Yes, I know it's cold, but Hell hasn't frozen over just because I'm posting!
So, it's been approximately forever since my last post, so I thought I'd remedy that this evening. I could spend my time watching my DVRed copy of tonight's American Idol, but if the girls were anything like last night's boys, then maybe I should just delete it without watching. Although AI this season is the very definition of a train wreck right now, so I am sure I will be watching it soon. Plus, there are some fantastic girls, and my remote does come with both a fast forward and a mute button.
***
This year has been pretty busy for me thusfar. I did start off 2007 with an exciting milestone, though. As of January 1, 2007, I have not thrown up in ten years. Wow. This might sound like a strange thing to be proud of, but I really hate throwing up, so it's pretty damn awesome to me. I don't get sick a lot, and when I do it tends to be sinus-y things, coupled with coughing (like I seem to have developed today, *hack hack*) but, still, I was pretty impressed a few years ago when I realized that the last time I had thrown up was on New Years' Day 1997 (the result of a combination of a the flu and way too much sparkling red grape juice on New Year's Eve. I can't drink that stuff now, ugh). So, ever since then, I've been trying to make it to ten years. Now, I guess I can go out and get really drunk without worrying? I don't know.
***
Anyway, in non-vomit related news, we started off January with my Mom finally getting her knee replaced, which she has been wanting for quite a while. And she's pretty much recovered now, which is good. Her mobility is tons better than it was before the surgery, which is awesome. Alas, the new knee hasn't really improved the way she treats me (she still yells at me for no reason, and then seems to forget she was horribly insulting/cruel the next day), but I try not to let it bother me. wicce has been telling me some interesting things about how Mom has acted around customers which makes me feel better, in that she doesn't just go crazy around me.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love my mother. I even like her about 80% of the time. It's just that other 20%, man. Like, for example, I volunteered to work her hours at her store for her while she was recovering rather than get another job. My temp job ended last year right before the holidays and they never called me back (bastards!) so I was going to sign up with a new agency, but I told her that if she wanted me to, I'd be happy to work for her until she could come back. She agreed, and I've been doing that since the second(?) week of January. A couple of days into my time there, I decided to organize behind the counter at the store. The way it's set up, the customer can basically see everything behind the counter when they're checking out, and so I wanted to organize so it looked professional, and also so I could find things. I went through the drawers and threw away pens that didn't work, put straws/forks/fortune cookies/crackers in the kitchen, organized office supplies, etc. Then I cleaned out the cubby holes that have stuff like catalogs (mostly books in case a customer wants one we don't have), phone books, etc. I didn't throw anything away unless it was, like, a pen that didn't work, or maybe a flyer for some event we'd had that was in 2003 or something (seriously, she saves everything). I also cleaned behind some stuff on the counter. The big thing I did was take the papers that had special orders, or things that needed re-ordering and put them in file folders to get them out of the way. One for definite orders (special orders and re-orders from inventory) and one for possible orders that needed to be gone through. Basically, I made things look nice so that we didn't look unprofessional, familiarized myself with the location of everything so I could find stuff for people, and put some of the random papers that we might need on any given day together so that they were more accessible.
The way Mom reacted, you'd think I took everything, dumped it in a pile in the parking lot, and lit it on fire. She yelled at me because I called her on the phone asking if a couple of magazines that had been on the counter were things that we needed or if they were garbage. She yelled at me for, get this, taking the file folders out of her office and putting papers in them. Yes, for using the folders for their intended purpose. asdfkjas;dflkajsdf;laksjdf;laskjdf
And to top it all off, she wouldn't let me explain what I had actually done. I had to sit down and write out a two page note (unlined 8.5 x 11 paper) detailing everything I did so that she would even know what had been done. When she came home from the store the day after I did that, she was all "why'd you bother writing that note?" Uh, because you wouldn't fucking let me tell you what I'd done, you moron! Argh! She yelled at me a bunch of time for something I did, not because I was bored, but because I thought it would be a nice thing to do. And then, a couple of days after the note, after she'd seen what I'd done, she randomly said "you did a nice job." No, "I'm sorry for yelling."
But I learned my lesson. If I want to organize anything (which really means I want to go through something and see what's in it and stack it in nicer piles than it was in previously), I'm not telling her. It's not like she'll notice, anyway.
I like her 99% of the time when we don't live together, though, so I will be utterly thrilled when I've saved up enough money to move away. I'd be out of the house already, but I really want to move across the country, and since my parents seem okay with letting me stay at home, rent free, I would rather not question it and save the money so I can go that much sooner, rather than move out now for a little bit of peace and be stuck in a city that aggravates my allergies so much for that much longer.
Thankfully, soon I will be getting another job, which is good, since the saving part of my plan is not really going too well right now. I am able to pay down my credit card working at the store, and I'm almost done paying my Dad for the stuff he bought me at Best Buy on Black Friday last year (yay, 22 inch monitor!), but saving...not so much. I basically have to wait a few weeks on the other job front because...drum roll please (cause this is totally awesome)...
I'm getting my tonsils out!!!
Okay, it may not sound that exciting to you, but trust me, if you had my tonsils you'd be glad to get rid of them, too. I know I've mentioned in the past that I have tonsilliths (or however you spell them) in my right tonsil, and I tried Googling so that you all could see the disgusting picture I ran into while looking for home remedies a couple of months ago, but I couldn't find it and there weren't any good example pages that weren't just advertisements for products to clean your tonsils. Basically, they're calcium deposits that form in the tonsils and smell really bad. Like, halitosis bad. I can get them out if I gag them up or poke at my tonsil, or by other gross means, but they've created a huge pit in my tonsil, and basically more junk just forms as soon as anything gets cleared out. Well, along with the tonsilliths, which I've had since high school, I get severe sore throats, which are a recent development. I've always gotten sore throats, but this year they've been particularly bad. I swear, this has been one of the dryest winters ever. I don't know what is up because I have my humidifier running literally 24/7, and my skin is still incredibly dry and my throat is incredibly dry and sore every morning when I wake up. Even though I can finally breathe through my nose at night (thank you Zyrtec D!), I still have a horribly dry mouth/throat in the morning. I can't wait for spring.
But I am so excited that they're coming out because I had gone to a doctor in the past that told me that they never took tonsils out once you got past a certain age. He said a)I had to live with it, and b)I could try gargling with salt water. That, predictably, did nothing. My GP and allergist also said I had to just live with the tonsilliths, so I was not expecting anything when I casually mentioned them to the ear, nose and throat guy I went to at the end of last year (allergist thought my headaches were from my deviated septum; turns out that they're actually migraines, boy oh boy). This doctor is awesome, in that he said that if all other options were exhausted, he'd totally take out my tonsils. There can be bleeding and stuff, but it doesn't seem like the surgery will be that bad. The other thing he had told me to try was gargling with 50% peroxide 50% water, which seemed to work at first, but didn't work for long. And then I developed the sore throat that I've had on and off since the beginning of February. I've had it pretty much every day for the past two weeks, and even those Cepacol lozenges aren't helping that much.
So, the doctor said that the surgery scheduler will call me tomorrow or the next day to schedule and so maybe I will be tonsil free by next week!
Very exciting stuff, I know.
***
In other news, I reserved a hotel room for winchestercon (sdkljasdf;lkjasd;lfkjasdf, so excited!!), and although I don't have the money saved yet for a flight, and I don't have any idea how I'm going to get a flight, I am definitely going. I was bummed that I couldn't go last year, and when I heard that this year's was in LA, I decided I had to go since being in CA would give me the perfect excuse to go visit former roommate!P and A. Thankfully October is a long time from now.
So, if anyone would like to room with me, let me know! I have a double room (two queens, non smoking) from October 11th to October 14th (check in Thursday evening, check out Sunday morning), have one potential roommate already *waves to lyra_wing*, and have room for a couple more. If you're interested, feel free to comment or e-mail me at antimony[at]gmail[dot]com. Man, this is going to be fun! I can't wait!
***
This year has been pretty busy for me thusfar. I did start off 2007 with an exciting milestone, though. As of January 1, 2007, I have not thrown up in ten years. Wow. This might sound like a strange thing to be proud of, but I really hate throwing up, so it's pretty damn awesome to me. I don't get sick a lot, and when I do it tends to be sinus-y things, coupled with coughing (like I seem to have developed today, *hack hack*) but, still, I was pretty impressed a few years ago when I realized that the last time I had thrown up was on New Years' Day 1997 (the result of a combination of a the flu and way too much sparkling red grape juice on New Year's Eve. I can't drink that stuff now, ugh). So, ever since then, I've been trying to make it to ten years. Now, I guess I can go out and get really drunk without worrying? I don't know.
***
Anyway, in non-vomit related news, we started off January with my Mom finally getting her knee replaced, which she has been wanting for quite a while. And she's pretty much recovered now, which is good. Her mobility is tons better than it was before the surgery, which is awesome. Alas, the new knee hasn't really improved the way she treats me (she still yells at me for no reason, and then seems to forget she was horribly insulting/cruel the next day), but I try not to let it bother me. wicce has been telling me some interesting things about how Mom has acted around customers which makes me feel better, in that she doesn't just go crazy around me.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love my mother. I even like her about 80% of the time. It's just that other 20%, man. Like, for example, I volunteered to work her hours at her store for her while she was recovering rather than get another job. My temp job ended last year right before the holidays and they never called me back (bastards!) so I was going to sign up with a new agency, but I told her that if she wanted me to, I'd be happy to work for her until she could come back. She agreed, and I've been doing that since the second(?) week of January. A couple of days into my time there, I decided to organize behind the counter at the store. The way it's set up, the customer can basically see everything behind the counter when they're checking out, and so I wanted to organize so it looked professional, and also so I could find things. I went through the drawers and threw away pens that didn't work, put straws/forks/fortune cookies/crackers in the kitchen, organized office supplies, etc. Then I cleaned out the cubby holes that have stuff like catalogs (mostly books in case a customer wants one we don't have), phone books, etc. I didn't throw anything away unless it was, like, a pen that didn't work, or maybe a flyer for some event we'd had that was in 2003 or something (seriously, she saves everything). I also cleaned behind some stuff on the counter. The big thing I did was take the papers that had special orders, or things that needed re-ordering and put them in file folders to get them out of the way. One for definite orders (special orders and re-orders from inventory) and one for possible orders that needed to be gone through. Basically, I made things look nice so that we didn't look unprofessional, familiarized myself with the location of everything so I could find stuff for people, and put some of the random papers that we might need on any given day together so that they were more accessible.
The way Mom reacted, you'd think I took everything, dumped it in a pile in the parking lot, and lit it on fire. She yelled at me because I called her on the phone asking if a couple of magazines that had been on the counter were things that we needed or if they were garbage. She yelled at me for, get this, taking the file folders out of her office and putting papers in them. Yes, for using the folders for their intended purpose. asdfkjas;dflkajsdf;laksjdf;laskjdf
And to top it all off, she wouldn't let me explain what I had actually done. I had to sit down and write out a two page note (unlined 8.5 x 11 paper) detailing everything I did so that she would even know what had been done. When she came home from the store the day after I did that, she was all "why'd you bother writing that note?" Uh, because you wouldn't fucking let me tell you what I'd done, you moron! Argh! She yelled at me a bunch of time for something I did, not because I was bored, but because I thought it would be a nice thing to do. And then, a couple of days after the note, after she'd seen what I'd done, she randomly said "you did a nice job." No, "I'm sorry for yelling."
But I learned my lesson. If I want to organize anything (which really means I want to go through something and see what's in it and stack it in nicer piles than it was in previously), I'm not telling her. It's not like she'll notice, anyway.
I like her 99% of the time when we don't live together, though, so I will be utterly thrilled when I've saved up enough money to move away. I'd be out of the house already, but I really want to move across the country, and since my parents seem okay with letting me stay at home, rent free, I would rather not question it and save the money so I can go that much sooner, rather than move out now for a little bit of peace and be stuck in a city that aggravates my allergies so much for that much longer.
Thankfully, soon I will be getting another job, which is good, since the saving part of my plan is not really going too well right now. I am able to pay down my credit card working at the store, and I'm almost done paying my Dad for the stuff he bought me at Best Buy on Black Friday last year (yay, 22 inch monitor!), but saving...not so much. I basically have to wait a few weeks on the other job front because...drum roll please (cause this is totally awesome)...
I'm getting my tonsils out!!!
Okay, it may not sound that exciting to you, but trust me, if you had my tonsils you'd be glad to get rid of them, too. I know I've mentioned in the past that I have tonsilliths (or however you spell them) in my right tonsil, and I tried Googling so that you all could see the disgusting picture I ran into while looking for home remedies a couple of months ago, but I couldn't find it and there weren't any good example pages that weren't just advertisements for products to clean your tonsils. Basically, they're calcium deposits that form in the tonsils and smell really bad. Like, halitosis bad. I can get them out if I gag them up or poke at my tonsil, or by other gross means, but they've created a huge pit in my tonsil, and basically more junk just forms as soon as anything gets cleared out. Well, along with the tonsilliths, which I've had since high school, I get severe sore throats, which are a recent development. I've always gotten sore throats, but this year they've been particularly bad. I swear, this has been one of the dryest winters ever. I don't know what is up because I have my humidifier running literally 24/7, and my skin is still incredibly dry and my throat is incredibly dry and sore every morning when I wake up. Even though I can finally breathe through my nose at night (thank you Zyrtec D!), I still have a horribly dry mouth/throat in the morning. I can't wait for spring.
But I am so excited that they're coming out because I had gone to a doctor in the past that told me that they never took tonsils out once you got past a certain age. He said a)I had to live with it, and b)I could try gargling with salt water. That, predictably, did nothing. My GP and allergist also said I had to just live with the tonsilliths, so I was not expecting anything when I casually mentioned them to the ear, nose and throat guy I went to at the end of last year (allergist thought my headaches were from my deviated septum; turns out that they're actually migraines, boy oh boy). This doctor is awesome, in that he said that if all other options were exhausted, he'd totally take out my tonsils. There can be bleeding and stuff, but it doesn't seem like the surgery will be that bad. The other thing he had told me to try was gargling with 50% peroxide 50% water, which seemed to work at first, but didn't work for long. And then I developed the sore throat that I've had on and off since the beginning of February. I've had it pretty much every day for the past two weeks, and even those Cepacol lozenges aren't helping that much.
So, the doctor said that the surgery scheduler will call me tomorrow or the next day to schedule and so maybe I will be tonsil free by next week!
Very exciting stuff, I know.
***
In other news, I reserved a hotel room for winchestercon (sdkljasdf;lkjasd;lfkjasdf, so excited!!), and although I don't have the money saved yet for a flight, and I don't have any idea how I'm going to get a flight, I am definitely going. I was bummed that I couldn't go last year, and when I heard that this year's was in LA, I decided I had to go since being in CA would give me the perfect excuse to go visit former roommate!P and A. Thankfully October is a long time from now.
So, if anyone would like to room with me, let me know! I have a double room (two queens, non smoking) from October 11th to October 14th (check in Thursday evening, check out Sunday morning), have one potential roommate already *waves to lyra_wing*, and have room for a couple more. If you're interested, feel free to comment or e-mail me at antimony[at]gmail[dot]com. Man, this is going to be fun! I can't wait!