Archive for October, 2011

And that’s it for October

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Oy, a week gone already?

Okay, since last week, my back has gotten a lot better.  Of course, Justin’s back has been killing him in a completely different way, but he’s been sitting on the  heat pack.  We’ll go back to the chiropractor’s office again tomorrow.

Work has been nuts, but it’s only going to get worse as we go through November.  And more on that later, probably.

I did not, however, work on Friday because we had a party here that evening and Justin and I spent the day getting ready.  I’ll do some pictures at the end.  A bunch of geeks we know get together every month or so to play card games.  We switch between who hosts, but it was our turn this time, and it was a whole lotta fun!  I cut a ton of bats out and hung them from the ceiling.  Justin wanted to dress up as Count van Count from Sesame Street, so I dressed up as Countess von Backwards (I’m not making her up) complete with the purple skin and all.  Can I say?  That was a lot more trouble than it was worth.

Anyway, we had Indiana Jones and a cowgirl, a Valkyrie and a dead Norse warrior, a couple renaissance girls, a hippie, an Arabian prince, and a guy who said he was Jimmy Buffett but who just decided last minute to come to the party.  And we had lots of food, played Gloom, roasted marshmallows and told stories over the fire, and had, all in all, a really fantastic time.

Meaning, after all that, on Saturday Justin and I were completely zonked and didn’t get out of pajamas all day.  We showered and put on clean pajamas.  I spent the whole day reading a library book that was due.  And that was it.  We didn’t even get around to cleaning until after church on Sunday.  And then we had friends over again on Sunday (sort of a recurring event) and we played a game of Munchkin with them.

So much of last week was spent getting ready for the party.  I spent a lot of time cutting out bats and getting the house ready.  It was definitely worth it because a lot of people, even kids trick-or-treating tonight, commented on how great the house looks.  But it’s a relief to not be working on that today.

Anyway, stepping back to talk about work for just a minute, we’ve got six or seven projects in the works for November, so it’s going to be crazy busy.  And add to that, a job offer was dropped on my lap today and if I say “yes” the guy offering it would want me to start transitioning over to it as soon as possible — like next week.  It’s an other department at work and it *sounds* really exciting, but I haven’t decided yet.  And the guy offering it asked me to not talk about it, but I think he meant not talk about it AT WORK and I’m pretty darn sure none of my coworkers read this.  (And if they do, they haven’t said anything yet, and I don’t expect them to start now.)  I have to let him know by the end of the week, so you’ll all know as soon as I decide, too.

And now pictures from the party!

Justin as Count van Count from Sesame Street

The Count and Countess -- SO MUCH PURPLE

A view of the dining room decorations

A creepy sofa table vignette

The skull seemed like a necessary element

Ghosts hung out by the dining room light

Bats hung out in the entryway and hall

There were mice along the floorboards

Our late-Norseman

Friends enjoying a game of Gloom

More of our friends

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Only in the South

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Message on the network message board at work:

Oct. 20, 2011 — An alligator was spotted on the grass near the water across from the [work building] this afternoon. It was a little over three feet long.

Although there should be no danger, please be aware when walking on or near grassy areas. In cooler weather, alligators often find a sunny soft spot to rest.

Security is addressing the problem.

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Post script: Voicemail

Friday, October 21st, 2011

I’ve added GoogleVoice to my phone as my voicemailbox. But I won’t add a message to it until I get somewhere with better service than at home. So if anybody calls me and gets a weird message like “The Google Voice subscriber is unavailable” and you’re all “But this is a cell phone!’ don’t fret. It’s mine. I just haven’t finished all the bells and whistles yet.

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Waiting for the pain to stop

Friday, October 21st, 2011

I am carving out some time here to write at least a little bit about what’s been going on.

I have the time right now because (1) I’M NOT WORKING TODAY!!  This is a Good Thing.  The (2) reason is also part of why I’m not at work and that’s because I seriously hurt my back somehow and I spent most of the evening yesterday and so far this morning laying on an ice pack and waiting for the pain to go away.

I can’t remember if it was Sunday or Monday morning, but I got up with a bit of an ache in my back.  We went to the chiropractor’s on Tuesday and they adjusted me and worked on that spot and when I went home, it felt improved, but not better.  Wednesday, it got gradually worse, and Thursday it was awful.  I spent a lot of the day trying to find ways to move that didn’t make that spot hurt and then sitting on an ice pack that I borrowed from a coworker.  Unfortunately, I also spent a lot of the day (and most of the previous days this week) running around like a headless chicken in a flock of headless chickens trying to get work done.  We did manage to get the projects complete, but there was shouting and slamming doors and bickering — so much bickering.  And lots of running around.  And there’d be times when I’d be walking and take a turn swiftly and gasp a little because it hurt.  Or I’d stand up from my desk and just that movement would make me gasp from the pain.

So I went back to the chiropractor’s office and told him “The pain! Make it stop!” and he adjusted me again.  And then he had me lie with wedges under my hips keeping me aligned for several minutes with the cold laser on my back and then I got to lie on the traction bed before lying on the biomat for a while, too.  And by the time I left, I was able to move without as much pain, but there is still a lot of pain.  I have an appointment again this afternoon.  But until then, I’m lying on an ice pack and taking Advil and waiting for the pain to stop.

Normally, on my first day off from work, I’d spend most of the morning sleeping.  Especially since I woke up around 2 and didn’t fall back asleep until close to 4 because I was too uncomfortable to fall back asleep.  But the trash men woke me up with their noise and the pain has kept me wide awake since then.  So I’m sitting on a recliner downstairs, surrounded by all 5 of the sofa pillows, ice pack on my low back, blanket over top, typing this to all of you.  I was going to watch TV, but I wanted to write this out before I sunk into that distraction.  Hopefully the TV will help me forget to pay attention to the pain, but it really is a time sucker.

Anyway, that’s the story of my back.  No idea, really, how I hurt it so badly.  It’s like my collarbone.  Still no idea how I managed to hurt that.  My chiropractor keeps saying that these types of injuries are the kind that people get when they’re in car accidents or brawls.  I keep trying to convince him that I’m not getting up in the night and fighting crime in my sleep.  He’s not convinced.

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Chilly!

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

It may be possible that I have lived in the south for too long.  This morning I practically sprinted across the parking lot to get inside the building where I work.  The temperature was in the 40s and in my button-up long-sleeved shirt and knee-length skirt, I was freezing!  Tomorrow I will wear a jacket.  And maybe a hat and gloves and pants.  Except I don’t really have any work pants left – my last remaining pair has a key ring attached to the zipper since the pull broke off and even with that feature, the zipper has developed a fear of heights and I have to safety pin the key ring at the top-most position of the zipper in order to maintain my businesslike, professional appearance.  Yup.  That’s how it’s rolling around here.  But I’ve got a bunch of skirts that I wear so it’s not like being pants-less is an issue.

Anyway!  The point was that it was cold!  And maybe I would have handled the temperature better if two days ago it hadn’t been in the 80s.  I mean, we went from highs in the 80s to highs in the 60s in the course of an afternoon.  It was warmer yesterday at 6:00 in the morning than it was at 4:00 in the afternoon.  That’s just not right!

So, obviously, the only solution is to make a trip up to the cold northern climes to reacclimatize myself to the temperatures, so yesterday Justin and I got tickets to make that trip.  I put our information about that on the forum on Erica’s website so interested parties can see that.  I’m looking forward to the trip!

Part of that excitement might be because it has been absolutely insane around here lately.  I don’t even have the time to go over how crazy it’s been, but trust me – crazy.  And my back is killing me.  And my addiction to the Layton franchise is going strong.  And I’m starting a new diet in order to lose a little weight before our trip up north.  And all of these things I should write about, but I don’t have the time right now because things are just so darn crazy.

But I’ll try to do something soon.  Like maybe I’ll actually take a Friday and not work!  Maybe . . . .

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