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Busy Working Thursday
Feb. 26th, 2026 11:50 pmVery busy, in fact, so let's get straight into the write-up:
Work – Finally went back to work at 10 AM this morning and proceeded to have a very busy day – while my coworker handled the GLs and returned most of the messages left on the phone during our long absence, I found myself juggling:
A) Depositing the checks from the safe and doing the morning reports (as usual)
B) Going through my e-mails and answering those that needed answering (prioritizing the ones from my boss, of course)
C) Taking a bunch of credit card calls (including playing phone tag with one particular guy who was trying to do a pledge – we FINALLY connected at the end of the day), along with answering a few donor questions (including one from a lady who didn’t speak much English asking about her credit card gift – I’m pretty sure I managed to explain to her that her card hadn’t gone through, and she said she’d sent a check instead)
D) MAKING a few phone calls to set up credit card stuff (one went through fine, the other ran afoul of an error that keeps popping up from time to time which just says there was “a problem” with setting up a gift/pledge – the donor was fortunately understanding and admitted he’d had trouble on the website too, which was interesting)
E) Sending more e-mails to the credit card company to thank them for finally posting the missing payments for the 2026 CCA pledges, and asking them to get on posting the missing payments for the 2025 CCA pledges, and to keep looking into that weird nonspecific error
F) Checking the credit card company’s work on posting all those 2026 CCA pledge payments, because I don’t trust them
G) Checking on a few issues our regular check processors brought to light (had to fix someone’s payment schedule and move a gift from the account of someone who’d recently died to the new account we made for his son, who happens to have the same name and live at the same address – this is an annoying fact of life in Rhode Island)
H) And helping my coworker with some GL weirdness (some gifts got split up weird on the reconciliation report, no idea why)
Whew! Quite a lot to get through, as I think you’ll agree! But I did the best I could to handle it all. Tomorrow’s going to be a full-length day – not sure if that will make things less busy (because we’ll be able to spread the work out across more hours) or more busy (because more time for donors to call us and nonsense to happen). We’ll find out when I go in!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night on C. M. Alongi’s channel, pedaling my way through:
A) The end of “Creating CaFae Latte: Behind the Scenes!” Which featured:
I. C. M. showing off a bit more of the kind of “detail editing” work she does (clipping out awkward moments, adjusting how quickly the next line of dialogue starts after the previous one, overlapping one scene’s audio onto another scene’s video so she could show a nice facial expression without any awkward pauses, etc) and talking about how, after she’s done with all that, she sends everything back to Video Editor Nic so he can clean it up and add any necessary special effects and whatnot (like the blue filter and blizzard effects in the “kids escaping from the Yule Troll” videos – adorably, she said that she often had to rein him in on the amount of stuff to add because he was so eager to make the videos look good)
II. C. M. showing off the Google Drive where she and Video Editor Nic exchange videos, and being very pleased to see the video intended for January 8th was ready for her to download and post, yay (though she had to change the title as the date in it was wrong – January 7th)
III. And everything ending with a look at the final product – which, in this case, was the skit where Mark comes to the cafe and meets JC, and JC checks in on how he and Drek are doing (and Drek jokingly gets dramatic about being a gay teenager)
Cool stuff! It is nice to see exactly what goes into making these videos – it looks like a lot of work! But it seems C. M. and Nic have a system down. :)
B) And the first half of “Reacting to YOUR Greek Myth Hot Takes!” A video that C. M. did when she needed a break from doing “CaFae Tales,” as apparently those are a lot of work, and which doubled as an advertisement for her Monstrous Kickstarter (which is fully funded and then some as of this writing, yay). Much like her “reacting to your ‘CaFae Latte’ hot takes” videos, this involved her having I presume Video Editor Nic gather up a bunch of people’s opinions about various Greek myths that she could scroll through and react to. Hot takes so far have included:
I. “Hades and Persephone is too romanticized as a myth; he DID kidnap her” – C. M. allowed that Hades did kidnap Persephone (though she did note that in some of the earliest versions of the myth, Zeus basically SOLD Persephone to Hades, and was treated as the actual villain of the piece as a result), but argued that the reason this myth gets so romanticized is because, after the initial kidnapping, Hades and Persephone have probably the most functional relationship out of all the Greek Gods. And us modern folks see that and are like “it’s really a shame that this surprisingly loving marriage starts in such a not-good way – let’s rewrite things so she wants to go with Hades of her own free will instead!” Basically, it may be too romanticized, but it’s not going to STOP being romanticized anytime soon!
II. “Dionysus is so much more than just The Drunk Guy in Greek mythology” – C. M. hard agreed with this one, noting that he was much more than the God of Wine (specifically, that he was also the God of Insanity), and recommending the Overly Sarcastic Production’s video on the guy so people could learn more. And then talked about how one of her favorite experiences as a theater kid was starring in a play about the Bacchanalia that the scriptwriter had turned into a musical of sorts, which she thought really beautifully highlighted all the fucked-up bits in that play.
III. “Hercules is so over-rated, and Sisyphus is underrated” – C. M. mostly agreed with that one, admitting that she herself was pretty “meh” about Hercules (he just had the good fortune of being popular among the Greeks, meaning he got a lot of stories) and explaining the Sisyphus myth for all of us in more detail. Basically, Sisyphus kept killing people who stayed at his house (a HUGE no-no in Ancient Greek society, where being a good host was MANDATED BY THE GODS), then trapped Thanatos, God of Death – the Greek Grim Reaper, separate from Hades – a box when he came from, then got yanked into the Underworld, THEN managed to pull a fast one on Persephone by saying he needed to go up to the living world to put his affairs in order for just three days, then running away and living to a ripe old age. You see why he eventually ended up rolling that rock up a hill over and over and over again. XD
IV. “Jason shouldn’t be considered a hero, he didn’t even DO anything, all his deeds are the result of his wife Medea helping him” – C. M. argued that Jason did manage to successfully wrangle all the heroes who were part of the Argonauts, which did indicate he had some skills...but then allowed that, yeah, no, him getting the Golden Fleece was all Medea. And that he should have thought twice about fucking her over and trying to officially marry someone else after promising himself to her.
V. “I don’t care what Percy Jackson says, Ares was NOT a dick to his daughters” – C. M. hard agreed with this one too, telling us all about a myth where Ares murders Poseidon’s son after he rapes one of his daughters, and when Poseidon took him to court, Zeus ruled in favor of Ares as he didn’t want to upset the other goddesses (including his own wife, who was very much on Ares’s side). Apparently Ares is also POSSIBLY the only god who didn’t rape anyone himself, which – good for the God of War, I must say.
Interesting stuff – C. M. knows a lot about this kind of thing. :) I left off with her talking about the Medusa myth (and how the Greeks were very victim-blamey when it came to rape most of the time) – we’ll finish this off tomorrow and see what other myths and what other hot takes come up!
2. Continue editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I did in fact manage to fit in an editing session before work today, yay! One of the benefits of going in late. :) Today’s page featured:
A) Victor telling Alice (who’d noted yesterday that the Van Dort servants dressed very well, and she wouldn’t mind taking the outfit she was wearing) that the nice dress was just another way for his parents to show off their money, and that if she wanted it, she could have it, as they had plenty of spares, before adding she’d probably want to resew it to make it less obvious it was one of theirs. Alice assured him that she’d already planned to take up the skirt, as anything that touched her shoes bugged her (made her feel like she could trip at any moment), and mused about moving the lace around the collar to the hem...before admitting she might have to pay someone to do that, as she was much more versed in practical mending than decorative sewing (confessing she’d never had any patience for samplers as a child). Smiler said that Widow Black could help, with Victor confirming she’d done an excellent job on his jacket, while Victor said he could get her into Dundridge & Sons if she wanted, as he was sure Amelia Dundridge would find her a better customer than Nell.
B) Alice telling Smiler and Victor that she’d consider her options dress-wise later, and that they’d better get a move on – because even if Barnaby and Kasimir didn’t object to being left in the wine cellar, there was always the risk that Mrs. Pemberly would notice them missing and go on the hunt. Victor allowed that was a good point and started picking out suits while noting he was surprised that they had convinced her they were new employees – Smiler confessed they hadn’t, really, she’d just decided she needed the help in the kitchen more than figuring out who they were, with Alice confirming they’d only been saved by an incident with a cheese tray. And that it was lucky she knew her way around a cutting board, and Smiler around soup – “Cooking is just another form of alchemy!” Smiler cheerfully proclaimed. :P
C) Smiler asking Victor if he wanted help folding up his clothes, and Victor saying that he could handle the suits, but if Smiler wanted to get some shirts out of the chest of drawers nearby, that would be useful – before promising them that he had fewer shirts than suits with an awkward chuckle. Smiler laughed along but assured him that he really shouldn’t feel guilty about having so many clothes – Victor said he knew, but he’d just had it shoved in his face just how lucky he really was to grow up rich, and he didn’t want either them or Alice to feel like he was somehow flaunting his wealth. Cue Alice telling him that he apologized for being a “spoiled rich boy” way too often already, and given the way his parents treated him, she’d consider him at most a little off. Before telling him he’d have to get one particularly-high-up-the-wall sketch himself, as she couldn’t reach it. XD
And so I ended on Victor fetching the sketch and saying he was glad she felt that way – it was just getting him to feel that way that was the trick. *nods* We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow, and see if Alice and Smiler can’t boost his self-esteem a little.
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – managed to fit in the latest from C. M. Alongi tonight – “CaFae Latte Season 83 - TikTok Compilation!” This one was all about the characters dealing with the ICE threat in Minnesota, and featured:
A) Bob checking in with the Stoughton Street Coven on how they were doing with protection charms – after checking in with Lindsey to see how many she’d need (less than last week, as most of the people she and the food shelf have been delivering to already have one now) and Nicole to see if she needed any for her students (already taken care of), Mike declared that ten more on top of the thirty they already had would do the job. Nicole was a little worried about supplies at first, as they’d been going through a lot of unicorn blood, but Bob told her that she and Cyrus had each donated a pint of their blood to the cause. Mike was a little startled, going “this is YOUR blood?” before Bob explained that Fae blood has plenty of magical properties, and it was only a pint –
And cue Ghost Hunter John coming in going “what’s this about blood?” XD Nicole explained about how, since humans aren’t inherently magical, they have to rely on magical ingredients – animal parts and plants – and that Bob and Cyrus had just donated some Fae blood to them as it was excellent for protection and good luck charms, with Mike chiming in that this is why some covens just straight-up kill paranormal people – to harvest their bits. John admitted he’d helped solve some of those cold cases, then asked about the homemade journals in the shop (made by Mike’s wife, as per Lindsey and Mike). Mike was like “didn’t you just get one?” but John explained that he’d been doing a LOT of archiving of what was happening in the Twin Cities – both hard copies locked in his safe and digital ones anyone could access (“Historians will thank you,” Nicole informed him). And then revealed that he’d actually struck up a friendship with fellow archivist Rabbi Rabbit (who Bob confirmed was now friends with Rethu and Cyrus), with the video ending on him praising the guy for doing the archiving, running his synagogue, and getting drivers to help with food deliveries. Though that latter wasn’t too hard, as – well. A not-inconsiderable number of people he knows are related to Holocaust survivors, so…yeah.
( These Always Get Long )
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I didn’t have anything I had to do over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and it was all quiet again over on Valice Multiverse. *shrug* How it goes sometimes!
...yeah, properly-spaced-out-version is going to have to come tomorrow too -- it's a normal workday, so I HAVE to get to bed now. Night all! EDIT 2/27/2026: Okay, everything's good now, please enjoy the fully-completed and fully-spaced update!
Work – Finally went back to work at 10 AM this morning and proceeded to have a very busy day – while my coworker handled the GLs and returned most of the messages left on the phone during our long absence, I found myself juggling:
A) Depositing the checks from the safe and doing the morning reports (as usual)
B) Going through my e-mails and answering those that needed answering (prioritizing the ones from my boss, of course)
C) Taking a bunch of credit card calls (including playing phone tag with one particular guy who was trying to do a pledge – we FINALLY connected at the end of the day), along with answering a few donor questions (including one from a lady who didn’t speak much English asking about her credit card gift – I’m pretty sure I managed to explain to her that her card hadn’t gone through, and she said she’d sent a check instead)
D) MAKING a few phone calls to set up credit card stuff (one went through fine, the other ran afoul of an error that keeps popping up from time to time which just says there was “a problem” with setting up a gift/pledge – the donor was fortunately understanding and admitted he’d had trouble on the website too, which was interesting)
E) Sending more e-mails to the credit card company to thank them for finally posting the missing payments for the 2026 CCA pledges, and asking them to get on posting the missing payments for the 2025 CCA pledges, and to keep looking into that weird nonspecific error
F) Checking the credit card company’s work on posting all those 2026 CCA pledge payments, because I don’t trust them
G) Checking on a few issues our regular check processors brought to light (had to fix someone’s payment schedule and move a gift from the account of someone who’d recently died to the new account we made for his son, who happens to have the same name and live at the same address – this is an annoying fact of life in Rhode Island)
H) And helping my coworker with some GL weirdness (some gifts got split up weird on the reconciliation report, no idea why)
Whew! Quite a lot to get through, as I think you’ll agree! But I did the best I could to handle it all. Tomorrow’s going to be a full-length day – not sure if that will make things less busy (because we’ll be able to spread the work out across more hours) or more busy (because more time for donors to call us and nonsense to happen). We’ll find out when I go in!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night on C. M. Alongi’s channel, pedaling my way through:
A) The end of “Creating CaFae Latte: Behind the Scenes!” Which featured:
I. C. M. showing off a bit more of the kind of “detail editing” work she does (clipping out awkward moments, adjusting how quickly the next line of dialogue starts after the previous one, overlapping one scene’s audio onto another scene’s video so she could show a nice facial expression without any awkward pauses, etc) and talking about how, after she’s done with all that, she sends everything back to Video Editor Nic so he can clean it up and add any necessary special effects and whatnot (like the blue filter and blizzard effects in the “kids escaping from the Yule Troll” videos – adorably, she said that she often had to rein him in on the amount of stuff to add because he was so eager to make the videos look good)
II. C. M. showing off the Google Drive where she and Video Editor Nic exchange videos, and being very pleased to see the video intended for January 8th was ready for her to download and post, yay (though she had to change the title as the date in it was wrong – January 7th)
III. And everything ending with a look at the final product – which, in this case, was the skit where Mark comes to the cafe and meets JC, and JC checks in on how he and Drek are doing (and Drek jokingly gets dramatic about being a gay teenager)
Cool stuff! It is nice to see exactly what goes into making these videos – it looks like a lot of work! But it seems C. M. and Nic have a system down. :)
B) And the first half of “Reacting to YOUR Greek Myth Hot Takes!” A video that C. M. did when she needed a break from doing “CaFae Tales,” as apparently those are a lot of work, and which doubled as an advertisement for her Monstrous Kickstarter (which is fully funded and then some as of this writing, yay). Much like her “reacting to your ‘CaFae Latte’ hot takes” videos, this involved her having I presume Video Editor Nic gather up a bunch of people’s opinions about various Greek myths that she could scroll through and react to. Hot takes so far have included:
I. “Hades and Persephone is too romanticized as a myth; he DID kidnap her” – C. M. allowed that Hades did kidnap Persephone (though she did note that in some of the earliest versions of the myth, Zeus basically SOLD Persephone to Hades, and was treated as the actual villain of the piece as a result), but argued that the reason this myth gets so romanticized is because, after the initial kidnapping, Hades and Persephone have probably the most functional relationship out of all the Greek Gods. And us modern folks see that and are like “it’s really a shame that this surprisingly loving marriage starts in such a not-good way – let’s rewrite things so she wants to go with Hades of her own free will instead!” Basically, it may be too romanticized, but it’s not going to STOP being romanticized anytime soon!
II. “Dionysus is so much more than just The Drunk Guy in Greek mythology” – C. M. hard agreed with this one, noting that he was much more than the God of Wine (specifically, that he was also the God of Insanity), and recommending the Overly Sarcastic Production’s video on the guy so people could learn more. And then talked about how one of her favorite experiences as a theater kid was starring in a play about the Bacchanalia that the scriptwriter had turned into a musical of sorts, which she thought really beautifully highlighted all the fucked-up bits in that play.
III. “Hercules is so over-rated, and Sisyphus is underrated” – C. M. mostly agreed with that one, admitting that she herself was pretty “meh” about Hercules (he just had the good fortune of being popular among the Greeks, meaning he got a lot of stories) and explaining the Sisyphus myth for all of us in more detail. Basically, Sisyphus kept killing people who stayed at his house (a HUGE no-no in Ancient Greek society, where being a good host was MANDATED BY THE GODS), then trapped Thanatos, God of Death – the Greek Grim Reaper, separate from Hades – a box when he came from, then got yanked into the Underworld, THEN managed to pull a fast one on Persephone by saying he needed to go up to the living world to put his affairs in order for just three days, then running away and living to a ripe old age. You see why he eventually ended up rolling that rock up a hill over and over and over again. XD
IV. “Jason shouldn’t be considered a hero, he didn’t even DO anything, all his deeds are the result of his wife Medea helping him” – C. M. argued that Jason did manage to successfully wrangle all the heroes who were part of the Argonauts, which did indicate he had some skills...but then allowed that, yeah, no, him getting the Golden Fleece was all Medea. And that he should have thought twice about fucking her over and trying to officially marry someone else after promising himself to her.
V. “I don’t care what Percy Jackson says, Ares was NOT a dick to his daughters” – C. M. hard agreed with this one too, telling us all about a myth where Ares murders Poseidon’s son after he rapes one of his daughters, and when Poseidon took him to court, Zeus ruled in favor of Ares as he didn’t want to upset the other goddesses (including his own wife, who was very much on Ares’s side). Apparently Ares is also POSSIBLY the only god who didn’t rape anyone himself, which – good for the God of War, I must say.
Interesting stuff – C. M. knows a lot about this kind of thing. :) I left off with her talking about the Medusa myth (and how the Greeks were very victim-blamey when it came to rape most of the time) – we’ll finish this off tomorrow and see what other myths and what other hot takes come up!
2. Continue editing Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I did in fact manage to fit in an editing session before work today, yay! One of the benefits of going in late. :) Today’s page featured:
A) Victor telling Alice (who’d noted yesterday that the Van Dort servants dressed very well, and she wouldn’t mind taking the outfit she was wearing) that the nice dress was just another way for his parents to show off their money, and that if she wanted it, she could have it, as they had plenty of spares, before adding she’d probably want to resew it to make it less obvious it was one of theirs. Alice assured him that she’d already planned to take up the skirt, as anything that touched her shoes bugged her (made her feel like she could trip at any moment), and mused about moving the lace around the collar to the hem...before admitting she might have to pay someone to do that, as she was much more versed in practical mending than decorative sewing (confessing she’d never had any patience for samplers as a child). Smiler said that Widow Black could help, with Victor confirming she’d done an excellent job on his jacket, while Victor said he could get her into Dundridge & Sons if she wanted, as he was sure Amelia Dundridge would find her a better customer than Nell.
B) Alice telling Smiler and Victor that she’d consider her options dress-wise later, and that they’d better get a move on – because even if Barnaby and Kasimir didn’t object to being left in the wine cellar, there was always the risk that Mrs. Pemberly would notice them missing and go on the hunt. Victor allowed that was a good point and started picking out suits while noting he was surprised that they had convinced her they were new employees – Smiler confessed they hadn’t, really, she’d just decided she needed the help in the kitchen more than figuring out who they were, with Alice confirming they’d only been saved by an incident with a cheese tray. And that it was lucky she knew her way around a cutting board, and Smiler around soup – “Cooking is just another form of alchemy!” Smiler cheerfully proclaimed. :P
C) Smiler asking Victor if he wanted help folding up his clothes, and Victor saying that he could handle the suits, but if Smiler wanted to get some shirts out of the chest of drawers nearby, that would be useful – before promising them that he had fewer shirts than suits with an awkward chuckle. Smiler laughed along but assured him that he really shouldn’t feel guilty about having so many clothes – Victor said he knew, but he’d just had it shoved in his face just how lucky he really was to grow up rich, and he didn’t want either them or Alice to feel like he was somehow flaunting his wealth. Cue Alice telling him that he apologized for being a “spoiled rich boy” way too often already, and given the way his parents treated him, she’d consider him at most a little off. Before telling him he’d have to get one particularly-high-up-the-wall sketch himself, as she couldn’t reach it. XD
And so I ended on Victor fetching the sketch and saying he was glad she felt that way – it was just getting him to feel that way that was the trick. *nods* We’ll continue this conversation tomorrow, and see if Alice and Smiler can’t boost his self-esteem a little.
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – managed to fit in the latest from C. M. Alongi tonight – “CaFae Latte Season 83 - TikTok Compilation!” This one was all about the characters dealing with the ICE threat in Minnesota, and featured:
A) Bob checking in with the Stoughton Street Coven on how they were doing with protection charms – after checking in with Lindsey to see how many she’d need (less than last week, as most of the people she and the food shelf have been delivering to already have one now) and Nicole to see if she needed any for her students (already taken care of), Mike declared that ten more on top of the thirty they already had would do the job. Nicole was a little worried about supplies at first, as they’d been going through a lot of unicorn blood, but Bob told her that she and Cyrus had each donated a pint of their blood to the cause. Mike was a little startled, going “this is YOUR blood?” before Bob explained that Fae blood has plenty of magical properties, and it was only a pint –
And cue Ghost Hunter John coming in going “what’s this about blood?” XD Nicole explained about how, since humans aren’t inherently magical, they have to rely on magical ingredients – animal parts and plants – and that Bob and Cyrus had just donated some Fae blood to them as it was excellent for protection and good luck charms, with Mike chiming in that this is why some covens just straight-up kill paranormal people – to harvest their bits. John admitted he’d helped solve some of those cold cases, then asked about the homemade journals in the shop (made by Mike’s wife, as per Lindsey and Mike). Mike was like “didn’t you just get one?” but John explained that he’d been doing a LOT of archiving of what was happening in the Twin Cities – both hard copies locked in his safe and digital ones anyone could access (“Historians will thank you,” Nicole informed him). And then revealed that he’d actually struck up a friendship with fellow archivist Rabbi Rabbit (who Bob confirmed was now friends with Rethu and Cyrus), with the video ending on him praising the guy for doing the archiving, running his synagogue, and getting drivers to help with food deliveries. Though that latter wasn’t too hard, as – well. A not-inconsiderable number of people he knows are related to Holocaust survivors, so…yeah.
( These Always Get Long )
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I didn’t have anything I had to do over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and it was all quiet again over on Valice Multiverse. *shrug* How it goes sometimes!
...yeah, properly-spaced-out-version is going to have to come tomorrow too -- it's a normal workday, so I HAVE to get to bed now. Night all! EDIT 2/27/2026: Okay, everything's good now, please enjoy the fully-completed and fully-spaced update!
