Budget Crunching My Life

This is Official Budget Crunch time here at my place of employment. Our fiscal year runs from July to July.

• Last day of the fiscal year: June 30th.
• Day the Powers That Be cut us off from purchasing shit on our own budget lines: April 13th. Friday the 13th this year, to be exact.

We'll see what the day brings. We do tend to get some drama going on up in here, what with some of my coworkers occasionally going postal and all, so Friday the 13th could be interesting.

So, yeah, they cut us off 2 1/2 months beforehand so they can get shit straight over in the budget office. It wouldn't be so bad if we were up and running on July 1st. But no, it also takes some time once the new fiscal year begins to open up next year's budget.

All this to say it's a royal pain in the ass. Luckily I have set up most of my vendors to do orders directly, circumventing Budget Office Approval & Processing, so I get a May 30 deadline for those direct dealings. Because I'm good like that.

Anyway, been working 12 hour days mostly this week. I'm dreaming spreadsheets. I have mostly random thoughts to offer today. Nothing coherent. Like:

1) Putting on a cold bra in a cold house is fucking torture. Seriously, it's a bitch. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. Just starts the day out bitchy for you.

2) Why do some zits start out way the hell underneath your skin and turn into a dormant volcano? Dormant meaning that shit isn't going anywhere. I mean like when you wake up, and half your jawline is actually swollen. Seriously, like your profile is all fucked up, because it looks like you have a 4-inch tumor. Or like you've been in a bar fight. That actually did happen to me once, where I got clocked in the jaw by a member of the Hungarian mob for protesting when they beat the shit out of one of my firefighter buddies -- he made the mistake of dancing in the cage, without knowing that a couple of the working gals had reserved it -- but that's a story for another day. Anyway, my jaw pretty much looks like that, except there wasn't tequila behind it this time.

3) Why do dogs eat shit that tastes nasty? Batman has had another Gastro-Adventure. Apparently, those fake firelogs make a fine meal for a dog. Now you know that some ground up black flammable chemicals pressed into a log shape has got to taste nasty, even to a dog. I can see that road-kill might be perceived as tasty to a dog, while being repulsive to me. I get that rotting trash might be some high-living to a dog, whereas it would make me hurl. But a grainy chemicals? I could even see a dog tearing the paper off and shaking it around, but eating it? He probably ate 1/3 of the log. Puked twice the next morning. That was some of the strangest puke I've ever seen, but we won't even go there. Anyway, I added that to my WTF? canine files.

OK, back to the grind. I just found out that the buyer up in the budget office doesn't want to approve my proposal at a cost of $7,800 through my vendor, which would cost from $43,400 to $58,800 with her vendors. WTF? What is it with state institutions? I miss my old job where I actually had some power to make decisions. Especially if those decisions were no-brainers that benefited the company.

>sigh<

Oh, and I still haven't done my taxes. Shit.