Crazy funny dogs

OMG, I just had the best laugh! There's a section in my house, right by the computer area, where you can make a circle. Here I am, sitting at the computer flurking away on IBD sucks, and the guys start playing keep away. Midas has one of my shoes, and he goes around the circle in one way, then T jumps out at him and Midas goes the other way - T runs the other way and ends up face to face with him and they do this back and forth about 7 times before they just chase each other around the circle a couple of times! I was laughing so hard I almost peed myself...

Best support site around for IBD

IBD SUCKS!!!

WWW.IBDSUCKS.COM

HTTP://QURLYJOE.BU.EDU/WEBX

For anyone suffering with ulcerative colitis, or crohn's disease - the above site is absolutely, hands down, the best support site on the net. Bill is justly called "St. Bill" for keeping this site up and running for more than 10 years.

I hosted a mini-sucks fest yesterday, and don't think I've ever spent a more enjoyable 6 hours with a non-family group. Conversation spun easily among EverQuest, toilet paper comparisons, home renovations, drug treatments, great docs, incredibly romantic husbands, and the woes of popcorn. LOL

Jason has plans to host a "Sucks movie night" which is to focus on our favorite terrible movies and alternatives to popcorn. LOL It sounds like a lot of fun.

I am coordinating the Chattanooga fest, tentatively scheduled for May 7th and 8th, and am REALLY excited about it now! There will be at least as many people, and possibly more.

On the job front, my application status is now 'routed' so I at least got my resume as far as the manager who's doing the interviewing.

I DID IT!

Oh my gosh, I hope I'm doing the right thing! I've been working up my nerve for awhile to change my career, but I got ticked off last week and decided to look at the job listings once more, and there it was. The position that has the potential to dramatically change my career, both by broadening it's scope enormously and by allowing me to develop skills that I've not been able to use much. For example, I would be teaching classes! I am so pysched over this - of course, I'm only half qualified for it, but... if I don't try, I'll always wonder.

So, what did I do? I figured if I was taking chances anyway, I'd use a non-traditional resume format that was more easily adapted to showcase the skills I have. (Especially the ones they really wanted!) Today, I finally finished polishing it and officially applied for the position. Aaack! My coworker tells me that the hospital advertised the position in the newspaper last Sunday. I'm hoping that means that it has been posted for awhile without a suitable internal applicant. *fingers_crossed*

And what have I learned from all this? For one thing, it's refreshed my memory as to why I haven't changed positions more often than I have! LOL I hate hate hate filling out job apps. They suck.

And now, the waiting begins. tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick

What a difference a week makes.

And it's been a heck of week, lemme tell ya. It's not horrible, but I've had better. On Tuesday I had to call Dr. Yates - he wanted to see me Wednesday as soon as I could get there. Of course, I was already having a routine follow-up with my regular doctor that morning, so I played doctor tag all morning. First I drove to Gunbarrel and saw Dr. Large (who was awesome, by the way) and then I drove back downtown to see Dr. Yates, after doing drive-thru breakfast. He was doing procedures so his nurse took me downstairs, got me set up in a spare room and he darted in to see me. He muttered a few choice things under his breath (much the same things that I'd been muttering since I'd called him the day before), made a phone call to my surgeon while I was redressing and then gave me a script for antibiotics. Grrr. The CD is trying to reappear, and the surgeon wants to see me again too. So, by 11 am I'd spent $95. $25 apiece for each doctor and $45 at the pharmacy. That was WITH my discount. I'll blow another $25 at the surgeon's on Monday - maybe. They keep saying they'll just bill me for the copay - but I haven't gotten a bill yet. LOL Professional courtesy? Or just a slow accountant? Who knows? I'm not gonna fuss. :-D

My coworker Jennifer was in a bad car accident Tuesday night. She thought she was ok, but ended up admitted to the hospital yesterday so I need to go see how she is. She's had nothing but bad stuff going on for months now - it really sucks.

Because she was out, I did work extra this week, which is great since the muttlings need to go to the vets soon for shots, pills, etc. I ended up working 9 extra hours, which works out to 6 at regular pay and 3 more at OT - so they equivalent of a full extra shift. Yippee! And I actually don't feel too bad for doing it either - (physically). Of course, I was useless last night and got nothing accomplished but a lot of web-surfing and some heavy-duty sleeping. My allergies must be kicking up too, as I woke myself up snoring last night. Guess there are times it's good to be single. (grin)

Something new

I did something new today - I met up with another person from the IBD sucks bulletin board! After chatting with many of these folks daily since December, you really feel like you know them before you ever meet, so it's really cool to put faces and voices to the words you've been reading for months. You know them, you know their families, and you know their disease.

What was really cool was how totally liberating it was to spend the day with another CD'er. We went to lunch and when I asked if I could substitute something else for the corn that was offered, he just snickered and said "What? You don't want corn???" Anyone else would either be oblivious to it, or be thinking "oh yeah - she can't eat corn - she's sick". It's a subtle difference, but it's definitely different. The waitress must have thought we were nuts.

We sat and compared war stories, and aches and pains, but not in a "I'm so sick I feel terrible" sort of way - more like soldiers in the same trench complaining about the lousy MRE's. When you go shopping with another IBD'er - they don't think it's odd that you can tell them precisely where the restrooms are located in any store that you go to. And when they visit, they never think it odd that the bathroom is one of the first places you show off when giving a home tour! ROFLMAO

Chit Chat

That's all this is going to be. Not a whole lot going on - though we did have snow on Tuesday morning. That did nothing to improve my mood that day!

Today I went to Wally-world and stocked up on their 88 cent rawhide bones, bread and some fruit. Went to the drug store and picked up my Avandia. I'm trying to get back into the habit of taking it every day. I was really bad about it in December when I was feeling so bad. I couldn't take it unless I ate, because I'd feel really bad and get shaky, and in Dec I wasn't eating a whole lot. :-( I've gotten really horrible about taking daily meds - I told Doc Yates that I thought I'd burned out on the whole concept of daily pills. He said "I'm not surprised" - geez I love that guy.

Came home with every intention of cleaning house all day, as I have a friend coming by Sunday to help me put Christmas crates back in the attic. The house is disgusting. We'll just leave it at that. Instead, it was a GORGEOUS day outside, so I cleaned out my car and then raked the front yard, laid out the soaker hose and ran it for a while and did a little weeding.

I have dusted all the furniture in the parlor and started putting photos and decorations back out. The parlor is the only room that's done - and I still have to mop in there. Oh well - at least I started. I did dust the mantel and get it set back to rights too, so that's also done. The cushions are all off the living room furniture and the rug is wadded up into a pile and covered with dog fur. I'll deal with that tomorrow.

I was able to air out the house for a bit - that was really nice. I can't believe I've gotten to the point that low 60's feels wonderful - when I think of all the times I thought 60 was cold. Now I realize that all those times I was prolly ill/anemic so of COURSE it felt cold.

I wouldn't squawk at some lovely 70's - but for working in the yard, 60's and sunny is great.

I'm gonna go knit for awhile until I pass out. I'm making a cardigan on a circular needle and so far it's going great! I love knitting in the round - minimal purling, and no seams at all. I have the body and sleeves made and joined, now I'm working on the chest and will soon be doing the shoulder shaping. Hopefully the pattern stitch doesn't give me too much grief, when I start the shaping. I'm doing this from scratch - figuring the pattern as I go, so things might be getting ugly soon.

Sweet dreams to all -