Today absolutely sucked and my morale, my temper, and my common sense hit rock bottom for a while.

But you know, rock bottom for all three is a lot higher than it was when I lived out in Seattle and Boston. I think a certain amount of deprivation has been good for my WIS stat. :p

Plus, Peg demonstrated once again that we have some pretty damn good relationship and conflict-resolution skills, and performed a VERY smart act of open communication that probably saved us both hours of grumping, fighting, and despair.

And my employers made me feel really smart and well-appreciated by giving me a nice chance to show off. They also seem to actually give a shit about the little nerdy extra things I do to support the team (like making up a little glossary of geographical terms in Thai for the annotation team), which is a hell of a lot more than I can say about anyone else I've ever worked for.

The isolation, the bugs in the kitchen (and the postponed exterminator appointment), the draconian local weed laws, the lack of social opportunities (even virtually), my lack of Parallax progress, and the utter death of my libido and my fantasy life... these are still problems. I still feel like I'm farming barren earth.

But I can feel kinda good about *myself*, at least. And my crazy-but-surprisingly-sane dragon lady.

And the bakeries are still open. That's important. 😺​