I spend the greatest portion of my waking hours at my job. Even more-so lately. The vast majority of my co-workers either cannot or will not pull their own weight. Yesterday, I worked an eleven hour shift because there was lots of work to do, and I didn't trust my co-workers - at least one of whom actually makes more than me, though since I'm done there in a couple weeks, that doesn't really matter - to do anything. When I left work last night, there was a very small list of things remaining to do. If something is on the list, I expect - as one should - it to be done. When I went in to work this morning, two hours early because I had to do inventory for my boss whom is on vacation till Wednesday, and because I expected one of my coworkers to call in "sick", I walked into a restaurant where the number of things to do when I left the night before consisted of about six, and a grand total of none of them had been done. This annoys me so much, I don't even know where to being with it. For the last eight or nine years of working there, the amount of work that the night crew does has been spotty at best, though the current crew is by far the worst we've ever had. I've had to work shifts as long because we're busy, sure. But not because I can't trust the people that work there to, I don't know, work, or to even show up. I take my job seriously; probably too seriously. But I get paid to do it, and it's called "work" for a reason.
This is my Armoury. That isn't some cosmetic gear set that I wear while bumming around in Orgrimmar. That is what I use every single time I'm logged into my main. Since the release of Cataclysm, my experience with the expansion has consisted of a small amount of levelling my alts, a couple hours in levelling in Vashj'ir on release night before going to bed so I could have some sleep before work the next day, and lots and lots of Archaeology [and the flying through the new zones that that entails.]
Aside from the aforementioned little burst of actual levelling on release night - which thanks to a full quest log, let me ding 81 [I was halfway through 80 before leaving Northrend] - I levelled to 85 from Archaeology. I've not done any of the new dungeons. I'm under-geared. I'm unprepared. And while I may - may, I say - have some skill, it doesn't offset the handicap I have against me. My friends and my guildmates - not to be redundant - may be willing to have me tag along with them to stuff I really shouldn't be present for. They've even managed to bring me along a couple times to places I wasn't particularly prepared or geared for in Wrath. But the preparation & gear gap was never as large then as it is currently. I don't particularly want to say no when such an invite is extended either, because it's nice to hang out with friends making pixels die and seeing big numbers on my screen, even if my numbers aren't that big comparatively speaking. But I spend too much of my day with the burden of other people not pulling their own weight to be the concrete shoes on my friends' feet.
