Flippy - I Rant, You Read

Monday, May 11, 2009

evening

I want to write about something fun!

My blog is even starting to depress me, and in general, I’m quite fine with what I write, whether or not it’s entertaining to anyone else.  It’s kind of like my diary (albeit a bit censored), but published in public.  I miss my old posts about concerts and conventions and actually doing things.  Lately, I barely even log on to the computer anymore.  The only thing that has excited me is when after midnight Wed/Thurs, I get to see new stuff in the SuperPoke Pets Shop.  I suppose it’s maybe because I miss shopping (at the very least, not having to find out which store has our staples on sale - cereal, granola bars, dehydrated fruit, milk…and Tootsie Pops) and the SuperPoke Shop doesn’t cost anything, just time playing with other people’s pets or, frankly, what’s been happening with my account lately…other people playing with my pet.  I have about 800 “friends” (about 20 of them people I actually know), and I used to play with my friends’ pets daily, no matter what else I did.  If I had time, I’d play with strangers’ pets.  Now, nothin’.  I’m behind on message boards, blogs, and what’s happening on people’s Facebook pages.  I rarely return emails.  If I haven’t written back, don’t worry, I’m still somewhat alive, and I apologize for not getting back to you.  It’s not anything you did/said.  It kind of feels like information overload.  Heck, I barely know what’s going on in the news because I log on so little.  I do know that at least things seem better now that Obama is President.  I don’t feel like I have to keep an eye on everything to find out what dumb thing the administration has done today or this week.  I feel like we’re in better hands, and that if bad stuff happens, it was inevitable and not due to stupidity or meanness.

If anyone knows anything about getting a short sale through or getting a better deal on a short sale, please let me know.  I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but I know that I don’t want to lose this house (I’d sure like to relocate it somewhere cooler right now though, ugh), and I don’t have the energy (or money) to move anywhere else.  Except for the terrible insulation problem in this house (cold in the winter and hot in the spring and summer, and sometimes, fall) and the lack of cross-ventilation, it’s located in a nice neighborhood.  Even though we’re close to a large intersection, our street itself is really quiet and feels more isolated than the other homes in our subdivision because our one block of about 20 houses is separated from the other thousand or so by a large four lane street.  Behind us is another subdivision, but there’s a small street before that subdivision begins and our back wall is about twenty feet high, so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic.  We have nice neighbors who are friendly when we see them, but we rarely do see them.  Since our neighbor/friends from next door moved to Henderson, we really haven’t forged any new friendships.  The people who moved into their house are very nice, but they live their own lives with their extended family here.  On the other side is the same older couple that’s always been there, and except for them buidling the monstrous garage in their back yard, we like them just fine.  Then again, they also spend half of their time at their other home in Illinois, so we go for months not seeing them.  The neighborhood’s stray cats appreciate the quiet of their back yard.  We occasionally see their security lights go on, but whenever we look over the wall, we never see anything, so we’re sure that most of the time it’s just cats.  The owner has very nicely left a stripped Mustang in the back yard, so the cats have a little bit of shelter.  Sure, it’s kind of ugly, but we can’t see it unless we look at the yard from the bird room window.  So, to make a long story short, we like this house, most of the time.

Wow, this is so rambly.  I guess it’s because I don’t have much to say.  It’s hard to write a blog when you don’t do anything other than go to the doctor, the library, and the grocery store.  I’ve been feeling mostly crummy lately, so it’s a grand success when I shower and leave the house.  Although, it sure would be nice if someone would hire me to work from home.  I quite miss making money.  And heck, since I’m home so much, I could become a workaholic, too.  I feel a lot better when the sun goes down.  However, I haven’t heard from anyone that I’ve sent my resumes to, even though I’ve only applied for jobs that I could hardly be more qualified to do.  It’s sad.  Who are they hiring in my place?  You’d think they could at least give me a shot.  Sheesh.

Well, anyway, if you know anything about short sales, lemme know.

Friday, December 21, 2007

mid-morning

Life Sucks.  And Then It Sucks Some More.  And Then A Little More After That.

Cricket is currently spending her second night at the vet’s office, getting IV fluids and possibly pain meds still.  Last night around 8p, when all the vet offices were closed, Cricket started vomiting constantly.  When I say constantly, I mean every two seconds.  She was diagnosed with pancreatitis a couple of weeks ago and she’d been doing well.  She spent the day acting weird, but Cricket is high strung, so she sometimes just acts weird.  Well, now we know, she was in pain.  I’d even given her the pain meds in the morning, but apparently the pain went way beyond that.  We had to take her to the emergency clinic that’s 15 or so miles away.  Cricket settled down a tiny bit in the car, which was a relief, because she couldn’t have kept up the constant retching much longer.  I feel sorry for people whose pet stops breathing or something, and have to drive so far to get emergency help.  We have a vet’s office a couple blocks away that used to be an emergency clinic.  We called them, and the vet called back five minutes later, telling us that they’re no longer an emergency clinic.  He basically told us that it was $100 to leave his home, did we want him to get off his warm and cozy couch to come treat our dog in distress?  Gee, why would we want that, Mr. Vet Guy.  Duh.  So, since it would’ve required waiting for Mr. We Don’t Have An Emergency Clinic, we drove to the actual emergency clinic.  Also, that’s the vet that screwed up Carlo’s neuter and had him bleeding all over the kitchen floor…and had him under-medicated for pain.  The emergency clinic is all women, all the vets, all the techs (that we saw), the receptionists (that we saw), and they’re very very competent.  And expensive.  But competent.

Cricket was probably having a bad pancreatitis attack, although we’re not sure why because she’s been eating a special diet…and really not eating very much.  Her x-rays also showed that she has a narrow area between the disks in her back.  Not oozing out like my herniated disk, but a flattening of the cushy material between them.  We don’t know if she’s always had that, or if she got that when she fell off the bottom step of the stairs two days ago.  It was a very short fall…and one where the brunt of it sounded like it was taken by her jaw.  Ouch!  But, she seemed okay after that.  We were at the clinic until 11p, then had to drive home and get back up to pick her up by 7:30am, because the clinic closes at 8am.  They’re open during all of the hours that the other vets are closed - evenings, weekends, and holidays.  While I’m grateful they’re there, and I’m glad to know that the pets receive really terrific care there, the prices are higher than our vet’s office, which is one of the more expensive offices in town.  Although, again, the care there has proven to be at a much higher standard than the office run by Mr. Are You Sure You Want Me To Leave My House?

We picked Cricket up and had to take her directly to our regular vet’s office.  We left the emergency clinic with a goodie bag of vials of blood, a bag of fluids, and a cd with her x-rays on it.  She was put back on IV fluids and kept overnight.  We wanted her to stay overnight to make sure she was on the road to wellness since Leigh-Ann is leaving for Canada on Sunday night.  I don’t want any pet medical issues while she’s gone.  It’s awfully quiet without Cricket here.  Phoenix is such a peaceful well-behaved dog.  Cricket is more, well, yappy.  Let’s just say that she makes her presence known at various times throughout the day.  If the doorbell rings, if one of the cats walks in front of the bedroom door, if we’re downstairs and she’s lonely, well, you get the idea.  If any of you have a poodle or terrier, you probably know what I’m talking about.  Cricket seems to be a combination of poodle & terrier (we rescued her from a puppy store that couldn’t sell her because she’s a mix), and she gets the worst of their characteristics (yappy sometimes & high-strung) and the best (she’s adorable).  See, isn’t she cute?

So that was the sucks part.  My paycheck was the “and sucks some more” part of the equation.  I asked when I’d get my invoice because it was later than it normally is, and I need the invoice in order to bill for my work.  Well, my invoice was held up by the editor who decimated the previous invoice - yeah, apparently he was too busy to look at it then, but now was an excellent time to reject commissions that I’d been expecting right before Xmas.  Although, really, who needs money during the holidays?  Oh, not us folks who work on commission only, no sirree.  Not only will it be too late to pay the mortgage (on the 26th), it was a whole whoppin’ $350 for two weeks of work.  Merry Effin’ Xmas, no?  Let’s add this up - the mortgage (a lot), the car payment (a lot…and due Monday), and the power company wants $500 on the 31st, after I paid them $781 on the 12th.  Not only that, I called them on the 11th and made payment arrangements (they billed for the equal payments overage all at once), and then paid them on the 12th.  On the 17th, they shut off the power.  Yes, after I’d called them and made payment arrangements.  You’d think that paying almost $800 would keep your power on for more than a week, right?  I called them, in horror, telling them I paid them.  Two different people (I asked for a supervisor, which is something I don’t ordinarily do) gave me the most ridiculous reason - they said it was because I hadn’t CALLED BACK after I made that payment and made payment arrangements.  The hell?  When you’re on the phone, talking to someone at the power company and they give you an amount to pay and a date it’s due (which I paid them by), isn’t THAT the damned payment arrangement?  Why on earth would someone tell you to call back to make another different payment arrangement?  Honestly, I’m so sick of worrying about money.  It’s no wonder I can’t get the Fibromyalgia under control - I don’t have a single day without financial stress.  My body is probably attacking itself inside.  Oh wait, I didn’t finish the power company story.  I had to make ANOTHER payment arrangement to pay them another $500 on the 31st, or they wouldn’t turn the power back on.  When I finally agreed to it, because I would’ve agreed to anything to get the power on, they told me, “Oh, we can’t guarantee that you’ll get the power back on today.”  Yeah, they said it like it was no big deal.  The guy had left our house less than ten minutes prior to that point in the conversation and they’re telling me that they can’t guarantee I’ll get the power back…when the lows are in the 30’s.  They turned it back on at 8pm, which beat their deadline of 8:30p by thirty minutes.  So, we had to spend 8 hours without power, and we both work online.  Luckily, I’d worked through the previous night until 10am, so I’d only been in bed for two hours when the power went out.  So, we just went to bed and hoped to have power when we woke up.

It’s been a crappy crappy week.  Leigh-Ann’s leaving on Sunday for Canada, and I’m glad.  It’s depressing being here, so I want her to get away and have some fun with her family.  Maybe I’ll have sold a kidney by the time she gets back.  A kidney and maybe three toes.  What the heck, and a spleen and a gallbladder.  Wait, and an appendix.  People have those removed all the time without a problem.  So, I can have them removed and someone who’s been missing their extraneous organs can give me some cash for them and have them inserted ASAP.  They’re barely used.  I personally think I have a lovely appendix and that no one could give them a better deal.  Well, no one in North America.  Oh wait, and tonsils.  Oh, what the hell, I’ll throw in the tonsils for free.

Monday, October 08, 2007

lunch time

Blog World Expo - I’m So Excited!

I’ve been waiting for the Blog World Expo for almost a year, and now it’s only a month away.  Unfortunately, the Executive & Entrepreneur Conference where you get the more advanced sessions, is OUTRAGEOUSLY (in my opinion) expensive.  So, several bloggers that I’ve personally signed to syndication contracts for Newstex…and Arianna Huffington, will have to just wait until next year (if I can even afford it then - it’s $695 before Oct. 19th and $895 after!) to have me as an attentive student in their sessions. Leigh-Ann and I paid for the poor people’s “Standard” conference, although my employer offered me a free pass that they received with their payment for a booth/sponsorship, but those don’t come with any sessions, which I’ve been looking forward to for a long long time, so we had to fork over our own cash.  I’ve wanted to get as much learning and schmoozing out of the conference as possible since I haven’t been able to go to any of the blogger conventions over the past couple of years.  Ah, that just reminded me, I need to make up new business cards.  “Flippy - Blogger Extraordinare or maybe just Ordinaire.

Here is my schedule (and Leigh-Ann’s too - we have similar interests for the sessions we could afford, although we probably would’ve taken some different ones if we could’ve afforded the Executive & Entrepreneur ones) for the conference next month: Thursday - 8 November OPENING KEYNOTE 8:45 AM 9:45 AM Good to Great: Blogging & Profit Potential 1:30 PM 2:30 PM How Online Conversations Change Markets 2:45 PM 3:45 PM Maximizing the Benefits of Small Business Blogs 4:00 PM 5:00 PM THE NEW MEDIA MOGULS ROUNDTABLE 5:15 PM 6:15 PM Friday - 9 November The Future of New Media Publishing Tools 8:45 AM 9:45 AM Using Social Media to Drive Traffic to Your Blog 1:30 PM 2:30 PM Building Relationships with Bloggers 3:00 PM 4:00 PM FEATURED SPEAKER KEYNOTE 4:15 PM 5:15 PM

Hmm, I just looked over the sessions list again, and we’ve signed five or six of the speakers whose sessions are too pricey for us.  That’s kind of sad.  Maybe we can wave at them from down the hall.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

mid-afternoon

Answer Me This?

On Thursday, after plenty of decent sleep, I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by the fatigue bus.  If we didn’t have the dogs to take out or any of the pets to feed, we both could’ve gone back to sleep, that’s how terrible we felt.  On Friday morning, after waking up about every two hours or so, which I would think would be a fairly crappy night of sleep, I woke up feeling almost like I used to feel.  I felt decent all day.  Actually, it was the first day in a long time I could remember waking up and not bargaining with myself, “If you get up, you can have some Tully’s coffee downstairs, and a peaches & creme parfait cup.”  I just got up and was fine.  Unfortunately, I’m now still awake from that oddly refreshing day.  It’s 22 hours later.  However, I did accomplish some stuff for work, got a haircut, watched an excellent episode of “Veronica Mars” and a totally incredible episode of “Heroes”, and fastforwarded through the Leafs shootout win over the Devils.  Although, I’m a little worried about Tomas Kaberle.  He got a late hit elbow in the face from Cam Janssen (dirty hit or just jerky?), which caused him to slam awkwardly into the boards.  His face was immediately bruised (at the very least) and he looked dazed.  Like concussion dazed.  But the Leafs need him.  Desperately.

An added note:  my writing quality suffers tremendously as the hours awake climb over twenty. 

Sunday, February 04, 2007

lunch time

Let’s See, Where Have I Been?

I think this has been one of my longest blog breaks ever.  Believe me, I would’ve rather been blogging than…having a pelvic ultrasound (and no, not the external one that the silly girl at the radiology office said I was having), having many vials of blood taken out of my arm (the lab still had a Xmas tree up, and the place was totally depressing; however, the phlebotomist was a pro - nary a bruise did I get), making an appointment to have a cystoscopy on the 12th (if this last step doesn’t tell me what’s wrong with my worsening bladder, I’m going to have a hissy fit), figuring out a way to fix the very very bad financial damage of many many rainy days, most of which could not be foreseen, and working, working, working.  Plus, lots of feeling like crap.  My bladder has been extra bad lately.  I tried to meet my family for breakfast early last Saturday (and you know how I hate early mornings, but I did it, I got up and ready and left the house on time), and I only made it a few miles away from home.  It took me several panicky stops (I’m not sure if any of you know what those are like, but let’s just leave it at “not fun”) and jumping out of the car and standing up.  I finally realized that even if I was able to make it, I would’ve been like an hour late and totally miserable.  I gave up and made a few phone calls, and made my way back home.  The whole trip there and back took 40 minutes.  Under normal, non-stopping circumstances, it would’ve taken five minutes in each direction.  Blech, just blech.

The ultrasound was on Monday afternoon, and I left extra early so in case I had to make some stops, I’d still get there on time.  During the ultrasound, I discovered one more thing that makes me have to, uh, go.  When someone sticks something inside me to poke around and see if everything is where it should be.  Makes me feel like I have to pee, it does.  I didn’t, but laying in those stirrups, it gave me the same panicky feeling I get when I’m in the car and need to stop, only the tech wasn’t going to stop.  The experience wasn’t the most fun in the world, but it was painless and quick, and I want this thing taken care of so badly that I wasn’t even embarrassed like I normally might be.  It was more like, “Get it over with!”  The tech was really nice, and spent most of her time looking at her monitor versus looking at any part of me, so that helped.  Afterwards, Leigh-Ann and I (she went with me, to keep me company) went to the depressing lab that was a couple of blocks away.  I left Leigh-Ann in the car with her reading material and suffered the lab on my own.  It wasn’t bad.  As long as I don’t have to watch the blood being taken, it doesn’t bother me.  Then, like a good phlebotomist, she immediately put lots of pressure on my arm.  I’ve had some that didn’t and I’ve had some truly amazing bruises.  This woman was so good that right after it was done, I completely forgot about it.  I never even got a tiny bruise, just one needle prick point.

On Tuesday, we had invitations for a Microsoft Launch Event (Partner Track) at The Venetian.  My bladder was horrible hell from the get-go, but there was no way we were going to miss that event.  I can’t even count how many stops we had to make, but let’s just say it was b-a-d.  Luckily, we made it to the event exactly on time and we each came home with a free copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007.  It’s worth $400+.  I’ve installed it and for now, while it’s kind of neat looking, it’s not that useful for most people at home.  Also, every time I save a file, it wants to reinstall, which is annoying me.  I’m waiting for Leigh-Ann to use hers and see if she has the same problem.  The new ‘07 setup is interesting.  Instead of clicking on File in the upper left corner of the program, you click on the Microsoft logo.  I guess it’s visually prettier.  It also has Outlook ‘07, and again, it’s prettier.  The feature I’m looking forward to using once I get the whole password problem taken care of (it happens to me every time I change email programs), is the shared calendar.  So, Leigh-Ann I will be able to share a calendar online, while using different computers.  It’ll be handy so when we’re making appointments (usually for the doctor), we’ll know not to make one on the one day of the month we have something else planned.  You’d be surprised how often that happens.  We rarely have any major plans, but you can be sure that if something else comes up that we want to do, it’ll be on the exact same day.

The financial mess - let’s just say that it’s on the path to getting fixed.  I shouldn’t have waited so long, but I was scared and didn’t know what to do.  Anyway, I talked to some very nice and helpful people, and worked out almost everything.  There are some details that need a little more work, but my stress level went from, a on scale of 1-10, it went from a 12 down to a 5.  Damn, I hope that doesn’t mean that I’ll gain the weight back that I lost because I was so stressed. :D   Also, Leigh-Ann and I got a big raise at our main job.  It’s a commission job and it’s now on a tiered scale, so if we work very very hard (and we did!), we will be well-paid for our success.  If our employer is reading here, which I kinda doubt, but THANK YOU!  I love this job.  It’s the best job I’ve had since working at my brother’s tanning salon.  Only, it’s better because I don’t have to leave home to do it.  I have a great job, working from home (because, with my bladder and other health problems, I kind of have to), and I’m working with blogs and bloggers.  It’s still work, and there are still frustrations (arrrgh, people who don’t write back when they say they will or sign something when they say they will, grrrrr), but it’s way better than digging ditches.  It also gives me the opportunity when I’m feeling well to work long hours and hopefully start saving some money.  And you know, it’s not like I’ve been blowing money either.  Except for the occasional pricey computer-related item that is needed for work, my big splurges have been tea bags, coffee pods, and the occasional book…although we usually buy those with our Amazon gift certificates.  Mostly, the extras we’ve spent have been on other people - family, friends, strangers.  We like to buy gifts.  We don’t buy them for each other (we didn’t get each other anything for Xmas), although I bought Leigh-Ann an interesting necklace for her birthday that was close to 90% off.  The gift wrap & shipping was more than the gift, but the gift was pretty unique, if I do say so myself.  And pretty.

Tomorrow, we’re going to my brother’s house for a family Super Bowl party.  I’m torn because I want both Jesus freak coaches to lose.  I want religion to stay out of my sports.  I like sports, and I hate it when it becomes about anything but the sport itself.  I think I’m rooting mostly for the Bears defense, as they were my fantasy football defense and they mostly did really well for me.  They’re pretty awesome to watch.  I just hope it’s a good game, and that there are some really good commercials.

Since I’ve been working (and stressing) so hard lately, I’m way behind on my blog reading.  If I haven’t commented or you haven’t seen my IP even visiting your blog, it’s nothing personal.  I truly haven’t had any real free time for fun blog reading, only work blog reading.  Alas, my work blog reading list rarely overlaps with my fun blog reading list.  For work, I mostly read legal, marketing, and tech blogs.  Some of them are really great and fun, but I don’t have a lot of time to get too involved in them.  I make sure they’re well-written, have enough entries, have been blogging long enough, and stay on topic.  Then, I write to them and beg them to sign.  I like when the blogs are written in a more casual manner, so I can write to the blogger in a more casual way.  One blogger kept referring to me as Ms. Odegard versus just plain ol’ Flippy.  So, I called him Professor.  I refer to almost everyone else by their first name, as that’s how they blog.

Okay, that’s about all I have to say for now.  I’ll try to write more frequent shorter entries, just to keep in touch.