightly better version of the Lenovo y500 for a bit more and yesterday after talking to my wife I went ahead and placed and order.  The funny thing is… when you are spending $1000 on something… that $25 for over night shipping seems like a pittance.  Based on UPS tracking it shows that my new laptop is out for delivery, which usually means it will show up on my doorstep around noonish.

Everything about the laptop looks to be something that will hold me for another 2-3 years.  Honestly my Asus would have been just fine if it did not start having unexplained power issues.  It looked like it was going to cost around $300 as it was going to be the motherboard, and it just seemed silly to throw that kind of money at a machine that was already 3 years old.  Quite honestly the concept of SLI in a laptop blows my mind… I am so interested to crack it open and see what it can do.  Having had SLI before, I know it is not always the best choice and some games perform better using only a single card… but the 650 is still an upgrade over any video card I currently have.

Stressed

I have been super stressed this past week for so many reasons.  Work has been extremely wishy washy and uncertain, with our deadlines and goals changing on an almost hourly basis.  Put on top of that all the technical issues I have had with computers malfunctioning, and the fact that the acquisition of a new laptop had been a drama filled mess.  Compound all of that by the fact that I don’t really handle change well, and the absence of my wife has been probably the largest stress inducer, and I think my body is rebelling against me.

Yesterday I felt extremely horrible.  I took my blood pressure at one point and it was extremely high, I was super dizzy…  realized I had only had about 500 calories for the day… and also realized I had not actually had anything to drink since my early morning coffee.  Instead of coming back to work after my late lunch meet up I drove to the house and remote in, so I could sit in my quiet serene office in the dark and try and calm the hell down.  Additionally I drank about 32 oz of water and ate something for lunch.

So right now my goal for my birthday day… is to try and think as many calm thoughts as possible.  This may or may not happen since my wife is essentially stranded at an airport right now.  I am really hoping she ends up with an option to get home before 9pm.  Honestly we don’t really know WHEN she will be home… since the 3:30 connecting fight is on “Stand by”.  Again…  I need to think happy non-rage-inducing thoughts.  So the question is… what can I do that is super relaxing.

Leveling Crafting

So far my plan is to farm materials and finish leveling Foraging and Weapon Smithing in Rift.  For whatever reason I find this activity calming.  I have always liked riding around picking herbs, harvesting nodes and skinning bodies.  There is just something serene about moving around a pretty landscape with a nice orchestral soundtrack.. and those little nodes on the map give you just enough of a reason to be there to keep it interesting.  At this point I am in the level 50 zones working on Carmintium and the assorted herbs.

My problem is that I don’t quite remember what the sweet spot for ore and herbs was.  I roamed around Iron Pine Peaks and it didn’t seem all that great, so I am thinking today I might go out to Ember Isle.  At least there I have a shot at the various rare mobs that drop pets and such.  Hopefully the activity will be just as calming as I seem to need it to be, and hopefully before long there will be a knock on my door with a new toy to set up.

I hope you all have a great day, and I want to thank everyone for the warm birthday wishes I have received over twitter and G+.  I play a little game each birthday, to see who is the first automated bot to wish me a happy birthday.  This year it was the WoWAce forum, which now that I think of it… might have been the winner last year as well.  It is just interesting to log into email and see a flood of automated happy birthday messages.  I have to say the experience of G+ and their birthday messages is a bit odd as well..  when you click the message saying you have birthday greetings it gives you a huge page of ALL the greetings.  Surprise ninja greetings!!  Anyways… maybe now Chuck will be satiated… I have blogged on my birthday.