Archive for April, 2008
Busy (and productive) weekend
April 14th, 2008
This may not be a newsworthy post for most people, but for a hermit in the making, it’s pretty awesome. Many weekends out of the year, I will go home from work on Friday and not go outside until heading to work on Monday. (And I like it.)
This weekend, I had something planned for every day, including Friday evening. And two of them actually required (more than) a bit of effort on my part.
Friday: finally got my taxes done. Last year I went to H&R Block since I didn’t want to deal with it myself. It was kind of annoying and I wasn’t going to do it again. But once again I didn’t want to do my taxes, so I went to H&R Block again. It was much better this time, very easy & effortless. I really liked the woman I got this time and plan to use her from now on. She even gave me some suggestions for even more deductions.
The only problem was that I was 1/2 hour late and ended up waiting for quite a long time. Fortunately, I’d brought along a book to read, so the time went fairly fast.
When I was finished, around 8 p.m., I went outside. The evening was gorgeous! It was one of those early summer evenings that I absolutely love. The air was warm and still, the sky had a glow to it, and it just made you want to sit on a bench and watch the night go by.
Saturday I had a hair appointment. Not much effort on my part, but I pulled out a Real Simple magazine from a couple months ago to read while “processing,” and found a couple of nice articles to take to heart. One in particular was how to match flowers and vases. Everyone needs more flowers in their lives!
Sunday I had a professional organizer come over. Not only did we come up with a plan of attack, but we actually started attacking. I was tired and smelly and dirty afterwards, but I sure felt good. And I rewarded myself by relaxing all afternoon, watching Dark Angel episodes (I have just gone bonkers for Jensen Ackles), playing computer games, and making cute little icon pictures.
Posted in Life in general, Pack brat | Comments (0)
Today’s the day!
April 12th, 2008
It’s my annual rite of spring. The trees outside my entry are in full bloom, and it’s raining.
I don’t know what kind of trees they are. They sort of look like cherry trees. And the blossoms look like “double cherry blossoms.” They tend to bloom about 1-2 weeks after the “official” cherry blossoms and keep their blooms for about one week. My neighbor (who knows these things) says they’re almond trees.
Every year, at least once during their week of full bloom, it rains. The wet blossoms are so heavy, they pull the branches down so far that I have to duck when I walk under them. That day is my unofficial rite of spring.
When I left for my hair appointment this morning, the sun was out, but it had been raining. When I got home, it was raining; and had in fact, actually rained fairly hard for a bit. The blossoms were soaked. I had to duck, and I actually hit one with my head.
Welcome, spring! It’s too bad it’s supposed to be 20 degrees colder tomorrow. 
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Weird
April 11th, 2008
I had a new experience last night. I have an intermittent skin condition that initially caused massive itching on my arms and legs. The problem is, it’s very unpredictable. Usually it will subside if I take Benadryl. The condition has now progressed to a feeling that my skin is on fire all over. And if I look at it in the mirror, my skin is red. (And no, it’s not hot flashes.) I haven’t had the problem in a long time (yay), but woke up with it last night. Usually, I can will myself to ignore it & go back to sleep. But I remembered I had some Benedryl in the medicine cablinet, so I got up to take some. The Benadryl was a new, unopened package. I got the box open and some water in a glass, but I couldn’t get the pill out of its individual wrapper. It wasn’t the usual stubborn package problem. I was having trouble keeping it in focus and my hands weren’t steady. The feeling was very, very strange. I stood for a bit with both hands on the sink. The next thing I knew, I’d fallen over onto the floor. I’m not sure if I fainted, collapsed or fell asleep while standing. I gave up and crawled back into bed without taking the Benadryl and leaving the bathroom light on.
I eventually felt stable enough to go back into the bathroom and take the Benadryl.
In retrospect, I think I may have been experiencing some vertigo. It could be that whatever it was that caused the skin problem also affected the fluid in my inner ear & semi-circular canals. (I used to be an audiologist, so I know about these things.)
I feel better now, but damn, that was a weird experience. Oh yeah, I also have a cut & bruise on my knee from when I collapsed. (Think I hit a drawer-pull on the way down.) And my upper back, between my shoulder blades, started hurting in the afternoon. That’s probably where I fell into the door jamb.
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April Fools—only not!
April 1st, 2008
The head honcho of the Army (called the Chief of Staff of the Army, or CSA) is coming to visit the place where I work tomorrow. This is a humongous deal. Humongous! The CSA is the highest ranking guy in the Arm. The only way another Army officer could outrank him is if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was an Army officer. (But currently it’s a NavyAdmiral.)
This is really a huge deal. Oh, I guess I said that already. The CSA is coming to see the organization I work with, not the host command, not the headquarters command. He’s coming to visit this small, little organization that’s a speck on the face of the Army. It’s obviously a real feather in the cap of the guy in charge of the organization, who isn’t even a general.
You should see the commotion. People clamoring for a chance to sit in the meeting with him. Some of them not even Army! (Fortunately, that was squashed.)
I so want to be someplace else tomorrow. But a couple of people in my “chain of command” will be here, so I figure I ought to be present. Of course, these two people (who have dissed me in the past—even though I was right and they were wrong) most likely won’t even give me the time of day. But that’s ok. I don’t really care for them anyway.
I’m so glad I don’t give a shit about the politics of the job. Of course, it’s probably part of the reason I’m not in a higher position (along with my incredibly under-achieving nature), but I don’t think I’d be genuine if I “played the game.”
Posted in Military, Work | Comments (0)