steamy

So, we're still doing fine. It's been horribly hot, and everyone tells me "This is nothing. Just wait!"

We went to a picnic last weekend and it was literally 100 degrees in the shade. My migraines have been coming less frequently, though, and I am still going outside every day, even if I don't want to, to try to get adapted.

Anyway. I have decided that the people here are weird.

One of my co-workers had her car heavily damaged by a horrific hail storm several weeks ago. The insurance company totaled it, and wrote her a fat check.

This past Monday, I asked her if she'd gotten started car shopping over the weekend, and she said no, she had not started yet.
I even asked if she was still thinking of getting the same kind of car she had before, as we had talked about this situation at great length a couple of weeks earlier.

She said she wasn't sure.

At lunchtime, I was in the kitchen, and looked out the window to see her getting out of a brand new car, with those temporary plates you get when you buy a new car, and don't have a license plate for it yet.

Yeah. She lied RIGHT TO MY FACE, and for what purpose?

She and I had started to be friends. She is the person who trained me, and had been so kind and helpful with showing me the ropes. We even went to lunch on a couple of occasions.

So why?

The next day, she was bragging to EVERYONE but me that she got a new car. It wasn't until the day after that when she came up to me and said "HEY, wanna see my new car?"

I was the last person in the office to be asked.

WTF?

Anyway, I have decided to take a step back from that whole friendship idea.

Then, one day this past week, one of the other girls in the office was celebrating her birthday. She went around the office, to each person, one by one, and invited them to a lunch outing.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, but me.

On that day, they all left, and I was in the office alone.

THAT was pleasant.

I have also talked with my cube mate, who is, like me, NOT FROM OKLAHOMA, and she agrees. These people are weird.

I have also noted that when we have breaks in dance class, the other students, who all know one another and have been dancing together for possibly years, break up into little groups, all with their backs to me, leaving me standing alone.

We have been in class together every week since mid May. But I am still the out cast. The new comer. The unwelcomed one.

It's so very odd.....and I am really struggling to not take it personally. Succeeding, bit by bit.

I suppose it just takes more time here for the locals to accept outsiders than it does back in Chicagoland.

SO--we're off to get our weekend errands done. We are hoping that, if we can swing it, we will get up extra early tomorrow and try to get in a bike ride before the temperature makes it impossible.

We'll see if that happens!

Also, this has been a difficult week for me because one of my dearest friends back home, P, is getting married today, and I'm not there.

Money and not enough paid time off kept us from making the trip.

I wish her and J the very best.