Joanne's Life

Journey into Unemployment

2012-01-23T19:46:00.000-06:00

Today I gave notice at my job. I am super excited about leaving this job. As part of getting ready to be unemployed I contacted my housekeepers to tell them 2 things. 1. They haven't billed me for last housekeeper day. 2. I'm cancelling because I'm about to be unemployed. Well, they claim they haven't billed me for last housekeeper day because the housekeeper didn't come. Sadly that is incorrect since I had a newly made bed that I didn't make. Which I reported to them. She said she would investigate, but then said she may not look too hard since I'm about to be unemployed and all. That was super sweet!

My evil boss has agreed to not fight unemployment payments for me. This is kind of huge because it means I would at least have some money coming in. Sadly it would be a whopping $426 per week and I make more than that, but at least it would be some money. Interestingly I could survive on that and it would leave me almost $400/month for everything after bills. (Provided it is tax-free which I think it is).

I've actually got two job interviews lined up. One is with the same company I had a first interview last week. The other is a place I've been trying to phone screen with since last Monday. And here's where I now have a dilemma. What if I actually get one of these jobs? Do I take it? Even with the fuller than full time schooling? I feel like I would have to. I'm not sure if I can actually BE unemployed. I already don't talk to people on a regular basis (or ever really). If I am home all the time for unemployment... This could be bad for me. :) But what if I get that fellowship? Then I'd be quitting in July. I would feel badly if I left a job that I just started 3 months later. But what if I don't get the fellowship and can't find a library job. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. That's about all I can do isn't it.

Finances

2012-01-22T12:25:00.000-06:00

I almost never talk about finances because I HATE finances. I hate thinking about money. I hate dealing with money and I've often said I'd be better off if I gave my money to someone else to dole out an allowance to me. I suck at money. BUT since I'm quitting on Monday I need to figure out where to cut expenses and how I'm going to live while I finish my degree and find a new job. Long term blog readers may know that it took me almost a year after moving to Seattle to find a new job I liked and that didn't make me want to drink heavily. I would rather not repeat that experience. So in an effort to figure out how to best handle my about to be new found unemployment, I took a look at what I spend my money on. After bills, I'm ashamed to admit I spend a shitton of money on food. I am embarrassed at how much I eat out. It is ridiculous. $180 in a month in eating out alone. That's $6 a day I'm throwing away. Even worse is what I spend in groceries. (Although it may be skewed slightly because I also get my gas at Kroger and my debit card doesn't show the difference but really I put in about 30 bucks every 2 weeks so mostly it isn't gas). I spent almost $600 in groceries last month. I'm one person. What the hell am I buying? And, I don't even know how much rotten food I throw out because I don't eat it. Clearly I can cut back a lot on both of those items. Oddly enough, I spend very little on other things. I spent about $100 on gluten free baked goods. That's a lot but it is also an anomaly. I don't think I usually buy that much in a typical month. And once I'm unemployed I won't buy that much at all.

Next I'm going to do something I know is a very bad idea. I will pay a penalty for it which is a waste of money. I'm going to cash out my retirement plan with the University and pay off my credit cards and my car so I'll have no debt during this period of un/under employment. I will then call my credit card co and not cancel the card altogether but reduce the max to a very minimal amount. My student loans won't start coming due until December/Jan and hopefully by then I'll have a real paying job in a library. And I'll get another job but it will be primarily mindless. Contract or temp work would be ideal. Something that will allow me to pay my bills and perhaps still eat.

Leap of Faith

2012-01-20T18:54:00.000-06:00

For those that don't follow me on twitter or are friends with me on facebook, I'm about to embark on something insane. I've added one more class to my semester which puts me at 13 credits. And I'm going to quit my job. This way I can be done with my degree in May instead of waiting until August.

This all came up because of a fellowship a friend sent to me. I could qualify. Exemplary grades. An essay. A bunch of other things. BUT I have to have my MLIS by July 1. If I had stuck with my current plan I wouldn't have it in time. But in reality it makes sense. I'm on the fringe of being fired. I made a mistake. A huge one. My boss made a similar mistake but even huger, and I'm on the fringe of firing and she's not but whatever. This is my 2nd write up. I know she's planning on replacing me since I found the job listing "blind." So this makes sense because I need a new job before August. And I don't want to work in benefits anymore which is what I'd have to try to get a job in if I left before I got my degree.

The leap of faith comes in since I could end up unemployed. For a long time. This terrifies me. I was unemployed for almost a year after moving to Seattle. I still feel the financial impact of that. BUT it is the only answer. I can't keep up at this job. (Well obviously since I'm on the brink of firing). I'd rather quit than be fired so there you go.

I don't really believe in things happening for a reason or anything like that, but it seems like this whole change is the right thing. My friend tweeted me about the job posting today. I read it and fell in love with the posting and discovered I wouldn't finish in time. I emailed my advisor about when I would finish if I took my summer class and the test then to discover I was 42 days after the cut off. So then I emailed back and asked about adding one more class and capstone this semester (since I didn't know what the graduate credit limit was). The advisor called me right away because today was the deadline to add a class and pay for it. In a very short time she had me registered in a class and I paid and it is a done deal.

Online dating

2012-01-18T22:01:00.000-06:00

So in an attempt to get something interesting or good or whatever in my life I've started online dating again. This is nerve wracking on a number of levels. I don't think I translate well online. I've been trying to be more proactive than I usually am. Usually I post a profile and wait to see if anyone expresses any interest in me. They don't. Or sometimes super weirdos in other states do but that's really worse. So this time I'm taking the initiative and contacting guys whose profiles I have thoroughly explored. I'm amazed at the number of guys who believe that both creationism and evolution should be taught in school. I try to console myself with maybe they believe that since we're in Texas creationism is taught in school so evolution should be too, but I'm pretty sure that's not the belief. That seems to be one of the lightning rod questions for me. I do like the fact that okcupid allows you to answer a lot of different types of questions (both publicly and privately) and use that to help match you up with someone. Although he's geographically less desirable, I've been texting with a guy who I am 99% compatible with according to their algorithms. I'll be meeting him on Friday night. We'll see.

Passion (less)

2012-01-15T22:16:00.000-06:00

For the past several years I haven't felt excited about what I do. I'm not sure I've ever felt excited about what I do. I just happened to be good at it. Maybe I liked it for awhile. Hard to say at this point. I thought I liked it. But I do recall being uneasy about getting my CEBS certification because I feel like I would be pigeonholed by this job path. Luckily (or unluckily as the case may be), I hate what I do now so much I no longer want to do it ever again. Sadly I'm in kind of a weird place. I'm not done with my MLIS degree so getting a real library job isn't going to happen quite yet, but I have to get out of my current one. I tried to quit last week. Evil boss talked me out of it. Turns out evil boss has been looking for my replacement since January 4th (week before I "quit"). So really she just doesn't want me to quit until she has the new me in place and then she can fire my ass like she has wanted to for sometime. I have a phone and an inperson interview this week. Hopefully one of those will pan out so I can get the hell out of dodge.

I've started doing my practicum for my library school. So far I've only been there for 4 days. I'm not thrilled that it is Sat & Sun from 1 - 5 PM because that means I have no days off. BUT until classes start so far it isn't totally killing me (yet). Last weekend I mostly observed the desk but I did get to answer a few questions. I liked (for now maybe that'll change) helping kids find the books and materials they were looking for. This weekend I spent the weekend searching through the catalog to see if the books in these magazines that had positive reviews were purchased for the library. So far, not so much on the non-fiction.

I've never really felt like a person who believes you have to LOVE what you do or follow your bliss or whatever. Work is work. It would be nice if it isn't so awful you cry all the time and/or want to drink heavily, but I'm okay if I can find something to like about what I do and who I work with.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

2012-01-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

It looks like the Peeved family will not be moving to Texas. Michelle & I talked about it the other day. Peeved husband LOVES his new job and his new office and his coworkers and has been pushing to stay in CA. They also have lots and lots of family there to help with the kiddos when necessary. Strangely, I'm not at all sad about it. Mostly because I think this experiment in cheap, friendly, Republican living isn't really working for me. I know the job thing is a HUGE part of the issue. If I were happier in my work I might be happier here. But there are some fundamental flaws with Texas. Things like I HATE WIND. They may not have written a song about the winds sweeping down Texas' plain, but it does. I don't love 100+ degree weather. It may be a "dry" heat but it is still fucking hot and like the wilting flower I am I regularly suffer.

So what does this mean? I don't know. I'm going to start applying for jobs in CA and maybe a few other states. I have to finish my practicum here in TX. (Well I don't HAVE to, but I would imagine it would be hard to change practicum mid-stream.) I should be done with it on tax day, which is actually sooner than I originally thought. Everything else I have to do can be done online. I can't figure out if I should just slog through the hell job for another 3 - 4 months so I can finally apply for library jobs since I'll be essentially done by May/June or find another benefits job for awhile. If I move to CA, it will have to be another benefits job. As it is, I almost cried when I looked at the rents there. Who knows what is coming, but I'm keeping my mind open to it.

God doesn't want me to have a good New Year's Eve

2012-01-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

I went camping this New Year's Eve. I had this whole romantical idea that I would ring in the new year under the stars. That sort of worked out and sort of didn't. I did enjoy eating my dinner by the lantern and then sitting by the campfire. That part was awesome. And I had left my tent open, not put on the rain fly because I could see the stars. You can see a lot of stars in Texas. Then... the wind started to blow. And blow. AND BLOW. I don't like wind. It creeps me out. I don't like the noise. I don't like the feeling of it. I don't like wind. (I know I am now living in a plains state, what the hell was I thinking?). So I ended up going to bed early. That was fine. At midnight there was a loud ruckus so I at least woke up to ring in the new year. But then I had to get up and put the rainfly on the tent because I was also FREEZING. Got home around lunch time today and proceeded to take a 5 hour nap. I will post photos later. I toook a bunch! It was super pretty there.

Puppy

2011-12-30T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today while I was driving from the grocery store, I saw a big rottweiler running in the road. I would have chased after it to at least get it out of the road, but I was in the 2nd left turn lane and in no real position to stop. I looked for it, but couldn't find it again. It totally reminded me of a dog we had when I was a little girl. The dog was funny looking. She was part dachshund and part poodle. So she was low to the ground but had this crazy fur that mostly matted. She had been my sister's dog but like most of my sister's pets, she'd abandon them to us and they would become a family pet. So Mouse used to get out and we'd never notice it. We have no idea where she'd go, maybe just around the block but we'd randomly hear scratching at the front door and she was back. I used to joke that since we never walked her she started walking herself. I thought about her seeing that dog running in the road and wondered if when people would see Mouse "walking herself" would they worry about her being loose and try to catch her to bring her back.

Epiphany

2011-12-30T21:16:00.000-06:00

Six years ago, my mother and I had a screaming match in the front yard of their house. The gist of it was that I was no longer going to tolerate her irrational anger. I grew up walking on eggshells not knowing if she was going to get pissed off at something or not, not knowing what kind of mood she was going to be in. While I spent most of today agonizing over the wrath of my boss come Tuesday over something I had payroll do I realized something... If I'm not willing to put up with it in my mother why in the hell am I putting up with it in my boss? That's one of my biggest issues with her. She gets irrationally angry about stupid stuff. I am not putting up with it anymore. I may end up quitting before I have a new job lined up, but I can't do it anymore. Worse comes to worst, I pull my 401K out. That's really bad, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I can be a 90 year old librarian. :)
My second epiphany of today was what my boss was irrationally angry about. I asked payroll to do a refund of benefits for someone today. She flipped out because of the tax implications since the refund will count as part of the first payroll of 2012 and the deduction was taken out in 2011. "As the benefits manager I should think of these things..." After I thought about it more I realized if the PAYROLL manager didn't care why the hell was she freaking out? Since the PAYROLL manager has no issue, she's got no place to be pissed off.

Before I quit in a fit of wrath, I may try to talk to the new CEO. The CFO couldn't rein her in maybe the new CEO can. My entire department hates her. The payroll manager is on the verge of quitting due to her. Before I started at least 3 other people quit due to her. And let's not forget the African American woman she fired. After only giving her less than 1 week to improve on her "improvement plan."

Goals for 2012

2011-12-28T19:35:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has read this before knows I don't make resolutions. I make goals. Things I'd like to do better at.

Meal Planning. I make this goal periodically. Usually after I realize how much take out I'm eating. I eat a lot of take out. Too much take out. I'm pretty good about setting up food for the week for lunches but somehow not dinners.

Keep my 4.0 GPA in grad school. With under grad I never had a chance. Well maybe I had a chance, but since I took Speech the first semester of my first year I never really had a chance. Somehow now, though, I've got one. Three semesters in and I have a 4.0. I have 3 classes in the spring and one in the summer. I know in reality it doesn't mean anything really, but now that I'm almost there I want it.

I would add find a new job but that was a goal for 2011 and didn't pan out. That's kind of always an ongoing goal. Without babbling too much about something that hasn't changed, I hate my job. I want a new job. Maybe once I have my MLIS I can get the new job easier. I hope. The thought of being at the current job for another year makes me want to cry. A LOT. Although there is a glimmer of hope (which keeps getting pushed back) in that we're merging with another company. I keep hoping evil boss will be let go to keep the hr person from the new company.

Better living through chemistry

2011-10-14T23:18:00.000-05:00

I started back on anti-depressants just over a week ago. I knew the signs long before I started back on them. I didn't want to do anything. I felt so anxious. In reality I probably should never have went off them. I ended up off them over a year ago because I forgot to take them for about a week and realized I felt fine. And I did. And I had been feeling pretty good for awhile. But as these things go I've been frustrated with my job and my life. I felt anxious all the time (due to my job). And even though I've been job hunting (for over a year wahoo) to find a new job, nothing has come about. So I'm back on the Prozac (generic) train. This morning you wouldn't have known I was on them. I was so anxious. I drove the whole way to work just imagining gloom and doom. I was positive today was going to be a really crappy day. Luckily I was totally wrong and it was fine. By this evening I was actually feeling a little more light hearted (of course that could partially be because today is Friday and I don't have to go back to that hell until Monday). I know they take a little time to work. I can tell they've been doing something because I have had the most intense hot flashes. Christ if this is what menopause is going to be like I refuse to do it. Luckily those have calmed down now.

I used to be really good at counting my blessings. Well I never called it that, but that's the gist of it. Thinking positively and considering all the good things that are going on in my life. I know I'll be able to do it again and I know I'll get back to volunteering again. And I'm glad to be in grad school, even though I'm terrified I won't be able to make a decent enough living at being a librarian. (Although I'm now considering looking into being a corporate librarian. I think that would be interesting for awhile.) I know I'm on the path to good things. It is just hard to see that sometimes.

Why I'm Over the Pink

2011-10-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

There was a secret up on Postsecret recently about resenting breast cancer awareness because of the number of children diagnosed with cancer and how underfunded and unaware people are of it. Steve Jobs died this week of Pancreatic Cancer. A cancer which killed Patrick Swayze and Michelle's father. According to the AP, only 20% survive the first year post diagnosis and by 5 years only 4%. There's not a lot the physician's can do for it. And yet, you rarely hear about pancreatic cancer.

According to Cancer.gov, the most common cancer is prostate cancer. Did anyone know that? They estimate that there will be 221,130 new cases of lung cancer and 156,940 estimated deaths from lung cancer. Yes breast cancer is the 2nd most frequent cancer around. (More estimated new cases than lung), but only an estimated 39000 people will die from it. I won't say that breast cancer isn't significant, obviously it is. But with cancers that are a guaranteed death sentence, maybe we should start funneling some of that pink money along to other cancers.

New TV!

2011-09-24T17:59:00.000-05:00

I think it is no secret that I love television. I grew up on it. I get super excited when September rolls around and new shows are announced and favorites come back. Last week was the pinnacle of the new season. (Is that right? I think I'm using that correctly). Many things I love are back and some new things I'm still on the fence about have started and one thing I'm totally in love with (so much so that I watched the premiere twice in the same week when usually I don't rewatch a show that quickly).

Returning:
Parks & Recreation. I don't know if I've posted here about my love of this show. I love the character of Leslie Knope. I want to BE Leslie Knope. I don't know that I have ever felt as passionate and inspired and excited about my job as she is. She's fearless in her pursuit of greatness for her Parks Department and I just find her so amazing. I also wish I could be as positive as she is and as able to compliment people the way she does. She is probably my favorite character on TV right now and I will be super sad when the show gets cancelled. (At some point way way way in the future).

Sons of Anarchy: It seems odd that I like this show. It seems like a show I wouldn't like. But I weirdly love it. It's violent. It's brutal. It does feature some very attractive eye candy so that helps with the brutality part. This season they're getting in deep with some even worse dudes than usual so it could be interesting. Last season I kept watching because they were in "Ireland" and the accents alone kept me going.

Raising Hope: Another show I love. The family is so caring of each other and funny. And they're trying so hard to do things right for the baby that was thrust upon them. They really care about each other and I think that isn't always the feeling you get with television shows. Plus they've got the cutest baby on television bar none.

New Shows

The New Girl: Michelle liked this show. I'm on the fence. I liked the boys on the show but find Zooey whateverherlastnameis to be too much. It was like she was trying too hard. But it is on between Glee and Raising Hope and I watch both of those so I'll end up watching it until it gets cancelled.

Two Broke Girls: Freaking hysterical. I thought it was sharp and well written. It may have been a little over the top in terms of innuendo, but that's okay. I do find that I'm completely distracted by Max's boobs in her uniform. They're massive.

Revenge: By far the best show I've seen in a long time. It was so well thought out. I am sucked in and completely excited to watch next week! Emily Van Camp has such a girl next door vibe (probably due to Everwood) that you can't believe she's plotting against these Hamptonites. It is delicious and I don't use that word lightly. I hope it goes on for a long time, BUT has an end in place so it doesn't drag on forever and ever. I've already watched the pilot twice.

Alone vs Not Alone

2011-09-02T19:25:00.001-05:00

Since I live alone and hang out by myself a lot, I have a weird set of rules about what I feel is acceptable for me to do alone versus what says pathetic to me. I was thinking about that as I was driving home today. I thought about going to Oklahoma to go to a casino over the weekend. (Although in general I find going to casinos to be an odd activity unless I'm actually in Vegas or Atlantic City), but I feel like that's an activity that is pathetic to do alone. So here are the rules of going places alone as defined by me:

Eating out - Fine depending on the quality of the restaurant. Dennys - no problem. Ruths Chris steak house or fancier - weird.
Movies - Fine alone
Theater - Depends. Musicals are okay but like the symphony no. (No logic there).
Drinking in a bar - Not so much alone. I think that's sad.
Attend a sporting event - iffy. I think they're more fun when you're there with other people. But I've done it alone and it wasn't a big deal.
Going to a casino - Since I already think going to the Indian casinos are a little bit sad, I think going alone is super sad.

A Regular Employee

2011-08-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

As I was driving home from picking up my latest textbooks from UNT I realized that with my next career I'm just going to be a regular employee. No more will I have the inside information I'm usually privvy to in my role in HR. It's an interesting concept. Of my 15 years working since I left college, 12 of them have been in Human Resources. My next job will likely be the last one before I give up HR altogether and become a librarian. When you work in HR, you know things. Always. I interact with all levels of the company and since I do benefits and leaves of absence I KNOW things. What I currently do impacts the company and the employees as a whole. When I'm a regular employee I won't have that anymore. And in all honesty, I'm looking forward to that.

BlogHer - The good, the bad and the hmm...

2011-08-10T22:17:00.001-05:00

I've been to BlogHer twice as an attendee and once as just a groupie hanging out and trying to crash parties. (I'd never been to Chicago, BlogHer provided me a way to hang out with my pals and visit ChiTown).
This year BlogHer was in San Diego. Since it has been over 100 degrees here forevfuckingever that was the nicest thing possible. When I landed in San Diego and stepped out at the airport I felt a wave of nostalgia. The air smelled like the ocean. (Not that Camarillo smelled like the ocean but it was very close to the ocean). It made me miss California. And Seattle. And anyplace that isn't Texas, but that's another story.

I really liked hanging out with Michelle, Katey, Laura, Amy, Leslie and Karla. It is good to hang out with people, some of whom I know and some of whom were new to me. I really liked the food they served. I was thrilled with clearly labelled gluten-free options. It was AWESOME. I liked the swag. It is not hard to like swag. :) I liked the parties. I like parties. I liked the session I attended. Sadly I only attended one.

There wasn't anything really bad about the trip. I feel like the hotel is kind of pricey and since they didn't do room drops this year, I would have been okay going to a cheaper hotel. (Michelle probably wouldn't have been though). I didn't like how spread out things were which required what felt like a long walk. I wish there had been more sessions I was interested in, but I know they can't please everyone. The ONE session I was interested in, I didn't make it to because I had to finish homework for my class. (which I got a 12.5 out of 12.5 on by the way).

The Hmm... The real hmm is do I go back? Next year it is New York City again. I feel like NYC was much more expensive than Chicago and San Diego. I don't think the hotel was only $199/night. And I'm just not sure. I'm not sure what I get out of it besides free stuff (which if you add up hotel, airfare etc isn't actually free per se) and hanging out with my friends. Now, it'll cost to have a girls weekend anyway and with BlogHer at least I get breakfast and lunch paid for as part of my ticket. :) (as well as parties and drinking in the evening). So far in two years I think I've attended MAYBE 3 sessions (I think only 2 actually and one Michelle was on the panel and the other I just went with Michelle). I know if I don't go, I'll feel left out since many of the girls are going again next year. And I can go and hang with Katey who doesn't go to the sessions either. We could do touristy things. (if she goes I think she's on the fence too). I dunno. I can't think that far ahead.

Moralistic Stance

2011-07-11T21:57:00.000-05:00

One of my few moralistic stances relates to cheating. I have no issue with couples who want to be in an open relationship or poly (and no interest in that myself), but if only one person is in an open relationship while the other doesn't know anything about it, that's cheating. (Obviously).

While watching The Piano for class tonight I realized it is the selfishness I have a horrible time with. I know, somehow, we were supposed to feel for Holly Hunter's character. In fact, the reason I was watching had to do with the Blackbeard Folk story and the husband represents Blackbeard, but the whole time I was watching the movie I thought about how awful she was to him. I'm not saying she deserved to have her finger cut off by an axe, that was horrific. But seriously, he didn't seem like a bad guy. The husband didn't do anything wrong (well, you know until he snaps and cuts her finger off with an axe, but PRIOR to that). I couldn't feel any empathy for her. I couldn't feel any empathy for Diane Lane in Unfaithful. I could never feel any empathy for Carrie when she cheated on Aiden. I couldn't feel any empathy for the gay cowboys even. This is also the reason I've never read (nor watched) bridges of Madison County or the Horse Whisperer. I started the Horse Whisperer thinking it was a story about rebuilding the horse and child's life and got annoyed... skipped to the end and put the book down never to read it again.

Validation

2011-07-06T18:38:00.000-05:00

One of the things I've frequently said about illegal immigration is that as a lunatic flaming liberal the way I am, amnesty is not the right answer for illegal immigrants. It still supports the corrupt system that brings the people here illegally and puts their lives in danger. I believe we have to support Mexico (and other Latin American countries) in improving their infrastructure and their education so that the people aren't forced to leave out of desperation. I don't believe that for the most part the illegals who come into this country do so lightly. They abandon their homes and everything they know and pay coyotes lots of money to usually work slave wages and live in fear that they will be sent back to Mexico. If there were options for them in Mexico they wouldn't come. Today I saw a New York Times article that agrees with me! The "waves" of illegal immigrants is actually on the decline and Mexico (and the citizens quoted in the article) credit this partially to the improvement of their lives and opportunities in Mexico. Usually I don't link to articles because the link will eventually die and I hate dead links but here's the article. Two quotes from the article:

Antonio said the risks hit home when his nephew Alejandro disappeared in the Sonoran Desert around 2002. A father of one and with a pregnant wife, Alejandro had been promised work by a friend. It took years for the authorities to find his body in the arid brush south of Tucson. Even now, no one knows how he died.

“They’re identifying more with Mexico,” said Agustín Martínez González, a teacher. “With more education, they’re more likely to accept reality here and try to make it better.”

Trying Out New Things

2011-07-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

I bought new deodorant this weekend - a whole new brand. I've used Degree for like 10+ years, but somehow it seems like it is leaving a film that is really hard to wash off when I shower. I'm trying to find one that doesn't leave that film. (I only use antiperspirant/deodorant which I know is different than deodorant only, but I don't like the wet feeling if I don't use antiperspirant). I bought Dove and Lady Speed Stick. I'm hoping one of these two works out. Otherwise I don't know what else to get. I have a weird aversion to Secret. And I don't buy Suave anything.
The other thing I bought this weekend is something that I LOVE, which means It is either discontinued or about to be discontinued. I found ziploc freezer bags that have a little way for me to suck the air out of them so they are totally sealed (looking at Ziploc's website I see that they are called vacuum bags). I do not know why I have such a terrible time with freezer burn (Ok. It is because I buy meat on sale and in large quantities and as a single person I just don't eat that much and I tend to not be so good about getting all the air out of the bag apparently), but I get a lot of freezer burn and I hate it. So far these seem to work awesomely. I'm tempted to remove from the freezer all the other meat that is in regular bags and re seal them in these vacuum bags.

Make it work

2011-06-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

I interviewed for yet another job on Thursday. I don't have a good feeling from the manager that I'm going to get offered it. Just a feeling. So I'm going to stop looking for awhile. If you count from when I was in Seattle I've been job hunting for over 2 years now. Admittedly there've been a few breaks in time then, but I've been applying and interviewing for a long time. I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of the searching and the process. I'm sick of lying to take off time to interview. Now I just need to figure out how to tolerate my current situation. The tension lately is palpable. Boss was doing better and less of a bitch for a little while, but is back to full bore bitch. It is exhausting. I am documenting everything though. Anytime she is, what I consider, out of line I write it down. Maybe that'll help us in the future. I don't even know. The other thing that scares me is the thought of getting this library degree and then never being able to use it since the salary will be so much lower than I currently earn.

Screwed Up Pets

2011-06-25T20:50:00.000-05:00

I took Sam to a new vet this morning. The old vet has not been able to figure out what was wrong with Sam's ears and we've been treating him with diet for 3 months now with no change. So I figured I'd get a 2nd opinion. She confirmed that Sam is sixish and not the 18 months I was quoted nor the 3 years I just noticed today that's on his vaccination certificate. Poor boy with the mysterious life. Anyway, I like this cat. He's fine as a pet. (ish he is a biter). BUT I'm not thrilled with the prospect of him being on this fancy hypoallergenic food until he dies. That shit is $50 a bag! And it makes me wonder how it is I get the screwed up pets. What is it about me that says "sucker!" (I don't know that I want that answered because I have that same question about me and supershitty bosses.)

In the course of my pets as an adult (4 ferrets 1 cat) ALL 4 ferrets required adrenal shots because they got adrenal disease. This was somewhere between a $35 - $40 shot/month. Not counting the cost to get the flexcar since I was in Seattle with no car. Sam requires fancy cat food. Honestly I just want one healthy not crazy pet.

Shoes

2011-06-24T09:25:00.003-05:00

Again I find myself needing new shoes. The problem I have is threefold. 1. I have fat feet and value comfort over cute, which means I usually buy relatively bland shoes. 2. I have a large heel spur on my right heel. Which impacts size of shoes and ability of shoes like slingbacks since they don't stay up on the back of my foot. 3. I'm cheap about the wrong things. I am ok with paying more for some shoes, but if I figure I won't wear them often or more than a year I don't see the point in paying a lot for them. I seem to have missed out on the shoe shopping gene.

2nd Semester - A whole lot shorter!

2011-06-22T19:51:00.000-05:00

I'm now in my 2nd semester of library school. This semester I took three more classes but the way summer sessions work I'm actually only taking 2 classes at a time. I have 1 class that takes 10 weeks and then 2 classes that are 5 weeks each - back to back. However, the weirdness is that one of my classes is actually for only 3 weeks, so I'll be done with my comic book class by Sunday night at midnight. The nice part about my story telling class (10 weeks) is that apparently summer means "no bigass research project." Wahoo. I do have to do 3 story performances - one of which is already done. For performance #2 I have to do 1 story and performance #3 I have to do 2 stories that are somehow connected and one is only 2 minutes and the other is like 4 or 5 minutes I think. My 3rd class is a public libraries class. It will definitely not be as fun or creative as my other two classes this semester. I'm finding my comic book and graphic novels class to be interesting. Definitely glad I took it. It has opened my eyes to some books I might not otherwise have read. In the fall I'll be taking a youth literature class that should be great as well.

Because I'm pissy

2011-06-03T20:28:00.000-05:00

I'm going to slam on Netflix and search engines. (And maybe blogger for continuing to add a random space at the top of this post even though I keep deleting it!)

So I have netflix and one of the reasons I wanted an xbox was so that I could watch movies instantly through netflix. This would be fine and dandy (and to be fair I've watched a lot of tv shows via netflix which I enjoy) except the movies that are released don't get to "watch instantly status for fucking ever. Black Swan, released in March - not on Watch Instantly. Love and Other Drugs - released March 1, not on Watch Instantly yet. Takers - released in January is being advertised as a "new Arrival." (I have no interest in Takers, I'm making a point) Are you freaking kidding me? I can walk up to Redbox and get I am Number 4 (which i want to see) and get it tonight (except that means putting on clothes and driving to the store see how lazy trumps self righteous indignation). AND they've changed their policy so that I can't even click on get the disk (to get it mailed to me) because they're trying to force us to use the "watch instantly" feature. I would if they had what I wanted to watch dammit!

Unrelated to Netflix, when I play my exercise game on xbox it just shows me as my shape but in red (heat sensor actually) and it cracked me up when the cat walked around my legs, as he is wont to do when I don't want him there, and the scanner picked up his shape.

What else was I going to be pissy about... oh I typed in www.blogger.com into my toolbar. This is a legitimate site that I've used a number of times (obviously) and yet somehow yahoo search decided I did something wrong and it came up as a search result. That also annoyed me.

Oh back on netflix... I hate how 99% of their "New arrivals: Movies" are not new arrivals at all. Well MAYBE they are movies that are newly released (and obviously not NEWLY released since one of their "new arrivals" is from January) on DVD. I want a list of real new releases not stupid shit like white chicks and dane cook and a bunch of movies nobody has ever heard of. This forces me to go to another website to see if I can actually find a list of new releases (strangely difficult actually thanks to televisionwithoutpity I can actually find a list because each week they do a blog about what's new on DVD) and then search for whatever movie I want to see. They're just pissing me off tonight.

Introvert is not a 4 letter word

2011-05-23T22:04:00.000-05:00

I got turned down for a job today. One that I think I actually wanted. It had a lot of potential to be interesting and different than what I do since it had generalist roles incorporated into the benefits roles. The few people I met seemed super nice. The company is in the process of "turning HR around" from being unapproachable and mean to open and fun. They said all the right things and I thought, well I didn't necessarily think I said all the right things but one of my interview failings is that I don't try to hide who I really am. I answer the questions asked essentially the same way I would answer them if Michelle were asking me the question. Well according to the recruiter I was working with I knocked it out of the park. I reassured her on the 401(k) stuff. I answered everything right... until. When asked the question "how do you unwind or destress" I said something to the effect of "I go home and veg out mostly. Working in HR you have to be "on" all the time and since I'm essentially an introvert I like to spend my after work time relaxing and being quiet." Something like that. Apparently they don't want an "introvert." Keep in mind, I've charmed 4 people in the interview until this point so clearly I have social skills and the ability to talk to people. I even mentioned that working in HR for the past 11 years, I know what it takes but during my down time I like it to be just me. I'd feel sad about the loss of this job since I think I did want it, but I find myself so annoyed by this "no introverts" attitude that I'm fine with it. I am seriously sick of job hunting though. I may have to take a little break.

Only in Texas

2011-05-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

I went on a job interview on Friday and I desperately wanted to take a picture of the bookshelf of one of the men I interviewed with. On his bookshelf were The Holy Bible, History of God and a book about (or by) George Bush (but I can't recall if it was sr or junior). It totally made me laugh inside. The job is different than what I do now. It would be what I do but also generalist role including employee relations which I'm not that excited about but this would open up my skills and career. (which I know I'm totally changing careers but until a library job opens up that I can find I can still work in HR.) It is a very small company which would be interesting. However several people used the phrase "work hard/play hard" which I find cliched and annoying.

I should check mail more often

2011-05-19T19:44:00.000-05:00

Tuesday I finally checked my mail. I usually don't check it often because it is far to the mailboxes and there's nothing I want anyway, usually trash. But the bag for the letter carrier's food drive was in my box and you may or may not remember that I love to volunteer for and contribute to the letter carrier's food drive. So I went back to my apartment and found a bunch of canned food and put it in a bag by the door. And then I sat on the sofa. And then I went to work the next day and while I was at work I thought some more and when I got home I checked the date on the little flyer. The letter carrier's food drive was LAST weekend. Oops.

F is for Fun

2011-05-13T20:07:00.000-05:00

And that is my goal for the weekend. I have spent almost every weekend since January working on homework. Even when I got to go on the "girls weekend" in Austin back in February, I spent at least part of it doing homework. Homework. Homework. HOMEWORK. The word starts to lose all meaning after awhile. AND I'll be starting up again soon. Sigh. (Not sigh. I chose this and want this so I am glad to do it). I'm also wicked stressed from the stupid job I hate so it will be nice to hopefully lose myself in activities this weekend.

Activities for this weekend:
1 - I randomly went and saw Sucker Punch at the dollar theater. I was driving by on my way home and on a whim pulled in to see what was playing right then. Sucker Punch, I had wanted to see before, was playing at the right time so that worked out. Not bad for $1.25. Not sure how I'd feel about it if I paid $7.50 or more.

2 - I am going to 6 Flags on Saturday. I got another season pass since I think Stephan and I are going when they come in July and I think my sister and I are going to Six Flags in San Antonio Memorial Day.

3 - I want to spend my Kohl's cash this weekend and get a new pair of shoes. Or a new pair of work pants.

4 - Oh. I'm going to the rodeo Saturday night. I peeved about how ridiculously difficult it was to buy a ticket online, but I succeeded with the last card I have. I am hoping that I have fun at it.

5 - I am thinking of de-cluttering my flat surfaces. My kitchen table has become the recepticle of all things I don't know what to do with. That's not really fun, but it would make me happy to be done with that. And I would have a place to spread out arts & crap supplies.

Yesterday evening

2011-04-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

I was having one of those days yesterday, you know the ones... what if every decision I've made since [insert xyz time frame here, but in my case it was leaving California in 2002] was the wrong one? I'm over it now. It's amazing what sunshine and cool but gorgeous weather will do for a person. I also have to keep telling myself that had I not left CA I wouldn't be embarking on a whole new career change. I would just keep working in HR and letting this new potential career die altogether. I wouldn't hate my job so much that it has convinced me to not do it anymore. I know that seems drastic - just because I hate my current job doesn't mean I have to give up the whole career - but I think the job just forced into focus what I couldn't or didn't see. I don't like where HR is going. It is becoming more and more about the bottom line than about the people I serve. I'm sure it is necessary but I don't want to be part of it.

I'm going hiking today. I'm very excited about that. I think that since I've been going to school, I've not been on a Sunday adventure in a long time. Although this is a Saturday Adventure. They are having a hike to see the blue bonnets at the Fort Worth Nature Center where I typically go hiking. I should probably pull my water pack out of storage.

Hopefully this is right...

2011-04-07T21:26:00.000-05:00

My horoscope for today: Earthquakes can't be predicted, and they can change an entire landscape in seconds. Get ready for your own personal earthquake to strike soon. The shift itself may be a bit scary, but the aftermath will create a world with a lot more opportunity for you. Some barriers will fall and enable you to see a much clearer path. The shifting is quietly happening right now, and you may get a hint or two about what's in store for you when some little changes happen.

I'm a little troubled by the parallel to earthquakes and hope to goodness that this was written before today's repeat earthquake in Japan. I'm hoping it happens, though. I need something to happen soon. (that's hopefully good).

Is this grad school?

2011-04-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

This is my first go around with grad school. I don't know what it should or shouldn't be. I was talking to a couple of classmates on Wednesday about our class. They both hate it. They think the prof gives too much busy work. I can see their point. We have to do 4 article summaries every week and an info hunt (we have to search for information using whatever method prescribed by the prof) each week. Everything is worth a lot of points so if you don't do well on one thing it won't irreparably damage your grade. This is, honestly, my favorite class right now. I am fine with busy work and I like that there's a lot of points on the table so that if I screw something up (like I may or may not have done in one of my other classes) it isn't going to completely decimate my grade. (Ok to be fair, in my other class it was just a B grade on a paper.) Since this is my first time in grad school, I have no idea if this class is normal (I'm getting the impression it isn't) or not. I can't be the only one who appreciates a lot of opportunity to do well, can I?

Dream wedding

2011-04-01T19:22:00.000-05:00

I was thinking today about if I ever got married how fun it would be to get married on April fool's day. If I did that, I think everyone should have to wear top hats. All the guests that is. I think I'd use a copy of The Fool tarot card for place cards. And I think it would be just tea and cakes. (Gluten free cakes of course). I don't like tea though so I'm not sure what I would drink. And there'd be dancing. I don't really dance but I think there should always be dancing at weddings. But no rap music. I don't like rap music. Oh and it will be outside. In a garden. With blooming flowers (hopefully but if not that's okay). Now to find the man. :)

Only Prank I'll Ever Do

2011-03-31T20:06:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time I played an April Fool's Prank. I am not usually successful at these. I am uncomfortable with them. I'm not that creative about them. However THIS prank was the best prank ever. :) And it is the 6th anniversary.

Rays attacking me!

2011-03-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

I blame a recent Amazing Race episode for the dream I had last night. I dreamt that I was swimming in a giant aquarium and sometimes on land. At first the manta ray was just gliding peacefully around the bottom of the tank and there were sharks too. (Seriously, this was a challenge on The Amazing Race which looked kick ass) but then I floundered around a bit and caught the ray's attention and it decided to attack me. It could change its size at will. AND It could fly out in the sky so it didn't matter that I kept getting out of the water. Here's the really interesting part to me according to dreammoods.com.

Manta Ray: To dream that you or someone is attacked by a school of manta rays, indicates that emotions that have been suppressed into your unconscious are becoming too overwhelming to keep inside any longer.

That's not at all disturbing.

Homesick

2011-03-18T19:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I get 'homesick' for Seattle. Since Michelle has been in Texas twice in the last two months, it has reminded me of, among other things, I have no friends here yet. And while, in general, I'm not the friendliest of people, I do sometimes get lonely for company that isn't just me and the cat. I was playing on the Kinect on Sunday and I couldn't help but think how much more fun it would have been if I were playing with someone. (Or maybe not since I was making a fool of myself running in place and jumping.) I haven't found good Indian food here yet. Or good Thai. Or good gluten-free pizza. I hate my job. I honestly feel like I'm floundering sometimes and I dream of going back to Seattle. But the job I had there is no more, and even if it was there I don't think I want to work for that boss or that other boss any longer. It would be nice to have my friends here. I miss Seattle's electricity. it was way cheaper there.

The good things about here: Closer to my sister. Swimming pool at my apartment. Cheaper rent. Own a car. Have a cat. (I could have done that in seattle I know). Six flags. lower cost of everything except electricity. HUGE apartment. HUGE BEAUTIFUL apartment. Cheaper than Seattle's was. Housekeeper, dishwasher, washer/dryer in unit. Seriously, people, those are beautiful things.

Unrelated to all this mumbling about being home sick, I have to find ways to cut expenses. I think after Sunday night's Big Love I'm cutting fancy cable. There's nothing ever on it I want to watch. It is pointless. I have netflix and a blockbuster card. I'll get it back when True Blood returns in the summer. :)

Hedging my luck

2011-03-08T18:22:00.000-06:00

I bought 4 lottery tickets tonight. Two for Lotto and two for Megamillions. My fingers are crossed. (I know I know I know) In order to encourage my luck, I used my last dollar to buy an MDA shamrock. That's good deed right? So that means I should win right?

One of the harder things about moving to a new place (besides having to make new friends, don't even ask me about that at all) is finding new products and brands. I have lived on the west coast for so long the only brand of cheese I like is tilamook. I love tilamook cheese. It is very very difficult to find it here for some reason. (You know not being on the west coast and all that). However I've found something that makes me just as happy (or maybe happier)... Cabot cheese is available here! I first had Cabot cheese in Vermont visiting Katie girl (Hi Katiegirl!). I do love me some Cabot cheese and even better it is "president's choice" (the generic Kroger brand). Yay! That's a happy thing to find.

I know you have opinions.

2011-03-05T09:07:00.000-06:00

For my birthday my mom is sending me money for a new bed. I may be going to my nemesis, who didn't hire me, big discount department store. Here are the ones I've found so far that I've liked.

Found at overstock.com. I would have looked at more of theirs online but their website started downloading a virus so I had to close the window.

I THINK this is my favorite one. Although I'd really like to see it in person so that I can feel the texture of the bed. Can be bought at nemesis didn't hire me store.

Also found at nemesis didn't hire me store. I like the metal/wood combo.

I like how it is curvy like a spider web or a giant dream catcher. (Also from nemesis store)

I like the simple straight forwardness of this one.

Current furniture in the bedroom are a white bookshelf, a white dresser with black knobs and a white desk and 1 wooden bookshelf cherry color. I love the white dresser so I probably won't change that anytime soon.

WWJD

2011-03-02T23:28:00.000-06:00

What would Joanne do? :)

We had a conversation in class the other night about ethics and information professionals. The prof said that there is some indication that Timothy McVeigh (OKC Bombing) consulted a librarian about bomb building. She asked would we give that out. I was the only one in class to say no. And my statement was more along the lines of I couldn't live with myself if I found out information I gave out had caused the deaths of people in that fashion. A couple people went down the "slippery slope" route... if you don't give out "how to make a bomb" where does it stop. We shouldn't judge what people would like to know. Blah blah blah. The ALA believes that we should provide information without judging the information being requested but there's one guy we read about who agrees with my way of thinking. You have to consider society. Someone else pointed out (or maybe it was slippery slope girl) that it would be like pharmacists refusing to give out the morning after pill. I quickly pointed out that a - pharmacists have a binding professional oath as opposed to librarians who have a voluntary oath and b - many many places have upheld that pharmacists can refuse to provide the morning after pill. (And physician's don't all have to provide abortions if they do not choose to.) Anyway, apparently I'm a dissenter in my class.

Stupid Human Tricks

2011-03-02T22:43:00.000-06:00

I was speaking to a coworker the other day about something I had seen on my boss's desk. She asked me if I was in there snooping around and I said no, she was babbling at me and I read it upside down on her desk. She seemed surprised I could completely and totally read upside down. I had never thought about it. I've been able to do it as long as I can remember. She challenged me and I totally read her job ad upside down. I think it may be related to my left handedness. Is this a weird skill?

I have almost twice as many tweets as I do blog posts

2011-02-11T22:34:00.000-06:00

But that's totally not what this post is about. :)

Weekly I go and volunteer at a local domestic violence shelter. I work with the kiddos while their moms are in counseling. (By work with I mean baby sit, not anything exact or psychological or anything like that). (But that's not what this post is about either) (Although recently there was a little girl there who had the most startling eyes. One was brown, deep brown so dark you could barely see the iris and the other was this brilliant cobalt blue. It was striking and if/when her unibrow gets controlled I'm sure she'll be stunning (she's only little right now).

Anyway, every time I go and come back I drive past this church that is called Hope. I like the name of that. Every time I drive past on the way home I think, hmm... I wonder if the doors are open in the evening (well night really). I can't figure out what kind of church it is. I think I just like the name Hope. It makes me think about joining. Seriously, Texas is sucking me in. Or maybe just the reality that I'm not happy with several aspects of my life and maybe something like an organized community group to join would help. When I was in Alaska I used to ask my churchgoing friends why they believed in god. Some didn't know how to respond. Several indicated that that's what their parents did so that's what they did. My favorite answer was from my roommate of the time (not Kate) who said it just made her feel better and more centered. I would like to feel more centered. Yoga just doesn't do it for me. My mind wanders. I feel stupid and uncoordinated and especially fat. Meditation makes me antsy. (Again my mind wanders and it makes me twitchy). Now that I'm in school, homework is taking over my weekends. I'm looking for something. I just don't know where to find it.

Things to say

2011-02-10T19:50:00.000-06:00

This morning while I was hanging out waiting to get dressed to go on my interview, my neighbor came by to let me know that she thought Sam had escaped. She had seen him on her fence. It wasn't Sam. It was Sam's twin. He is a stray that the apartment people have tried ot have animal control catch but haven't been able to. They seem fascinated with each other. Sam, who already loves to sit on the balcony, will stare at the other cat for hours. Apparently the other cat is also interested in being Sam's friend if he was on the balcony trying to come up to visit. Weird.

I need a pair of some heeled boots/shoes that are black. My suit pants are too long and usually I wear a pair of peep-toe pumps with them but it is 17 degrees and slushy outside and that just wasn't going to work. So I wore my suit with my black Doc Martens which means my pants dragged on the slushy ground like I'm some sort of teenager. Time to go to the Dry Cleaners.

I went on a job interview and had a talk with a recruiter at an agency today. The recruiter has 2 positions open. One I'm not interested in at all since it is for another health care group and I'm not having it again. The other, she says, is for a place that she has heard good things about from the other people who have been placed there. The downer for that one... salary lower than what I earn now. Now, to be fair I pay a lot for benefits so if their benefits are better/more covered that might be okay. The problem is, I can't really find a lot of time to interview for a lot of jobs. Don't even get me started on my boss and time issues. The other place was a manufacturer of heating & cooling units. I interviewed with the recruiter, the person who would be my boss and I was supposed to interview with the person who has the position now and one other person, but they had left early. That reassured me since I think I don't believe in not meeting the rest of the team for a job. We'll see. I think I might like it there. Their hand outs are certainly impressive. :) If this one doesn't work out I may take a little break. Stock up some more time so that I have time to interview. :)

Unintended Consequences

2011-01-18T10:03:00.000-06:00

With the loss of almost 20 lbs and getting down below weight "y", two things have occurred that have unsettled me. (Both of which are probably TMI so you're forewarned)

1. My periods have returned. I've had more periods in the last 3 months than I have in the last year. I know it is better for me. I know this is probably a good thing, but I don't have to like it. I mean really, two periods a year is a pretty good thing. It is also weird to me since I haven't had regular ones since I lived in California. That was a LONG time ago (I moved in 2002) and I'm pretty sure I haven't been over weight "y" that entire time.

2. If my measurements are correct (which they might not be I'm kind of dumb about that) I've only lost 1 inch in my waist and like 1 inch in my chest and yet like 4 - 5 inches in my b00bs. This is a problem because while my hair is still in an annoying stage, my chest is pretty much the only thing I like on my body. (Yes I recognize that's bad.)

It is almost enough to make me gain it back. ALMOST. :) But since I want to sky dive and scuba dive I'll keep going, even though this past week's food consumption has not supported that view. (I gained 1/2 a lb when I weighed myself the other day, but I can probably chalk that up to period since it started the next day).

Sometimes I hate People

2011-01-08T23:21:00.000-06:00

The grocery store is one of those places where you really realize how stupid/annoying/whatever people can be. First I went to wal-mart because I think some of the staples (tp and cat litter) are going to be cheaper there than elsewhere. Now I admit I'm an idiot for going to Wal-Mart at 11:30 on a Saturday. In that respect I deserve what I get. Even though in general I LOVE self-check out, somehow Wal-Mart's self check out is always a FAIL for me so I don't use it. (Related, I may finally have found a toy Sam likes to play with. He's been attacking it much of the evening.) I was in the 20 items or less line. (Shouldn't that be fewer?) (According to wikipedia, it totally should be). There was another 20 items or fewer line next to me that was moving much more slowly than mine. This woman in that line had a full shopping cart. She kept glaring over at me because the lines were kind of undefined and so I got directly behind one person to get in the quicker line. I wanted to say "look lady, I'm weirdly anal about this and I have 11 items whereas you clearly have well over 20 so get your knickers out of a knot." I did not though.

So then I move on to another chain grocery store. I was looking for some produce and a few of those seasoning mixes and a couple other things I couldn't get at Wal-Mart. I pick up my cucumbers, some clementines, chocolate chips (because I'm making GF fruit pies with cherry and chocolate chips, sounds good, no?), and a few other things. They don't have my seasoning packages but that's okay. (related, I know you use "Oriental" for things and items like "Oriental" rugs, but I'm still vaguely uncomfortable that that's the label they use for the Asian food section.) I see there are 2 regular lanes open with HUGE lines and the self check out is open. Wow, one is even totally open. I go and start scanning and then realize nope, someone is in the midst of shopping and apparently has stepped away. Not acceptable. So I get in line behind a woman with three candy bars. This should be quick. Nope. One of the candies is not part of the 2/something deal so she takes it back, leaving the register open but in use. Then she picks up several other things while she's away and then she can't figure out how to check out. So I try one other lane but it won't scan my cans and so I give up and put all my stuff back. I can only tolerate the ridiculousness for so long before I wanted to kick someone. I then went across the street to the other grocery store that I like better anyway and got EVERYTHING I wanted and there was no waiting at self-check out and there was no idiots who had wandered off mid-way through checking out. So all was right with the world. :)

Goals for 2011

2011-01-01T11:25:00.000-06:00

As I've long established I don't do resolutions. I just have goals. Things I'd like to accomplish. I didn't make any goals in 2009 for 2010 apparently. I did find goals in 2008 but those fell by the wayside. So trying again:

1 - I want to get out more. Maybe do more meet-ups. It's been 8 months and I still have nobody to hang out with and although I've dated more since moving to Texas than I have in the last 2 years of living in Seattle, I'm not interested in the minotaur so I'll not do that again.

2 - Get a new job. I hate my current job.

3 - Keep working on paying off debt. I've been trying to pay more on my cards than min payment and all that but I've gotten a little bad over the holidays. Sadly I know where my tax refund will be going this year. (Well not sadly this is good and what is necessary.)

4 - Do well in grad school. I am a slacker at heart.And a lot of this will be online/virtual class. I'd like to do well this time. (I didn't do horribly in college. I had like a 3.2 GPA but it would be cool to graduate with honors or something like that).

5 - Lose more weight. I've lost about 20 lbs so far. I can pull all of my pants down without undoing them. Before I buy new pants I want to lose more weight so I can go down 2 pants sizes and not 1. I was doing well about exercising before so I'm hoping to get back into that. If I get the job in Plano I want between that commute and the commute to the college it will get much harder to eat well and be careful about calories.

So there we go. 5 goals. They seem doable.

Truthiness Day 5

2010-12-25T22:09:00.000-06:00

Something I hope to do in life:

I hope to acquire kids. And I hope to get married. And I hope to live in Ireland. I'm not sure if they are mutually exclusive. And I hope to go to China and see the Great Wall. And I hope to get a job I love. That's a lot of somethings I hope to do. :)

Twas the weekend before Christmas

2010-12-25T08:22:00.000-06:00

My family all came to visit. We survived. Well, not all... the older niece and nephew weren't here. I think this year may have been the last one I buy them any presents for Christmas. I never get one from them nor do I ever hear from them.

With the exception of the massive hospitalization of my mother, the weekend was pretty fun. Mandy, Kayla and I got to go ziplining like we wanted to. It was really fun! Not too scary. Although I kept flipping around backwards on the line which scared me a little bit since I couldn't see where I needed to start the stop procedure. (Well and to stop you need to have your feet facing forward to land on the platform)

We went to ICE at the Gaylord Texas. It was awesome. It was so neat. They bring in some insane quantity of ice and they have Chinese artists carve it into various sculptures. This year's theme was Charlie Brown's Christmas. It was so beautiful. (Well and cold!)

After that we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That was a nice treat. All in all it was a pretty good trip (hospitalization aside).

Confessions from the still sleepy

2010-12-19T08:58:00.000-06:00

My mom went to the ER last night and got admitted to the hospital. She'll be out today. It was dumb. On friday she brought her cat, Max, over to the apartment and Sam did not respond well. In fact he cornered Max in the bedroom and was hissing and yowling and growling at him. There are certain noises that when an animal is making that noise you don't touch it. She did and Sam bit her. She bled a lot. And over the course of yesterday her hand swelled up with infection. And then it started running down her arm. So we went to the ER. We got sent to another hospital. (She via ambulance) and finally at around 1 AM they admitted her and we got to go home. We'll pick her up today.

I did it!

2010-12-14T08:22:00.000-06:00

I stepped on the scale this morning to see how much damage I did with my bad eating last week/over the weekend. And what to my wonderous eyes did appear... a weight lower than weight Y! I had to look twice to be sure but there it was... a pound and a half lower than I needed it to be! Yippee!

I invited my parents?

2010-12-04T22:45:00.000-06:00

My sister is coming to Dallas the weekend of the 18thish to go on our zipline tour (1.2 lbs to go!) and we'll go to holiday in the park at 6 flags and to ICE a ice sculpture show at a fancypants hotel here in Dallas. Because I'm a sap and easily influenced by my sister, I invited my parents to come and join us. They might actually do it! Now since my palatial apartment isn't THAT big they'll stay at a nearby hotel. (There is a hotel literally next door to my apartment complex. We share a fence).

I went to a party tonight. That's a big deal. I don't usually do social things but I have to. I'm sick of being by myself all the time. There weren't really any possible contenders to be my local friends, but it is good for me to practice talking to people. I'm not so good with that. Tomorrow I'm going to a gf event what a mexican place and then next week I'm going to a bowling party with my apartment people. Just call me buttterfly. :)

I have an interview on Wednesday. It is for one I phone screened for before Thanksgiving. Since I hadn't heard anything I presumed it wasn't happening so I was pleasantly surprised to get the call. Although it was funny because there was an email accidentally sent to me from someone about whether or not the people they wanted to interview had been called in yet. Oops. :) It is a phone interview and then I suppose if I move on it'll be an in person one. If I get called for that and it happens to be on the 20th (the day I'm taking off to spend time with the fam) I'll take that as a sign the job is MINE. I don't want to have to take time off to go interview. My boss is a freak about that shit. The recruiter and I are salaried employees. Typically even if a salaried person doesn't work 8 hours you get paid for the full day and don't use PTO to pay if you leave early or whatnot. She charged my coworker like 3 hours of PTO when she left early. In WA that wouldn't be legal. Unfortunately here it is. She also won't let the 2 hourly employees do things like work through lunch or take only 1/2 hour lunches for the week to make up leaving early for an appointment or whatever. Have I mentioned that the 2 hourly employees are not allowed to work later than either me or bboss? One of us have to stick around if the employee works late. So bizarre. (Usually it is less than 10 minutes so not really a big deal but so stupid!) Anyway I've got high hopes. The job would be within my area of expertise but doing something really different than what I do. I wouldn't have to administer leaves of absences anymore! (I LOATHE administering leaves of absence.)

Shh....

2010-12-03T23:09:00.000-06:00

My frequency of posts is inversely proportional (or maybe just proportional I don't know I didn't do so well on the math part) to my state of mind. Lately state of mind not so good. In fact I started back on the happy pills the week before Thanksgiving. I like my apartment. I like my car. I like living in Texas. I like my community. I like my cat. I like my volunteering. I am excited about starting grad school. However, I LOATHE my job. I LOATHE my boss. I only sort of like my coworkers. I have no local friends. Apparently one side is not enough to tip the other.

truthiness Day 18 - Gay marriage

2010-11-14T20:18:00.000-06:00

Another easy question for me: What do I think of gay marriage? Similar to my views on religion, it isn't for me but it isn't my place to judge what others do. So, gays want to get married? Let em.

I ultimately believe that marriage has no place with government so the gov't should do civil unions to provide all the 'benefits' of marriage only and let the churches decide on "marriage." Oddly enough, I'm also not against polygamy. If more than two consenting adults want to enter into a relationship with some legally defined benefits I've got no issues with that. The key words (and this is important given FLDS) are consenting and adults. I can totally respect the issues with the FLDS church, marrying off children, chasing off the boys so there's no competition for the girls, etc. But amongst consenting adults, who am I to judge if 2 men and a woman or 2 women and a man or 3 men and 2 women or whatever want to "marry" each other? more power to them if they can find that many people to love and be with forever.

Ho ho ho

2010-11-12T21:00:00.000-06:00

I am finding myself full of the Christmas spirit lately. Like I want to decorate my balcony and put up my tree AND I was even thinking of getting a real live tree this year! (I love live trees!) Currently I am downloading all my holiday cds into itunes so I can make a holiday play list for work. This is unlike me. I haven't put up a Christmas tree since 2003 or 2004. I don't believe in the "reason for the season."

My sister is coming in December and we're going to do our own little Christmas the weekend before Christmas. I'm TOTALLY excited about going to CA over Thanksgiving. Totally ready for a few days away from work. There's a lot of excitement around me. Yay! :)

Truthiness post 1

2010-11-10T19:45:00.000-06:00

I mentioned when I posted the truthiness list, that I would probably not do them in order. I'm a procrastinator by nature. (Someone may call that lazy... :) ) I think I'll go with Day 19 first (mostly because it is really easy). "What do you think of religion?"

I am an atheist. I have been since I discovered the word somewhere in junior high. In actuality I was before, but by then I had a word to define it. I do not believe in any higher being, higher power or whatever. However, in general I think if people want to believe in a higher power that's on them. As long as their belief does not impact my lack of what do I care? I feel the same way about organized religion and church. If someone feels better praying to something or joining with others who share the same views, how am I to stop that? It isn't my place to make that determination. I think extremists are bad, but I would say that about any extreme not just religious extremists. In general I view current religion the same way we view the Greek Gods or the ancient Egyptian beliefs (Horus and Osiris and all that)... it is a nice story to explain something that is currently inexplicable. I do believe in 1000 years from now, those futurepeople will look back at us and think the same way we do about the Greek gods.

Swarm!

2010-11-08T18:25:00.000-06:00

If I were a biologist, which I'm not obviously, I would totally study why the birds seem to converge where the 820 and the 35 cross. I believe there are something like 10,000 birds that all fly into this area and land on the ground or on the electric poles etc. It fascinates me! The birds end up on the power lines so close together that the line is completely covered by bird and the ground almost looks black with birds all sitting on the grass. Then all of a sudden, they all launch themselves and there are thousands of birds darkening the sky. I want to know why they do this. It seems weird to me. Especially since like 1/2 mile in any direction there are almost no birds at all. So weird.

Fait Accompli

2010-11-07T20:13:00.000-06:00

I know that I grouse about day light savings time every year, but this year I actually managed to get a shitton done today.

1 - I took the GRE. It was the last thing I needed to do for grad school. I've been conditionally accepted anyway, but if I hadn't taken it by May I'd get booted out of school. I'm not sure if I did well enough on it to not get booted but I don't think it really matters at this point. (Actually checking UNT's website I'm way above their average score on verbal but somewhat below their score on the math part). I used almost every minute I was given. On the essay portion I ran out of time. I had finished the essay but was going back through it. The argument discussion I actually finished 3 minutes early! Math I ran out of time to do and ended up not getting 3 questions done. (maybe 4 but I was definitely guessing the last 5 - 6 anyway). And the verbal I finished with I think 15 seconds to spare. I went through registration with my advisor last Monday so theoretically I'm signed up for 3 classes next semester. Eep! That's considered full time. I am thinking I can do it, but who knows. I think the drive alone might kill any weight loss I've been able to accomplish. I will be in class 2 days a week most weeks and 3 days a week once a month. And Denton is far y'all!

2 - I worked on my t-shirt quilt. Ironing the fusible web onto all the t-shirts is the longest process. And since I already cut the shirts I am now having a problem figuring out how to put them together.

3 - I cooked! I made one of my favorite soups, avgolemono soup. I made M&M almond muffins. I toasted the almonds for the muffins even!

That explains a lot

2010-10-23T15:31:00.000-05:00

I adopted a cat a couple of weeks ago. He's short hair. I have a plan for when Michelle comes to visit (he'll go to kitty care and the housekeeper will come in the day before she arrives). His name is Samuel. He is all black and declawed. He doesn't like to play. I have bought multiple cat toys and he really doesn't want to play. I thought it might be because he's in a new environment. Not so much. We went to the vet today due to his ears bothering him... turns out he's not 18 months old as the cat adoption place lady said, he's actually between 5 & 6. Eh. She can only know what the people who released him to her know.

I just decided the fish weren't cutting it. Petting the kitty (not a euphamism) is calming and I need that. Also Sam gives me someone to talk to on the weekends.

Armadillos are the Helen Keller of the animal world

2010-10-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

Driving home I keep driving past a dead armadillo on his back in the gutter. I kind of want to pick it up and dispose of it properly because it makes me sad to see it there every day. My coworker told me, though, that armadillos have poor hearing and poor sight and when startled they jump straight up which is how they get hit by cars.

I got into graduate school. I'm VERY excited about that. I'll start in the spring. I still have to take the GRE in November but that's no big deal. Ok it might be. I'm looking through this GRE book and on the one hand I flip through it and think, really? you are reviewing THIS? and then I look at the questions and think oh that's why you are reviewing that... when was the last time I did exponents? I thought that librarians got paid way less than what I currently earn, but I looked at the ALA site today out of curiousity and it isn't a huge difference than what I earn now. Hopefully by the time I graduate I'll have paid way down my cc and car loan so the salary shift won't be too traumatic. One thing I'm excited about is the prospect that I could even live internationally. With what I currently do that wouldn't work out.

I'm taking a break from calorie counting soon. I've been stuck at a weight 4 lbs more than weight x (or weight y whichever I identified as the fatter one) for the past 3ish weeks. Maybe 4 weeks. It is driving me nuts! (Unrelated, I LOATHE that damn Train song). So I'll take a break and hopefully not gain my 13ish lbs back and start again renewed and ready to go.

30 days of Truthiness

2010-10-06T20:30:00.001-05:00

I found this over on Avitable's blog. It seems like an interesting project. I'm not certain I'll do them all and I am certain I will not do them in order (being the type that puts off the worst things as long as possible). Although maybe it would be even more interesting to do this as inauthentically as possible. (so 30 days of lying!) I'll contemplate that.

It’s just a series of writing prompts, encouraging you to be honest and truthful. I liked the idea and thought I’d use them whenever I want something to discuss. Here are the prompts if you want to do them yourself:

Day 01 → Something you hate about yourself.
Day 02 → Something you love about yourself.
Day 03 → Something you have to forgive yourself for.
Day 04 → Something you have to forgive someone for.
Day 05 → Something you hope to do in your life.
Day 06 → Something you hope you never have to do.
Day 07 → Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Day 08 → Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.
Day 09 → Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.
Day 10 → Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
Day 11 → Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
Day 12 → Something you never get compliments on.
Day 13 → A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)
Day 14 → A hero that has let you down. (letter)
Day 15 → Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.
Day 17 → A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 18 → Your views on gay marriage.
Day 19 → What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Day 20 → Your views on drugs and alcohol.
Day 21 → (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
Day 22 → Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.
Day 24 → Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)
Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
Day 26 → Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Day 27 → What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Day 28 → What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
Day 29 → Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
Day 30 → A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself

A Leap of Something

2010-09-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

I was having an existential crisis this morning. I have been really struggling with my job and in general what I do for a living. I like it. I think I like it but I just don't know anymore actually. I'm finding I am sick of the BS associated with what I do. There's far more governmental influence currently and coming down the pike (pipe?) than when I first started. More (and just like everywhere I'm sure) I'm getting asked to do more on less. And I feel bad because it really impacts employees and at my employer MANY of our employees earn 12 - 18 bucks an hour. We then annually take away 1400 of that in medical benefits alone. And my bigger boss is now talking more deep benefit cuts. It kills me because I have at least 5 people right now who I know for certain have no ins because they can't afford it. To me that's wrong. (And I can also admit I don't like paying so much for my benefits and would hate to see my benefits get slashed). I was feeling like this, though, even before I came to my new job. So much more Bullshit. So much less good stuff.

So I've been considering going back to school. I don't know if I'll do it. I know I've talked about it before. UNT has a library sciences program which only runs about 12k for the tuition. I think I could do it. I think it might be what I'm looking for. According to UNT's site, youth librarians are in demand. God that would combine my 2 favorite things. My biggest concern, though: money. I'll earn less than I earn now. That kind of stresses me out since it is just me. It also stresses me out to think about being subject to the whims of the government. In Seattle, there were regularly furlough days where the libraries were closed. They don't get paid for those days off. (Maybe they use vacay I suppose). I think we've had them here too. So I think I'll take a baby step and make an appt to go see a graduate admissions counselor and go from there. Well that and find out about GRE/GMAT testing.

Not again

2010-09-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

I volunteered for an event today. For the first time in all of my volunteering, I left early and I didn't let anyone know when I left. I was so over it. I gave them 6 hours out of the 9 I was signed up for. I like volunteering for events and maybe I've been spoiled because I've worked so many up in Seattle for really established charities. This group has only been doing this event for 4 years so that's not really a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. Nobody there knew or remembered my name so I'm pretty sure it wasn't noticed. Especially since they kept moving me from place to place.

I was already annoyed when I realized I had to get there at 9:00 this morning and yet the event didn't start until 11:30. I'm cool with helping set up events but did we really need 2 1/2 hours for set up? No. I got there at 9 and the coordinator for my area wasn't there. She eventually showed up and then left me again. And ultimately we were ready like 45 minutes early. Time wasted. It also bothered me that they were charging for the kids' activities. It was only 50 cents to do a game and they had some good donated prizes but for some of the games the 50 cents seemed chintzy. Plus it then meant you had to have a ton of change which we didn't.

I got shifted around to various jobs during the day because they had way too many volunteers for the barely used kids' area so they kept moving me places. They needed help at the live auction. Turns out they didn't need help and I hung around there for freaking ever. The problem with the live auction was that they were doing like one item between each band playing. Seriously, how can you draw a crowd to check out the live auction if it is just like a commercial? And there wasn't enough of a crowd for the 4 volunteers they pulled from other areas to watch the crowd.

Eventually I got moved again and this time it was to trying to sell fully cooked briskets outside the store whose parking lot we were in. After they decided to move the brisket sale to someplace else I ducked out and just didn't get with the group. They had like 5 of us there trying to sell these briskets (mostly unsuccessfully honestly). By then I was overheated and totally done with it. I just felt like the whole thing was a disorganized mess and it was totally unfun. Freezing my ass off for the Leukemia & Lymphoma society was more fun than this.

I'm easy, but don't piss me off

2010-09-07T22:18:00.000-05:00

I'm changing car insurance companies. This is kind of a big deal for me because in general when I sign up for a service, product or whatever I stick with them. Short of a huge issue I'll stick with a company indefinitely. Of course some of that is just sheer lazyness. Once I've signed up for something I don't want to have to go through the huge project of researching information and then changing to something else. So finally deciding to change car insurance carriers after months of spending a ridiculous amount of money took an act of extreme bad customer service to make me switch. I called my guy several months ago and asked how to get off the high risk program. He did some checking and thought he could and my new rate would be x - much cheaper than I was paying. Ok great, sign me up I say. And then nothing. I called pack a good 6 - 8 times in the next two months with assurances that I'll get a call back. With a "you haven't gotten the change paperwork yet?" With nothing. So I get a new insurance carrier and called to cancel my current policy today. Again I get the "we're not in the office so call the 800 number" message. Bye bye my guy. Welcome new girl. The worst part is that I originally told them I would understand if it couldn't be done in this initial six months. All they had to say was "Oh sorry, we can't make that change until your renewal" and I'm lazy enough to have stuck around.

10 lbs!

2010-09-03T23:50:00.000-05:00

According to my official weigh in I'm down 10 lbs. (And by official weigh in I mean the piece of paper I keep in my linen closet where I keep my scale and I write down the weight on Friday mornings only even though I may weigh myself randomly on a Tuesday evening and a Monday morning after my shower and a Thursday right before I go to bed.) That's pretty cool. Technically I'm only 4 lbs away from goal weight 1. But to give myself a little 'lunch leeway' I should probably see if I can manage 8 or more. I have a month or so to do it. That means I'm 29 lbs away from skydiving weight. However I'm still about 79 lbs from learning to scuba dive weight. (The advantage to putting these weight loss rewards in place... it gives me time to save up the needed funds to do them. :) )

I joined a couple groups on my calorie counting website. I'm probably going to quit one of them. It is the "I am superduper fat and want to lose 100 lbs or more group." (Obviously that's not the real name, that would be mean). I was reading some of their forums and message boards and it made me rather depressed actually. There was one whole thread about what people wanted to do when they go to their goal weight. It made me sad for them because it kind of seemed like they were just waiting for this magical number to really do things. I know some of what their things were they really needed that magical number - like shop at the Gap and not need seat belt extenders on airplanes - but others didn't and I just thought why make that big goal so far way out there. You should reward yourself steps of the way. We celebrate birthdays and not just the big ones... why not celebrate small successes?

Satan's Scheme

2010-09-02T21:53:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned there's a huge church across the freeway from my apartment building? Huge. It is a Baptist church and I can see it from various points in my complex. It is not a megachurch as defined by some website I found about them which kind of surprises me but what do I know? Anyway... this week on their scoreboard sign thingy they have the phrase "Satan's scheme" and each time I think is this a hairbrained activity? Is Satan planning on hiding his new dress from Ricky because he spent all his allowance on it? Did he go to work at a candy factory and eat all the candy? And since Satan is my heinous ex-brother-in-law, is he actually planning on doing something heinous to my favorite nephew now that said favorite nephew lives near them? These are the things I ponder. Clearly I have too much time on my hands.

Analog or digital

2010-08-28T19:52:00.000-05:00

I've only been counting calories for the past 18 days. It feels like I've been screwing around with this A LOT longer than that. I'm not positive that I will be able to do this for the long haul. But I'll definitely keep at it for as long as I can. I'm trying to find that right balance between eating better and not totally depriving myself of food I like, which will make this fail.

Other goals

2010-08-22T22:00:00.000-05:00

I think when I get 1/2 way between weight x and weight y I'm going to go sky diving. I may need to have my sister visit then because I'm not 100% certain I can do it on my own. :) (She'll do it with me. She'll do anything apparently. : p ) She's certified in scuba diving (that's not why I say she'll do anything) and I totally want to do that too.

Shopping is hard

2010-08-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

One of the difficult things about moving from a location with a huge Asian population to one without a huge Asian population is finding asian food components I used to use regularly. I'm not even looking for anything particularly exotic. I was looking for sesame oil and hoisin sauce (hoisin sauce is difficult because I have to find GF hoisin sauce) and fresh ginger. It took me 3 stores to find hoisin sauce that was GF and ginger. Now I must remember that Kroger is really the best bet for most things I want.

Murder/Suicide Pact

2010-08-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

Back when Michelle and I were in college, we had a murder/suicide pact that if we got to weight x we were ending it all. Well, weight x has come and is long gone and we're both still alive. In fact, weight y has come and gone and we're still alive which shows how serious we both were about this whole pact. I've been counting calories obsessively for about 2 weeks. caloriecount.about.com says I should only be eating 1600 calories per day and honestly I haven't been strict about it. Most days I'm within 100 of it. Some days (like yesterday) I didn't but I'm still eating fewer calories than I burn (according to the site). I've also added exercise in the morning most days (40 min). Gilad's Bodies in Motion make me happy. I DVRd them from Fit TV so I can ff through the commercials.

So I have between 8 - 9 lbs (I use an analog scale not a digital one) to get back down to weight y. Which will also mean I can go on the zipline. So far I've lost about 5 - 6 lbs. I know that's not a lot, but it is good so far. :)

First shift down

2010-08-16T21:46:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went to my first shift at the shelter. I spent the evening in the 'pre-school' room with about 8 or 9 kids between the ages of 2 and 4. There was an actual employee with me which meant I was fortunate because in the older kid room the volunteer was all by herself. There have been a lot of new families in since I did my orientation there a few weeks ago. They've doubled the number of kids since I was at training. I had a good time with the little kids. I sat in their teeny chair and we talked about shoes and i ate pretend food and engaged as many as I could in conversation. There were 2 new kids whose mom had just gotten there today. The little sibling cried the entire hour. Mom was seriously missed. Towards the end older sibling started crying. I think younger's crying just wore the kid down. (I know it wore me down. I was wiped out when I left). It was fun and I'm excited to go back.

Fun Fun Fun

2010-08-15T21:31:00.000-05:00

I went to the Dallas Art Museum today because it was the last weeend for the Coastlines exhibit. Walking through the exhibit made me miss Seattle a little bit. Even though I haven't always lived near the water, I have for the past 10 years and I kind of miss it. It was nice to be able to see the water sometimes. The exhibit was gorgeous! They had a wide variety of media which I appreciated. It was a multi-sensory experience because they also had various sounds playing. In some areas you could hear the roar of the ocean and they also had the plinky plinky kind of music in the background. My favorite painting was this one that was done in oil on canvas called Time and Tide by Alfred Thompson Bricher. It was so amazing. Until I walked up close to it I thought it was a photograph. I tried to find a poster of it in the museum store but all they had was a little card. I think the clouds really give it away but if you just focus on the rock and the water it is gorgeous.

I think I may love his work.

I did go through the entire rest of the museum. It was a really nice three hours. (Additionally according to the calorie count site I'm using 3 hours of leisurly walking burns 781 calories just so you know :) ). The museum has a lot of different exhibits. Another painting I fell in love with was called The Icebergs by Frederic Edwin Church. I could really get lost in the textures of the ice and the colors of the ice. It is a pretty big painting and it almost seemed like you could step into the painting and be much cooler. :)

In real life it is much much cooler. It was in a section I could take a photograph of it but I didn't. (I borrowed this photo from Wikipedia). I'll post the other photos I took later. There was Egyptian art and just so many other neat things to see.

Trying something else

2010-08-10T22:25:00.000-05:00

So I found a webpage that I can put in what I eat and counts calories each day. If I eat only 1600 calories each day for the next 3 years I can get down to my "target" weight. (This is the website defined weight not my defined weight, I don't know what that is.) So started that out today. Did not make the 1600 ceiling. Not even close. BUT it is keeping it in my head so even though it may take me awhile to get down to 1600 calories/day at least I'll be THINKING about calories to maybe help reduce the number I take in.

While at BlogHer I got my cholesterol and sugars checked. I rocked all my numbers (well except the BMI and if that was fine, I wouldn't need to lose 15 lbs now would I?). That was kind of exciting since I don't think I've had those tests done in years.

Traveling Debacle

2010-08-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

If I were one of those people who believed in "signs" or "the universe telling me something" I totally wouldn't have made it to BlogHer in NYC this past weekend.

I had to gate check my suitcase. I gate checked it all the way to JFK.
Weather closed the Charlotte airport. It eventually reopened and we landed but my JFK flight had already left.
This is midnight and there aren't really any other flights going to the NYC area so I check into a Quality Inn for a whopping 3 hours to get some sleep... with no clothes since my bag got gate checked.

The irony (is it irony? maybe Murphy's Law) was that I actually contemplated pulling out a clean undies, toothbrush and toothpaste and a clean shirt when I discovered I had to check my bag but decided not to because I was the 3rd to the last on board and the line was actually moving down the jetway.

The next day I get to Charlotte. It is too early for any place for food to be open and I spend so much time trying to figure out my next move it becomes too late to try to get food.
Miss my first La Guardia flight. Discover that the 2nd La Guardia flight had a TON of seats open so I didn't have to worry about getting on that one.
Headed down to luggage to see if it would be at all possible to get my luggage shifted to La Guardia so I don't have to go to both airports. Don't hold your breath I'm told.
At La Guardia we have to circle the airport for 20 minutes because they are reconfiguring the runways. I don't even know what that means but I could have cried.
Here's where the weekend gets saved... I get the next La Guardia flight and even better - Luggage makes it! I had the luggage lady scan my tag to see if I should even bother waiting and it was there! I could have cried with joy. And I might have told the luggage lady I loved her. It was a heat of the moment thing. :)

I am not destined to lose weight

2010-07-31T16:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday after work I stopped at Wal-mart to buy several things including a scale. After 45 minutes and walking across the store 4 times, I finally found one in hardware. Why are scales in hardware? Why are they not with bathroom stuff (technically they are with the bathroom stuff because they were with the toilet seats and the towel bars and whatnot but they are not with the shower curtains and soap dishes). I finally find one in the back and make my way back up to the front and get in line... to discover that my wallet is not in my purse. I left it in the car. I'm at the end of my rope so I put everything back and head out to the car to go home.

This morning I get up to run errands. Among them I go to Wal-Mart because the other Wal-Mart had Cabot cheese and I still want a scale. So I go to Wal-Mart and they have one style of scale. It is not the scale I want (I want cheap analog and not uber fancy expensive kind). I'm done. Not buying a scale after all.

Maybe I could hike or something like that...

2010-07-25T21:03:00.001-05:00

For today's Sunday Adventure I field tripped to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge. It was so cool! There were a ton of trails. And on Sundays they have various things going on in the afternoon. Today's was a hike down at the boardwalk and river bottom trails. I was the only one who showed up to go, though so it was just me and the naturalist. How cool is that? Awesome!

This is in the Lotus Marsh area. They set up this fence around certain areas to see what was being eaten. Now they're not only not sure what was being eaten, but they're not sure what is eating it. They originally were concerned about what wild hogs were eating.

View of the boardwalk from the pavilion in the Lotus Marsh. The boardwalk is a little rickety right now because apparently when it floods the boardwalk ends up under water.

Up close of a button flower. I like how they are tons of teeny tiny little flowers in a ball. They're all over the marshland.

Can you see the mysterious thing in this photo? As we were walking back on the road to the car we took to the head of the boardwalk trail they bounded across the road in front of us.

Can you see the mysterious thing in this photo? This was in the marsh. I like how the duckweed and the fern (whose name I already can't remember) looks like solid ground.

This red is also in the marsh. It is a fern that turns red like this in the fall.

This butterfly on the button plant was HUGE. So pretty.

The duckweed and the fern make it seem like you could walk across this carpet of green.

A part of the Trinity River and the Lotus Marsh.

Dragonfly in the marsh.

All sorts of trees grow into the marsh.

Cool old tree. I think it is an oak. I know it is dead.

Old willow tree in the marsh.

Pavillion in Lotus Marsh. It is out on the river so it is cooler than on the paths. I could see turtles and fish in the water.

Can you tell the difference between poison ivy and a plant that isn't poison ivy? These two are growing right next to each other. (I can't remember the plant's name even though the naturalist told me like 4 times.) The poison ivy is the one with 3 leaflets in a cluster with red edging.

Awesome red dragonfly. I like how it is tigetstriped.

I think this is the Trinity River.

Can you see the bird? White egret on the river.

These strands attached a spiderweb from a tree to the deck.

There's a brightish yellow spider in the trees which by itself is cool, BUT you add in that it makes a zig-zag web that makes it even cooler. Apparently it is a common spider but I thought it was pretty nifty.

I'll be feelin' that

2010-07-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

I bought a Groupon to do a zipline for me and my sister and her kid. The problem... I have to lose 15 lbs to meet the weight requirement. Obviously I have to lose more than 15 lbs but the 15 lbs are a semi-immediate loss. (Like before December when the groupon expires). (Or before they visit and want to actually do this.)

To that end I've DVR'd several exercise shows from FitTV. Sadly the shows have commercial interruptions but two 1/2 hour programs give me a 40 minute workout. And they're different and some are kind of fun. Although yesterday while I was doing Bollywood Dancing I was reminded of college when Kate would kick me out of the dorm while she did her step aerobics. I have no coordination. :)

That wasn't unsuccessful

2010-07-24T20:17:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned I'm going to BlogHer? I am. I have been waffling about this lately. Part of me doesn't want to go and save my money. The rest of me wants to because a - it is NYC which I have not been to since I was 8, b - Michelle is one of the presenters and I want to see her presentation and c - I think it will ultimately be fun even though I'm all apprehensive now. I became even more when I heard there are going to be over 2000 people there. That's a lot! But I got my BlogHer pass in the mail yesterday with a random quantity of drink tickets (I say random quantity because PM got one number, I got a different and someone else we know going - yet a 3rd quantity. I can't figure out the logic there).

Anyway... that's a long intro to today's Saturday adventure. I drove into deepest darkest Dallas to go to a pre-BlogHer meet up. All in all it wasn't a bad time. It made me nervous to go but I met some very nice women and a nice husband. Saw some excrutiatingly cute children. (The eyes on Rory's baby were amazing. Such a cute little chub!) Ate a small bowl of ice cream. Learned about what some people are doing in blogs. Found a couple I'll probably follow. Heard about a couple potential Sunday Adventure spots. Not too bad a way to spend an afternoon.

I just do what the disembodied voice in the box tells me to...

2010-07-24T20:02:00.000-05:00

I just got back from a trip to deepest darkest Dallas. Since I'm new to the area, and especially new to deepest darkest Dallas, I was using the GPS. The GPS and I tend not to agree on certain things and frequently I find myself yelling at her. (I use the female voice on the GPS because the male one sounds way too much like a Speak & Spell). Today was no different. In the part of Dallas where I was, apparently there's construction and it took me like 1/2 mile on two different freeways just to get back to the 183W. I don't know why we couldn't use surface streets. I especially couldn't figure out why we couldn't use surface streets given how bad traffic was for that 1/2 mile. (I know I'm relatively new to driving in traffic. Walking in Seattle for 6 years does not prepare one for bumper to bumper traffic.) On the way home things got even weirder. I'm driving along getting ready to get onto my freeway close to home and it tells me to take a certain exit. Hmm... maybe it knows something I don't. So I get off the freeway. Then it tells me to take a right and get back on the freeway. WTF? I could've stayed on the freeway I was on because the exchange was coming up. Stupid box.

Welcome to the Cliche

2010-07-20T22:31:00.000-05:00

I blame PM's incredibly adorable and well behaved children for the recent slap to my "biological clock." (Ok it is probably not their fault. I am 36 and do have ovaries and a theoretical maternal instinct.)

I want to have kids. I have waffled about it in the past, but if I'm being honest with myself I think that waffling was mostly to bother my mom and not something I honestly believed. But god the pull is so strong sometimes. It's run through my head that I could just go be slutty in bars until somthing happened. (that something would more likely be one of many STDs given the "difficult if not impossible" label and lack of periods since April - wow TMI for all of you isn't it?). But I'm not a total moron so I don't. (And I don't want diseases. 50% or whatever of the population may have herpes, but I don't and I'd really rather not get join them just because)

I now follow several twitterers (what is that noun?) on twitter who are foster/adopt resources here in Texas. I regularly spend time at adoptuskids.org and the one for Texas (whose site I can't remember off the top of my head) looking at available kids (The kids under 4 on the Texas site... holy cow do those kids have problems. It is excrutiatingly sad.) I want this badly, but I also recognize that I want to have my financials in order and my job in order so I can focus the time and energy onto my kids that they are going to need. I'm hoping to attend an adoption orientation session in the next couple of months. I know it is still too early to really begin the process since I won't be ready until I can move into a bigger place, but I feel like I have to be doing something to move forward on this. I don't want to be 45 and look back at what I didn't do. (Ok I still could adopt at 45 and I'm being overly dramatic I know). (ooh perhaps it is the sign of an impending period, eh probably not.)

And ultimately when all is said and done I think I'm just lonely here. When I moved to Seattle I at least had V to hang out with and then Matty P and then other friends eventually. Here I know nobody. And while I generally don't like people, spending the bulk of 3.5 months by onesself is hard. I'm going to a pre-Blogher meet up next weekend. Maybe something will come of that. And although Kate in VT says I'm good with friends, I find it very stressful and difficult. As a kid I always latched onto like one or two people (which if you look at my friend track record is still in effect 30 years later) and they would be my friends. Whine whine whine wah wah wah. Tomorrow is another day and it will be a good one dammit! :)

I got to screw!

2010-07-18T09:06:00.000-05:00

I may or may not have mentioned I've joined a couple of Meet-Up groups. I haven't really decided how I feel about the Meet-up groups, but whatever. The book club one I haven't been to yet since they keep doing books I have no interest in. The other one is a volunteering group.

Today I volunteered for a ramp project where we built a ramp for a home. It was actually fun. The main group is a group of older men volunteers. They were really funny, bickering with each other like... well like old men. :) I got to drill and clamp things. The smell of fresh cut wood is really attractive. Calvin Klein could bottle that up and I would be very happy. :) I really enjoyed the project and I think I'm going to do it again. Hopefully I can volunteer with some of the same people again so maybe I can make friends.

blocked

2010-07-15T21:26:00.000-05:00

I could not be more blocked if I tried. I start a post then delete it.

Fait Accompli!

2010-07-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

Remember earlier in the summer when I said I wanted to clean out my storage unit? I did it. Go me. Go me. Go go go me. I cleaned out 8 boxes into 3 trash bags and 3 boxes for charity and 1 tote to go back into the storage. Not too shabby.

My car is in the shop this week. Luckily the person who hit me hit the part that already had a scrape so that's getting fixed by default. Yay!

I have a 2nd date with the minotaur this weekend. Dating. Yay! (Well that may be a stretch. We'll see how it goes.)

I'm going to a volunteering meet up next Saturday. If things don't pan out with the minotaur (and I really don't think they will... I'm not that interested), maybe I'll meet a new one on Saturday... one who knows how to use tools and volunteers. :P Yay!

My sister and her kid came to visit last weekend. Yay! I'm sure they'll come again.

I was almost tricked into supporting Right to Lifers

2010-06-26T11:51:00.000-05:00

While I was running my errands this morning I drove past a car wash for life and I thought ooh! I'll get my car wash and support life. To me "life" means either lifelong aids alliance or cancer. It wasn't until I saw the t-shirt that said "pro-life" that I stopped myself. Phew. That was a close one!

Maternity Leave is almost over

2010-06-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I will have been here 12 weeks. Because I work in benefits 12 weeks to me means FMLA time. :) (I know it is illogical, but go with it)

So I have been here 12 weeks and maybe it is due to the comfort of my AC and my absolutely fabulous sofa I'm sitting on, but I feel like I have no opinion on living here yet. I don't hate it, which in itself is surprising given how I hate to be hot. There are definitely things I do like about living here (palatial apartment notwithstanding). Of course part of that is just amenities I have now that I didn't have in Seattle. It is nice owning a car again. I hadn't realized how much I missed driving. Maybe not driving so much but the freedom owning a car brings.

My job... I don't know yet how I feel about it. There are aspects I like. There are aspects I want to like. I was lamenting to PeevedMichelle a couple days ago that I wonder where I would be careerwise if I had never moved to Seattle. I usually get this way when I am stressed about money. Where I am now is more than I was at the u. It took me over 5 years to get back to my LA salary in Seattle. Michelle very astutely pointed out multiple things... 1 - for almost everyone working, the grass is greener somewhere else. 2 - the extended unemployment and then working at the casino really did a number on my confidence. 3 - the university ultimately didn't help because it was so much better than the casino (but in the grand scheme of things not great either on several levels) that I just stuck around out of gratefulness. I also stuck around because certain benefits were just hard to give up. Having as much time off as I had was awesome. Ultimately this all leads me to the fact that this is not my end of the line job. I'm not sure how long I'll stay at my current place. I like it well enough, but they don't pay for most benefits, I'm iffy on how they treat employees as a whole, and there's no growth possible. Also I'll need more money if I'm adopting in a couple years.

Funny

2010-06-20T08:13:00.000-05:00

This cartoon from Stone Soup totally cracked me up this morning.

Orientation

2010-06-19T13:55:00.000-05:00

I've decided Fort Worth's volunteering organization(s) will be ones that benefit women. I've emailed Dress for Success in hopes of volunteering with them but haven't heard back from them. The other is a secret organization who helps women get out of DV situations. I decided to work with that one because they have a kids' program and I think it might be helpful for me to work with kids who have come from less than ideal situations since I'm hoping to adopt from foster care (and those kids have definitely come from less than ideal situations). I attended orientation this morning. I'll have to do an interview and then some more training and I can start working with their kids' program. I think I could end up working just 2 hrs per week or 3. I'm excited to start this. I think it will be a good project for me.

Summer Goals

2010-06-13T11:14:00.001-05:00

Something about this new apartment is inspiring me to be better about organization and whatnot. So I have a goal for the summer... get organized. I got rid of a lot of clothes before the move, although I'm pretty sure there are more to do.

I have 4 boxes of chaotic photos. Toss the ones that are bad. Label them all. And put some to be on display in my photo boxes.
Go through the boxes in storage. There are boxes in my storage that moved with me from Alaska. I don't think they've been gone through since then. I'm sure there's a lot to get rid of, but I do want to keep my kid books.

Hmm. That doesn't seem like a lot, but given that my storage unit is pretty full it will be. :)

Why Disneyland is better than Six Flags

2010-06-07T20:20:00.000-05:00

So I'm now a Six Flags PlayPass holder. Basically I can go to any one of many Six Flags parks in the US this year if I wanted to. I get a discount for the passes from work and I knew my sister would come back and theoretically Lyday is going to come and go and given that an individual ticket is I tihnk 50ish bucks and the Play Pass is 50 bucks it worked out well.

So my sister came down and we went this weekend where I realized that Six Flags will not replace a Disney park but it might be a nice distraction sometimes. We hit all the coasters and high tension rides. I got sunsick twice. The first time we managed to cool me off by going on Roaring Rapids and getting soaked. The 2nd we were in the car on the way home. We had the AC blasting and it just didn't help. We stopped in to get dinner and I couldn't eat. I got home, turned up the AC and turned on two fans and lay down in the bedroom. I could tell the moment the heat broke because all of a sudden I was FREEZING and had to cuddle up under the blankets. Had my appetite back and FINALLY could eat. (I drank water. I drank juice. I drank vitamin water. It was just too hot for me. And there are not a lot of cooling off options.)

Anyway as I thinking about it on Sunday I realized my issue with Six Flags. There are no middle of the road rides. All the rides (as near as I can tell) are either extreme rides - roller coasters and whatnot - or baby rides. There's no middle ground. Or at least what I consider middle ground. Admittedly Disney doesn't actually have a lot of thrill rides (and definitely not by Six Flags fan standards). But it is nice to get to ride Pirates of the Caribbean or Small World as a little lull. As it was we had to take a break after every 3 or 4 rides for me because too many in a row would make me ill. Maybe I just need to accept that I am not Six Flags' target audience. :P

Ahh Texas

2010-06-05T08:59:00.000-05:00

So while I was walking around the grocery store like a normal person does when I came along the "international" aisle. The heading on the aisle: Mexcian & Chinese. Cracked me up a lot.

My sister is here in town. It is so exciting. I like it when she visits. We're going to Six Flags today. Tomorrow we're going to Wicked. It'll be a good time (albiet expensive). :)

First Dates are Awkward

2010-05-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

I went on a first date today. I haven't been on a date in awhile. I wasn't even actually sure it was a date initially since I kind of think I was the one who did the asking. We met via OK Cupid, which I never really knew was a dating site, I thought it was just a dumb (albiet totally silly) quiz site. Lyday turned me on to the site. It's free and honestly, you get what you pay for with them. I found more poly couples looking for a 3rd or 4th than I have ever seen. And it didn't stop once I moved to the Bible belt!

Anyway, we'd been emailing back and forth for about a month and a half. I wasn't sure if he was really interested. He'd email like 2 or 3 sentences and I think at least once I think he asked me the same thing he had previously asked. I started to not respond since I figured he wasn't really that interested and yet he'd email again.

So we met today at Fuddruckers which is not the restaurant I thought it was, but it was fine. We talked a lot and then went to get snow cones. He's a nice guy. It was a fine time. There's not a lot to say about that.

Doggie P0nr

2010-05-30T15:56:00.001-05:00

I want a pet. I have missed having one basically ever since I've moved. However, in order to get a pet, I have to pay the pet deposit and the adoption fee and then all the accoutrements a pet needs and I'm just not quite there financially yet. I'll get there, maybe in July, but not yet. Until then I've been scouring petfinder.com and craigslist. It's become an addiction. I had found one I was really interested, but I had told Michelle I would not adopt a dog until after her visit and he's no longer listed so I can hope that means he was adopted. In reality I couldn't have anyway (see previous part about $$). I can't get a cat because apparently everybody I know is allergic so it has to be a dog. I'd prefer an adult dog because I honestly don't want to deal with potty training and/or crate training a puppy. Michelle has offered me their dog, Shelby. Her size made it really difficult for them to find a place to live. Weight wise I could actually take her (I thought I couldn't). She's a really good dog and she and I get along very well. But her poop would be ginormous to pick up! :) So I'll wait and maybe the perfect pet will present itself.

I find it vaguely fascinating as I scour Craigslist that people will give up cats for free. Lots and lots and lots of free cats, but rarely dogs... Dogs always have a "rehoming" fee. I've seen one free dog in over 100 listings and this one was dumped and has only 3 legs. Oh let me back up... I just saw 2 more free dog ads... for pits. Now I have nothing against Pit Bulls, however my apartment complex does. No pits or anything crossed with a pit. (Also in case you care no: malamutes, rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Doberman, Chows, St. Bernards, Great Danes, Akitas, American Staffordshire Terriers (Pit Bulls by another name) and American Bull dogs.)

Stephen had to have Rigby put down. I knew it was coming. In fact if she hadn't been so spry I would've probably done it before I left Seattle because I knew at her last appointment she was declining rapidly. (She had lost I think 70 or 80 grams between 2 vet appointments that's a lot for a pet that only weighed 780 grams to begin with). By the time Stephen took her to the vet she was down to 400. Poor girl. Poor Stephen.

The Plan for Today

2010-05-30T09:04:00.000-05:00

Shower
Go to Brunch(sadly by myself)
Unpack the last 4 boxes
Maybe go see Letters to Juliet
Buy some vinegar to combat the fungus gnats on one of my plants.
Put away what needs putting away
Laundry

What's on your agenda for today?

On A Lighter Note - I'm so not in kansas anymore.

2010-05-12T23:00:00.001-05:00

I joined the party planning committee at work. I did this of my own volition. I thought it would be fun. Clearly I'm a moron. We're talking about doing a "shirt" day once a month when the whole site all wear shirts following a theme (sports teams, hawai'ian, etc) This month is Memorial Day so we're wearing red, white and blue. The committee sent around a flyer (flier?) for opinions before it got sent out and I commented. Holy crap. I clearly opened up a can of worms. I just found some of the phrasing to be a little potentially offensive and should we try to say it a little differently. I then pondered if perhaps honoring Memorial Day wasn't a little too political. Again, clearly I said that perhaps we should all eat babies for dinner for their tender and succulent meat. Luckily I got lectured on the history of Memorial Day so now I could not possibly be confused about potential offensiveness of Memorial Day. So I'm sharing this whole ridiculous drama with my coworker and we both came to the same agreement: not everybody is for the wars that have been fought recently and Memorial Day honors those that fall in war and MAYBE it could be offensive to some. And then she says "Yeah, we should have just nuked the shit out of them and been done with it." Funny how that works sometimes.

Health Care Reform: My take

2010-05-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

I spent last Thursday at an all day event talking about health care reform and how it is going to impact us, employers, in administrating our benefits. It sucks. I do believe that uninsured should have options. I do believe the uninsurable should have options. I do not believe the legislation that passed is the right answer.

Exchanges: When you buy a car, you buy car insurance. You can't expect to call up just after you got in an accident and get car insurance to cover that accident. The exchanges will not work that way. You, an uninsured person, could not bother signing up for health insurance and pay your $8.00/mo fine until you get sick. Then you can sign up with the exchanges and get coverage immediately that will cover that condition (since no pre-existing condition rules apply and you cannot be rejected). You could then drop back off the insurance once you're done receiving treatment. This is not a sound business practice. Potentially they will be paying out way more in claims than they're bringing in in premiums and since they will be hamstrung on increases by the government, they won't be able to continue to offer plans and/or stay in business.

Employer penalties: If your company employs more than 50 people, they must offer health insurance. Failure to do so results in a $2,000/year/person penalty. I can promise you that your health insurance costs your employer more than 2k per year. It might be easier and cheaper for your employer to chuck insurance altogether rather than deal with the rest of the governmental mandates that have come up.

If your employer's plan is too "rich" (EMPLOYER cost exceed certain limits) a 40% excise tax will be assessed to the insurance carriers. Like they aren't going to pass those on to the employer as higher rates? Yeah right. Insurance company rates are established by the company's experience and demographics. An employer who has a particularly poor year or two may find themselves on the receiving end of that penalty. Further, what difference does it make if an employer wants to offer a particularly rich plan to its employees? How is it good business to penalize companies for offering more for their employees? (If you start adding on riders such as infertility treatments the rates can go through the roof).

If your employer's plan is too poor they can be penalized. There are minimum standards required now. I'm not against this. Most employers plans are there, HOWEVER, similar to the talk amongst employers about dropping health insurance many are considering cutting plans to the bone to comply with the too rich rule. If costs to the employee are more than 9.5% of than their family's AGI, the employer can get dinged. If costs to the employee are between 8 and 9.5% of their AGI, the employer is required to offer vouchers so employees can go to the exchange. How in the hell is the employer supposed to know what the family's AGI is? We have no way of knowing that. So an employee could take our voucher (worth the value of the plan we offer) and turn around and get a lessor plan in the exchange (the minimum plan is a 60/40 coinsurance plan) and pocket the rest.

Employer insurance must cover clinical trials. They must also cover the fix if a clinical trial doesn't work or makes things worse. I know that clinical trials are necessary, however experimental treatments are expensive. Covering them will increase costs and see above about plans that are 'too rich.'

Starting Jan 1, 2011 Flexible Spending Accounts can no longer cover over the counter medications and in 2014, the max will only be 2500. There's this perception in DC that FSAs are the tax shelter of the rich. As I announce that change in my open enrollment meetings, it isn't the doctors lamenting that change.

And finally the CLASS act. This is a "voluntary" long term care policy that starting January 1 you will be autoenrolled in if your employer can offer payroll deductions. Of course they can. There are very few employers that cannot accommodate it. Therefore if we CAN do this, we MUST do it. So we have to autoenroll employees unless they proactively opt out. The government is counting on most people failing to pay attention to their paperwork to sign up for this plan. The plan pays out only $50/day for your Long Term Care needs. There is nowhere in the country you can get care for $50/day. And, for most young employees, you can get better rates from the independent market than what the government is offering them for.

Some things Health Care Reform doesn't address that perhaps they should...
Tort Reform. Medical lawsuits are out of control. I'm sorry for people who lose loved ones, but a million dollars isn't going to bring them back. Fifty million definitely isn't going to bring them back. Perhaps if there were limits on lawsuits, physician's medical malpractice insurance wouldn't have to be so high and perhaps their overhead wouldn't be so high and on down the line.

Tort reform would also decrease the use of defensive medicine. Defensive medicine is the provier's practice of recommending further tests or treatments that may not be helpful but is more of a way for the provider to cover his/her ass in case of lawsuit. Nice how that works, right? That raises everyone's medical costs.

I think there should be help for people who can't get it. I do think it is ridiculous that some people pay over a thousand dollars for family coverage. But this health care reform isn't it. However, given that there are 4 to 8 years between now and when some of these practices start (not all), who knows what the hell will happen.

Growing up in a border town

2010-05-09T00:09:00.001-05:00

(The first of two political posts. Yeah I know I don't usually blog about politics but get over it.)

I spent all of my formitive years living in Arizona. I grew up literally 30 miles from Mexico. Probably even closer since that 30 miles is from my town to another town using highways. Growing up in a border town gives you a vastly different perspective on the issue of illegal immigration than those who live in the rest of the US. Most people only see the immigrants. I see an illegal immigrant and think of the coyotes (the people paid to smuggle illegals into the country). And that, in my heart of hearts, is why I have a problem supporting illegal immigrants here in the US. To ME supporting illegal immigrants is supporting the coyotes that bring them here and that I can't stomach.

Coyotes are out for only one thing... themselves. Growing up I read more than once about how vans or trucks had been abandoned with people inside. They had baked to death or shot. According to a governmental report (read it... it's fascinating... especially about the Tucson sector( my sector)), in the 80's there were about 300 per year. By 2005 that number had doubled. Of all the deaths of illegal immigrants analyzed from the 80's to 2005, 25% were due to exposure to the elements... and worse 15% were homicide. In case you care... by 2005, almost 1/2 of all the illegal immigration deaths were in The Tucson Sector. 250 people died somewhere in southeastern Arizona after crossing the border illegally. According to the report, not all of the remains are able to be identified. All I can think is that some of those 250 people had families who have no idea what happened to their family member.

On a closer to home level, my dad went out to get the paper one morning. There he met a young woman who spoke no English. She couldn't have been more than 20 he said. He didn't know what to do with her so he took her to a nearby house where he knew the homeowners spoke Spanish. The coyote dropped her off by the highway and told her she was in Miami (Arizona. It is over 175 miles to Miami AZ from where my parents live.) The people my dad brought her to helped get her to her family in Miami, but hard to say what would've happened to her if she hadn't found helpful people. It's easy to get all up in arms about shit when it is in the abstract, when you're looking at the 'poor innocent immigrant who just wants a better life' but it is just as important to remember that not all illegal immigrants are good kind people. Not all of them want to come here to improve the lives of their families back home.

Remember some time ago probably maybe 20ish years, there was an anti-pot commercial that went on and on about how if you smoked pot, you were supporting all these illegal other things on the back end. That's kind of how I view illegal immigration... by supporting them in this country, we're supporting the illegal means they used to get here and making the coyotes richer and more dangerous. I don't know what the right answer is. I really don't. I tend to think if we could improve the conditions in their home countries maybe this wouldn't be as big an issue. (I don't mean to sound racist. I hope I don't. I just think if I grew up in relative poverty some place or with terrible governmental corruption and wanted a better life and I packed myself up promising my family I'd send for them or return for them or whatever, if where I lived was better in the first place maybe I wouldn't take such crazy risks to try to make a better life for myself.)

Sing, Sing out loud...

2010-05-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

I stopped in to my favorite barbecue place to pick up dinner tonight after work. It was odd. There were A LOT of cars in the parking lot. Hmm. Usually it is not that crowded. I go in. First of all there is a table of firefighters. Nice. Secondly, and far more unintentionally hysterical, there were about 6 - 8 old people jamming in a little group. They were singing and playing really old country and western songs (as opposed to what you would consider country songs). Most of them were along the Tumbling Tumbleweeds variety.

Friday night I went out for Chinese food. It was not good. Apparently the Chinese place (maybe it was Saturday) is a haven for single people to eat by themselves. I am pretty sure I got checked out by this one guy. Probably won't go back again if I can avoid it. The food was just eh.

Tears running down my face

2010-04-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

My coworker and I were talking about Girl Scout camp the other day. She, like me, was a camp counselor. She sang a song that I had never heard that was the most hysterical Girl Scout Song I'd ever heard. It was about the Titanic. The chorus goes like this:

Oh it was sad, so sad
It was sad, too bad.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
To the bottom of the husbands and wives, little children lost their lives.
It was sad when the great ship went down.
Down to the bottom of the sea
blub blub blub

I could not stop laughing. What kind of psycho thought this was a song appropriate for girls to sing? What kind of freak wrote the song to begin with? Clearly the song has fallen out of fashion.

I joined a committee at work. Officially it is called the activties committee, but secretly I call it the party planning committee. I'm on it with a woman who honestly looks like Angela from The Office... down to the old fashioned shirts. We're doing free nachos next week for cinco de mayo. We also do the Christms party and a birthday thing once a month.

I'm almost moved in. (and by almost I mean probably not as moved in as I think I am). I have to finish by this weekend though because I have a housekeeper coming in on Wednesday before I drive to Arizona.

Settling in

2010-04-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

So all my stuff arrived on Monday. I've been slowly unpacking, but I do hope to be done over the weekend. I want my table set up. I want to find the rest of my pots. :) I was thrilled Thursday when I found my capri pants. It's already pretty warm here. I'm doing pretty well though. I've got a lot to get rid of again. I really need to go through the boxes from the storage unit.

I decided to paint my ancient Ikea bed white to match my dresser. I started that today. I think once the 2nd coat gets on there it'll look awesome. Unfortunately I'm not sure where the parts to put my bed back together ended up when I moved. I took my bed apart instead of letting the movers do it and now I don't know where that ziploc baggie went. I gave it to them. That's all I know. Worse comes to worse I can go to the hardware store with one of the bolts from the headboard and ask them to match the size. Although since it is Ikea, it is probably some random weird size.

My new job is going really well. It is quite the challenge. It feels really good to have a boss who believes I know what I'm talking about. Although there's a teeny tiny part of me that worries that the brokers don't think I know what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm asking questions I should know. But they're scared of me so I'm not too worried. :) (Brokers are always worried when a new person starts... they may want to change brokers)

Good day!

2010-04-17T17:18:00.000-05:00

I bought a car today. I've enver purchased my own car all by myself before. With Ben, the bronco, my parents went with me and actually paid for it. This time I found it (heh, Lyday actually found it online), test drove it and did all the paperwork for the loan. It's a little intimidating if I consider just how much money I've spent in the past 2 weeks so far. I haven't spent this much money in a LONG time. So the new car is a silver Scion xB. I've been considering one for awhile and I wanted an automatic that was NOT black. (There seem to be a lot of black ones for sale around here but I grew up in AZ, the thought of owning a black car in a place this hot makes me nauseus.) She doesn't have a name yet but hopefully soon something will come to me. :)

My sofa also arrived today so my living room almost looks like a normal person's living room. Theoretically my boxes arrive next week by Thursday. I'm not sure where they're going to put them all. But I can't wait. I want other clothes than what I have with me. And I want to boil potatoes so I can make mashed potatoes. And and and... :)

Good, Better, Best

2010-04-16T20:06:00.000-05:00

The Good: My sofa is getting delivered tomorrow. It was supposed to take 3 weeks to come. They're delivering it between 1 & 3. I will no longer have to sit on the camping chair I bought at Big Lots last week. So exciting.

Better: I think I'm buying a car tomorrow. I've never bought a car on my own before. My mother has suggested I bargain. I don't do that. It just seems like a pain in the ass. It is a silver scion. I think I shall name her... Hmm I don't know what to name her.

The Best: Michelle and K is coming to visit! I'm so excited about that. They're coming the weekend before memorial day. We will swim and go downtown to Fort Worth to watch a cattle drive. While we're down there I may see if Michelle wants to ride a train. I know K likes them and there's some festival that weekend downtown that has a train ride available.

More shopping

2010-04-11T18:20:00.001-05:00

I went to Wal Mart today to return some things. I ended up spending a lot more. :)

I bought a new lamp. I'm tired of sitting in the dark. It is a simple black floor lamp and it was $12.00 I'm not breaking the bank with it. I also gave up and bought 2 plates, 2 forks and 2 bowls. I'm tired of using paper and plastic all the time. (And worse, washing the damn plastic forks). I have no idea where my stuff is at this point, but I've probably guarnateed it will arrive on Tuesday. (It won't actually. On Thursday it hadn't even left WA yet I don't think... or maybe CA.)

I bought 3 new plants today. Two look like they're on the brink of death. We'll see if I can rescue them. The other is a Christmas Cactus and just needs some water to perk up. (hmm... a Christmas cactus is not a true cactus. I never knew that)

I'm starting to settle in, well as much as I can. I baked cornbread this morning which I put in a bunch of pepper jack cheese. It tasted awesome. :) \

I'm surrounded by "super" stores. I have decided I don't like them. I was telling Lyday yesterday that I feel like they don't give you enough variety. It's like they mash up 2 stores into one space that is not the equivalent of 2 stores but MAYBE 1.5 stores tops. I think that means they don't have enough variety. Although I've never thought that about the Fred Meyer in Fairbanks.

One thing I'm working on is finding new GF stores and suppliers. I've found a few things at Wal Mart and at one of the two different grocery stores nearby, but nothing as much as I used to be able to find in Seattle. Of course, I haven't looked for a Whole Foods or a health food store. I was actually fairly shocked I found what I found at Wal Mart. I found pasta and mixes and a few other things. No bagels though. :(

Some things

2010-04-09T22:47:00.000-05:00

There's a part of me that kind of loves my apartment right now. There's almost nothing in it. I have a coffee table, and washer and dryer and a dresser brought by my dad and nephew last week. They also brought me a kitchen aid mixer that I originally told my mom I didn't want, but for a change I'm glad she ignored me. She also sent a little pan so I have that to cook on. I bought myself a new TV when I realized it might actually be 2 weeks before my stuff gets here and I have a new bed. I got rid of my mattress in Seattle because it was over 12 years old, from Ikea and $200 when I got it and had a big sag in the middle. Obviously not quality. So although in a weird way I kind of like this minimalist life, I dislike that I'm sitting/laying whatever on the floor all the time. The living room does not have any light so I leave the kitchen/dining space light on all the time. Sometimes, though, (like when I'm poking around behind the TV) I have to use a flashlight. I think it is also helping to keep me from feeling truly settled.

I keep buying little things. Today I bought a baking pan so I could bake a cake. Two days ago I bought some spoons. I've been using paper plates and plasticware. Since this was a "celebration" model apartment, they left me 4 cups in the fridge. Oh and I bought a new rice cooker.

I AM about to run out of money, though, so no more shopping until payday. Sadly, for me payday isn't until the 23rd. Sigh. (hee, when I set up my labels, I set my home one to be "home home on the range"... that's kind of funny given my new home)