All Things Considered, I'd Rather Be In Pittsburgh

 This morning I did a practice run to the office in Monroeville. To me it's a moderate drive  - but when you add in different factors such as weather, traffic, etc it can turn into a bear. If I go by highway it will be close to 80 miles. That is not the scary part  as it's highway miles- right before the Pitt Tunnel it backs up HUGE and I haven't even seen it in full swing. Even though its' only a ten mile stretch you can sit there for 45 minutes of so. I have been map questing and calculating, figuring out where the tunnel is exactly and what the shorter route runs through. I can either highway it or there's a short route according to GPS of 56 miles - but 56 miles of what it doesn't say. It can be 56 miles of dirt roads, winding, potholed back roads that will end up taking twice as long to navigate. One of the women in my knitting group told me there was a back way through Uniontown so I map quested that - 62 miles so it very much splits the difference. I was going to head up on Thursday, I got up early as I need to go when I'm actually going to be leaving, dressed and so forth - and then it started to snow. Big, fat, snarky snowflakes started pounding down - it got so bad David ended up staying home for the day. I suppose that would have been the mother of all practice runs but I decided against it. If I'm going to wreck it should be on an actual work day, don't you think? So this morning I got a little bit of a late start leaving at 8:10, I ended up stopping a couple of times to check my directions, bathroom, but even though made it in less than two hours. That time will eventually get reduced when I know where I'm going and can find the workable short cuts. Since I was out that way I discovered a mall, went to the only knit shop in Pittsburgh I haven't been to (it was OK, but I much prefer Kid Ewe Knot and Natural Stitches in that neck of the woods). I still have no debit card and I hate using a credit card. We just pay it ahead of time to avoid charges, but still. I bought myself some yarn of course, can never have enough of that and then headed home on the highway just to see - I think it will be the back roads for now. We are not doing anything for Valentine's today, David wants to make up work and I was out all day so during the weekend we plan on going out to dinner. According the weather report it's supposed to be warming up _ I can not wait for that! I do like snow, but even I'm getting tired of it. The Hooligans never do of course, Molly has recently decided she likes it - I'm not sure if it's because after 6 months in a foster home and a year in our home she's finally realized she doesnt' have to live in it all the time or if it's just snowed so much it was unavoidable. Either way she happily eats, rolls and flies around it in, she and Reuben are quite delighted. I'm about halfway done with the shawl, this time off has given me extra time to work on it. I finally made it to the knitting group the other night, due to the weather they've only met once since before Christmas!

Off With Her Hair!

w

Well, its a picture at any rate. I've been talking about getting my hair cut for the past few months to the point I'm surprised David didn't sneaky chop it off while I slept. If you have thin, fine hair like mine getting a hair cut is a terrifying adventure at times, so it takes awhile to get your nerve up. Most of the time you either end up with someone afraid to cut it much so they just snap the scissors around the edges hoping you'll be OK with that. Or even worse, the one that makes it their mission to make it Look Thicker. First off , the only way it ever looks thicker is if you cut it all off and then it's a pretty limited engagement. I KNOW my hair is baby fine and it's alright. It takes two shakes and 30 seconds to dry it, it's not a bad color and it's not like I ever had thick hair to begin with. After doing some errands I passed by a small salon in Carmichael's with a sign out front welcoming Walk ins. Since it's early I figured I'd give it a go and was indeed, warmly welcomed. There was one other customer getting their hair done, so I was up now! The stylist was pretty young which was encouraging - I tend to make out better with a fairly recent graduate. I think it's because they're so used to practicing on their friends and family, etc and they haven't entered the amazing world of Negative Feedback it makes them more adventurous. I don't end up spending twenty minutes arguing about what my hair should look like - or worse, when they "OK if that's what you REALLY want" like it's some sort of threat that will end in I Told You So. I got my hair shampooed and was put in the chair next to the other customer that was super debating getting an inch cut off with her stylist, who demonstrated with a comb that it was not that much. Mine asked me what I wanted and when I showed her how much, she said..... OK!, grinned and had at it. So while  the stylist next to me was carefully snipping off an inch - no more! - mine was shearing away, 6 inches of hair hitting the floor, pulling up gouts of hair and chopping them off. The woman in the next chair was madly sneaking peeks like she could not believe someone would have that much hair lopped off in one sitting - but I did. What hung below my shoulders is now up past my ears. I told the stylist she did an excellent job and asked for her card. I also tipped her $10, given the amount of hair she whacked off she certainly deserved it. So that's one more thing off my list. I left my job as a visit nurse last week and am taking a week off between to get stuff done. It's a great time of job to start an office job by the way - EVERYTHING is 80% so I got about two weeks worth of outfits - including shoes - for under $150. I have to start looking for another bank this week too, Community Bank is on my last nerve. They cancelled my debit card again due to suspicious activity which I appreciate. I do NOT appreciate not being told it was cancelled (again). I had gone to the ATM on Saturday to check my balance and take out a little bit. It came back declined. I tried it again. Declined. Called customer service - they are only there Monday through Friday, which really sucks because now  I have no idea if my account has been drained or what's going on. Great. Since the main branch is open for a couple hours on Sat I drove over there to find out what had happened, only to find it had been cancelled and yes, it would be another two weeks before I got a new one. What's really galling about this is this bank is 10 miles from my house and it takes two weeks. Adam had the same thing happen to him and Navy Federal closed out his account, opened a new one and overnighted him a new card in 24 hours. That is the kind of bank I'm looking for.

I Give Up.

I have tried everything - this blog will no longer post pictures. I've done everything I can think of - and then some - it will load the pictures but will not post them if that makes any sense.  So I need to decide if I want to continue to post without pictures - which I find a bit boring - or start on another blog site. Annoying! I guess I'll blog without and see what happens. Things have been going mysteriously well lately, which for this time of year is unheard of - I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I rejoined Weight Watchers but online this time, I just don't have time for the meetings and honestly it brings me back to my original issue which is I should not, at the ripe old age of 52, need someone to watch my diet. I should be able to do it myself.  But I find their point system easiest and after a week am feeling better not to mention the 4 pound weight loss. My biggest issue is vegan related, all of the soy based cheeses, etc tend to be higher in fat. The only low fat version I've found is Go Veggie which should be called Fakers Incorporated since it's made entirely out of milk casein. On that front I'm not entirely vegan but pretty close. My actually dairy intake is probably a quarter cup of cheese and a quart of milk a week which is not bad. I still cannot look at meat, every time I do all I can see is that poor pig electrocuted and while it's still seizing being pushed into a vat of boiling water - screaming and  alive. And yes indeed, that IS how they kill your livestock these days, enjoy your bacon. We're still looking into buying local after we use up what's in the freezer. And we know the cows are not abused since we see them every day on the way to work. My biggest news of course is I'm going back to Bayada to resume my position as a clinical manager. I get the updates and when I saw it opened up I contacted the recruiter who emailed me back the position had already been filled. Then two weeks later she contacted me to let me know the applicant had decided to decline the position and did I still want it? Four interviews later I start mid Feb, I'm taking a week off to get things straight at home. It will be a drive to the office - 65 miles each way, but I drove to Stonybrook for years on LI which was 50 miles each way and really, all the driving I do as a visit nurse it comes out the same at the end of the day. Rather amusingly I still have my Bayada lab coat and badge so I'm good to go! I will miss working with Tammy and being a visit nurse but I think at the end of the day this is really what I want to do. David has to get the health insurance since we'll be swinging free for 90 days but I had my Big Eye Exam and did very well so I now only have to go every 6 months instead of every ten minutes. The dentist is another story, I have a cavity under a composite tooth and it's HUGE. So he's doing a root canal and cap, hopefully it will be save-able. I have four more days of work (yes, I'm counting, thank you for asking) and of course I continue to knit. Due to the weather I haven't been able to make the knitting group for two weeks, but hopefully this week will be better weather wise.