Well.

There are no pictures of the conference because I didn't get a chance to take any. I took my camera, but I drove there in the dark, ran around all day and then drove back in the dark. The conference itself was fun and I really did learn a lot, especially during the feedback session - I even spoke in public! That's a big thing for me because every time I speak in public I worry my face will turn red - and it does because I'm so worried about it. I don't know why, maybe it's clown related, maybe not. Anyhow, the big problem is I sit there listening to other people talk and wish desperately I could do that, all these great things I could say - and I don't. So I made myself do it, spoke for about 5 minutes and did not die. I think my face did turn a bit red, I could feel it getting warm but then it stopped so to me, that was a bit of a milestone. The food was wonderful, they just feed you all day and I got to meet people from all the offices. I met people from Vermont, Cape Cod, Hyannis, and other people I hadn't seen in awhile. This weekend David and I are making a major effort to move. It's been pretty difficult because this is the first time we've moved that we haven't had time to simply move. I usually have a couple of weeks off and the house even if it needs work it's usually livable - this has been an entirely different can of worms. So, I suppose if I'm moving I should get out of bed and maybe even get dressed. Hmm. What do you think Vincent? A few more minutes in bed? Alright, just for you.

Road Trip

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Mt Laurel NJ, I have a day long conference. I do enjoy them, it's a good chance to meet people from the other offices, you learn tons of stuff and of course it's a change of pace. The thing I don't like is I have to leave right after work so I end up sitting in every traffic jam on earth. Mt Laurel is just outside of Philly and I left work a little before 5 pm so it took a good almost 3 hours to go about 95 miles which pretty much sucked. I get a bit overwrought at times since we all know my general level of patience is maybe a .05 or lower and it being dark and unfamiliar certainly doesn't add to enjoyment of it all. Driving through a city and not being sure of where you are can be a little scary - I drove by myself this time because it would've taken too long to drive back to Pittston to carpool. Ellen and Laurie didn't get here until 9 pm so we had a late dinner and didn't get back to our rooms til 11 pm. So here I sit, waiting for it to be time to go, right after I'm heading back home and then this weekend we will be moving into the Cat Pee House, David is completely stressed out at this point but he'll calm down once we are in there. The driving back and forth is killing him, it's an eighty mile round trip and that doesn't include all the trips to Lowes, Home Depot, etc. I have to say this is the biggest project we've ever undertaken - not sure if he'd do it again.

I Wish I Had Gotten Out Of My Own Way.

Today was a long day, I was alone in the office and the phone rang nonstop until I turned it off at 3 and flipped it over to the home office as I was getting a little whiny. I also had a fairly interesting look going, I'm not sure if I even want to talk about this. Years ago I would despair with my younger son Jackson - he was a literary of bizarre accidents. He stepped off a bulk head and fell 8 feet playing blindman's bluff by himself, there was the throwing knife incident which required a huge amount of sewing, gouged under the eye by a miniature french bulldog ( I remember the poor owner who walked him home half in tears and me just sighing, since Jackson thought he looked super cool) on and on. He gets this from me. Yesterday Pearl brought her dumb stick to me once again. I went to throw it hard - and far - sigh. It got caught in my sleeve, swung around and the little pointy thing sticky out of the side pounded into my forehead. I can't remember anything bleeding so much, it just poured and poured. Despite my putting ice on it there is an interesting swelling right above my left eye with a nice cut. Hmm. So for today I followed the Clinton Method - Don't ask, don't tell - I took the 5th because quite honestly, the truth is a little to stupid too tell in this instance. And rather hilariously,even though I could see everyone could see it, no one was brave enough to ask.

I Can't Get Out Of My Own Way

This has been a horribly stressful week - both David and I have been running and going nowhere fast. Work was bad, but I know a lot of that was because we're in the middle of moving, one of the nurses went on vacation, and I remain sick. It's hard to get better when you are constantly on the move, but right now there's nothing to be done for it. I had to work half the day yesterday - I also had to draw blood which I haven't done for almost a year. To add to the fun the place we get our phlebotomy equipment has a safety feature on the butterfly. When you hit the button the needle shoots into the cuff rendering it safe - and useless. I managed to hit the stupid button on four of them before I ran out of supplies and had to run out to my car for more - thank goodness I had the foresight to pack extra! ARRGH. I was glad the involved party was sweet and patient, if it had been a crabby patient I would've lost it. I thought I would have to drive to a far hospital but the family knew where all the local labs were so I was able to drop it off in town and then go to one of my favorite LYS. The yarn I made the shawl out of they still had - and still 20% off so I bought it in a burgundy - $33 for 3 skeins and that was on sale!! Given the fact a visit on the weekend is $35 that would make my total intake for 3 hours was 2 dollars, not bad for a day's work. I wanted to buy more as I don't think they're getting anymore after this - it's hand dyed from Chili so I had to buy enough to totally complete a project as if you run out, too bad. So If bought the other two colors I would've had to spend $99 and there are just some things you cannot get by the Yarn Hater. And he doesn't care if it was hand dyed by Fairies and Gnomes at that price. Today David and I went to the Cat Pee House, David has started painting and it looks great. The downstairs is still Dark and Dismal and the ship on a mirror it turns out is glued quite firmly to the wall. Well, didn't we plan for posterity! But we are going to start moving in by the end of the week - we have a stove, water, heat, cable, Internet, phone will be in a week or so - David is going to get the floor down in the kitchen and dining room, put up some shelves and call it a day for now.

Saturday

The week is sort of over - but I'm working tomorrow and playing catch up on Sunday so I'm at the point of one day just rolling into another. Thanksgiving is racing fast - David is in charge of that. Kim and Grace will be coming to spend it with us so that will be nice - Pearl of course will be hostessing her head off and we will be in the Cat Pee house by then, despite some delays and miscalculations. As much as we think it's taking forever, it's really not - we just think it should have been done yesterday, David looking at that mammoth task and saying, Hmm, about two weeks I think. The Internet and the cable are in, phone is next week along with the furniture, water filter is functioning as is the dishwasher, its getting there. It will be livable, over the winter finishable. House is not rented yet, but we have a little time - we're being picky. Well, I'm being pickier since we're still selling it - David gets on the phone with Harry and I'm yelling. No pets! No smokers! No kids (David was wondering if they could use the bathroom), but we're between a rock and a hard place. I don't want to leave it sitting empty but we still need to sell it so it needs to stay nice. Work has been very stressful right now, we're at the point of fish or cut bait, it's been a hard sell in that area. And of course being sick all week just makes it harder, I'm tired and short of breath all the time, I just want to sleep. I do feel better and I get better ever day but I'm tired of being sick.

Day 567 - I am Still Sick.

The flu is one of the stinkiest things to get - at least if you get one of those 24 hour jobs you get sick - and then you're done. Finished. After a fun filled weekend running fevers and hacking, then my head stuffed up. Then it drained - if you could sell snot I would be a millionaire. THEN it went into my chest and now I'm losing my voice. I guess I've gotten a lot of bang for my buck. Work has been busy, but interesting. I got my associate back part time and am getting another one, I'm scouting for a full time RN, always looking for therapists, having a mock audit in December, conference in Mt Laurel NJ next week, Disneyland - courtesy of Bayada!! - in March, staff meetings are now once a week, running running. We got more presents from Bayada today for another billing record - now I have to get the staff under control. Oh, and I started the heel on the sock which I LOVE the color which is either Hot Peppers or Chili Peppers - I can't remember which la la la. The temps are starting to get sneaky cold - I go to work in a sweater and freeze my way home until the heat comes on - Vincent goes out long enough in the morning to see if there's anything worth killing and then spends the rest of his day snoring away on the bench with the little afghan on it. The Cat Pee House is coming right along, David had a hard and not so productive day today - he's getting down to the details and you know how that goes -it's always the little things that will get you.

Happy Daylight Savings Time

Pearl woke me up a little after 5 this morning, she's not very subtle when she wants out. She lays directly on top, whuffing in your face and whining in your ear. I coughed, wheezed and groaned, but she was not buying what I was selling so I got up and found my shoes. Even though the clock in the bedroom said 5, the clock in the kitchen read 4 am - I peered at it rather intently but it still said the same thing, even when I looked away quickly and then looked back. Then I remembered it was one of those clocks that resets itself automatically (I've caught it doing that on occasion - it's very unnerving) and that we are now officially on Daylight Savings Time. It's almost winter my friends. We'll be in the Cat Pee House soon, David figures another couple of weeks. Of course he has to get the phone, Internet and cable up and rolling - I REFUSE to go through that again. You know, every once in awhile I read about those people that get rid of the TV, the phone, the computer, etc and they talk about how "freeing" it is - they're either on drugs or flat out lying. It is NOT freeing or relaxing, it's like being trapped on Gilligan's Island with no relief in sight. We had that experience here - stupid Verizon took a full month to get out here, thank goodness Direct TV got out here sooner than that or I would have chewed a leg off. You feel like you have no idea what's going on, you can't write to anyone, it sucks and the cell phone reception in this area is not dependable enough to only have cell phones. I'm posting the last pictures of the shawl, it was packed and mailed yesterday - I restarted the sock on a smaller size DPN and it can now be used by normal people. At least it was just a sock and nothing big. It seems like half my projects end up being restarted at some point, a lot of it has to do with the fact that I never do a gauge swatch - which most likely would take much less time that re knitting things. But since I knit all the time I think I'll skip the gauge swatch and continue to take my chances, we all have to get our cheap thrills somewhere.