Friday, March 30, 2007

not for the squeemish

Okay, since I mentioned the bacontarian website in my prior post, I had to go see what was new since the last time I visited. OMG!!! Check this out.

http://warehouse.carlh.com/article_108/

Maybe it's the biologist in me, but I found it totally cool!

on my night off...

So I finally get a night off from work and what do I do? I spend an hour and 15 minutes driving to a Requiem rehearsal for a choir other than my own. A friend who directs at a church waaaaaay far north asked if I could help them out. Of course it was such a boost to my ego I had to say yes. It always feels good to be honored and flattered! It was kinda fun. The first part of the rehearsal was all of their Holy Week and Easter stuff. I used that time to practice my sightsinging. Dang! I'm better than I thought. Either that or the music was really easy. Afterward, a small group of us (the people I actually knew from up there in the Wild North) went to dinner. It was super yummy! I had a shrimp and fettuccine dish with a white wine sauce (no cream!) and a small ceasar salad. That filled me up quite sufficiently, but since it was my night off, I knew I'd be up for quite a while. I got a piece of lemon chess pie to take home. Normally, I would make yummy comments, but there was something really wrong with this pie. It tasted like it had been cooked with bacon. Yes, bacon. Now I'm all for a good slab of applewood smoked uncured bacon every once in a while, but I'm not too fond of it with my pie. (an aside: if you like bacon, go to www.bacontarian.com for fun) I can't wait for the place to open so I can call and complain. It was seriously icky!

But before I could eat said crappy-ass pie, I had to drive home. You hear about the weather that's been hounding the midsection of the country this week? Well, last night it hit home. It wasn't bad except for the bloody wind. I kept thinking I was hydroplaning, but my tires are brand new. I figured it was the wind when the road shifted direction. I was supposed to stop by my mother's for a dermatological consultation, but I just wanted to go home after spending so much time being jittery and on edge as my car got blown all over the wet roads (along with the other cars getting blown around). Yes, I was too freaky to drive the extra 1.5 miles. Much better today though. Now I just have to deal with it again tonight on my drive to work. Yay.

Monday, March 26, 2007

OMG!

How is it possible to psyche myself out so much over one silly little phone call? Maybe when it's calling to the complete other side of the continent to inquire about a job, I just get a little nervous. Eeek! Now I have to wait for the return call. Wish me luck!

Saturday, March 24, 2007

grr...boo...hiss

I have a new nemesis. I thought it was my friend, but I was mistaken. It is Claritin-D. I've taken plain ole Claritin in the past and had no problems. Haha! Obviously when you put the "D" after it, it changes everything. Last night I actually bonked the bridge of my nose not once but twice into the oculars of the microscope (the thingies that stick out that you look through). This will not dissuade me from taking said Clatitin in the future; however, I will not take it while at work. Makes for a very bad night. All I wanted to do was sleep. Now, at 10:45am the next day, I'm so freaking wired because of my caffeine consumption. Maybe I'll stop and get lunch/breakfast/whatever on the way home. At least I don't have to be back here for 7 hours. Woo-hoo!

Friday, March 23, 2007

has it really been a week?

Whoa, time flies. Not that I've been having fun, mind you. I've just been uber busy. I shall try to be brief with witty amusements and updates.

Hypoplastic Frontal Sinuses

Yes, this is a new thing to me, too. I went to il doctore a couple of days ago because I was being Pre-emptive Strike Girl. I was worried I was getting a sinus infection, and with the new and exciting thing called health insurance *angels singing* I decided I didn't have time to be sick. Well, what I didn't have time for was sitting around the bloody office for almost 3 hours. Dude sent me to the downstairs lab for an x-ray of my sinuses. WTF? Guess he wanted to see if my head really was empty or not. No infection (supposedly from what you can tell from a stupid x-ray--but I do feel better--nothing like a good old decongestant, but I digress), but he comes in the room and says "You have hypoplastic frontal sinuses." Uh-huh. And to me that means...? I told him my watch was made of plastic, but I wasn't so sure about my sinuses. He snickered. He then went on to describe how my frontal sinuses are smaller than normal and can lead to chronic infection, blah, blah, blah, rubarb. Whatever. It was my maxillaries that were sore--not my frontals. Screw that hypothesis Dr. Man!

Blood Pressure + Coffee = Bad Combination

So while I was there, Dr. Man said he wanted to put me on blood pressure medication. I said no. Just like that, too. "No." I'm turning into my mother. I hate medication, and if there is another way to remedy the situation, I'd like to try that first. Anywho, I told him that I'd use ma madre's cool little contraption to measure my blood pressure at home and prove to him it wasn't high. HAHAHAHA!!! What made me think that taking my blood pressure after a record setting night at the lab, a Starbucks venti drip, and two doughnuts would be a good idea? Oh ya, lack of sleep. Ya, it was 160/110. It's never been that high even at the ob/gyn (and every woman knows that's when your bp is at its highest). I'll try again later. Stupid body.

Randomness Abounds

Fava beans. Yes, I said fava beans. They are haunting me, taunting me, keeping watch over my shoulder. Really! They are in the calendar here in Mother's office. For some reason they are making me nervous. Maybe it's the big old coffee I just finished.

Thomas is turning into a serious lard-butt. How can you get a cat to diet when he has to eat "super special and expensive" food? You don't. I try to exercise him by teasing him with one of his toys. When he gets tired, he just lays on the floor and bats at it. What a goon.

If anyone out there has an extra car, let me know. The H-bomb is having some serious bad carma again. We gotta get her a cheap, let me rephrase, inexpensive yet reliable new ride.

Why is it that I really crave meat on Fridays in Lent? Is God punishing me for being an omnivore? Guess I'll go eat some salad.

Have a great Friday!

Friday, March 16, 2007

*rassafrassinmotherof...*

Ever had one of those days? My work life is turning into a continuous "one of those." Take last night for example. I was rockin' and rollin' and thought I'd get out pretty close to on time for the first time in a looooooong time. No such luck. As it happened, there was a blackout in this area. We think it was a whole section of the grid because we looked out the windows and all was dark as pitch save the lights of passing cars. It's hard to look through a microscope when there is no light. A flashlight just won't cut it. I also realized how much I really depend on the fume hood in here. I set up my giardia samples in the dark (with the help of the flashlight), and WHOA did they stink up the place. I couldn't wait to close all the tubes and hurl them back into the storage room fridge. When the power finally came back on (about 45 minutes later), I'd just gotten comfortable with a book and my ipod. I got back up, started reading slides, and the power went off again. Noooooooooooooo! It was only out about 5 minutes this time, but the idea that it might go out again was everpresent. No wonder. It did. It only flashed in and out a couple of times, but it was nerve wracking nevertheless. Everytime it went out, the whole lab could hear me yell out "Noooooooooooooooooo!" Anyway, it did finally come back on and stay that way. Needless to say, I did not leave early. I left no where near on time. Another 3 days, another 30.25 hours.

As an aside, the 30 hours of overtime was soooooo not worth it paycheck wise. I swear the gubmint took most of it. At least my shift diff counted in the overtime calculations. In the future, I'd rather just have the time off. Comp time anyone???

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Proof

I now have proof that you should always look at least presentable when you leave your house, even if it is to run to Sonic or your mother's or the bathroom.

I left my place to run by ma madre's to see if I'd heard from one particular person who I think I royally pissed off (so completely unintentionally, I'm just a big idiot sometimes). I wasn't even a full block from my house when I passed an old friend I hadn't seen in ages riding her bike with a friend through my neighborhood looking at houses. It was a shock for both of us. She had a reason to be icky--she'd been riding her bike over an hour. I'm just lazy and hadn't showered yet because I hadn't planned on seeing anyone. So there I am, on the side of the road, blocking a lane of traffic (side street--no biggie) meeting her new "friend" while wearing athletic shorts, a Carter Bloodcare shirt laden with cat hair, no bra, and my hair all whacked out from not even being brushed yet today. I'm sooooooooo embarrassed. I hope she does move close to me so I can see the new friend and make a better impression by looking at least acceptable.

And no, I haven't heard from the possibly ex-friend yet.

Monday, March 12, 2007

catch up time

Okay, this has the potential to be long, but I'll try not to be long winded (long-fingered if typing?). It's catch up on the naughty mouse time!!! I have no idea where I left off in the life (guess I should've looked at my own blog first) so things may be repeated and/or out of chronological order.

1) I was wrong. True love is NOT the Krispy Kreme whole wheat doughnut. True love (or "t'wooo wahve" for Princess Bride fans) is an iPod. I no longer have to listen to the "pingy pingy" music while at work. YIPEE!!! My mother is the greatest mother ever! Or she just felt sorry for me and was tired of my constant bitching about Gujarati-ville where I work. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

2) If you want an update on my working situation, just know that I accumulated 33 hours of overtime last pay period. Ergo, little time to blog.

3) The "Latino Laundromat" saga continues. I remembered today why I only go to the laundromat by my house once a year or so. It's because it's a farking freak show filled with unruly children and incessant funny looks from other customers (hey, what's that white girl doing here?). I mean, really. How hard is it to keep your child from running at full speed through the business screaming its head off? How am I supposed to read and comprehend with that going on? Ya, I'm not. Then once the kids settled down (prolly got beaten with an empty Ariel jug), the teenagers came in. Since when did a laundry place become a teen hangout? With my stuff in the last few minutes of its drying cycle, some kids started with the "You wanna fight? You wanna fight me, punk?" Arrgh! Then there was the couple of guys just standing by the door chatting. One said to the other "when you gonna swing by my crib, homie?" OMG! Do people really speak like that??? When it ran out of time in the dryer, my stuff was not completely dry. What did I do, you ask? Loaded it back into the laundry basket and brought it here, to my mother's house. I still saved a ton of time on the process, but I had to get outta that place before my IQ fell another 10 points. No more lavanderia for me until I happily forget this incident.

4) Because of work being so crazy and the time change this past weekend (March Forward!), I found the best way to not sleep too long and miss a service or just be late to choir. How? I call it staying awake. Haha! Yes, in the last few nights at work, we've set new records for samples received in the O&P department (aka: my dept). Friday night, I woke up at 9:30pm to go to work. Saturday I got home and was able to sleep for 3.5 hours before I had to go back to work. Since there was the time change and I had to be at church by 8:30am Sunday morning, I just stayed awake. I didn't even leave work until 6:30am, so I had just enough time to drive home, get showered, go to *bucks for mega caffeine injection, and make it to church on time. Because of that, people in the choir got to see what I was like sleep deprived and hyped up on caffeine. If I do say so myself, it was rather hilarious. I'll take comments on this one!

5) Just in from the weird dreams department: the strangeness continues. So recently I've been back in contact with someone I worked with many moons ago. Happiness!!! Anywho, I don't know if it is the recent reforged contact or just random memory time, but I had a super scary dream about someone else I used to work with. See, we worked in a research lab and the main dude in our room (mind you, not the smartest or the best, just the most senior) was a guy named Yuri. Tall, broad Russian who sounded like the count from Sesame Street when he spoke (one chocolate chip cookie, two chocolate chip cookie--haw...haw...haw). Well, I had this dream that he was trying to kill me. It was uber realistic. In the beginning, he was just beating the snot outta me, but then he was following me everywhere and trying to find where I was hiding so he could off me. WTF? The next day, strange scary dreams continued. Once I woke myself up screaming because I thought someone was coming after me to kill me (see a theme here?). After I calmed down and got back to sleep, I woke myself up yelling "get out" because I thought there was someone in my house.

I'm happy to report that since then, the sleep deprivation has proved well enough for me to sleep dream free. Just give it time.... I'm sure the crumbling teeth will make an encore appearance.

6) Did I forget anything? Probably, but I'm ready for a nap, and the dryer just dinged. Yay! Clean clothes in a place where if a sock falls on the floor, I'm not gonna want to burn it.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

and there it went

Glad I got to post about how things at work were better.

Now it's back to 11 hours nights and 5 hours of sleep. Work work work. Wrko? Sorry I've been extremely lax in getting in touch with you folks. Things are sooooooo uber busy. Hmmm, that transfer idea is looking better and better.

Okay, gotta eat my soup so I can go back into hell with fluorescent lighting.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

squeaky wheel gets the grease

Those of you that know me well know that I despise causing trouble or causing any sort of confrontation (especially in work situations). Well, this past Saturday, I did just that. I'd finally had my fill of 10-11 hour workdays. Besides being overworked and under-slept, it was also my birthday week (always a bad time for me), and I was hormonal. Taking all that into account, it was no wonder I almost blew a gasket at 4am Sunday when I was just finishing up at work. I'd been all ready and geared up to talk with my immediate supervisor about what we could do about the schedule, but he left before I could get with him. Arrgh! When I had fumed internally for a couple of hours and then cursed about the lab (I was alone so no one heard any of it) for a while, I sat at the computer and wrote out an email to the boss. It was very nice and polite (which I really wasn't feeling) but got my point across: I'm tired, I can't keep working at this pace, please fix it. Well, let me tell you what happened. When I got to work Monday night, I had a reply from the big boss-man saying how sorry he was that we are so short staffed, and it was never his intent to work me so hard. He also said what a valuable employee I am and how he will do whatever he can to try to remedy the situation asap. On top of that, the schedule had been changed, and I am no longer working so much stuff. YAY!

Lesson learned: the adage is true--the squeaky wheel indeed does get the grease.