ahhhhhhhhhh this week.

there's all this crazy shit going down at work that basically involves all the directors having to sit down and listen to every single complaint all their underlings (ie, me and others) wish to air. this will all be presented by the senior adminstrative secretary, anonymously. it's like you can just let rip, as long as it's constructive. which is so sweet. and tomorrow Amy has to sit down with robot and pink lady and basically tell robot to its face all the instances where robot acted inappropriately. which number in the fifties to hundreds. oh yeah. it's go time, baby. I am really looking forward to this.

in a related story, I again would like to declare that "The Office," on BBC America for all in the U.S. who haven't seen it, is probably one of the best things on TV ever. in tonight's episode they were having a seminar on problem solving and customer service. the boss was doing a role playing exercise with the man leading the seminar and I almost peed my pants after the boss (playing a customer at a hotel with a complaint) tried to phase the leader (playing a hotel manager who didn't want to hear his complaints) by saying, "I think there's been a rape up there!" ohhh lordy.

hmmmm they're playing Shakira downstairs. how precious.

speaking of that, I wrote this big long letter to my landlords last week to formalize my complaint against the noise from the bar. I cc:ed the bar owner as well, and used the handy dandy phrase Amber gave me: constructive eviction. then yesterday the wife half of the landlord team called me at work to say they got my letter, the husband was talking to the bar owner, and they were going to talk to the attorney for the owner of the building. so that's good news. perhaps. the wife also offered to let April and I move one floor up to an apartment that will be vacated as of May 1. she said we'd have to sign another year lease if we did that and I said I'd have to talk to April about it.

but I didn't say anything to April about the upstairs apartment because I am now officially going to move to Cincinnati this summer and therefore do not want to a) sign another lease, or b) move twice within 4 months.

so I decided it was high time to drop the bomb of my departure on April because she needs as much advance warning as possible and I'd promised myself that I'd tell her by the end of this month. so last night after work I came home, purposely forced myself to be in a good mood, and after a sushi dinner and all the shows on the tee vee were over I suggested she and I go out for a drink. I knew she'd want to go since yesterday and today are her days off and it's hard to coerce friends to party down on a Wednesday evening, but of course I had ulterior motives.

we got to the bar and right after we had our first beers in hand I told her the news from the landlords (minus the upstairs apartment part) and then said that the other thing I wanted to tell her was that I was planning to move this summer. before she could say anything, I said that this was a really difficult decision to make (for it truly was), that it had nothing to do with our friendship, that I will absolutely help her find a new place, and that basically it's the only solution I can forsee with regards to getting myself back on a track that will at least keep me from being penniless and homeless in three years' time. then I asked her if she was ok because she was just kind of looking around and blinking a lot.

she kind of let out a big breath and said she was fine, yes, and that she understood why I would be making that decision. and I again emphasized that yes, it sucks so bad and I wish I didn't have to do it but I have pretty much painted myself into a corner. I stressed that I wanted to do everything I could to make this go as smoothly as possible for both of us and that I wanted her to be totally honest with me about everything and that I could understand if she was angry. she said no, she wasn't angry, more disappointed than anything else and that it was going to be really sad. I agreed, of course. I'm going to be incredibly sad to leave here. and I also pointed out that I felt awful having to tell her because ever since she and I moved here we've kind of been in it together, you know, and I was just really worried about how to tell her and when.

then I started telling her that I wanted to wait to make my final decision until her job was secure and I knew she liked it and I basically tried to get her to focus on how much opportunity she has in this new job, because she really does. like, they are talking about promoting her to general manager at some point. and I was kind of trying to make her see that she's not going to be struggling financially like she has been for much longer.

then I assured her that our friendship wasn't going to change, that I didn't want her to feel like I was cutting her off or trying to leave her stranded because that absolutely isn't my intention, of course. and we talked about how we don't really have a lot of friends in Chicago and she kind of hinted that we might lose touch. so I reassured her that no, she was too important to me as a friend (despite all the petty things that I dislike about her) and that I've invested too much in her as a friend to ever let that happen. and then she almost started to cry. I mean, this girl just has such bad luck with people and friends and I can understand why she'd be afraid I'd just drop her like that because it's happened to her so many times before.

anyway, then it just spiraled into this big, "let's talk about life" discussion, but it all went very well and I'm glad it's over with. phew.

and we're going to throw a hella huge party once the departure date draws near.

as for my pregnant sister, I called her tonight and she is very happy and everything and it's so weird and possibly potentially catastrophic but I'm just going to work on a policy of acceptance and support as much as I can from now on. because otherwise I'm going to be a blobby stain of anguish and we really can't have that. plus, apparently the father has mentioned marriage a few times lately, and Adrienne still hasn't decided whether to keep or go for adoption.

so. that's the update for now.