Bitching, Moaning
Today is my last day in the office until Wednesday. Wooooo!
Tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday I will still be doing work related things outside of the office... but it's still out of the office. I took off on Monday and Tuesday because I'm supposed to go to the beach with some friends from college.
You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to get a small group of people together, but let me tell you something, it is! Everyone except for boyfriend and I are either leaving or just getting back from another country. Most of these people are in graduate school now, where do they get this kind of money? I think they think that I must have money because I'm out of school and working, but the truth is that my net worth could make a person CRY!
First, there is the obvious law school debt. Go on and look up how much it costs to attend law school. Now, think about that sum of money to attend for just one year... with no law degree, no legal credibility, nothing. Basically think of flushing all that cash down the toilet.
Next, I live in the DC area. I know people always bitch and moan about how expensive it is to live in DC, but it really is. My teeny one bedroom is more expensive than my parent's mortgage on their house. Yes, I'm splitting it with boyfriend, but even after that it's still outrageous.
Plus I'm a part-time student. I never knew before how expensive science textbooks are. I never wanted to know.
Plus boyfriend and I are going to Disney World; what are we thinking?
Last, I was a goddamned liberal arts major! Sure, my parents tried to warn me. They said, "what are you going to do with a history degree?" They suggested law school, med school, who knows what school... the point is that I didn't listen. I could be a female engineer and have companies drooling over me and chucking money at me, instead I'm a B.A. It should be something more like W.L. - We Lied [we said this degree was versatile, but you're still not very competitive and won't get paid much], or more simply Y.L. - You Lose [SUCKER].
We're supposed to check in to our hotel at the beach Saturday night, yet no reservations have been made. Why? Because I'm being passive aggressive; I knew everyone would just assume that either myself or boyfriend would do it. Okay, two of them have legitimate excuses, but the other one? Don't even get me started... even though I'm clearly already started.
So, let's get to the heart of the issue. I think that I'm... hurt. Sometimes I feel that some of my college friends don't really try that hard to keep in touch, that they don't really care about me, that they only want to talk about their successes, that they won't connect with me on a 'real' level like we used to, and that they won't put themselves out at all or do anything that inconveniences them in the slightest.
Maybe it's harsh, but sometimes you need to vent, right?
It gets old feeling like I'm always writing the first email, making the first call, offering encouragement on a current worry, or making the damn hotel reservation. If I disappeared, "would anybody even notice, would anybody even care?" To quote my favorite Buffy episode (ie, the musical - Once more with Feeling ).
I'll quit wallowing and being overly dramatic for now, but don't worry... I'm sure it'll come back at some point.
Maggie
Well, my family got a dog!
Saturday morning we set out our plan to visit three different rescue organization stands. We had applications for two dogs already sent in to two of the rescue groups, and the third we didn't know too much about. The very fluffy chow/golden mix whose photo I fell in love with was at the 2nd rescue organization on the list (they opened later), but there was also a very attractive lab mix that my mother found online Friday; this dog would be at the first place we planned to visit.
So, we didn't get too far in our search! The first dog we went to see was clearly the best option for my parents. She was a one year old (out of the puppy stage), medium sized (shouldn't get any bigger), housetrained (major plus), sweet and very attractive female lab mix who even knew "sit!" She needs some work on the leash and to learn some basic commands.. as well as her name!
We filled out the paperwork, bought all sorts of toys, leashes and collars, dog bowls, etc., and Maggie Mae (previously "Fawn") came home with us that afternoon! She spent most of her time in her crate, unwilling to explore the house or even venture out of the family room. I think the move was a bit much for her! She slept most of the day.
We've slowly been introducing her to the cat as well. I read that the best way to do it is to have the cat come in while the dog is locked in the crate, if the dog lunges or barks then you should immediately reprimand the dog and remove the cat from the area. You're supposed to keep doing this until you get no reaction from the dog. The next step is to have the dog on the leash with the cat nearby, same routine with reprimanding and separating. For some people this takes a while, for others it takes no time at all. Maggie hasn't lunged or barked, but she did give a little growl the first time. We're taking it slow, but it doesn't look like it's going to be a problem.
Her first vet and grooming appointment is this week. Unfortunately I won't see her again until the weekend of June 9. I'm sure there will be some big changes by that time, she should be much more comfortable.
I'm thrilled, incase you couldn't tell!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Learn to love the questions?
This week dropped by painfully for me. There are some things about my job that are great... the room to learn many different things, lots of different exposures and new responsibilities, adequate pay, my own office...
But there are some things that just plain suck and there's no way getting around it.
I have been looking forward to DOG SHOPPING the entire week! I decided to journey home to my parents house again this weekend (and you KNOW how I feel about THAT) so that me, boyfriend, and my parents can go hunting all the different adoption "centers" around the city. I have been trying not to think about the one dog that I really like; I just know that we're going to stumble over a few more roadblocks before we find "our" dog. That being said, I have high hopes that we'll meet him or her this weekend!
So, I hope everyone has an EXCELLENT, much-needed Memorial Day holiday!
Patience and Impatience
I would just like to say that my scale told me I dropped another pound this morning.
You might say, one pound... who cares? People's weight fluctuates all the time!
Well, not my weight. I've been checking my weight for quite a few months now, and the number I saw today has not popped up on the scale in a long time. So I'm taking it as a big win and also as some great encouragement to keep doing what I'm doing - eating smart and not binging when I get home from work on anything I can find.
Hopefully next week I'll add exercise to the mix - this week has just been too stressful and I've really needed my sleep.
The dog people won't be able to schedule a meeting before this weekend. I'm nervous, and still keeping my fingers crossed.
Please Let this Work
My mom has been talking about getting a dog for a long time, but it wasn't until after she began to get over Max's death that she began looking.
On Saturday I took her to get a manicure and a pedicure as part of a belated Mother's Day present (she's always complaining that she's XX years old and never had a manicure). Afterwards we walked down to the pet store where they had a bunch of dogs outside that afternoon.
Usually when we walk by the dogs there's just a bunch of barking, nothing too breathtaking. But this time there was a guy who actually caught our eye. He was calm, he took his treats gently, and he was so unusual colored and speckled; we'd never seen a dog quite like him before.
Apparently he was a Catahoula mix. I'd never heard of that breed before, and I generally try to keep up on dog breeds. Catahoulas are no Golden Retrievers, they're more independent but still very loyal, and this dog seemed really perfect for what my parents were looking for - a calm companion who won't jump all over you when you walk in the door. This dog was about 1.5 years old, just passed being a puppy.
She filled out the application on Sunday, and the volunteers had all told us that there hadn't been any competing interest in the dog. This morning she emailed them just to make sure they'd received the application. They said that they had it, but that the dog would be going home this weekend.
That wasn't very descriptive... we didn't know if that meant someone else had already adopted him or if he'd be going home with us. After a few more emails begging for clarification we found out that the dog was indeed adopted by someone else.
The first feelings were frustration - we'd been told there was no one else interested in the dog. We were preparing ourselves, getting comfortable with him and the idea of having a dog, talking about buying a crate, talking about names.
I knew that something like this could very likely set my mom off to the whole idea and just make her frustrated. I quickly looked for other options so that she'd know there were plenty of other options out there. There was one dog in particular that I absolutely loved, a very young Golden Retriever/Chow Chow mix. My advisor in college had this type of mix, and he frequently brought his dog, Leo, to class. Leo would sprawl out in the front of the room, listening. Sometimes he'd get up and ask for love from the students in the front row; I remember thinking how awesome he was and how I'd like a Chow/Golden mix. Judging from the pictures, this dog was beautiful, but I never thought my parents would go for it.
But they did! Even my dad (who doesn't get excited about these things) suddenly got proactive and started calling and emailing the rescue group. They told us that if we were interested we could submit an application online, and since it's early in the week we could possibly get someone to bring the dog over to our home to see how things go... if everything went well, after a mandatory training class Friday evening we could take the dog home.
I told myself not to get excited again, but here I am jumping out of my skin! My family has never had a dog, though both my parents had dogs when they were younger. I have always wanted a dog, and I anticipate the experience of owning one with boyfriend frequently. I know I'll feel absolutely horrible if someone has already adopted this dog or is further along in the process, especially because she's basically the dog I've dreamed off... she's completely beautiful. The ad says she's sweet, shy, and gets along well with other animals.
Please, please, please let this work out. Please. I think that this pup would be wonderful for my family and that we could give her a lot of love. I try not to ask for much, but if you pray...
Eyes (still) on the Prize
Last night coming home from work was the triple crap on my face!
Something was up with the metro, so the ride home took 30 minutes longer than usual.
When I got in I checked my snail mail, and a letter with my Statistics grade was waiting for me. It had both the exam grade and the final grade. Let's just say, "ouch!" I passed, but it's not exactly the way I wanted to present myself to potential nursing programs. But I also don't think that I could bare taking that horror again. I guess I'm just going to have to bust my butt in all the other prereqs and hope that those grades combined with my solid undergrad grades will be enough. Still a bummer, though! I know I didn't deserve a good grade with how much I procrastinated and how little I cared, but my distance learning professor was not a big help either.
When I got up to the apartment door, a little white envelope was sticking out from underneath. It turned out to be a letter from the apartment building maintenance manager stating that he'd be coming in on the 18th for our move out inspection. Inspection already!? And on such short notice?!
The letter said that we didn't need to clean; the maintenance officer would only be inspecting the appliances to get a feel for what, if anything, needed work before the next tenant moves in. But come on, people, you don't schedule a move out inspection with less than 24 hours notice unless you want to catch someone doing something.
Little did they know, I wasn't standing for those shenanigans! I stayed up late scrubbing anything I could find... bathroom tiles had old grout scraped off and new grout smoothed down, burners on the stove could give you your reflection, minor marks and smudges were removed from the walls with a little elbow grease (and 409) and yes, you could even eat off the linoleum in the kitchen.
Boyfriend went to bed. I tried not to get too agitated, but when you're sweating in your pajamas, wiping up trimmed beard hairs from around the bathroom sink, and you've somehow managed to get tile grout in your hair... everyone and everything becomes a target!
Hopefully when I get home today I won't see an eviction notice taped to the door. It's not easy keeping such a small area that contains two people clean. I hope we do better when we move in a month and a half, but I make no guarantees!
Luckily, today has been less of a crapfest. Boyfriend and I picked our dates to go to Disney World, and my boss already OK'd my vacation time! That's right...
The first week in July, baby! We're going to Disney World!
Big Smiles All Around
I got confirmation that the leasing office received our paperwork, and we're good to go! All we need to do is stop by some time to finish crossing t's and dotting i's. Moving is exciting, even if it is only going up a few floors. Already I'm thinking... maybe we should look into a new couch, maybe boyfriend needs a smaller desk, maybe we should have matching dressers, maybe it's time I got a new comforter.
Silly me, thinking that moving will suddenly make any of my furniture match or any of our rooms have balance.
Maybe one day when I have money I'll focusing on giving my home a "theme." Or, maybe when I get married my wedding guests will be very generous with their gifts! Yeah... they probably have as little money as I do.
I ran into one of my college aptmates (1 of 3 others) last night getting off the metro. We haven't seen eachother (or spoken) in two years. She had some problems back then (yeah, problems with stealing mine and another roommate's stuff!), but I tried to be friendly. She's still spacey and bizarre, and she seems very unhappy in her profession.
Right now the only people I really knew left in college are about to graduate. They're currently at their beach week extravaganza in Myrtle Beach. They're probably drinking coladas, running around naked, canoodling... ohhh jealousy.
But actually, not that much jealousy. The old roommate I ran into kept exclaiming, "You look good! You look happy!" Why thank you; I feel pretty good and happy! I'm not in law school (though my Dad reminds me daily that I could have been finishing my second year of law school this month). That also means I'm officially one year OUT of law school. That's right, let the good times roll.
A quick and dirty update
YES, I keep dropping off the face of the Earth!
1) It's hard when really the main thing going on is work. Long, painful hours of work. And I can't talk about work here, no matter how much I want to, because there's a strong possibility my butt would get the boot. My butt does not like boots.
2) Let's talk about Stat. Remember a few postings ago when I said that I had three chapters left of Statistics and a week before the final? When I came home from work Friday (5/11) I STILL had those three chapters to do before the final. The final was Saturday (the testing center was only open from 9am-1pm and closed on Sunday).
Yeah, so that was FUN. Boyfriend and I stayed up until 4am working until my eyes became completely blurred and I started vomiting. I was not made for "all-nighters," especially not all-nighters of MATH. So I crashed at 4am with one chapter left, and boyfriend finally crashed at 4:30am. We set the alarm for 6:30am and then got right back to work.
We finished the third chapter and quiz around 9am, the same time that the distance learning center opened that day. We called just to make sure that we absolutely had to take the final that day (the last day of the semester was Monday). To our immense relief, the center told us that we could take it Monday.
After that we collapsed.
We took the final Monday after work. It was irritating, the exam was multiple choice and several questions had you choosing between answers that were .01 apart. It makes you second guess yourself; it becomes a question of whether you can outsmart the test, not whether you know the material. I was thoroughly aggravated. Stat really turned out pretty badly. That being said, I still have high hopes for both PSY 231 - Lifespan Development and BIO 141 - Human Anatomy & Physiology.
3) After an awful Friday night and Saturday morning, Saturday evening turned out great. Boyfriend and I went to The Italian Store, a place he'd read many good things about. The place lived up to its ratings - he had a great sub with salami and proscuitto and I had some incredible pizza with fresh garlic on top.
After the Italian Store we got some ice cream at The Dairy Godmother , another place he'd read wonderful things about. This place was also exceptional. Their 'ice cream of the day' was Maple Walnut, and let me tell you, I scarfed that DOWN!
After loading up on delicious, fattening food, we saw Hot Fuzz at the movie theater. I was prepared to dislike this movie, I thought it would be just too silly. I actually really enjoyed it and it was a lot funnier than I'd thought.
So, a shitty day really can turn out wonderfully.
4) The apartment. You know how I feel about it: it's small, there's no room for a kitchen table (thus, no entertaining !), and the best feature (the girl who used to constantly walk around in her birthday suit) is gone, gone, gone.
We visited a condo for rent that I found on Craigslist. It was surprisingly nice, but it just didn't have that special something to make the whole hassle worthwhile.
We finally went to our leasing office to discuss renewal/termination options, and she told us about another unit in the same building that's a little bit bigger. It wouldn't be that much more expensive at all AND there's room for a kitchen table! It's a few floors above the one we're on now, but it still faces the courtyard. There's a good chance that we could even be next to a new naked neighbor.
Boyfriend was pretty gung ho about it from the get-go. I, of course, saw only the pitfalls and setbacks. Just when he won me over, I'd gone and made him nervous too. But we finally made a decision, and I shoved the paperwork to transfer to the new unit underneath the door of the leasing office this morning. Woo.
I'll try to be more like Kant, okay? Until then, I'm going to get a smoothie!
If someone had told me this story, I'd probably think they were lying.
My weekend was pretty absurd. I'm not sure of a better word for it! It was almost like college again.
Saturday night boyfriend and I had plans to go to Ed's, a high school friend who now lives in the area and was having a Cinco de Mayo cookout. On Friday night, two other high school friends who don't live around here decided to come up and go also. They got here early Saturday afternoon to go first to a Crawfish Festival in Alexandria, VA; $30 for all you can eat crawfish and all you can drink beer. Boyfriend and I didn't go ($30 is a bit steep for us, plus the weather looked questionable), but our friends were going to come back to our place after the festival and before the cookout so that we could all go over together.
From the time they left the festival until they got to our apartment, it took about two hours. I'm not sure what they were doing or where they were, but they already pretty drunk when they got to our apartment. So by the time we got to the cookout things were already interesting.
Now, you should probably understand that the host of the cookout, Ed, is a pretty nice guy. In high school he was an ass, prone to a misanthrope attitude and irritable outbursts. I don't know how he did it, but he's mellowed out a LOT. Still, his relationship to the rest of us basically consists of us poking fun at him... extreme fun. So, with friends who had been drinking all day, it probably won't surprise you that most of the evening consisted of jokes that would make most people blush.
But there were some other characters at the party. When we first walked into the apartment the first thing I heard was a very large girl railing about people under 25 getting married. She said, "Ok, raise your hand here if you're under 25 and engaged or married... I mean, I just don't get it. It's, like, everyone!"
Clearly what she meant was, "I'm not even in a serious relationship yet. I'm very insecure, so I'm going to make other people feel like what they're doing is wrong to make myself feel better." I took a quick mental note to avoid this person.
Unfortunately avoiding her wasn't possible. I was hanging out with "the guys" on the balcony, when she finally found us. She asked if any of the guys there were single, because she just had to hook up with someone tonight. The host had promised her single guys were going to be there, and she was just soooo depressed that she hadn't found any. This girl then asked my boyfriend if he wanted to make out!
My guy friends, smart people that they are, all quickly exited the balcony... but they left boyfriend and I out there with no easy escape! Boyfriend explained he was dating me. She looked crestfallen, but that didn't stop her. She said, "Am I that unattractive?" She repeatedly asked us both several times, then launched into, "I thought guys liked big boobs... I have big boobs!" She rubbed them for us, then turned back to, "Am I that unattractive?" and made more requests to make out. Finally she decided, "I need to show off more cleavage," and she pulled her already low shirt down much lower.... too low.
Thank the Gods, the girl finally realized she didn't have her cell phone in her purse, so she went back into the apartment. Boyfriend and I just stared dumbly at eachother for 30 seconds, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. He felt sorry for her, obviously she had some SERIOUS self-esteem issues, but I was a little less sympathetic. Not that I felt threatened by this girl at all, but when someone repeatedly asks your boyfriend to make out, feels herself up and pulls her shirt down low, I think it just makes you want to get the hell out of there.
We didn't really see her again that night; we heard later that she was passed out in the host's bedroom. We tried to be nice to the rest of the guests, but I think the bizarre events from earlier had put us in a weird state. My one friend's jokes about the host also grew, and I don't think any of the other guests really 'got it.' It probably also didn't help that that friend was much more drunk then anyone else there and ended up breaking his pants so that he had to walk around with his zipper down, looking even more like a disheveled homeless person then he already did. I finally found him in the kitchen stealing beers from the fridge and hiding them in his pants.
I took that as a sign it was probably time to go, and as that friend was shutting the door he said, "Fuck you, Ed!" (the host). He told us that saying "fuck you" was just his way of saying "bye," and that Ed obviously knew that. Well, I don't think the other guests knew it. And we had probably just sealed our fate as the "sketchy people" at the party. I'd never been with the sketchy group at a party before... I was certainly an experience. Of course, I thought the "I have to hook up tonight" girl was more sketchy, but I don't know if everyone was privy to the same great conversation with her that I had.
The two friends who came up for the cookout wound up crashing at our apartment. I don't know what possessed us to do this, but we played a drinking game before bed. I'm not sure if we got through it all because everyone was rolling around the floor towards the end. I woke up (even though I didn't know I had fallen asleep) around 3:30am, passed out on the couch with one of the guys asleep on the other end of the couch and the other one asleep next to us on the floor. Boyfriend had somehow already dragged himself to the bedroom.
The next day, even though we told them that we had a lot of work to do on Sunday, we could not get them to leave the house. We tried everything, but they just wouldn't go... they were probably still drunk and they didn't leave until 5pm. Although I love and treasure their ridiculous company, we REALLY did have things to do. Most importantly, our Statistics final is this coming weekend and we still have three chapters we haven't done.... oops? All in all, nothing beats high school friends. We all have known eachother for so long, back through all our strange and awkward phases. Everytime I hang out with these people is a great time and I hope it keeps up forever.
One of the guys called Ed early Sunday evening to check in. It looks like we may not always be remembered as the sketchy guests, because apparently one of the girls at the party had a panic attack at 2am after we had already left. He didn't say who it was, my bet is probably unfortunately on the hook up girl...
Science and Dinner
Happy Friday!
I know I'm thrilled. Although I do have about four or five chapters in my distance-learning Statistics class to catch up on. After the midterm (where the questions were nothing like what was asked on quizzes) I kind of crapped out and didn't touch the book for... well... over a month.
I'm really hoping that my complete lack of interest, even disdain, for the Statistics course are based on that it's:
1) MATH (I HATE math)
2) I'm not good at teaching myself math
3) The professor who you can contact with questions doesn't really speak English
4) it's MATH
Hopefully these assumptions are correct, because beginning May 21 I've signed up for two, yes two, more distance learning courses for the summer. These are two more prerequisites to continue moving towards an accelerated nursing degree - Life Span Development (birth to death) and Human Anatomy & Physiology I.
The Life Span course looks like it will be pretty straightforward. I believe that I'll be watching lots of 30 minute videos and then writing papers about the videos. And I can write a paper like nobody's business! The Human Anatomy course will be a lot of memorization; it's something that I simply can NOT put off. If I don't stay on top of that class then I'm sure it will run right over me.
I'm excited for these next two courses. I think they'll both be fun and interesting, and they should also give me a much better idea if I'm still going in the right direction. I still haven't gotten around to mentioning any of this to my family, and I still think that's a good move.
In other news, I'm going to a Cinco de Mayo cookout tomorrow night. The Evite says that it's not necessary to bring anything but I feel bad showing up without anything... plus I ENJOY making things! Unfortunately I don't know anything about Spanish cooking, but somehow I started thinking about Empanadas. I don't know if these are really Spanish, and I certainly don't know how to make them. I've been trying to look up recipes online, but they're all very different. At this point I'm on the verge of drooling thinking about empanadas. I think I might kill for one!
Anyone happen to have a good empanada recipe??
The title goes...
Baby Got Musical!
Ever wondered what would happen if Gilbert and Sullivan wrote popular 90's rap songs? We think, it would go a little something, like this:
Labels: videos
Ughhh
It's time to get a new doctor when:
a) She tells you that your ideal healthy weight is between 115-149 when in reality... 115 is beyond unrealistic for someone who is 5'10", unless you want to look like Kate Moss.
b) She's rather pushy about vaccinating you for HPV.
c) NEW: You pass out as soon as you walk in the office, but no one offers you water or a piece of candy to suck on; in fact, they seem pretty unconcerned and possibly afraid of you.
d) NEW: You explain to the medical assistant who is taking your weight that you're going to pass out again and you need to sit down. Right before you sit on the table that she originally had you at she says, "oh, well, then I need to put you in a different room." What??
e) NEW: When you finally get to see the doctor, she tells you that you're probably just a little dizzy and not going to pass out (excuse me, lady, I know what passing out feels like... plus, I'd just done it a few moments ago! wtf, people, wtf), that you probably just have 'some virus' that will go away in 7-10 days, and then she pats you on the shoulder and tells you to be careful walking home.
I think if I go back to that office, I should probably see someone else in the practice. The other doctors seem okay. The one that I see is maybe too fresh out of med school (she's very young); I actually find myself wishing she acted a little more 'doctory.' My old doctors always used more official words when talking to me... urinate, defecate, etc. This doctor asks me how's my pee. I guess she's just trying to be more approachable with patients, but for some reason it freaks me out a little.
But, I'm going back to work today. Hopefully I don't barf or pass out or get another fever. I work with medical people, so maybe they'll be a little more sensitive if I passed out, instead of acting like I'm just some crazy woman on drugs or who has leprosy.
Boyfriend is staying home today. He has slightly different symptoms, but he's still not that great either. Whenever one of us is sick we just pass it back and forth. I guess this is what I have to look forward to when I have kids.
