Thursday, May 28, 2009

early evening

My Unlucky Lucky Day aka The ClunkClunkClunk-er

Today was an unlucky lucky day.  On the way home from the doctor’s office, on the freeway, I suddenly heard loud clunking from under the hood on the passenger side of the car.  It sounded like rocks.  Ugh.  I immediately got off the freeway at the next off-ramp, and of course got stuck at a long light (clunkclunkclunk), then pulled into the Trader Joe’s parking lot, figuring that at least it was a familiar place.  It’s already been a very, very long week, as some of you may already know.  I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep because I’ve been keeping normal people’s daytime hours, yet I’ve still mostly been going to bed at our usual 4-6am time because I just feel better when it’s nighttime.  Maybe moreso because it’s been so darned hot here.  So, anyway, I’m tired and I’ve had lots of important appointments to keep.  I didn’t really need car problems on top of everything else, although, really, who does?

I confess to being the stereotypical woman who doesn’t know much about car engines.  I hate dirty hands, so engines just aren’t my thing.  I mean, I know the basics, and what color drips to worry about and stuff like that.  I do not, however, know how to diagnose any engine problems.  None of the all-important dash messages came on, the car wasn’t running overly hot, but I do know that my transmission isn’t in the greatest shape.  I have to let the engine warm up a bit before I can back out of the garage, or the car just doesn’t move, even if I pump the gas pedal.  I was really worried that the transmission was done.  I opened up the hood (naturally, it was a really hot day and kind of humid & I wasn’t dressed for sunning myself) and took a peek, just in case it was something obvious, like a bag of rocks imbued with the spirit of Mexican Jumping Beans.  There was a big scratch across the top of the battery and what looked like black dust on top of the battery.  So I thought, “Weird and bad battery problems?”, but I couldn’t figure out why it would make that clunkclunkclunk noise.  I learned nothing after my first peek.  Then, I started the engine with the hood open and went to take a look.  It couldn’t have been much more obvious if a message scrolled across my hood telling me what the problem was - my belt broke.  The noise was it being flung around and around, whipping the battery.  Yikes!  I knew then that I was in trouble and wasn’t going to be able to just hop back into the car and drive off.

I then did what anyone 44 year old woman with car problems does - I called my daddy.  Unfortunately, after I was at my parents’ house and left for the doctor’s office, they left to go out to eat.  Strike one!  I called Leigh-Ann, not that there was anything that she could do from home, but I wanted to both gripe and let her know that I didn’t know when I was going to make it home.  However, we have all of our ringers turned off and the answering machine volume turned off as well.  She’d have to be looking at the phone to see it light up in order to know that I called.  When I got home, I found out that she’d checked the machine, but right before I’d called.  Strike two!  Then, a nice young man in a beat up truck stopped in front of my car and asked if I needed help.  He said that he had car repair tools with him, but when I told him it was the belt, he couldn’t help because he didn’t have a stash of serpentine belts in his truck.  He apologized.  I thanked him for stopping, and off he went.  Strike three!

Fortunately, I was playing a game that allowed for four strikes.  I looked around forlornly, wondering what the heck I was gonna do.  But, aha!, a Checker Auto Parts store was across the street.  Phew!  But, I had no idea how much it was going to cost, and things have been tight around here, to say the least.  But, the belt was only $35.  Sure, it’s probably a buck’s worth of rubber, but at least it wasn’t a transmission…this time.  Once again, though, I’m stereotypically helpless after I buy a part that involves more than adding wiper fluid or checking the oil.  I asked the guys at Checker if they knew who could put the belt on.  They told me to go across the street, to Purrfect Auto, and to ask for Nick.  In all the times we’ve gone to Trader Joe’s over the years we’ve lived here, I have never seen Purrfect Auto, even though I have to drive by it each time we leave TJ’s.  To be fair to myself, there are really tall trees in front of it, and it’s attached to the back of a Kmart, so I just assumed the whole building was Kmart’s.  I asked for Nick, Nick told me to talk to Rico, the manager.  The manager called over the first guy I’d talk to, to find Nick.  He told him where my car was (a few hundred feet away, easily seen from the auto repair shop), and the manager told me what to pay the guy (too much for the amount of work, but well worth it to be able to get home), the guy drove me to my car, got out, burned his hands on the, uh, thingie where the belt goes, but managed to get it on right.  Told me to start up the car, watched it for a minute to make sure it was on right…and I was done.  From the time my car fell apart on the freeway to the time I was back on my way, was about 25 minutes.  I thanked the guy profusely, then drove back to the auto parts place and thanked those guys profusely, then drove home feeling somewhat grateful.  I realized that I was a little more stressed than I thought because as I got closer to home, my neck muscles started to really hurt.  This could’ve happened so many other places; in fact, just about any other place that I can think of on my way home would’ve been a worse place.  Phew!

Stay tuned for what my doctor thinks about me being accused of being a “drug addict”.  You probably won’t enjoy it as much as I did, but let’s just say that I had no qualms telling him about the accusations because I wasn’t the slightest bit worried about what he would think.  He’s seen me once a month, without fail, for 2.5 years - who else, besides Leigh-Ann and the pharmacy, has seen me 30 times in the past two and half years?  No one.  The pharmacy that I’ve been using since they opened (before my back surgery, so it was at least four years ago) also had a little something to say about the accusations.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

late evening

Sometimes college degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, d’oh!

“we are not illeterates”

Saturday, May 23, 2009

late at night

Ah, now here’s “real concern”  ROFL (with friends like this…)

First, you have lost your mind.  Nancy, if you are so incredibly smart, and just got FM a couple of years ago why don’t you have any money?  Because you have worked a total of 18 months in the past 12years?  Because you could not work because you had to pee to much.  Because you had a headache and could no show up for work and got fired?  You are in your mid 40’s and you have NOTHING.  I am done being nice to you.  You have been in 2 relationships your whole life, the first woman hid you, the second well we can see what happened.  I have been sticking up for you, even with your brothers, feeling sorry for you.  Now you insult me again???  This illiterate girl makes more money in a year that you have made in a life time, no Leigh-Ann’s income does not count.  You don’t have a degree, you have no skills, you have no job, you rely on your very amazing parents to even buy your drugs for you.  Who is the looser? I just feel incredibly sorry for you, I really do.

This was after the “concerned” email where she accused me of being a drug addict.  I guess if I haven’t worked more than 18 months in the past, then the IRS can stop hounding me for the back taxes that I couldn’t afford after my back surgery and the medical bills.  I’ve been fired from one job, and that was due to a made up reason, because I proved their original “reason” was incorrect with stats of what I’d done at my work-from-home job.  It was a job where I made my own hours, so I couldn’t be fired for not showing up.  They said I hadn’t sent out enough “emails”, and frankly, I thought contacting 400+ people in less than a month was pretty decent.  I signed over 400 bloggers to syndication contracts in less than two years, so I wasn’t fired for lack of work product.  That’s it, I’ve never been fired from another job in my whole life.  Not once.  Oh wait, when I worked at a personal injury law firm, my crazy immediate supervisor fired me, then called me five days later to offer me double what I’d been making, in cash, plus an extra $100 bill each week.  After two weeks of the glorious extra cash, I talked to the attorney and said that if I was going to work there, I wanted it to be legal, and I wanted to have benefits.  So, I was hired “back”. 

Gee, and to try to make fun of me for not having a college degree.  Uh, her husband, my brother doesn’t have one either.  Anyway, I went to college for 3.5 years and didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up.  So, I went to paralegal school after that and got my paralegal certification.  Bah, whatever, Bill Gates dropped out of college, too.  A college degree is not an indication of intelligence.  Maybe being able to spell “loser” might be though.   Frankly, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I know exactly what I DON’T want to be.

By the way, I told my “loving” and “concerned” sister-in-law that I was going to post her emails if she didn’t stop harassing me.  So, she had adequate warning.  By the way, she claimed to know nothing (and I quote, “we don’t know what this hide my whatever is”) about the HideMyAss.com proxy viewing of my blog, but that’s kind of funny because one of the emails she sent me, she had tried to post as a comment on our TiredGirls.com blog, using the email address of .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).  Er, duh, hmamail.com is from HideMyAss.com.  LOL.

It’s not really fair to have a battle of wits with an unarmed woman.  So, I’ll quit, as long as she stops writing harassing emails/comments to both of us.  Otherwise, I’m going to keep airing her dirty laundry on my blog.  I’m not ashamed of my life.  I’m not ashamed of herniating a disk and needing surgery, of ending up with Fibromyalgia, nor of taking pain meds for, well, pain.  It is what it is.  I’ve actually been in more than two relationships, but since she doesn’t know much about me, I’ll let that go because it’s not important.  Yes, one of my partners was closeted for part of our relationship.  It happens.  It’s not easy to be gay in this world, and it was even harder almost 20 years ago.  No, I didn’t like being a secret from part of her family, but the rest of her family knew and even stayed with us on a vacation.  She was closeted at work because she worked in all-male homophobic mysogynistic company.  She was out everywhere else, with our friends, with my family, with part of her family, etc.  Heck, even *I* wasn’t out to my parents at the beginning of our relationship.  It’s scary to come out to people.  So, no, I’m not going abuse my ex for not coming out until she was ready.  That’s how it works.  We all have our own timelines.  As for my relationship now - well, any of you who know us know that we’ve been together very happily for almost 12 years.  Leigh-Ann was jokingly telling someone at the vet’s office that she was going to run off with one of the vet techs there.  (Leigh-Ann and I *both* harmlessly crush on her - hey, she’s cute!)  The woman that she said it to said, “No!  I’ll cry if you and “Flippy” break up.”  They’ve seen us in good times (when we could afford to bring goodies to the office), in the most trying of circumstances (when we’ve had pets die), and just hanging out.  I’ll stack my relationship with Leigh-Ann up against anyone’s relationship.

Mockng a sick person because they haven’t been able to work because they haven’t been able to find a job that is flexible enough, is so classy.  Yes, I need to find a job that will allow me to work from home because I don’t know how I’ll feel from one day to the next.  That’s why my last job, which was actually more than 18 months all by itself, was a commission-only job, which was fine with me.  In fact, that’s perfect.  I work the hours I can, which allows me to make the money I should.  I don’t know if my s-i-l wants me to put up my tax returns where I had one month of making $22,000, followed by the next month of $13,000, then the third month of $12,000.  Yeah, it was pretty awesome to be number one for “massage chair” in Google.   It was a terrific year of earning.  Actually, I may even have the whole year written down, day by day of what I made.  $500 here, $400 there, etc.  True, it’s kind of depressing that I can’t make that now, but life has its ups & downs.  Like when “Miss I Make So Much Money” called me a few months ago because, omigawd, she discovered that her house was going to be foreclosed on in a few DAYS!  Yeah, apparently she’s just swimmin’ in cash.  But, whatever.  I don’t think a good life is based on how much you make, because obviously Britney Spears kicks most of our butts all over the place in earnings.

Being sick sucks all kinds of ass, being poor sucks all kinds of different ass, but my relationship will survive both because money isn’t everything.  It sure would be nice to have some, but I’m no different than many other people with Fibromyalgia who can’t run out and work two jobs, then come home and feed the kids and clean the house.  Due to post-exertional malaise, which can now be accurately measured, doing that for one week would have me bedridden for at least a month.

early afternoon

I guess obsessive reading of my blog is also supposed to be “concern”

VISITOR ANALYSIS Referring Link http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flippyodegard&btnG=Google Search&aq=f&oq= Host Name ip68-104-116-63.lv.lv.cox.net IP Address 68.104.116.63 David [Edit Label] Country United States Region Nevada City Las Vegas ISP Cox Communications Inc Returning Visits 6 Visit Length Multiple visits spread over more than one day VISITOR SYSTEM SPECS Browser Firefox 3.0.1 Operating System Windows XP Resolution 1024x768 Javascript Enabled Navigation Path Date Time WebPage April 27th 2009 09:10:15 AM http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flippyodegard&btnG=Google Search&aq=f&oq= 74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Zxoi6_gXmB4J:www.flippyodegard.com/ flippyodegard&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us May 20th 2009 07:09:16 PM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 20th 2009 09:42:06 PM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 21st 2009 08:27:05 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 21st 2009 11:45:58 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 21st 2009 05:48:02 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweWlyYW50eW91cmVhZC5jb20%3D&hl=0 w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 01:20:17 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 07:58:08 AM by115w.bay115.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=678598710 74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:Zxoi6_gXmB4J:www.flippyodegard.com/%20flippyodegard&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us May 22nd 2009 08:13:22 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 08:14:18 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS8%3D&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 08:14:35 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 11:15:49 PM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 May 22nd 2009 11:16:52 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDEv May 22nd 2009 11:16:54 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDEvJyt6Z2lfdXJsKyc%3D&nf=1 May 22nd 2009 11:19:58 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDEv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDIv May 22nd 2009 11:19:59 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDEv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDIvJyt6Z2lfdXJsKyc%3D&nf=1 May 22nd 2009 11:21:12 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDIv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDMv May 22nd 2009 11:21:14 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDIv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDMvJyt6Z2lfdXJsKyc%3D&nf=1 May 22nd 2009 11:21:41 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDMv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDQv May 22nd 2009 11:21:42 PM w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDMv w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5mbGlwcHlvZGVnYXJkLmNvbS9pbmRleC5waHAvd2VibG9nLzIwMDcvMDQvJyt6Z2lfdXJsKyc%3D&nf=1 May 23rd 2009 08:24:56 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 May 23rd 2009 10:23:55 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0 May 23rd 2009 10:24:26 AM http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ w2.hidemyass.com/index.php?q=d3d3LmZsaXBweW9kZWdhcmQuY29t&hl=0

Anyway, thanks to the overwhelming “concern”, after I was starting to feel almost halfway decent (last week, I woke up one morning actually feeling rested, which is the first time that’s happened in at least eight months), and was hopeful that it might continue, the delightfully “concerned” letter and the phone call accusing us of stealing people’s pets & threatening that I’m going to end up a “spinster” (another word that means something other than what you think it means, although I guess it’s true, I am unmarried, at least until my next trip to Canada) put me back in a FM flare.  Lovely.  It makes me so angry that their “concern” makes me physically sick.  That said, after getting up to take the dogs out, I’m going back to bed because I’m exhausted.  David & Ilona, you can take at least several hours off to celebrate being 50, but acting much, much younger, because I’m going to be asleep.

the wee hours

Wishes for a very happy birthday

I just wanted to wish my friend, Nancy, a very happy birthday.  Not only does she have a fabulous name, but she’s a terrific friend.  The world of mommybloggers has given me, a childless homo, some of the most amazing friends.  I’m so grateful to have been able to make lifelong friendships through the oddest of ways.  I wish I was able to spend more real life time with Nancy & Helly, but I know that their friendship isn’t any less because it’s more pixels than, er, cells, I guess.  Plus, I got my very first 100% on the “How well do you know Nancy” quiz, after sinking as low as 14% for another friend named Nancy.  I’m so proud!  Anyway, happy birthday, Nancy.  We’re both really grateful for your friendship and hope that you have a terrific birthday.