What a lousy night... I had a sandwich from Panera last night and, um, it didn't sit right with me. Was in the bathroom every two hours overnight. I was a wreck. Tried to get on the Tollway as quick as possible but just couldn't get my ass going. I needed to get on the Tollway because as soon as the sun comes up, the traffic gets a little funky as we all squint and try to see the guy in front of us as we head directly for the rising sun (shouldn't be a problem after we change the clocks over the weekend). Stopped at the Oasis to get a Gatorade, hoping that would help the body (it did). Unfortunately, when I finished pumping gas at the Mobil, I slammed my gas cap door shut - a sheered-off a piece of the plastic door release. Now the door won't close. Crap. I am soooo pissed over a stupid little piece of plastic... All I can think of is someone walking between cars in a parking lot getting their coat caught on the open door and ripping the friggin' door off the car, and that's going to look just great... It's going to cost a fortune to replace this little piece of plastic. I looked all over for the piece, hoping I could Super Glue it or something, but I couldn't find it on the ground. Morning was a little rough, but I started feeling better by lunch - when some of the guys went out and brought back Chinese. Real food.

I got my first paycheck yesterday for last week - a whole 4 hours. I opened it up and I was shocked at how small the check was. That's when I realized what had happened. I worked for this consulting company two years ago. Back then, I was making 3 times what I'm making at this job. Because of the difference in tax rates between Carol's salary and mine, I took out additional withholding to help out at the end of the year. Well, when I started with the company again, they didn't look at the W-4's that I had filled out and just re-activated the employee ID, having additional money taken out of my check. Now, my first check wound-up being only $13.61. Ouch.