Finally...and Pre-Coffee Humor

Don't you just love it when blogger reboots itself and you have what look like 200 new posts that are all about year+ old?

Yeah, me too. Moving on:

Hey look! I did knit something!


Details...Um... "Ripples" Socks from Sockamania's December 2007 Sock of the month pattern. Yes,  I sure did start these back in December of 2007.  I think I may have blogged about them but socks that take over a year for me to knit are not the proudest of things for me to shout about...

Although, that was when the tendon damage came about and there was no knitting and much lamenting and on and on and on and now they're done (well, drying...I kinda couldn't wait to take a picture and post them...so long in the making).

They are for my mom, made of Panda bamboo...and um...cotton?  On US2's.  I'm becoming quite the fan of the decoration of the sock only being on the leg.  I did it for the boys and the baby socks and now my mom's socks...but it is rather mindless and you have to be extra careful about that whole laddering issue...

What else can I say?  I have no notes and can't find the pattern anymore...bad knitter.

***

Okay, pre coffee humor (i.e. probably only hilarious to me because I was so not awake):

So Andy and T went snowboarding this morning.  Apparently the appointed time to leave had been 7 or 8AM when they last spoke yesterday.

This morning at 5:30 T changed plans and said they should go now as he couldn't sleep anymore.  I'd already gotten up (early bird gets the limited parking on big meeting days...as it were).  But Andy as zombie boy was ripped away from sleep and was rushing around to get his act together.  It's still brutally early when he's finally all set and is so not awake as he almost dials a friend in Vegas at a little after 6AM so I stand close ready to punch the big red button on his iPhone if need be and manages to call Tim.

"Where are you?" asks Andy.

In a total deadpan voice you can hear T, "Parked behind your car."  

As Andy hangs up he adds, in the same deadpan voice, "Watching you."  

It was a "you had to be there" moment but I swear it was so much a "The-call-was-coming-from-inside-the-house" moment that I just had to share.

I know, I'm a dork.

Positivity Man....

- Though I was told not to get my hopes up...my would-be boss-guy is not "closing my case." In fact, he's going to have another meeting with his group and/or his boss lady to see if there is something else that can be done with my situation. Because as he said, "Even if you're not under my direct supervision, we are still all one group."

- I like where I work and with whom I work, even if the job itself is sucky sometimes.

- Having sushi with friends after a bad day makes everything better.

- Holding L&L's baby makes me very happy. She was sweet and lovable until just exactly 8:30 PM, her bedtime. Will make a note of that.

- I like the way peoples' faces light up when I give them knitwear...and yeah, I did not take a picture of the hat I gave L last night...I just realized this and may have made a "doh" sound...bad blogger...but I give myself extra props for it matching her new winter coat without me realizing it.

- After sleeping in, I am drinking coffee, surfing the web, and not having to wrack my brain because it's Saturday and "no work til' Monday" is exactly what I am humming...

Catch-22, Yur Init...

Yesterday did nothing but reinforce my never-flagging doubt that meetings are bad, m'kay?

I ignored all the signs: my wrist was awash in purple ink, the recruiter was nowhere to be seen, the peeps I might have worked with were not looking me in the eye.

It wasn't so much of a rejection as a "status" meeting. What is a nice way to tell someone they are in last place? Don't bother, I don't think there is one. After the series of unfortunate events that has comprised my life these last few months I was just not as cool as they thought I was...I may have cried a little.

Mostly though? It was from frustration. What makes me not compatible with this position is the same one that will keep me stuck. I don't have enough book-learnin' to prove I can do the work. Somehow having a certificate/degree/mandate(?) proves that someone else can dictate policy better than me.

I'd believe that if I didn't already have a BA and MA under my belt. Let me tell you world, just because I proved to the university that I can sit through classes and write papers does not mean any of the stuff stuck. 'Member, I even WORKED IN MY FIELD after I grajeeated! If I'm not proof positive, how about the mouth-breather that just left the department? Tell me how helpful all her schooling was for how well she did.

Yeah, I'm bitter this morning. Which is better than sad and mopey and a little leaky...in my book.

But the problem at hand? His advice, as has been my team leader's advice from the start: take classes. I couldn't hold it in. I had to ask, "How do I take classes if I can't afford them?" Yes I did. I basically admitted that one of the reasons I was interested in the job was the higher wage because then I could actually afford to take a class or seven to help me out. But now it comes out that I need classes to get the higher position...that I can't get because I can't afford classes...

I knew from the beginning this might be a long shot...for that very reason, but I let people convince me that my experience was enough (almost 5 years of accounting stuffs!) to compensate. Or maybe the fact that a whole bunch of what I do now right now is review and dictate policy and keep things booked where they need to which is kinda closely enough to what I'd be doing...maybe...

So hey, forgive me for being a bit delusional when I thought that I might be able to compete with the edumicated...cuz having a Master's Degree from Stanford might say to someone that yeah, it's in the wrong subject, but um, maybe she's smart enough to like learn it on her own the way she's learned all about her current job? Hmm?

But you never know, the others on their list might spontaneously combust, or something!

Random Wednesday

I've got nothing cohesive today...and I'm kinda late for work...but the butterflies are trying to keep me home...

I think I'm going to be "let down easy" today.

Fine, I've said it...it's just...a generic letter from the HR system saying "thanks, but no thanks," would be easier for me to handle than a 1/2 hour meeting with peeps to tell me they think I'm cool but not right/qualified/cool enough for the position.

Of course, as my boss-guy said yesterday, the meeting actually could be to tell me I got the job....but I'd rather not dwell on the positive since it'll just sting that much more...

So instead some random:

- They're re-keying all the locks in my apartment building but have already issued us the new keys...heavy, new keys, so that um, yeah, we can feel safer, or something.

- My mom has decided she wants to live to see her great grandchildren. This puts a big kink in my plan to lead the life of excess and infamy once I've buried my parents. In fact, if her calculations are correct, she is planning on outliving ME...in that "I don't want to live that long" philosophy I have.

- Just for clarification, my niece turns 6 this week.

- My hip hurts, but differently. I'm hoping it's a good hurt, but really? What do I know?

- These pictures have nothing to do with anything...more like left-overs:
From that post I was going to write about when in LA and looking for yarn in all the wrong places South Pasadena with my mom. Isn't it fun and bright! It still reminds me of the heat of that day... I really am surprised we didn't die of heat stroke.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins...I made them for the office a while back for the first time ever and I want one right now...but instead I'll finish my piece of plain toast and get ready for work.

Happy Wednesday!

Violatd...

Just some preface:
I live in an apartment building which professes to house young professionals and PhD/graduate students from the U down the street. Not upscale so much as some-day-I-will-make-real-money scale or I-am-a-poor-student-now-but-just-watch scale. So pretty much we're all on the same side of the money tree...

In a way it reminds me of what my dad's home town used to be like. No one locked their doors because everyone had the same amount of no-money and so, why steal from one another?

Then the economy went into the toilet.

Soon their was a notice stating that anything stolen out of our vehicles was not the responsibility of the management...because peoples' cars had been broken into, in our locked parking garage, with all the cameras and everything.

So we stopped leaving anything "shiny"/tempting within eyesight.

Then another notice about bikes...and using the bike rack at your own risk as we have a nice one behind the locked storage area doors...because bikes started disappearing.

So we all put our bikes in our storage lockers.

Friday late (Andy got home from the airport around 3PM and there was no note there), a generic note taped to the apartment doors of renters of storage lockers saying we might want to take a look seeing as the storage locker area had been broken into...

All I keep down there is my bike. After August 25th of last year, we all know the state of my banana-bended tire and twisted BRAND NEW basket...but Andy??? As he was exhausted from his trip back across the tundra-y wastelands, I said I'd go downstairs and look.

I decided not to take a picture, but this is what the lock should look like. Nothing fancy, after all it's behind a BIG METAL DOOR. False sense of security anyone? The locks are all intact, it's the backing plates that look like they were pried off with a crow-bar. Twisted metal dangling from one end.

When I first looked into the pile that is Andy's stuff? The first thing I noticed is that both bikes were still there and lots of boxes (more on this later) packed all over but...the plastic bins looked like someone had pulled them around to dig through them. But, I thought to myself, that might have been Andy rooting through his old computer parts box looking for a cable or seven.

So I go upstairs and report that I can't tell. We go downstairs together and, again, at first glance he wonders if maybe the would-be robbers were spooked, because his stuff still LOOKS like it's all there. That's when I notice the Styrofoam.

Andy keeps all of his boxes and the original Styrofoam packing because, hey, it's easier to move and not damage things if you pack them up they way they came, you know? So the storage locker is filled with a lot of empty boxes that become super useful once a year/two years when Andy pulls up stakes. So really, the storage room is actually packed to the brim with air and empty boxes...except for the two or three full boxes of old cables, modems, camping gear, and a 5.1 surround sound speaker system.

Andy had decided his five-year-old 5.1 surround-sound speaker system was too big and ridiculous for our itty bitty living room, and instead of tripping over it in our itty bitty apartment, he'd chucked it in storage with the idea that he'd sell it on eBay/Craigslist/freecycle it before he had to move it again...I guess that won't be a problem anymore...

The box was still there...but empty.

So I looked deeper. It's still early yet, but the other thing they took was an ancient cd-burner. I found the box for that as well, you see...

For a while we thought they'd also taken his ten-year-old snow-boarding boots. But he's since found them and pretty much ruined my vision of what these cretins were all about. Or maybe what they looked like. One of them having to be a size 11 poor snow-boarder who burns cd's on a burner so old you could hand etch them faster while listening to them in surround-sound glory on possibly popped old speakers. Or something.

So really, no big financial loss here. But emotionally? I'm not doing too hot. I was happy to live in this building because it's a stone's throw from actual houses. As I stated above, not too big a disparity in the haves and have nots. Quiet neighbors and a quick walk to the park and the liveliness of Fremont were also big perks.

Now? Not so much. Now all I see is people thinking that if I live here I must have stuff worth stealing. Neither my car nor my bike nor the crap in my storage locker is safe. What's next? They've made it past locked front entrances and locked storage areas...will they be breaking into apartments next?

Oh, before I forget, can someone tell me why the generic management note states we might want to inspect our lockers and figure out what was taken when there is yet another new sign down in the storage area which tells us the management is yet again not responsible for lost or stolen items in their storage lockers? Silly me but I'da just come out and said in the note instead of sounding like they gave a damn and we should contact them if we needed to.

Car Talk & Jeans, the New Memory Foam

So Wednesday....

Of course I woke up with absolutely NO pain in my hip just hours before my Dr's appt.  I joked in an email before taking off to Lake Forest Park that yeah, I may as well be my old '89 Toyota Camry...every time I took her to see the mechanic?  What ping? What squeak?  What grinding sound?  

To keep the analogy going, when I met with the doctor he started to explain the human skeletal system as an engine.  Really.  So the shocks and pistons and gears and such?  Yep all gone wrong in my hip area.  And him?  The equivalent of my dad tightening the timing belt vs. Mike the Mechanic with all his bells and whistles and shiny compressors that tighten the bolts too much.

Okay in English?  He said he'd try a "manipulation" with just his hands (and the muscles behind those hands, mind) and if that didn't work, we'd cross that MRI/physical therapy bridge when we came to it.

Yeah, kinda scary to me too.

I have to say that it didn't actually hurt until the very last "pop and pull."  And that one happened so fast that I don't think my body knew it was supposed to be outraged at the dis/re-location of various joints all at the same time.  

However, about 20 minutes later?  When I got out of my car to get to work?  Imagine everyone else walking/talking/being/revving at 55 miles an hour in the office and I'm barely making it to 3...

I'd kept a very straight face when he said, "Take it easy today.  The nicer you are to yourself, the less it will hurt."  See below post re: closing the month.  

So I was slow and careful, but worked the whole day and even ended up at L&L's house that night for dinner.  

I am nothing if not a masochist, it would seem.  But there was a home-cooked meal and a baby to play with and a doggie to keep my feet warm...What can I say, I'm a sucker for these kinds of things especially when I'm feeling not-so-well.  It was an early night, promptly falling asleep about 8:30 and that was me just barely making it home.  My knees felt like jell-o and my hip was still not sure what had happened it it.  Poor thing.  

Basically I've be mis-aligned for over 3 months and if all works well, my body will correct itself after the adjustment.  But 3 months is also a long time to be out of whack so the muscles, having memory and all, may want to stay (jump back?) into the bad place/misaligned state.  (My follow-up in February will confirm/deny this.)  Keep your fingers crossed that I have lazy muscles and tendons who are happy to be put into new configurations and STAY there, yes?

But speaking about memory...

You know how denim, um, shrinks to fit?  Yeah, well, it being Friday/casual day/bust out the jeans day...I pulled mine on and ran out the door as is my rush-rush Friday routine...and it wasn't until I got to the car that I noticed that my right side was having issues with the jeans. (As in the waist was actually riding up, but only on that side.)  Apparently my jeans have also spent three months "molding" themselves to my damaged hip configuration and are not playing well with my "new" old hip.  I feel like I'm wearing someone else's pants.

Happy Friday!

Hello, Tuesday, Where Did You Come From???

I'm only half awake right now...but I thought I'd check in.

See, it's that closing time of the month. And if I get that job I'm eyeing in the "brother" department of mine, it's not like it'll get any easier at this time every month, but as Andy explained, it's not like I'll get a raise, I'll just be actually getting paid for the overtime that doesn't get approved.

So....how'd it go? Interview-in' and such? I don't know. There was a lot of laughing...and I think most of with was WITH me. These are my colleagues after all. There was a super tense moment when the X-accounting assistant came up...you know that favorite question, "Think about a time you had to work with someone you didn't get along with" style? (Can't remember the exact wording, after coffee maybe.) We finished early even. I talk fast, what can I say? I said something stupid along the lines of, "See, hire me, I make everything efficient."

I don't know what happened to the weekend. If there had been heavy drinking on Friday night I'd understand...but nope...just lots of "Heroes" Season 2 watching and reknitting (hat & baby socks...best not to ask) and oh yeah, helping Andy get ready for the Antarctic-like weather of Ohio...he missed the freezing temperatures of Seattle as he'd been in Cali., so he was kinda afeared of not being prepared for the weather.

I love dressing my friends. No, let me be super clear, I love dressing my guy friends & family. I'm sure this stems from my weight/bump/puberty issues. You know, the after puberty I had to start wearing girl clothes cuz boy clothes no longer fit and being a tom boy and NOT a girly girl, I hated my life and my body and still kinda do? Yeah, them issues.

ANYWAY....we went off to Andy's most hated destination, THE MALL, and found the "almost out of season" sections of the stores. Hi, it's JANUARY, why are they all getting ready for SPRING already? We were all, "My kingdom for a sweater!" And who sells COTTON sweaters in the PNW?

My new goal is to finish knitting him that sweater I started like two years ago. The one that is almost all back to yarn cakes? Yeah, that one. We got him some swank stuff that I hope will be warm enough for the office, but um, yeah, I think a Weasly-esque thing might have fit the ticket much better for the actual weather he'll be seeing (through the office window, I hope).

That brings us to yesterday...which was just lots of running limping (dr.'s appt. tmrw!) around and getting paper from one end of the office to the other...yeah stuff happened in the middle, but when I look at my job from an outsider's perspective I just have to shake my head and drink copious amounts of caffeine.

Trying Hard Not to Vomit...

I just needed to get this out there...hopefully it's not jinxing me in any way...

I applied for a higher level job at work a few weeks (months?) back and promptly put it out of my head.  (Having worked in HR and knowing just how many RECs are open and how overworked they always are, it's best not to hold your breath when applying to any job.  It might be months before you get word yey or nay.)

Well, last week I was asked for more information.

Monday interviews were scheduled.

Today...interviews.  But when I left last night they were (to me) two easy-peasy one-on-one 1/2 hour interviews with the recruiter and he-who-would(/might)-be my new boss guy.  What do I have to lose?  If I don't get the job it's not like EVERYONE will know and it's not like I'm not like I'm losing anything but a bit of time and gaining a bit of interview experience to add to my arsenal, right?

This morning the butterflies started up when I read the updated invite from the recruiter...  I will be meeting with the entire team, all at once and for what will seem like an eternity of time.  I am trying my hardest not to freak out.  Panel interviews are not exactly my forte...

Total FAIL...

Ooh, look at me, I'm using modern lingo in my blog...I guess I'm not teetering toward the geriatric crowd just yet.

All I can say is...or maybe scream? Yes, screaming is good, "MY HIP HURTS."

Combine that with the utter exhaustion of training a new co-worker, and I've thought myself pretty good if I don't fall asleep (on the couch it would seem) before 9PM. Right, so no pretty Rosca de Reyes picture this year. I know, I know, I disappoint.

Oh and a note to myself:
DON'T sit in the hard chair for hours on end when training. Like you did yesterday. You will not be able to get up. Your hip will make awful noises. Your knee will give out later in the day.

Yes, this is still to do with that bit of bother at the end of August. When that big truck and my wee little bicycle collided? Fun. But I get to see someone new and more specialized on Wednesday. At first I was scared it will hurt far more before I get better...after hobbling around this morning? If he suggests cutting out my hip, I will supply the hacksaw.

Does It Count If We Celebrated with a Meal Out?

Happy Twelfth Night, um eve? Or is this the actual night tonight? I always get those confused. (Mexico celebrates Noche Buena January 6th, but I suppose we could start counting from midnight on...to be on the same page as you Epiphany/twelfth night-ers.)

Whatevers, party on peeps! I am going to bed.

Yes, I know it is but 9:06 PM. I know I didn't even try to make a King Cake/Rosca de Reyes to take to work tomorrow...yeah, I'd been thinking about it. I suppose, technically, I can still get away with making something tomorrow evening to have with my messican hot chocolate and take the rest in to work a day late/dollar short, I'm pretty sure no one will reject the baked goods on the counter just because it's no longer Epiphany or whatnot. Ah, this is the freedom of simply using all these extra celebratory-type days as excuses for even more sugar.

Oh sugar...I've just been asked to cut back. Yep, today was my dreaded yearly where I got some good advice about how to lower my triglyceride levels but, sniff, if I want my Kings Cake, there's gonna have to be some trade offs at Casa de Tactless... You know, no Kahlua Fudge that L made lurking about or yummy 'nana muffins or homemade chocolate covered marshmallows that C & J left me if I want that cake... We're a big girl now and must learn...sigh...moderation.

Well, I guess I'm starting by moderating how much time I am awake. I seriously can't keep my eyes open. Say "hey" to Balthazar for me, 'kay? Tell him mine's the boys size 6.5 gray Vans sneaker by the hat stand.

They Really Are Snow Headaches...

I don't know why I'm so weather obsessed, except for the fact that when the pressure plummets my brain expands and tries to crack my head open...or maybe it's just sinus pressure, whatever, I'm not a doctor :).

Anywho funny story (in that not ha ha but maybe boo hoo, for me way)....friends C & J were visiting from my "The City" (San Francisco) this weekend and when they went online this AM to check-in, instead of the happy "print your boarding passes" page, they were instructed to call the airlines, immediately.

This was a bit worrisome as their evening flight had already been changed/moved/delayed an hour to really be a night flight, so what was next? Outright cancellation? So after being on hold for 15 minutes, C finally gets to speak to someone who mentions that actually the flight was delayed a bit longer, could he be convinced to go on an earlier flight?

As much as they love me...getting home earlier rather than even later sounded much better to them. So, even if it meant they could not sit together, they took the offer of an earlier flight.

Fast-forward to that afternoon as we are driving to SEA-TAC airport:

"Wait," says C, "Is that SNOW?"

That would be a big yes. Not sticking or anything, but cute little flakes were coming down around us on HWY 99. Oh what fun...

Once dropped off and headed back north? The temperatures started plummeting again; my temples started throbbing; and the cute little flakes were now real big ones...but happily they kept mixing with the rain. Wet sloppy flakes and rain. Yes, of course there was a quick dash to the grocery store, just in case. I'm getting good at this sort of thing.

We're to get one to three inches of snow tonight. It may all melt off with the coming rain, or turn to horrid ice with the coming rain and plunging temperatures. I wonder if the tapering of my headache means it really will turn into rain...just call me barometer girl.

Right, so C just called a bit ago as Andy and I were plotting moving his car off the hill, just in case.

"Forty-five degrees in San Francisco and J isn't even wearing her coat!" He chimed as he and J were walking home from the BART station.

Just for fun, he'd looked up the status of their original flight...delayed again, possibly another couple of hours...as in, not leaving until almost 10 PM...when this snow is supposed to, maybe possibly, turn into rain/ice. I told him he was very lucky about the earlier flight cuz as much as I love them, there was no way I'd go driving in the mess that is the siren-filled streets.

Oh yes, many sirens since the snow that wasn't even supposed to touch the asphalt started sticking...again.

Better Living Through Chemistry...

So I know you all are dying to know how I spent my New Year's Eve, right?

Right. Or maybe just, ri-i-i-ight.

If we stretch the genre a bit, we can call it a science-fiction-double-feature-picture-show. If it hadn't been for Andy's Netflix, you know I'da joined the thousands out there watching The Sound of Music followed by some quick channel surfing ( I only get 2 stations...) to find the ball dropping/a televised count-down show as is the New Year's Eve thing to do... Even Network tee vee has quirky traditions.

So the plan was for me to stay entertained/up long enough to walk the block+ to Gas Works at just before midnight and watch the Space Needle fireworks from there...and no, my sinus headache never went away. I was sad and pathetic and fell asleep halfway through the commentary for Logan's Run. Yes, that Logan's Run. Andy and I had watched the actual movie the other night and were super curious as to what the folks behind the movie had to say for themselves, especially the costume guy... Apparently there is only so much of Michael York spouting on and on and on about the magic that is acting and movie making, that I can take.

But I hit a second wind or something when Andy made Johnny Depp appear on the screen. Had there not been the need to remind/relay/clear up the plot points (or lack there of) for Pirates of the Caribean 3, I might have dozed off again. Yes, that's right, I was so sick last night that even Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (one of my most favorite characters for him) could not keep me from succumbing to that sleep your body makes you have when you hurt just that much.

About 10 minutes before midnight I realized there was no way that I could a) get off the couch without having my head explode out of my eardrums, b) if I succeeded in standing up, bending over to put on my shoes without causing my eyes to pop out of my head from the pressure, c) convince anyone else to put on all the coats, scarves, and hats necessary to go out and stand in the windy sprinkly rain to catch some fireworks.

So I closed my eyes and listened to Captain Barbosa speak pie-rate talk, argh! And some time past midnight realized it was no longer 2008.

I know, you are so very jealous of me at this point.

Today I souped up on Alieve and Sudafed and was able to get most of my chores done before they wore off and left me feeling like death warmed over. But they did the trick. The apartment is pretty much clean! My desk is as organized as it's going to get! My papers are semi-filed! I even balanced one bank account! So that, yey! I can pay bills tomorrow. Good lord, someone kill me now before I bore someone to death.

Anyway, I'm on just the pain killer (Alieve/naproxin sodium) right now and I think I'll be able to skip taking anything else before collapsing into bed...what a way to spend my first day of '09, I know. Bodes well for me, I'm sure...were I superstitious and such. Oh wait, I am, damn it all.

I hoped everyone else partied hard so I can live vicariously though you.