everyone has their 'thing'

and one of our 'things' are when we feel we have eaten too much we call ourselves a "piggie pig pig pig." don't ask. we're crazy. i know that. but we find it hilarious. we also say it while poking ourselves in the belly.

have i also ever mentioned that i must have things in odd numbers? we can buy one, three, or five of something, etc. like candles, or candleholder have to have places for an odd number of candles.

escecially three. i love things in threes. like i said, crazy.

oh and tiny things. love them. no idea why. if i ever have a child i'm going to be out of control buying so many little tiny things. i love them. alex has a hard time getting me away from them. imagine when i have an excuse?

so, a few weeks ago we were downtown and we went into one of my favorite stores on main street and bought a few things. things i HAD to have. you know how it is.

one of these things was a 3-legged good luck pig.

need i explain how much i HAD TO OWN this little piggie pig pig pig? no, i didn't think so.

damn

thanks for the link irish. not sure i beleive it. i'm close to being a liar, see, like i said i was!

Your EQ is 147

50 or less: Thanks for answering honestly. Now get yourself a shrink, quick! 51-70: When it comes to understanding human emotions, you'd have better luck understanding Chinese. 71-90: You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely. 91-110: You're average. It's easy to predict how you'll react to things. But anyone could have guessed that. 111-130: You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt. 131-150: You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin. 150+: Two possibilities - you've either out "Dr. Phil-ed" Dr. Phil... or you're a dirty liar.

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

i'm a liar

see, i said i was going to post everyday. i lied. things have been crazy busy at work and since i'm still in that "trying to make a good impression" phase, i'm trying as hard as i can to do a good job. not that i normally don't, but they are all still getting used to me. i want their impression to be good. you know?

we've been wrangling with insirance issues. my er trip may or may not be covered. i also have this extra "accident" policy which is pretty cool and covered things like, say, your er deductible if you go for an accident. you know, random example. well turns out someone had to come here to have me fill out the paperwork (it's state-specific) so we're not actually covered on that until aug 1 so we'll miss out on that too.

and the new ins? won't let me get an mri. not "medically necessary." now, i ask you, a diagnosis of possible ms isn't "medically necessary" uh huh. i see.

good news is alex's company offers our old insurance as an option, so we're gonna go back on that. *hopefully* even with the lapse, all of my pre-authorizations will still hold. i won't be having my mri tomorrow as planned, but hopefully next week when we're all official. i hope so because if i have to reschedule my appt with my neurologist i'm screwed. he schedules like 6 months out. seriously.

hopefully it will all work out and we'll have no problems. (see! that's me being optimistic!!! weird, huh? yeah, i thought so too.)

anyhow. i also had to give another speech this week to a bariatic surgery information group. some are pre-op, some newly post-op, a bunch were about 6 mos out, i think 1 was a year out. i've done this twice before. both times it was really informal. 10 or so people. kind of like a q&a session. no big. i called the head of the group about 3pm to verify the location of the room we'd be meeting in. keep in mind she scheduled me for this MONTHS ago.

so i call her and she says "ok, so many people are coming that we're going to be in the auditorium. they're all really excited to hear you. i've told them now inspirational you are. oh, and how long is your presentation?" all i heard was AUDITORIUM and PRESENTATION. huh? what? oh god.

so i was a little freaked. i made alex drive while i frantically scribbled notes about topics i wanted to cover. i was more than a little nervous.

of course it was fine. although there WAS a microphone invovled people. my pictures were projected on a screen behind me. there were probably about 50-60 people there. and only 2-3 knew me from before. (this isn't the place i had surgery, but the woman who was the head of mine moved and started this one and she asked me to be invovled. and i love it. except i can't really be totally invovled since i did not have surgery there per se. like i can't be in advertising or anything, which truly is what i'd like to do. she had asked me to be in ads for my group... right before she left. of course. and i have no ties to them anymore, even my own surgeon left that group. ah well.) so anyway, when my before picture went up there were gasps, there was a general hush and murmurs. i tell you, that in and of itself makes it worth it. truly. it never gets old.

so it went fine. i talked a little more than an hour. alex was there working the pictures and chiming in when appropriate. there were questions and then people came up to talk to me privately after, as i expected they would. several called me their hero. that was weird. but 2 years ago i would have been in awe of me too.

so that's all i've got for today. i'll close with a related photo. post-monthly-b12 shot. one of those things i'll be doing for the rest of my life :)

all gone

so i didn't write about our "excitement" over the weekend.

saturday night we had watched a dvd (clerks, in prep for clerks 2, since -- much to alex's horror -- i had not seen it before.)

at any rate. we're getting ready to head up to bed and i realize there is laundry to be brought up. i head down to grab the basket. usually alex doesn't "let" me carry the laundry up the 2 flights, but i guess he forgot this time. at any rate, halfway up from the basement i felt a twinge in my back and by the time i got to the top of the stairs i could no longer carry it. hell, i could barely stand up straight.

let me back up. i'm a klutz. a huge klutz. i fall going up the stairs. if there is something to step on that will hurt/make me trip on the floor or ground i'll find it. we joke about if we lose something on the floor, not to worry, i'll step on it. and inevitably, i do. anyway. back in college i slipped on some ice and fell on my lower back. and ever since i'll have back problems sometimes. i have a herniated disk, my last one. and every now and again i'll do something stupid and throw it out. i know what to do to fix it though usually when it's my lower back. i know the exercises and taking NSAIDS usually resolves itself. once i had to talk with a cane for a week. once i even had to call and ambulance to get to the hospital since i could not move. back pain effs you up. like nothing else.

well loving 200+ pounds certainly has helped my back. also the yoga and activity level we've had the last two years.

well, we haven't been to yoga in a few months. and this pain on saturday? it wasn't my lower back. it was my mid back on the left side. but, being the back-pain veteran i am i let alex help me to bed and figured i'd take some tylenol and see how it worked itself out. no, i can no longer take NSAIDs because of my bypass. and yes, that does suck.

you know what else sucks? i had about a gallon of liquid vicodin that they discharged me from the hospital with after my bypass that i never opened. it was in the medicine cabinet since. we just got rid of it. last week.

this goes to show you how bad the back pain was. i was willing to take liquid vicodin, but i didn?t' take any after they cut open my stomach with an 8inch incision and rerouted my intestines. i digress.

anyhow, about 2 am i'm trashing about since it hurts. so. much. no position is ok for more than 1.5 minutes. the spasms wave through my chest, it makes breathing difficult. alex suggests lying on the floor might be better. seems reasonable. but that was such a mistake, just getting on my knees had be sobbing. and him freaking out. he got me somewhat settled on the floor and ran out saying he'd "be right back."

i knew what he was doing. trying to call our new insurance to see if we were covered. we were supposed to be as of july 1. but we didn't have cards yet. we had gotten temporary insurance for the 2-week gap when we wouldn't have any insurance. that expired on the 15th. being 3am at this point, it was officially the 16th. figures. only i have luck like this.

finally he decides who cares, we're going to the ER anyway. we should be covered. we made the long trek to the car and over to st. joe's. where we waited. for 3.5 hours.

but before waiting i was triaged, of course. the nurse asks if i'm allergic to any meds and i give the standard "no, but i cannot take NSAIDs due to my gastric bypass" to this she pauses. lets it register. turns to me and looks at me in disbelief "you had a bypass? you're so tiny!" and i answer, "well yeah, but it was 2 years ago. isn't that kinda the idea of having one?"

anyway, after the 3.5-hour wait we're seen by a resident who has the same reaction regarding the bypass. "wow, it really worked for you, huh?" she says it's probably just a muscle stain, and wants a urine sample and says the doctor will be in shortly.

then the doctor comes in. love her! she was so great. she tells me how NSAIDs would be the best but since i can't take them she's going to give me a vicodin/valium cocktail that i'm promised will kick in within 30 minutes. however, she can't send me home with both because "someone as small and petite as yourself shouldn't take both since it could cause breathing problems." seriously, at this point alex and just stat laughing. petite? me? c'mon.

anyhow, they sent me home with valium. which seems weird to me, but it works. but now i'm out. i'm hoping when i go see my pcp tomorrow for my b12 shot they'll give me a refill. of course i do have temporary ins cards now. i just called the hospital to give them the info so hopefully we won't get billed and it will go smoothly. also, have to see if i can keep my MRI that's scheduled for the 29th. i've started that process.

what's more fun? we might switch insurance AGAIN with alex's job transfer. it might make more sense $$ wise.

so, this is what this weekend has taught us:

1. laundry is off limits to me
2. we're going back to yoga. tonight (if i think i can handle it.)

hey, both of those are good by me! let's hope i can get a few more nuggets of goodness. for when this happens again. because we all know it will. it's me.

yikes!

so much celebrating was to be done yesterday. my husband has been contracted to a rather large company for the last 5 years and was finally hired in yesterday as an official employee. it's been in the works for awhile. and we knew it was happening. but, at his contract company he's been at the top of the payscale for a long time. and they lowered all the salaries for starting employees. which meant he could never get a raise, but at least they never cut his pay either. and we were worried what the official offer would be.

he finally got it yesterday and it's all good! when i got my new job we went out to dinner to celebrate. we went out to dinner for him too, but somehow... he ended up with a new toy as well. i didn't get a new toy! :(

he's like a little kid in a candy store and i love it. i love how happy it makes him. he's worked really hard the last few years to get where he is in the company and this is just further proof as how far he's come.

it is, however, a bit fast. and i was terrified a bit surprised as the salesman drove us up the street in it. he promised once alex drove it he wouldn't want anything else. and he was right. unfortunately they have to find the right color combo at another dealer so somebodyneeds to be patient for a few days. and that is not a strong suit for either of us!

so, er, i'm a little scared, but so happy for him!

i'm one of *those* people

ok. i gave in. i have a bluetooth head set now. i did not want one. i fought it. but the conference calls at work... it was necessary. and can i tell you a secret? i love it. i'm not good at getting it on quickly. but it's really great. certainly not cheap, but hell, they paid for it so i'm not complaining.

i have a lot to write about, like our visit to the ER this wknd. but not now. don't have the energy.

and i have a call in a few minutes. :)

happy day~

music DOES always help, doesn't it?

that and a trip to the water park near our house last night. so much fun! i forget that it's so close and so cheap! we both needed a little fun in the water last night.

plus i helped out on a problem at work, yay! points for me!

AND my new laptop bag is here! how much do i LOVE IT!

melancholy

so i wanted to finish my post about jury duty but eh. i'm over it.

well, mostly. except for one minor detail that i have not shared with anyone.

i figured out why i was SO riled up about this case. i figured it out when i was home and unreasonably upset that the guy did not get convicted. so mcuh so i could not sleep. then i realized why.

basicaly the same thing happened to me. and i was 14 (like her). and he was 22 (like the guy). only it was letters (not IM) and we did meet. when i was 16. he came to my house (he lives in louisana and i was in nh then). and he forced himself on me.

it's not as bad as it sounds, it wasn't violent. i did cry. i did try to stop him. but i did feel like i owed him something thing, and i wasn't strong enough to fight him off.

it was wrong then and it was wrong in this case too. and i guess i wanted someone to pay. since i feel like no one ever did in my situtation either. and i know this event is part of the reason my mother and i never had a closer realtionship. i always felt like she shoud have protected me. and she never -- to this day -- has ever wanted to talk about what happened or even acknowledged it.

but i know she knows.

so today, i'm sad.

fun with my new laptop

awww yeah. i have an application on my new laptop called photobooth. it's the funnest ever. (yes, i know i need to get out more.)

but see, it will inspire me to post more. i can put a picture up! you can all see me everyday, i can pretend i have an office, yes, yes that's it.

here's one of my little helpers. he freaked when he saw himself on screen. ha!

love it!

posting

why is it when the most exciting stuff if going on you have no time to write about it?

so i've started my new job. i was in ct for 4 days. it was a little overwhelming, especially since they gave me a project the first day to start on!

the good stuff was that i got to see melissa a bunch and also my friend holly who i have not seen in like 5 or 6 years. i also got to meet her brand new 6 week old twins! i can't believe that holly has 2 babies! so surreal. i love her though and i missed her so much. it was like no time had passed since seeing each other at all we just talked abnd talked and talked. i love friends like that and it seems that i'm so far away from them all :(

we ended up spending the night hanging out with melissa after and eating good-for-you pizza and drinking wine and it was so much fun. as they talked about getting together more often (since they live less than 10 mins apart) i begged them to just conference me in so i could pretend i was there. i really do miss my friends so much.

i came back thursday night and then worked from home the first day on friday. it was good. a little stressful since i had so much to do, i was trying to get this one project mostly done that day since i had JURY DUTY the following week. i had hoped i would not be on a case, esp since it was my second day of work but, knowing my luck, i knew i could not count on that.

and guess what? i was right. i should have known it wasn't a good sign when my juror number was 645 and when i called that weekend they were calling jurors number 1 through..... 645. of course.

so i reported for jury duty monday morning. it was my first time. before they called anyone they gave us all this survey that some grad student had put together and it was really very interesting. it bascially asked you how often you watched all these certain law shows and then asked a bunch of questions about the law and stuff. i leaned that one 1.) i watch WAY too many law-themed shows and 2.) it REALLY colors what i think about the law. really. i thought i was pretty intelligent, but i could totally see the point of the survey. scary.

anyway... so they tell us then that they are picking 3 panels that day. if you don't get picked, you're done and you're free to go. they pick 28 per panel. i was picked for the first panel.

so we all go down to the courtroom and the judge and the prosecutor and the defense were there. along with the guy on trial. that seemed weird to me. at any rate, they pick 14 of us (of which i am not one) and begin with their questions. one chick got dismissed right away due to the schedule. and i was called to replace her.

ah, fitting that i will have to finish this later, given how i started it :) work calls and since i've been off for, oh, 7 days (not counting weekends!) i had better get to it!