Stop! Sabbatical time!

Okay, that's it. I'm officially going on sabbatical. Much of 2012 is going to be full of continuing education, development, writing, photoing, fine tuning, and relaxing. I thought I'd get all of that done this year. My brain is screaming to my heart right now, "Wrong, fool! Keep it goin'!" My heart wants a cookie for the pain.

We're in our new place in less than a month and there is still so much to organize and toss and pack. I have so much reading to do on entrepreneurship via some kick-ass resources, so much writing to do in general, so much photo work to do (ai yah, I need to make more time for that next year), so much resting to do to reinforce this whole wellness lifestyle, etc. My brain looks at everything, compartmentalizes life into neat little boxes, and gives the rest of me a punk attitude, like my body can do what it did when I was younger. (If only getting carded chronically could make my body younger. Sad face.) My body looks at my brain and gives it the stink eye. My heart just pounds because it can't decide which thing to take on first so settles on working on a few small things concurrently, and then it feels overwhelmed with looking at surrounding things to do and wishes for a cookie to appear. I'll still be blogging but the big website I have envisioned won't be up for a little while. Damn, I need to make the temporary site live... after finishing that... and also finish the holiday cards, which will be mailed next week since I had to order breast cancer stamps because my local post offices had none and I'm not waiting in any more long lines this year.

By the way, the best ideas I've had this month involved combining pumpkin spice and snickerdoodle mixes and using the cinnamon sugar topping on formed cookies before baking. They. Are. Ridiculously. Fantastic! And in my refrigerator. So I'm off to get a cookie. Because I can. And because I need it for my well being.

These giraffes cannot run 35 mph (56 kph)

First, a shout out to Lemuel J. Lott, for fixing my iPhone 3GS voicemail. Whoop whoop! I should've asked if he could repair the power button on the phone since that's been extremely wonky lately, but there's a local place that can fix it for fairly cheap with a 15 minute in person turnaround time. I've got to go there soon.

Nothing screams out Korean sauna
with fire sudatorium and food court
like a family of giraffes, right?

I've been curious about this family of giraffes for a few years, and my curiosity was peaked this summer when I drove by at night and noticed the festive giraffery. I took a few minutes out of my commute to snap this amazing marketing tool, and visited the King Spa website just now. Holy crap, this place looks awesome on the inside! Not what I'd expected.

I'm not surprised that this is in the Asian Trade District, but giraffes? Maybe it's the African connection to the Pyramid room they have, or something. Someone who visited it had some good things to say about her experience there. I may have to try this soon. After we finish moving across town. (OMG I loathe packing.) I'm kinda meh when it comes to Korean food but I love that the menu offers the mighty and noble corn dog.

Hopefully by then I'll have scored a full-time jobby job that I can do. I've been worrying about this since I left my last job due to health issues (yay discovery of having Sjogren's Syndrome), but there are plenty of things out there that I'm totally able to do without wearing myself out. Basic admin stuff, for the most part. (EDIT:  I really want to work full time again but still worry about my body crapping out from whenever the uber-fatigue hits. I truly don't know if I'll be able to but I'd love to find out. I'd love to also see about working more hours part time. I am all for that right now. Bills don't pay themselves. I digress.)

Thing is, I'm WAY overqualified to be a basic admin, and I've had no luck with applications for that and similar positions. Even applications for jobs at the level I was at have gone mostly nowhere. I've had three in person interviews since March. Three. Total. The few very considerate rejection notes I've received were nice, but I'm really tired of being frustrated with not bringing in a decent income. Being on UI (at Tier One federal level now, yay) has helped, but gah I'm so not used to not working! At least I've had nine months to recuperate from pushing myself way too hard for several years, with having Sjogren's but not knowing I've had it.

Speaking of jobbing, I am very grateful to a friend of mine for hooking me up with a job helping him and others. It's basically organizing and filing sheet music (a LOT of sheet music for a LOT of instruments), but it is craziness how scattered everything has gotten due to being too busy to file from doing lots of liturgies (services, for you non-Catholics) so I'm glad to help, even if only for five hours a week. I'm even more glad to get paid extremely well for filing, but I do have a music education degree plus spent five years working in liturgy at the diocesan level so I'm sure some of that compensation is for my expertise. It's so wonderful being back in music again, even though I've had no experience with orchestral anything aside from coordinating brass musicians, listening to music, and observing my husband practicing the violin a few years ago. Yay for learning a new job skill!

Chaos is swirling again

There's a lot going on right now that I don't have the time to go into, but I'm kinda nearly done with my website. Just have to process a few more photos, upload, change some coding, then make it live. It's nowhere where I'd like it to be but further development will have to wait until mid-2012 on account of packing and moving and jobbing and chillaxing and such as.

The power button on my iPhone is wonky again but I found a local place that does national repairs so I'm hitting that in the next few days. I'd much rather pay a lower cost for a replacement button and have a 15 minute turnaround for getting my phone back than the alternative of sending it away to Apple. This place has Apple certified technicians and is BBB accredited so I'm not worried.

I'm halfway through the annual Christmas mailing prep. I have 170 on for this year (same as last year) but with a few changes in people. So interesting how people float into and out of one's life.

I've finally updated my LinkedIn to better reflect what's on my resume. I've also made my Facebook page visible since I really need to get my personal brand going. (Hooray for a few of my friends liking it already!) It was fun doing Gate of Life at a local level, and I learned a lot of things through that over the years. I still haven't taken down the photo goods store since I've been a bit preoccupied, but I'll get to it after I do a new store with better pics under my name.

We got a deal from Death Star!

I've been a Death Star (see the logo) customer since February 2006. It is now December 2011. You would think that I'd get great customer service from them, but even one of their automated systems kicked me out plus told me to go to a retail store. I've been a bit annoyed, very understatedly.

Hubby and I both have an iPhone 3GS. Over 75 minutes, I attempted the hell to communicate with AT&T about transferring from the 550 minute a month plan (since we never use our minutes) to the 10 cent a minute paygo plan while keeping our data services. I've heard this is possible from the interweb plus from 3 of the reps I talked with today, even though this possibility is nowhere to be found on the AT&T website. This should be easy to accomplish, yes?

No. Not only no, but a booming resounding HELL NO all Moses and Ten Commandments and lightning from the top of Mount Olympus style.

The first call went well until there was no option to get to a customer service representative on the GoPhone side. I got booted out of the system because my wireless number wasn't in their system and because I did not have documentation needed for activating a new phone.

The second call sucked major ass because I could barely hear the person on the other line. (I actually giggled about calling about a phone issue while being on a line with horrid quality. I now know this was wrong. Giggling was soon replaced by thoughts of beheading and smiting, especially after many fake and obligatory apologies.) I was transferred to someone who could allegedly better help me, but that person was also difficult to hear, and ended up giving me the 800 number to the first person.

The third call was answered by a very friendly and helpful lady. She was genuinely apologetic and gave me two good numbers to call. Yay!

The fourth call ended with the same result as the first call, so I tried the second number given by Helpful Lady.

The fifth call featured me lying about having documentation and/or SIM cards and/or I don't know what else, just to try to get to a person on the GoPhone side. The automated system told me I'd have to go to an AT&T retail store and speak with someone there.

Seriously? The automated phone wench didn't have a human serviceperson to boot me to at all??

Have I mentioned that it feels so barbaric to use a land line and have to dial 1 before the 800??

The sixth call was answered by someone who sounded like Denzel. He was extremely helpful and knew exactly where I needed to be in the phone labyrinth. He also mentioned (unlike the other reps) that hubby's phone is actually still under contract and wouldn't be up until April. Well, alrightie then.

Denzel hooked me up with someone who was freaking incredible to talk with. (Benjamin Prius, I hope I didn't mangle the spelling of your last name. Mad props to you sir, and I hope you get lovely snow this weekend in Lubbock!) Apparently the iPhone is an exception to the GoPhone rules and doesn't count as a regular smartphone. Balls. After some chatting and some amazement on his part since he could see that I'd talked with a few people within the hour, he hooked me up with some better rates on plans not normally offered. The upshot is that we'll save $20 a month, which will help since we're planning to move across town in two months (aah!). I'd hoped to save $60 a month with getting the 10 cent a minute plan for both of us, but oh well. At least I tried and something good happened out of the ordeal.

Maybe in April when hubby's contract is up, we'll look at paygo again, but the iPhone 5 should be hitting about then (or news about it, anyway), so we'll see. Technically we could go paygo now, but I'd have to buy a different smartphone and he'd have to get a new phone too plus fork up the early termination fee. No thanks. We're both happy with our 3GS phones and use our computers way more for computery things anyway, but I'd still love a better phone cam. I could get that now with the 4S on a new contract but I'll wait. I'll be busy packing and jobbing and job looking and crashing so I might as well wait.

In other news for today, I'm still frustrated at not having my personal website finished. I'm streamlining the holiday card list and putting everything together for mailing. I finally got my certificate of creditable coverage from UHC so added that to my BCBSTX certificate and faxed them to Cigna today. Now they'll pay several of my doctors for working my pre-existing conditions plus pay for labwork (well, when I call everyone back with the all clear to refile the claims). It's been so annoying at trying to get this from UHC since like, oh, June. Of course, while cleaning while packing last night, I found the original one they sent to me in April in an unopened envelope, so that's very much a my bad and I feel utterly stupid for not realizing I've had it all this time!! I'm a day late for making sure our tags are registered but am glad there's a 5 day grace period. I was hoping to have already been to the local Tom Thumb (to do the tag thing) and be back home by now. I haven't even showered yet! Gah, it's 3:45 pm and I haven't even eaten lunch yet. I suppose I should do that next.

We got deathstar, we got deathstar....

Aaaaugh! I can't take it anymore!

I've got to start keeping a record of all the grammatical errors I see online. I've cringed at some understandable ones seen in nationally published articles. I'm wincing yet amused at one I just saw on Facebook about a logo change on Saddleback Leather products. The context and error: "Bags I purchase forthwith shan't match the ones I currently own. Alas, I shall bear the yolk."

Why he puts eggs in full grain leather awesomeness is beyond me.

I've been fairly busy lately, being productive, getting stuff done around the homestead, etc. I've started more creative things, got the holiday cards created and ordered and delivered in time for working on during Thanksgiving weekend, etc. I am still not happy with website design re: my site so am trying other design elements, etc.

Dammit, now I want an omelet.

Thoughts of today and long ago

Today (11/11/2011) at 11:11 am, hubby and I looked at otters online here, here, and here while waiting for Skyrim to install on his computer. We had to get a new graphics card for his computer, but no big whoop and the game looks gorgeous.

Today was also Nigel Tufnel Day, because hello, today was turned up to 11.

Today marked Veterans Day and I smiled at all of the thanks and memories floating across my Facebook feed. I was particularly happy to see that former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen (the guy critically injured at Occupy Oakland several weeks ago) is now out of the hospital. However, I was a bit disturbed to read an article mentioning his administrative discharge and website for Marines to vent about the Marine Corps. Mental health of our troops really needs to be addressed more than it is now. I know several retired military members who've had difficulties with PTSD and I worry for the families with relatives fighting overseas these days since they'll likely deal with it as well.

Thanks to the Vietnam War, my dad got to kick ass
in the air. I was born later in the year awarded so I like
to think I saved him from being more involved with it.

The mental thing brought my dad to mind. He retired many years ago from the U.S. Air Force as a Technical Sergeant and passed away in early 2006 from a hypertensive heart attack. This happened after a few years of not speaking to me or my sister, likely due to some form of dementia. The last time I saw him was in early 2004, and when he opened his door he saw bald-headed me rockin' a denim bucket hat next to my husband. He talked for a few seconds - basically hi and sorry I didn't get the door sooner but I was in the bathroom - and then he shut the door in my face. That was kind of a shocker, especially as we'd traveled 200 miles to see him (and others), but the antisocial behavior was expected so we left after a few seconds of standing there stunned.

When I was 9 or 10, he told me about something in our family turning people into agoraphobic hermits later in life, and how he didn't want "to go out like that." I'd figured this was what was going on, so was kinda comforted but was really sad that I couldn't do anything to help. I know he liked the care he was getting at the local VA hospital, since he'd expressed that to me when I was in high school. His medical records show that he was a mostly compliant patient but he skipped his last routine appointment if I remember correctly. From what we gathered, he decided to give up on life and rationalized killing himself without directly killing himself. He'd sold his car, and in a prominent place was a newspaper clipping featuring a red circle drawn around a good deal for a gravesite or funeral arrangements or something related anyway. His food consisted of Chinese delivery orders plus saltine crackers and canned chili ordered and delivered through Walgreens. The number of meticulously cleaned styrofoam containers and large cardboard boxes mailed to him astonished us.

I kinda wish I'd gotten his hard drives but I was too icked out to want to deal with any of his computer stuff then, since his body was found a few weeks after he died.* Normally I wouldn't have been fazed but at the time I was working in the disaster preparedness field relating to hospital bioterrorism, so things I'd learned about public health situations froze me a bit. It didn't occur to me until weeks later that I could've asked someone to take care of that for me, but everything in his apartment was long tossed or given away by then. I sometimes wonder if there was anything important on his computer that would explain what was going on in his mind. I'd thought about that at the time but my germaphobe brain rationalized that it was unlikely due to mental deterioration and no password laid out in obvious sight like the newspaper clipping. I still wonder about it though.

I also wonder if he just never recovered after losing mom to metastatic cervical cancer back in late 1988, even though he went on with his life. He dated two women for years, and one of them wanted to marry him but he refused to since he didn't want to get married again at all. We found that he'd saved a hairbrush (with some of mom's hair still in it) along with several other things, including old photos and a cassette tape that likely contained a recording of her voice. There were so many questions we couldn't answer about the whole situation, but we handled it as best as we could. It's definitely difficult to be there for someone when the someone keeps protective walls up for who knows what reasons. It's even more difficult when it's a family member and you've done all you possibly can to help.

This Veterans Day, I'm sad for the veterans who aren't receiving proper care whether on active duty or retired. There have been some improvements in the VA system but I still shudder when I think of stories I've heard over the years. To all veterans, thank you for your service, and don't be afraid to ask for help when you need help. No one will think any less of you.

* I'll refrain from getting into the way grody details, even though that stuff fascinates me, but the rest of this is for anyone interested: I didn't go into his bedroom to see his body (hubby and brother-in-law insisted I stay back), and the only apparent funk was on the carpet where a foot was touching. He'd collapsed onto his bed after perhaps walking there from the living room, since the TV was on when the welfare check started. Thankfully, his apartment was well sealed, and there were no maggots even though it had been a few weeks since death occurred. That was a happy surprise.

Scars are cool like bowties and fezzes.

Too bad Yoda couldn't regenerate
into a Wookiee.

Thanks be to Facebook, I saw this pic from someone else that was shared by a friend. Looking through that someone else's other public pics was a great idea since I found a quote from another friend of someone else that's so freaky amazing that I have to share it right now.

"Scars are pretty damn awesome - not the getting of them, but having them. They're pretty and they tell stories. Shows we've lived properly." - Gwen Fyfe

I'm currently 38 but have plenty of scars to show. Some are physical (I have plenty of scar tissue from the boob cancer surgery). Some are mental (I hate the stupid fibro/Sjogren's fog when it rolls around, not to mention the processing lag time I have from chemo brain changes that have lingered for almost 8 years). Some are emotional (although my dad was a bit mentally off in his later years and hadn't seen me in a few years when I last visited, I am still amazed that he shut his front door in my bald-headed puffy chemo face after 15 seconds of conversation).

Some days I feel like I'm 900 years old like Yoda there. Some days I feel as chipper as Dr. Time Lord there. Some days, a few of the scars show. Some days they don't. Naturally as a breast cancer survivor, I've heard talk of our scars being badges of honor. How very Klingon. Reminds me of General Martok in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, after losing his left eye. He doesn't wear an eyepatch. He shows that scar for everyone to see. We've been watching lots of DS9 lately thanks to Netflix, and we're almost to the point of when Sisko loses the station. Unlike the disappointed Netflix customers, hubby and I never bothered to do the DVD side since it seemed like more of a pain in the ass than anything else, though easy to do. We've only had streaming and have been very happy with it. Streaming is cool. Ooh, tangent.

Not to glorify the getting of scars, but the only mention of scars being desirable that I can recall having read about was in my overall leather education via Saddleback Leather. (SBL makes incredible quality leather awesomeness in the U.S.A. backed by a 100 year warranty. Yes, really. The Chamberlain's Leather Milk there rocks the Casbah, too.) Leather 101 mentions that, "Your bag may have a few small scars and imperfections, but those just lend a tremendous amount of character to it." The Questions page even includes information on how some scars are more valuable and sought after than other scars. (Scroll down to the bottom and go up a tiny bit.)

My small SBL chestnut satchel has had quite a few scratches on it, but that's the thing about full grain leather - the more it is used and is properly cared for while aging, the more character it gets. Character gets made from scars. Having character is cool. It's not like flaunting the hip seasonal trendy purses made in China that don't last and might contain lead in the coloring. It's not like paying for an uber-expensive designer label for showing off whatever status you want other people to think you have (regardless of actual status, which people shouldn't give a fuck about anyway). Character, like SBL products, exudes perfection in quality imperfection. It's designed to last and be shown and used instead of being set aside like so much Fonzie.