The 2007 Year in Review Survey

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
Get laid off? Okay, not entirely true — I've been through a lay off before. But that time, the company was just closing 1 location. This time, we're closing down completely. So, it's different but similar?

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Nope and nope.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope – but I have a friend who's due soon!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
Canada.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Job security!!! Haha. Um. More money.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There's a few of 'em this year:
Feb 23 — massive layoff. (more than 50% of corporate staff & closure of 126 of 229 stores)
Oct 31 — flood disaster here at work. *shudders*
Dec 7 — announcement of sale & closure of company.
Dec 17 — Mom's swearing in to be a US citizen.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I survived the year? Hmm. I don't know.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Surviving the layoff in February. Hah. That would seem like a good thing – but those folks got better severance packacges than I will! Plus, since I was kept on, I had to do the work of 3 people, instead of just 1. So I had to work extra hard, for no more money, and a crappy severance package. That sounds like I got screwed, to me.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
When don't I? Yes I did. The worst of which was probably the knee injury coming home from Toronto in October. OW!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets. Umm. Dunno what else?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I'm not sure.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
People at work. Again, as last year, names & deeds withheld.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Doctors. Vacations.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The SYTYCD tour coming through town! haha. Um. All my vacations.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
"Boston" – Augustana. "Hey There Delilah" – Plain White T's.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
     Not sure? Maybe a little sadder, thanks to the whole job front.
b) thinner or fatter?
     About the same
c) richer or poorer?
     Richer! Both financially and where it really counts, in love and friendship

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travel.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Be in pain!

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas the same we we always do – eating out at Bennigan's with my mom and brother.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Mom.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
Nope.

23. How many one-night stands?
Zero.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
My faves were mostly new tv shows – Chuck, Reaper, & Pushing Daisies.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hmmm. I don't think so?

26. What was the best book you read?
I read a lot of books in 2007 – finally getting back on the reading wagon. But I don't know what my fave was.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don't know if I have a "greatest". But I did discover a lot of music I normally wouldn't have listened to, and really enjoy.

28. What did you want and get?
Chances to travel to see Emily.

29. What did you want and not get?
LOTS of things.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Hmmm. Transformers? I'm trying to remember what else I saw. I don't go to the movies a lot.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old?
I turned 33 and I spent it in Canada with Emily, at her lake house.

32. What would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having a year with fewer trips to the doctor, for one. A better raise, especially in light of the significantly increased workload.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Boring? I dunno.

34. What kept you sane?
Emily.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None, really.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I know there were things that got to me — but I am drawing a blank right now.

37. Who did you miss?
No one.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I don't think I met many new people.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
Being told you're one of the better/best employees does not always translate into a financial reward.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I’m amazed that I haven’t caved
And I still have faith in myself today, yeah
I’m no stranger to misbehavior
I’ve reframed every single failure

Still a little grumpy at the idea of having to find a new job, but I'm glad that I finally know when it happens. And I"m glad that it worked out perfectly that I don't have to cancel my vacation.

ETA @ 11am – I am starting to get incredibly pissy. I'm finding out that because we were notified prior to 60 days that we were being laid off .. we likely will not get any kind of severance package. And, because there is no written policy in place (that I'm aware of) they very likely can get away with not paying out our vacation time, either. Since the layoffs at the beginning of the year, lots of people jumped ship. But I was a loyal employee, staying with the company, having faith it could be turned around. And I get screwed because of that. Gee. Thanks a lot.

ETA again @ 4:15pm – Apparently enough people have been asking questions about whether or not we will get severance packages, that they are supposed to be sending a mass email about them (and hopefully vacation time payout) either later today or some time tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me, please!!!

That's the part I'm hating most — the freaking waiting. I've been here for 5 hours now, and I still don't know any more than I did when I left on Friday. Consensus seems to be that we won't find anything out until closer to the end of the week, and that makes me crazier. I just want to know how much longer I have my job, so I can make doctor appointments, and make sure I've got the medication I need, or am off stuff that's not as needed; since I won't be able to afford most of it when I'm unemployed. Most of the stores know how much longer they'll be open, so they are more informed than those of us here at corporate!

One of the amusing things though — the old head honcho of my department is actually back here as a consultant for the company that bought us/is closing us down. He popped in to see us earlier, just to say hi. It's nice to get to see him again, even if it's under these circumstances.

I'm pretty good, though, other than all the depressing unemployment crap. That MRI I had on my knees a while back came out ok – nothing torn/broken/etc. There was a lot of fluid on the knees, and the doc was pointing that out to me in the scans, as well as the arthritis. Final diagnosis was that I managed to severely wrench my knee. It's pretty much better now, most of the problems I'm having with it are my normal arthritis ones. I'm still having issues with my heart, they haven't been able to get the extra beats under control. I'm headed back in there this afternoon for a check up. While I'm in there, I need to let him know I don't know how much longer I'll have insurance, so we need to come up with a long term plan, since I won't be able to go in every few weeks like I am now. Ugh.

Mom's citizenship test is this coming Saturday. She's getting more and more nervous the closer it gets. We've been over all her documentation a few times now, making sure she has everything she needs to take with her.

The owners of the building our offices are in are having their annual Christmas treat for the tennants today. They've got tons of cookies and sweets set up, different drinks, and a violinist playing. Someone in line joked that we had our very own violinist to play as the ship sunk. haha. It is ironically fitting, though.

I have no idea how much longer I will have a job — I assume I will find all that out on Monday morning. (My guess, I could be out of work as soon as Monday, or as long as 2 months from now.) The company & stores will stay open through the holiday season, but there is the possibility of immediate layoffs, since some departments won't be needed any longer (for example, I would assume that we would not need buyers any longer, since we won't be buying new products).

I've been with Comp for over 9 years now. I'm hoping the severance package is halfway decent… if we even get severance packages at all. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do once I'm officially out of work. Thanks to recurring tendonitis in my arm, I cannot type as fast as I used to be able to, so I can't really get another data-entry based job. I have no clue what I want to do, since I can't do that. And since I don't know what I want to do — that makes it a little difficult to start looking for a new job. haha.

I do have a wonderful friend who is going to help me update my resume, once I find it. I can't say I'm sure I know where it is — after all, I haven't needed a resume in 9+ years. haha. I am more than likely going to go on unemployment for a little bit while I look for work. I'm also going to look into Vocational Rehabiliation to see if I qualify for that. If I do, they can hopefully retrain me/find me new areas of work I'd be qualified for, since I can no longer 10-key. That would at least help me figure out what lines of work to look into.

I'm in a fairly mellow mood at the moment. Since I got confirmation that the rumors were true, I've gone through a few cycles of emotions — surprise, relief, disappointment, shock, depression, etc. Even though I've known for quite a while now that this was on the horizon — it still stings now that it's actually going to happen.

Ugh. I am SO not looking forward to the whole process of applying and interviewing and crap.

The open MRI last week went well. The room I was in was all decorated like it was under the sea. Hah. At least it gave me something fun to stare at while I was immobile for about an hour & half. I get the results from the MRI today. I have a hunch the results are going to be good. I'm actually mostly able to walk today, no more constant intense searing pain. I know I messed it up pretty good though, and that's one reason it's taken so long to heal.

The heart ultrasound on Friday also went okay. I do have one valve that is a little "leaky", but it's minor and the doc wasn't worried about it. Other than that, my heart looks healthy and structurely sound. But, when they did another EKG, I had 4 extra beats in the six seconds they monitor. SO, obviously too many beats there, and that was with me on more meds than before. He wants me to up them again, and go back next week for another check on the EKG. I'm also working on cutting caffeine out again. I had my last soda on Saturday, and none since. I know I can do it, since I've done it several times in the past; it's just difficult to actually stay away from caffeinated sodas. I think I went for a year or two once, we'll see how long I last this time around.

I had a lot more I wanted to ramble about, but now that I have a few minutes, my mind is blank. Figures.

If it was going to be maybe a 5 minute test, I might've been able to stick it out. But I was going to be in there for about 40 minutes per knee. Almost 2 hours. Oh god no, there's no way. I started to have a panic attack when the guy put me all the way into the machine. I'm still having little mini-attacks now, heart going insane, but I'm slowly calming down. So, the front clerk gave me the phone number for the Plano facility, since they have an open MRI machine. I have to call them tomorrow and get an appointment scheduled there to get the MRI done. Thank god for open MRI's! hah.

But. Yes. Now to finish the Halloween Hell Adventure. After I left on Wednesday, Deb & Barney & IT moved our PCs down to the first floor, as well as all my cash office equipment. We've been down there since, and likely will be until the end of this week, or beginning of next week. They've got our part of the 4th floor mostly dry, but it still REEKS up there. My work phone was ruined, but they got me a brand new one. Yay! Outside in the hall, directly under the flow of water, was a metal rack holding a couple of printers as well as a fax machine, tons of paperwork, etc. All of that was completely ruined.

Now, for the theories. The Fire Marshal claims that the sprinkler was set off by someone standing directly beneath it, and holding a lighter right up against the cover. Ummm. Sorry, but no way in hell. The big boss in my dept is over 6'3" tall. He cannot reach the sprinkler without standing on something. Even the (rather tall) fireman who plugged up the sprinkler so I could escape had to have a chair to stand on to reach it. Now, if some one managed to stand on a chair directly in front of the open door of my office and hold a lighter to the sprinkler without me seeing it, wouldn't they have also ended up pretty damn wet when the sprinkler finally activated? And yet, I was the only person who got doused. And if the Fire Marshal wants to imply that it was me who did it? HA! I invite their investigators to come meet me. I'm only a mere 5'3" and overweight with bad arthritis in my knees. Not only that, but on Halloween I had that holter monitor which could not get wet, and I could barely walk (much less climb on anything) due to worse-than-normal problem with my knees.

The more plausible situation was provided by the building maintaince guy. He mentioned that apparently there have been people in the building for about 2 weeks leading up to (and including) Halloween who have been working on the sprinkler system on the upper floors. He wasn't sure what they've been doing, he just knows they've been doing work. So, it's a little too coincidental that there have been people working on the sprinkler system for a couple of weeks, right before it breaks. I have a hunch we might not find out what really happened, but I'm more inclined to believe our own building guy, than the Fire Marshal. Especially since I know there was no one standing outside my office with a lighter. Hah.

So, allow me to properly set the scene, if I may. First, there's me. I am injured, hobbling around on a pair of bad knees. I am wearing a holter monitor, since my doctor picked up an irregular beat in my physical the day before. In addition to all that, I am also fresh off a nice little vacation. That is important to mention, because while I was out of the country, absolutely no work was done. So I'm back and have been working like crazy to try to get things caught back up.

It's roughly 10:40am, on Halloween. I am at work, sitting at my desk. The recorder portion of the holter monitor is on my desk, to the right of me, wires running from under my shirt out to the recorder. I have just completed entering a check run into the system, and am about to print out the check register. And that is when what was a more-or-less good day takes a sharp turn for the worse.

There's a noise in the hall in front of my office. In the split second it takes for me to lift my head to see what's happening, I'm suddenly being sprayed with foul black water. I screamed, grabbed the monitor recorder off the desk, shove my chair back and jump up, moving away from the water. It takes a second, but it dawns on me that my office has a door! I race (as fast as I can) to the door, pulling it shut, while trying to guard the monitor with my life. As I'm shutting the door, I notice one of my coworkers standing out in the hallway, staring towards my office. I stare around at my office in total disbelief and shock. It's then I start to realise what was happening — that black sludgy water was pouring out of the overhead sprinkler. There isn't a sprinkler head inside my office, only directly outside the door.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds — 20-25 seconds max — but it felt like an eternity. Everything was moving in slow motion, yet flying by at the same time. At first I was only aware of two things – I was being sprayed with water, and I was attached to a heart monitor that I'm not allowed to get wet under any circumstances. (That monitor costs $1000 to replace, and I really didn't want to have to pay for that if it got ruined, or have to do the test all over again.) I checked the monitor and luckily it had only taken a tiny bit of spray on the carrying pouch, everything inside was safe. After that, I start looking around my office, and see that everything is covered in this nasty inky liquid. And it wasn't just gross to look at — it smelled bad. I realised that my iPod and cell phone were sitting in the area of my desk that had gotten sprayed, so I snatched them up, wiping them dry with the hem of my shirt.

At this point, I'm also starting to really wonder what's going on, what happened, why the sprinklers had gone off. Time keeps ticking by, and yet all I can hear is the sound of water coming out of the sprinkler, pounding against the door and walls. I look down at the floor at the front of my office, and see that water is pouring in underneath the door. I back up, moving away from the water that's creeping into my office, heading for my feet. At this point I'm beginning to panic and worry. It's been a little over 5 minutes, and the water is still coming down outside. I'm still in my office, and no one has tried to contact or rescue me. I'm afraid that I've been forgotten in there, that no one knows I'm still trapped inside my office, unable to leave because I cannot get the holter monitor wet.

I finally decide I need to work as hard as I can to stay calm. I'm being monitored because my heart was acting weird, so I didn't want to risk anything happening to me because I freaked out. I used my cell phone to snap a couple of pictures of the disaster area that is my desk, as well as the encroaching flood waters. (I'll include these pics at the end of this post.) After what felt like an eternity, my boss called my cell to check on me. She let me know that they'd evacuated the entire building, and the fire department had arrived. She'd let both our building maintaince crew and the fire department know that I was trapped inside. After we hung up, I started to listen very carefully, and finally was able to hear the fire alarms going off. They were barely audible over the sound of the water forcefully pouring out of the sprinkler, beating against my door.

The flood waters were slowly coming further into my office and I found myself backed into a corner with no where to go. A few minutes later, my boss called me again to let me know the firemen had just shut off the water, and that the last of it should work its way out of the pipes within the next few minutes, then I'd be able to evacuate. One minute passes, then two. Minutes three and four tick by, and the sound of the gushing water hasn't slowed at all. Seven minutes pass, and there's no change in the volume of water at all. Deb calls me back again to check on me, and I let her know that I'm still very much trapped. She informed me that the fire men were on their way up to rescue me.

I gathered together my purse and carefully trudged my way through the sludgy waters towards the door. After a couple of minutes, I decided I was going to be brave. I made sure the monitor recorder was behind me, and that the electrodes on my chest were covered, then I cracked open the door to peak out. There were a couple of people standing at the end of my hall — one I didn't recognize (who later turned out to be the volunteer marshal for my floor) along with the building maintaince guy. He saw me peaking out, and I waved and he smiled and waved back. Right about then, I saw a couple of firemen come up to them. I shut the door so I didn't get any wetter, relieved that rescue was now close at hand.

A little bit later, my office door opened, and a fireman came in. Another one was checking out the sprinkler head, trying to figure out why it was still going off since they'd supposedly shut off the water. He grabbed a chair out of another office, using that to stand on so he could get closer. He knocked the sprinkler head off, and was able to put his hand over the valve and temporarily stop the flow of water. As I was waiting on the firemen to correct the problem so that I could escape, I heard another set of sirens headed for our building, ambulance sirens. Once the fireman on the chair was sure that it'd stay stopped while he had the end plugged, he motioned for me to come on out of the office. I hobbled out of there as fast as I possibly could, and over towards the maintaince guy. That was when I made an interesting discovery — ONLY the sprinkler directly in front of my office was going off. None of the others on our floor had been set off.

The floor marshal made sure that I was okay, then had me follow him towards the emergency exit. He opened the door to the stairwell, and I had to shake my head no. I have a note from my doctor on file that states I'm not allowed to take the stairs during any emergency — I have to be evacuated via the freight elevators. (Those stairs would destroy my knees on a normal day. As much pain as I was in on Halloween, I wouldn't have made it down more than 1 floor before I could no longer walk at all.) I made my way to the freight elevator, and headed on down to the first floor and outside to where everyone else was waiting. I quickly found my boss to let her know that I was okay. Apparently they'd only evacuated floors 3-5, and not only was my sprinkler the only one on my floor to go off — it was the only one in the entire building to activate. Lucky, lucky me. Deb had gotten very worried when she heard the ambulance pull up, since we hadn't talked for a while and I still wasn't out of the building. She'd called our emergency liaison, to find out that someone on the 6th floor had a heart attack from all the excitement.

My boss and the admin for our area got me away from the crowd, and found me somewhere to sit down and rest for a while. A bit later and they came over to let me know I could go home for the rest of the day, and Deb said she'd call me when she knew more details on what was going on, and if I was going to need to come into work the next day. It was on the drive home that it really started to hit me, and I got shaky and upset over the whole ordeal. Once I got home, I changed out of my wet clothes and curled up in bed. I desperately wanted a shower, but I couldn't take one because of the heart monitor. (Once I got home from turning that in later in the afternoon, though, I headed straight into the shower. hah.)

I ended up being trapped in my office for almost 30 minutes that morning. I do have some info now from the fire marshal as to what they believe happened, as well as info from building maintaince as to what they think really happened. But, all that is going to have to wait for another post because A) this one is getting too long already and B) it's time for me to get ready to head out to my cardiologist appointment. heh.

But, as promised, pictures behind the cut! Just remember these were taken on my cell phone, so they aren't the best.

Or.. or I could just pick up from the last post — coming home from Toronto. My seat on the flight home was at the back of the plane — only about 4 rows from the very back and I had the entire row to myself. So, I was one of the first people on the plane, after those in first class. I tossed my backpack in the overhead bin, then moved into my row since there were people coming up behind me who wanted to pass me. I kept scooting all the way in the row, and turned to sit in my seat. (I try to always get the window seat.) As I turned to sit, my left leg didn't move right and the knee turned funny and it hurt like Hades. I managed to get into my seat, and I sat there for a while, practically in tears from the throbbing pain. I wanted desperately to cry, but there was no way I was going to let myself cry on an airplane full of people. So, I managed to grin and bear it, and like I said before, I just played Sudoku the entire way home, listening to my iPod, trying to keep my brain too busy to think about the ouch.

When we landed, I was very glad that I was at the back of the plane. I just stayed seated as I let everyone around me go ahead and get off the plane. I think I was the second to last person off the plane, as I limped my way down the aisle and out to the baggage claim. Mom was picking me up from the airport, and before I left Canada, she had let me know that I was going to have to drive us home, because she wasn't feeling well. Once I got into baggage claim here in Dallas, ma got my luggage for me, then we headed to the car. After we loaded in my luggage, she started to get in the driver's seat. I said, "I thought I was supposed to be driving home?" and she responded with "You were, but you're not exactly in any condition to drive, are you?" Apparently my limping was bad enough that she didn't think I could manage to drive home.

I had thought that the bulk of my knee pain was from the temp change (and likely a large portion was), and figured my knees would get better within a few days of getting home. They didn't. The way my knees were hurting felt different too, not my normal type of arthritic pain. In addition to hurting when I walked, my knees (especially the left one) were hurting when I was sitting still, and even when I was laying down in bed at night. I have a very difficult time getting to sleep at night. Skipping forwards a few days — by Thursday I was beyond miserable with the pain. I finally decided I really needed to call my orthopedist for an appointment.

I went to see him on Friday morning. At first, he didn't seem to be that concerned about my knees. But once I was on the exam table and had to straighten my left leg so he could measure range of motion, he was instantly concerned. I have always been able to straighten both legs completely. In fact, I thought I was during the exam on Friday, only to find out the knee/leg wasn't fully extended at all. There was also swelling along the back of the knee that concerned him as well. After the knee exam, we started talking about options. He said that he didn't think a steroid shot would help this time, and I had to agree with him. He also thought there was a possibility that I have torn the meniscus in my left knee. So — I go in tomorrow to have an MRI on both knees, to find out exactly what's going on. I have a follow up appointment on the 12th to get my diagnosis, and to discuss options.

Now, to back track a few days, to the beginning of last week. I had my yearly physical with my doc on the 30th. During the exam, she noticed a few irregular beats when she was listening to my heart. She listened a while longer to see if maybe she'd just timed it to when I had a "normal" irregular beat, or to see if it was something more. She didn't like what she heard as she kept listening, and was also concerned that I wasn't aware of these beats. So, after the rest of my physical was done, she sent me to the main hospital to get a holter monitor. I had to wear the monitor for the next 24 hours, to record my heart beats. Let me tell you — those damn electrical pads itched like crazy!!! I turned it in to them in the evening on Halloween, then it was time to wait for the results.

After I got back from the knee doc on Friday, my regular doc called me with the results from the holter monitor. During the 24 hours I was monitored, I had 14,601 irregular heart beats. That is way too many. Based on the results, she diagnosed me with something called PVC — Premature Ventricular Contractions. Basically, my heart contracts too soon, and then skips a beat, then beats even harder. If I have too many of these irregular beats in a row, I could pass out, or worse. She referred me to a cardiologist, so I can get an EKG, heart ultrasound, and possibly stress test, to figure out how bad this is and what we can do to get it under control. She also gave me a prescription for a beta blocker to take.

So, tomorrow is going to be one very busy day for me. Work in the morning, then I go to the cardiologist at 2pm, and then to the MRI center at 5:15. If the MRI on my knees does determine a meniscal tear in my left knee, and if surgery is necessary, I have to wait. I cannot have any kind of surgery until we get my heart under control, since the anesthesia could be dangerous for me. Hopefully all of this is nothing serious and it can be fixed pretty easily, though.

I think post #3 is going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm too sleepy to write more now. heh.

So. First post: the good stuff of late. On Oct 24th, I headed up to Canada to visit Emily again. When I got to the airport and checked in, I got offered the chance to upgrade to first class, for a small fee. Since I had used my airline miles to book the flight, it cost me only taxes & processing fees for the trip, so hell yes I jumped at the chance to fly first class up there. Even with that upgrade — it was still considerably cheaper than it would've been if I'd bought an economy ticket. Hee! I absolutely loved getting to fly first class. (I've flown it once before, but that was on a shorter flight, so I didn't get the full experience.) It was total pampering the entire flight, as well as a delicious hot meal, salad, dessert… I was absolutely beyond stuffed by the time we landed. And of course there were the hot towels, and bowl of warm nuts, and incredibly attentive flight staff, and one of the flight attendants had a bag of candy & toys that she brought around so we could all trick or treat from it. Haha. I got through customs very quickly as well, since I was one of the first people off the plane. (Second person on, fourth person off. Hee!) And my luggage was also off pretty quickly too.

The trip was wonderful, too. My knees gave me a bit of a problem because it was a good bit cooler there than back home, so it made my arthritis go all nuts, but I still enjoyed myself very much. We went downtown on Thursday, to see Raine Maida (of Our Lady Peace) busking on a street corner, to raise money to help War Child build a school in the Congo. I snapped a few pictures, but they are on the PC at home — I forgot to upload them. So… consider this a place holder for where the pictures will go: *insert place holder here* Haha You can check out the pictures here.

Friday night, we went to see Matthew Good perform at Massey Hall. I wouldn't consider myself a big Matt fan, but I do enjoy his music. The concert was an acoustic show, and he was absolutely incredible. I was definitely blown away — he sounds amazing live. The show went for almost 2 hours, and it seemed like it was over way too quickly. I could've definitely stayed there a few more hours to listen to him sing. I love shows where the artist sounds as good or better live than they do on their CDs.

Saturday & Sunday, Emily and I got in some nice R&R, before I had to head home. I never want to leave when I'm up there. Aside from one thing that I'll get into in another post, the plane ride home was nice and easy. No first class this time, but I kept myself occupied by playing Sudoku on my DS Lite and we were landing in Dallas before I knew it. I used to dislike Sudoku, but I started it as part of my training on the Brain Age game, and I'm starting to get quite good at it. And maybe a little obsessed with playing it. lol. (So far, my best time to solve a board was just under 3 minutes. YAY!)

Hmmm. More good things for this post… oh yes! I finally picked a license plate I wanted to try for. I couldn't get the spelling I wanted, so I just added an extra O, and voila it's mine! I just got my receipt last week to show that it was approved and the plates were ordered, I should be getting the instructions on how to pick it up soon. So, by the end of the month, my plates will read "WHOO R U". *giggles*

My mom got a letter from immigration on Friday. (She is applying for citizenship, if I haven't mentioned that before.) They gave her a date, time, and place for her test and interview!! She'll be taking the test on December 15th. So, mom could end up being a US citizen by year's end. It's only taken her 35 years to apply, but… better late that never? hahah.

Okay, that's all that's coming to mind for the good stuff, right now. Plus, it's time for me to get back to work since my lunch break is over. Two more posts to come soon!

I know this is, like, 2+ months after the fact — but I had an amazing birthday. I spent it in Toronto with Emily, the actual day was spent at her lake cottage. The first part of the week, my mom came up and we all played tourist, taking her around the city, and down to Niagara Falls. After she left, Emily and I headed to the lake for a couple of days. At the end of the week, we went to the African Lion Safari. That place was wild. I've been to drive-through safari's before, ones where you get to feed the animals. But I have never been to one where you are driving through the same pen as lions and cheetahs, where literally the only thing between you and them is your car! That was freaky, and so cool. The monkeys loved to climb all over people's cars in their area. I've got pictures from that trip up here.

That trip also gave me one of the best birthday moments I can remember. We decided to jump back into the lake late that night, and we were in the water at the exact minute I turned 33. As we were swimming in that cold water under the moonlight, we saw several shooting stars. I think it was a total of 3 shooting stars while we were in the water. This was a few nights before the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, so I wasn't expecting to see anything yet. So, getting to see the first few just made my birthday that much more special.

Back to the present — I got to test drive the Smart Car today. I am so absolutely in love with that thing. It's a lot roomier than it looks from the outside, even plenty of room in the back for luggage. I want one of those so badly, but I don't want another car payment. I'm enjoying not having one, and my car is still running incredibly well, so I'll be happy with what I have for another few years.

Last week I started seeing a psychologist. It's something I've needed to do for years on end, but I always had a million excuses for putting it off. No more though. The lady I met with was very nice, and I think we should get along well enough to make me comfortable for the sessions. Thanks to vacation and several other doctor and dentists appointments, I don't get to go back until the first week of November.

This is going to be a very short week for me at work. I'm only working tomorrow, and most of Tuesday. Wednesday morning, I've got a bunch of doctor's appointments, then it's off to Toronto again. More play time!! Definitely looking forward to getting to see Emily again.

I have tons more that I could ramble about, but I think I'll just stop there. heh.

My second request — my personalized licence plates are up for renewal soon. While I love my current ones (an abbreviation for "Road tripping"), they just don't really fit anymore. Life doesn't allow me to take many road trips these days. It's been a long time since I've road tripped on any kind of regular basis, if at all! So, my request here — throw some ideas at me. What do you think of when you think of me? It doesn't have to be only 6 letters long (Tx plate limits), just throw anything at all at me, and I can try to figure out an abbreviation that would work. I'm just not sure what "fits" me now. hah.

So, suggestions, PLEASE!!

Mom is coming up to Toronto too, for a few days. She flies out with me tonight, then she goes home Tuesday morning. Since she's never been to Toronto (much less any of Canada), we're going to show her around town and also go to Niagara for Sat/Sun.

I'm all bouncy excited ready to go, and I've still got an eternity to go until the plane even leaves. At least I get off work in 2 hours.

My boss turned in his notice last week. His last day is the 17th. I'm not sure who we are going to report to after he's gone. At least he's going to do my review before he goes, so that'll be good. hah. A few other high-up people turned in their notices last week as well.

I wanted to write more, but I can't seem to concentrate at all. Oh well!!

This time, though, my knees don't want to play well. They seized up pretty badly after the shots, considerably worse than they have in the past. Getting up/sitting down is incredibly difficult, and I look pretty pathetic when I try to walk. I wasn't able to sleep much at all last night. I tried my bed, and could not find a comfortable position. I ended up carefully making my way down stairs to attempt sleeping in the recliner. I was able to fall asleep there, but couldn't stay asleep for more than 1.5 hours. So, since I went to bed last night, I've only had 3 hours of sleep. Grrr. I'm exhausted and sore and just want to pass out, but I can't sleep.

Obviously, with this lack of sleep and inability to walk/sit/stand, I'm not going in to work today. This is the first day I've had to miss due to the injections. And it couldn't be at a worse time, since I've had a ton of time off for doctor's appointments this month. Sigh. Oh well. What can I do?

It has been raining here on an almost daily basis for the last couple of months. It's absolutely insane. I mean, I don't think we have even broken 100 yet, and that's highly unusual for Dallas. We're only just finally getting regular 90 degree days – in a typical summer, those are a daily occurrence for a minimum of a month by now. It's so freakishly weird. We were in a drought for the last two years, and now in a matter of 6 months we've received MORE rainfall than we normally get in an entire year! There have been tons of problems with flooding, and some cities near DFW have declared a state of emergency because of all the flood waters. It truly doesn't seem like summer at all.

My friend KD and I went to see Transformers on the 4th. I was kind of expecting a cheesy movie, but it was really amazing. They did a great job with it. It had rained some while we were watching the movie, and on the way out of the theater that created a problem for me. You know the red paint they use for fire lanes? When wet, that stuff can get very slick. One second I was walking and talking, laughing about the movie — the next I had slipped and was falling. Yup, another fall for me; and I landed on the same leg as I did 3 months ago. There were some short concrete poles there, and I grabbed at one as I fell. It didn't stop me, but it did slow my fall, so my leg didn't get as badly beat up, but I still had some bruising and knotted muscles, etc. For a day or two after the fall, the arm that I grabbed the pole with to slow my fall was in some serious pain too. I pulled a bunch of muscles on that side of my body from grabbing the pole. Figures, I just can't stay uninjured for any length of time.

I ended up getting another injection in my tailbone last week. I went to a new doctor this time around, and things went a lot smoother. The best part about it — the injection was done in his office! He has a small surgical room set up to do the injections there. That is a HELL of a lot better than having to do it as day surgery at the hospital!! A lot cheaper too! Another benefit — no anesthesia this time. I was a little nervous about that before the shot, but afterwards I was fine. I really have NO clue why I had to be knocked out for the shot the first time. The injections in my knees are more painful than that! I am having a little bit of pain in the area still though, but in comparison to what it was pre-shot, it's incredibly minor. I do have a follow-up visit in a few weeks, so I'll bring up the fact that there's still minor pain then. It's not significant enough to worry about trying to get in sooner.

Today, I'm off to the knee doctor. More than likely I'll be getting injections there as well. I'm kind of hoping I do, since I am going on vacation and need to be able to walk easily.

Last week, I got a jury summons. UGH! They wanted me to report on July 31st, but with that being only 3 days before I leave for vacation, that wouldn't work. I sent in a request for postponement until after I get back from vacation, so I'll likely be doing jury duty some time in August. I hope I don't get picked. Or, if I do get picked, I hope it's for a cool case. hahah.

God I can't wait for my vacation to get here. Only 16 more days!! WOOO HOOOO!!!! We're finally starting to get plans set up better, (my fault there) and it's starting to sink in that it's getting close and I'm getting more and more excited. I need to work on my various lists so I can make sure I have everything I need to take with me. I just ordered a couple of books last night for the flights. I've already got some Canadian money bought, but I need to buy more. I think we're going this weekend, because mom needs to buy some too. I've had a couple of shopping sprees, buying new clothes & shoes for the trip. And, as stated above, I've had tons of doctor visits this month, making sure that I won't be in pain. Yay!

I have the need to ramble more, but I'm stuck on what to ramble about. So I'll go and pretend to work some more (already done for the day) until either it's time for me to leave, or I think of something else to write.

"Let's say no to cockroaches!" written above a small drawing of a cockroach that had been crossed out with a large X.

Then someone came along and drew another cockroach, with a thought bubble that read: "That is so unfair! I was just eating the left over pizza!"

And finally, a third line beneath that, someone wrote "Oh, I'm sorry I crushed you then".

Hahahah.

I got to see Serenity on the big screen again over the weekend. Sure, I have the DVD and can watch it whenever — but nothing beats seeing it in the theater. And yup, I'm going to be a total geek and go see Transformers next week.

In just @ 38 days, I'll be off to Canada again to visit my best friend. Mom is tagging along for a couple of days, she wants to see Toronto, and we're going to have a great big family trip down to Niagara Falls while she's there. Then it'll be just me & Emily getting to run around creating havoc, if we so choose. Haha.

In the meantime, though, I'm looking at another slate of doctor visits. My tailbone is acting up again, driving me insane. (My tailbone is dislocated and arthritic. WHAT FUN! *cough*) When I had my follow up visit for the tendonitis in my arm, the doc gave me a general cortisone injection. That was nice; it even took the pain from my knees & tailbone away for a few weeks, in addition to helping out my arm. Bad part, it's wearing off and the tailbone pain is worse than ever. I'm having issues even sitting today – I want to be at home in bed and not in this chair at work. Even my chair at home would be nice; it's more comfortable than this. Only 4 more hours. I've got a visit with the orthopedist tomorrow and the pain management doc on Thursday. I'm likely looking at being knocked out again to get another localized cortisone injection. I hope that one lasts longer than 5 months! If that is the doctors suggestion hope that I can get that scheduled ASAP. There's no way on earth I could sit for 3+ hours on an airplane with this kind of pain. It was just starting to hurt when I was traveling last October and that was uncomfortable. The way I'm hurting now would be a nightmare. Sigh.

I was going to ramble more, but I just can't sit still and focus well enough to do so. Maybe next time.

But. The funny for it is my horoscope for today: "Leo: Have you been thinking about changing your career? Today is a great day to start." Hmmm. I just might need to look into that. hah.

After they decided they wasn't going to be room for us on 1, we were going to be moved to 4. (Keep in mind, there are only 5 people in my dept, 2 of us need offices.) Then some of the other people they were moving to 1, there wasn't going to be room for them either, so they were bumped to 4, too. Which meant there likely wasn't going to be room for the 5 of us. They wanted to split us up – 2 on the 3rd floor, the other 3 on the 4th floor. Um. That doesn't work, we all interact on a very regular basis with paperwork, etc.

So, then, they were going to put us on the 7th floor. Whoever we found to rent out the bank building decided they wanted to rent the 1st floor of the Tower, too. Which means all the people that had JUST moved down to 1, had to move BACK up to 7. During this time, the people who moved on to 4, had decided to take the offices that were going to be me & my boss', if we ended up moving to 4. They finally decided we ARE moving to the 4th floor, and they had to kick out the people who took our offices so we could have them back. haha.

Most of my department moved down to 4 yesterday. I couldn't move — my office has to be restricted access, and they hadn't yet set up a badge reader on the door for me. They did that yesterday, and started building a cube desk into the office for me. They were still working on that this morning, and they moved down my massive safe this morning too. I think they are done in there, so I should be able to start moving this afternoon, unless something else comes up. My boss was very nice, though, and he decided to stay up here with me until I'm able to move, so I don't have to be all alone. Hee!! I almost didn't get to move until next week because they thought my office was also tied into the building's silent alarm. But, what they thought was part of the alarm system was something else altogether. Which is good, since we didn't have to wait on MORE wiring for that to be done before I could move.

Yesterday afternoon, I started packing up some of my stuff that I wouldn't need today. We have these moving dollies that are 4 feet tall, 4 feet long, and 2 feet deep – with two shelves. JUST the supplies from my office plus my spare printer completely filled that up. And that's only the stuff that is office supplies!!!! I haven't even touched the 2 computer systems I use on a daily basis, or my check sealer, or my personal stuff! <sarcasm>I am going to have SO MUCH FUN moving today whee!</sarcasm> I'm going to attach a pic of the dolly of supplise at the end of this. (I probably shouldn't have, but I adjusted the color on the pic. This monitor is way too dark, though, so I probably brightened it too much. If I did, I'll fix it tonight.)

I still am having issues with my arm from my tendonitis. I got a corisone shot on Tuesday, but that hasn't helped much. (I'll go more into all of that stuff at a later time though, when I have more time.) So, with my arm sore, my knees bad… moving this heavy stuff is gonna be fun. Thankfully, my 2 good coworkers both just offered to help me after lunch. That was very nice of them, and will make things a lot easier on me.

I have to go get packing again, so it's cut time for that picture. Horoscope behind the cut too, just because I can.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The geography of your heart is evolving. In places, coastlines are disappearing. Elsewhere, new islands have risen out of the sea. Boundaries are shifting, as some nations dissolve and others are born. Even the climate is changing, with warm winds blowing where once there was year-round chill, and monsoon-like conditions invading desert ecosystems. Roads that formerly led to the center of the action no longer do, and highways that used to be peripheral are now main routes. I suggest you take note of all this by redrawing your map, Leo. Get up to date with your heart's new landscapes.

I kinda like the sound of that. It's time for some more changes.