mmm, towel time

It's rare that I have time to relax after a shower. Normally I've got to rush off to work or choir or somewhere else. Tonight, I have ~30 minutes for "towel time." It's that time where you get out of the shower, towel off the body and towel dry the hair, and then lounge in said towel until you are good and air dried. This is the time I relish. Time to think or not. Time to meditate. Time to futz on the computer and describe "towel time" if I desire. :-)

The only thing I really have to do is keep the cat from biting my ankles.

the little things

Simple things really can make life a little more bearable. Yesterday when I was at WF getting my chair massage, I decided that I needed flowers. I hit their little floral area and picked up some bright red gerber daisies and some white basic daisies. It ended up being enough for 2 vases worth. That made me smile.

Then at work, I recently found a streaming radio station that rocks ass!!! It's a station out of Cleveland (yes, as in Ohio) that plays nothing but "alternative." Since I found it, I haven't heard so much Sublime, Tool, Primus, etc in ages! And really, what makes the day better than a blast of the Beastie Boys?

lost

This is a story Lisa would've gotten a huge kick out of. I'll share it with you all!

I had an appointment this morning with my rheumatologist. I hadn't been there since October, but I really thought I knew where I was going. I was a smidge late because of traffic, but I called to let them know (left a message). I parked, walked the quarter mile to the building, and took the elevator the the 6th floor. Ya, um, the office wasn't there. Maybe I had remembered the incorrect floor. So, I took the stairs down to the 5th floor. Nope, not there either. WTF? By this time I was about 15 minutes late. I took the elevator to the 8th floor (the top floor) and took the stairs all the way down stopping at every floor to check the list o' docs on the floor. Nope, my rheum wasn't anywhere to be found. Fine, I called the office, but they still weren't answering. I power walked (in non-power walking approved shoes) to the hospital information dude to ask "Where is my doctor?!?" Ya, obviously, he moved his office. Arrgh! I now had to walk another quarter mile to another building (I know all the distances because they have mile markers--go fig). By the time I finally got there, I was 20 minutes late and had some serious shin splints. At least everything, rheumatologically speaking, is fine with me. Just the routine lab work to make sure I'm still in the immunosupressant therapy free zone.

Oh, and then I had to bolt to the allergist. Would you believe they won't give me my serum if I haven't been in to see the doc in over a year? How rude! Thank goodness for days off so I can be poked and prodded and asked all sorts of stupid questions. (them: "Are you having any respiratory problems?" me: "Well, yes. Since I couldn't get my danged allergy shots from you people and it's spring in Texas, I can't quit sneezing.") Gosh, some people.

Happy pollinating!

R.I.P. Lisa

I cannot think of enough words in the English language to describe how much I love Lisa. She was kind, fair, giving, honorable, generous, beautiful, witty, a true friend. I will miss her so much. I can't believe she was just at my house a few weeks ago playing Trivial Pursuit and Dirty Minds. What fun we had! She finally succumbed to the battle so many people fight against cancer. She fought a brave and valiant battle, and she never complained. She was much more worried about how everyone else was doing. She never had a "pity me" attitude. She took the diagnosis and fought from the beginning. It is hard to find anyone with as many positive qualities as she had.

Please keep her husband, family, and friends in your thoughts and prayers. We all know she is in a better place and no longer in pain, but it doesn't make her passing any easier to accept. She will be missed and loved always. She will always be my role model for how to live an honest and true life.

Rest in peace, Lisa.

work

*slowly and continually banging head against desk*

They keep saying they are going to hire more people to help pick up our serious work overload. They keep promising to help. Lies, I tell you!!!

Thank you for your time and attention.

I am pathetic

At least I admit it! It's not even 8pm, and I'm fighting to stay awake. Ergo, I will blog. This has been such a long and crazy week so far. I guess it started Sunday night when the new guy and I did dinner and a movie. We saw There Will Be Blood (whoa, I can see why DDL got his Oscar--uber creepy), and it wasn't out until after midnight. Then on the way home I saw a terrible wreck (even heard about it on the news the next morning) and was jolted into a very wakeful state. I was up til about 1:30am. Waaaaaaay to late for a school night or a work night. I still made it to work nice and early Monday. Then for the past two nights, the asswipe (nee "new guy") and I were on the phone fighting until kinda late. It got to the point last night that I hung up on him. He called me back and asked if I had hung up. My response? "Yes. Why yes I did." It got worse after that. So much so that he told me I should look into prostitution since I like to screw people over (not quite the words used, but this is a public forum). Ya, needless to say, he is history. Some people! Meh, he was only supposed to be the rebound guy anyway. Can two weeks be considered rebound enough after seeing someone else for a number of months? I think so.

Well, I killed a good ten minutes here. I think I'll brush, floss, and move it into the bedroom. Maybe I'll fall asleep watching the Stars game. If my dad can do it, so can I!

idiots of the world unite

Wow, do I feel stuuuuuuuuuuuupid. I was so proud of myself Friday night. I stayed home and did my taxes. I pulled the disc out of the envelope thingy, downloaded it on the computer, and proceeded to fill in all the appropriate boxes. I got confused a couple times, like many people do, about some of the questions it was asking me. For example, why does it care if I used my car for business in 2005? Really? Okay, whatever. I figure the program knows what it is doing. I finally finished the thing, and it wanted to save itself as "2006 taxes" or something like that. I changed the file name to "2007 taxes" thinking it was just a fluke. No, no fluke. I did my taxes for the wrong year. DOH! Wow. I truly am showing my blonde roots these days.

And no, I have not redone the taxes for the correct year yet. I'm still too cranky.
=)

my poor little man!

Today was totally traumatic for Thomas. It started with being rudely awakened (serves him right for all the times he's done it to me though), quickly fed, then being shoved in a small plastic box with a wire door. The carrier. Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn! He'd followed me all around yesterday straining (if you get my drift). Since he's always had this chronic cystitis, I thought I'd run him by the friendly vet. Once there and in the cage, he immediately set to growling. This is why he has a "Caution" sticker on his file and cagecard. The boy bites. I got the call right at noon that he was not blocked (thank God!), his bladder was very small and extremely sore, and he's gonna be on drugs for the next 3 weeks. Fine I can handle that. What freaked me out was his attitude, or "cattitiude," when I went to pick him up. He's never been extremely keen on going to the vet, but this was the worst ever. He wouldn't let me near him. He cowered in the back of his cage growling and hissing. It took me a good 15 minutes to calm his butt down and get him back in his carrier. On the way home, it got worse. He started drooling uncontrollably, shaking, and panting. Totally freaked me out. I was so worried something might happen before I got him home. Of course once I did, I got him inside, wiped all the foamy drool off of his mouth and nose, and he was fine. Ran to the food bowl as a matter of fact. I'm glad he's going to be okay. I do worry about that little satanic spawn.

DOH!

I had a total "oh no" moment today. I was to meet my madre for lunch at 11:30am. I walked out my door and saw that I had left my sunroof open all night. Just a crack, but with the torrential rain we had.... Crikey. Thank goodness for leather seats. I came back in, got a towel, and started the clean up procedures. Luckily it wasn't too bad. I actually think my visors got the worst of it.

Second strangeness to happen today was running into my old QC person from my "prior job." It was strange. I saw him in the Target and cleverly avoided him. I mean, what do you say to someone who saw you go through all sorts of hell for a job? I did well until I hit the parking lot. I'm one of those people who absolutely must return the cart to the "returned cart place." When I did, he was walking right toward me. There was no avoiding him this time. He said hello first, and we had a minimal nice chat. I must admit that the best part of it was seeing the guilty look on his face, like he knew he'd done something wrong. I'm not going into the saga here, but if you know me well enough, you know it. It was vindication! Made up for the cold wet butt I'll have the rest of the day from my car. ;-)

success!

Well, I made it through the week from hell. Just barely I might add. It got even more interesting with the snow that hit north Texas (twice in one week, and by the end of this week they are saying we'll be close to 90 degrees--ahh, TX weather). I'm dealing with a killer headache I've had since Friday. I can't decide if it's sinus crap or just stress. I do believe it's a little of both. Really though, I just want it to go away.

Don't really have much I can put down here. Just thought I should do the online check in sorta thing. Oh, one thing! The paternal side of the family took me out for dinner Saturday night for the last birthday hurrah. In the card from my father was a "voucher" for 3 days/2 nights at a resort in the hill country. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I can't wait to get away for a weekend. I need it. Now is when all of my friends start playing their cards right in hopes of accompanying me. =)

Peace out.

must...stay...awake!

I am so farking tired I can hardly stand it. This is the week of training hell. The shortest day I've had yet this week was today, and it was 10.5 hours. I feel like I've gotten bombarded with parasite facts. The doc leading it all is FANTASTIC! He's a wealth of knowledge, a good instructor, and funny as hell. Unfortunately, by the end of today, I became unable to retain any of the new knowledge. It's like I'm a baseball catcher alone with multiple pitchers--catching everything thrown at me until my hands are full and I start dropping stuff and having new facts bounce off of me. Arrgh! Now I'm home, futzing on the internet, watching bad tv, and trying to kill time to stay awake. Of course I do have to be back at work at 6am. That's in just under 12 hours. I'm hoping to stay up until 8. Wish me luck.

Tuesday

Ugh. It's early. Yesterday I was at work by 5:30am, and today I was here by 6am. Unfortunately, today there is nothing to do yet. I'm sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I've got about 10 minutes before the first set of samples will be ready to read. Joy. So I thought I'd post a little blog to pass the time.

The rest of my birthday on Sunday was wonderful. Had a couple friends join me for a wonderful dinner of bloody cow and cake. Afterward, I got home and talked on the phone for almost an hour (instead of going straight to bed). Then there was yesterday. My alarm went off at 4:15am. Ya, I hit snooze a little longer than intended, but I was still here in plenty of time to get stuff started. I worked my butt off (figuratively) until 8am then went over to the training. Whenever we had a "coffee break," I came back in the lab to see if there was anything I could do. The workday didn't end until 5pm. Eleven and a half hours of poop and parasites. Wow. And now I get to do it all again today!

There was one huge bright point in my day yesterday--dinner with ma madre. Once again, I had birthday dinner. Nice how I can drag this out for so long! She took me to a fabulous little place and I ate more birthday cow. Mmmmm! Cow! I also decided to start with a glass of champagne. What better reason to celebrate other than myself? =) By the time I got home though, I was wiped out. I was dead to the world by 10:15pm. And let me tell you how much it sucked when the alarm went off this morning at 4:30am. I may actually skip my free training dinner tonight just so I can get some sleep.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

Some days are just better than others. Today is a good day so far. Usually, I'm uber depressed as hell around my birthday. Just ask my friends; they'll agree. Today has been the best birthday since the one 6 years ago. It all started yesterday.

Yesterday I did have to work, but the boy bought me Vietnamese lunch. YUM! We finished up early (granted, I was there at 7:45am), so I rocked on home for a quick nap before the night. Pretty much as soon as a got to sleep, my phone ran. It one of my BFFs who is getting married in August. She was at a store about to buy a wedding dress. Yes, it was the second time she'd tried it on but damn! You can't buy a dress without someone seeing you in it first! I flew outta bed, took the quickest shower in my personal history, and was at the store in 40 minutes. She looked beautiful so I approved the purchase. Granted, even if it'd been heinous, she was so happy and smiley I would've approved anyway. Then I let her bring me every bloody bridesmaid dress in the place for me to try on. Surprisingly, we found one that worked. Two scores in one afternoon! Then to make it even better, we wrapped it up there and went to the Stars game. They may have lost, but it was good game nonetheless. That and some random guy hit on me on the DART train.

Today, I was awakened at 7am by my father calling to sing happy birthday. Joy. I made it back to sleep and the phone rang again. This time, however, it was a personalized ring. It was my long lost buddy from South Africa! What a total sweetie! Then I did the singing thing at church, got a birthday "blessing," and went over to Mother's after to clip the talons off one of her cats. While there, she gave me the gift I've been begging for--a new stand mixer!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! Color me super excited! I came home and proceeded to clean my kitchen and wrangle up all the stray newspapers in the house for recycling. Here I sit blogging, and when I'm finished I'm gonna take a nap and go to dinner with friends this evening. Just about a perfect day.

Addendum: The day has just been made perfect. I got flowers from the HSBF. I needed that.

If only I didn't have to be at work tomorrow morning at 5am. Ugh!

yargh!

Why can't people listen to me? Sometimes I really do know what I'm talking about. Take my job. Sometimes people do things a little bit incorrectly but not so much that it's wrong. I try to offer my help/insight/suggestions; it gets completely dissed. For example, I really know my shit. Hahaha. Sorry, fecal humor. Anyway, I know my parasites and their ova quite well. Somethings look a lot alike and are only differentiated by size. One of my peeps keeps calling something that I would swear on the mother of Buddha is wrong. Well, not technically wrong, but not technically right either (same genus, different species--they are medicinally treated the same). I finally had a prefect example of the "wrong" one today, told this other person about it, saved the slide, asked if they wanted to look at it, etc. Why do I bother? I might as well have said that my left buttock was on fire. GAH!

peace at last

For the first time in years, I feel really good. I mean, really good! This past weekend was one of the most soul cleansing experiences of my entire life. It rivals the 5 days alone on a beach the Maldives or the 3 days alone touring the moors of Yorkshire. Normally, I have to be alone to have a truly extraordinarily life changing moment. It is usually some sort of fight with an inner demon that I must battle on my own. This weekend, it took a man and a horse. (Hbomb, get your mind outta the gutter, you freak.) I thank them both.

The dinner with the HSBF went so much better than expected. Granted, I'm not sure what I expected. Some of you know, some of you don't--it's not something I broadcast--but he and I had probably one of the worst breakups in the history of breakups. Of course, that's coming from someone who was a part of it! There were accusations of cheating, lying, and faithlessness. Of those, only one was true. And it was true on both of our parts--faithlessness. Friday night, everything was brought into the open for once and for all. We both told the whole truth, and we believed each other for the first time. I didn't expect to have a crying fest, but it was so good to get it all out. After all those years, he still wiped away my tears. I'll probably never see him again (as he lives half a continent away), but that's okay. We made our peace.

Yesterday it was too beautiful not to go riding. I drove what seemed like eternity up to Denton to meet up with a colleague from work. Keep in mind I've been riding English for most of my life. Her horses are all Western trained--cutting and roping horses. I was amazed how different all the cues were. It was all reins over the neck and leg cues--no bit work. I spent a good 30 minutes (at least) in the training ring proving to my friend's husband that I knew what I was doing. I had to learn all the new cues, and he was a FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC instructor. I think I learned more from him in 30 minutes than I did in 2+ years of lessons. Maybe that was because it was one on one, maybe it was because the horse was so good, maybe it was just fate. When we finally headed out for the trail, I was so glad I wore long sleeves. We kinda made our own trails since it was so mucky down there by the river bottom. I've never been so tormented by mesquite and honey locust trees. The latter is definitely worse--thorns up to 3 inches long! My big, bad gelding was so good at letting me guide him around the low hanging stuff when possible. Unfortunately, most of the time it was just put the head down to his neck and let him pick his way through the underbrush. We even ran into some wild cattle out there! It was so refreshing to sit back, and let Takota go. He had such a great canter, wait, umm, I mean lope (this was Western after all) and a fairly smooth trot. He only kicked once, but his ears warned me ahead of time. They told me to let them know when was good for me to come out and ride again. I can't wait!

So there you go--my fantabulous weekend in a nutshell. My most sincere thanks to all who were a part of it!

here I wait

Well, the dinner is tonight. In fact my HS ex should be here in about 5 minutes. I am such a dork. For some strange reason, I'm uber nervous. Could it because he once again looks as good as he did back then while I don't? Am I afraid of what bad times we'll talk about? Or am I just scared he'll look at me and think "man, what was I ever thinking?" I guess I should pay attention to the door. The itunes is up rather loud! We'll see what tonight holds....

Blargh!

Things are so confusing right now. I have things going on at work that I can't even begin to describe. The xy and I are officially kiboshed. My ex from highschool/college is going to be in town tomorrow, and we're going out to dinner. I found out today that I will be working 12-13 hour days for one whole week during a training session. I can't attend the training and not do the work. Then there is the whole going back to school to finish that danged masters degree that will start soon. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but if I seem a little flighty lately, this is why. Sorry to keep this so short. Take care y'all!

Now, I need a nap before I go get my hair cut.

Sleep

I just wanted to share with you all one of my all-time favorite songs. I recommend you all find it and give it a listen. It is amazing what beautiful music can do to dreary day and a dreary mood. I'm on my second repeat of it right now....

Sleep
original poem written by Charles Anthony Silvestri
musical setting: Eric Whitacre

The evening hangs beneath the moon,
A silver thread on darkened dune.
With closing and eyes and resting head,
I know that sleep is coming soon.

Upon my pillow, safe in bed,
A thousand pictures fill my head.
I cannot sleep, my mind's a-flight;
And yet my limbs seem made of lead.

If there are noises in the night,
A frightening shadow, flickering light;
Then I surrender unto sleep,
Where clouds of dream give second sight.

What dreams may come, both dark and deep,
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep,
As I surrender unto sleep.

waiting on the centrifuge

I thought I would take these 10 minutes to blog a bit. It's a gross, dreary, cold, rainy Saturday here in Texas. I have to admit that I am enjoying it. It fits my mood. No, I'm not depressed or anything, I'm just blah. Part of me is happy, another part sad, and bits of me are hopeful.

I am happy because the Boy is here at work with me today. He and his girlfriend had their valentine's dinner last night (couldn't do it Thursday because she had to study for a test on Friday--I like this girl!). He got her a necklace, and she got him an Xbox 360. Dang! Granted, today is his birthday, too, so she got a combo gift. Still! That's awesome! They are the epitome of young love. It's a great thing to see. He's over working in the hood with his laptop playing the valentines music mix he made for them. How sweet!!!

I'm sad because I'm sitting here listening to all the songs about happiness, love, devotion, and all that crap. I'll get over it. I still have not heard from the xy yet. A girl at work had the idea that maybe something happened and he couldn't call--like he was in an accident or something. I'm gonna doubt that. The odds are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to low. Of course if that is the case, I'll be even more distraught because of my lack of faith in him. But hey. At this point, I gotta look out for number one.

I am hopeful because I finally got a call from my old thesis professor. It looks like I'll be restarting the masters work come June (or August depending on my student status now--I may have to do the reapplication thing since it's been a little over a year since he and I tried this before). I really want to finish this degree! Not only because it will mean that I will have one more degree than my father. Not even because it will make me more marketable or make me more money in the long run. I want to do it to prove to myself that I can finish something I started.

Well, timer just went off on the centrifuge. Gotta get back to work. Happy Saturday you guys!

and so goes the Hallmark holiday

Sometimes I wonder. Who was the idiot that invented "Valentine's Day" as it stands today? It actually has some mysterious origins involving a martyred Saint Valentine. Whatever. I don't see why it had to become so commercialized. Granted, it doesn't piss me off as much as the over commercialization of Christmas, but it's definitely second on my list.

In my life I have had one, yes only one, truly memorable and thoughtful Valentine's Day gift/token from a boyfriend. I'm sorry, but the gifts from friends and parents don't count. At least according to all the commercials, stores, and internet. I can't remember the last VDay I spent with a "significant other." This year, I didn't even get a phone call. I'm sorry, but in my book, that is inexcusable. I'm sorry if someone is having "problems" or "difficulties" or whatever you want to call them. How hard is it to pick up a phone and say "Hi! Happy Valentine's Day. Sorry I can't really talk long, but I wanted you to know that I respect you enough to call." Really, is it hard? No more excuses for that one. If there is to be any sort of reconciliation, there's gonna be a lot of begging on his part. Not only me, but everyone deserves better than that.

And then to memorialize the Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929, some idiot has to go and kill five students in Illinois. What is wrong with the world? I thank God again for all my friends and family whom I love. I hope that if one of them were that disturbed, I would know. Nothing is worth any death like that. My prayers go to the families of those students and those left wounded.

By the way, that one terrific gift was 17 years ago.

Dang, I'm pathetic. I still hate the pms.