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.
Posted in General | Comments (1)
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)
Thursday Thirteen (minus 8)
March 27th, 2008
Because I can’t come up with 13, even though I have several of them in my drafts.
1. I was once again taking a look at the houses Sue showed me yesterday. Man, I want this one so badly, my mouth is watering.
2. I signed up for a business course for next week. I’m pretty excited. I’ve been thinking about starting a home business (had a couple very different ideas in mind) for a long time, but it’s mostly been a pipe dream. But I started reading “Home-Based Business for Dummies” and am actually getting pretty excited. (Oh, I guess I said that already.) 
I’ve even been thinking about how to market the business, which is the least favorite thing I want to do.
3. I managed to officially piss off a Supernatural cyber-queen yesterday. (I don’t mean that derogatorily. She really is an internet celebrity in the Supernatural realm, and deserves to be.) I suppose it’s the natural outcome of things. I’d met her last summer when I went to see “A Few Good Men” with Jensen Ackles in Fort Worth, TX. I guess the age thing raised its ugly head, because I felt her friends were very uncomfortable with me around. And when I went to talk with them at intermission, I was totally ignored. I tried to be magnanimous about it, especially when she wrote that she loves meeting new people and welcoming them into her world, but the hurt is always there in the back of my mind. And while I feel a little bad about her being pissed (which was a misinterpretation on her part), I think it’s actually cathartic and will eventually help me give up my LiveJournal activities.
4. Ok, so I can’t count, but this ties in with the attempt to quit LiveJournal. I may be getting a handle on my icon-mania. I did not enter any icon contests (called icontests, isn’t that cute?) this week. I actually made some of Jensen Ackles, but am not going to enter them. I will post them though, because they’re pretty nice, and one of them is (at least in my humble opinion) fabulous. Of course, the subject matter is pretty amazing.
5. I ordered the Dark Angel DVDs from NetFlix. Batch #2 came yesterday. But I’m not watching them in order. I saw the next to the last episode on the SciFi channel a couple weeks ago, and was anxious to see the series finale. Can just say, I was underwhelmed. But then, I think they might have been expecting to have a 3rd season so they didn’t want all the questions to be answered.
Posted in Couch Critic, Musings, Supernatural, Work | Comments (3)
Oh the temptation!
March 26th, 2008
That darned Sue, one of my friends from LiveJournal. Every now and then she tempts me with real estate available in Mason City, Iowa. Today she spotted not 1, not 2, but 3 lovely homes to dangle in front of me. One is a bungalow, a little smaller than my ideal place (primarily in that it has only 1 bath, and I’d like to have 2), but for the price of the home, I could add another bath! Then one is in the historic district. It’s beautiful, but probably much too much maintenance for me. The third is a “Prairie School” design, very Arts & Crafts-y, which is possibly one of my favorite styles.
Coupled with what I mentioned yesterday, I really am interested. But I think I’ve come to a reasonable decision. Since my home is not ready for market, I’m going ahead with hiring the organizer. I really need a professional eye to help me out with those very hard decisions. And I have some really major ones. Like what do I do with winter coats I no longer want when they’re out of season? I figure the organizer will have resources to help.
While I won’t be able to make an immediate change, I’ll be able to work a little longer which will 1) give me more time towards retirement, and 2) get me oh so slightly closer to 62, so my cut in retirement pay won’t be quite as large. Plus I’ve learned that interesting homes come on the market all the time. And with Sue scouting for me (she really does have a fabulous eye!), I figure I’m in good hands.
Posted in Life in general | Comments (0)
Opportunity lost
March 25th, 2008
I had a(nother) frustrating day at work yesterday. Nothing I say is right, nothing I do is enough. It’s very demoralizing. I’m absolutely burned out. I’m eligible to retire on April 2oth. The problem is I’d take a serious cut in retirement pay. But I’ve been so unhappy lately. Is it really worth the aggravation to try to stick it out another 3½ years?
And then, last night, I received a letter from a couple in Baltimore who are interested in moving to Alexandria, and particularly into my community, and specifically into a 3-bedroom layout (which is what I have). (In fact, I have one of the nicest, if not the nicest condo in the complex.) The problem is, it is in serious disrepair.
I’d actually set up a schedule (and even a blog) to chart my decluttering and redecorating, but haven’t made any progress in the past couple weeks. I finally made the decision this week to hire a professional organizer. I’d really like to be ready the next time an opportunity like this comes my way. (Plus, it would be nice living in a clean and neat home.)
For a moment though, I dreamt of leaving the job behind, selling the home and moving to a quieter, less expensive locale. But when I looked at the real estate on Yahoo, I found the house I really wanted in Clear Lake, Iowa sold. Maybe next time.
Posted in Work | Comments (4)
Thank goodness I have cable internet access
March 21st, 2008
It’s been awhile, no? Yes? And forget the Thursday 13 thing. I think they’re going to throw me out any minute. It was a good idea for awhile, but this networking stuff is damn hard! Especially when 95% of the blogs I’m supposed to network with can’t be accessed.
Last night was kind of interesting. I picked up the phone to make a call, but couldn’t get a dial tone. I checked all the other phones in the house (all wireless) and none of them worked. So I went around checking all the phone connections. All were ok, but the phones still didn’t work. Oh my God! How was I going to order pizza?!?!? Thanks goodness the cell phone was charged. 
I then tried to call home from the cell phone, but got a busy signal. Did that a couple of times, then misplaced the cell phone. Doh! And how could I call the cell phone and have it ring when I didn’t have a telephone line in the house?? Oh technology, you are a cruel mistress.
I ended up pulling out every single phone and the answering machine and unplugging them. At some point in the night I woke up and remembered I actually still had a wired phone. I’d long ago turned off the ringer and it’s kind of hidden in a far corner of the kitchen, so it’s easy to forget. Hmm, maybe the cleaning ladies accidentally knocked the receiver off the hook when they were there on Wed. No, I did not get up in the middle of the night to check it out. I’m not that desperate. But I did check it out this morning. The receiver was firmly in place, and I had a dial tone.
So I went about the house plugging the phones in one by one and checking them. I think the culprit might have been my old answering machine. I decided to keep things simple and leave it unplugged. And once I got the integrated phone system answering machine set up, I chucked the old one in the trash can. I figure it’s about 20 years old, and it’s had a good life. Time to move on.
I think I’ll head to the library this afternoon to see if I can check out Michael Critchton’s The Andromeda Strain. Why? Because.
Posted in Life in general | Comments (0)
The week that I wish wasn’t
March 15th, 2008
This week has been hellish. I had a serious meltdown on Wed. I hadn’t had one in quite a long time, and was trying to figure out what triggered it. I don’t get PMS anymore, so that wasn’t it. The bitchiness of menopause has long since passed. And my happy pills have been working quite well for the past year—I’ve been able to let things roll off my back and not take things personally. But something triggered me to get VERY upset. Well, it was a series of somethings that started on Monday.
Granted, it’s been a very high-tempo, high-stress week, with VIP visitors and super-VIP briefings, very similar to the week I noted here, only worse. And while times like this are stressful, I can usually cope.
I finally figured out what the problem was on Friday. Besides all the high-tempo stuff, it was the first week of daylight savings time. Perhaps my circadian clock is off.
Either that, or I actually cared about what I was doing. I’m going with the daylight savings time, because if I don’t, I’m not sure I’ll make it to retirement.
Posted in Head Games, Work | Comments (3)
It’s not a joke any more
March 7th, 2008
I’ve been joking at my LiveJournal website that I’m addicted to making user pics, those little pictures that can posted with each post and comment. (WordPress has gravatars, but you only get 1 [to my knowledge]. LJ gives you a boatload [if you pay for them].
Well, it’s not a joke any more. This week my addiction hit critical mass. While it’s been affecting my personal time for quite awhile now, preventing me from getting certain weekend chores done, this week it affected my work life. I won’t go into the details because it’s much too embarrassing, but suffice it to say I sunk to a new low.
What surprised me was how similar my behavior is to that of an alcoholic or drug abuser. It really affected my mental state.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to pull myself out of the rut I was in. At least for now. But the weekend looms before me. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some of my chores done before I sit down at the computer. And when I do sit down, I’m hoping I’ll be able to do those things I need to do first, before I start playing around.
Posted in Head Games | Comments (1)
March 1st—good day
March 1st, 2008
Today is my favorite day on QVC, Big Bonanza Silver Day. And this is the first year it’s been on a weekend when I’ve actually remembered it. I must admit, I’ve been watching some of it, but haven’t been totally glued to the tv—yet.
This year QVC has competition for my affection from Jewelry Television. Today is their “Silver Showcase.” I think it actually started last night at 8:00 p.m., but I was busy watching episodes of Dark Angel I’d taped from the SciFi channel’s marathon they had on Thursday.
I think I might be safe from spending too much money. My second favorite QVC day is “Creed Silver Strike” which is sometime early in October; I think Oct 2nd. I know this because I was home all day last year, recovering from my sinus surgery. I was worried it would make a dent in my pocket book, but I ended up buying absolutely nothing. There just wasn’t anything I was interested in. Shocking!
So far I’ve haven’t been too tempted by either channel. There are a couple items that have peaked my interest, but they’re either too expensive (for silver) or (if they’re rings) they’re out of my size. That’s good for my pocketbook; especially since the Jewelry Channel did me in when I was home for 2 weeks with my broken foot. (I just paid the bill today. Ouch! And although I did return a couple of the most expensive items, but the refund hasn’t shown up on the bill yet. Good news for next month, I guess.)
Tags: jewelry, JTV, QVC, shopping
Posted in Couch Critic | Comments (4)
Supernatural thoughts
February 23rd, 2008
Last night I decided to run a small experiment. Granted, it’s not statistically accurate, seeing as it only had a n of 1, i.e., me. But I believe the results are worth publishing.
In essence, I wanted to see what the Supernatural story arc would have been like had they kept the last 3 episodes in their original order. So, I started with “Dream a Little Dream of Me” mainly because the ending of that episode sets up the beginning of “Jus in Bello.” Some people felt the episodes were out of order because “Mystery Spot” ended up being sandwiched in between finding the Colt missing (end of “Dream..”) and searching for it (beginning of “Jus..”)
My conclusions? The revised order was the way to go.
“Jus in Bello” is what I consider an epic episode, one of those shows in which the series’ “canon” changes course. So it was a fitting finale going into the WGA-imposed hiatus. But in addition, the progression of the brothers’ psyches makes more sense by airing “Mystery Spot” prior to “Jus in Bello.”
At the beginning of MS, Dean’s attitude is cheery and playful, and Sam’s attitude is light enough to appreciate Dean’s silliness. Of course, Sam becomes more and more agitated and desperate as the show progresses; and although things work out in the end, he is worried about the future.
The beginning of “Jus in Bello” has the boys tending to business (at least in the Winchester sense of “business”), trying to find the missing Colt. Things go to hell very quickly, and while Dean is able to continue making his patented wise-cracks, he is scared and nervous. The episode is very serious, and at the very end, the brothers are devastated.
It wouldn’t have made sense for Dean to be all bright & cheery at the beginning of MS, given his utter sadness at the end of JiB. And Sam’s more solemn demeanor in JiB was totally in keeping with his experiences in MS.
So all in all, my research indicates that Kripke and company did the right thing.
Posted in Supernatural | Comments (1)