No News Is.......Well, It's No News.

I didn't hear a peep from Bayada so I'm assuming the worst and will go on with my life in general. There is a job in dialysis that I'll apply for and I'll keep my eye out for anything else that comes along. I'm a little disappointed but not surprised - I did my best and it is a start. I'm oncall this weekend so I'll be working all weekend, no surprise there. I got to AC Moores again today, one thing I've discovered about online coupons is you can print a 40% off coupon EVERY DAY and the staff doesn't give one hoot how many times you appear at their cash register. The store doesn't go silent as the cashier narrows her eyes and says " weren't  you here YESTERDAY with a 40% off coupon that you got off the internet MRS LESTER" so you can buy as many as you want and still get the discount. I've been buying flower carpets - you know you unroll it, sprinkle it with water and Presto!! instant flowers. More or less. The woman in line ahead of me saw me buying it and she said "good luck" - I thought she meant with the coupon and fully prepared for complete denial that it's my second coupon this week - but she was talking about the instant flower carpet. She said she'd used one and only got a few flowers, if that. Stinking killjoy. I don't care, I plan on putting them around my Authentic Outhouse so it will be super quaint and stuff. I'm currently sitting on a heating pad, I never actually fell today but I did my share of slipping and sliding, there is ice all over the place and my back's a teeny bit out. Tonight was pizza night whoo and I'm not oncall until tomorrow at 8:30 am so I plan to hang out and enjoy myself.

Professional XT

Arrgh - I hate those tests simply because I never do well on them. That's the new test for managerial placement, the first section alone has over 180 questions and I don't want to talk about the math. From what the website said (yes I did look it up before I started so I could see exactly what it is) it makes sure you put the right people in the right job based on their scores. My question would be if you're excluding people based on this test - how would you know? You didn't give them the job so you would have no idea if this test were effective or not, now would you? But that is neither here nor there so I sat for over an hour and answered every question under the sun and if they determine I'm not qualified, I'll just start looking at other jobs. And I am continuing to look, the job I'm in just progressively gets worse. I know part of it is me, I'm so anxious to get out of there everything is magnified. But I also know that if you have THREE supervisors overseeing THREE nurses (no I'm not kidding) you should be rolling along just fine and they are definitely not. Their solution is to hire ANOTHER supervisor so we'll actually have more supervisors than staff - and no I wouldn't even think of applying for it, I want no part of that mess. I'm also thinking of going into dialysis, there are quite a few places around here and some have 12 hour shifts so I'm very interested in that. In other news, we heard from Jackson, he did get off the ground despite all the snow and ice - we had told him to call as soon as he got there so we got a call at 3 am due to all the delays he had. He told us they are walking around in Tee shirts of course and he was nervous but pretty excited too. We were just glad he got there in one piece. Pearl is NPO this morning, she is having her xrays so she can't eat anything. There's nothing wrong with her - we plan on eventually breeding her so we need the xrays to rule out hip dysplagia. She did manage to steal some cat food but that would be Pearl. David was out yesterday signing up for CNA courses - the construction has fallen off completely so he's been looking for another job and decided on this one. He's starting in a couple of weeks and the funny thing is Roman called the other night (he's a limo driver for an agency and the economy has eaten his job too) to tell David HE'S doing a course for the same thing! So we have a lot on our plate this week, don't we?

I was looking at the pictures David took and hadn't realized how swollen poor Becky's eyes were the day she left - her allergies finally caught up with her despite all of her medications - she's very allergic to cats and we were surprised she held out as long as she did. If that's not love I don't know what is. Tonight is Jackson's last night home as far as we know - the weather is calling for a big snowstorm but I think I'll check it against the online Magic 8 Ball - that's a bit more accurate than channel 12 and you can also ask it if you'll win the lottery and stuff like that. Quite a bonus in my book. Anyhoo, in other news  I went on my job interview - do you like the outfit? ON SALE 75% OFF so I was wearing an $80 outfit I got for 20 bucks, you can't beat that with a stick! I would tell you how the interview went but as you know it's impossible to tell. Everything that comes out of your mouth is cause for hysteria (HOLY CRAP AM I EVEN SPEAKING ENGLISH) - you're afraid to adjust or further explain anything for fear of making it worse or worse than that, making a mess out of something that wasn't a mess to begin with. But for the most part I was confident and answered everything to the best of my abilities so hopefully I'll hear something back by Friday. But it was a start at any rate and I'm glad I did it, I feel like even if I don't hear back at least I know where I want to be heading. 

My day off after that continued to be good, after  I came and back and changed we headed out for Dixon City - we dropped Jackson off and headed to Wegmans our favorite supermarket which is just as much to look at as it is to shop at, it never gets old and I remain easily amused so it works for me. We met Jackson at the mall in FYE and I got a copy of a 2 CD They Might Be Giants that I don't have (it's one of the few I don't). We had dinner at Johnny Rockets and then back home. We will miss that boy.

Flying The Coop

Becky is winging her way back to WV today, she and Jackson were packing her stuff up. It will most likely cost her a million dollars to get that suitcase home and if it accidently pops open it could result in an explosion of clothes. They had a good time though and it was nice to have them both here, even if it was only for a little while. I'm off tomorrow - the interview kind of makes things difficult but I'll have most of the day with Jackson so that is good. I'm a little nervous about this but since I'm already employed that takes a lot of the pressure off. I would love to have this job but I'll still be able to pay the bills tomorrow if it doesn't work out. The weather continues to be extremely cold, it was - 1 all day yesterday which had us trotting to and from the car double time. The mall in Scranton has a parking garage but the one in Dixon City has a big wide windy parking lot - brrr!! 
I've been slowing down a bit on the shopping - I'm going to order one more time from Knitpicks and that is IT (for at least a month......) They're having a 40% off sale on all their books and who can resist that? My other project will eventually be the enclosed porch but it's way too cold to paint it right now or even really do much. David goes back and forth over the carpeting issue, it would make sense to do it now while he's got a little time but doing it in winter could be a real problem so I suppose he'll just continue to mull it over.

Ruby Tuesdays

Yes I did throw in a little knitting - trying to stick to the theme on occasion people. This sweater is taking a long time due to all the cabling, I think about other projects just languishing in the project closet, piles of yarn unknit, sitting around just waiting to fulfill their destiny.  Sad little balls of fluff wandering around in the yarn closet, no purpose yet in life. They'll get their turn. Anyhoo, Janet and Di came for the day, they only live a couple of hours away so they drove down in the morning and we sat around eating doughnuts and drinking coffee. We ended up at Ruby Tuesdays on Montage, we haven't been there in forever, in WV that was where we celebrated all of our special occasions. I was glad we went early because around here on the weekends all the restaurants fill up on the weekends and you can wait for quite awhile. And as we all know I'm VERY bad at that sort of thing.  Janet and Di headed off after dinner, Di has to work today so it was a pretty short visit, but I'm very glad they made it and I know Jackson was thrilled to see them. We went to Border's after, there is a ton of shops up at Montage but Becky has bought everything so we just did a short trip to the bookstore. I have to see one patient today and then I'm taking them out, not sure where. They're pretty easily entertained, movies mall food is on the agenda everyday. I have no idea how Becky is going to transport all that stuff back that she's been amassing for the past couple of weeks - everything is on clearance so it's a real buyer's market right now. 

A Little Catching Up To Do

I've  been quite busy lately - between work and Becky and Jackson visiting there's been no time to sit. Becky arrived a day after Jackson much to the delight of the Hostess - she has been busy also. They've been having fun, there's a big movie house and loads of malls so David drops them off at various buildings of commerce and they shop, eat and watch movies. This has been a week of things working out - the windows were delayed for David's job so he's been able to spend time with them. They're reverting to high school of course, too much soda, video games and so forth - but technically they're still teenagers too, aren't they? We've been out to dinner a few times - we have a really nice little diner right down the road from us and had a great time the other night. I was on call last night but after 8 am I'm free for the weekend. Janet and Di are expected to be here for the day around 11 and Sunday I have one patient to see in the morning but after that I'll be available for shopping. And I will be shopping for an interview outfit. It's no secret I've been very unhappy at my job here, so I've been scanning the want ads for the past couple of months. And I found a job I am a) very excited about and b)unqualified for. But I threw my hat in the ring anyhow as it can't hurt to ask. Much to my surprise - they contacted me!!  More to my surprise I passed the telephone interview and the day I took a personal day is the one day they can do the interview. I don't know what will happen, but it's a start and like being an Oscar contender, sometimes it's just and honor to  be nominated.

The Hostessing Continues Unabated

Pearl pretty much lays in wait for Jackson's lap to become available, she is relentless and without shame. Jackson is enjoying her company so it's an equal relationship. Becky arrived on our sunny shores yesterday, I'll get pictures later in the week. She had to leave at 3 am and this is not only the first time she's flown, but it's also the first time she's traveled on her own so she was pretty tired yesterday. We took them out and dropped them off at the mall - David went to Home Depot to order the carpet for the house. They're having a big sale on installation, $125 for the entire house so we decided to do it now. I went to AC Moore's but the lines were so long there was nothing there I was willing to stand on line for that long. We went to the mall and I got a new pair of boots and a George Michael CD - whoo hoo. We met up with Jack and Becky and then headed home as Becky was fading fast. We are planning to head out to Montage today as they want to go to the movies and there are a lot of nice shops up there. David will be the entertainment committee for the next two weeks as I have to work, what else is new? I wish I could be the entertainment committee just once, it sucks that everyone comes up here and I'm always working. I have applied for another job, I'm doing this very slowly as I don't want to end up in another bad situation. 

Pearl Is Hostessing A Military Event!

Well, he finally got here. After all that. His connecting flight from Atlanta to Detroit was late so the flight from Detroit to Wilkes-Barre took off without him. Stranding him in Detroit. His mother thought he would be upset - he thought it was pretty nifty that he got a FREE hotel room in a very nice hotel and the waitress at the restaurant gave him a FREE meal because they do that for all the military guys and everyone was chatting him up because of the uniform - on and on. He got helped all through the airport by the ex-navy guys so it was a good trip. David picked him up around 3;30 and we met at the chinese buffet for dinner.  It was fun, people just come up to to him and shake his hand - it's a bit strange at times too. We got back to the house and the Hostess was beside herself with joy - a military hostess! A Veritable Joyous Naval Free For All, the joy! The dancing! The leaping about! Whoo Hoo! the recipient of all this joy made a beeline for his room to change out the Dog Hair Attracting Outfit. Becky will be here this weekend and they'll just play it by ear - I have this weekend off but can't take any time off at this time. But he's home, that's all that matters.

What A Day!

Let's see, Jackson called today to let us know he is finally done with school and is coming home. Today. I'm At The Airport In Atlanta to be more specific.  I love my children, did I ever tell you that? This news would have been greeted with more genuine enthusiasm if there was not something we were covering up quite desperately and I was trying not to weep on the phone. Vincent had disappeared this morning and we could not find him anywhere. Vincent as we all know is Jackson's own private cat and he has been waiting four months to see him - we noticed him missing around midmorning and looked all over, nothing. We figured he probably was sleeping or hiding somewhere and went shopping  - came back around 2 and still no cat. I think had it not been for Jackson's winging his way home we most likely wouldn't have been so stressed but it's also unusual for Vincent not to be nosing into everything and being around all day. David was tearing the basement apart and I looked in the attic and every cabinet - nothing. We finally gave up and that would be when he made  a special guest star appearance over the heating duct, rat. So we dodged that bullet. So he's had his dinner and is banned from the basement until Jackson gets here tonight, I found his pajamas and an outfit for tomorrow so we are finally allowing ourselves to be all excited. Of course I can't get any time off and the tempeture is hovering in The Belows but Vincent is fine and Jackson will be home so what do I have to complain about? 

TGIT or....

Thank Goodness It's Tuesday. I am off for a FULL 24 hours, I go on call at 5 pm tomorrow, but that's tomorrow, isn't it? Work was busy, my computer is still being loaded so I did my paperwork and when no one was able to find anything more for me to do I went out to the front desk and  helped Barb file. It doesn't matter what office you're in, there's always tons of that to do and I've yet to have my help turned down in that department.  I don't mind to doing it and Barb doesn't mind me doing it either so I sorted and alphabetized for the remainder of the afternoon. On the way home I picked up a box of doughnuts  - if you're having a hard time, stressed out  and overworked, it's nothing a box of doughnuts can't cure. David continues to work on the house, he added crown molding to the dining room and living room today. The carpet stays intact, that doesn't get done until spring or so, we will just have to suffer with Lime Green Except Where The Big Honking Stains Are Carpet and the Bubblegum Pink Shag Carpet That Wears Like Iron - although I have to admit it's obnoxiously hilarious.  Maybe it will be a focal point or add some whimsy to our decor. Vincent has been hanging out basement, David said there was a dead vole in the basement and a live one in the garage, but thought maybe voles sometimes kill each other which means there had been a big Vole Fight in the lowest level of our abode and I missed it. Bastards. I'd like to see a big vole fight, wouldn't you? I don't think they see to well so it would most likely be  a Hit Or Miss Event and could take hours. I think Vincent might be responsible however, who knows what goes on in the basement when I'm not home - a little Vole Fighting perhaps. But I'll be home tomorrow so if anything goes on I'll let you know.

Yes - it's Golden Jesus again, I can't get enough of him either. The other picture is our foyer which  would be more impressive if I showed you the "before" picture which included a mint green stained carpet, fluorescent green walls (to match) and the door a charming Primer Grey as the previous owners didn't realize you're supposed to paint the door after installing it.  Trust me, it looks way nicer. Work was busy as usual, they confiscated my computer to finish loading stuff in it so everything is a pain - you get used to everything on the computer.  At the moment my mouth is smarting, I bought some lovely kiwis as I haven't had them in a long time. I ate a couple before dinner and realized the reason I don't eat them is I have an allergic reaction to it.  The skin appears to be gone from my tongue or at least it feels like it and I have about 6 more left that I can't eat. Bastards. 
I made a quick trip to the Christmas Tree store - I was up in that area but usually don't have time to stop in. Everything is so cheap you just want to snatch it up and run with it, they have yarn too!, whoo hooo, furniture, all sorts of stuff. I went and looked for a new pair of boots next door  too but no sucess there. I tried.  They did have a pair of suede fur lined ones but I figured if I got them in my size I would be captured as a sasquatch and taken around to the circus so they stayed on the shelf.  Pearl continues with her antibiotic and Cheese Festival - great fun for the dog.

TGIAMOIMKM which means....

Thank Goodness It's Almost Monday Or I Might Kill Myself - yes, it was that busy of a weekend, thank you for asking. It was so busy I didn't even get a chance to go shopping, but I do have Wednesday off so I can catch up then. I've finally posted the picture of golden Jesus who resides out near Montage Mountain Road - do you see the little steps up the side that I was so excited about? Well, forget it, just put it out of your head - you cannot go sit in front of Golden Jesus even though there is a wee little bench just calling your name. There was a rope and a sign that said NO Trespassing - Keep Off.  You're probably thinking that since I usually stay to the straight and narrow I stayed off. Well, I did stay off but not for lack of trying. My big issue was the steps were all covered in ice all the way up and when I tried to get over the rope I slipped a little bit so I had  to stop and reconsider my next plan of action. It was to get back down because I can only explain so much and that one would have been tough explaining how I broke my leg for Jesus especially since we all know I do not believe in that stuff.  The best I would be able to come up with would be Taking One For The Team and that might not even cut it, so sadly I got off the monument and took my pictures from the ground. There was a huge mausoleum next to it so I went and rattled the door, locked. Bastards. So I was batting a thousand in the graveyard and got back in my car and went back to work. Someone has to do it.  Workwise this weekend it was just nonstop all weekend, I did 9 hours yesterday and today 8 to 3 plus paperwork plus calling my patients for tomorrow. The sad thing is I have so much to do I don't have anytime to look for another job... I guess I'll put it on the list for Monday.

Not Impressed

As usual, the weather prediction was a "wee" bit off - I think we got about 2" as opposed to the 8 to 10 they were ballihooing about all day yesterday, complete with flashing red warnings and so forth. It makes the yard more of a trick, now you can't see where the big ice patches are so you go randomly sliding about the lawn like nobody's business. Pearl is much on the mend after being started on antibiotics, she is back to harassing the cats and barking at anyone passing by the house. The cats are a captive audience as they refuse to go out - Vincent has no interest and Claw goes out for maybe an hour a day due to the temps and snow. I have no choice of course, I worked a 9 hour day yesterday, leaving the house at 7:30 am and finishing up with paperwork after 5. I have another admission today and a visit and of course anything else that happens, so much for only emergencies. I did get sock yarn earlier in the week for those of you who are wondering if I ever made it to Micheal's - so it's been added to the pile of Things Than Need Knitting. I'm about halfway through the front of the sweater I'm currently making, it's very slow going due to the entire thing is cabled but I think it will look spectacular when it's done. And I do have to find an owner for it. I'm trying to think of what I want to do on Wednesday as I will be off for it, I haven't made a visit to the big mall in Scranton so maybe I'll go check that out. We've heard from Adam who heard from Jackson and both are doing well, I'm going to try and call Jackson today to see what his plans are as both the boys seem to think David and I just sit here, ready for them to appear. Anyhoo, despite being so busy this weekend I've spoken to both Kim and Liz which was fun of course, there's a lot to be said for having the same best friends your entire life, isn't there?

Random Acts Of Silence

I've been having awful problems with this blog - the picture function is difficult and that's being nice about it(it takes about 5 minutes to load one picture, if I try more than 3 it fails). And that is a shame as I have some wonderful pictures of Gold Jesus I took the other day so you'll all have to wonder. Work has been going downhill steadily and I am stuck. I don't want to go looking for another job- the idea of having to start all over again with applications, interviews, phone calls and so forth is just overwhelming but the alternative is staying in this job  and it's completely defying it's own job description at this point. I earned time off which I didn't get because they're short and they couldn't give me a day off so they took it away because I didn't use it. So now I have to fill out forms to get time back that was mine in the first place.  I've given up asking about health benefits, all I get is a vague thing about how they have to give me some forms to fill out none of which have made an appearance which means I've been there almost 4 months and still paying for my own health insurance. So I've become very quiet at work which I can see is making them nervous - I've been very vocal about what I don't like about the job but nothing has changed and I know they'll be surprised when I hand in my resignation - round and round it goes. The only that is stopping me however - what do I want to do. I'm realistic, I know when you interview they put the rosiest spin on things so you'll want to work for them - the trick is finding the job that has the lowest level of awful things you can. I'm in no hurry, I can put up with it for a little while longer while I decide what I want to do and I'm scanning the want ads daily. David has pointed out we are well able to carry our own insurance so it's a bonus to get it through work but not a necessity. So we'll see - I'm on call this weekend which is another bone of contention, when I started I was told they had weekend workers and it was only calls for emergent - I'll be out all day today doing admissions and part of tomorrow as apparently they like to take LOTS of admits on the weekend. I'm supposed to get Wednesday off to compensate- we'll see.

Pearl has some sort of respiratory infection along with a fever so $106 later she's home and recieving hunks of cheese with a pill hidden inside. I'm sure halfway through the course of antibiotics she'll smarten up and start spitting out the pill to increase her Cheese Intake. Otherwise she made a pest of herself in the vet's office spending part of her free time in a headlock with the vet (David said he could tell she was debating whether she should kick it into high gear or not) - she has a return appointment for a hip x-ray. We're eventually planning on breeding her once  and that's a requirement.  In other news the freezing rain continues - I had to chisel my car out this morning but the roads weren't too bad and I didn't get too late of a start.  I didn't get to Michael's today for the sock yarn extravaganza but I did make a pitstop into Big Lots - I haven't been there in awhile so I went in and riffled through the yarn bin shamelessly. Now, I would say something to the staff about the way the yarn is kept - there's a huge tangled mass in the center but I have the feeling the staff doesn't care the same way a normal human being. A Human being that loves and supports yarn, a human being that LOVES LIFE ITSELF. So  I just picked about and managed to come up with a few skeins of yarn. So the day was not lost.

Poor Pearl.

I took Pearl out yesterday and was quite alarmed to hear her coughing - she actually sounded like a Canadian Goose. When I said something to David he said she'd been doing that for the past day or so insert your sigh here. (Are we waiting for a lung to come up???). She most likely has kennel cough and has an appointment with the vet tomorrow, in the meantime we have to listen to her honking and gagging which cannot end soon enough. At work they're trying to get us online, good luck with that. I was told I was doing the online admission - that would be when they discovered during the training session that my computer is the only one that the program isn't downloaded onto. So then I was given the boss's computer to use and that would be when we discovered it was on her computer but wasn't functioning. So we're back to pen and paper for now. I love new systems in the medical field, when I worked at Stonybrook Unversity they implemented a new system that Einstein would've been hard pressed to use. EVERYONE failed the training sessions and were sent back - I remember the training staff  sent by the company that installed it getting very nasty the second time around and were pretty much reduced to shrieking WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE" every 30 seconds. The hospital decided it was too much of a financial strain to have everyone pecking hopelessly at thier training computers and let us back on the floor assuring us we were smart enough to figure it out for ourselves. I think I still have the giant red button they gave me for being able to prove I was smarter than a cantaloupe.  The snow has been falling steadily since I got home so I think I'll have enough to deal with, the computer can be down the road a bit. Anyhoo - someone bought the farm house across the road so Pearl has been spying on them shamelessly, as have we all.  I figure we'll wait until they're a bit more moved in before we go harass them or we let Pearl do any hostessing.

A Mathmatical Problem

As you can see the new camera is working well, I haven't brought it out in the field yet although I do have a couple of graveyards earmarked. There's one that has a Golden Jesus that you can go up the little steps and sit on a bench and admire him. I've been debating how long you can admire something like that in January - we shall see, we shall see!! There's also a gravestone with an angel clutching itself to a giant cross but I can't remember where it is, I'm sure I'll drive by it when I've forgotten my camera. Work was busy, I'm not feeling so great, I thought I was coming down with a cold but I'm just feeling under the weather. David has been a busy Do-Bee (who remembers the Do Bees??), he's finished the the tiling in the kitchen, halfway through the foyer and has replaced two more Ugly Fixtures - the windows for his next job should be in later this week so he's busy trying to finish some stuff around here.  Eek! I've been plotting out a little more shopping, it's hard not to because I keep getting coupons and it's hard not to use them - Michael's' has sock yarn HALF OFF this week, but I have to seriously look deep inside and ask myself, how much sock yarn should you own? Is it going against the laws of nature to own more sock yarn that you can possibly knit up in one life time? You have to figure that,  if at the age of 47 I am middle aged and only have 47 more years in which to knit, providing I keep my marbles - at least the knitting related ones - and I have to use ALL of the yarn so far acquired including the thousands of yards of lace yarn too,  how much more yarn can I buy? A quandary if I ever saw one.  But then again, I do have a lot of knitting books and if I retire at 67 and my projected Date Of Croaking is 97 - that gives me TWENTY YEARS of straight knitting time so therefore - I do NOT have enough yarn - gangway! Whoo hoo!

Ah- Choo!

David has been tiling his butt off - he finished the kitchen the other day and laid the tile in front of the door today. We've all been threatened with certain death for anyone who walks on it, someone might buy the farm today.  I'm coming down with a cold so I've been doing couch duty alternating with me attempting to clean off the porch off the kitchen. I have grandiose ideas for that so I've been doing a bit at a time all day and have it fairly cleaned up. The little heater I got for Christmas helps but it's still rather Tundra-like out there.
 Yesterday was very nice - David and I got an early start in the morning, we stopped and had breakfast at a little restaurant that boasted you ate "right out of the pan!" which I suppose is a little less novel than "right out of the box!" or "right off the floor!". They did serve everything in little pans so our table was littered with pans, but the food was good and the coffee strong - the way life should be. We got to the outlets a little early, there was no electronics place - I found that a little surprising - the prices weren't too bad and I was glad we got there early and out - we left at noon (they open at 10) and there were lines of cars already. I guess the weekend after New Year is not the ideal time to go.  But I did get to scope out what's there and the exact location of the Cheesecake Factory for future reference and then it was back to where we usually go shopping. I got my camera, the usual Kodak. I looked at the more expensive models but what I use it for and the way I abuse it I can break a $100 one just as easily as a more expensive one so I went with the cheapy easy to use model. We did the grocery shopping and a few other odds and ends. For dinner we ate all the crappy cereal Adam left behind - that was a big whoo hoo for me! What's the point of being an adult if you can't eat sugar coated crap for dinner? Remember when you were a kid and you couldn't eat cookies for dinner because it Wasn't Good For You and you VOWED when you grew up someday you would eat cookies every night if you wanted to and would wash it down with milkshakes? Of course the hard cold reality is if you do that every night as vowed your ass would be the size of a cadillac but there's no reason why you can't pull up a gallon of milk and your Lucky Charms once in awhile and chow down - I find the older I get the easier it is to entertain me.

Take A Deep Breath.

I've been pretty stressed out lately, it seems like I get past one problem only to be hurdling the next with another one close on the heels of the first. Today I'm not doing much - I'm skipping the exercise and sucking down coffee in bed with the laptop and the lapdog. David and I are making a quick run to the outlets to scope out the lay of the land, with potential guests on the horizon I'd like to get an idea of how far and what's there.  I know we lived here before but it was a brief stay and we only make a couple of trips here and there so I'm not really sure what's around and if it's really worth the trip. I'll be buying a new camera today, it's driving me crazy not having one - everything seems to be a good picture. I also have to buy some new pants and possibly shirts, aside from missing coats I also have missing clothes but somehow managed to retain all the pants that don't fit and the crappy stuff. I got my stuff from Knitpicks yesterday and am busy glomming through that, I love getting stuff in the mail no matter how old I get. We haven't heard from Jackson, I'm assuming he's alright and will call him this weekend. I suppose I should get up. Not.

No Pictures Please!

That's right - in one fell swoop I managed to corrupt my entire Kodak file - 5 years of pictures down the proverbial drain. This  on the heels of the fact my camera is dying a rather undignified death involving duct tape and a good shake now and then.  I'm buying a new one this weekend, I sort of wish I'd bought one before the holidays but with work and the rush trying to get everything done, Adam's visit, etc I didn't want to grab just anything and be sorry two weeks down the road. I think I did ok present wise buying - no one threw any back at me at any rate .

David managed to find a pair of bookends that looked suspiciously like Pearl The Girl to give to Janet and Diane. That way they'll have something to gaze upon until the Real Deal shows up for a Hostessing Event at their house. We had a good - yet too brief - visit back on LI. Adam managed to see the family and got out for a few hours to see his friends, I saw Lizzard and we yakked until 11. Fun with Fred and Connie, a whole week with Adam, what more could you ask for? But all good things have to end (well, they don't have to end, but they generally do...) and I am back to work. One of the nurses is quitting, it's the holidays, too much work and not enough bodies, so it goes, so it goes. I had to work today - someone has to work each holiday as we have daily patients so I volunteered (it looks more professional than Whining and Crying) - day from hell of course. I ran from 7:30 am til 3 and then sat to coffee and a mountain of paperwork. David is busy tiling the kitchen - we had to stay off of it until 2 pm after David conferred with Fred who has a "couple" of years experience in the tile business and therefore thinks he knows everything - he actually does but we try not to give him a big head. So here I am, New Years Day and not a resolution in sight. I've mulled over them, the standards- lose weight, save money, be nicer, but then there are the ones that are more do-able. I could resolve to eat more candy, to spend my money on yarn I don't need and books I won't read - to be a little less evil on Tuesdays  and to eat Pizza every Friday without fail. I suppose I'll take the higher ground after thinking about it -  the true resolutions aren't the goals, but the journey there. You can resolve to be good but the work is in figuring out how to be good - do you have to be good every day or just more good than bad? And be good about what - I can try but I cannot be good about everything, no way, no how. So maybe I should be selectively good..... just like Claw doesn't bite everyone, but she's pretty good about biting people equally. So we'll see, I think I need a week or so to figure it all out, maybe I should just resolve to not resolve anything and let the path lead me where it needs me to go.