First Night
First Night is a family oriented New Years celebration downtown. It’s one of the reasons I chose to work today. It’s mostly outside and they had industrial sized heaters, generators and light towers. Well, you know what that means, right. Sk8er Boi had to pick all that stuff up at 12:30. They told him to be there at 11:00 even though he knew they wouldn’t let him touch any of it until after midnight.
Anyway, B wanted to ride with him so they took the opportunity to join the celebration. B took a few pics. Unfortunately, her phone doesn’t do well in low light so… (clickable, as usual)
The Stilts Guy
These are New Years resolutions written on Post-Its
OK, this guy was just weird, running around dancing and gyrating, freaking teen girls out (he apparently chased two of them–all in fun) and generally acting a fool
I was worried about B not having a good New Years but it sounds like she had fun.
I, OTOH, was in bed by 9:30. If @$$hat neighbor made a lot of noise, I didn’t even hear it.
LDN:
Have I told you I love my doc? As mentioned, she was happy to give me the LDN. Had I little…a-hem…problem with the pharmacy. Dr.Z wrote the Rx for 25mg (she found it in that dose in her computer) but when I got to the pharmacy, they hadn’t filled it because “it only comes in 50mg–we looked it up!” This chick was so snarky, I wanted to slap her!!!
Anyway, I came home and PM’ed TessieAnn to find out how she gets 4.5mg out of a 50mg tablet. She kindly wrote back that one can mix it with 50ml of water and just drink 4.5ml of the mix each night. Cool, I leave a message for Dr. Z that I can do the 50mg tabs.
In the afternoon the next day, as I am about to leave to get my Rx from Snarky-Face Pharmacy, Dr. Z calls me. Yes, my doc made the phone call herself. And she had taken the time to do some research and found a pharmacy in town that specializes in making small dose capsules out of large dose tablets!!! And, my insurance covered both the capsules and their services for only the price of a generic Rx!!!
I took my first dose last night. I slept from 9:30 to 11:30 when nature called. Went right back to sleep. Woke sometime in the middle of the night and found myself 3/4 of the way onto Sk8er Boi’s side of the bed, moved back and slept until 3:30. I couldn’t go back to sleep after that, probably because I expected Sk8er Boi and B to come in the door at anytime which would wake me anyway. I was right too, the got back about 3:50. I just got up, I get up for work at 4:30 anyway.
I didn’t have any dreams that I remember. One of the side affects is supposed to be vivid dreams but I have those a lot anyway….
Work:
having major drama (none of it mine) but I’ll save that for tomorrow. Must go make something for dinner.
Happy New Year!!!
I have a post I want to write but I need to start getting ready for work in 15 min so it’ll have to wait…..
I remembered what I wanted to say
It’s been over a week since I got more than 5 hours sleep ans some of those nights were disrupted by tossing, turning, waking and dosing rather than actually sleeping.
I’m so tired I fell asleep sitting up in a chair at Sk8er Boi’s co-worker’s house whilst co-worker, wife, DD, DD’s, BF, Sk8er Boi and B were all playing pool and wii. It was kinda loud and I fell asleep!! We got back at 2:00 AM and I was only able to sleep ’till 7:00!!! 
Today I work ’till 6:00 and then we have to go to my parents house and pick Sk8er Boi’s jeep up from the yard on the way home. I expect it will be another short night as I have to be back at work at 6:00 AM tomorrow.
The Girls and Christmas:
Sk8er Boi left our house at 2:15 AM Christmas day and arrived at the girls’ house at about 9:00 AM. He walked into J’s room and it took her three times of asking why Dad was there and being told to look out the window before she actually woke up enough to look. Sk8er Boi says she jumped at him and cried when she saw her car sitting there.
Apparently there’s been a lot of “you can’t go ____ because it’s my car,” from the BM!!! This is, J says, why she can’t find a job: every where she’s allowed to go with BM’s car is not hiring. However, the BGM confirmed what J is just being lazy about it. BGM says she sees “help wanted” signs all over and tells J about it but nothing ever comes of it…..
The UGG boots I scored off eBay for a ridiculously low price never arrived. They were won and paid for on 12/10 and the 
didn’t even generate a tracking number until 12/16 and according to the tracking number, they are still in Istanbul, Turkey. Now, in the US, you can go to numerous shipping sites and generate a tracking number without ever setting foot in a post office. But this tracking number says Foreign Arrival at Outward Office and Foreign Acceptance so I don’t know what to think. The tracking information hasn’t changed since the 16th.
Strange things about whole thing: A) The listing said the boots would be shipped DHL but the tracking number is USPS. When I went to look at the eBay listing to confirm the shipping method I discovered B) the seller has removed the listing. Not only that, C) the seller has also removed themselves as registered eBay members. 
Before you ask, I did email PTT (thank you melikai for the info) to inquire about the package status. I have not heard back. Also, I did pay through PayPal and have already filed a claim for my money back.
Anyway, that meant that Sk8er Boi and I were at the freaking mall on Christmas Eve buying UGG boots at full price!!!
There was more I was going to write but I’m tired and can’t remember. Plus, I need to go get ready for work….
Running on empty
It’s been over a week since I got more than 5 hours sleep ans some of those nights were disrupted by tossing, turning, waking and dosing rather than actually sleeping.
I’m so tired I fell asleep sitting up in a chair at Sk8er Boi’s co-worker’s house whilst co-worker, wife, DD, DD’s, BF, Sk8er Boi and B were all playing pool and wii. It was kinda loud and I fell asleep!! We got back at 2:00 AM and I was only able to sleep ’till 7:00!!!
Today I work ’till 6:00 and then we have to go to my parents house and pick Sk8er Boi’s jeep up from the yard on the way home. I expect it will be another short night as I have to be back at work at 6:00 AM tomorrow.
The Girls and Christmas:
Sk8er Boi left our house at 2:15 AM Christmas day and arrived at the girls’ house at about 9:00 AM. He walked into J’s room and it took her three times of asking why Dad was there and being told to look out the window before she actually woke up enough to look. Sk8er Boi says she jumped at him and cried when she saw her car sitting there.
Apparently there’s been a lot of “you can’t go ____ because it’s my car,” from the BM!!! This is, J says, why she can’t find a job: every where she’s allowed to go with BM’s car is not hiring. However, the BGM confirmed what J is just being lazy about it. BGM says she sees “help wanted” signs all over and tells J about it but nothing ever comes of it…..
The UGG boots I scored off eBay for a ridiculously low price never arrived. They were won and paid for on 12/10 and the didn’t even generate a tracking number until 12/16 and according to the tracking number, they are still in Istanbul, Turkey. Now, in the US, you can go to numerous shipping sites and generate a tracking number without ever setting foot in a post office. But this tracking number says Foreign Arrival at Outward Office and Foreign Acceptance so I don’t know what to think. The tracking information hasn’t changed since the 16th.
Strange things about whole thing: A) The listing said the boots would be shipped DHL but the tracking number is USPS. When I went to look at the eBay listing to confirm the shipping method I discovered B) the seller has removed the listing. Not only that, C) the seller has also removed themselves as registered eBay members.
Before you ask, I did email PTT (thank you melikai for the info) to inquire about the package status. I have not heard back. Also, I did pay through PayPal and have already filed a claim for my money back.
Anyway, that meant that Sk8er Boi and I were at the freaking mall on Christmas Eve buying UGG boots at full price!!!
There was more I was going to write but I’m tired and can’t remember. Plus, I need to go get ready for work….
Trekkie Tried and True
I finally saw the new Star Trek yesterday!! It was pretty cool watching the characters from the Star Trek I watched in the ‘70 come together. I kept saying, oh that’s so-and-so before they let you know who it was. Sk8er Boi just sat and watched. He enjoyed the movie but it might have been more fun to watch with a true Trekkie.
In a totally unrelated conversation earlier in the day I had to explain The Guy in the Red Shirt to him. Then it was proven again in the scene on the Romulan drill when Kirk, Sulu and Pitts (in a red jump suit) landed and Pitts immediately got sucked into the drill. I said, “there you go, The Guy in the Red Shirt!” Sk8er Boi just grunted. I guess it’s one of those had-to-be-there things.
Sometimes Sk8er Boi’s…I don’t know…thought processes irritate me. Sk8er Boi is by no means a stupid man but he said that the guy who played Scotty was the same guy that played Declan in The Rundown simply because he said the word “dodgy,” a term Declan also uses. I could have told you they weren’t simply by looking but I didn’t argue. I don’t get it, one word and they are the same actor???
Color Gems:
After reading KeenKitty’s post about Color Gems, I almost got some yesterday. I’ve used it before and, yes, it is incredibly easy. But then I asked the woman at Sally’s how long it lasts and she said 6-10 washes and I remembered how it faded quickly on my hair. I remembered only liking the colour it imparted until after about the second wash. Henna may be a PITA, Color Gems may be easier to get my hands on but I’d have to do Color Gems every couple of weeks to keep the colour close to what I wanted. I’d probably spend more time and money (or at least the same amount) as I do with henna. But the color I get with henna is permanent, once it’s there, I only have to worry about touching up my roots.
I’m not ready for a permanent chemical dye–which will also fade. I came home from Sally’s, mixed up some henna and did a root treatment over night.
The kitties:
No luck finding cat traps or any other signs or where the cats might be going. I need to get a look in that neighbor’s back yard sometime when they are not home. I just have a feeling about them.
Sk8er Boi and I were out front yesterday and Mama came running across the street to us from that yard. It so scared me!!!! I’m afraid of loosing her too. Poor thing, she’s all alone now save the little black one and she doesn’t like him….
I talked the Mr. M, the guy on the other side of the alley who also feeds them, and he said his regulars are disappearing too. He has no clue where they are going either.
I called Animal Control and they said that A) they are not trapping cats in my area and B) that if the neighbor is, he has a legal right to because “my” cats have violated the leash law and are on his property. He did say “humane traps” but with the injured paws, I know in my gut that whatever is happening to them in not humane!!! I didn’t ask him about inhumane traps, the guy I was talking to didn’t seem terribly sympathetic that I was missing four cats. It was like, well if you’d kept control of your cats…..
Something is happening to my outside cats!!!!
I’m down to two: Mama and the little black one we haven’t named yet. Frankie stopped showing up two weeks ago and Charlie hasn’t been here in four days.
I think someone is trapping them. What they are doing with them after than I have no idea but I’m fairly certain of the trapping part. Right after Jonny stopped showing up, Frankie came to us with an injured paw. He wouldn’t walk on it at all for a week and then gradually started using it again. He never let us look at it so we don’t know what was wrong.
Two days before Charlie stopped showing up, both he and Mama came to us with injured front paws. It wasn’t as severe but they both limped and were ginger with that paw.
Before the hooligans with the bee bee guns moved in to the house across the street, the guy who lived there was in a wheel chair and there was another guy who was there a lot to help him out. This guy still comes over to the house often because he, wheel chair guy and hooligans mom are all friends.
This guy offered me a ride the other day as I was walking home from work. He asked me if I’d had any more trouble and I told him about Frankie being gone and Charlie and Mama’s paws. He assured me that hooligans mom would go ballistic on them if she knew they’d done anything to my cats but that her boyfriend–also living in the house–was “pretty mean to cats.”
Today I’m going to call animal control and see if they’ve been here lately. Also, since I’m off work and can take all the time I need to search in the daylight, I’m going out searching for traps. I’m starting on the hill behind hooligan’s house. There are also train tracks and a creek where bodies could be dumped.
I haven’t allowed myself to think about it much yet. I cried when Callie died, I’m trying very hard not to lose it if the rest of them are gone for good too.
And once again my body betrays me
As mentioned, my cycle is not regular. Sometimes I can predict when I’m going to start and sometimes it surprises me.
I scheduled a well-woman exam for tomorrow. When I scheduled it I had no idea I was going to start—THREE FREAKING DAYS BEFORE THE APPOINTMENT!!!! SURPRISE!!! I will not be done by 9:15 tomorrow so I had to reschedule. Her next available appointment is not until 12/29.
Before you start thinking I’m a freak and actually like having that stupid girlie exam, that’s not it. I was going to talk to her about low-dose naltrexone for my FMS whilst I was there. TessieAnn, although her issue is not FMS, has had great success on it so I wanted to try it. I’ve tried everything else out there that is the standard for FMS and my symptoms are easier to deal with than the side affects of the damn drugs. I definitely have the FMS symptom of drug/side-affect hyper sensitivity!! Low-dose naltrexone is supposed to have virtually no side-affects.
I’m a little apprehensive about talking to her. I don’t know how she feels about experimental treatments. Naltrexone is FDA approved but using it for FMS and other auto-immune disorders os still experimental. I don’t want her to try to prescribe something else instead. If she won’t prescribe the naltrexone, I don’t want anything. How do you tell a doc that you’re asking for help with these symptoms and then turn around and refuse it unless it’s what you–a non-medically trained person–wants?
Work:
We have a second shift leader now. He’s a (barely) 21 year old boy. And I mean boy. He is not mature. At. All. Yet he is JP’s new prodigy. JP is now trying to get him promoted to Assistant Manager. This time last year it was me he was trying to get promoted. However, somewhere along the way, I said to JP that I was not thrilled about working evening shift which is what Asst. Mgrs. work and JP told Mr. Head-Honcho and his A$$ that I didn’t want to work nights at all. Well, there went my promotion. I just found that out last week, BTW.
So, JP’s spending all this time with Boy, teaching him how to do the managerial paperwork and otherwise grooming him for the promotion and it just makes me want to throttle them both.
Boy has been working midnight shift because we just fired the person who was working that shift. I have come in day after day to find all kinds of things not done that he should have gotten done overnight. Things that are supposed to be done at night because we are too busy during the day to do them. I told AG about it but Boy is also her drinking/partying buddy so, of course nothing is going to happen and he is still going to be promoted.
To top it off Boy just got his shift leader raise on this last check. His raise was $0.75 more per hour. Mine was $0.50. Boy is now making more than me even though I have worked there two years longer than him!!!!!
Aside from the money issue I don’t know why it bothers me; I wouldn’t take a promotion now if it was offered. Not out of spite mind you, not because I didn’t get it back then, but because the closer I get into that world, the more I see how much of a tyrant Mr. HH and his A$$ are. As useless as JP is in personnel matters, he make a nice buffer between me and them.
Working for that company at all might not be an issue at all come April anyway because….
Houses:
We are in a lease-purchase agreement in the house we are in. The lease is up in April and we either need to purchase it or move out. I’d much rather move out. This place needs way to much work and with the amount of time Sk8er Boi spends at his job, we’d need to hire somebody to get it done in any reasonable amount of time. We can’t afford to hire somebody. Besides, I hate the area for a multitude of reasons.
So we got online last weekend and went looking for foreclosed on houses. We looked at five houses, the next one and even bigger $h!t hole than the last. They looked great in the pics…. I was resigned to stay here by the time we got home.
Sk8er Boi has been talking to the brother of the owner of his company, RB. The owner has the company Sk8er Boi works for “for fun.” He makes his real money in real estate–and he’s made a lot of money!!! Anyway, RB says the agreed upon price for this house is much more than it’s worth–something I said all along but, at the time we moved, we really didn’t have any other choice.
RB thinks that we have a lot more options than we thought we did. He has offered to help us look for a house and maybe even get in to one. He seems confident that we can get into a house that won’t need major updating too but suggested we didn’t start looking until February though.
If we move, we both would like to move closer to his work. It would be closer to the more urban areas that would make it easier to find a job that would be worth driving to but still be in a rural enough area that Sk8er Boi could bring his truck home without the neighbors complaining.
If we move out in the area we are talking about, I will spend more in gas getting back and fourth from the seventh circle of hell that I will make in working there. I will look for a gas-station type job closer to that area for the time being but I’m not giving up on a better job than that!
Hair–since this is a hair board:
I finally got some new camellia oil as my last batch went bad. I have been remembering to oil heavily once a week and it’s made a big difference in the tangle factor!!! I must have forgotten that since it’s been so long since I oiled at all.
That’s pretty much it on the hair front. No more plans to cut for now.
ETA:
I was surfing eBay and came across this shirt. I think I need it.
I also found these for B for Christmas. That’s less than half the retail price!! Score!!!
Frustrated
This is what has suddenly happened to my Danskos.
Right shoe:
See the crack?
Left shoe:
decidedly more prominent here.
I put them on the other day and noticed that both feet were rolling to the outside. These shoes were not like this the last time I wore them. It’s almost as if someone else wore them and did this to them. There’s tar on the heel of the left one too. Puts me in mind of OGM’s experience with things disturbed in her house.
I’m a little pissed. Granted these were used when I bought them and I have no idea how much wear they had. They looked pretty new and like they had a lot of wear left but I have only worn them maybe a dozen times myself. I’m not totally heartbroken, I did not find these shoes as blissfully comfortable as some people but they might have been if I could have gotten arch supports in them. However, I do like the look of them and they were nice relatively flat shoes with enough lift to keep my longer jeans from dragging. The only other shoes I have that keep the hems of my jeans off the ground are my platform flip-flops–not great for 17°F– and heels. I have never found heels comfortable.
Now I need to find some new comfortable shoes.
J’s Car:
I know I’ve mentioned that we got J a car for a song but it needed a new motor. Well, the motor is in and it is otherwise ready except for tires and a new window motor.
Grandma sends us money every year for Christmas. It arrived yesterday as well as the second rebate card for the phones we got the girls. Sk8er Boi looked at me ans said, we have $300, we could get J’s car ready. I just looked at him. $100 of that is MY Christmas/Yule money. He just assumed that I would be happy to give it up to fix her car because of course the child has brought me so much love and joy that I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather to do with my money! 
I’ll do it of course, he’ll own me–BIG–because it will be easier than not.
Speaking of the girls phones:
They both have dropped them to the point that the screens have started freezing on them at times and B’s wouldn’t come on after one drop. I guess she eventually got it back on but still.
I told Sk8er Boi after he got off the phone with her and said something about not being able to afford another phone: “you need to lay down the law and tell them we are not going to keep buying them phones when they can’t take care of what we’ve already gotten them!!!!”
He didn’t answer.
My (fuzzy) kids spoiled? Nooooo…..
Sk8er Boi had all four days off for the Thanksgiving holiday so, since the man can’t sit still and relax, he got constructive and spent three of the four days building this.
It’s a house for the outside cats!!! Yes, the cats that aren’t even officially ours now have their own house in my yard.
That grey stuff between the walls is left over blow-in insulation from when we did the attic. It’s in the attic of the cat house too 
. The lumber is left overs from a very nice guy that does odd construction jobs and the shingles are from an open bundle the local hardware store sold us for $5.00 just to get it out of their way (a full bundle is $25) So we only really spent money on the light fixture and the cat door.
It hasn’t even been out there 24 hours and we haven’t seen any of them get in it yet but we hope they like it. I think I’ll temp them inside with some canned food tonight….
Barrel chested:
Several years ago I was at a Renaissance Festival trying on corsets. One of the owners of the “shop” was helping me and mentioned to the other that she thought I was barrel chested.
I never found a corset that fit me but her words have stuck in my mind and I periodically feel around on my ribs to see if I can feel it. The other day a was doing just that and discovered a nearly full inch depression: the last two attached ribs actually stick out that much further than the next ribs up!!!
Um, is that still just barrel chested or is that all out deformed?? 
Maybe that’s why I have trouble with my bras sliding up. Well that and the distinct lack of actual boob.
Short work rant
for a while now, the store’s daily paperwork has been coming up short on $$$. I personally think it’s got something to do with the software (especially since it got better after we got a software update) but JP doesn’t think so. Whatever.
JP has started a contest where the person who’s daily cash drawer breakdown averages closest to $0.00 gets a prize at the end of the month. Now, when I can keep other people from ringing on my drawer*, I am almost always very close to balancing.
Yesterday, I had a doctors appt for my elbow which they have to pay me for so I schedule it during work hours. JP forgot about the appt and didn’t schedule anyone else so when I left, it was just him and the deli manager in the store. The deli manager doesn’t run a register at all. JP was ringing on my drawer and it was busy.
This morning, the daily paperwork was thirtysomething short. I mentioned to him that, when I broke my drawer down yesterday it was $21 short and mentioned: “but it wasn’t just my drawer yesterday.”
JP’s response: “Well, I’ve never had a drawer that was more than $1 off.”
Never, really? Never, ever? So what you’re implying is that you are perfect and you couldn’t possibly have made a human mistake during all the craziness yesterday. That it absolutely had to be my mistake even though with two us it was much less crazy?
uh-huh.
*for the record: other people are not malicious ringing on my drawer. It’s just the way things work out and to explain further would be long and not really important to this situation.
