Sunday, February 04, 2007

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.

Next entry: Idiots of the Day - The Breast Cancer Society of Canada Previous entry: Boy, Do I Owe You Guys Some Entries

1. Flippy, I hope everything gets worked out for you, it sounds like you have a LOT going on.  Don’t worry about not reading up on other peoples’ blogs - real life DOES tend to happen sometime. 
   Take care of yourself!

   Lisa W.  on  02/04  at  11:30 AM

2. You’ve been missed. I’m really, really sorry that things have been so hard. I’ve been in your financial situation (as you describe it), by the way and, you’re right, taking the steps to address the problem take A LOT of the stress off.

   Hang in there.

   laurie  on  02/05  at  01:02 PM

3. I HATE internal ultrasounds.  Just not my cup of tea really.

   Jack's Raging Mommy  on  02/05  at  01:23 PM

4. I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:

   http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

   If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.

   Thanks,
   David

   David  on  02/06  at  09:46 PM

5. Hey, people who read my blog, even though David’s comment looks kind of spammy, and if you don’t go to the blog, you might think it’s a crappy blog.  It’s not.  It definitely looks like a comment that I might ordinarily delete, and would have, if the blog wasn’t good.

   So, sports fans, go visit David’s blog.  I think you’ll enjoy it.  No, seriously, it’s good.

   Flippy  on  02/07  at  12:43 AM

6. Everyone else, thanks for reading about my pathetic woes…especially Laurie, because I’m almost embarrassed when I compare our situations.  Of course, if everyone had to think that way, no one but really sick people would ever be able to whine, and then we’d have almost nothing to read online. :D

   Jack’s Raging Mommy, do you think internal ultrasounds are anyone’s cup of tea?  Ewww, you know what, I’ll bet it really *is* someone’s cup of tea.  Okay, I’m going to stop thinking about that right now.  Maybe I’ll go watch some bad auditions on American Idol to wipe that thought right out of my head.

   Flippy  on  02/07  at  12:49 AM

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