Seriously.

So I'm still sick, but have been back at work the past two days because let's face it, it's the end of the month and I had stuff that had to be done.

Meanwhile, in the past 48 hours I've moved my office - AGAIN - back across campus, resigned from my job, and have had three different people ask/suggest that I'm pregnant. One of those people was my boss, and the conversation went like this:

Me: I'm not pregnant.
Him: Are you sure?? Have you checked? Maybe you could be...
Me: Yes I'm sure... what the he...
Him: Well why not? I want a Hall baby! Would you get on that???

Sigh. I should add here that my boss is also a friend of ours who Greg has known for much longer than I've worked for him, so it's less inappropriate than just plain weird. I mean, we don't get that kind of stuff from our parents! Sheesh.

And In Baby News

I forgot to mention that we will not be meeting Figment today as originally hoped. Well, I have to selfishly say that's probably a good thing since I couldn't coordinate the pacing of the waiting room in the shape I'm in right now, and there's no way I'd be exposing a brand-newborn to my germs. That said, we're now shooting for next Wednesday. I will absolutely be better by then, by sheer force of will.

Survival of the Fittest

I'm home sick today. I've been sick since Monday but couldn't take the time to do anything about it until today. Sadly, I kinda wish I was at work today, I had several things that needed to be taken care of. Unfortunately, I couldn't really hold my head up this morning, so it wasn't much of an option.

I survived yesterday with only a few murderous moments. I do realize that all of the pain and suffering of the past several months was in attempt to get a good result yesterday, even the panic of the final hours when I wanted to smack some people around for walking into my office with 3 minutes to spare with one of the more important documents I needed for the file, freshly written.

That said, I think most of it actually went fairly well. At this point there is really only one person who may risk their lives by being in my sight, and there's a good chance I won't see him before Friday since I'm out today. Perhaps my wrath will have diminished by then, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll return upon sight of my cowardly victim.

and more panic

i've been at work since 6:30am. my meetings start at 7:30. it's now 7:12. i'm still waiting on one (rather important) document, which hasn't arrived yet.

seriously, they're going to give me an ulcer.

panic

my five year accreditation site visit is tuesday. tomorrow.

it's 3:17.

i'm still waiting on stuff from my program directors.

the lady in charge of all this for us has already been by once to go through all of our stuff, and is going to have to come back this afternoon to see if we've gotten more stuff together.

we haven't gotten much more stuff together.

which means i'll need to be here at 6:30am tomorrow.

and i'm sick. like, can't breath, queasy stomach, runny nose kind of sick.

some of the stuff i've been waiting on won't be ready until tomorrow morning. i don't even have my trainee files. my PD keeps saying he's going to bring them to me today. it's now 3:23. i don't have them.

i want to cry. they're going to give me a meltdown before tomorrow ends.

Look Alike

I was standing in line yesterday to buy some binder dividers when a lady walked into the store and immediate walked over to me and said, "You know, you look just like that government lady, Sarah Palin!"

Ummm. That's a new one. And for the record, no I don't.

Healthcare

We've had a rash of unhappy patients this week throwing fits about the cost of healthcare. There were three yesterday. All three had better insurance than I do.

One owed $700 on a $177,000 procedure, which she insisted on having.
Two were asked to pay a $30 copay on a clinic visit.
One of those was going to be reimbursed that $30 by her secondary insurance.
The other $30 copay was insisting that the new President said healthcare should be free and then threatened to call said new President on us.

Good luck with that. I'm sure he'll take your call right away, number should be in the yellow pages. He has nothing else going on this week.

Perhaps I'm a little weird. I don't mind paying for my healthcare. As a matter of fact, if I have to have a major invasive procedure done on my heart, I want the highest paid doctor in the place to perform it, in our brand new very expensive cath lab with the most state of the art equipment available.

My question is, who do they think is going to cover the cost of the physicians, the equipment, the lab work, and the facilities, if healthcare is free? Um... that'd be those pesky taxpayers. Oh wait, I am one!

Cartwheels!

Man oh man. I just got a call from BFF Jen and I may be an honorary aunt as early as next week! I am over the moon excited. I've never had the chance to actually be there when one of my little bits was born. They've always been in far off lands, like Arkansas and South Carolina. This one is going to be down the street! I'm totally going to be in the waiting room pacing with the grandparents. I can't wait. I CAN'T WAIT! I'm doing little cartwheels of baby joy!

Prize Patrol

So back in October we had the Heart Walk and I made fun of the prizes offered to the participants who raised money. I had opted out of claiming a prize because I didn't want to take more money away from the Heart Association after raising the money, and because I don't need more junk in my house. Yet today I get an order form in my box for me to claim my prize. Sigh. I'm half tempted to order the juicer just for fun. I've never juiced anything in my life. Or perhaps the two way radios that transmit up to 14 mles with 7 NOAA weather channels/emergency alert. That could be fun. I could radio Greg from the grocery store.

"Come in Home Base, do we have enough eggs to make muffins? Repeat, do we have eggs? Out."

"Roger, Grocery Gatherer, we have eggs. Repeat, six eggs in attendance. Out."

Dang it, now I want a muffin. Too bad they aren't offering muffins as a prize. I'd be all over that.

Waiting

What do you think President Bush is doing this morning?

Seriously, he's in the last few hours of the last real job he'll ever have. Can't you imagine him sitting in the Oval with his feet propped up, messing with a Rubiks Cube or something. The Joint Chiefs walk in all, "Sir, we have this major crisis in some rinky dink foriegn country..." And he's like, "Eh, whatever, give it a couple of hours and tell it to the new guy. I'm done here."

So, probably not, but still. These last few hours have to be the longest of any presidency.

Friday? Really?

I keep forgetting it's Friday. How is that even possible?

My mom is supposed to coming to visit tonight. We're teaming up with BFF Sharonda and BFF Jen's mother-in-law to throw a little shin-dig for Figment tomorrow. There will be cake, snackers, punch, and lots of bows and wrapping paper. Bring on the loot! I gotta make meatballs tonight. That was the one request from the mom-to-be. I make awesome meatballs, courtesy of Southern Sideboards. I also have to locate some additional wrapping materials. I wonder if I still have last Sunday's newspaper...

I have Monday off from work, which is a very good thing. Except our site visit is the next week and I could probably use the day to work on prep. Oh well. I'm not terribly concerned.

Did I mention we've booked another trip to Disney for March? I'm just saying. It was really for the rides or anything... ok, maybe it was for one ride, Toy Story Mania... but mostly for the food. You can eat some darn tasty vittles at that place. We've only book one restaurant that we've had experience with - Yak & Yeti, which could also be called Yak & YUMMY. The fried won ton dessert is beyond tasty. The new ones we're trying are Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Nine Dragons at the China pavilion at EPCOT, and Boatwrights at the Port Orleans resort. I'm pretty stoked. The Disney Dining Plan is the most wonderful thing ever. We'd never eat this well if we weren't paying a set price per day for meals. There's a good chance we'll do lunch at Wolfgang Puck's as well. It's the most expensive counter service meal in town, and I'm all about getting my money's worth out of the dining plan!

Did I mention that I tend to plan my travel around food?

Finally, I'm a little done with the arctic tundra. Really. It can warm up now.

Ouch

Greg broke his toe on one of our dining room chairs last night. I can say from experience, having broken mine once on a bathroom stall, that it hurts like the dickens. Having heard my husband's childhood history of broken bones, however, this is by far not the worst injury he's ever suffered (that would be when he was hit by the truck).

Unfortunately, he also got called back to the courthouse for jury duty today, so he can't even get one of the docs in his office to tape it up for him today. If I'd known it was broken last night I'd have taped it up for him then, but I just thought he'd bruised it. Not that there's much that can be done for the toe, other than laugh at the driver for kicking the chair.

Welcome Whitley Claire!

Happy birth-day to Whitley Claire, BFF Sharonda's newest neice. She weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz and 20 3/4 inches, born at 10:01 this morning after a lightening fast induced labor.

Now hopefully I can get my hair cut in about 4 weeks!*

Next up, little Figment in February. Woohoo!


*Sharonda's sister, D, cuts our hair. She wasn't due until the end of this month but was a couple of of weeks early. I didn't have time to get in a last haircut as I'd planned. She'll be back to work part time in 4 weeks. I can hold out.

Civic Duty

Greg has jury duty today at the Jackson Courthouse. I've been called there once, to hang out in a too-small room with about 400 of my closest friends. My advice to Greg was to take a book. Even if you get sent home at the first opportunity, it'll be a long, boring day. It usually takes most of the day just for the judge to listen to all of the excuses for why people can't serve.

We heard on the news a couple of weeks ago that there are like 4 death penalty cases for this term that would require sequestered juries. I can't even begin to imagine how not-fun that would be. Let's hope they don't get around to any of those cases this week.

Marriage Counseling

While having a discussion with a co-worker regarding her stubborn husband, I made this suggestion:

Her: What am I going to do with him???
Me: Craigs List. If that doesn't work, post him on Freecycle.

Hard Times

I understand that there are a lot of people out there right now who are looking for jobs. Many of them are willing to work just about any job that offers a pay check.

Right now, I'd consider letting them have mine.

The Only One That Mattered

The only bowl game that mattered on our half acre was played tonight, the Fiesta Bowl*.

Where Texas landed after being robbed a spot in the Championship game due to the ridiculous 3 way tie rule. Robbed. They whipped Oklahoma during the season, how can Oklahoma take their spot in the Championship?

Regardless, Texas took what they were given and just sent Ohio State home crying. Remember that, Oklahoma, when you face Florida. It should have been Texas.

*Disclaimer - I'm a USM graduate, for me bowl games don't get bigger than the "We had a winning season so let's go to the Waffle House Bowl" Bowl. But Greg lived in San Antonio during his formative football years and attended UTSA. I have adapted due to lack of other options. They play basketball, too. Bring on the March Maddness brackets.

Strange Coincidence

I had notices today that two of my books were requested from Paperback Swap. Now that's not unusual, but I assumed they were both requested by the same person since both requests came through at the same time, both have been posted for a couple of months with no activity, and the books are both memoirs about Jews during the Holocaust.

Nope. They're going to two different states. How odd. I can only surmise that school is back in session and the Holocaust is a popular subject for lit classes this semester. Perhaps some of my other lit books will find a home as reading lists are passed out in classrooms this week!

I might add that I've read more good books since joining PBS than I've read in the past few years. It's like a dormant seed sprouting in my brain or being stranded for a week with no food and stumbling up on a seafood buffet. I've missed reading good stuff. I need to post about some of them.

Backwards

Considering how horrible I felt yesterday, I feel really good this morning. Which just ticks me off. I had plans yesterday. All kinds of things I was going to get done. Vacuum the floors, clean the bathrooms, clean the kitchen, take down the Christmas decorations, wash the "weird" laundry (pillows and blankets and such), maybe even bake some bread for fun. Instead I spent my day off curled up in bed with the blanket over my head to block out the light and so I couldn't see all the things I needed to be doing.

Today, I feel like doing all those things. Even woke up early without a fight and have all kinds of energy. As I was getting dressed I kept thinking about how much I wanted to tackle the bathrooms, clean the floors. Instead, I'm about to go to work early, where I have to go to a meeting first thing that's also going to tick me off and likely ruin the rest of my day. A day I would rather spend being productive around the house. It's just... wrong.

Make It Stop

If today was any indication of what to expect from this new year, I'd like to request that I either skip it altogether or somebody shoot me now.

I'm going back to bed. I've only been out of it for very short bursts 3 times today. And I need to go in to work early tomorrow to get ready for an 8am meeting. I only hope my headache will go away before then or else it's going to be the longest meeting ever.

For the record, the only things I had to drink last night were water and apple juice. So why have I felt like I've had the mother of all hangovers all day?