Various Updates And A Story About A Camel

Hey kids!
So, it's been forever since I posted anything, and while I generally prefer not to do the whole, OMG, sorry for not posting in forever posts, I feel like it's been long enough to warrant it in this particular case.  So this one may be a little whiny and annoying, for which I sincerely apologize.  Feel free to skip to the bit about the camel.

I've been pretty busy with work (for those who don't know, I started my first "real" full time job around a year and a half ago), and my schedule has been kinda bizarre.  It's been a regular bizarre, at least, unlike retail (where a schedule that involves clopening is a real possibility), and I've had my weekends off, but second shift is a struggle, let me tell you.  I would also like to point out that you can, indeed, get used to anything, to the point where my scheduled work time of 3:18-11:48 seems perfectly normal now (there's a lot of industry in the area, and apparently all the businesses got together to stagger their start times).  Anywho, this leaves me with the awkwardness of either having all my free time before work, which makes it hard to enjoy, having it all after work, when everything is closed, or splitting it up and never being quite right.  I have opted for the latter, mostly because the idea of sleeping until 2pm everyday just seems wrong.  Either way, I haven't had a lot of free time, which means some of my hobbies get neglected more than others.  Couple that with the sheer exhaustion of actually working 40 hours a week, much of which is spent standing on the hardest concrete you've ever seen (no, seriously, the concrete floor where I work is harder than the one where you work.  Pretty sure it has to be to support the weight of all the machinery and forklifts and other crap), and most of the week I'm too tired to do anything.  I now have a better understanding of the phrase "working for the weekend" than I ever wanted.
In addition to the time issues, I also have additional social awkwardness in that, while all of my coworkers are wonderful people and very much like family, they're also all from a very different background, so there's not a lot of common ground.  It's a little isolating.  Couple that with the actual, physical isolation of the work itself (back in the machine shop area we're all pretty much in our respective corners running our machines), and my social skills--and verbal acuity--have taken a bit of hit.  When you're not using words all the time, it can get hard to string together a cohesive sentence.

The other reason is actually fairly ironic.  I've noticed an increasing toxicity on the internet, and it's really not something I want to contribute.  I'm saying things have to be rainbows and butterflies all the time, but there is a crap ton of negativity, and I kind of noticed a lot of my posts kinda heading in that direction.  While I like to think I'm vaguely entertaining in my snark, I'd like to have a more positive focus (or at least a more thought provoking one) and well, most of my stories lately are either really boring or kinda bitchy.
I do have a number of topics I'd really like to cover that I can do so in a manner consistent with the direction I want to go, but they're pretty massive subjects, and getting started and keeping them somewhat concise has been a little tricky--if you're curious about some of the somedays, they include but are not limited to: sexism (what it is and is not), women in STEM (this is actually kind of personal, as machining kinda falls under that umbrella and there are very few women in the field), Christian fundamentalism and witchcraft (It's only been fairly recently that I've been exposed to fundamentalism and it is bizarre and baffling.  Of particular note is how disturbingly misinformed this group seems to be about what witchcraft actually consists of), and the value problem in the arts (we love nice art, and music, and TV, but we don't want to pay for it and thus allow artists to afford to continue making it).

That said, I appreciate your patience with me, as always, and hope you'll continue checking back from time to time.

THE BIT ABOUT THE CAMEL

I promised you a camel, and gosh darn it, you're going to get one.

The other night I had this dream. (You should have expected it to start this way--how else am I going to have an entertaining story about a camel?)  And in this dream I was running through this palatial maze-like house (a common theme, actually), and I was trying to find my way out.  The owner was going to do something bad to me, like evil science experiments or something.  Anyway, I find this door and I go through it, and find myself in this petting zoo.  Well, it's still on the estate, so I go running through it, trying to find my way out, and there's like sheep and stuff all in these pens, when suddenly, I feel this tug.

A camel is eating my panties.

While I'm wearing them.

And not in the sexy way (which would just be weird and definitely verging into nightmare territory), but in an I'm a fucking camel and I'm going to give you the worst fucking wedgie of your life because I'm an asshole kind of way.  Seriously, I was still wearing pants.  Asshole camel.

"You ate her panties?  Dude, that's hilarious!  Wish I'd thought of that!"