Today ruled.

When I got there, trystan_laryssa and hcolleen were already there. I had come up with a writing prompt for hcolleen to write on the board ("Everything was backwards"), and there was a lot of happy fun talking about stuff in general before getting down to business. We had another new person today. I still can't remember hcolleen's friend's name, the one who's very defensive about her writing.

Constance McNeill tackled me in the shower last night. Constance is a new character who just came out of fucking nowhere, and she already has quirks. The writing prompt actually provided me with a viable way of introducing her. I am collecting characters. This is a good thing.

We went around the room and shared stuff. Fun was had by all. trystan_laryssa wound up actually figuring out how to start off some project that she'd been planning to do.

The last hurrah at Cafe Fiat was excellent. The food was good as per the usual, and there was actual chocolate cheesecake -- on the last day we'll be meeting there, figures! trystan_laryssa and I shared the last piece of Double Chocolate and a piece of chocolate swirl.

M wound up tailoring writing challenges to the individual. I am to write a mundane heterosexual affair without dialogue. I may fudge the requirements a little and include some "She gasped loudly, then yowled his name so loudly the neighbors started pounding on the walls" and so forth, but no actual conversation, no actual ... well, the lead-in may well have to have meaningful dialogue so that I can stand to write it and I'll know what the characters are actually doing besides fucking with great glee and abandon. It is horribly difficult for me to write romance that does not include the supernatural, because I write what I know. And I do not do a good job of having romance that does not include the supernatural.

I think that Constance is going to be the one having the affair.

trystan_laryssa explained tabletop gaming to azwriter. Something tells me that azwriter is going to jump in wholeheartedly and do her darnedest to raise her girls as Good Little Gamers. Pocky was also explained. There was joking with subtext, pickles, and whipped cream. All normal good clean fun. trystan_laryssa was not freaked out by us being wild and crazy, because that's what normally happens around our friends...

There was much bus-giggling. trystan_laryssa and I snarked at a particular asshat driver. She wanted to remember my spur-of-the-moment comment, which was something to the effect of: "Who ripped off your dick and replaced it with a stick of pocky?"

I wound up dropping by her place for half an hour or so before catching one of the last buses home. Loren was there. Good filking fun was had by all.

Work happened. Beauty, from the upcoming NaNoWriMo 2005, is getting very insistent in my head. She's not quite sure who she is yet, but her story needs to be told. She doesn't even have a name yet. I refuse to allow her to gank rosalynde's.

I was on the phones. I got surveys. I was not sitting next to Figment, alas. I was sitting next to one of the Dowager Empresses of the workplace, a stately woman whose hair usually matches her outfit. I am amazed that I am picking up a reputation for being uniformly sweet and polite and nice on the phones. (I think I mentioned that I got my semiannual review the other day? The Alternate Lead Monitor took me into the back room last Friday and told me that I rock hardcore, and to keep up the good work. At this point, I'm probably more critical of my own performance on the phones than the rest of the monitoring staff is.) The Dowager Empress of Colorful Hair wanted to know if I was really as nice in person as I sound on the phones.

Any batch of new hires means new people to get to know, to screen in and screen out. Part of the process is seeing who's going to wind up in The Crowd. From a recent batch of trainees seem to have emerged two students of the Art Institute in Animation (one graduated, one current) who have been spending breaks with Figment and therefore me as well. I was going to do the simple thing and call the guy (about my age-ish, graduated) the Animator, and the girl (eighteen or nineteen, current student) the Animatrix, but then I recalled a certain cult movie and assorted animated spinoffs, and decided that for confusion's sake, I should probably not bestow that nickname upon the girl. The guy may well wind up being the Animator, and the girl may wind up being the Acolyte.

The Acolyte's alarm bird clock has been acting possessed, so I wound up bringing in my old (still functional) emergency back-up alarm clock (the one that the Little Fayoumis infamously wondered "Is that [Darkside]'s alarm clock?" about) for her to have. It was brand new in 1994, and not all the buttons work anymore, and it eats tapes, but at least it isn't possessed. My tower shelf doesn't have a clock anymore, but at least this way it'll be in use.

Benadryl sends me loopier than a very loopy thing, but at least it helps put a dent in the allergies. And there are bad, bad, bad allergies going around. Rain in the Arizona early spring makes the Arizona late spring unbreathable.

In other news, work is having overtime, hiring a bunch of n00bs, and having 10 hour shifts on Saturdays. (easalle -- I'm working late on the 30th, so I won't be able to make it. Argh.) This will prove to be interesting. dustraven and trystan_laryssa's roommate and GM for the superheroes game is working there now. Insanity shall commence, and shall run screaming in the other direction, because work is going to be post-sane, or knurd, or something like that. There will be far too much caffeine, far too little coherent thought, and far too many supervisors pulling a twelve-hour shift or longer than that.

...Heck, after pulling a few supervisor shifts on the 10 hour phone goon shifts (which translates to a 12+ shift for supervisory staff) I should be able to pull a double-shift Sunday as a phone goon (13 hours, 1/2 hour of which is between shifts) no problem.