Cleveland Rocks!

9th and Euclid Ave

Or so they want you to believe.  Desperately.  I don't know, maybe it does.  But if so it's in a quiet sort of way.

The streets are always this empty

396,815 people call Cleveland home.  That's way down from it's high point in 1950 of almost 1 million. The city is clean and well organized.  The public transportation, while, at times confusing to us as outsiders, has been very reliable (with one exception) and very cheap.  So where are all the Clevelanders?  I don't know but I think I have stumbled upon a clue.  Everywhere Jeff and I have gone, outside of the hospital, we have been the only couple.  Cleveland is a land of single people.  We saw one couple on the bus to the mall, asian tourists, and one one couple today coming home from the Rock and Roll Museum.

So, people of Cleveland, a little of advise from Seattle: Get out of your homes.  Go downtown, dance at a club, drink at the bars, don't be afraid to be a little Sleepless and meet someone.  Fall in love and have more Clevelanders.  Your city rocks, fill it with happy people.

Okay, I digressed a bit but it's been eating at me how few people we see out and about everyday.

Building in Public Square

We took the bus all the way to Public Square today and walked to the Rock and Roll Museum.  The wind was howling.  It just did not let up, and it was so cold it made your ears burn and your head ache.  The Browns were playing a football game today so we actually saw a number of people.  Everyone one of whom was wearing brown and orange.  Jeff and I felt rather conspicuous.  (once the game was over the city completely emptied out again)

View of the stadium from one of the parks downtown.  The Mall I think they called it.

Cleveland Browns Stadium

The Mall, which I think is the name of a park we stopped at, as a great Veterans Memorial.

The names of service men going back to the Civil War who were killed in duty.  Across the street from the park this building caught my eye.

We finally arrived at the Museum, and got our first glimpse of Lake Erie.  The waves were breaking over the sea wall. (is it still called a sea wall if it's in a lake?)

We finally see the lake

Jeff is about to get blown over by the wind

Special exhibit on floors 5 and 6

The museum was worth the price of admission.  If you go be sure to visit the upper floors that's where I finally felt like I was getting my money's worth.  The main exhibit downstairs is wonderful.  Full of artifacts and stories about the history of Rock and Roll and the people who made that history.  Upstairs this more nuts and bolts kind of things.  Like the story of Les Paul, with tons of photos and some of his early guitars.

I am often times miffed at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for who they choose to induct each year.  There seems to be a decided lack of rockers recently.  Case in point, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond and The Beastie Boys were nominees for 2011.  Neil Diamond won.  The mind reels.

Jeff found his car

And I found mine

The weather only got worse as we were inside

It started to pour as we walked back to the bus.  I stupidly told Jeff that at least Ohio doesn't have hurricanes.  The wind obviously took this as a challenge because no soon were the words out of my mouth when a huge gust of wind hit that almost knocked us both face first onto the side walk

I sopped in the rain to take this picture

Jeff, completely soaked and glad to be undercover at the bus stop

This last photo is just for Adam (Addy) and Ashley.

Addy's Restaurant

Adventures

Thinking happy thoughts

Yesterday Jeff was scheduled to go into the catheterization lab at noon for a scan of his arteries.  This is when they insert a tube from your thigh up to your heart, inject contrast and take pictures.  This link will take you to a site that had video clips of the procedure.  Click the Next button at the bottom of the pages to navigate through the site and get the videos.

So Jeff was scheduled to go in at noon....he wasn't brought back until almost 2:30.  Did I mention that you aren't allowed to eat or drink anything prior to this procedure?  Obviously by the time they came to get him, Jeff was ready to gnaw his arm off.  Thankfully they fed him, twice, while in the ICU.  Pictures from the test came back good.  Jeff has just 10% blockage of his arteries.  Considering his diet (chicken nuggets) that's pretty good.

Having passed this last test we are go for surgery on the 4th.

Today, our first day off from hospital visits, we decided to venture out into the rain and go to....the mall. Come on people don't give me any grief.  The mall is warm and dry - and remember my umbrella is broken. 

We headed off to Beachwood Place, but only after Jeff spent nearly an hour figuring out how to get us there.  The mall was nice, it felt smaller inside then our malls. The main corridors are narrower and have more stuff in them.  We had lunch at Maggiano's, which gave us so much food we'll have dinner from them too.

The trip home took longer then expected.  The bus was 40 minutes late and I had to pee like crazy.  Just for the hell of it we decided to get off early and take the train to Euclid Ave and catch the Health Line the rest of the way.

The cost of the train trip was covered by the all day pass we bought on the bus in the morning.  For $5 a person we got 3 bus rides and a train trip.  The pass is good until 3:00am tomorrow so if we want to go out drinking tonight.....yeah not gonna happen.

The train dropped us off at Lake View Cemetery, just northeast of Case Western University.

I will have to come back here before we leave.  The place is HUGE.  They have a wonderful chapel where people get married.  Kind of ghoulish, getting married in a cemetery but whatever.  I also want to find the James A Garfield monument which is somewhere in Lake View.

On either side of the train station were really unique condos.  I would love to see inside of each of them.

North Side of the tracks

South Side of the tracks

Tonight as the sun was setting I realized I forgot to show you the view from our apartment.   All the windows except those in the bedrooms face the same way.  Sadly the bathroom window has the best view.  The kitchen is a close second but there is a tree branch which partially obstructs the view.

From the bathroom window

That's it for today.  The heat has finally started working (I've only seen radiators in antique shops) so I am going to go veg out in front of the TV for awhile.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Apartment Life

Welcome to apartment 20.  Our home base here in Cleveland.  The floors creak, the paint is two inches thick, and the stove might have been new when Ford was in the White House.  But there are no bugs, the window A/C unit works like a champ, we don't hear a single neighbor, and we have all the privacy you could ask for.

The hallway looking towards the front stairs. 
Our door is on the left, you can only see the little rug out front.

The whole building has beautiful wood floors and I think the original oak stairs in the front and back.  The owner has some wonderful art hung on every floor.

Living room

It would be nice to have a couch.  Then again we haven't been in the apartment long enough to actually miss not having one.

After our first trip to the store.

Yes that's a McDonald's bag.  It was the first (only) restaurant that we found when we got here.  And...you can buy 50 chicken nuggets for $10.  That's a lot of nuggets!

Our first dinner.  Leftover nuggets chicken noodle soup and tea.
We're living large up here.

Jeff and I feel like newly weds (which we are) in our first apartment (which it is).  Hand me down furniture, mis-matched dishes, I am loving all of it.

My "Office"

First Bedroom

Second Bedroom, the one we're using

Why?

Well that's all the photos I've taken of our pied a terre.  It's cute and quirky what more could we want?  There's a pretty good storm going on right now.  The wind is really howling and the rain is coming down in sheets.  It's like being at home.  And like true Northwesteners we did not bring an umbrella with us.  I bought one in the bookstore at the hospital.  Within 5 minutes a huge gust of wind broke it.  Jeff spent a half hour trying to fix it when we got back home.  No luck.  Sigh.  It's suppose to rain the whole weekend.   

As promised, Pictures

Some of the pictures I've taken so far.  It's been fun doing the little bit of exploring that we've been able to do.  Every corner has a church or two on it so I have a lot of pictures of those, but I have only uploaded a few of the better ones.  An update on our day has been added to my earlier post First Day Done

Front door

Our home away from home

Just outside the building's front door is the Health Line.  The buses run every 5 minutes and are uber convenient.  It only runs up and down Euclid Ave.  So far we've found everything we need along this one street so that isn't a big deal.

One of the many churches

Italian Chinese food.....hmmmm?

Another view of the church

Architectural details like this is what give a boring grey brick building some character

Jeff walking to the apartment.  It's the building covered in ivy.  We are on the 3rd floor middle 5 windows.

Another church across the street from the supermarket.

Cardiology wing of the Cleveland Clinic

Colonial Arcade - Downtown Cleveland by Quicken Field

Upstairs at Colonial Arcade.  Can you see the stained glass ceiling through the shop windows?

Parking Garage

First Day Done

Well we're done with our first day of appointments.  Nine hours of doctors and tests and blood draws.  And we get to do it all again tomorrow.

I am going to keep this short and send in a longer update later tonight.  Jeff wants to go downtown tonight and have a real dinner.  We got some disappointing news today so I will do anything to perk him up. 

Turns out this valve repair he's agreed to have isn't as final as he was led to believe.  Sadly we'll be doing this again every 15 or so years for the rest of his life.  To say Jeff is pissed is to woefully understate it.

View of the main hospital from the 9th floor of the Pulmonary Clinic

Update:
I hated to leave anyone who read the blog earlier hanging but I was eager to get out and do some more exploring and give Jeff the chance to vent.

The day started off really well, even though we were running a few minutes behind.  When are we not?  We made our first check in right on time so it was all good.  My fingers were crossed the whole time we were being checked in and Jeff's insurance was being entered into the system.  I kept waiting for flashing red lights, sirens and a commanding voice to announce that Jeff still does not have insurance.  I think those of you on the west coast would have heard my head explode.

Jeff getting his echocardiogram

From registration to the blood lab, through the EKG and Chest X-Ray everything went great.  Then we met with Dr. Stewart the Cardiologist.  What a nice guy.  Very thorough.  He spent a ton of time with us and even brought in an intern and used Jeff as a teaching opportunity.   The sight of two men with their hands down Jeff's underpants checking for a groin pulse is not something I ever thought I'd see.

After the exam, and once Jeff pulled his pants back up, Dr. Stewart said Jeff is a good candidate for the repair surgery.  His blood pressure, while normal-ish in his upper body is 60 systolic points higher in his lower body.  I think he called it Hills Sign.  He also said Jeff showed positive for Durozier's Sign.  Neither one of these signs is horrible, they just point to Jeff having severe Aortic Insufficiency.

Jeff rockin the Cleveland Clinic green

Dr. Stewart said he believes there is a 90% chance that Jeff was born with a bicuspid aortic valve instead of the normal tricuspid.  He doesn't know why Jeff had such a sudden onset of symptoms but hopes to have more answers for us after surgery.

About that surgery.  When Jeff last talked with his regular cardiologist he was told that if this repair was successful, it would eliminate the need for a replacement valve - TRUE.  And that it would be a permanent fix - FALSE.  Turns out, repairs last about as long as replacements.  The benefits of a repair over the replacement is 1) the proceedure is less invasive, they don't cut down the full length of your sternum, just three inches of it. 2) you do not need to take blood thinners for the rest of your life.  And that's really about it.

So we're here, on the other side of the country, and find out that as far as Cleveland Clinic is concerned we'll be coming back every decade or so and doing this all over again.  Dr. Steward said there is no way to know how long the repair will last.  Could be a month, could be a year, could be 20 years.  What he did know is that it wouldn't last forever.

What I know, is that when I get home I am calling Swedish Hospital to find out more about there valve repair program.  Oh yeah did I mention that?  Jeff was told that no one in Washington does the repair.  The Monday before we left, while driving home I heard a Swedish Hospital commercial on the radio advertising their cardio clinic which does valve repair and replacement surgeries.  I don't know if they do the exact proceedure that Jeff will have, but I am going to find out.

Cleveland, you're awsome, but I don't want to come out here for the same thing I can get at home.

Hello Cleveland

Well we made it.  Our flight out of DC was delayed about 30 minutes.  The passengers all showed up on time but the pilot and flight crew didn't.  I didn't mind because the line I was in outside of Starbucks was huge and the delay gave me time to stand around and breathe in that wonderful coffee aroma.

First impressions - Cleveland is a nice mellow town.  The architecture where we are staying, Midtown area, is a good mix of old and new.  I took a few pictures but have to wait for Jeff to show me how to get them off the camera since we didn't bring the USB cable for it.  The area is in transition.  Lots of new clean buildings next to boarded up old ones.  Like cities everywhere good parts and bad.  Jeff and I are the minorities around here.  Taking a walk today, I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb.  Never felt scared, just very conspicuous.  Certainly a new experience for me.  Sheltered Seattlite that I am.

The Brownstone Inn is beautiful.  I wish I'd gotten the chance to see more of it though.  We were there for all of about 5 minutes.  The owner, after realizing/remembering that we are staying for 2 weeks took us right to the apartment building he owns and set us up in Apartment 20.  The apartment will have to be the subject of another post.  I'll start by saying; it was the first specifically built apartment building in Cleveland.  And it certainly has that old building "charm".

Both Jeff and I have airplane colds.  Itchy red eyes, dry cough, and starting to get stuffed up.  Jeff is worried that this will delay his surgery date.  To be honest, so am I.  Thankfully in our wanderings today we found a CVS pharmacy just a few stops down on the Health Line. 

We went grocery shopping this afternoon before hitting the sack for some much needed sleep.  We were both going on over 30 hours with no sleep.  Groceries are limited, PB&J ingredients, Blackberry Tea (I will be filling my suitcase with boxes of this to bring home) Eggs,and Chicken Soup. 

Going back to bed now, if I can get Jeff off of the phone with his brother.  We have to be up early for Jeff's first appointment of the day.  It just hit me, this is really happening.

On Our Way

We are currently sitting in the N Gates terminal waiting for our flight.  I made a rookie mistake and left my debit card and some cash in my pocket as I went through security.  As a reward I got the special TSA pat-down service.  What a noob as my son would say.

I flew out of work today.  But not before double and triple checking that Jeff had been added to my medical coverage.  He is now the proud owner of a temporary insurance card and printouts from the UHC website showing him as a Covered Person.  I can not tell you how relieved I was.  

William cried when we got to the airport.  He isn't one for tears so when they come they are especially effective with me.  If I ever wanted a cloning machine it was then.  He's sad and he's scared and he feels abandoned during a stressful part of his life.  That tricky transition to middle school.  It breaks my heart and I feel like a terrible mom.  However this is an exceptional time for all of us.  And I am not going to be gone forever.  Jeff worked for a couple of hours today getting a webcam set up on William's computer so we can video chat everyday. He'll recover and probably even enjoy time away from us.

Panic

I am in full panic mode right now.  I logged onto the website for my insurance agency to print out a temporary card for Jeff since we haven't received one and found that he was not listed under Covered People. 

The paperwork to add him was turned in Monday of last week.  So I called UHC.  Nope they didn't have the paperwork.  The nice lady on the other end of the line said Jeff would be covered back to the date of our marriage but that we would have to pay for any doctor visits now and could submit claims for reimbursement.  Okay, no problem I'll just write a check for everything and wait to get paid back.  Yeah maybe if my last name was Gates or Buffet.

Panicked email to our benefits department uncovered the fact that they submit paperwork to UHC every other week.  The next packet goes out this Thursday.  Now go down and look at the list of appointments he has this Thursday.  My panic kicked into a higher gear.

End result; Jeff is being manually entered into the system now and I am impatiently waiting on confirmation.  I don't know what to tell him when I get home.  He's going to want to have the temporary card.  All I can give him is the email confirmation that he's been added.  I know this will work out and when the hospital calls on Thursday to confirm coverage he'll be in there. 

I hope. 

OMG I am panicking again.

Gonna be busy

We received the list of all Jeff's pre-surgery appointments today.  They included a handy map, which is good because Jeff feels much calmer if he knows where he's going and how to get there.  I am more the wander around until I bump into it sort of person.  However I am usually the better map reader.  The only thing not marked on the map is where the Health Line shuttle/bus stop is.  Guess we'll find out.

I forgot to mention in my last post that the photos from brunch were all taken by the lovely and very talented Ashley.  I am lucky to have her as a sister-in-law.

Oh, one more thing, I don't know if you can read it on the appointment schedule, but the last appointment on Monday is with the surgeon.  We were told to pack a lunch, show up, and be prepared to wait all day to see him.  It feels like we have an "appointment" with The Wizard of Oz.

Blessings Great and Small

We've all been told that red wine in moderation is good for your heart.  The antioxidants and resveratol help lower bad cholesterol and improve artery health.  What doesn't get mentioned in those health reports and news stories is that wine is often drank when you are part of a gathering of friends and family.  You open a bottle, pour a glass and let yourself relax and enjoy the people around you.  And I think this part is just as important as antioxidants for a healthy heart and your overall health.  Doesn't matter what you drink, it matters who you're drinking with.

We did have Champagne however

We had Sunday brunch this past weekend.  While no wine was served, I know that both Jeff and I felt happier and more content that we have in weeks.  And isnt' that a key ingredient for good health?

He knows the secret to being happy

Having great people in your life is a blessing.  They share your burdens, make you laugh, give you confidence, keep your feet on the ground, and make your life worth living.  Be open to the people around you because you'll never know what good things they will bring to your life. 

Jeff is working late tonight.  It's his last day before he's off for 6 weeks.  I don't think his company is prepared for him to be gone that long.  He joked that he might have to take tech calls from the hospital and work from there.  I told him I was going to confiscate his phone and disable the wireless connection on his laptop.  Cleveland, and all of Ohio, will be work free zone for him.  I don't have a plan yet for when we get back home.  I'll probably just have to resort to threatening to tell him mom on him if he starts working from home.

Here on the home front, William is doing his homework, the kitten is chewing my toes, and I am living in the moment.  So open up a bottle of your favorite red, give a toast in celebration of life, and hug the people you hold dear to your heart.

B&B vs. Hotel

Neither Jeff nor I travel a whole lot.  When we do it's usually business related so a corporate travel planner makes all the decisions.  This trip next week is our first long out of state "vacation" together.  I am using the term vacation with a heavy dose of irony.  And if we just ignore the whole hospitalization and surgery part, I am actually looking forward to it.  I am just going to focus on the first 5 days instead of the rest of the trip.

For everyone that is following along, we will be staying at The Brownstone Inn,  The Cleveland Clinic gave us a list of places to look into for accommodations and this place was on the list.  I've never stayed in a Bed & Breakfast before so was reluctant to call them.  I am used to the anonymity of chain hotels.  However I wanted a place with a kitchen and laundry and I found both at The Brownstone.  As an added bonus the owner was very friendly when he called me back and offered to take us to the apartments he owns on the next street and rent us one of those for the two weeks if we want.  Same price - Yippee!

Jeff and I will be flying out Tuesday night, the 27th.  If all goes well we'll be coming home Wednesday October 12th.  Jeff has two pre-surgery appoints with Dr. Svensson and Dr. Stewart.  Surgery is scheduled at The Cleveland Clinic - Number 1 in Cardiac Care for 17 years -  on Tuesday October 4th pending the outcome of those earlier appointments.  I suppose if Jeff gets sick or they find a sign of infection on the heart they'll postpone but I really don't know what else would make them change the surgery date.

If anyone is curious and wants to know more about the aortic valve and it's role in your hearts overall health, here's a great link courtesy of The Cleveland Clinic.

Paperwork

When did getting sick start causing so much paperwork?

Do you have your referral forms?  Is your hospital authorization paperwork completed?  Need to take time off?  Here fill out this form.  Have your doctor complete this paperwork.  Give this to your supervisor to approve.  The paperwork hoops are endless.

Jeff has FMLA paperwork to bring to Cleveland and now so do I.  I am starting to wonder if I should pack a scanner/copier/fax machine with our luggage so we can send in all the piles of paper we're bringing with us.

Sigh.  I really shouldn't complain.  We both have jobs that will allow us to take extended absences, and in my case I have permission to work remotely.  My whole department, and my boss in particular have been very supportive.  They have shouldered some of my work load when I took days off this summer when Jeff first got sick.  They politely ignore my red watery eyes when I get back to my desk after crying in the ladies room.  And last week they threw a belated wedding shower complete with money tree so Jeff and I would have cash for cabs, tolls and whatever while in Cleveland.

Thank you everyone



Can't believe I am doing this again

A blank screen is pretty intimidating.  I am remembering all the reasons I quit blogging in the first place.  This summer, however I found that I needed a quick and efficient way to send out updates to my family and friends.  Emails are great but I found that I was creating long email chains of updates and side conversations.  Plus I have some family email address in my Hotmail address book and some at work.  And none in my memory bank.  So I am resurrecting this old blog where I can post photos and updates on Jeff and his recovery.  Yes I could also do this on Facebook but not everyone uses Facebook.

So here we are.

Was I the last sucker left on your phone list?

Well this week is almost over. Thank goodness. I took the tree down last night and the BF decided that the carpets should be washed. He then spend the next few hours shampooing them. Didn't ask for help, didn't moan and groan about doing "women's' work", just got down and cleaned them. I was sorry that I'd already printed out my list of Reasons Why I Love You. Cause let me tell you - last night would have made the top 10 list.

Apparently I am now a manual writer at work. I've never written an Install Manual before in my life. I've read quite a few and none of them have ever left me with the desire to sit at my keyboard and write one. That being said....my very first manual is at the printers now and will arrive at work next week. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Everything was templated out for me and I was really just revising on old one. However when it comes time to update the ole resume...yeah I am not going to include this particular skill. I have no aspirations to be a technical writer. This blog is about as much writing as I like to do in a day.

The business next to ours is visted once a week by a cryogenic truck.  The truck hooks up to something inside the building. It's a big mystery around here. We NEVER see anyone who works next door except on the days this truck arrives. Do they have frozen heads over there? Whole people? Is it a storage place for frozen sperm?

It's so much more fun trying to guess then it would ever be to just go over there and ask.

The wasted week

The week between Christmas and New Years is such a waste of time. Most of the people in our industry take this week off which makes it difficult to get projects done. I've always suffered from a kind of post Christmas depression. PCD. Even really great Christmas' leave me feeling sort of hollow and empty. I think it's the big build up associated with it all. Then the day after you're left with the mess, the prospect of taking down the tree and all the decorations you've put up, and if you're unlucky enough having to go back out to the mall.

The BF and I went out on Friday night and saw Fun with Dick and Jane. It was hysterically funny. There was absolutely no chemistry between the main characters but it doesn't really matter. It was just fun watching Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey. Afterwards I spilled soda all over the interior of my car, including into my CD player and touch screen navigation unit. I was horrified! I have a warranty on all the electronics in my car but not if they've had soda spilled on them. It only took the BF two and a half hours to pull my dash apart, remove and clean everything even remotely electrical and put it all back together. I am very happy to say that it all works perfectly. And I am never drinking in my car again.

Holiday goodies

My mom hates Christmas. She doesn't like shopping, can't stand crowds, and is generally rather Scrooge like every December. Unfortunately her attitude tends to rub off on me. This year it was really hard for me to get into the spirit of things. Money has been tight and for the last few years it seams like the quantity and quality (money) of the gifts you buy for people is more important then anything else. The holidays have become a ritual of greed in which, as the only female in my family, I am expected to lead. It is up to me to buy the gifts we send out, decorate the house, prepare the holiday foods, and keep tabs on the emotional well being of our extended network of friends and family. Granted all these jobs are somewhat self appointed but the social pressure to conform and take on these tasks is enormous.

It was with these things in mind that I headed out to do the last of my Christmas buying last weekend. Needless to say nothing much was accomplished. When I came home I saw that the BF had hung up Christmas lights around the exterior of the house. I love Christmas lights. They are my favorite part of the holidays. The Frex never saw the point of putting up lights. To him it was just an additional expense and another chore he didn't want to do. The last Christmas we were together he did put up lights but it was to compete with the neighbors, not to make me happy. So anyways, I was crying by the time I pulled into the driveway. Lights, red and blue, strung along the edges of the roof, the tree glowing through the window. My family safe and warm inside. I Love Christmas.

Baaaaaack!

So I was going to take a week or two off from blogging.....yeah it became a 4 month break. Don't worry you haven't missed much. I bought a new car, well new to me. It's a 2003 Jaguar S type R and I love it! Horsepower was never important to me until I had 400 of it all packed into a sleek and, I think, sexy, curvy, road hugging, package. Okay so it sucks down gas like a fat kid sucks up cake, but I still adore every white inch of it.

Work is crazy right now. We're suppose to be in our slow period - HA! I think we should send our sales guys on vacation or something because they're killing us with all these new jobs.

I found a blog last week that has completely sucked me in. I don't want to post a link to it because I feel like I would be violating his privacy by "advertising" it. Weird concept considering it is an on-line blog, but that's how I feel right now. Reading his posts is like catching a glimpse of what my marriage would have been like had I stayed instead of leaving when I did. Some couples can recover from an affair and some just can't.

My older boy is no longer allowed to go into the drugstore with me. A few weeks ago we're wondering the aisles waiting to get a prescription filled and he finds the condoms. He has a peculiar fascination with them after reading about them in the "sex book" I gave him when we had The Talk. In his "outside voice" he says,
"Hey mom I found the condoms."

"Great, but we don't need them."

"Res.....res....mom what's a res-a-vo-eer tip"

"Oh my god will you just leave them alone and get over here?!"

"Studded. Is that like the snow tires?"

"I am leaving now. Good bye!"

I though the woman at the other end of the aisle was going to fall over and wet her pants she was laughing so hard.

I received an email from an old HS friend just before Thanksgiving. I wrote her back but have yet to hear from her again. Odd.

Lame lame lame

I think I am making strides in my effort to break into the HMWHC. They took me out to lunch yesterday and it wasn't to a bar. It's still very quiet in here and I am absolutely hating the lack of privacy. They played Loverboy and other bad 80s music yesterday until I thought I was going to scream. Overall though I think it'll be okay working with them. It's the commute that is going to do me in. I hate getting up at 6 only to get into work at 7:50. No sane person should have to drive for an hour and a half to get to work.

The BF is becoming a pretty good Mr. Mom. This is only his first week but he's doing great with the boys and man I am loving not having to get them up in the morning. Supposedly they are going to the Frex's this weekend. We haven't worked out how they are getting to his house. He must not be too concerned over it because he hasn't called at all asking about it. Not that I am expecting him to. He's very good at just ignoring the things he doesn't want to deal with. Even when those things are 11 and 6 years old.

I just finished reading "The Arab Mind" (I can't remember the author's name right now). It's an old book but I found the information to still be relevant. It doesn't dig as deep as I would have liked into some subject matters but it gives a pretty good overview of how Arab opinions and attitudes are formed. What I got out of it was an understanding of why the terrorists who strike in Europe and over here are predominately western educated and/or have lived in the west for a number of years. I also came away thinking that if it wasn't for oil, the rest of the world would ignore them like they do Africa. Anyhow it's kind of dry and textbook like but I think it's worth reading.

So it's been over 80 degrees here for the past couple of weeks. Today it's suppose to hit 90. Now I know that's pretty cool compared to many parts of the US right now, but that's freaking HOT for Seattle. I now live farther inland then I did before so it'll hit 90 at my house with no problem today. I miss the cooling off-shore breezes and the morning marine layer that kept everything tolerable for a few hours every morning. The great thing about working in Seattle was the wind off the Sound. It kept the air moving and even if it was 85 outside you felt great when the wind hit you. Summer days when the wind is from the south or east and it was hot as hell you want to die. Just melt into a puddle right there on the sidewalk. We're a hardy bunch us Pacific Northwesterners, but that's really only true when it comes to the cold and the rain. We've never learned how to drive properly in the snow and we go crazy with the heat. But on those grey overcast days when the temperature is in the 60s and the breeze carries the tang of salt water....man we are in our prime. It's those days that we invent ways to get the rest of the country addicted to over priced coffee, and point and click operating systems with which to buy books and other goods on-line. Yes those were blatant plugs for Starbucks, Microsoft, and Amazon.com.

Well I am off to get more green tea and to raid the Red Vines bucket.

Working for peanuts

First day in the new office. I tried to avoid traffic by going in before 7. Ha! Can't believe I thought that was going to work. Thankfully I arrived at the same time as some other employees who let me in the building. I don't have a keycard yet.

My new "office" is an 18"x48" table pushed against a wall with a picture of, god help me, Chuck Norris hanging above it. Fabulous. All the parts of my computer are on the desk waiting for me to assemble. No problem I've put together plenty of computer systems and hey this way I can get my "desk" set up the way I want it. Computer is up and running....I can't log in. They didn't give me a password. It's still before 8am and there are about 5 of us in the building and the other 4 are not in the IT dept. I decided it was tea time.

A perk of the new company is the free peanuts in the breakroom. Yep folks free peanuts. And if you don't like peanuts there's pretzels and Red Vines. So we aren't allowed to bring over any alcohol but we get all the bar food we can eat. I run into a fellow Seattleite and he tells me the magic password to get me into the system. Thank god cause they were running low on Red Vines and I was gonna have to start in on the pretzels pretty soon.

I ran into a few problems getting Outlook to accept the PST files I'd made. No surprise there. Outlook is a pain in the ass on a good day. The IT guy and I are getting along pretty good especially when he finds out that I can actually read the binary clock I have on my desk. He's probably the only person there I feel comfortable asking for help from.

There are two projects in my In-Box that are due tomorrow. One of them I was able to pretty much do today. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get our drawings into their titleblocks or vice versa. The He Man Women Haters Club (HMWHC) is less then helpful. They told me that their blocks are stored on the B drive. HMMMM never used a B drive before. Yeah that would be the engineering drive on the company server. It propagates a unique drive letter when you map it. No one had thought to set me up with permissions on the server so I could map the engineering drive. Why would an engineering drafter need that?

Most of the day I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to be there and I didn't want to work. I didn't want to sit in a room with a bunch of guys that weren't even going to ask if I needed any help figuring out how to find the right plotter on the print server, or what CTB file I should use to print, or even say Happy Fucking Monday to me.

I need a new job. I did see a couple of openings, while they were all at lunch and I felt free to surf the net for awhile, that I am going to send my resume in for. Cross your fingers for me.