#5351 - recline to incline
i ran a few errands after work today, and got back home too early to go to bed but too late to do much other than import some albums into itunes and write this here journal entry, so here i am!
i haven't been to pub trivia since my last update because none of my friends would have been able to make it there and i learned my lesson about going alone. :P since that guy sent me that email after midnight, it was actually on february 29 when he propositioned me, and later on the 29th i was reading how february 29 is unofficially "sadie hawkins day". that explains things, i guess, hahahah. i ended up getting a text later that day from lovethiscaryn since she wanted to get out of the house for dinner and be social, and i hadn't seen her in a while, so we ended up going to a duclaw over by her house for dinner and she ended up picking up my dinner tab, thus providing more evidence that february 29 is indeed sadie hawkins day.
i took off of work on march 2 so i could get my blood drawn at the lab as part of my physical and so i could pick my car up from the body shop. usually when i get my blood drawn (well, the past three times i could remember getting my blood drawn over the last 12 years or so) i didn't do so well - i always felt very faint and almost passed out. the first time i can remember getting my blood drawn was when i had mono, so that could have explained why i didn't do so well. the second time, my office had a lab come in and we could have our blood tested to see our cholesterol levels and so on, and i felt faint and had to put my head between my legs for a bit. the third time we again had a lab come into my office, and this time i kind of expected to feel faint, and they got me an apple to eat while i put my head between my legs to bring my blood sugar up. so, when my doctor said that i needed to get my blood drawn, he said i could have my blood drawn while i was laying down.
so, i went home to mom and dad's place on march 1 so i could fast and go to the lab early the next morning. when i asked if i could be laying down for the blood test they put me on a chair that reclined all the way back so my head was actually the lowest point, and afterwards i took it slow in getting up and getting ready to go, but this time went so well compared to the other three times that i don't know what i was getting all worked up about the night before. it was a piece of cake!
i also told mom and dad when i was home on march 1 how i was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and to my surprise they actually didn't seem that surprised about it at all! they said that it was good that i was getting treated for it, and mom said how a few of my aunts and uncles had expressed their concerns to her privately about how the tone of my posts on facebook and so on had changed over the past several months, suggesting to her "you should invite glenn over for dinner or something! he seems to be having a rough time!" i told some other friends about it after i had been taking my medicine for about a week and they said how they could see a difference. my medication is going well - i'm feeling much much better now. :) the only side effect i regularly experience is that i generally feel a little bloated, but i haven't really had any dizziness or nausea or anything like when i first started to take it. it's just something i'll have to get used to, i guess.
speaking of my medication, i tried to transfer my prescription to my health plan's mail-order pharmacy, but they need my doctor to send them a written prescription first. when i checked their website, though, it said how there wasn't a generic version of lexapro available and that it would be about $100-something for a 90-day supply. well, a funny thing happened the other day: the mail-order pharmacy called to go over my benefits and to help me transfer my prescription, and they said that a generic version of lexapro was available. i was confused since i specifically read online how no generic version existed, but when i did a google search i found out that apparently the FDA had just approved a generic version for distribution earlier that day. if nothing else, my mail-order pharmacy is efficient! the price dropped, too: it's down to something like $60-something for a 90-day supply of the name-brand, or somewhere around $20-30 for a 90-day supply of the generic version.
i hoped to pick my car up on march 2, but due to some slowness with a balance transfer to take advantage of a 0% interest promotion with my credit union not freeing up other funds in a timely manner, i wasn't able to pick up my car that day. thankfully i was able to pick it up that following monday as i was getting pretty sick of that rental car and wanted my MINI back. it looks like nothing ever happened to my car, and it's all oil changed and brake padded and air filtered and so on now, too.
i had planned in the beginning of may to go to MINIs on the dragon, a huge gathering of MINI owners in the great smoky mountains, but even though i have the time off of work already i doubt i'll go - all the cabins are booked up, and it sounds like campgrounds are hard to come by too. i'm probably going to see about driving out to tennessee to visit feisty_fitz and jamie instead.
i also told mom and dad too about how i might be doing MINI takes the states this year, the coast-to-coast road trip organized by MINI USA. i drove on the first one in 2006, couldn't make the 2008 or 2010 ones, but i'm hoping to do this one for 2012: it starts in new york city on the 4th of july, swings by DC, and goes all the way out to los angeles over the course of that week. when i told mom and dad about the trip, dad was extremely interested, and we were saying how he and i don't usually get a chance to do things and he wants to go on an adventure, so it looks like he and i are going to make MINI takes the states a father-son road trip out to los angeles and then find our own route back home the following week. of course, this is all going to depend on what the price of gas is like this summer. :P
if we do decide to do this trip, we won't be able to start until the 7th since the 4th of july is grandaddy's 90th birthday, and so my relatives are throwing a big combination birthday party for grandmother and grandaddy on saturday, july 7. so, our first stop will be to try to meet up with the other MINIs in chicago on the 8th, or in des moines on the 9th.
speaking of birthday parties, this past sunday was a surprise birthday party for one of my aunts who was turning 60 - several of my aunts and uncles and a few of my cousins met up at a restaurant in baltimore and had a good brunch with her.
i got the results of my blood test in the mail just a few days ago - everything in my blood is pretty much normal except i had low levels of vitamin D, so i'm now taking vitamin D supplements. i should see about getting a different type of vitamin D because the supplements i have start to dissolve just as they hit the tongue and they taste AWFUL. blech. :P i have my followup appointment with my doctor next week to go over my blood test and to see how i'm doing on lexapro, and it looks like i'll have to get another blood test in another 8-12 weeks to check my vitamin D levels.
i'm scheduled to run a 10K race (the "irish sprint 10K") this saturday. packet pickup is today, tomorrow, and before the race, but to skip the crowds and to have the widest selection of shirt sizes they recommended showing up early. i went straight to the pickup location from work since they'd be open until 7 and it's about an hour away from my office. well, with rush-hour traffic around DC, that hour-long drive turned into almost 2 hours and i got to the pickup location with about 15 minutes to spare. i didn't realize how close to the IKEA location in woodbridge this place was, and since i was complaining earlier today about how my neck has been hurting and wondered if maybe my pillows were to blame, and one of my friends suggested checking out the pillows at IKEA, i went over there for dinner and some shopping. this must be some bizarro-IKEA since it was not only practically empty by IKEA-standards, but all the kids that i saw there were extremely well-behaved. crazy!!
by running the irish sprint 10K i'll be able to enter the marine corps marathon in october even though it's already sold out. i'm hoping if i'm paying my own money to register (instead of getting in because my company sponsors the race), it'll help encourage me to keep up with my training even when i don't want to. i might also see about joining the DC road runners since i joined the annapolis striders running club just before i moved to DC, and it couldn't hurt to meet other runners in the area.
i've been looking at trying yoga, too. i got a beginner's yoga dvd from netflix that got great reviews, but i'm thinking about trying a beginner's class or two - miming a dvd is nice and all, but i'd like feedback as to whether i'm getting positions correct or not. i was looking yesterday at a local yoga studio (i found out they had a workshop specifically about yoga for runners, but that had already passed), and i thought this part i emphasized in their policy for fees related to their unlimited-class pass was pretty amusing:
Cancel anytime with one month’s written notice. We do ask for at least a 2 month commitment, and it requires $100 initiation fee if you’re not a student, nonprofit worker, vegetarian, or someone who can demonstrate financial need and fill out our Initiation Fee Waiver Form.
apparently if you claim the vegetarian exemption you have to provide a "statement of ethics and one reference and your word", hahaha. how stereotypical yoga!
work's been going well. my boss' boss (my manager) pretty much dropped something in my lap, though. we have this process that's extremely manual, takes forever to do, and because of contractual requirements we need a tracking system in place, so my manager gave me the task of developing this new system. i was annoyed about it for the first week or two since jobs like this are usually given to people in higher positions (who also make more money than i do :P), but now i'm looking at it as more of a challenge than anything else, and it's better than sitting around doing more of the same stuff every day. i think my manager also knows that project management is something i'm interested in. it also helps that one of my resources wants this to be a real feather in my cap, so even though i'm going to be getting some help if/when i get stuck since i'm not as familiar with some of these development systems, it's still going to be practically all my doing. even when i was in school i never led any of our team projects, so it feels a little weird and pretty awesome to have created a work schedule for this project and put "project manager" next to my name. :)
my ipod classic bit the dust several months or perhaps a year ago. it could play what was already on it, but it refused to sync any new songs. i tried replacing the hard drive in it with the SSD from my broken macbook air, but all that did was leave me with both a broken macbook air and a broken ipod classic. well, even though i can't listen to music at work anymore, i went ahead and bought myself a new ipod classic this week. i missed having all my music in one place and got tired of trying to keep a fresh collection of songs synced to my iphone. plus, i figure with these road trips i'll probably be doing this year (boston in april to visit my cousin and his wife and gaiadea and to visit the MIT flea market, tennessee in may, los angeles in july), i'll want to have a big collection of music to listen to in the car again.
i haven't been to pub trivia since my last update because none of my friends would have been able to make it there and i learned my lesson about going alone. :P since that guy sent me that email after midnight, it was actually on february 29 when he propositioned me, and later on the 29th i was reading how february 29 is unofficially "sadie hawkins day". that explains things, i guess, hahahah. i ended up getting a text later that day from lovethiscaryn since she wanted to get out of the house for dinner and be social, and i hadn't seen her in a while, so we ended up going to a duclaw over by her house for dinner and she ended up picking up my dinner tab, thus providing more evidence that february 29 is indeed sadie hawkins day.
i took off of work on march 2 so i could get my blood drawn at the lab as part of my physical and so i could pick my car up from the body shop. usually when i get my blood drawn (well, the past three times i could remember getting my blood drawn over the last 12 years or so) i didn't do so well - i always felt very faint and almost passed out. the first time i can remember getting my blood drawn was when i had mono, so that could have explained why i didn't do so well. the second time, my office had a lab come in and we could have our blood tested to see our cholesterol levels and so on, and i felt faint and had to put my head between my legs for a bit. the third time we again had a lab come into my office, and this time i kind of expected to feel faint, and they got me an apple to eat while i put my head between my legs to bring my blood sugar up. so, when my doctor said that i needed to get my blood drawn, he said i could have my blood drawn while i was laying down.
so, i went home to mom and dad's place on march 1 so i could fast and go to the lab early the next morning. when i asked if i could be laying down for the blood test they put me on a chair that reclined all the way back so my head was actually the lowest point, and afterwards i took it slow in getting up and getting ready to go, but this time went so well compared to the other three times that i don't know what i was getting all worked up about the night before. it was a piece of cake!
i also told mom and dad when i was home on march 1 how i was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and to my surprise they actually didn't seem that surprised about it at all! they said that it was good that i was getting treated for it, and mom said how a few of my aunts and uncles had expressed their concerns to her privately about how the tone of my posts on facebook and so on had changed over the past several months, suggesting to her "you should invite glenn over for dinner or something! he seems to be having a rough time!" i told some other friends about it after i had been taking my medicine for about a week and they said how they could see a difference. my medication is going well - i'm feeling much much better now. :) the only side effect i regularly experience is that i generally feel a little bloated, but i haven't really had any dizziness or nausea or anything like when i first started to take it. it's just something i'll have to get used to, i guess.
speaking of my medication, i tried to transfer my prescription to my health plan's mail-order pharmacy, but they need my doctor to send them a written prescription first. when i checked their website, though, it said how there wasn't a generic version of lexapro available and that it would be about $100-something for a 90-day supply. well, a funny thing happened the other day: the mail-order pharmacy called to go over my benefits and to help me transfer my prescription, and they said that a generic version of lexapro was available. i was confused since i specifically read online how no generic version existed, but when i did a google search i found out that apparently the FDA had just approved a generic version for distribution earlier that day. if nothing else, my mail-order pharmacy is efficient! the price dropped, too: it's down to something like $60-something for a 90-day supply of the name-brand, or somewhere around $20-30 for a 90-day supply of the generic version.
i hoped to pick my car up on march 2, but due to some slowness with a balance transfer to take advantage of a 0% interest promotion with my credit union not freeing up other funds in a timely manner, i wasn't able to pick up my car that day. thankfully i was able to pick it up that following monday as i was getting pretty sick of that rental car and wanted my MINI back. it looks like nothing ever happened to my car, and it's all oil changed and brake padded and air filtered and so on now, too.
i had planned in the beginning of may to go to MINIs on the dragon, a huge gathering of MINI owners in the great smoky mountains, but even though i have the time off of work already i doubt i'll go - all the cabins are booked up, and it sounds like campgrounds are hard to come by too. i'm probably going to see about driving out to tennessee to visit feisty_fitz and jamie instead.
i also told mom and dad too about how i might be doing MINI takes the states this year, the coast-to-coast road trip organized by MINI USA. i drove on the first one in 2006, couldn't make the 2008 or 2010 ones, but i'm hoping to do this one for 2012: it starts in new york city on the 4th of july, swings by DC, and goes all the way out to los angeles over the course of that week. when i told mom and dad about the trip, dad was extremely interested, and we were saying how he and i don't usually get a chance to do things and he wants to go on an adventure, so it looks like he and i are going to make MINI takes the states a father-son road trip out to los angeles and then find our own route back home the following week. of course, this is all going to depend on what the price of gas is like this summer. :P
if we do decide to do this trip, we won't be able to start until the 7th since the 4th of july is grandaddy's 90th birthday, and so my relatives are throwing a big combination birthday party for grandmother and grandaddy on saturday, july 7. so, our first stop will be to try to meet up with the other MINIs in chicago on the 8th, or in des moines on the 9th.
speaking of birthday parties, this past sunday was a surprise birthday party for one of my aunts who was turning 60 - several of my aunts and uncles and a few of my cousins met up at a restaurant in baltimore and had a good brunch with her.
i got the results of my blood test in the mail just a few days ago - everything in my blood is pretty much normal except i had low levels of vitamin D, so i'm now taking vitamin D supplements. i should see about getting a different type of vitamin D because the supplements i have start to dissolve just as they hit the tongue and they taste AWFUL. blech. :P i have my followup appointment with my doctor next week to go over my blood test and to see how i'm doing on lexapro, and it looks like i'll have to get another blood test in another 8-12 weeks to check my vitamin D levels.
i'm scheduled to run a 10K race (the "irish sprint 10K") this saturday. packet pickup is today, tomorrow, and before the race, but to skip the crowds and to have the widest selection of shirt sizes they recommended showing up early. i went straight to the pickup location from work since they'd be open until 7 and it's about an hour away from my office. well, with rush-hour traffic around DC, that hour-long drive turned into almost 2 hours and i got to the pickup location with about 15 minutes to spare. i didn't realize how close to the IKEA location in woodbridge this place was, and since i was complaining earlier today about how my neck has been hurting and wondered if maybe my pillows were to blame, and one of my friends suggested checking out the pillows at IKEA, i went over there for dinner and some shopping. this must be some bizarro-IKEA since it was not only practically empty by IKEA-standards, but all the kids that i saw there were extremely well-behaved. crazy!!
by running the irish sprint 10K i'll be able to enter the marine corps marathon in october even though it's already sold out. i'm hoping if i'm paying my own money to register (instead of getting in because my company sponsors the race), it'll help encourage me to keep up with my training even when i don't want to. i might also see about joining the DC road runners since i joined the annapolis striders running club just before i moved to DC, and it couldn't hurt to meet other runners in the area.
i've been looking at trying yoga, too. i got a beginner's yoga dvd from netflix that got great reviews, but i'm thinking about trying a beginner's class or two - miming a dvd is nice and all, but i'd like feedback as to whether i'm getting positions correct or not. i was looking yesterday at a local yoga studio (i found out they had a workshop specifically about yoga for runners, but that had already passed), and i thought this part i emphasized in their policy for fees related to their unlimited-class pass was pretty amusing:
Cancel anytime with one month’s written notice. We do ask for at least a 2 month commitment, and it requires $100 initiation fee if you’re not a student, nonprofit worker, vegetarian, or someone who can demonstrate financial need and fill out our Initiation Fee Waiver Form.
apparently if you claim the vegetarian exemption you have to provide a "statement of ethics and one reference and your word", hahaha. how stereotypical yoga!
work's been going well. my boss' boss (my manager) pretty much dropped something in my lap, though. we have this process that's extremely manual, takes forever to do, and because of contractual requirements we need a tracking system in place, so my manager gave me the task of developing this new system. i was annoyed about it for the first week or two since jobs like this are usually given to people in higher positions (who also make more money than i do :P), but now i'm looking at it as more of a challenge than anything else, and it's better than sitting around doing more of the same stuff every day. i think my manager also knows that project management is something i'm interested in. it also helps that one of my resources wants this to be a real feather in my cap, so even though i'm going to be getting some help if/when i get stuck since i'm not as familiar with some of these development systems, it's still going to be practically all my doing. even when i was in school i never led any of our team projects, so it feels a little weird and pretty awesome to have created a work schedule for this project and put "project manager" next to my name. :)
my ipod classic bit the dust several months or perhaps a year ago. it could play what was already on it, but it refused to sync any new songs. i tried replacing the hard drive in it with the SSD from my broken macbook air, but all that did was leave me with both a broken macbook air and a broken ipod classic. well, even though i can't listen to music at work anymore, i went ahead and bought myself a new ipod classic this week. i missed having all my music in one place and got tired of trying to keep a fresh collection of songs synced to my iphone. plus, i figure with these road trips i'll probably be doing this year (boston in april to visit my cousin and his wife and gaiadea and to visit the MIT flea market, tennessee in may, los angeles in july), i'll want to have a big collection of music to listen to in the car again.