Photo update ..

So .. lately I've been getting out with my camera. Actually I have been doing it more frequently off and on for the past 2 months but I think lately I've finally made a breakthrough.

To explain ..

When I was going out for fall photos and so on, it was more like pulling photography teeth. I'd go out with a friend and they're snapping away and I'm standing there. .. thinking I see absolutely nothing here. .. then about an hour or so until the deal, if not longer, I finally see one or two things worth catching. But the whole time the world looks no different to me .. not like before.

The other day I went out and I hit that ceiling. Right off the bat something caught my eye. Then, like before, that first shot, which still lives on my hard drive, turned into something else .. and so on. Next thing you know I'm out for hours and still going .. and not wanting to go in because all of a sudden the street I've worked on since April now looks so different to me.

Since then I've been willingly taking my camera more often and sighing on the days that it's stayed at home. And moaning on the night the batteries were dead (hey, i'm out of practice and the last thing I think about are those batteries!). Now, I'm sitting here trying not to go out and almost miserable that I'm still sitting here.

And to top it off ... for a change I'm actually pulling photos off of my camera that I like, and it's not just one or two of them, it's most of them.

Finally .. a breakthrough .. I think.


At the same time I'm half beating myself over it because of all the times it should not be happening now. But that's another blog and probably not one I'm willing to rehash right now .. as it may do exactly what I think it will .. which is demotivate me.

On that note I'm going to stop writing and watch some TV for a while .. :o)

A Welcomed Break

So .. how nice is it that I now have a few weeks between semesters?

You have no idea..

I have made a list of chores that I want to do while I can, which includes upgrading the memory on this laptop. I am also intending on both taking more photos and going through the thousands of photos on my hard drive that are wasting away.

So many things, so little time...

Ok ..well I completely screwed my sleep schedule up starting Thursday and through last night.I'm attempting tonight to bring harmony back into play before the alarm clock goes off in the morning.

My Work on the Internet .. :o)

I used to save links of websites that my work was posted on, but I've stopped doing that. Well, I'm going to start doing that again, because just now I actually needed something that I've worked on and I knew exactly where it was.

I'll update this as I run across them.

Work for MSD's CSO Long Term Control Plan (which is about 40 hours of my work week, if not more):

1. Power Point Presentation from one of the Stakeholder's meetings. Granted it's not as pretty in it's PDFed form, but I primarily worked on most of the graphics for this one. It's a big file though.
2. Here's another Power Point, although they aren't as nice when PDF'ed out.

Finicky Internet and Needing a Sugar Fix

Apparently my nighttime surfing choices are limited, and it's driving me crazy. You know the person who clicks 'refresh' over and over and over again, like someone with some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder? Well I was turning into that person there for a minute. Like watching paint dry, I was waiting for my internet to just start magically working ..

Just my week...

So, I had my last test in my Surface Water Quality Modeling class today. Painful but over with. Now I have a term project remaining, with it's data neatly stored online, as I was assuming that Bellsouth was going to cooperate tonight.

In addition, I have a second term project for my Transportation Modeling class due in 3 days, whose data is also sitting neatly on said internet. Grrrr ... and I am actually trying for once to do the right thing!!


My web surfing choices are apparently the following:

• Flickr - loads amazing fast (is it a Yahoo conspiracy??)
• Blogger - hence why I'm writing
• Geocaching - just a snippet here and snippet there .. not enough to find anything interesting and just enough to tick me off
• Google every once in a while (Google haters ... must be stopped!!!)
  
• .....

... that's it .. grrrrr. If they're going to kill my internet, at least give me something to shop online at or something... I'm on another gadget kick, oh geez, and so I'm currently resisting two things although that does not stop me from window shopping and dreaming.

It's been, oh, two and a half hours now with no feed .. a feed that I need for these stupid classes (ok .. teachers, not that you'll ever read this, but the eclasses aren't stupid at all, they're wonderfully engaging and have great practical applications .. LMAO .. ok over the top but I actually like the classes, minding the extensive virtual sucking up). I actually took a 30 minute eye closing break in hopes that my computer would feel sympathy for me, but apparently not.

It's 9:30 ish and I guess I officially give up.


All the while Starbucks, and something sweet, are calling my name.

• I need to lay off the Starbucks, I'm dreaming of it now, or at least I may as well... I would sleep like a baby, assuming I was only dreaming and not still containing it in my system.
  
• I had ONE, count 'em, ONE mint at work today, and it was the first one in probably a month or two. That ONE little 'harmless' mint was evil, setting off my annoying sweet tooth. OMG .. I'm just dying here. I could slap my father and on up the line for doing this to me.... Besides, don't ask me why Starbucks doesn't qualify as feeding the sweet tooth .. I don't get it myself, but I don't complain when it doesn't set it in motion like it is now ..

So, here I am... I'm sitting here OCD'ing over the internet, thinking of Starbucks, and looking for anything sweet in my house.

Knowing that I inherit a long and deep sweet tooth there is literally nothing sweet in my house besides the necessities. Nothing. It's been like that for about 6 years because I'd just eat it all and make the sweet tooth even worse. So, I'm mentally fighting myself to try and not go to Starbucks and at the same time not go do something just stupid like eat a bowl full of sugar.

Ha ha ha .. that would be pretty pathetic, eh?!

Luckily there is one thing that trumps my sweet tooth ... my laziness. So, no going to Starbucks as it means I'd have to get up, put some pants on, put my few things out of reach from the dogs (give them 2 minutes alone in the house and you can't imagine what they won't chew up on me .. ), walk across to the back of the house, into my car in the dang cold, and down that whole 1/2 mile to the local coffee fix. Then I have to drive all the way back (because it's just so far ..), come back in, let the dogs out (I'm not allowed in if they can't go out), not get comfortable until I let them back in, then go through the whole process of getting back into my jammies and thawing myself back out.

That's just too much work!

Plus, I'm recalling how I actually did that last night, with the intent of pulling a late night study session, .. which turned into me getting a Venti at 8:45PM and being up all dang night long because of it. Just madness.



Well, seeing as I almost caved and went to Starbucks .. I'll just have to continue with the goal of making this my longest blog yet, or something along those lines.

OMG you say? But Christina your blogs are horribly long and painfully rambling .. how can they possibly get any longer?

So the funniest thing is this .. except for me rambling in this blog, I am actually making an attempt to do what I like to call .. shut the F up .. ha ha. Yea, and don't substitute in the bad word because I say it in the 'better rated' version that you are reading here. When I'm talking and writing to people, I'm putting my foot down to myself, and telling myself to not tell everyone and every detail, whether in person or in email. So for the people who think that I don't tell them enough .. well I'm going to start telling you less. I just have a tendency, on occasion, to talk too much, and I consistently talk too darn much in emails and well ... it needs to stop!!



Ok .. now I'm bored... I rarely watch TV now, outside of a few shows, so I guess it's a good excuse to work on homework .. dangit. Either way I'm thinking of just going to bed so I don't have to sit here all miserable.


Oh wait .. one more note. So I was contacted again by Publishers International today. They are using one of my photos in the book seen below (click on the photo to direct you to my flickr page and ultimately the photo in use)...





Now they've sent the paperwork, which I've already returned, asking to use the photo again in another book, something like Amazing Places in North America (probably a similar book, but more adult oriented activities I'm guessing). I'll get paid for the usage again and will also get a copy of the new book as well .. :o)

I think this will be the 4th or 5th book that I'll have photos in, but at least 4 (I have to pull my list to find out .. which also needs a stable internet connection!!). Those books, a handful of websites, a couple of calendars, a future annual report publication, and a few other random details.

Pretty interesting and I honestly love seeing photos that I've taken being put to use other than on my website, but I just wish I had more time to do something more with it. However, I'm hoping to go through the thousands of photos rotting on my hard drive between semesters and also try and do something more than I'm doing now.

Hello ..

I've meant to re-surface sooner, but it's been hectic. So, just to jot some notes down...

(1) They finally found out a major part of what's going on with me, health-wise. It doesn't explain everything, but it's something. It's not something that's going to go away though, so I'm kinda ticked about that.

(2) My foster, Trixie, had surgery 2 weeks ago. She had a mass on her chest and so they removed that and two of her breasts as well. They sent the mass off to test for cancer. I take her in to remove the stitches and drainage tube tomorrow, so I should hopefully find out then.

(3) I FINALLY got my second monitor at work. Unfortunately my computer's card only supported one monitor because if not I would have bought it myself and expensed it out. When it came in, I swear it felt like it was my birthday or something, I was probably entirely too happy to see it.

(4) Over Thanksgiving weekend, Lacy, my former foster, stayed with me. From Wednesday - Sunday I had 5 dogs in here, which could be tolerable except that my Archie and Nina, combined with Lacy meant for a psychotic extravaganza of overly-energetic dogs. Oh well, I still liked having her here, but my current foster, Trixie, hated it!

(5) Friday night my sister had another seizure while we were at my Mom's house. Granted I've experienced canine seizures, but this was such a terrifying experience. The EMS came and we ended up at the hospital until after 11 that night. She goes to the doctor tomorrow and they're going to do an EEG to see if they can find some answers as to what's going on. Until then, and even after that, we're all discussing anything and everything that we can do to both help her and also a plan in case it happens again.

(6) I was very good, or mostly good, over the weekend with all the sales going on. I did buy myself a GPS unit because I've been wanting one. I started out wanting just a basic one, nothing fancy, then I realized for only XX more it could speak street names. Then, a guy at Best Buy sold me on the next model up, as I can actually make and receive calls on the GPS unit (either from a listing in it or from my cell phone's phone book), and it came with the traffic receiver in case I wanted to get that one day. Finally, I found the same model on the internet, except it came with a different traffic service and instead of a 3 month trial, I get one year for it. .. Sucker .. yea I know. But ... I was good, because at that point I was thinking about spending another $150 on a different model that was basically the same thing, but different looking. I resisted, and trust me it was really hard to stand up to myself! Anyway, the unit came in and I've played with it, but I won't be able to do much until the weekend. I did however, give myself a purple car .. :o)

(7) Sometime in the past month or so I managed to find the time to wipe out both of my computers that I actively use and give them a fresh start. Now they run so much better .. it's crazy! At the same time, I FINALLY bought much needed memory for my laptop and am intending on installing that this weekend. I just pulled the directions and I knew that it would require me to take off the keyboard, so needless to say I'm not excited about getting into all of that ...

Ok .. I think my time has expired .. I have homework to get back to and the download just finished.

Why I am still single...

Ok ... I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to opening vent about a few things...

There are people who think that being single is a bad thing, because I guess it goes against what society expects of us all. Well .. I tell myself all the time that no wonder I'm still single. I refuse to compromise my personal happiness for a sub-par life.

So .. first of all, straight men are completely clueless when it comes to dealing with females. You'd think they would have learned by now, but no they have not a clue. If gay men would start liking women again, well I would have been married years ago. But, instead I have to deal with what I deal with all the time.

Here's the deal ... all females like male attention, in general. However, while we like the attention, if you let us know wrong, .. well you've just ruined it altogether. 9 times out of 10 when I get hit on it comes across so completely wrong that it just annoys the crap out of me. I'll give examples.

Did I write about the guy who asked me if I wanted to get dirty with him? I think so .. well that is example number 1. Example number 2 would be the guys in the elevator the other day. At first they're nice and we're talking as we're waiting for the elevator. Then the great conversation turns pig-headed when they ask me to marry them because I'm hot ... wow .. they're IQ just hit the floor in about 1.5 seconds. WTF?! Today was a guy who was hitting on me and using the analogy of me and a piece of candy .. OMG did that just come out of a grown man's mouth???

No point in mentioning more, but trust me I have more stories as of late than anything .. I think the lonely horny men have come out of hibernation now because I have been wearing oversized sweatshirts, hats, and baggy pants in a failed attempt to get the pervs to leave me alone. I thought it was bad when I was younger but I honestly think it happens more now than before .. is someone trying to torture me?!



So .. what's wrong with hitting on females? Well nothing if it's done right. In my case, while I like to be looked at, I HATE it when that's the only thing people notice about me, because I know there's more to me than that. Granted you can't find that out unless you talk to someone but these guys kill it before it even gets to that point. But it's insulting to me because I have worked so hard to be where I'm at, yet I still get looked at for face value.

Here's a good example. There's a guy who works at Starbucks that I always see. The first time I met him, when I pulled up to the window he was asking about my day, if anything fun was happening, etc. We then get into school, and sports, and so on from there. A 3 minute conversation, but at the end of it I felt great because this guy was actually interested, cared, and we actually had a conversation, which almost never happens.

Maybe that's the problem .. most people don't care to dig deeper, unless they have instant validation that it's worth it. It's always small talk, from the start and for an indefinite amount of time.

Why is it that we meet people and we either want all or nothing with them? Why don't we meet people and talk to them hoping for friendship at the least? What's wrong with getting personal?




Along the same lines, maybe that's my problem .. I want to see the 'more' and when I can tell it's not right there from the start, I immediately kill any chances of it going anywhere. Which may be on target sometimes, but maybe every once in a while a good guy comes along and they behave that way not because of who they are, but because we tend to follow suit with the stereotypes. So maybe I'll attempt to be more open, trying to give people more of the benefit of the doubt.







On a different topic, I am getting completely annoyed with myself. Like above, I tend to "think" too much. Not just about that, but about everything. I think so much that I have to wear myself out at night so I can go to bed. That, on top of that fact that I've been (and still am) sick, it's wearing me out.

I had a 20 minute conversation the other day about something I've been thinking of. Granted I think it's a pretty interesting perspective / topic and I think the person agreed. However afterwards I stopped and thought to myself .. I cannot believe that I've put so much thought and effort into something so minute and taken for granted. I must be mad!!

So .. I have no idea how to stop thinking so much, but I'd love to figure out a way to do so. I don't take sleeping pills because I personally think they are unsafe, however that would probably help me at night... although again they're not an option for me.

Anyway I don't know what I'm going to do, but I think or hope that calming myself down, as far as thinking, may help me get better from whatever the heck is wrong with me. Maybe not, but I figure it's worth a try ...

Ok .. it may seem as if I'm completely breaking this blog off mid-conversation, and that's because I am .. I gotta go!

Been a Min...

So .. I've been having dizziness for months and months (and months) now. I have always assumed that it was just another 'side effect' from that damn wreck I was in. So, I go to the chiro a bit more often and just deal with the remaining aches and this dizziness.

Anyway, after almost passing out last week, it 'woke me up' to the fact that something is wrong, and I'm now trying to figure it out. So I went to my doctor last week and the other day I had an appointment with the cardiologist. My primary doctor ran a test on me that came out abnormal and so I'm going to the cardiologist first to make sure I'm ok in that department, and hopefully to rule that out as a possible cause.

Anyway, I guess I must have triggered a chain reaction with me, because ever since that day I have felt broken. My head is constantly hurting, I'm losing feeling in one arm or another leg. I feel all these problems now that were there before, but were something I could ignore. But .. I'm planning on staying on top of this until I finally find out what's wrong with me. In the meanwhile I feel like I've been sick for weeks and I'm still in that achy recovery stage .. it's really starting to take a toll on me... I can't fix my hair because my head is sore to the touch and it feels all achy and swollen (I use the crap excuse that my brain is outgrowing my head .. ha ha ha!). Again .. it's wearing me out ..

Enough of that ...

It is October 18th .. and I swear I need to turn my air back on. We had maybe a couple of cool days and now it's back to warm again .. it is soooooo old at this point. However, we have finally gotten more than a freak random rain. Well, ok so only 2 whopping days now of rain, but it may actually rain tomorrow too, but I'll admit that I am terrible at keeping up with the weather...

Here's something that i found in regards to the current drought in the local area:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/jkl/?n=drought_briefing

DROUGHT STATEMENT - - - NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY
1218 AM EDT FRI OCT 12 2007

...EXTREME DROUGHT CONTINUES IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY...
...SEVERE DROUGHT CONTINUES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA...

FOR THIS CALENDAR YEAR MUCH OF CENTRAL KENTUCKY IS RUNNING AT LEAST A FOOT BEHIND NORMAL FOR RAINFALL.

IN THE OCTOBER 9 ISSUANCE OF THE UNITED STATES DROUGHT MONITOR...EXTREME DROUGHT CONDITIONS WERE FOUND ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE OHIO RIVER. SEVERE DROUGHT WAS PREVALENT ACROSS SOUTHERN INDIANA.

AN OPEN BURN BAN IS IN EFFECT THROUGHOUT THE HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST. GOVERNOR FLETCHER HAS BANNED ALL OUTDOOR BURNING ACROSS THE ENTIRE STATE OF KENTUCKY.

LOW WATER LEVELS HAVE LED TO INCREASED ALGAE BLOOMS...ESPECIALLY IN THE KENTUCKY RIVER.
KENTUCKY RECEIVED A FEDERAL DISASTER DECLARATION FROM THE USDA...ALLOWING STRUGGLING FARMERS TO SEEK EMERGENCY LOANS.(WAVE TV)

LOUISVILLE REPORTED THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN OCTOBER IN THE CITY: 93 DEGREES.

AGRICULTURAL IMPACTS... AS OF OCTOBER 9...
82 PERCENT OF PASTURELAND IN KENTUCKY WAS POOR OR VERY POOR. 13 PERCENT OF THE TOBACCO CROP WAS RATED AS POOR OR VERY POOR AND WAS DRYING TOO FAST LOSING COLOR. ABOUT 90 PERCENT OF THE CORN HAD BEEN HARVESTED...COMPARED TO A NORMAL OF 73 PERCENT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR. 47 PERCENT OF THE SOYBEAN CROP WAS POOR OR VERY POOR...AND 34 PERCENT HAD BEEN HARVESTED. NORMAL IS 22 PERCENT. 95 PERCENT OF THE TOPSOIL MOISTURE WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT...AND 94 PERCENT OF THE SUBSOIL MOISTURE WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT ACROSS KENTUCKY.IN INDIANA 73 PERCENT OF THE TOPSOIL WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT...AND 73 PERCENT OF THE SUBSOIL WAS SHORT OR VERY SHORT. THE DRIEST SOILS WERE CONFINED TO THE SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE STATE.

Grrr ... second storm is about to come through .. needless to say I won't be able to watch Grey's until 1AM .. and my DSL is about to go out ...

.. to be continued ..

Lessons Learned

Ok .. so lately I've learned a few lessons. Nothing major, but I'll name and describe a few...

1.) If I get out of bed early Saturday and Sunday morning the weekend feels amazingly long. Wow .. I had no idea, but not that I just 'willingly' get up, so that is now becoming the time that I'm visiting the gym over the weekend. Downfall .. the long days tend to get me bored halfway through it, and I've been going to the stores buying trivial stuff out of boredom .. BAD!!

2.) You know that I'm working too long because on the day that I actually leave before 6, I look at the clock thinking it's 9pm or so and it's only 7pm .. I need to stop working so much.

3.) Just because it's not raining doesn't mean it's an excuse to slack off on chores. I have been HORRIBLE about not doing anything outside, because it hasn't been an absolute necessity .. my yard .. sucks right about now and now I'm too lazy to mess with it, but I'm going to follow #1 and try and get up early this weekend and be done with it. Plus, downfall, I have a drain in the back yard that I keep free of debris. With the lack of rain this summer / fall I've not worried about it so much. Well it rained last week and the ground is so dry that it become nothing but runoff .. the runoff traveled to the clogged drain, and into my basement .. yep .. lesson learned.

3.) I apparently ALWAYS compliment people too soon. So, when my sister is doing a good job, I like to tell her, because she typically gets nothing but criticism from the rest of the family. So, I tell her this weekend. Then the next day she does something that, once again, makes me regret complimenting her, because that one single action did more damage than the milestones she's made over the past couple of years. So .. I try to be nice and apparently I need to not do that again...

4.)Listen to something funny at work .. all of a sudden work is not so bad. It's been stressful at work lately, well over the past month or two. Anyway, thank you Dane Cook for making it more tolerable during those icky moments. I have been cracking up sitting at my desk constantly listening to him. Sadly though, I work in Cube World and I have a big mouth, so as much as I try not to laugh very loud, sometimes it happens .. but I think they're immune to it by now..

5.) Never assume that you've 'heard it all,' because you haven't. So I'm driving down the road the other day and another 'smooth' guy hits on me. First of all, how annoying. Second of all he is driving an old, over-sized pick-up covered in mud. Thirdly, he looks at me and asks 'Do you wanna go get dirty?" .. WTF?!?! Yes, I was on Dixie Highway, which is one place I NEVER go to .. so I should know better .. but come the F on .. idiot? So, I give him the standard polite brush off and then guess what he says ... "yea you don't look like the type that gets your hands dirty anyway." ... OMG ... now I was MAD MAD MAD about that! Obviously this guy did not know a thing about me, because of all the things people have said to me, I've never been placed in that girly or whatever category that he just tossed me in. My baby sister, yea she's a bit of a priss and a bit high maintenance as far as clothes, getting ready and all of that. The middle one is like me, we're your normal every day chics, but I'm personally more of a t-shirt and jeans person who takes like 10 minutes to get ready, and she doesn't wear t-shirts that often and it takes her a bit longer because she gets ready, where I just go. Ok .. anyway, at that point I decided that I needed to figure out how to politely ignore this guy, because I, of course, wanted to bite his head off. I was completely insulted. So low and behold, don't think that you have heard it all .. because you haven't.

Ok .. that's enough for now .. :o)

The War is Over!!!

Finally .. I can rest in peace!!

So .. I'm on the phone today, making plans, as I'm walking through the house to let the dogs in. As a habitual habit, I look towards the kitchen because of my previous battle, looking to see if the fleeing opponent has ever returned.

I let out that Holy Sh1t .. and of course he's back.

Here's the sad thing .. the second I said it, I hear the question.. what it is? Then when I say 'oh sh1t he's back' ... it's sad that I get the response something like .. oh that spider? ... Yea .. I apparently whined about that to everyone .. but dang I can't help it .. it's been a plague and obsession for me.

So .. Mr. Hidden who's been non-existent for a while now, apparently made himself a nice little hammock overnight and was taking a nap under the morning sun...

Being the paranoid psychotic and bug phobic person that I am .. I had left the bug spray out assuming that the rematch would eventually happen.

I grab the spray, sat the phone down, and let loose ... this time there was no half @ss spray or jumping girliness .. this guy was NOT getting away.

So .. he was on the left side of the window .. opposite of the time before. Being that the stove was too far, he immediately ran behind the blinds. Crap .. I can't keep doing this!! So .. I stare and can barely make out his shadow through the blinds ... So .. I slowly twist the blinds open .. then when I get it to where he's visible I give it one good twist and spray ..

and spray .. and spray .. and pick the phone back up .. and spray .. and spray .. OMG I think I let at least half of the can go on this guy .. he was completely white and Raid was DRIPPING off of him.

So while I'm reminded that he's not going to 'just drop dead on me,' I did not care .. I kept going on him ... I hosed down the blinds, the shelf under the blinds, and everything around it. Lucky though I'm an idiot and that damn window is STILL open .. so in this case it worked out good because that half can worth of fumes went out the window in the process.

Finally he slowed down, clung onto a blind and you could tell he was ending his road. So .. I watched a few minutes to make sure it was over before I left the house. Shouldn't I just put a cup over him just in case? .. heck no .. that would mean getting close to him and there's NO WAY I'm doing that any time soon!!

Now it's hours later ... hours later .. and he's dead body lies in my window still. While I've cleaned some of the damage from my obsessive hosing, I've yet to even get close to him .. because my chicken butt will let him sit there for a day or two in case he resurrects or something impossible like that ... or I may call in a favor to remove his vicious remains.

So .. the battle is over with .. FINALLY .. and while there's clean up to do and there was a horrid couple of embarrassing scenes, I can rest easy that he's now dead and .. no one else personally witnessed the rest of the story .. :o)

The thing that may keep my up now is the fact that Mr. Psycho lived in my house for a month or so, I'm guessing behind my stove .. so now I guess I'm going to going through my kitchen and house with a fine tooth comb in hopes that he did not leave children to carry on the war in his absence ... but I will admit .. I was entirely too chicken to seek him out and I am entirely too proud to call in for some help .. stubborn!!

Weekly Check in

While I've had this page open since 12, I've yet to write ... out of completely and utter shock and disgust...

OMG .. Can I slap Steve Kragthorpe? I am about to get in my car, drive to bring Petrino back to UofL, and send out a rescue party to find out WTF happened to our defense, because they have yet to show up .... Ok .. I'm just fuming, annoyed, and everything else. Enough of that...

Just like what the Cards are doing now, I did the same thing this morning, except instead of throwing around garbage at Papa John's I was picking up garbage along Beargrass Creek for a couple of hours earlier this morning. MSD sponsors / encourages group cleanup of the creek at certain times and so I thought that I would contribute something back to creek, considering we all indirectly contribute to the pollution in the creek (runoff of car oils, road debris, etc when it rains as an example).


While I hate to wake up early, I wish I would do it more often because it makes the days ad my weekends feel so much longer, instead of sleeping it away and the next thing you know it's another dang Monday...

Watching dogs dream has to be the sweetest thing ever. In the moments that I'm calm, or trying to ignore the beating that 0-3 Syracuse is handing us, two of my dogs have gotten decently far into their doggy dreams ... it's so cute .. they do little whimper barks, their legs move a bit, the whole thing is so cute. I can just imagine that their dreaming that they're chasing a big cat down the street .. :o)

Work has been ... work. Between that and school, I'm running myself into the ground. My stress level has hit it's max and so now I'm trying to work myself into a compromise, meaning I'm going to try and work 40 and be done with it. In school my one teacher keeps talking about natural logs ... things I willingly forgot years ago .. so that whole process of re-teaching myself the math (that doesn't get used often in the real world) has not been pleasant.

While I've been making time for my personal life, I think I need to make room for more. Hopefully as I work out the kinks with my work / school schedule, I'll fix that too.

Ok .. I am just not in much of a mood anymore, thanks to the embarrassing display of football by a current top 25 team and probably 'former' BCS Championship contender. It's amazing .. 4 games and all of Petrino's work .. there is no evidence of it anymore..

Doggy number 3 now dreams .. :o)

Just a Quick Few Lines

Yes,

This will be brief .. I am hoping to be in bed before 1. The whole not sleeping .. yea it's really starting to catch up to me, so I have GOT TO try and change that. But .. I have two papers due this week, and two tests next week, so it won't be any time soon.

The weekend is never long enough and while most went to random details and common outtings, we did go somewhere different for a change. This weekend we went to see Anthony Cools out at Caesar's. I went out there to see him twice last year .. we went on a Saturday, turned around and bought tickets for that Sunday. This time, just as good, funny, hilarious, awesome. But he definitely does not hold anything back, so if you get offended at all, save your money. However if you have a sense of humor and don't mind the topics, he's worth seeing. I'll be going again next year.

As far as Caesar's, I literally only wanted to go out there, see the show, and leave, and that's what we did. Gambling .. never has done anything for me .. but I know people that borderline on having a problem, so I guess it's fun to some people. There are people that make the trip across the bridge a couple times a week, and I am sure that they're not the worst. As much as I don't personally like gambling, I don't know why it's not legal in KY so we can start keeping the tax money on our side of the bridge. Heck .. we have Churchill, why not add a casino.

Anyway, I went to Vegas in 2000 with an ex and literally did not gamble my money the whole week. We played Black Jack one night on his money, which is probably the only thing I'd consider playing, but after an hour or so I was done .. and that was all the nonsense I could tolerate!!

Ok .. I think my time is up .. gotta go!!

The Price to Pay for Getting Older ...

So .. as I've gotten older I've noticed soo many things changing. Not just physically, but emotionally, and everything else. It's amazing how things are so different now than they were before, but I think the hardest part is trying to deal with these changes, both the good and bad ones.

So now I'm 32... wow does that SUCK!! I cannot grasp that I'm actually that old or may be I don't want to. But, then again, I can't imagine being that same kid at 25... thinking back at the life I had, the things I did, and all the little details in between, we are two totally different people. Neither one was / is bad by any stretch of the imagination, just different. Different beliefs, different goals, and completely different paths. It's amazing how we are constantly evolving into our present self.And ten years from now I may even look back at my 32 year old self and say Wow as well.

1.) The biggest change I've noticed is that physically I'm not as up-to-speed as I was 5 or 6 years ago. I think it's amazing to think about, and probably a bit scary for me at the same time. There were a series of baby gates in my house in the past, to contain the kids while I'm at work. Before, I would fly over them as I was running late. Now .. it's one leg at a time. I don't know that I've completely adjusted to this, or accepted it. As things have slowed down I found it harder to stay ahead of the game, as far as my physical condition. So now, I've made the call to enroll in a gym, as a means of pushing it one step further in an effort to stay in shape and also to regain some of the agility that I had a few years back. So far I'm doing / feeling much better although I've yet to reattempt the gate hurdle .. :o) My middle sister recently hit the 30 milestone herself and is starting to notice the difference too. It's amazing but it's almost like an internal timer goes off. ... I hate it but what can you do?!

2.) As I've gotten older, I've become more and more bored with things. Which leads to me being more and more restless. Restless living where I live, restless in my spare time, restless in my own skin. Why? I don't know .. maybe because what was fun no longer is, maybe my priorities have changed. I don't know. I've noticed that I'm more prone to becoming obsessed with something, especially if that 'something' is the perfect way to kill time. However, it seems that the internet is not one of those things, and that probably has a lot to do with working in front of a monitor 5 days a week.

3.) My definitions of 'fun' has tremendously evolved ..

• I've long ago given up the bar scene, I remember going one time and thinking to myself how pathetic I must be to keep doing this. It was never fun and I hate the idea of being treated like a sex object. So I stopped going and I can't remember the last time I've willingly gone to a bar.
  
• On that token, at the same time I just decided to not drink anymore. Ok .. it's not that I'm against drinking or anything, but I just don't feel like ever doing it I guess. I guess at this stage in my life I lost sight of that fun that came with drinking.
• I've found fun more with the company of people and not so much with where we're at. I remember as a younger me it was more about where you were that night than anything else. So as long as you were there for new years, the rest of the story didn't matter. Nowadays I have found more fun driving around town, playing pool with friends, going bowling, or sitting in a coffee shop, than anything else. Because it's not fake in the least bit and I'm surrounded by everyone I want to be around, unlike how I perceive most things I've done in the past.

Ok ..I have a sick doggy that needs attending to so I should attempt to stop rambling. That is such a terrible thing for me, and funny enough, I'm not as talkative as I used to be in 'real' life, but I can ramble horribly on any sort of written media. Don't get me wrong, I talk with the best of them, but it's very much dependent on who I'm around, what we're doing, my mood, and so on. More often than not I stay more quiet than in the past .. I don't know why, maybe I got tired of hearing me talk so much!!



My last comment for the night is this ... I have a horrid obsession with my Nintendo DS Lite. Horrid!!!!!! I have a friend out in Seattle and a friend here in town that I play with on WiFi and it's amazing how many hours are wasted playing that .. and how often I'm charging the battery. I need another distraction or something I guess. I was hoping that school would help, but it's not helping in the least bit.

Again ... this goes back to my point above, in that I'm really bored right now and I think that this become my boredom fixer .. then became my obsession, because I'm a perfectionist and I have to have everything perfect on it.

So .. now I need a distraction to get me off of this thing. Well, basketball starts in a few months .. YAY .. but hopefully this won't still be going on as obsessively. But it's bad, and I know it's because I'm just bored and probably half reacting to getting older. I tend to panic around my birthday and I get into funks or something, so maybe this is a glitch that comes with that. Of course I've had the DS since January and while I've played it consistently, I've not gotten as bad as I am now. I think it's because of this darn game .. these Sims - type games just kill me ... and sadly I've pre-ordered MySims for the DS (I'm trying to resist getting the Wii version for right now) and I can't imagine how that's going to affect me trying to pry myself away from this little pink box!!

Just More Randomness ..

Ok .. here are my thoughts for the moment ..

1. So .. I was being a smart ass when I said that the spider in my kitchen was going to find me and bite me. Since then I have not seen him, so I don't know if he escaped, died somewhere in my house .. yuck, my cat finally chipped in her share and killed him, or he fell victim to one of the dogs. ... Or did I curse myself by mentioning it ... because I'll be darned if something did not bite the crap out of my leg!! Ok ... this is not an ordinary bug bite .. it's been here for 4 days now. The extent of it's redness is at least an inch in diameter and growing, and it itches like YOU HAVE NO IDEA!! Here's the worst part.... it is all the way at the top of my inner thigh!! ... Ok here is what I'm thinking:
1. How in the heck did something crawl up my leg and bite me there? (I'm guessing either when I was asleep or more than liking when I was out hiking and such the other day)
2. Why did it have to crawl all the up there and bite me (this things itches like none other and the first 30 minutes at work are like agony because I want to itch it sooo bad and I can't for the sake of not being looked at like a freak!!)
3. What bit me and when will it stop??? I can barely look at it because I remember how badly this thing itches. I'm so miserable and it's like punishment to put it in a spot where I can either 'releave my pain' and humiliate myself, or bite my teeth and make myself miserable. I have my pride ... Next time I'm keeping my mouth shut!!
2. I started school this week. Yay? NOT!! I started working on my Master's Degree back in 2004 and learned that at my last job it did not make a difference whether you had it or not. Now, at my new job, it does help. And besides, I invested time to get it halfway done, so why not get it over with? So .. I have 6 classes left, and am taking two classes, per semester, for the Fall, Spring, and Summer terms. In August I'll be graduating with both a Master's of Engineering Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering and also a Certificate in Environmental Engineering. What's the benefit of the certificate? Heck besides to write on my resume I don't really know, but I could get it as well by only switching out one class, which is one of the classes I'm taking now, so why not? Anyway, for this semester I'm taking a Transportation Planning class (what I did at my last job) and also a Surface Water Quality Modeling and Control class (what I do at my current job). So .. I'm hoping that means they'll be easy to get through.
   
3. On that note, one of the classes that I'm taking is an internet course and the other (the surface water class) is classroom taught. Here's the kicker .. the class is in the middle of the day. ... ... ... Why? ... ... ... I guess I'm thinking that people get their Bachelor's, get a job, then return for their Master's WHILE working. So why is the class at 1PM, right in the middle of such work day. And ... it's 3 days a week? That makes no sense!! So .. as a result, I won't be taking lunch anytime soon because on Mondays I'll be going to class, Tuesdays I'll be working through in order to make up the time, Wednesdays going to school, etc ... Plus on top of that I'll still have to make up the rest in order to get my 40 hours in. Next semester, both classes are during the day ... and I'm going to school every day. So ... there goes my life for the next year. But, my boss is completely supportive / encouraging / nudging my along, so he's perfectly aware / OK with this, obviously with the understanding that I get my 40 hours in.
   
4. Maggie's one year day passed this past Sunday. It was not a good day for me and I took time to say a prayer at the time that she passed. I had intentionally left the day wide open and even spent the bulk of the day out by myself just to have the breathing room. I cannot believe that it's been a whole year. It really does not feel like it's been that long. The sad thing is that I still see them and can still picture them existing in my life. I remember when my loved ones passed away in the past, I always got so upset because not too long after and I'd start to lose the details on their face. Not with these two.
   
5. Ok .. I'm so upset!! I bought my Nintendo DS Lite back in January I think, and it's that cute pink color. Guess what they just released??? A RED AND BLACK VERSION OF THE DS LITE!!!!! I am SOOOO jealous!! If I was dumber I'd be half tempted to sell mine and buy it ... but I'm not THAT dumb!! Anyway, my friend in Seattle told me about it and bought one the other day. .... so YAY .. now I have a DS friend to play games with. Yea ... loser .. I know!! But hey, don't know it until you try it!!
   
6. Here's a brief mention of something I could ramble on about forever. I hate those 'single person' phrases that people use. They make me want to kick someone. So, I talk to a coworker about how I'm having to go to school in the middle of the day. His response .. well it's not like you can't just come back in here and work all night since it's just you. Again .. I want to KICK those types of people. First of all .... IT IS 2007 ... Last I checked the WOMAN'S WORLD NO LONGER REVOLVED AROUND A MAN, GETTING MARRIED, AND 'MAKING BABIES.' Why is it that we've come so far in society, in general, only to have most people still 'think' the way they always have. I'm sorry, but just because I don't have your life, does not mean that my life is less important, less busy, less whatever. It's not anything less, it's just different, and different is not necessarily good or bad, but it sure as heck IS NOT LESS!!! My friend in Seattle just had someone make a single comment to her too the other day ... I always have the most sarcastic, bluntest, and just plan rude remarks to reply with, but instead I bite my lip and take a low blow without being too incredible bitchy. It's kinda like politely calling them out for being judgmental, hypocritical, and all that crap. Ok .. I could seriously vent and vent and vent, .. .. but I won't!!
7. On that note, I'm seriously rethinking this whole single girl thing, and thinking about growing up and settling down. Then maybe I'll find a man that will stand up to me and tell me not to work so dang much, and then maybe I'll have a reason not to work so much. Yea ... Ok .. probably not .. but maybe just a good excuse!! I have heard that the 'good man' has now been placed on the Endangered Species' list. I've been looking periodically for him for a while now, in hopes of finding one and saving it from extinction, but I think the numbers are dwindling every day so I have yet to even find one that was even close.
   

:o)

A Quick Recap

Ok .. lucky for whoever, I don't have a lot of time right now .. I just got home a while ago and I have laundry and chores to do before calling it a night!!

Here's a recap of the weekend ...

I left work at 4 on Friday, ran home to let the kids out, then Becky, Jen, Chris, and I headed to Cincy for the evening (my sisters and step brother). We went to see Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, Streetlight Manifesto, and Against All Authority.

Ok .. let me rephrase that ... my baby sister, as always, got completely shitfaced and, as always, forced us to conform our night to babysitting her. Needless to say, we only saw Streetlight Manifesto and Less Than Jake before packing a passed out drunk girl 2 blocks to the car.

Chris had his first experience being around a drunk person, because he's not necessarily young, but his father is a big guy in OVW wrestling, so Chris hangs out with them all the time and he's a pretty good guy in general. I think after Friday night he'll never drink because he was pretty traumatized. So .. he's a good size guy, he's about 6'4"-ish and manages to pack Jen about a block - block and a half. Since dead weight is MUCH worse than someone being conscious, me and him both packed her the rest of the way to the car.

Then, there was the ride home, which I'm not getting into, but needless to say my sister Becky was very upset about the whole experience.

Has their been an apology call since Friday night? Of course not. My sister Jen is one of the most self-centered, self involved people out there, and like my father, the word sorry, or any admission of guilt does not exist in her vocabulary. But, since she makes this a habit, after ruining the night for us this is not something that is going to just go away.

As you can tell I'm pretty sick of her doing that .. it's basically been going on for years now and she does this expecting other people to bail her out .. with their never being an apology the next day.


Anyway ... so we went to the Kentucky State Fair the next day. It was Becky, my Niece, Paula, Darren, their kids, Heather, Charlie, and their son. So .. while Paula takes photos as well, it's only when we're out and not when it's a family gathering. So while I packed the cameras around, they were barely used.

I think we were there from about 1pm - 8:30pm, because we HAD to be at GameStop before 9pm when they closed. My sister gave my niece $10 to spend on games (in addition to rides) so she'd no ahead of time that she was not allowed to just spend an obscene amound of money at the fair. My niece realized that instead of games she could use that money and get a game for her GBA, and so that's what she did. Smart kid.

Yea, real smart kid, she also conned me into buying Harvest Moon DS, which I haven't played much as it's just not catching my interest. But, I bought Animal Crossing and Rayman DS (which is OK but it was real cheap) the other day and i'm currently obsessed with Animal Crossing.

On that note, a quick detour ... I'm starting to SUCK with the DS and the Wii .. I'm playing the darn things all the time!! Now my friend Lele is getting a DS and so she's going to try and match some of my games so that we can play each other! She lives in Seattle so it will be fun to play with her on the DS since she's so far away.


Ok .. so today I went out to take photos .. I was all over Louisville today, from the far West End, to downtown, to the Southern part, then NorthEastern and to the East .. I wish I would have kept track of how many miles I drove!

So, I ran into someone while at the Nature Center who gave me great tips on good places to go to. With two of them being in Louisville, I went to them today... Wow .. I was amazed!! I now have new great spots to go to!!

In addition, while in these new spots I ended up meeting a guy that is apparently a future date. He seemed really cool and easy to get along with, but while I don't doubt people off the bat, I try no to think much past things I don't know about a person. So I guess I'll be hanging out with him this week or weekend and I'm curious how that goes. He walked with me for a while when I was taking pictures and so that's a good thing because he was pretty interested in general even though he lacked the camera in hand.

Well, that's all their is to report .. I have laundry to tend to.

On a side note, I'll be working some OT this week and in addition .. I'm back in school as of Monday ... AAAAAAWWWW!!! If I take 2 classes a semester I should be done with my Master's degree come the end of summer. While it's not required at my job, I'm going back for two reasons, (1) I've already invested in it so why not finish it, and (2) the career opportunities at my current employer are faster / better just by having that extra degree.

So it's final I guess ... sadly .. :o(

A Recovery Attempt

Ok .. so among the other events of this weekend I also made an attempt to recover from my photography slump.


I started out by driving out to Harrison County, Indiana, but I sadly just ended up looking at and pricing land. Any excuse to not be taking photos apparently. After that though I headed to a wild field that I had seen the day before, also in Indiana, and I ended up staying in this field for a good 30 - 45 minutes in the insane heat.

I completely justified, during that stop, why I wanted and why I bought the second DSLR. It was perfect because I leave my main lens fixed on the D50 and I used the macro lens on the D1X. I was switching back and forth so much that I had to keep stopping so I could untangle the straps from around my neck! So now I feel even better about buying it, but I still can't adjust the settings on it as easily as I can on the D50 and I'm guessing that is because of the lack of practice. However, I think that I'm going to start routinely packing and using both cameras in a manner as I did yesterday because that seemed to be perfect.

Anyway, before heading to my Dad's I went to those two places, and then some open areas near the new Hurstbourne connection. After leaving his house I made my way into downtown Louisville for an hour or so, primarily along Waterfront Park and Main Street.

In the process of going home I was reminded about the Perseid Meteor shower, which peaked late last night. Apparently I had gotten a real bug up my tail because I ended up calling a friend and at 1AM we headed to Cherokee Park to watch the 'show.'

Yes, we LEFT at 1AM knowing that I had to be at work by 8AM.

I was expecting it to be quiet and unoccupied, but we were completely amazed. Cars lined the entire area area around Dog Hill where people were also set up to watch the meteor shower. There were probably 30+ people there when we first got there but as the next hour progressed, getting closer to the peak of the shower, we ended up having to move to another area because the headlights coming up the hill were consistent and 5 or 6 a minute. It was amazing that so many people knew about / were interested in the event.

We were there until around 3AM before we decided to pack up and head home. We did play with our cameras while out there, but the amount of light pollution at Cherokee Park was so incredible that there was a small section of the sky that was clear and not as polluted. I'm going to guess that 85% of the sky suffered extreme light pollution, but because of the time restraint we chose to stay close. Even considering the pollution we were lucky enough to witness many amazing sights in the night sky. However because of the excessive light the long exposures were not as successful because it meant less time that we could leave the shutters open.

Needless to say I did not get to bed until about 4AM and I had to pull and pull to get myself out of bed this morning. I came home and took a nice nap and we're actually considering going back out again tonight, although a bit earlier and this time up into Indiana where the light pollution is to the South and opposite to the area that the meteors are more likely to appear.

Well, that is it for the moment, but I'll try and update more later :o)

Woman VS. Spider

Ok .. so I just made myself a big ole' mess I think.

Here's a sad story. I don't cook that often so my kitchen is more of a hallway than anything else because I don't keep much food in the house either, or at least anything that requires more than a couple of minutes in the microwave.

Because of that, I have the tendency to walk through the room a 30 times a day and not see the first thing in there besides the sink, to fill the dogs water up.

Ok .. two nights ago I'm in the kitchen and I look over in the corner of the cabinets and I see a spider web... aaaww!! Well, my theory is that I don't want to destroy the web, but I want to destroy the spider, because if I knock out the web, the spider will set up shop somewhere else in my house.

So, I have been checking and checking to see the spider. Finally, last night I get a glimpse of it .. the damn thing is about a half inch or more long!! I about died because I'm expecting a little spider and not a BEAST!!

So .. I shudder, then walk into the other room to fetch myself a shoe. I come back and it's gone. Well now that I know how big it is, there is no way I'm noseying around looking for it. I have this fear from the movie Arachnophobia that the darn thing is going to jump at me and bite my hand. So, I leave for the evening and decide to look again when I get home.

I come home that night and there it is, in the same spot. I pick up the shoe and smack down at it. Missed bigger than life and away the spider ran. Well, crap!!

So today I look and of course it's sleeping, dreaming of ways to bite me (thank goodness my room is on the other side of the house!). I leave for the day and come home this evening to see him resting in his usual spot.

Well, I've had enough of this jerk sitting in my house taking up residency and not paying rent. So I check under the cabinet and oddly enough there's a bottle of Raid down there. Lucky for me, it mentions spiders on the bag of it. I practice spraying it just to be sure it actually works. It does. Then, I aim and spray...

Off he ran so I have no idea whether I hit him or not.

Now I'm mad, so I start moving things around (with my hands fully covered of course) because I want to find a spray him, but in the back of my mind I'm guessing that he's ran behind the stove. Of course I can't find him, so I get mad, grab the bottle of spray and start hosing everything down with it.

About 30 seconds later I stopped. Ok ... hello stupid.

Now I've not only drove him away to another unknown part of the house, but now I've hosed down my counter top and some counter top utensils with bug spray. Idiot!! Of course, knowing the mad spider is still in the vicinity there is no way I'm cleaning that up right now. I guess I'll give him a day to pack up and move (with my luck into my room) and then clean the mess that I made.

So he's making a complete mockery of me, but I don't know what I'm going to do to get this monster out of my house. He's too fast and I'll be darned if I swallow my pride and ask for back up. I'm hoping I sprayed him enough that he'll just go die somewhere or maybe he'll leave out of whatever avenue he got inside my house (I'm assuming that he came in from the window nearby that the idiot owner leaves open 24/7 - the screens down of course but I'm sure it's not bug proof). Or ... what about my cat .. isn't that supposed to be her area? She may need to be wrote up or something because she's not doing her job!!

Anyway, I've been in my house for over 6 years now and I've never actually seen spiders, or much of anything in my house, maybe because of the animals but who knows. So I guess this 10 foot long spider is to make up for the years of peace I've had. If that's the case, hopefully I'll find it soon, kill it, and go back to a bug-free life.

Please?! .. :o)

A Three Month Update

It's amazing what a little bit of sleep can do for a person's mood .. I had no idea!! I feel like a new girl .. well a new old person .. hahaha!!

So .. oddly enough, my sister FINALLY got to go home tonight. In a nutshell all they were doing was keeping her in the hospital medicating her and so they decided that she could do the same thing at home. Plus, I'm betting if I wanted to get better and I was her, it would be easier to do in my condo, in the presence of my hubby and dogs.

So .. of course it was the perfect reason to come home and go straight to bed!! It's a great thing that I went to the gym this morning because I had nothing else planned besides going to the hospital and another load of laundry (which is running now).


So .. I feel great .. all that tension from coworker seems non-existent, Granted the problems still need to be solved, but I enjoy the 98% of my life that is stress - free. That build up of no sleep, no time, coworker screw up, ... is not fun to get stressed over. I guess if I can contain it until I can 'release' it, then it's not worth doing otherwise, but of course sometimes that's probably hard to near impossible. Blah blah, right? Dang can this chic run her mouth, eh?!




Aside from my throwing random photos up on my flickr page, I have not had time to look around Not at work, not at home. Being in my horrid horrid photo slump I decided to look through my own stream for a change, in a desperate attempt to inspire myself since I have yet to find it any other way. In the process I come across this photo:

which leads me to the corresponding blog by yours truly.

So .. it's been about three months, maybe it's a sign that I need to regroup and see how I'm doing on everything I want to. Yea, I know, I should have posted goals or something, but seriously I ramble too much as it is ... I'm guessing it's a blessing in disguise :o)

Well maybe I'll set some now so I can kick myself in three more months.


Overall Goals (I may add to this as I think of more):

1. Get in shape. By saying this my intention was never to go on a diet and lost weight. Instead I want to (A) eat much better than I was eating in May and (B) get myself into a habit of going to the gym in order to get in shape and stay somewhat ahead of this whole aging game.

2. Start making an attempt to open up to people. This has to be one of my biggest flaws I think. At first, when I started doing it I enjoyed the privacy and the comfort in knowing that is a personal crisis I could hold it together pretty well. Then, it became a pride thing and when people would start to bring up the topic of my personal life, I'd get all uncomfortable and such. My goal is to try and start chipping down that wall and see what's behind it. I've written off a lot of things that were once personal goals because I thought that I had evolved into a person with different wants and needs, but before I commit to that I just want to be sure. Plus, this whole closed up think can't be that healthy.

3. Finish my Master's Degree. I am dreading going back to school. I have this theory that why do I need it when I have the job and am getting paid pretty well. But my company wants me to have it and the progression scale is a bit faster with one in my back pocket. Also, I am eligible to test for my PE (professional engineer's license) next year so this may be a good way to prep for that.

4. Stop being so lazy when it comes to my house. If I could I'd hire a maid, a cook, and gardener, you name it. I hate doing chores!

5. Find peace in regards to some of my personal demons and work on feeling better about me. Ok this is vague but I can't really be too specific without boring someone, including myself. We all have loose ends, quirks, bad habits, etc. and I just wanted to clean some of them up.

6. Become more committed to things. I'm bad about letting things slide that aren't a super priority to me. Here's a good example .. my yard. I could cut it one weekend so that it stays nice, short, and clean looking, but it's not that tall so why not wait another day or two. Then, it's the middle of the week, 6 in the evening, hot as sin, and I'm outside killing myself because I can't commit to cutting the yard consistently. Stop doing that!!!!!!!!



Ok .. I'll add more later.



How am I doing??

1. Get in shape. So far I'm running with this goal... literally. I had about a week slump where I only went once that week, but outside of that it's been consistent. I hired a trainer to make sure that when I try and quit going to the gym I have a reason to keep. Granted it's not the cheapest thing in the world, but at my 'weak' moment that is probably exactly what kept me from bailing. So at least I'm not paying for a membership that I don't use! I'm now going to start going to the gym in the morning before work to see if I can handle that. After today, having this whole evening open is really something I could get used to. I am also walking / running on alternate days during my lunch, when everyone is healthy and when it's 101 degrees outside. So far I've made milestones, but I still have more I want to do.

2. Start making an attempt to open up to people. Probably not doing so good here. I have started talking to friends that I'm comfortable with, so give me some credit for that. I've become more honest with myself and things that are going on instead of just pushing them off. That's been interesting as I've learned things about myself and my friends that I never saw before. Still .. I pretty much suck at this. I guess I open up to people on a case by case basis, but for me, it's easier to open to a 'new' person because they don't already know everything about me and it's nice to build on a clean slate. It's hard to go backward without hitting a bunch of bumps along the way.

3. Finish my Master's Degree. This has been on my work calendar as a reminder for a month now, but I have at least talked to my boss about the tuition reimbursement. However that is not going to get me enrolled so I need to get on this. If not, I pretty much have to wait another year in order to get back into the class rotation.

4. Stop being so lazy when it comes to my house. Yep .. I suck at this. However, I find a boy down the street that wants to cut my grass for me whenever the temperature cools down and we get out of this drought :o) .. so even though I'm not doing it myself, I'm getting it taken care of. I don't know if I'll even cook in my house .. it's not worth cooking for one, but I need to work on my house so that I can one day sell it and move elsewhere. We'll check back in a few more months and see how hard I need to kick myself over this one.

5. Find peace in regards to some of my personal demons and work on feeling better about me. I've done a few things here ... I've started spending more time with the people that I feel better around and have more fun with. I guess they're closer friends anyway for that reason. Also I have revisited with friends and exes of the past to see how they're doing. There are people that were in my life in the past that I care about and like to stay in touch with. I've gotten in touch with quite a few of them actually, which has been good for the most part. The hard part is revisiting the exes and saying no when they try and start something again. That I've had to do a few times now but it's nice to know they're still interested. I've been sucking at making more time for me, but I think that will only change when I have reason enough to put my foot down, as far as I have something else that is a priority or I hit my breaking point in starving myself for some 'me' time.


6. Become more committed to things. I am not doing so good here either and I think that started out with easy commitments is what will give me the courage to commit on a more serious level. I'm committed to the easy things that require little extended effort on my part, my job, the dogs, IMPS which is the rescue I work with the most, my family, trying to further develop my career. However, I am dodging all the big things, or at least those 'bigger' steps that I really want and need to take. However, I am pretty committed to not only the gym but getting in shape on my own (as I'm running on my lunch hour) so I guess that's something in itself, right?


So .. in three months, I've made progress in some areas and I'm still sucking in others. While it sucks exercising so much I enjoy the feeling afterwards and I like seeing the results slowly appear. I think that as that progresses further the rest will probably fall into place or at least make progress in that direction, because I'm guessing my mood will improve even more so that things will be easier to get into.


I need to add a new goal .. quit rambling so dang much!!

A Rough Week / Month / Whatever

Ok .. here's my gripe of the day... get ready.

First, let me prelude this by emphasizing how terrible of a couple of weeks that I've been having. My sister, Jen, has been in the hospital for a week now so I've been visiting her every night about 4 hours or longer. I've been working my tail off on these two projects and it's wearing me down quickly. I haven't been getting any sleep because of the two above and I'm sadly, slowly adjusting to life on little sleep, which does not feel good. I've been working through lunch most days just trying to make room for everything in my life, so I haven't been eating as much or as often, and with the lack of sleep it's making me eat even less; that is killing me because that is the LAST goal I have in life and it's completely defeating the purpose of me going to the gym trying to build muscle and tone up. Then, as far as work goes, we have a 'leash' on our computers that I HATE WITH THE PASSION!! I need things and can do so much more but I have to ask permission, when I am supposed to be a working professional... OMG is that a BAD subject to bring up with me, especially after you read my latest tragedy below.


Ok ... so I work primarily on a hydraulic modeling project. We're updating the existing model, and at the same time we're converting it from a program called XPSWMM, through GIS, and into a program called InfoWorks. It sounds all complicated and that's probably because it is. Sooo many things that we have to do, and we've barely started it seems. Anyway ... in the process we have a coworker digitize for us these drainage areas, which are as they read, areas that are drawn throughout the county that are assumed to collect drainage towards a centralized point. Anyway, unimportant details. So, he draws them in, thousands of them, and assigns to them the data that we ask him to that he knows enough about to do. After that, I've been sitting here off and on for days now going through his work, making sure it all adds up, and if not, I'm fixing it and where data is missing, I'm filling it in.

Easy enough, right?

Ok .. so this 'genius' knows that I'm working / editting this shapefile, and I have been for days now. But, he decides that he's going to work on the project and he's going to edit the file as well, without asking us and without even telling us. So, he opens up an instance of it, before I start editting it, and he's making changes all day long. Remember that he did not bother to tell us what he was doing.

So .. I leave at 4 so I can go home and let the dogs out before going to the gym. After 4, he, of course, saves the file ..... completely overwrites the 8 hours worth of work that I just did. Since this happened in the middle of a work day retrieving a back up is of course not an option.

Lucky for him he called in sick yesterday because I wanted to kill him. I still want to kick him real real real real real real real real hard .. you get the point there but man I got caught up in the moment writing those out! But I resist and instead I have been sitting here, holding it in, trying to do the right thing and not let it get to me. So far so good because most people are completely unaware, but that's also why I'm having to write this now so I get it off my chest for the fifteenth time.

So anyway, after he completely wasted my time I've been since looking for a solution where I can basically put a childproof container on what he can 'screw up' in the future. Having a program called ArcInfo I 'would' have the ability to give user permissions through a virtual server, but this is where it gets even more annoying .. I don't have permission on my work computer to install this FREE Microsoft program. So, what NEEDS to happen ASAP, won't. WTF?

Here's my thing .. when the company loses money because they wouldn't give me the resources to protect the integrity of our data, whose fault is it going to be? Sure as heck not mine... but still, I care too much about my job and the work I put out to not get bothered when I can't do something that is important to the work we're doing, or for that matter when I can't do my job.

Ok .. can you tell I'm having a lovely week or two, or ten?

So, until we can get this resolved, we're making backup copies as a precautionary method, and I HATE having redundant GIS files .. because one day someone grabs the wrong file and changes it, then someone else changes the other one ... Now we have two files that are both correct yet both incorrect. Then, I have to clean up the mess that I did not make to begin with .. grr!

This is where / why I get anal about duplicates, structures, procedures, documentation, you name it, because it's soooo easy to short cut things and take the easy route. However, once you've been on the receiving end, you make sure that it does not happen again because those 2 extra steps can save a huge headache down the road.

Anyway, I feel like throwing my computer out the window (or maybe at my coworker), bringing my own computer in here, and actually being able to do my job with hoop jumping all the time and asking IT permission to sneeze. I go through this installation mess all the time and it gets OLD. OLD!!!!!! It is the one and only thing that I HATE about where I work. The rest is great .. IT and their God complex, I HATE!

There are a couple of decent people in IT and I hope that one of them comes through for me and helps me do this. He's a former GIS person so he can emphasize with my drama here. If not, I don't know what we're going to do because now I can't just trust that he'll not screw it up or that he'll even use that thing they call comminication!!



So .. granted the incident from the other day made me mad .. I wish I would have known he was going to waste my time, because I would have taken advantage and just stayed home. But it's the combination of me being supremely tired, not having time to eat a 'decent meal,' being sore from going to the gym and from running so much, hating this leash on my computer, my sister being in the hospital not getting an ounce better than she was when she went in, me running around like absolute madness, etc ... you get the point. It's been a rough time for me and I am desperate for the days to increase to 36 hours .. soon! If not, I need some serious R&R .. please?!? I may cancel my entire weekend worth of running around and trying to get caught up on everything else, and instead opt to be absolutely worthless, in hopes that it will help me destress. If not, I think I'm going to be beating on my punching bag at home a bit more often because I have to get the stress out of my thoughts before it develops into physical stress and I get all moody and hostile... and actually give my work computer a toss after all!!

Ok .. I'm leaving work. I stayed late intentionally to gripe, because I don't want to take it out of the office with me either... hopefully tomorrow I will have forgotten again ... :o)

Am I Crazy??

Let's see, it's 11:48 and counting .. and I'm still up. That's not so bad except let's see .. I slept 2.5 hours Sunday night, 4 hours last night, and I have to get up at 5AM this coming morning so I can get to the gym by 5:30. ..

Not smart ...

And .. I still have laundry to do.

What an idiot!!!

To add to it, it's almost midnight and the outside temperature is STILL 95 degrees .. madness!

Things That I'm Really Bad At

Ok .. first a prelude...

This month I will be turning even older than dirt, which I am right now .. sigh .. and as a celebration towards that HORRID day, I've decided to take note of different things :oO

I shall add to this as I think of things .. but why not start on a good note .. ha ha

This is my attempt to unwind from the gym before heading back up to the hospital for the evening.




Things That I'm Really Bad At (in no particular order):

1. I am horrible at keeping any sort of an internet based commitment. .. LOL I may as well start out with one that hits close to home. I was actually pretty good about flickr until my current photography slump and hectic lifestyle. Other than that I am the queen of having 4,000,000 web sites that I can't keep up with consistently. Why not shut them down you ask? Well, that requires effort, which leads me to...

2. I have got to be the laziest person ever born!!! I was talking to my brother-in-law the other day about school and I begin to rehash the extent of my laziness. When I can get away with it I will do as little as possible, if anything at all. I sleep until 5 minutes past the absolute last second then I find myself running out the door in order to get to work on time. I'm now even worse as I'm putting my makeup on (what little I wear) in the car while I'm driving (yea that's real safe!). If I could get away with it I bet I'd sleep all day and all night on some days .. not because I'm sick but because I'm sooooo lazy!!! I save all my errands up and do them all at the same time, not because I'm being considerate of the environment, but because I'm lazy!! I did not sell my house last year like I planned on because I was too lazy to get it ready, pack up, and move... I just want to sell it as is and just start over, if that means I don't have to do any work!! I will write VB scripts and create macros for every possible thing I can not because I'm trying to be efficient, .. you get the point?!

3. I think I'm an absolute contradiction of myself. Ok this is better suited as being a list:

• I am so unbelievably lazy yet I work my tail off at the gym, running when it's 90 degrees out, etc.
• I am anally, psychotically, habitually organized at work, yet my home is organized so that only I can understand it ... OK I'll partly blame this on the fact that I need to move, but still it's true!
• My friends are open to me and talk about the problems to me, yet I stay closed up pretty tightly. OK .. this is a personality quirk I guess, but I just like keeping my feelings private.
  
• There are times when I won't shut up for the life of me and then other times where I won't say word. Am I introverted or extroverted ... make up your mind crazy red head?!!!
  
• I was a TERRIBLE student in college yet I'm considering trying to teach there. If I could get away with getting an A and only showing up 1/4 of the time, you can guarantee I did it. If I could get away with it, I did not go to class. I'm one of those people who suck at internet or independent courses!! Now, I'm considering trying to teach on a post high school level ... WTF! Well, to my defense, if the subjects in college were actually more interesting, I may have gone more often ... may be the key word here.
• I HATE typos, but I am the queen of typos!! We have internal messaging at work between all the offices and I am on there talking to this person or that person. I must send a typo in every other message. Then I sent it and I want to kick myself. Of course after that, I have to re-type the word correctly, as if they did not know what I meant to put. But the whole concept of me and my typos is sooo annoying!! Here are some typos I'm 'famous' for: jsut, gonig,
  
• Ok .. I'll add more lately .. I feel that I could turn this one things into a HUGE ramble, which leads to ...
  

4. Can I talk or what? It drives me crazy, but I can't just email with one line .. it's gotta be a darn book! I spend 20 minutes writing these novels to people. Whether it's me explaining something in GIS step by step (by step) to another person, or me just talking about gossip in email ... they all turn into complete novels. I apologize in emails constantly for not shutting up because I feel so bad to the people who are dumb enough to read them! I email my former coworker, Ram, all the time explaining how to do this, that, and the other in GIS and I always apologize and he makes a joke back saying he enjoys reading my novels. Novels ... yea Ram has a catalogue of them by now!

5. I suck at the whole dress code concept. Oh yea, I really really suck at this one!! Here's the BEST example ... sometime last summer I started my seasonal routine of wearing flip flops 24/7. Come fall it did not quite cool down enough so I just kept wearing them. Winter? Every day but one I think. Now, yep still every day. So at first I would wear them to work and change shoes when I got there. When I realized that while I was chained to my desk no one would notice either way, I stopped doing that so much. Now I walk in wearing them, walk around wearing them, and leave with them on still. However, just in case a visitor comes in I have three pair of shoes under my desk... :) Here's the deal .. I hate socks and I hate having sweaty feet, and I love flip flops, so even all of my dress shoes are basically flip flops on heels. Oh .. and I have somehow convinced myself that every UofL game day is permission to wear a UofL shirt to work. I did it at Corradino and I'm guessing I'll try and pull that one off at OBG :o)

6. I hate yardwork, housework, laundry, OK I am lazy lazy lazy when it comes to my house. I need a condo, because damn it's soo hard trying to do it all yourself. This is my official crying session ... I hate everything that comes with owning a home. I could get a roommate to help with the chores, but I hate roommates. I could compromise and get into a relationship with a good guy where he is kind enough to help me :o) ... HAHAHAHA ... those guys are about as rare as the panda bear so that won't work. So I whine and moan about it and do it as infrequent as I can get away with.

7. I'm ANAL ANAL ANAL about any computer I use. The start menus are clean and organized. At work, within the first two months of being there, I took over the GIS data, cleaned it out, and organized it. I have standards now for the others to learn from and follow, because I'm ANAL! I never have icons on my desktop because it looks so cluttery. Everything has to be perfect. It's annoying but I can't help it and I can't break the cycle!! With GIS, any maps I make have to be PERFECT .. everything is aligned by rulers and set up in the exact way they should be. It's soooo annoying that I can't just do it, but I have to be all perfect and crap about it. I'm a Virgo, what do you expect??

8. I am a bit of a gadget girl. This is going to be my last one for the moment, so I may as well tie it in with the post below it :o) ... I have so many electronics and know entirely too much about computers, different programs, etc. I stick my nose into everything I can. If they need someone to learn a new program, they just ask me because it's like I am a dog drooling waiting for the chance. I took over the local IT duties at work and I'm like everyone I knows tech support. It's sad, but I drool over this too :o)



Ok .. I need to go ... will 'attempt' to be back again soon.

A Complete Contradiction to the name Gadget Girl :o)

This is to prove that I'm not as gadgety as .. well .. I really am.

I tend to spend at least one day a weekend with my sister Becky and my niece. It's apparently becoming a ritual with us, involving food, hanging out, and playing the Wii. It's my fault .. I bought the Wii, they played it and had to have it. Now I have to go over there on the weekends to beat the boards they can't beat themselves.

Anyway, so Saturday the three of us were out from 8AM - 5PM .. we went lily shopping with my mother, ate unsafe McD's breakfast (I'll get to this story in a bit), went to Dick's Sporting Goods, Books a Million looking for chic books, then to Oxmoor visiting Von Maur, Old Navy, Limited, and Gap, then we did all of that and even made it to Best Buy before noon .. OMG!! I have a point to all of that unnecessary crap in a bit too .. ok maybe not today because it's late, but I'll try and clarify that later.


Ok .. so we're at Best Buy originally looking for a Nerf case for my DS Lite, because Melina dropped it one time and I all but openly cried. We of course end up looking at games for the DS and the Wii because I suck and have to buy more. In the process there's a couple in the aisle and we start talking to the guy about the Wii. I'm holding a USB dongle thinking wireless and the Wii at the same time when the guy points out to me that if I have wireless in my house then I don't need that ... I could have already hooked the Wii up before now.

What???

This is my big lesson .. read the dang users manual, or at least skim the pages you fool!!! I had no idea that I could have hooked it up, for some reason I assumed it was a hard line connection only. Whoops!!!

In the same token, he then makes me feel even more stupid by telling me that the DS can be used with WiFi too ... wow I wanted to kick myself.

Ok .. so I suck because after all of that running around we did Saturday before noon I did not even bother to get out of bed until 12:30 Sunday. What a waste of a perfectly good day, eh? Then, before going back to the hospital I was bound and determined to get the Wii hooked up to the net. Then, I was bound and determined to surf the net. Well dangit .. now I have it down to a science :o) .. and I wasted hald the day away in the process. But .. after all of the stress I've had lately, I really needed some decompressing and the weekend helped.

Ok .. now I'm completely off key...


A real quicky about McDonald's....

For a few months now I've been on a mission to get in shape and get ahead of Father Time as he's slowing my tired old self down. I've been killing myself trying to do this and I've been eating sooo good that I hear people ordering Big Macs and I want to gag. Well Saturday the daylily sale started at 8AM so we have time to kill before the other stores open and we went to McDonald's. I compromise and get the healthiest thing I can find at McD's, if that's possible, while Becky gets those Cinnamon Melts.

She talks about them all the time and how she eats them for every meal she can, so she insists I try one. Well, ok then. After that my niece has to have a bite or two as well. So .. a few minutes later, the cinnamon melts are gone and we're talking. I look down at the box that Becky just ate from ...

Discard after 6:37AM 8/1/2007

WTF???

The day we went to McDonald's ... that was 8/4/2007

I about died when I saw that. Then I remembered how I was stupid enough to sample one ...

So Becky takes the box up to the counter and the manager is dumbfounded. Of course we took a photo of the box and receipt as proof in case we died in our houses later that night.

We, of course, are still alive but that's not the point!!

That was the last straw, and one more HUGE reason why I've tossed out fast food. It's apparently mad that I've abandoned it's Greasy-ness after so many years of loyalty that it's now plotting to secretly take my life.

Ok .. that was stupid ... but what do you expect at midnight?


Anyway ... my life has been a chaotic nightmare as it stands. You know I always say it and no one ever believes me as far as how bad it gets.

So work has been killing me; all I am doing is working. Work work work. I use that excuse that I'm getting into everything I can right now in order to advance myself faster down the road... yea that's apparently a metaphor for I'm using work as an excuse to not work on other parts of my life that need tending too, including my yard .. lol. I work late, I come home and work some more. I dream about damn work ... AAAHH!!

Since I'm working so much I have not had time to go to the gym as often, but never fear, I'm crazy enough to go running in this close to triple digit weather. Am I trying to kill myself? Seems that way sometimes, but I'd rather do that than try and find the time to go to the gym and do it in A/C. Ok I take that back .. apparently I'm going for the uber-kill and I'm going to start going to the gym at 5:30AM so I have enough time to come home and get ready before going into work.

Now, to top it off, my baby sister has been in the hospital. She's been sick for about a month now and the doctor finally decided to admit her. We had first thought that she'd be going home Sunday, but they medicine they gave her did nothing for her and so she is still in the hospital. It will be a week Wednesday and we don't really know when she's coming home.

Because of that, I've been going to see her every night and I've been staying up there about 4-6 hours a pop. Yea, I went up there at 4:45 tonight and got home at 11:30.

Of course my Mom yelled at me for going up there and staying so long, saying I have a life and Jen needs to get over it and learn the toughen up but I have to disagree with her. Dammit she's sick, in the hospital for days and days now, away from her hubby, away from her dogs, away from her bed and any sort of entertainment she had. She's sick and miserable and if all I do is sit there with her and help remind her that she's not alone, then I'll go every night and sit every night. I go up there and we talk, we play on her laptop, we both play our Nintendos, we walk around, who knows where the time goes. My middle sister can't do it because she has my niece and she is my baby sister and if that is what will make her feel better and give her some sort of company, then I'm going to do this until she tells me to go away.

Anyway, apparently my mother got on her tonight too, telling her it was selfish that she let me come up there every night and stay so long and so Jen told me I didn't have to do it and that if I had other things to do then I should. After that I explained to her my standpoint .. she's my babysis, I could not imagine being stuck in a hospital like she is, and that if my being there is helping her, then I'm going to keep coming and our mother can just get over it. She then said that she enjoyed me being there and felt selfish in wanting me to be up there like I am. So it's settled then ... I like to keep her company and she wants me to keep coming.

Needless to say I'm going to work, working through lunch every day, sitting with the dogs for a bit, then heading to the hospital, coming home and staying up until about 1 or 2 (:30 last night .. AAWW!), then getting up at 7 and starting over. Imagine when I start going to the gym at 5:30 ... wow that's going to hurt!!

The weekends I am trying to do some 'fun' things during the day to destress from the work week (hopefully next time it won't encourage the spending of so much money) and then I'm sitting with my sister all evening / night. I was up there about 7 hours I think both days this weekend.

Moral of the story is that I've temporarily cast off all of my other busy things for the moment with the exception of my sis and the people who sign my pay checks. Her birthday is this Friday so I hope and pray that Friday we're not bringing cake to a hospital room, but if so, then I'll just hope she comes the day after that.


Ok .. it's 12:15 and I still need to 'decompress' before bed so I must run. I'm sure this horribly long ramble explains the EXACT REASON why I need to decompress every night .. I swear my brain runs at 200 miles an hour and if I don't do something to unwind, like puzzles or something to 'put me to sleep' ... like last night, I will literally lie awake all night unable to sleep. So .. I slept from 2:30 -4:30 and was awake after that ... and I'm apparently still awake now. Yea .. it will eventually catch up to me I know...

Any typos get my premature apologies .. if I check that I'll be on here forever!! I hate typos and I'm the queen of making them and catching them after the fact .. I hate it when I do that!! .. so if you see any .. sorry!!!