lilduckweed

Oh, BTW you're Rude!

2012-01-25T10:59:00.001-06:00

One of the rudest things people do to their pets care givers is the “oh, by the way...”

Oh, I brought my other dog along it’ll just be quick; he hasn’t peed in 3 days.

Oh, I know he is scheduled for his shots but he has this open wound on the back of his leg, he has really bad allergies and peeing in the house. I know I said on the phone that nothing was going on but I remembered on the way in today that I wanted to talk to the Vet about these things.

I figured since I was bringing the one pet in I would bring them all in and see what every one is due for. Um Ma’am we only have time for one and not 3 animals it’s only a 20 minute appointment.

Do people make appointments with their MD and just bring in the other child just for a quick check???

Do people think that little of our time?? We pride ourselves on not making our clients wait. People seem to get cranky (rightfully so) if they have to wait 30mins for a 20 min appointment.

Also when you make an appointment and say several times that you are bringing 2 dogs at 9am and absolutely must be done by 9:40 don’t show up at 10 after 9 and cop an attitude.

I need a week off.

2012-01-23T14:08:00.000-06:00

I don’t really take vacations. I visit Eddie in Lansing for a weekend or two a year. I have Convergence in July but as fun as that is I wouldn’t call it a completely relaxing experience. The shore isn’t as relaxing and stress free as it was when I was younger. I need one of those don’t go anywhere and putter around the house kind of vacations. Me, the cats, awful TV and no where to be. I have hit my stress limit. Everything is stressing me out and I think a week of sleeping in might just help.

I don’t get that much vacation time and it is tied to my sick time. I can’t afford to take a week off but my tax returns might be just what I need to take the time. I am also moving in March and neeeeed to get my apartment together. I have to decide what I can live without for short-term, long-term and what will go away forever. Taking a week to sort things on my terms will also reduce stress.

Just talked to the boss… It’s just a matter of getting my shifts covered.

Oliver

2011-10-06T17:25:00.000-05:00

they tell you in school that it will happen. they tell you to prepare for it to happen. How do you do that? how do you prepare for the one animal that will have that reaction.

Today we had a beautiful black and white 2 year old cat come in. His name was Oliver, he was sweet and even knew how to hug. Routine nothing big. He was a routine de-claw. (fuck you to any one who wants to argue the “cruelty” of delcawing. with out it he wouldn’t have had a home so, repeat FUCK YOU). he was healthy in every respect. He is prepared for surgery and his body fights it tooth and nail. lighten him up.. take him deeper... put him on straight O2.... increase the iso... flip him to do the other paw... heart rate is at 60... then I can’t feel it. It was gone no heart rate. Dr. gives epi and cpr.

all I could say was “Dr make him go... just make him go”. she tried longer knowing he was gone to give me the chance. His heart didn’t go and I fell apart.

you can tell yourself you’ll be able to deal when something like that happens but how can you prepare to feel life stop under your finger tips.

this is the first day I have hated my job.

Dear Jerk Dog Owner

2011-08-29T13:06:00.000-05:00

Dear Jerk Dog Owner,

We haven't seen your dog in over 9 years. We do not have a legal relationship with you or your "poor suffering dying dog". Yes I understand that you think your dog has an ear infection. You tell me that it is all black inside the dog’s ear and that cleaning isn’t working. My advice to you? Take it to a vet. How about one you have seen more recently than us? You just said that you can’t(wont) bring her to a vet, that you are waiting for her to just die, she can’t breath very well but don’t want her to suffer over something like an ear infection.

When I tell you what you are doing is like calling a random doctor you found in the phone book telling them you have diagnosed yourself with something and begging for pills, I am not joking or making things up.

Saying things like how >I< am going to “just let the dog suffer” is not going to help your cause. I told you the guilt thing wasn’t going to work. These are not my choices. I told you in plain English that if this was happening to you, you would take yourself to the doctor. This is the choice >you< are making for your “poor suffering dying dog” NOT ME.

F--- You,
Heather

Dear Poor Innocent Dog,
I am sorry your owner is a douche-knuckle. I really wish I could help end your suffering if it is as bad as Jack Ass tried to get me to believe. I know you must be at home fighting for each breath and just wishing someone make it stop. I send positive vibes your way and want you to know its ok to let go and pass on.

With a heavy heart
Heather

We'll see

2011-04-20T09:13:00.001-05:00

I downloaded this Blogger app in hopes of actually writing/blogging more often.

wow that was 4 years ago

2011-04-17T11:53:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I think I am cracked in the head

I am starting to look into going back to school to be a Certified Veterinary Technician. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. My problem is I have no passion for what I do anymore. You add that to the fact that there are under 50 jobs in this television market that I am qualified for, the fact I have been effectively black listed from working at KSTP that leaves me with only 3 other TV news stations in town, I have 0% chance of job growth where I am working and that equals a desperate need to find something new to do with my life. Can I handle going back to school and working full time? I am sure I can find the will. The hardest part is making the decision to put us that much further in to debt.

4 years later and I am a CVT and don't miss being in TV at all. I made the right choice and have never been happier.

One year later

2010-12-21T11:35:00.000-06:00

Last year at this time I was in a major funk. It was the holidays I was alone and I was feeling insanely lonely. I was also beating myself up for feeling lonely as it was my choice to be alone. I locked myself in my apartment for New Years as to not repeat the self-destructive behavior I inflicted on myself (and others) at Christmas.

This last year as been amazing. I gave myself the freedom to just do. There were some major bumps in the road but I am thankful for them. I learned who my friends and loved ones truly are. I look at my life and I wouldn’t change any of it. I have a job that I adore and friends who love me for me. I wake up and I am happy.

I am starting yet another new chapter and it is hard to contain my excitement for it all.

This holiday season I will not be alone or lonely. I will be smiling and enjoying every last living second of it.

Yay!

$6000

2010-09-27T13:17:00.001-05:00

$6000 that is what the guy behind me in line spent on an engagement ring. I gagged when I heard that. He explained to his coworker that he spent 3 months salary. I can honestly tell you I would have skinned Rob alive if he spent anywhere near that much (but lets face it doesn’t matter what Rob spent on my ring he didn’t get his moneys worth outta me). I can’t understand the reason for spending that much. If your bride to be gets upset because you didn’t spend enough frankly your relationship has bigger issues. WTF

I am responsible for myself.

2010-03-12T15:55:00.002-06:00

I am not responsible for anyone else. I speak for no one but myself.

With that in mind…

I have decided that I will not take my failing in another person’s eyes as a personal failure. I didn’t asked to be held up against some conjured measurement or moral compass. I am a person in consistent evolution. More so in the last year than ever in my life. I have made mistakes and I take responsibility for that. I will not keep rehashing something I cannot change, nor will I be made to feel guilty. I will not allow that to keep me from becoming the person I know I want to be. I do not look back at the last 12 months and dwell on the things that I have lost. I look forward to my future and am thankful for what is around me now.

I am loyal to the core, I always have been but I think I need to protect myself more. I am making the choice to keep the friendships in my life that are truly two-way streets. I am tired of feeling like I put in all the effort. It is not worth the stress that comes with it.

Blarg

2010-03-04T17:37:00.005-06:00

I have had a really crappy couple of weeks. I am run down and I feel like there is no way I am going to catch up on my sleep. I have had family stuff the last two weekends and this weekend all I want to do is runaway to somewhere where there is no pressure and no need for me to focus on any one thing for very long. Hell I doubt I will be able to focus long enough for media day on suday but I will try.

if I wasn't poor, if it wasn't a 10+ hour drive and if I could afford to take more time off I would SO runaway to Lansing and curl up on Eddie's couch with Maya... go to the bar...then back to the couch with Maya.

my next vacation isn't until the end of June... Blarg

Damn straight

2010-02-10T17:44:00.001-06:00

There is one toxic element to my work life and that is Negative Nancy with whom I work with on Wednesdays. She is one of those people who one ups you with every story. She can’t get a long with anybody and she can be down right rude to clients for no reason. And she doesn’t like me, and this is ok with me. She is also closing in being the queen of passive aggressive. She didn’t feel I was doing my part so she emptied all the garbage cans but instead of replacing the bags and putting them away she set each can in the center of their rooms. I told my boss about it and she asked if I felt like drawing faces on my “sad little trash can army”. It is pretty sad the lengths she goes to. She also likes to mutter under her breath at me because “I have been in the field for 16 years” blah blah blah. Last week I told her to knock it off and keep it in her head I was tired of dealing with it. I have also discovered (and failed at the last few weeks until today) was that the #1 way to piss her off is to be in a good mood. She hates that I get along not only with the vet that owns the clinic but the relief vet who works on Wednesdays.

There was a threat that I was going to have to work with her 5 days this week (normally it’s 1) but thankfully my boss decided she and I could handle things just us 2 for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. I did a dance.

I love my job, I love 97% of our clients, I’ll be damned if one dark cloud is going to bring me down!!

Update

2009-12-30T15:16:00.000-06:00

Things have improved. I have stopped crying and overall I am doing much better. I still feel like I am behind on sleep. I decided the best thing I could do for myself this New Years Eve & day is lock myself in the apartment with my favorite foods, my favorite cats and all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1.

I had dinner with Drew on Monday and that helped more than anything. He makes me answer the hard questions about myself and he makes me laugh.

Happy New Year!!! Here is to an awesome 2010 and to forgetting about 2009 :)

2009-12-28T18:39:00.002-06:00

Kate... have fun with the family!

Yeah….

2009-12-28T12:45:00.000-06:00

Starting last week I have been in a funk. Christmas is my second favorite holiday after Halloween and I just wasn’t feeling it this year. I have just been depressed, and frankly that sucks. I am lonely but I want to be alone. I really miss having tons of family around. My car got stuck trying to get to my folks on Friday and that didn’t help anything, then I hung out with some friends and drank too much… that didn’t help. I just feel like I am in a hole. Today I am just in a fog. Everything seems to be in slow motion.

To add to the dark mood we had the City of Plymouth police bring in a feral cat this morning. It was a very small female orange tabby showing neurological signs. We had to euthanize her and normally that wouldn’t bother me so much but the cat was so aggressive that the vet was restraining her with the leather gloves and I had to be the one to administer the beuthanasia. I knew that at some point in my career I would have to be the one to give the meds, but today wasn’t a good day for that to happen. The fact that orange tabbies are my favorite cats just made things worse. I know what we did was the kind thing to do, there was something very wrong with that cat, but I still cried.

I really hope these feelings end soon. I hate feeling this way and it has been a very long time since the last time I was hit this hard by them.

I know I have family and friends that love me and I am thankful every day for that. I am ready for the up swing.

Devoted

2009-12-11T12:39:00.004-06:00

Devoted Part of Speech: adjective Definition: committed, loyal

For well over 10 years now I have collected these guys in my life who are my best friends. They are brutally honest and always there to pick me up when I fall flat. I have never dated any of them; the universe has never lined up as to have that be an option so it has rarely been an issue. I have routinely said when explaining them to people that I am “in love” with all of these guys. I have been thinking about that statement lately and decided that wasn’t true. I do deeply love all of them but what I am is devoted. I would give them anything they asked for and there isn’t anything wouldn’t do for them. I treasure these friendships above all others. It is funny to me sometimes because I know that if any one of them were to all of a sudden say hey lets start dating I wouldn’t even blink. I mean who doesn’t want to be with someone who knows you that well. I just don’t see that ever happening. When I do start dating someone I tell them early on that I have these guys in my life and if you aren’t comfortable with that then we can’t be together. I would rather be single for the rest of my life than not have them in my life. No one person could ever fill what they are to me. It isn’t easy to become a part of that inner circle in my life, it takes an extreme amount of trust on my part to let that happen. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without these friendship. The circle may get bigger but it will not ever be smaller. It’s comforting and it always makes me smile. We should all be this lucky.

Simple rule....

2009-09-27T23:37:00.001-05:00

the sign says "parking by permit only, violators will be towed"I pull in and there is a car in my spot I call the building manager

Me: there is a car in my spot i need it towed

BM: are you sure you don't want to wait and see if they'll move it

Me: no, it's 1130 and I want the car out of my spot.

BM: are you sure

Me: Sorry I have no sympathy for people who park where they shouldn't and in a place I pay extra for, I want them towed.

BM: ok I'll call the truck.

see not so hard.

Change

2009-09-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

How I feel about it does not matter, if I approve is of no consequence… I understand. I will take this moment to be upset in my own selfishness. The loss is not permanent, but deeper than I had thought it would be. I will come to terms and be happy for you. Right now as I sit here alone with my feelings I am distressed by my sense of loss. My confidant will not be right there. I am not good with change and I have had so much in the last year. I hope you understand I am happy for you, it is just going to take me some time to not cry when I think about it.

updates and my chance to see Eddie

2009-08-14T18:39:00.004-05:00

I know I have been absent for a long while my life has been torn upside-down. In the last 2+ months I have filed for divorce, moved out, graduated, took 2 certification tests and taken some much needed time for myself as well as started working at the clinic I did my internship at. These are all good things.

Rob and I are going to be fine… as friends. We talk everyday and txt often. I think he is ready for all of my stuff to be gone from the house but that will happen soon enough. We had a hearing on August 6^th to get the divorce stuff figured out. The Judge signed off and we will be getting the paper work sometime here.

I graduated on June 25^th. On the 26^th I went on the annual vacation with friends and family to the north shore. I have mentioned it here before. We went up on Friday and came home on Tuesday. It was amazing. I got to chill with as my mom puts it “My family of choice”. The Cross-etts (all 8 of them), the Tennessen clan, Roger Doger and last but not least… Lois J. We played Todd ball and sat around the fire. I had the best and most well needed sleep.

We got back on Tuesday and on that Wednesday I checked in to the hotel where Convergence was going to be held. I spent the next 5 days/nights at the hotel getting my geek on. I realized just how much I missed my geeks. I hung out with the gang but also got to hang with my mom my real brother and my little brothers (My mom’s best friends kids) Pack and Andrew. It was great! I can’t wait for next year.

A few week later I went to Nebraska to visit my Grands. It was good to see them I haven’t been down to see them in a while. Mom and I managed to not argue/try to kill each other.. always a bonus.

Last week I spent time in Lansing MI with one of my oldest and closest friends, Eddie. Eddie moved away between 7^th and 8^th grade, after that we wrote each other letters (yes in the days before email). I would write him 10-15 pages at a time. There were times when I would start writing him letters but I never would get around to sending them and those letters turned into my love for free writing and how I have managed to keep journals. Every “journal” entry is started with “Hey You” and always written as if I was writing to Eddie to tell him all the ups and downs of my life and help talk myself through whatever it is that I am dealing with. Eddie and I lost touch but reconnected again and I went to visit him in 2001, it was the first time I had seen him since he moved away in Jr. High. It was a great time and then it was another 8+ years before once of us got it together to visit the other. It’s easy to see that my life has been a rollercoaster this year and I really needed time to spend with one of my best friends. It was great! I got to meet his friends and it was really great to get some faces to match the names.

Our friendship is a very unique one. Our entire relationship is based on communication. Through letters and phone calls. We have always been 100% honest with each other because we don’t know any of the other people, just names. The only concern we have is for each other. There also is no judgment. The good the bad and the ugly, it doesn’t matter. Ours is an unconditional love and I am not talking romantically. I have someone who I can talk freely with without fear of judgment... who knows every ugly secret and it doesn't change how he interacts with me... someone who will not tell me what I want to hear but the truth no matter how much it hurts... That is what is rare and the true meaning of unconditional love. I have been lucky to find that and be able to hold on to it for 20 years.

Finding that oasis in Lansing last week, was an amazing thing. I was able to step back from the worries and stresses that are a part of everyday. The stress of starting a new life and trying to keep my sanity. I didn’t know coming home would hit me as hard as it did. It is tempting to just run away, but that is not the answer to anything.

Oh and by the way I PASSED MY NATIONAL CERT TEST!!! I AM A CVT!

In short I am going through whiplash

2009-08-09T22:53:00.001-05:00

I went to visit my friend Eddie (I’ll get to that in the next post). Being in Michigan, I found myself in a place I had never been before… Someplace 100% safe. I was with Eddie and our friendship is without judgment and I met his friends who expected nothing of me because I was someone important to Eddie. That was the beginning and the end. No stress, no expectations. I slept like I didn’t have a care in the world while I was there, and that was because I didn’t.

I come home and I have to readjust to real life. People who don’t have my feelings or best interests at heart are right there. I know I have a choice to have those people in my life. And I am making those decisions, as much as they suck.

But honestly I would rather be curled up with Eddie’s dog. I will get back to who I was but I will ache for the safety and be comforted that it is there. If I really need it, it’s only a car ride away.

crazy

2009-06-15T11:45:00.003-05:00

my schedule for the next 3 weeks
Mon Jun 15 - Thu Jun 18 STUDY STUDY STUDY!!!!!!
Thu Jun 18 6pm – 8:30pm Cert Review- final
Fri Jun 19 8am – 4pm National Vet Tech exam
Sat Jun 20 8am – 4pm State Vet Tech Exam 4:30pm - midnight Dr Who-ing/head exploding/drinking
Thu Jun 25 6pm – 7pm Graduating
Fri Jun 26- Tue Jun 30 the Shore
Wed Jul 1 - Sun jul 5 Con

and during all that I have to unpack and make my apartment livable. YIKES

Friendships

2009-06-10T17:25:00.003-05:00

I am in love. It's true. I am in love with all of my friends and that is an amazing feeling. I have people I can call on when I am freaking out or need to have a drink. it is comforting to know that they are there.

i have.missed having a bar.

2009-05-29T20:05:00.001-05:00

i have.missed having a bar. i can walk away from my drink and know 1 of 6 people would kill someone if they touched it. yay!

externship weeks 4 & 5

2009-05-13T20:58:00.000-05:00

Week 4
April 27th – Monday
First thing in the morning we received a call from a client who had brought their dog in for “springer rage” the dog had quickly become uncontrollable and this morning it bit the owner drawing blood. Later in the day they brought the dog in to be put down and because of the bite we had to send the dog to the University for Rabies testing. Bernie the pug came in for a recheck after the tooth extraction he is gaining weight and looking much better than the last time he was in. I ran 3 4dx tests and gathered prevention meds for patients.

April 28th – Tuesday
We had 2 dentals and a lumpectomy. I did the second dental. That was very cool. I also got to place the cathetersJ. I ran the presurgical blood work and helped draw up the meds and premed the animals.

April 30th – Thursday
Surgery day. We had rads with sedation, dental and a spay. I ran the pre-surgical blood work and helped draw up the meds and premed the animals.

May 2nd – Saturday
Mad house. Fecals, nail trims, 4dx tests. I set up and scanned all the fecals and found one positive for cocci and one for teania, that was very cool. One 4dx was positive for anaplasma. I filled the Rx’s and helped with vaccines.

May 4th – Monday
We had an euthanasia with a client who took the body home with them. I thought it was kind of odd but I guess people still want to bury their animals. We did routine exams, gave boosters ran fecals and heartworm tests.
May 5th – Tuesday
Surgery day. Our one surgery for the day canceled. I ran 4dx tests, scanned fecals and restrained for blood draws.
May 6th – Wednesday
Yesterday Jill who would normally cover the front desk called in sick so Dr. Williamson asked if I could come in and help cover. We are fully booked to the rest of the week so she wanted to make sure we had enough cover. Dr Buschette is the doctor who works on Wednesdays. She wanted me to mostly cover the front desk as she is not sure of what I can and cannot do. Today I did my first Tech appointment solo. It was a single vaccine. I checked them in, got the weight, put them in the room, drew up the vaccine, gave it to the patient, checked them out and rang them up. I helped restrain while Dr Buschette lanced an anal glad abscess on a very unhappy cat. That was GROSS!!!! And very smelly. I learned how to process transactions and print up rabies certificates. I also made new charts for new clients.

May 7th – Thursday
Surgery day. We had a spay with cystotomy and an external fixator being placed on a very sweet Chihuahua that had a fracture of the front right leg. Sam had a doctor’s appointment this morning she left after we pre-meded the animals. That made me the anesthetists for the two surgeries. Dr. Rasmussen did the surgery on the Chihuahua. That was a very neat surgery to see. That little dog has been through hell, it was broken by a dog at a dog park and the other dog’s owner denied responsibility even though there were several witnesses to what happened. The spay was uneventful. we had a dog come in with an allergic reaction to something. Dr. Williamson had me go in the room and take the history and bring the dog in back for her to look over. When we did that we found a fully engorged tick walking around the dog’s back. GROSS!!! Unsure of what was causing the allergic reaction we gave the dog Benadryl.

May 8th – Friday
I only worked a half day. We had routine annual exams with vaccines and heartworm tests. Jill showed me how to trim nails on a large dog. I am still nervous about cutting nails. During the lunch time and before I left I made client calls regarding negative 4dx results.

externship weeks 2 & 3

2009-05-13T20:54:00.001-05:00

4/13/09 – Monday
I set up 4 fecals and scanned 2. We saw Joey the pug with the drain for a recheck and Dr. Williamson decided not to take it out and keep him on antibiotics. Sam and I vaccinated a poodle mix and she expressed the anal glands. I ran the poodle’s 4dx and scanned his fecal. We had 4 no shows and there was more down time then we had planned for. I listened as Sam made call backs to clients.

4/14/09 - Tuesday
Surgery day we had a neuter, declaw and a dental with extractions. The dental was on Bernie the pug from last week that had been left at the kennel and picked up after losing 4 pounds. Bernie had gained a pound back and was looking much healthier. I scrubbed the surgical sight for the neuter and did anesthesia for the neuter and the declaw. It was kinda creepy seeing the little cat toes on the table. That afternoon a very sweet border collie came in for an euthanasia, he had vestibular syndrome and wasn’t getting better. His owner was very nice and I stayed with him to help keep the dog on the table in the room while Dr. Williamson and Sam got the solution together. It was weird after the owner left, I have witnessed and participated in euthanasia’s before but this time I cried a little before I started bagging. I am sure this is mostly because I have close personal relationships with my teacher’s border collies and it caught me a little off guard. After that we had routine exams and 4Dx test.

- I was sick so I missed clinic on 4/18 and 4/20 -

4/21/09 - Tuesday
Surgery day. We had only on dental and tons of annual appointments. Sam and I went over how to give after care instructions. I ran the pre-surgical blood work on the abaxis chemistry machine. We had a dog, Dusty, who was in all day for a Dexamethasone suppression test, where you take a blood draw before giving a dose of Dexamethasone one 4 hours after and the last 8 hours later (it turns out he has cushings). Pipit a Am. Staff came in for staple removal, a glucose test.

4/23/09 – Thursday
Surgery day. We had a spay with extractions, a neuter and dental with a massive lump removal. . I ran the pre-surgical blood work for all of the anaimls while Sam was getting the induction and pre-meds drawn up. We then gave the premeds. I monitored anesthesia for the spay and the neuter. We also had a first year vet student Evan, he wants to be a large animal vet. It was neat to talk to him about what it is like for vet students vs. vet tech. Nekko a 12 year old lab came my first week for a consult for a TPLO after her dog jumped off the deck. Well sometime over this last weekend she stopped walking all together.

4/24/09 - Saturday
Euthenized an 18 year old cat. We had a surgery consult for hip surgery on a pure bred Newfouldland, 180 pounds and very nice. We had 2 vaccine appointments and I got to administer them.

Externship week one

2009-04-13T09:02:00.003-05:00

Monday I came in at 11am. Dr. William, Sam the tech and I went over the externship outline and figured out how we wanted to start things out. After lunch I went in on 3 appointments, I restrained for 2 jugulars and restrained for a drain removal on Joey the pug. I ran and logged results for 4 4DX tests (heartworm). I even got to answer the phone and put a client on hold.

Tuesday is surgery day. We had 3 on the schedule, 2 dog spays and a dog neuter. I restrained for catheter placement and intubation for the spays. I scrubbed for all 3 surgeries. The front desk person Sue went on break while we were doing the neuter so when the phone would ring or a client came in to buy food I was left in charge of monitoring the anesthesia and waking him up.

Thursday is also surgery day. We had one TPLO surgery on the schedule and a possible dental with extraction and a possible x-ray with sedation. The dental was a pug who had been at a kennel for 9 days and when the owners had picked him up and found that he has lost 4 pounds and his face was swollen and he was bleeding from the nose and gums and had an abscessed tooth. He had come in on Wednesday and saw the relief vet who scheduled him for the extraction. Dr. Willam looked at the pug’s blood work and decided that what he needed was another week on the antibiotics before he would be put under anesthesia. The lab came in with a possible torn cruciate ligament, from jumping off the deck while chasing squirrels, the owner was hoping the orthopedic surgeon that was coming in for the TPLO would take a look. The surgeon did look at the lab and decided yes the dog had a torn cruciate and there was no need for the x-rays. I shaved for the TPLO, but otherwise I just observed. A Chihuahua, Abby with congestive heart failure, came in because she was breathing heavy so while the surgery was going on I was going back and checking on her and updating the Dr. Joey the pug returned that afternoon because the abscess had returned. The Dr. and I masked the pug down and she reinserted the drain. Sam the tech is pregnant and she couldn’t be in the room so I got to be the one monitoring Joey. I ran 4 more 4DX tests and even set up 2 fecals and scanned them after Sam had. I dispensed medication for Joey.

Saturday, I did less because it was all relief people who don’t work at the clinic on a regular bases. Dr. Anderson was the vet and he does this differently than Dr. Willam. We had a euthanasia and I learned how they bag and tag the departed. Peggy, one of the techs, let me scan a fecal and she checked it to tell me if I had missed something. I dispensed medication for 2 clients. I also learned more about the computer program they use to keep records and print med. labels. I restrained a cat while Dr. Anderson gave vaccines and microchipped. I gave the client information regarding the registration process of the Home Again microchip.

The people I am working with really seem to enjoy what they are doing and are being so cool about letting me jump in and do stuff.

Really? You're How Old?

2009-03-17T16:06:00.001-05:00

When did being rude, completely disrespectful and demanding become the normal way to treat other people? I just don’t understand. I work and go to school with people ranging in age from 18-60 and I cannot believe the nerve of some people. They barge in the office, run in to people and don’t even bother to say “excuse me”. Yes it is a maturity thing, not an age thing. I have people barking at me with no regard for what I am doing at the time. I see students falling asleep in class, giving teacher attitude because they aren’t being spoon fed answers and they have to think and look things up on their own. I don’t understand. I understand that the only one affecting my grades is me. My attitude and my willingness to put effort in to my classes are what get me the grades I get. The teachers treat the students like employees in a clinic and students, they should be shown the respect you would give not only a teacher but also a coworker and I don’t see that nearly enough. It’s a failure to see the bigger picture. I get so angry when I see my teachers get attitude from people not willing to put in the effort. Like somehow it’s the teacher’s responsibility to hold the hands of ADULTS who should know by now how to do things on their own. The self-centeredness you see in 3 year olds I see in grown adults.

Ridiculous

Rough Weeks

2009-02-09T20:48:00.001-06:00

You want to know a secret? I have had a very rough few weeks.

I rolled my car… with me in it. Upside down, hanging from my seatbelt. I made it out fine, the car was totaled. I was pretty shaken up but I did my best to laugh it off because I was ok. I am over it, I have my new pretty car we are just waiting for the insurance money to come in.

Once I got over that I got walloped again, this time through facebook. Only it started almost 20 years ago, one of my brother’s friends when I was 13 took advantage of me. I don’t know if it really classifies as molestation but what he did fucked me up. That was/is a deep part of my self-esteem issues you may have noticed that I have, and a deep part of the issues I have had with guys most of my life. I thought I had a handle on things until I saw Him 2 years ago at the renaissance fest and threw up on Rob and ran as fast as I could away before he saw me. It took me a while before I stopped having flash backs. Then last Monday I came home from school logged on to facebook and found a friendship request from Him. I denied the request and had a small email back and forth. He doesn’t remember it that way and is sorry for “hurting” me and promised to not talk to me if he ever see me (Luckily for me the few places where he might try to talk to me I have friends who have no qualms resorting to violence). Needless to say I have been an emotional mess. It kills me that 20 years later this shit gets in my head. I was sitting at school on Wednesday thinking how the fuck did it get this far and trying my damnedest not to cry. I mean my self esteem in was in NEGITIVE numbers. On Wednesday night I re-learned how great my friends are. I have a really great group of people (other than rob) who know the good, bad and ugly about me and love me anyway. I hung out with Dan, I talked with Bill and Drew on the phone, and I reached out to my buddy Eddie through txt and email. I still cried on my way home but it would have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for them. After that I was on the upswing.

I am very thankful for the people in my world and that is why they are there. I have tried to make it a life’s rule not to let the toxic people of my past ruin my present or future.

YAY

2008-12-18T15:02:00.003-06:00

Finals are over! Yippie!! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I am looking forward to having the weekend off. we aren't going to rob's parents this weekend because of weather and because Duncan is sick. I was very happy that Rob's mom called and said it wouldn't be good idea to do all that driving because I didn't want to have tell rob he was going alone over a sick cat.

I am now playing egyption rat screw with Drew and his friend. I miss that game, I used to play it with the wrestlers. Drew played it when he was on the wrestling team in HS before I got there. :)

Finals

2008-12-17T20:27:00.002-06:00

Finals are tomorrow. I am as ready as I am going to get. What I am looking forward to is going out with my friend afterwards and consuming beer. Beer is good... beer after finals? tastes better

I am back… and damn I have missed me

2008-12-14T22:47:00.000-06:00

Back at the start of the quarter I switched one of my meds and that was the biggest mistakes I could have made. This was the quarter I was taking Surgery and Anesthesia, where we assist with REAL animal surgeries. I also started working at school as an Animal care supervisor, not a good time to be messing with the status quo. The new meds seriously messed with my head. I was edgy and had a very short fuse. I didn’t like the way it made me feel and I was basically withdrawing from everything and when I wasn’t at school I was sleeping. I would make myself stay awake till Rob got home at 630 and would be in bed and asleep by 8 and would sleep straight through to my alarm. On weekends I would go to bed at 7 and sleep till 10am and take naps in the afternoon. I didn’t want to hang out with anyone and the biggest clue things were getting bad was the fact that I wasn’t excited at all for Halloween. If you know me you know I LIVE for carving pumpkins. That is when I couldn’t take it anymore and went back to the doctor and switched back. It was awful. Once I started to feel better I realized how much I was enjoying my classes and LOVE my job.
Over the last few weeks I have been going out, hanging with friends and just having a good time. I have seen Drew more in the last two weeks then I had in the last 3 months. It was when I was with Drew at DWI that I was once again being myself and happy, and it felt good to be me. I even got Rob to go out this weekend it was great. Kate I cursed you last week, I REALLY wanted to go out and get beer and I was striking out with all my boys and Rob was giving me the stink eye about all my options being boys and I was like “damn you Kate why did you have to go and move on me!!!” but that is ok he got over it. Being me is good. I am looking forward to having 2 weeks off from school (even though I will be working at school) and the start of the new quarter.

Friday Night Another DWI

2008-11-30T17:57:00.003-06:00

Friday I went to another taping of Drinking With Ian and I had a blast. Drew and I went together as the hubby wasn’t feeling well. We started the night by having dinner at the chatterbox pub. I had the Sicilian Salad: Romaine lettuce tossed with sun dried tomatoes, crispy pepperoni, roasted green olives, feta, parmesan, shaved red onions, and roasted garlic, tossed with our balsamic merlot vinaigrette. I am telling that was the best salad I have ever had and I am not really a salad person. We went there so Drew could wish a friend a happy birthday but they went to the one in St Paul and we went to the one in mpls oops :)

DWI was a blast as always. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard my side hurt. Free drinks, free laughs, meeting and hanging out with really fun people and at one point I twisted my ankle but frankly it was well worth it. I can’t wait to do it again. :)

The list of things I don't miss about working in TV is truthfully endless, the list of things I do miss is very short and near to the top if not the top of that list is Ian. I loved playing his show, I love the concept behind the show and I miss him coming in to drop off new shows and brightening the end of my day.

Frodo part 3

2008-11-19T17:30:00.001-06:00

Thursday morning I came in extra early because it was surgery day, I walked into the office and all of Frodo’s stuff was still sitting there. Crazy lady never showed up to get him. The other animal care supervisor called her the night before at 830 when she still hadn’t showed up and the lady said she would be in to pick him up at 9am. As hard as it was to leave him the night before I was really hoping he wouldn’t be there when I came in. I of course went and got him out of his kennel, he looked just as bad. So to shorten the story I put him in a basket and brought him into class with me and set him up so we could keep an eye on him while we were doing surgery, lucky me I was the circulating tech so I didn’t have to scrub in and could see him. Every time the vet walked through class my heart sank, I knew she was coming in to take my cat. 9 o’clock rolled around and she wasn’t there, then at 1130 the vet came in a picked up his basket, I was washing tools from the first surgery, she has finally come to pick him up.

I carried fordo to the office she was there and she there and so happy to see him. The vet explained that his condition was being caused by over medication, and because his was over medicated there was no way to do surgery on him and doing so would most likely kill him. The crazy lady said she understood and that he would be off the meds as soon as the undistended testicle so the vet went over it again. At that point I wanted to puke I couldn’t believe that I had to hand this cat back to her, I put Frodo in his basket and put him on the desk and walked out. I knew if I stayed in the room I was going to hit her or run out to my car with him. The vet came and found me when she was gone and apparently at the end of the conversation crazy lady said that Frodo had an appointment the next day to “evaluate the meds” and the vet said that it sounded like she was trying to say whatever she thought the vet wanted to hear. I cried but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

The next Monday
Crazy lady brought in more cats, when I asked her about Frodo she told me the vet she took him to on that Friday had done the surgery, once again I almost puked. A good vet NEVER would have put him under, she must not have a good vet. I asked when he would be available for adoption, she hemmed and hawed and came up with a week. grrrrrrr

The Monday after that
Crazy lady brought more cats, I asked about Frodo and she told me that had him almost weaned off all his behavior meds.

Do I believe he’s ok? No, I just have my fingers crossed that he is ok and that they will adopt him to someone else. I miss my little guy and in his honor I am working my ass off to find another cat rescue for us to use. Crazy lady is the last on the list when we need animals, and as you can tell we had to use her.

Sorry

2008-11-18T17:02:00.002-06:00

I will finish the story of Frodo, i will not sleep tomorrow until it is done.

Tired

2008-11-04T15:38:00.004-06:00

I will post Frodo Part 3 tomorrow.

today I did my duty, I voted. I voted and I am tired, tired of people telling me who they voted for, why the "other guy" is evil, how life and the freedoms we have will be over if the "other guy" wins. This has been a horrible election season and no one is innocent local or national. I don't remember an election that elicited so much hatred from otherwise composed people. I think we all should be ashamed, who ever wins this election will not have done so gracefully.

Frodo part 2

2008-11-02T20:39:00.001-06:00

Wednesday
I came in to check on the animals and Frodo just looked miserable. I picked him up and he didn’t move, pull back, or even make a noise. I wrapped him in a towel and took him into the office. When our vet came in she asked if he had eaten anything and when I said no she ran next door and bought two cans of tuna. We opened one and he sniffed it but wouldn’t get up on his own to eat it. So we just moved it and he licked it but wouldn’t take any bites, if I put a chunk in his mouth he wouldn’t chew it he would just swallow it. The vet tried calling the rescue again and left another message, she then went and got the pill bottles that his pills came in and called that vet to get a copy of his records. Just after that the rescue lady called back and when the vet asked about his temperament she told her just responded with “well I’ll just come pick him up” and wouldn’t answer the question she also didn’t like that we had called the other vet to get his history. That was when she said she had to go pick up abandoned kittens and she would be there in the afternoon to pick up Frodo.

After that we received his record and from reading it not only had the “foster home” had him for more than a year they had moved him with them from Florida, he had been on one of his meds for over a year and the other one for 8 months. They had tried to take him off the meds but he started spraying again and back on the meds he would go. Once they realized that he still had a testicle they should have shifted his treatment from inappropriate urination to retained testicle, with the spraying/marking of a sexually mature male. At the end of the record it had “owner says Frodo will be neutered by a friend”. This doesn’t sound like a rescue cat, it sounds like crazy rescue lady was trying to pull one over on us and get a free neuter on a cat that was in no condition to be a candidate by claiming he was a rescue. Frodo also had trouble keeping his eyes open, the vet had her class do an eye stain to look for lesions and he had one in his right eye. They also gave him subcutaneous fluids. For the rest of the afternoon Frodo came with me everywhere, I had him on a board that I carried him on and would syringe feed him in between whatever I was doing. At 2 and she still hadn’t picked him up I made a space on the floor in the office where I had Frodo on my lap and I could study/do homework for my classes. We sat there for a few hours and at one point I realized that he was purring, I couldn’t hear him but I felt it. The idea of sending him home with the people who let him get into this state really angered me. I am convinced that his “favorite towel” wasn’t his favorite, Frodo just didn’t have the strength/energy move once he was on it. We joked about ways to keep them from taking him. I just didn’t trust these people, he didn’t become underweight and almost catatonic in the 3 days that we had him. I stayed at school until 6pm waiting for him to get picked up. I wanted to just bring him home, but I left him and that was one of the hardest things to do. I called my husband and cried, I wanted Frodo so bad. Yes I wanted to keep him as a “forever” pet, but more than that I wanted to take him, make him better, learn his real personality and then see him in to a good home mine or otherwise. It killed me to think that wasn’t going to be what was going to happen to him.

Frodo part 1

2008-10-31T15:15:00.000-05:00

Frodo
Frodo came to the school this week from a rescue group we don’t normally use. He was the only animal we received from them. When the lady dropped him off she gave off that “crazy cat lady” vibe. All the other rescue people I have dealt with so far as the Animal Care supervisor seem to be really in tune with the animals they bring in and have an understanding as to what our mission is, even when it is the foster homes bringing in the animals I feel confident about the animals in their care. Not with this lady. I brushed it off, I have been having a rough time of getting enough sleep and it was on Monday morning. I watched her put the cat in the kennel with his “favorite towel”, fill out the forms, tell me about the meds he was on, she showed me that he had un-distended testicle (that she marked with a red pen) , went over the feeding protocol and sent her on her way. Frodo crawled into the corner under the perch and stayed there, this is not uncommon, a new place that smells funny, 5 other cats in cages around you, 1-5 barking dogs on the other side of the door and strange people walking through the room a million times a day.

The history I got from the lady about Frodo is that he was a rescue and they thought he was neutered but he was spraying like an un-neutered cat so they put him on an anti-depressant and an anti-anxiety medication and they had had him for about a year and he wasn’t adoptable until the spraying was under control and they will take him off the meds as soon as the un-distended testicle was removed. That made some sense at the time.

The Vet and I did his intake physical his temp was normal and he didn’t struggle at all. He seemed to just move really slow and his muscles were really tense. She made note of the movement and she put is body condition score at 4 out of 10. We went on to the other 6 animals we had to do. Tuesday after my class the vet and I were doing intake on 2 new animals that had come in and we checked on good ol’ Frodo he hadn’t eaten anything and he was in the same place I put him after his kennel had been cleaned. I picked him up and we put him on the table and he was still as a statue. I picked him up by his scruff and placed him down on the table with his back feet and like he was in slow motion he curled himself down to put his front feet down. The Vet figured out that he was over medicated and there was no way we could neuter him in that condition, there no way to maintain vitals on him under anesthesia. So the priority shifted from getting him ready for surgery to making him feel better. The Vet went to the office to call the rescue to find out if this was from the stress of being in a new place or was he just as sluggish at home. At the time I had left on Tuesday the rescue lady hadn’t called back.

Frodo

2008-10-30T19:04:00.007-05:00

There is a long story behind Frodo and I promise I will tell it in detail, but for tonight....

This is Frodo

our oath as a vet tech is First do no harm

when Frodo left school today with the wack job who dropped him off (and we couldn't stop from taking) we failed

Today I miss my Izzy

2008-10-07T18:42:00.009-05:00

Isabella was my first cat that I got on my own when I lived in Omaha. I had applied for a job at a local TV station and I decided that if I didn’t get the job I would get an adult cat if I did I would get myself a kitten. Granted it should have been the other way around no job = more time for a cat. So I got the job, an overnight gig at the local Fox/WB station. I went straight to the humane society to look at the kittens. They had a whole bunch to pick from but I toured the adult room just to see. And there she was. She was beautiful and in the top cage by the wall. I read her card she was 2 years old just spayed and then I noticed she had been there longer than any other cats so I just HAD to take her in to the cat room and meet her and that is when I saw… she had no tail and she had the back legs like a bunny. SHE WAS A MANX!!!!!! And the sweetest thing you ever did meet and she could talk your ear off. I knew if I didn’t adopt her then no one would… who would want an adult cat with no tail and she had already been there too long. I knew they would put her down if I didn’t take her and I wasn’t about to let that happen. When I got her home… oh geez, that girl could TALK!! And she never stopped. I was working 12 & 14 hour shifts, the only thing I wanted was to feed the cat and go to bed. Izzy wouldn’t have it. She had a full night and by god she was going to tell me about it. She followed me everywhere… talk talk talk she would jump on the bed talk talk talk. I loved her but damn she wouldn’t shut up. She also wanted to be with me ALL the time and her favorite thing was to be carried, the longer you held her the happier she was.

The best thing was she loved to dance. I would pick her up and put in a CD mute the TV and we would dance in the living room. She would just purr and be so content. We spent many hours dancing.

Today I heard a song on the radio (the song at the top of the page) and I came home and downloaded it from Amazon. I played it and scooped up the nearest cat. Hellina bit me on the nose and wanted nothing to do with it, Duncan cried the whole time and I know better than to try and pick up Cinder. That is when my heart ached a little for my Izzy. She was an amazing girl who loved me more than anything on earth. She left me way too soon and I miss her

Epitome grace and style

2008-09-22T19:07:00.004-05:00

Saturday was a very interesting day.

Rob and I went to the Ren Fest. I love the fest. We hadn’t gone last year so I was really looking forward to going. We had a great time. We saw my two favorite acts the Tortuga Twins and the Danger Committee (formerly the Dew Drop Jugglers). I will not leave until I see them. :) and it was fantastic, very crude just the way it should be. We also ran in to my buddy Jess from school so that was neat. Drew had the nerve to do something else this weekend so we didn’t get to spend time with him at the fencing booth, boohoo.

At 8pm after we got home I decided that I should take a bath and start reading one of the many books I haven’t time for because of school. At 8:30 I really wanted something to drink so I grabbed a towel and went down stairs to grab a soda, when I hit the landing at the bottom I slipped when I stepped on the linoleum with wet feet. I screamed as I folded my foot in half tearing the tendons across the top of my foot , jamming my toe causing serious bone on bone contact, and sliding my arm on the floor causing a nice linoleum burn. In other words "HOLY FUCK THAT HURTS!!!". When I couldn’t move my foot without excruciating pain we made trip to the ER to make sure I hadn't broken anything. Nothing was broken but I have done serious injury to myself. I was in so much pain I was nauseous, the problem with that is the more pain I am in the more punchy I get, I crack jokes and make off hand comments and that leaves the medical staff believing I am in less pain then I am. I should know better than that by now and I should have asked for pain meds but I didn’t. 800mg of Ibuprofen every 4 hours only goes so far. And to add to my suffering I also manage to bang up my knee (the one that had ACL surgery) during the fall but that pain was WAY down on my list at the time. Therefore I have to wear my knee brace along with wrapping my foot and walking with crutches.

That is me.. always graceful

Sweet Dog Update

2008-09-19T09:41:00.003-05:00

there is now a leash tethered to the side of their house. I guess calling the cops worked.

The grades are in

2008-09-17T21:12:00.001-05:00

Comparative Hematology - B
Imaging - A
Small Animal Nutrition & Nursing - A

Why did you buy a town home again?

2008-09-17T12:56:00.004-05:00

Here is our “yard” the space between the house on the left side and the driveway. Why the hell would you buy one of these if you A)have multiple children or B) a dog. We are not on a cul-de-sac, we do not have fenced in yards. We have a neighbor that has the sweetest golden retriever and they let him roam without a leash. He came over from across the street to hang out with Rob when he was working in the garage the other day, being the nice people that we are Rob walked the dog back over to its home. When he went around the side of their house the lady of the house was on the phone and saw Rob with her dog, when Rob told her that the dog came for a visit she got all bitchy at him. He wasn’t hurting anyone.. “fine.. I’ll put him inside”

So today I come home from class and the dog is once again lounging around off leash. I am sorry but on the other side of our house is Main street, a busy street, and if he is willing to wonder over here what is stopping him from wondering there. I called the non-emergency number and told them about the dog. When they asked I told them about her response to my husband when he returned the dog the last time. They sent a community officer over to their house, the dog was not out so he called and asked what the dog looked like so when he knocked on the door he knew it was the right house. He was over there for 5 minutes. She then walked down our block looking at houses. My garage door was open, she might think it was me but there is also a garage sale going on at the end of the block I could always blame them :) Yep I am a bitch

I care about the poor dogs being stuck inside all day but that is why we don’t have a dog. You knew moving here that you have no yard, no place for the dog to roam free and no place to put the slip-&-slide or the moon bounce you want to rent for the kids birthday. This was not a surprise. All I ask is you respect your neighbors. Young kids and dogs should not be left unattended and toys and dogs should not end up in other peoples driveways, seriously

It’s finals week again

2008-09-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

I have three finals this week. One tonight and two on Wednesday. I am less worried about tonight’s test because it is all multiple choice and one long answer and our teacher already gave us the gist of the long answer question. The other 2 scare me because of how those teachers make their tests. They aren’t as much hard as they are thorough. That is what makes them tough you just never feel like you have studied enough. You can read every page and go over the past tests and then you’ll run into a question and think, how the hell did I miss that. Don’t get me wrong I love all of my teacher, they just expect me to know a lot. This quarter has just flown by. It’s like we didn’t even have a summer. I am pretty sure I am going to get at least one A and 2 B’s. Next quarter I am taking surgery and anesthesia, we will have real animals lives in our hand. It’s kind of scary to think I am that far along in the program, but it also feels like a lifetime since I made the decision to go back to school. It is amazing how much happier I am then I was before I started school . The idea of going back to working in television makes me want to shoot myself. I bitch about having to get up and go to school but it is nothing like what I felt having to go in to my last station.

I had a great Birthday. I got my tattoo. I also had an awesome time with my friends on the 4th. We went to Old Chicago and it was the best birthday I have had in years. I love my friends. It was cool it was friends from school, Rob and friends from outside of school. Loved it. I can’t wait to do it again. :)

the new Tattoo

2008-08-30T20:01:00.002-05:00

I love my hair dresser but.....

2008-08-25T14:05:00.005-05:00

every time she cuts my hair she wants to "do it up" and every time she does I think "this reminds me of that picture

I am having a good day

2008-08-24T14:19:00.005-05:00

and I have all my homework done too.

As you know I am getting my Clyde tattoo and I wasn’t sure about where I wanted it. I have another tattoo that I am going to get when I am done with school as a graduation gift. What it will be is a broken television with paw prints trailing away. This is to symbolize the end of my career in TV and the start of my new life of animal care. It is going to be a fairly large tattoo and I needed to figure out where I was going to put the TV first because I wanted to make sure there was enough room on my back for both tattoos. If there wasn’t enough room for both I would have to find another place for Clyde. As Rob and I were discussing my tattoo placement he suggested that I cover my tiger tattoo with the TV. I got my tiger tattoo some 10 years ago, it is a very simple tiger that was one of the many stock tattoos that you can find in any and all tattoo parlors. I loved my tiger until I saw the exact same tattoo on a not so pretty guy and ever since then I have been disappointed in it. I have 2 original tattoos and just wasn’t happy having something so unoriginal. I had looked into removal. The tiger in not small therefore removing it would not be cheap. So I decided to ask if it would be possible to cover the tiger with the TV. Rob and I made a run to talk to my tattoo guy. We stopped in for a quick consult; Jerred took one look at my tiger and said no problem. YIPPIE!!! That means I will have plenty of room for my TV, Clyde and maybe someday another tiger. I made my appointment for next Saturday at 4:30 to get Clyde done.

Later today Rob and I are going to Kate’s to say Aloha as she and Zac go on to the next stop on their marital adventure - Hawai'i

Birthday Tattoo

2008-08-18T15:10:00.001-05:00

I am getting a tattoo. I am going to get “Clyde” scripted somewhere. I haven’t figured out where yet. You see I have a favorite uncle, Uncle Bob, he is my mother’s older brother and he is one of the coolest people on the face of the planet. We have teased for years that we would get matching tattoos on our asses, this one will NOT be on my ass. I just thought it would neat to honor him with a tattoo. The only problem with that idea is that his first name is Robert, the same name as my husband. As you all know the #1 way to doom a relationship is to get the other person’s name permanently engraved on your body, so I can’t do that because I don’t want to end up divorced. That is why I decided Clyde was the way to go. It’s UB’s middle name and also a family name on my mother’s side. It’s actually going to be double birthday tattoo. UB’s birthday is 3 days before mine so my gift to him will be my getting Clyde tattooed on me. My birthday gift is the fact that I get to honor one of my favorite people.

The Olympics

2008-08-15T23:05:00.003-05:00

I really hadn't planned on watching much of the Olympics. I like gymnastics and diving so I knew I would tune in to that. Before the Olympics started I planned on hating Michael Phelps, because I HATE the tv ad with the Phelps fan. But I have to admit I got hooked on watching him swim and more then once almost woke up Rob when I was watching the meets in bed. It's fun watching our guys (err.. people) kick ass. I am looking forward to the track and field events. There are still some events I don't understand why they are Olympic events, like handball, beach volleyball and trampoline. I want to know when kickball and dodgeball will become Olympic sports...

Grades are in

2008-06-26T20:59:00.001-05:00

I no longer have the revulsion for farm animals and innocent horses that I did a few weeks ago. This came to be only because I am done with those classes. I got my grades today and am beyond happy.

Production Animals - B
Equine - A
Basic Hematology - A
Lab Animals Exotics & Pocket pets - B

This last quarter I learned that I have absolutely no interest in the large animal side of my chosen career. I learned that I might even been ok working in a lab setting. I also feel bad for all those little rodent animals that end up in homes with no understanding of what nocturnal means and for birds that outlive their owners and have nowhere to go or end up in homes where they spend most of their day under a sheet to keep them quiet.

So I may have hated the animals… but I learned a large amount about what I do and do not want to work with.

and so it goes

2008-06-02T12:06:00.003-05:00

I have piles of homework, powerpoint to put together, I have the house to myself and I can't seem to put the laptop down.

This hasn't been the hardest quarter I have had but I am finding it so hard to get things done. I am sure it has something to do with having to take classses about animals I do not care about. I really have no interest in horses and production animal. I have to do a power point on Jousting. YUCK and I really don't care.

I also managed to pull/tear a tendon in my foot and that alone has put me in a crappy mood!

classes

2008-05-12T20:07:00.004-05:00

I don't want to study.... can't concentrate on studying.... wants nothing to do with any classes other than Basic Hematology and even that is going to suck because my teacher is in Vegas.

Mom and I are going to nebraska on thursday after class. that will be cools because I get to see my Grands.. :)

alright back to not studying

stuck in my head...

2008-05-02T23:07:00.002-05:00

Last night I had the strangest dream
I sailed away to China
In a little row boat to find ya
And you said you had to get your laundry cleaned
Didn't want no-one to hold you
What does that mean
And you said

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no
I got to keep on movin'
Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground
Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

You're on a roll and now you pray it lasts
The road behind was rocky
But now you're feeling cocky
You look at me and you see your past
Is that the reason why you're runnin' so fast
And she said

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no
I got to keep on movin'
Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground
Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

Never let another girl like you, work me over
Never let another girl like you, drag me under
If I meet another girl like you, I will tell her
Never want another girl like you, have to say
Ooooooh

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no
I got to keep on movin'
Ain't nothin' gonna break my strideI'm running and I won't touch ground
Oh-no, I got to keep on movin'

song by Matthew Wilder

you have to love one hit wonders

LTReCap part 2 – Jake

2008-04-22T16:36:00.002-05:00

Jake the Snake. He was a jerk and I was a stupid teenager. I was 19 and he was 25 (but looked 35+) and we were in a “Grey Area” what I think the kiddies call Friends with Benefits only it was he could sleep with other people and I was to beholden to our “Grey Area”. Yeah… that sucked. I have 2 funny stories from that Grey Area.

The first he and I had decided to go to the Perkins over by my parents. This was also the hang out for the kids from my high school to go to have sporting events. Well we get seated and there is a 10+ kids that I know all eating and hanging out. I went over to say hi, but Jake being a jerk didn’t want to so I went over alone. The next day I get a phone call from my friend Bulander asking me what the hell I was doing with that “Old Guy”. I was narcked by someone at the table. I had it narrowed down to Noah or Matt.

The other funny. I was at the hospital with appendicitis and I had been given good drugs and before I was going to be wheeled down the hall for surgery I kissed my mom and Jake. As I was being wheeled and getting quite loopy the orderly says “it’s nice that both your parents could be here” and in my loopy state I replied “that’s not my dad you dork that is my boyfriend” and that is the last thing I remember before waking up after the surgery.

It was midnight in the Howling forest....

2008-04-17T19:26:00.002-05:00

The wind whistled through the tops of the ancient trees. Suddenly, something enormous crashed and rumbled through the eerie woods.

I was flipping through the guide on my TV and came across one of my all time favorite movies, The Neverending Story. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this movie so I turned it on.

The first thing that hit me was how much I miss movies where all the players in the movie interact on real sets. There is some CGI but all the characters are really there, even if they are puppets. That is was irks me about the new Star Wars movies.

The second thing, they went to the first break and “The Neverending Story brought to you by Preperation H” I am confused as to the demographic they are going for.

And last.. I want to name my next cat Atreyu

Fired

2008-04-03T18:26:00.001-05:00

I have quit many jobs, I have moved away from jobs, I have been harassed out of jobs and I have even been layed off… but I had never been fired… until today. The kicker is I LOVED that job. This is the first job in my lifetime that I actully question my abilities but I was so eager to learn and be good at it. I guess I wasn’t. I had my 90 days and they told me that I wasn’t up to par so they were taking the option to not keep me on. THAT SUCKS!!!! I called my mom, dad and rob and cried to them as I was driving home. Then mom talked me into going in to school and talk to my teachers (most of whom had worked at one point at this clinic) and they reasured me that my lack of success at being an assistant should not make me rethink my abilities about being a Vet Tech, and in fact one of my favorite techs from the clinic just left to become a teacher at the school and gave me a hug and told me in the long run this is a good thing. That made me feel better and then I found my girls and they all gave me hugs and told me to go get drunk, I love my girls!!!

So here is the plan, I am going to eat guacamole, drink margarits, eat chocolate cheesecake and take the next week off!

Cheers!

Long Term Re-cap part 1 cont.

2008-03-28T11:10:00.003-05:00

I was looking around my emails and I was wrong. Chris did try to contact me again in 2004
3/31/2004 Chris wrote:
Heather,
Thought I would e-mail you on a lark and see how you are doing. I suppose if you don't want to chat, then I won't hear much from you. I'm still in Japan, though not for much longer. Life is progressing well, though I am ready for a change of scenery. I am definitely looking forward to my new duty station. Hope all is well. If you have a mind to do so, please give my regards to your family. Thanks. Chris

My response:
In my honest opinion, I was hoping you would get shot down in Iraq. That way you would REALLY never pop back up again. For the FINAL TIME (again) I want nothing to do with you. My family wants nothing to do with you

Because I haven't heard from him in the last 4 years (almost to the day) I am thinking it worked. :)

Long Term Re-cap part 1

2008-03-19T15:33:00.003-05:00

Rob and I are coming up on our second wedding anniversary and in September we will have been together for 4 years. This is best and healthiest relationship I have ever been in. That got me thinking about my past long term relationships and thought it would be fun to hash over.

Here is part one

My first LTR was in high school, his name was Chris he was a year ahead of me and went to a different HS. We were together for 2 years. The last 4 months of our relationship he was away at school. He came home for winter break, we hung out every day did all the things teenagers do when they haven't seen each other in a long time. He went back to school and in the first week of January he calls me up to tell me he thinks we should break up and soon after that I found out he was hooking up with some chick. It was horrible... for me... and for the people who had to be around me (sorry Kate). He even sent Christmas cards to my out of state grandparents that year. He never really gave me a concrete reason why he broke things off that is until 2000. He had tried to contact me before that but I just didn’t have it in me to deal with it. At that point I felt it had been long enough we had both grown up and had been in the real world long enough that maybe we could be friends. We started talking while he was stationed in California somewhere. Things were going fine. I had forgiven him for breaking up with me and then hooking up with Rain. He started asking me about my relationship and giving me unwanted advice (I was with Dan at the time but I will get to him later). Then for whatever reason I will NEVER understand he informed that the reason he broke up with me in HS was for MY OWN GOOD. He felt that I was "too attached", that I "relied" on him for emotional needs Hello??? I loved the guy... in theory he loved me too... we were in a RELATIONSHIP!!!! Yes I know... it was HS but still. He then followed that lovely statement with he had his friend Dylan (who I really was never a fan of) “check up” on me, like drive by my parents house for him. I was being stalked by proxy. I flew off the handle... I had come to terms with the fact that he was just a horny guy states away from his girlfriend why did he have to purge his soul of that? I told him to go to hell and never try to be a part of my life. Chris tried to contact me again year or two after that, he called me from Japan but the answering machine picked up, he was talking so low that it cut him off. I never did find out what he called me about. He is a few years overdue for the “pop in” maybe he got the message that he isn’t meant to be in my life, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did try again.

Finals week

2008-03-17T15:10:00.001-05:00

I hate tests

That’s it..... I am done!!!!

2008-03-10T18:26:00.000-05:00

From here on out I am no longer going to write about things that I am planning on doing. I thought at first it was just the “Curse of plans with Bill”, but I have learned it is the “Curse of the universe “ I put something online that I am very excited about and the universe rewinds and changes things so that it won’t work out. You see as soon as I published my blog time reversed and had a selfish co-worker of Kate’s come to work with the flu. so from now on I will only write about things I have done......

Heck of a week......

2008-03-03T21:22:00.004-06:00

I am in a really GREAT mood, and I plan on staying that way for the rest of the week.

I went to the dentist this morning for the first time in forever. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I am going to have to go back for deep cleaning and to fix one filling. They didn’t yell at me which made the idea of coming back not so bad.

Now that that is out of the way I have tomorrow to look forward to, and it’s going to be a GREAT day. I get to spend the day at school with my buddy Chrissie and she makes our classes fun :) I love that girl!!!!! After school I am running over to my mom’s so I can aspirate a lump on Oberon and clean his ears, but mostly I am going over so I can take a shower and change because ...

KATE AND I ARE GOING THE WILD GAME!!!!!!!!!!! I am totally stoked. I can’t even remember last hockey game I went to. I am sure it was the last game Kate and I went to together... that was our “thing” in high school you see. So this is how the game came about. Kate and I have been bantering about that we needed to go out for beers, dinner, or coffee but we hadn’t really nailed down a time.. no big deal. Then last Tuesday my mom went to the coffee shop on the corner for her weekly knitting group and who does she ambush (and call by her sister’s name)? none other than Kate. So there Kate is having a peaceful time with her cousin when mom feels the need to make us talk to each other and calls me up on her cell phone and hands it to Kate. We have an uncomfortable conversation and we agree that we will do something this Tuesday and we’ll email the details. We sent the emails with no concrete plans on Wednesday. I was also thinking I should see if Bill is working on Tuesday because maybe I could grab a drink with him after dinner with Kate and after he get off work because I would be in Minneapolis anyway. Well I have access to Bill’s schedule so I looked up 3/4/08 and he is working the Wild game and that gave me the bright idea that Kate and I should go to a hockey game. After reading her latest blog I knew the girl needed a hockey game. I checked with ticketmaster and they said they didn’t have any tickets left so I hit up Bill to see if he could hook us up. I was a chick on a mission. Few days went by and no word from Bill but I did sign up for alerts if they released anymore tickets for the game and I got one. I jumped online and got us 2 tickets. :) I was rather proud of myself. If you didn’t notice I didn’t ask Kate before I bought the tickets… I was teasing my un-sportloving hubby that if Kate couldn’t go that he was going to go… he didn’t like that idea. I texted her and asked if she knew anyone who wanted to go to the game and thankfully for Rob she said she would go. :)

wednesday

2008-01-16T12:09:00.001-06:00

I am feeling much better today. I think the Black Death has had it's run. I am just hanging out at home doing homework and studying for tonights Pharmacology class.

Sick

2008-01-14T20:00:00.000-06:00

I hate being sick. So last week some jackass at rob’s work decided to not call in and came to work sick. He gave the Black Death to rob who in turn gave it to me. I am not pretty when I am sick. So on Thursday I had school and work and the only thing I wanted to do was go home and die. Friday I was just as bad but thankfully I didn’t have to be to work until 2:30 and I got to sleep in. What REALLY sucked is we got a majorly nasty dog at work. It was a dog that had untreated ulcerated masses that needed to be flushed out and could be smelled from across the room. I actually started to rethink this plan of mine to become a vet tech as I tried my damdest to keep my lunch down. The fact that I could smell it through the nasal congestion of the Black Death made feel bad for the people in the room with full use of their noses. At one point I managed to inhale the downy freshness of my scrub top but that only lasted a split second. It was awful. One of the other assistants said it was the worst she had had to deal with in the time that she had been there. I will be happy if I never have to smell something that foul ever again, but in this line of work you know I will. The dog by the way is all cleaned up and will be scheduled for surgery to remove and closed up after a nice stint on antibiotics. Saturday I had to work as well but only for an hour and a half at 5pm. The snotty little Min Pin peed on me though. So I slept around my work schedule on Saturday and did my best to sleep on Sunday. So here I am on Monday night in my class still sick. I am getting better and I have school in the morning. I hope I will be able to make it. I have plans (I think) to go out for beers with Bill tomorrow night. I am planning on taking a nap between 330 when I get home from school and 11pm when Bill will be done with work. I don’t have to be at school until 6pm on Wednesday so I should be fine…. Right?

And I still have NO IDEA what I am wearing to Kate’s wedding

2008-01-07T19:43:00.000-06:00

If my Monday night class (veterinary office procedures) continues like this I might even post regularly. We have a 20 min dinner break and I have dinner waiting for me at home in the crockpot, I made chili for rob and I tonight, so I have nothing to do for that time. I could bring a book but that would mean I might finish one of the 4 books I have started but haven’t made past chapter 3.

So… what about life? Christmas was great. New years was fun. Rob and I had an Ocean’s movie night for new years. We bought all three movies and watched them as we rang in 2008. I have started my new job and I LOVE it. It’s only 10 hours a week, but I get to deal with animals and that is great. Next Friday is Kate’s wedding and I have Rob’s shirt all picked out now I just need to figure out what the hell I am going to wear….

Grades are in

2007-12-26T09:57:00.000-06:00

Interpersonal Relations - C
Veterinary Laboratory Techniques - B
Animal Anatomy - B
Animal Physiology - C

I am really proud of that B in Anatomy....

Thankfully I am done with all my General Education credits. From here on out it is purely vet tech classes. Next quarter isn’t going to be any easier then the last. I am taking Veterinary Office Procedures (only easy class), Immunology, Parasitology and Pharmacology. I think that will finish me for the ology’s

Finals

2007-12-20T15:32:00.001-06:00

All my tests are done. As of right now I have a B in Veterinary Lab Techniques and I got a C in my Interpersonal Relations class. I am kinda disappointed in that C. It is less than 2% away from a B. We get straight grades so the person who got 70.1% in the class got the same C I did at 78.72% . I could have done better on the final so that is my fault.

I am waiting for my Anatomy and Physiology teacher to put her grades in I am crossing my fingers for B’s but I truly have no idea what or when I am going to get in those

YIPPIE!!!!!!!

2007-12-14T21:09:00.000-06:00

It's done!

I did it!!!

I got the job!!!!!!

I have my first animal related job. I am a Veterinary Assistants. My first day is on Tuesday.

:::::::::::dancing:::::::::::::

Good times

2007-12-07T19:53:00.001-06:00

We got snow. I love fresh untouched snow, it is so pretty.

I got to dissect a rat in class, that was cool as hell.

I went out for drinks with Bill, last time we had beers was in June. We need to try put less time between when we hang out. We went to one of my favorite bars the Dubliner. Always a good time when live Irish music is involved. I managed to make it home with no police participation

I applied for a job at a vet clinic, everyone keep your paws crossed for me. (see that…I made a funny)

Today I had a hair appointment and Hair Rob did wonders on me. I just love what he does with my hair.
Before
After

And to add an ever better ending to my week… GREG AND AMY ARE COMING TO TOWN!!!! The whole famdambly Mom, Dad, me, Rob, Greg, Amy, Amy’s folks Jim and Milly, Amy’s brother’s family; Scott, Mary, Alex and Meg are going to mom’s house on Sunday for the annual Riedesel- Burroughs-Keen Extravaganza. I LOVE Riedesel- Burroughs-Keen Extravaganzas it has to be my favorite holiday all year.

I hate being sick

2007-11-15T14:55:00.000-06:00

I feel like crap. I held my bagel down, but just barely. I ran to rainbow to get soup and goldfish crackers and I was going down the isle to get the goldfish and this woman was parked at an angle across the isle right in front of my crackers. I say excuse me and she says "I'll just be a sec I need to pick out cookies" I say that I need to get to the crackers she gets all huffy moves her carts call me a b*#&h grabs two bags of milano cookies and walks away. I didn't even give her attitude... I am too tired and sick to give attitude... all I wanted was my crackers

And because of that I forgot to grab cottage cheese. i hate people when I am healthy, today, she is lucky I didn't clock her.

It’s time to write about life.

2007-11-09T08:40:00.000-06:00

Well let’s start out with school. School has been going good. I am taking 4 classes, 2 are kicking my ass and the other 2 are not so bad. The toughest classes are Anatomy & Physiology. They are taught by a veterinarian and she has a tendency to talk over our heads. I really like her and wish she still practiced but her tests are extremely hard and it doesn’t seem to matter how little or how much I study I can’t seem to get better than 67%. Thankfully that is still passing and I have resigned myself to being happy as long as I pass and don’t have to take it over. We have started dissection, I thought that was going to be harder than it has been. I told my partner that I couldn’t handle a orange tabby so thankfully he got us an all black shorthaired female cat. I am amazed at how cool looking at the muscles is. Next week we start the GI system.

In sort of school related news….I am up to 4 workouts at school and one over my weekend. We have free access to the workout room at school. For the first two weeks it was Me, Chrissie and Britney going on Monday and Wednesday (an hour+), then Donalee wanted to start going on Tuesday and Thursday(just an hour). It’s great! The workout room is staffed by Health and Fitness students. Our guy is Josh and he ROCKS! He has us do different routines it’s really cool. The only part that sucks is that because of my knee surgery in 2002 and the lack of continued rehab I have to see my orthopedic surgeon to get cleared for some of the lower body stuff. That appointment isn’t until the 20th, so on M&W I am on the treadmill while Chrissie and Brit work out and then on T&Th Josh has me do a modified version of what they did without the lunges or squats. I tell you I never thought I would enjoy working out. On Monday we had to cut the workout short because Chrissie and I had a big test to study for and I felt really bad about it.

So that is my life update! I have to parties this weekend and a paper to write!!

because I can

2007-10-30T18:26:00.000-05:00

It drives Rob nuts when I not only put the lights up.... but turn them on before december

Heee hee heee

and FYI I got bit twice by mosquitos

Pumpkins

2007-10-30T17:40:00.000-05:00

The last year I went Trick-or-Treating was 16 years ago during the Halloween Blizzard of 1991. I wasn’t supposed to go out, Mom had said that the year before had been my last year because 14 was the cut off in our family. Back then the family would go over to the Cross’s for Halloween dinner with the Cross’ kids and their neighbors and all 6 kids would go out together. Well in the blizzard Patrick, Andrew and I decided to go out anyway, just around the one block. Boy did we get candy that year. Every other house they would say “oh, we were afraid no one would come and we’d be stuck with all this candy” and then split the bowl among the 3 of us. JACKPOT!!!!!

Fast forward to today. It was 70 degrees today. I know it’s not Halloween but close enough. It was just beautiful.

Here are this years pumpkins

Evil Bert

Evil Bert and Brave

And my personal favorite

The Drunken Uncle

The end

2007-10-12T19:53:00.000-05:00

I figured it was about time to finish the story. So as the spaghetti sauce is bubbling (thank you Greg!!!) I’ll knock it out.

I finish my night out. I think I talked to Rob and my parents a couple dozen times by the time I finally went to bed. At this point the plan was to wait until Sunday when the four of us got together for pizza to figure out the financials and how long I should give them if I give them any time.

Friday September 14th
On my way in I talked to mom and dad again and Dad and I decided that if I was going to do it I should do it today. I mean why stress myself out over the weekend if we knew I was going to quit. I pulled myself together and convinced myself I was going to give The Boss my notice during the first of our newly implemented “Daily operations meetings”. He comes in we talk over all the things that were going to do to get the paid spots back on track and how great things will be when we all start working together… yeah I chickened out. COMPLETELY. I don’t know why but I couldn’t do it. Well that meeting was at 130 and Rob was still sleeping so I waited to call him at 4 and after talking with him for a bit I decided, fuck it. I was going to find The Boss tell him I would work through September 29th and then I was done. I find him in the mail room and told him that I just couldn’t work here any more. He asked me how long I would give him I told him the time frame and he gets that look and says “you know heather it’s professional to give two weeks.” To that I respond “Yesterday it wasn’t going to be any and the people who’s opinion has the most influence on me still don’t want me to give you that much.”. He mentioned something about me working part for the first week of October because Manger would still be gone and I told him I would think about it but with school it might be tough. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I made my round of calls announcing my reversal of chicken-ness. Then I made the hardest call of the whole ordeal. I called Manager. I knew he wasn’t leaving town until the next morning and I wanted to talk to him before I was gone and before he could hear it from anyone else. That sucked. I like Manager. He wasn’t meant to be a manger he was meant to be a master control op. We were TV people. He had a long time in broadcast TV before public access. We had a great time talking about “real TV” and the fun that only live TV brings out. We both miss it, and we both wanted out. I just got there first. I almost started crying.

That was the worst of it. The next week was smoother then I thought it would be. I made manuals for their next victim with as much information as I could. All the things that they failed to tell me as I started working there. Coworker gave me the best going away gift… he went home sick on Thursday. So my last 2 days were Coworker free.

So that is the end of my life at that job. I am looking for a new job. Hopefully something at a vet clinic. Right now I am enjoying the struggles of being a full time student.

Ahhh… it’s so good to be done.

Downfall Part 3

2007-09-29T12:06:00.001-05:00

Thursday September 13th (Happy Birthday Andrew)

I come in to work expecting The Boss to be as angry as I am because we have all these spots to make up. I mean finally something tangible I can point to and say you were told 3 times that things had to be done and you refused and now you have cost us money. But no. When I came and asked if The Boss had talked to Coworker he said no and didn’t understand why he needed to. So I explained again with a timeline of all the added work I have had to do and he agreed to have a sit down. We had our staff meeting first, and Coworker failed to go like he always did. For some reason Coworker gets away with not going to the mandatory weekly staff meetings, I guess if I am there from our department why should he go. Anyway we had the staff meeting and then The Boss agrees to go get Coworker for a meeting about the spots. I finally get to my email and there is a response to the one detailing the issues and he says “thank you for doing that for me I’ll use the software from now on” that flipped me out. I didn’t DO anything FOR him. No sorry for making more work for you, or an explanation as to WHY he didn’t do what he was told to do. I show this to The Boss and he asks me if I am calm enough to have this meeting but I know that if we don’t do it now it will never happen. I did my best to pull myself together and into the meeting we went.

The Boss starts in with the simple questions. How are things with The Manager on vacation. Coworker – great, great we are getting things done. Things are great.
The Boss – and the trade spots they are all airing as scheduled?
Coworker – yep. They are starting tomorrow, so it’s all good. (cheesy double thumbs up)
Me – Um no.
Coworker – what do you mean? They are starting tomorrow.
Me – they started last week but because you didn’t do your schedules like you were told to the spots that were scheduled haven’t aired.
The Boss – and how did that happen.
Coworker went in to some reason about how he didn’t know that they were running. I interrupted and said that he did he was told before he left, and if he had forgotten, if he had read my many emails when he got back he would have also known that. Coworker then said that he was confused on how do things and that it “wasn’t high on his list of priorities” That is when I started shaking. I stood up to get a cup of water in hopes of calming down, yeah that didn’t work. So as I am standing there drinking my water and shaking Coworker asks The Boss why am I so mad, why am I acting like he just slapped me in the face. I asked him if he was so confused why didn’t ask on Monday. His answer? Why didn’t I talk to him about it on Tuesday. Why? Because I mistakenly thought he was doing his job and I didn’t have to check. I was shaking even harder at this point and that is when he said it…
Coworker – you’re crazy, you know that you are fucking crazy.
I turned to The Boss and said I am not going to sit here and listen to this I will be in your office. And I left, I wigged out in The Boss’s office and called Rob crying. I’d had it. I just couldn’t deal. I was literally hiding under The Boss’s desk so that people couldn’t see me from the window in his office. I could hear Coworker yelling about how I fuck up too and that all I am doing is trying to get him fired. After I got Rob all worked up, I called mom and got her all worked up then I called dad. It was after talking to dad that I was given the means and opportunity to quit. So I called Rob back told him what dad said, then there was the conversation, do I walk out? do I give some sort of notice? Should I not quit? The one thing we all wanted me to do was walk in say fuck you and go home. We also knew as great as that would feel it wouldn’t be the smartest thing. So Rob and I agreed we would wait and talk things over, go over to mom and dad’s talk things over with them and then decide. That whole process of phone calls took about 45 minutes all the while Coworker and The Boss were still in the conference room but the raised voices had gone away. I went downstairs to move my car and talk to the girls. A little while later The Boss comes and finds me and asks me to go back upstairs and finish the conversation. But first he has to lecture me about how unprofessional walking out of the meeting was and that all I did was interrupt him. When I asked if things were going to change he said that he was going to do daily meeting with us. As if that was going to help anything. Were there going to be any direct consequences for people not doing there jobs?? “it’s not about who does the job, as long as it gets done” that is when I gave up. It doesn’t matter then Coworker has twice failed to show up for work because things got done. So I just agreed with every thing he said, I would go up and let Coworker apologize bite my tongue. It went just as I thought I’m sorry, lets work together, it’s us against them blah blah blah BLAH!

He went home.. I went back to work and contemplated quitting…

Downfall Part 2

2007-09-26T23:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday September 8th
I come in to work. The spots have been edited and I now have to make sure that they get scheduled. I update the programming software and now I need to check the schedules to make sure they landed in the right places. The ones on my channels line up fine, then I check his. Not only do the spots not match up right, but the programs that are scheduled to air this next week don’t match. I had to completely rebuild his stuff not once… but twice because the first time around was just fixing the spots because once again he didn’t use the programming software it wasn’t until I was done with the spots that I noticed the programming wasn’t right. I spent all day Saturday and a good portion of Sunday fixing his “everything is done, through the new software, everything is perfect, you wont even have to look at it while I am gone. It’s great we are all on the same page” shit. Really, why lie? I just don’t understand. I understand being lazy. I don’t understand lying

The rest of the week goes by with out issues, because Manager and I know how to balance out all the work.

Jackass came back on Sunday the 16th. Manager and I did everything up to the 16th but not beyond. Figuring he read the 4+ emails I sent detailing every step of my days spent covering his crap.

Monday, I didn’t work I was taking the first half of my Medical Terminology final.

Tuesday I had class then came in to work. The first day I worked with Coworker and everything seemed to be in order. I wasn’t really in the mood to talk so I stayed in my cube until 4 when coworker leaves for the day.

Wednesday I had the second half of my Medical Terminology final. We got done at 1030 and my friend and I were waiting around until 11 so we could go get Chinese for lunch before I had to head for work. Normally I have class until 11, my cell rings at 1045. I see it’s work and I figure only Manager would be calling and he would only call if it was REALLY urgent. So I answer.

Me - hello?
Coworker – Did I wake you?
Me – no, I’m in class
Coworker – oh I am sorry
Me – what is going on?
Coworker – I can’t find this tape, it airs on Saturday is the Somali Show the same as Mount Olive?
Me – are you kidding me? No they don’t even air on the same channel (one is a Somali news type show and the other is a church service and look nothing alike)
Coworker – Oh
Me – I am hanging up now.

It was WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!! And I was going to kick some major ass if he had called the house, Rob was sleeping because he was on night shift that week and to wake him up for a tape that airs in 3 days. Lucky for him he didn’t. When I got in I pitched a bitch. I learned that manager was even in the building at the time, there was no reason on earth he should have called me. Manager informed Coworker to raise the bar about what it takes to call someone at home. GRRRRRRR

At 7 I was cleaning our computer of old files because I was going to export new ones and I hate having files I don’t need in my on air folders. I open the folders for Coworker’s channels, and they are empty. Now there should have been files for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that would have been exported had he done them through the new software. Nope. So I had to call Manager at home, I figured this warranted a call to someone at home. NONE of the paid trade spots that were scheduled to air aired. Over 30!!!! That I now had to figure out how to make them good with out screwing up my reports. Manager had me delete all the work he had done and write an email detailing what I had found and what Coworker was going to do to fix the situation coping The Boss. You see… Manager was officially on vacation he is scheduled to be gone until October 8th…. Next the day it all went down.

The Start of the Downfall

2007-09-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

Wednesday September 5th
I come into work and Manager had called in sick. No big deal. Coworker leaves a note detailing all the work he has done to set things up for the next few days. I think it’s odd, because it sounds like he is setting things up for his vacation but that doesn’t start until Sunday. I know that because it is written on the calendar we keep right in front of us.

Thursday September 6th (Happy Birthday Patrick)
I walk into our area at work and see that things haven’t changed from where I had left them the night before. I ask Manager “where the fuck is Coworker?”. Now mind you I come in to work at 2, coworker is scheduled from 8-4. Manager says, it’s his first day of vacation. Um… no it’s not it starts on Sunday. Manager pull up his vacation request form and hey.. look at that it starts on Sunday. 5 minutes before our weekly staff meeting Manager calls dumbass and informs him he should have been at work. During the staff meeting we come to find out that there 4 trade spots that should have been edited together by now and ready for me to start scheduling. That was the first I had heard of it. Guess who was to do the editing??/ yuppers, dumbass. The Boss says Coworker has had all the pieces to put them together for over a month, when is he going to be in because we need these on the air literally last week as some of the contracts are up at the end of the month. Answer… Sunday the 16th. The boss wigs out and assigns them to someone else so they can on the air by Sunday the 9th. This makes me smile because that might mean Coworker might maybe get in trouble. We get back to MC and there is a message on Manager’s voice mail. “hi, someone called me. I am not sure what’s up… call me back” he either failed to listen to the message or we has playing innocent. Manager calls him back and they have a discussion about the fact that he isn’t on vacation yet and that he has to come in to work on Friday to make up for the fact that he failed to show up and BTW all hell broke loose in the staff meeting because the spots aren’t done. Coworker claims and I quote “I wasn’t sure what days I was to work this week or not and I thought my vacation started today” even though it was written on 3 calendars that we walk past countless times a day. I got EXTREMELY giddy and went in to The Boss’s office and informed him that Coworker will be in tomorrow because he wasn’t supposed to gone today. That made The Boss mad and I truly thought that something was going to happen. He hadn’t shown up, called or informed anyone that it was his intent to be gone. Any NORMAL work place would have thrown the book at an employee if they failed to show up for work. I had a glimmer of hope when The Boss kicked me out of MC so that he and Manager could have a conversation about “how this happened”. An hour later I was allowed back in to MC and Manager. Manager told me that The Boss was going to talk to Coworker about his behavior. Sad thing was I knew that wasn’t going to happen. The Boss had meetings on Friday and if he didn’t talk to him then he never would. Talk about deflating. Not only was there going to be no repercussions I was now going to have to look at Coworker on my one of two days without him. I hate that!

Friday September 7th
I checked my email before I left for work and there was an email from Coworker listing all the things I did wrong or left out the night before. The sad part is it was all the normal things I leave for myself to do. I am the last one out on Thursday night and the only one on Friday and Saturday, so anything I set out or leave out is meant for me and no one else. Just because he had to come in on his day off is not my problem. I called Manager I told him I had refrained from sending a smartass reply, I figured it would only cause me trouble. I came in to work and guess what??? No one talked to Coworker GRRRRR.
Side story… a year a go we bought new programming software that is meant to schedule programming, track paid spots and it publishes our program schedules to our website. In that time Coworker has all but refused to learn it. (We have 5 channels that we air and Coworker is in charge of 2 of them.) We started with 3 trade spots in March and Coworker was told then that he HAD to use the new software… period. He did for about a week and then considered that one week as a template. The software randomly schedules the spots for separation so they don’t air at the same time every day. So from March until September what the tracking software said was not what actually aired on his channels and the web looked as if we had no programming on his channel.
The 4 trade spots that Coworker was supposed to edit were scheduled to start airing that Sunday. Coworker was once again told again that everything is to be done through the new software period. That was his one and only priority for that day. I stayed at my cube until 5 minutes before Coworker was leaving. I walk in and he tells me “everything is done, through the new software, everything is perfect, you wont even have to look at it while I am gone. It’s great we are all on the same page” off he goes and I am just thankful I am not going to have to see him for over a week. Then I came in to work on Saturday…..

oh well

2007-09-25T11:00:00.001-05:00

looks like I am going to be getting the cold shoulder at work this week. I am getting formal emails from my other coworkers. This is what was sent to this morning.

I regret to inform everyone that Heather Keen has resigned her position effective the end of the day Friday September 28. Please wish her well as she continues with school and other endeavors.
The Boss

I guess I will have a whole weekend off before school starts. I can live with that. hee hee that means that Coworker will have to work straight through from the 29th to October 8th. Hope he learns how to do his job in that time.

the Story of CoWorker part 3

2007-09-24T09:57:00.000-05:00

Alrighty. Here is the long winded story. I am going to do this in two parts. Coworker part 3 and then the lead into the day in which all hell broke loose and I put in my notice.

Since our last installment of the never ending coworker saga there have been several developments. The bank took his house. That by itself was a blessing as the phone calls from his mortgage company stopped. But then the new phone calls started. “um… yeah I am calling about the AC unit I saw on craigslist.com….” so being the smart gal that I am I went to craigslist and did a search for the phone number for our department and what do I find??? A total of seven listings, AC units, his $800 recliner (you know the ones with the built in fridge, phone, and message) with an asking price of $75, stove, refrigerator, washer, dryer and one for $10 for a whole list of kitchen items. He was selling everything in his house. I even found one with a story about 7-10 pairs of brand new jeans that his dead brother bought before he lost his battle with cancer and that his dead brother would want them to “go to a good home where they can get some use and they are only $5”. When I asked Manager he said that coworkers family lives out of state and that in the 7 years coworker has worked here he has never asked for funeral leave. So either the jeans are over 7 years old or he made up the story. I am guessing he made it up. Also while reading his posts I noticed he put a time to call using our number listed 2 hours in to my shift. I informed Manager and he in turn told jackass not to have people call after he leaves. Did that stop them? No. I just told anyone who called that whatever they were calling about was sold. The funny thing is in cleaning out of his house coworker offered me his roommates old fish tank. I don’t know if it was his to give but I wasn’t about to say no to a free fish tank. I will put up pictures of the tank as Rob built a beautiful stand for it. After the sale he moved out of his house and has moved in with 3 guys who had an ad also on craigslist. They have no idea what they are in for. I would say that now that he doesn’t have a mortgage paying rent should be easy… but he wasn’t paying his mortgage and was still borrowing money from his friends. A week after he moved into his new place I walked into he was all upset. I asked what was up. That was when he told me Ann had just dumped him without warning. Now I kinda knew about Ann. She would call all the time and she was always very nice. She was also the one who would drive him around and I later found out it was her cell he would use to call in sick. My guess is she just got tired of his shit. Not 3 days after he got dumped I got a call from our former receptionist because she had gotten a call from the chick he screwed over before she moved away. Apparently, coworker called The Girl and said that Ann and he had broken up and that all he really wanted was to be with The Girl and he wanted her to please move back to MN. She told him “no thank you, I have a man”, you go girl!!!! So now that he wasn’t staying with Ann all the time he FINALLY got a cell phone. He was still as angry as ever but at least he has a phone.

I did it

2007-09-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

I did it!!!! I quit my job!!!!!!!!!!!

So... I gave notice. I said I would work through next week. The Boss then asked if I could work through the first week of October as Manager will not be back from vacation until the 8th. I am changing my school schedule around because I AM NOT GOING TO BE WORKING HERE ANYMORE!!!! and said that it wouldn't work around what they would need me to work. The Boss said there might be a way to work out a part time schedule and we'll talk about it next week.

::::dancing:::::

Yikes

2007-09-20T22:36:00.000-05:00

all of my test/classes are over until 10/1. I got 1 A and 2 B's. and then I have the worst day in the history of my employment at my current job.

Big changes are about to take place. keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. I promise next week I will have more details.

for now I am going to finish this beer, watch one more Judge Judy then I am going to crawl in to bed and try to get a good night sleep.

2007-09-19T16:33:00.001-05:00

1 test down... 2 to go......

2007-09-13T19:14:00.000-05:00

I am having what people like to call... a day. not a good day... not a bad day... just a day. I am REALLY looking forward to going home and sleeping in in the morning. I may even be awake when Hubby comes home tonight, we might even be able to have a real conversation. But no promises...

ACK!

2007-09-12T17:17:00.000-05:00

Ok... I am not dead. My head has not expoleded. I do have a new instalation of the coworker saga but I have finals next week so things will have to wait.

So keep your fingers crossed for me for my tests!

I'm around and I will try to get a real post up soon :)

Evil Elevator Lady

2007-08-24T16:10:00.000-05:00

the Evil Elevator Lady has struck again!!! a girl from my office was coming up to the 2nd from the 1st floor and she was carrying a camera (like a tv news camera), a light kit, and wearing high heels and EEL informed her that there are stairs and if you are only going on floor you need to walk.

Apparently EEL feels safe enough that no one is punch her between her beady little eyes

Good note

2007-08-22T18:23:00.000-05:00

I got my mid-term grades:
Biology - B
Medical Terms - B
Intro to Vet. Tech - A

ugh

2007-08-22T18:20:00.001-05:00

Blah!

I am having a bad fucking day. I thought yesterday was going to be my shit day of the week. I guess not. Fists of all the talker is DRIVING ME INSANE!!!!!!!!!! All week she has been telling us that her grandfather is dying, and that her grandmother is in denial and to add to the denial her grandmother is crazy… really? In your family I never would have guessed. That was then followed by all the prescriptions the talker is on. The same statement was made in every single one of my classes. Twice she “told” me but I never looked up and I had my headphones on. When I didn’t and she started telling the girl who sits next to me.. on would go the headphones and all I wanted to do was bang my head on the table. This girl even talks through tests, I have no idea who the hell she is talking to. So today I guess her boyfriend drove her to school… gag and during breaks she would walk over to him as he was reading and like pick at his head. She would cover the bald spot then uncover it then part it in the middle and he just sat there turning beat red.

Then I went to work today and tried to turn in to a parking spot in the ramp and did this to my car. I hoping it is mostly paint transfer that we will be able to fix. I just wanted to cry.

Now I just want go home, go to bed and maybe even get a good night sleep. Please?

GRUDGE

2007-08-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

Part of Speech: noun
Definition: bitterness
Synonyms: animosity, animus, antipathy, aversion, bad blood, dislike, enmity, grievance, hard feelings, hate, hatred, ill will, injury, injustice, malevolence, malice, maliciousness, malignancy, peeve, pet peeve, pique, rancor, resentment, spite, spitefulness, spleen, venom

Grudges, I am full of them, and I hold them for a long time. In the last year my mother has been trying to convince me that I should forgive a childhood friend (she wasn’t really my friend but a daughter of my parents friends who was also my age), this girl was mean and a bully. She liked making the other girls at my birthday parties cry and when I was 5 or 6 I was at her house and she locked me in her parents room and wouldn’t let me leave, I was in hysterics. When my parents decided I was old enough to choose my own friends I no longer had anything to do with her. I hate her to this day and I still want nothing to do with her. I don’t care that she has signed up to save the world through the Peace Corp or whatever. There is nothing she can do that will make me forget/forgive what she did to me when I had no say in whether I wanted to be around her. Yes it seems petty that 25-27 years later I am so adamant about my feelings, but when I hear my parents talk about how wonderful she is I can’t help but feel like that little girl screaming and pounding on that bedroom door begging to be let out and just go home. I see no reason to change my opinions about people who royally fucked me over. The guy who molested me when I was 13 could find the cure for cancer, AIDS and world hunger, I still want him dead. All those kids who treated me like shit at my parents church and the assholes from high school, I don’t want to hear about them. I just don’t care. For some reason my folks have a hard time understanding that I don’t want an update on the people who treated me like crap or thought they were better than me. I have spent my time clearing my life of people like that for a reason.

But then there is Kate. That was a whole other issue. I managed to get over that because I had to ask myself, what had Kate really done to me that earned my being so angry. The simple fact was, she had done nothing. We spent four very intense and emotional (it was high school) years together. There wasn’t a day that we didn’t see each other or at least spend an hour on the phone. Then we graduated and went on to separate schools and paths in life. We tried for awhile to make each other fit, but life being what it is it just wasn’t working and that hurt. A lot. It always hurts when someone important to you moves on without you. The anger (at least for me) came from not understanding why something that was important in my life was no longer as important in hers, and the other way around as well. From there the we just got stubborn. As adults (and yes Kate we qualify as adults) we were finally able to accept that we now can fit. Will we end up like Mom & Molly?? Who knows, but we will always have a connection.

The moral of the story?? I guess it’s just don’t screw me over. And if you do, I am not going to care what you are doing 5, 10, 15 or 25 years later.

Lazy and proud!

2007-08-03T14:28:00.000-05:00

Ok.... I was standing in the elevator lobby waiting to take a bunch tapes down one floor minding my own business when this lady walked in to the elevator lobby when the down light dings and she says...
Lady: You know there are stairs right
Me: um... yeah
Lady: it's only one floor. You could just walk.
Me: excuse me Bitch, my knee doesn't want to take the stairs

Then she had the nerve to look offended that I called her a bitch. She just called me fat and lazy and she was shocked that I said something in response.

I am glad I live in the land of Minnesota Nice.... Bitch

Happy Wednesday!

2007-08-01T09:01:00.000-05:00

So I am driving in to school on the ever so slow 694, it’s slow every morning. I can’t understand why MN drivers skip they day in drivers ed that teaches about MERGING??? It’s not that hard, and no you wont get there faster by A)not letting people in and B) cutting off 18 wheelers that now do not have enough room to break and will squish you like a bug. I just don’t get it. So I was miffed watching all these asshole drivers then my entertainment started, on the off ramp of Rockford Rd there was a blue, green and bleached headed 20 something taking a field sobriety test. That was at 8:10am, rock on chick! You’re drunk and my good story for the day.

What a monday!

2007-07-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

I took my second test today and I got a B. That was cool!

Then I went out to lunch with Kate... we always have so much fun.

Then I stopped by my friendly neighborhood Kia dealer and bought a new car

This is my new Kia Spectra, it's a 2007 with 8099 miles on it. my side of the garage is so empty. I already have my Nebraska window sticker on I am just going to miss my Nebraska tire cover.

I am looking forward to the added 7-11 miles per gallon average over my sportage. Last week between work and school I drove 405 miles. It's 427 miles from my front door to my favorite Quick Trip in Omaha that is only 20 miles more, how scary is that? I am hoping to go from 8 tanks of gas a month to 5 and at $36+ a tank that is a nice saving.

week two

2007-07-26T16:55:00.001-05:00

It’s the end of week 2 and so far I haven’t fallen on my face. In fact I had my first test on Monday and I aced it. That was good. I wasn’t so sure how I was going to do. The test was in my Medical Terminology class, and I am having a hard time wrapping my head around all these terms and how they combine to make bigger wackier Latin/Greek words. Yeah, my year in Latin class in high school is not helping. But I somehow managed to absorb the information for the first test. I have another one next Monday.

Now I will tell you about my classes. On Monday & Wednesday I have Medical Terminology. It is going to be the roughest class for me. On Tuesday and Thursday I have Biology and Intro to Veterinary Technology. The best part is I like all of my teachers. I also like most of my classmates. When I went to Brown Institute I was the youngest in all of my classes by at least 4 years and I was the only one under the age of twenty. Now I am one of the few over 22. There are even kids that are STILL in high school taking post secondary classes. I should not be made to feel old at 30. I am getting use to the idea of being the granny, but still.

There is one chick though. For the life of us we can not understand WHY she is in the Vet Tech program. She has never owned an animal and this is the 3rd school she has been to. She had gone to one art school for a week but it wasn’t for her and then she went to MCTC for one term and it just wasn’t like structured enough for her. You add to that the fact that she is a talker. She is always talking about something. On Tuesday she brought in the cd cover for her FAVORITE band and basically gave us a presentation on why she liked the band and read the lyrics to us. The was in BIOLOGY class. HUH???? Then she did it again to the people around her in our Intro class. I don’t get it. Today we got to handle kittens, we s 45min presentation on how to restrain cats and the teacher said if you have never handled a cat and don’t know how to hold on to them to walk them in to class then let someone else do it so they don’t get loose and then we can practice. Chick was the first one in the cage room she opened the cage grabbed a cat and boom let it go. It took 3 of us 10 min to get the cat to come out from under the cages. Then she tried to pick it up BY THE HEAD!! Not by the scruff of the neck, by the head. That is when someone else took the cat and told chick she wouldn’t let her near a cat until we were back in the class and the teacher can watch her and walked the cat to the classroom. Me.. I just wanted to hit her. I am crossing my fingers she doesn’t make it at this school either

Monday continued…

2007-07-19T18:35:00.000-05:00

I managed to get my running done with enough time to get home and see my hubby before he went off to work (his shift was 1p-1a that day) and then at 1p I met up with Bret for lunch. The funny thing about Bret is that when we worked together we never hung out. He invited Rob & I to a post WSS party and then to a new years party at his place. Both times were parties and we never really got to sit and talk. We knew basics and I thought he was a cool guy, but that was it. What was only supposed to be lunch turned out to be an all day beer fest. We sat and talked for 4 hours before we left the bar and ended the evening at the house sitting on the front porch finishing off what beer I had in the house. It was really cool. Bret is TV people, I’m TV people, and we share a lot of the same reason for being TV people. It is always fun to talk about the rush of being a part of something that could all go to hell at any moment. I will always love talking about being part of live TV. Bret finally took off just before midnight. My ass was worn out Tuesday, and we will have to do that again sometime… it just will not be when I have to get up and go to school and work the next day.
Love that boy!

Monday...

2007-07-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

My First day of school.......

On Sunday (well actually all week) I was stressing out. I was still trying to figure out if I had it in me to really take on full time classes and work.. I couldn’t find my class schedule (see previous post for the the irony), I had typed it into my online calendar but I didn’t put what the room number was. So as far as I knew I had biology at 8:25 on Monday and Wednesday. All I could tell myself to try and ease the freak-out was that at 1pm after school I was meeting Bret for lunch and beers. I tried to go to bed at like 8:30 because I had to get up at 6am for the first time in ages, so I wanted to get a full night sleep. I took my sleeping pills at 8:45, I should have been dead to the world by 9:30 at the latest. I think I finally passed out at 12:30 and it was CRAP sleep.

I got my stuff together, had my coffee , got dressed and at 730 I was out the door. I get to school and stop in the office to get them to print me a schedule so I would know where to go. He hands it to me and I realize that they don’t put your schedule together in the order of the days they fall on, but in alphabetical. So Monday’s class was in fact Medical terminology and it starts at 8:55 and I had ALL THE WORNG BOOKS. AS usual when things like that happen… I called my mom and at that point she tells me that she read on Heidi’s blog that Kate is engaged. WOOHWOOO! That made me feel a little better about my class debacle. So I went into the right classroom and sat down. Then I started talking to this girl who had sat down next to me, you know just chit-chat. Well the teacher made us go around the room and introduce ourselves, and the girl next to me says “Hi, my name is Katherine”. I almost fell out of my chair. You see 16 years ago in September on my first day of high school, in my first class, scared out of my wits, in gym class,
sitting against the wall in the wrestling room I started talking to the girl who was sitting next to me, and that was Kate. She turned out to be my best friend all through HS, so it was trippy that this girl was also a Katherine. I managed to make it through class because she let me share her book. Freaky! I feel a lot better about this whole idea of school. I think I can handle it.

After class I had to make a run over to my mom’s house and in doing so I have to drive past Kate’s house and I said to myself if her dog is in the yard I am going to make a quick stop to see the ring. She was home and I got the story about the ring and I told her about the chick in class. Great times, and we shall be doing beer soon. I love that girl!

dreams....

2007-07-17T16:37:00.000-05:00

Before I tell you about my week I have to tell you about 2 recurring dreams I have had at least once a week since I graduated HS.

1) It’s the first day of school my Sr. year and I walk in and I have no class schedule and I have no idea where I am supposed to be and to top that I have no locker. I spend the entire dream freaking out about my classes.

2) It’s somewhere in the middle of a trimester and at first I am trying to plan what classes I can skip by how many absences I have in each class, but I can’t even remember the last time I went to 2nd hour so I should probably go to that class but I haven’t turned in any of the home work so I wouldn’t know was going on and what about the other classes. And so the cycle begins…

Now I know these are silly dreams but I always manage to wake of from them just as stressed as I was in the dreams. I have my fingers crossed that now that I am back in school I can at least have different school related stress dreams.

Vacation Pictures

2007-07-08T09:42:00.000-05:00

It happened.

2007-06-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

Bill and I did manage to get together and have drinks. We had a good time. I got to meet one of his coworkers. I ran into a kid (he’s 25) who I went to HS with who was a friend of Kate’s lil-sister Meg and I talked to guys from Wisconsin while waiting for Bill. It was good times all around. I can’t wait until we do it again. I guess the key to not jinxing it is to not get my hopes up and write about it a week ahead of time.

The next few weeks are going to be crazy. This weekend is the Shore. The Shore trip happens this time every year. It started when I was 8. It is 6+ families and we rent cabins up north. It’s the best sleep I get all year. And this year my bother will be going with Mom.

I start my 2-10 shift the first week of july. I have orientation on the 12th for school and then on the 16th I start classes.

Sometime in July Kate will be moving back home. Yippie!!!

Happy Friday!!

2007-06-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

I had a doctors appointment on Monday, nothing big just routine maintenance. Before my appointment I went to lunch with my buddy Drew. I miss Drew. Drew and I worked together when I was in high school. Drew went to the same high school but graduated before I got there. After HS I would run into Drew at least once a year we would hug share a “how ya been?” and that was the end of that. After I moved home my mom invited me to join her at a wedding of a good friend of my brother, and low and behold Drew was there. We talked and reconnected. My favorite band was going to be at the xcel center and I asked Drew if he wanted to go with me and we decided that it would be cool. At this point even though I had moved back to Minnesota from Bismarck I had gotten back together with CGXBF. When I told CGXBF that I was going to the concert with Drew, CGXBF said “good that means I don’t have to go”. He was in Bismarck there was no way he could go, but he didn’t (and never did) care that I was going out with another guy. At the concert it was almost like I just blinked and decided I was done with CGXBF. I was having a great time with a guy I have known for years at a concert of a band I adore. We were just being goofy waiting in line for Guster to sign some of my stuff and I looked at Drew and realized I hadn't been that happy or relaxed in ages. It felt a lot like when I would hang out with The Guys. I wasn't worrying about saying too much, acting too silly or making anybody mad. It was amazing, I guess I didn't notice how much of my personality I had been keeping in for the 3 years I was with CGXBF. The worst part of that weekend lasted 10 minutes and that is when I called CGXBF and told him I wasn't happy and that I was done. I was giddy and grinning, I called Bill and I just felt like a million bucks. I felt truly free. I took a step back and saw that wasn't as good as it was going to get for me. After that Drew and I would have lunch together once a week. When both worked in Eden Prairie and I miss him. Of all the people in my life I think Drew knows me better than anyone. Even better then Rob only because he has seen me go from crazy high school cheerleader to depressed and lonely to self confident and in love. Everyone should have a friends like that.

Oh and on a side note….
Today I am in theory having drinks with Bill. Now the last two times we were to go out he had other things he needed to do. Work and family… that selfish bastard! Kidding! I love the guy.

I’m the schmuck

2007-06-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

Yeah… It started on Wednesday night. I was all ready to go to bed when I opened my pill box to find I was out of my sleeping pills. Now I NEEEEEEEED my sleeping pills otherwise I sleep really hard for 2 hour wake up with a nasty migraine type headache that wont go away and then I can’t go back to sleep. It was 11 at night and I REALLY didn’t want to run Walgreens again, like the last 2 times my sleep pills ran out. I don’t think about them until it’s time to take them and then I end up at Walgreens at midnight. Anyway, I didn’t want to go so I got the bright idea to take the samples Rob’s doc gave him that didn’t work for him. Only I think… I have to take double doses of my normal sleep meds so I should take double of the sample meds because one didn’t work for Rob. Whoops!! First they made my legs really twitchy, then I finally fell asleep but it was crazy. I now know where they came up with their ad campaign, from someone who took the meds. It wasn’t exactly Abe Lincoln and a talking beaver but damn close. When I woke up I felt like SHIT. I would say a 6.5 on the pain scale. When I left for work I still felt under the influence of the meds and as I drove I almost lost what little coffee I had managed to drink. So I called Manager and tell him how I felt that I am half way there but don’t think I can make it can I call in sick. He told me no. HE TOLD ME NO. We had a tech flying in to work on our server and he NEEDED me to be there. I said I was going to be less then useless and he said that was ok. So I sat at work all day Thursday drinking ginger ale and tried not to get sick. I almost lost it twice while sitting in the weekly staff meeting. The tech’s flight was delayed and I kept asking if I could go home, “if he is not here by 5 you can go”. He got here at 445. DAMN IT!!! At 6 Manager said he had to go and I had to stay until the tech was done. I was less then happy. When Manager left I told the tech I was having a bad attitude day, but to his benefit I didn’t care if he took us off the air and/or fried the server. Luckily Tech said he had done all he could do for the night at 740, so I did end up working 8 full hours. When I got home at 815 I still couldn’t keep anything down and felt like the meds had me (as my hubby likes to say) by the booboo’s. Knowing how bad I felt and that I was going to pass out as soon as I hit the pillow, I backed out of lunch with my buddy Bret on Friday (today). I SUCK. I did get my pills and I did get some real sleep, like 14 hours. But I suck… and I owe Bret a beer.

poor kitty

2007-05-31T13:01:00.000-05:00

Before

After Yes.. that is right, Cinder has a lion-cut. she's naked

love.... hate

2007-05-29T13:23:00.000-05:00

My buddy Bill is one of my most favorite people in the universe. He’s a great guy and a good dad. What makes that suck for me is… he is ditching me AGAIN!!!! His son has something important going on tomorrow so Bill can’t have beers with me. So I have the whole day off and no where to go. If he had told me this last week then I could have spent the day today with my hubby. But no… I get to hang out by myself. I do have a nail appointment at 215, yippie.

I am depressed. Not just because Bill ditched me, but that with school coming up I am going to have even less opportunities to see my friends. I rarely see them as it is. It’s even hard to see Rob with the way his schedule works. That sucks…

next week

2007-05-24T15:36:00.000-05:00

I am going to be a busy busy bee next week. Monday is a national holiday. Tuesday I have a 9am hair appointment that I am so excited for. Rob (the stylist not the hubby) does an amazing work with hair color. The girl who did my hair before was good but Rob is awesome. I wanted an appointment on Wednesday because I am not working that day but Rob doesn’t work on Wednesday so I am going to get up extra early on Tuesday just so Rob will do my hair. Wednesday I have the day off work so I am going to get some needed shopping done. I have a nail appointment at 215 and I am (cross my fingers) meeting Bill for drinks at 430ish. Thursday I have a 8am appointment to take Cinder to the groomers to get her hair cut. Yep, we are sheering the fluffy cat.