'cause everyone else seems to rant in journal, so maybe I can too.

I can't wait for this month to be over with. For the past six months, my employer has been preparing to move into a smaller office space on the other side of the city. In the past two years, we lost several state contracts causing us to downsize from 130 to about 40 full time and 10 part time positions.

My employer happens to be the largest university in the state. And they dragged their feet, hands and tail on signing the new lease. We were suppose to move back in March originally. They didn't sign the lease until March and the "new" space (over 150 year old building) needed major renovations before we could move in. They're still painting the walls and we move on this coming Thursday.

What happens when you have space for 130 people but you only got 50? Those 50 spread-out and fill every possible cranny with junk. If all my coworkers were furry, the vast majority of them would be pack rats.

Though all this, I've been a member of the move committee. We put out through emails and through meetings warning that our new space will be SMALLER. We even had a walk-through of the new office before renovations started. We've been harping: PURGE, PURGE, PURGE!!! In those meetings and emails we've asked people to estimate how much space they need for storage. Only my department stepped forward and said we need 5 five drawer file cabinets. We got our storage space. No one else stepped forward...until this past week when it was too late. Alas, the head of the move group planned for this and there will be a little storage space available, but not much. It's going to suck to be my packrat co-workers. I've done my share. I spent 6 months in my "spare time" scanning over 9,000 documents we wouldn't have physical space for in the new office.

Oh, and our contracts with the state don't pause during all this extra work. And June is the WORST time of year we could move 'cause it's end of fiscal year. I had to see my doc earlier this week. She frowned at my blood pressure reading. It's up a bit. Not quite meds-level, but close.

I, normally, take a vacation week in June. Not this year. I need to get away, but can't. Not 'til sometime in July. I normally rent a cabin on a lake for my vacation. Not this year. One of the reasons I take a week in June is that you can get a cabin for a few hundred less a week than in July or August. I can't afford high season rates. Oh well. I'll find something to do.

Also, normally, help-out at a scout camp during their prep-to-open weekend by serving on the cook crew. That's happening without me this weekend. It's not the normal head cook I'm familiar with. So, I gave a heads-up in advance I wasn't available as I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the potential stress that would happen in this situation. ("How come this isn't like so-and-so's cooking....)

I think this squirrel at heart is going to boot-up the beater gaming computer in the basement, channel his inner squirrel and go run-over humans for a while in Carmageddon. Maybe gorily killing a bunch of virtual humans will help me de-stress a little.