Whine-fest continues...enter at your own risk

Well, I did warn you that this blog was going to be fluff until I knew what I was going to do about this whole 'starting a family' thing.  So, be forewarned that I am feeling more than slightly whiney today which is better that the word I really want to use.  Unfortunately, the whinier I get the worse my language becomes and while it is one thing to say the words, it's another to actually write them.  That, and my mom reads.  Hi Mom!

If you thought my grump-fest was bad at 0730, it only intensified throughout the day.  Yeah, apparently the person that was supposed to be on-call for the new application decided that since I knew it fairly well that I could manage being on-call for both things.  So, by 5 pm this evening I had logged 16 calls.  Just to clarify, we usually only log 2, 3 at the most and some nights we can go all night without a call.  So, yeah, I was busy.  At least one of the calls took an hour to deal with because I had to call others in to solve it.  Between stupid *crap* (oh, I really want to use other words right now) and the frustrations over access, I'm really pissy.  Fortunately the Help Desk tech I was working with was an absolute sweetheart and he tried everything he could to make things easier.  He was so apologetic every time he called.  He even e-mailed my boss and told her all about the hard day I'd had, but that I had still been a joy to work with and that I had helped him out with a lot of issues.  I will admit, that did soften the stink of the day. 

Michael and I are going to tempt the on-call fates by seeing a movie later.  I figured if we waited until after the change of shift it *might* be better.  Generally speaking (and I realize that I am probably shooting myself in the foot and double-jinxing myself here) the night shifters are more self-sufficient. 

Anyway, enough whining.  I did want to comment about Atlanta though before I close this post.  I have to say, they are the coolest, nicest people ever even if it feels like they live in Satan's armpit.  Honestly, have you ever stewed in your own juices?  I've been told to not stew on things, but I seriously was stewing in my sweat and ick until I finally got in my car last night and cranked the air on.  I smelled like an old gym sock.  Did you know that the Atlanta Airport is the busiest in the world?  Me neither until I sat in the airport long enough to hear the ATL infomercial.  The number of people rushing by--it was amazing and it was great people watching.  I actually ditched class early because Rajani got out early and we were both going to try to get on standby for earlier flights.  Well, did you know that Delta doesn't allow stand-by flights?  They are happy to upgrade you to an earlier time for $50, but can not guarantee a seat. What kind of crap is that?  Anyway, we did some shopping, rode the train A LOT from concourse to concourse and just enjoyed each other's company.  It was really nice to make a friend on my travels.  And to think I came prepared to finish reading Eclipse!  Note to Kristen and Kate--I just finished reading the chapter where Bella tries to get it on with Edward and he instead proposes to her.  You both have weighed in on your book preferences, but so far I am really enjoying book 1 and 3 the most.  Of course, I still have one more to go so we will see if that still stands!

It was a little embarrassing to run into the instructor of the class I just ditched in the airport at the same coffee bar.  Yeah, he had a few words for me and I was tickled to find out his flight was actually leaving two hours before mine.  I'm sure that won't be last I see of Jeff so I will need to be well behaved for the next class.  The people are very nice in Atlanta.  Even at the airport.  I had ordered some food, but the staff gave me a broken tray so I was forced to lay the tray across my arm and hold the drink in the same hand while dragging my carry-on bag and purse with the other hand.  A pilot saw me struggling and insisted on helping.  By the time he came along I had finally figured it out and was fine, but it was still nice that he offered. 

The only thing hotter than Atlanta was my own stewin' city.  I'm not making this up--the humidity level according the the National Weather Service reported 96% humidity yesterday.  Evidently there was really bad weather before I came home and flooding has again ensued.  By the time Ike's effects reach us tomorrow we are going to be saturated. 

Oh, and if you are ever feeling ignored and that you need more attention, get a henna tattoo.  I swear, I've had more strangers of all nationalities come up to me the last few days and ask about it.  I think that because I am so pale, the brown stain is more prominent on me than it is on Indian women.  Even the Chinese dude at my fave Chinese take-out place with scary-ass tattoos commented on them this evening.  There for a second I knew I had some street cred...until I told him it was only henna.  I know it usually take 1-2 weeks to fade, but at this point I'm wondering if they will fade.  Like I said, very prominent.  Very attention grabbing.  I should be a hit at church and at the Autumn Moon Fest with the FCC kiddos tomorrow. 

Anyway, for those of you inland, enjoy your Ike fall-out tomorrow and for those of you on the coast I am very, very sorry.  Be safe.

Welcome Home--I'm on duty again

Can I just say how much being on-call poisons my work experience?  It is especially distasteful because what was supposed to only be temp has become permanent even after protestations.  Not only that, they don't even give me the tools to be on-call properly.  I finally got home from GA really late last night (any travel that occurred after 4 pm was unpaid, of course, so I am even more pissy since I got home late).  I drive directly from the airport to the Help Desk for an internet access card that isn't there.  There is only one access card in my dept and would you like to guess who has it?  I'm not going to go into the details for fear of hanging myself, but let's just say that person does not work on-call. 

I got paged at 7:30, which I slept through because I didn't get to bed until 2 am.  The Help Desk then called my cell phone which I finally heard.  They were paging me about an application I don't even have access to.  I think they had planned to load it on my laptop, but I have no idea if it is there because I can't access anything on my computer's desktop w/o some sort of access.  Argh.  And unfortunately once I am up, I am up all day even though I will be too tired and lazy now to actually do anything.

The best part?  I have 9 more days of this crap.  Gotta go, I hear my phone ringing again...

End of the vacation

I should know better than to watch a scary a$$ movies before going to bed, but I never learn. Fortunately, instead of feeling scared it is making me very sleepy. Do you ever have dreams where you think you can't fall asleep? Well, I'm watching "The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman and although it is supposed to be scary, it's only making me feel very, very sleepy. Very sleepy.

I had an enjoyable evening. I went shopping with my new friend Rajani. It was fun just to shop for me and I have ABSOLUTE iPhone envy. Seriously, I have a problem. My cellular contract is up for renewal in a few days and I have a free upgrade so I think I am going to cave. Just think--an iPod AND a phone. Plus all the other great features. Well, let's just say I have total iPhone envy. Oh, and I bought some make-up. It has been ages since I bought any make-up and it feels pretty good.

Say a prayer that I can get out of here tomorrow. Rajani and I are going to leave class early to try and avoid Friday evening rush hour traffic in Atlanta. I've been warned that it is worse than LA--ugh. I really want to get out of here before the weather gets nasty. Honestly, I don't know how coastal people survive--I would hate having hurricanes and other natural nastiness ruining my plans. Hopefully we won't see much from Ike up here; it just depends on how bad the storms get.

My henna tattoo is drawing a lot of attention. EVERYONE is asking about it. I peeled off the black henna (that you saw in the previous photos) and now it has left a nice golden-brown stain behind. Hmmm...I wonder if this will garner a "special" pat down tomorrow while going through security. Guess I better put on my pretty panties.

Day Two of my Faux Vacation

Well, I fell off the caffeine-free wagon by 10:30 this morning. Really, I had no other option. Have you tried sitting in an uncomfortably cold class room while the teacher droned on about 1.) things you already know and 2.) something in a foreign language. Honestly, I don't want to think about xml codes or whatever else he was talking about in my moments of lucidity.

My "vacation" got better at 3:30 when he let us out early and I decided to meet up with a woman in the hotel who is also taking one of the classes at the center. She is Indian and wanted to head over to the Global Mall to do some shopping and eat. I'm glad I went with her because I had a great time (although for the life of me I still can not keep her name in my head to save my life--I feel like a real schmuck--it's not even a hard name to pronounce, I just can't keep the vowels in the correct order). Anyway, we did some shopping and I had my first dosa, a southern India type of food. Very good! Oh, and you know how I wanted another tattoo? Yeah, well I sorta got a new one!

No worries, Mom, it's only henna! Afterwards he returned to the hotel and I am enjoying watching Fringe. I can't help it--I love Sci Fi and anything that looks remotely X-File-ish.

Kate--I am really trying to go slow through Eclipse. Honestly, this is the longest I have made it. The other books I devoured within 24 hrs and I know I will race right through Breaking Dawn. I hate the end of a good book series (I got weepy during the last chapter of the Harry Potter series). I can NOT wait until the movie comes out and I was giddy when I saw they were releasing it a few weeks early! I really hope the movie is good and they make movies out of the other three books!

Ahhh

Today has been a pretty sweet day. I left for Georgia (the flight was only 40 minutes late for a change), we arrived with some turbulence. My driver (yes, my driver!) was waiting for me. Not only was he waiting for me, he was driving a Lincoln Towncar. Honestly, if I'm going to be chauffeured, I really prefer the Towncar and I was feeling pretty psyched when I saw it! He even had a little driver's uniform on! He took me on a little tour of Atlanta and that was kind of nice. Mom told me that I need to ask him to take my photo in the car on Friday when I return to the airport.

I ended my day with some Chinese delivery and now I am curled up on the hotel couch, using free Wi-Fi and cruising the 50 of so cable channels on the TV. Oh yeah, baby, this is almost as good as a mini-vacation!

Michael pointed that that I am a magnet for natural disaster. So far in my travels I have had tornadoes, floods, typhoons, my plane has been hit by lightening, lost an engine and had an electrical fire (separate incidents). So I was obviously a little nervous about traveling south during hurricane weather. I had the option of Dallas or Atlanta and I'm thanking God now that I chose Georgia. Of course, just about the time I got settled in the heavens opened up and we had a huge storm. Hopefully it won't be any worse than just some rain.

Tomorrow morning class starts. I've been caffeine free for three weeks (honestly, with as anxious as I have been there was no need for anything extra) but I'm thinking I may have to break my fast tomorrow. Classes tend to be very intense and there is a lot of hands on action and a lot of presentations of skills in front of other students so I need to be very alert.

Oh yeah, and I'm half way through the book Eclipse. Kristen, if you are reading, I'm to the part where Jacob and Edward are joining forces...well, at least they are working together.

Blessings

Today we sang this song at church and while I have sung this song several times before, this was the first time that I felt moved to tears.  There have been times in my life, both in good times and in my bad, that I am overwhelmed by His presence and the comfort that brings me.  Today was one of those days.  

I'm ok, really

Just wanted to assure people that I am doing fine, especially after my particularly whiny post last time.  I wasn't sure what to expect or what I would feel on Monday, but truth be told, I didn't feel much of anything.  Honestly, part of me felt relief that it was done (not that is was over, but because I anticipated all the highs and lows would finally end). 

After the uber-sucky birthday (yeah, I'm still smarting over that) I decided to stay in my PJs all day and watch Dexter, Season 2 videos that my mom got me for my birthday.  It's become a trend now--last year was season 1 and I'm sure next year it will be season 3.  That's all right, I actually enjoy those kinds of gifts.  Every year for Christmas my dad buys me the same fancy chocolates (oh my they are so decadent and spicy--I get excited every time I see them--curry and paprika, sugar-crystaled violets and red chilis, it is truly amazing what this company does with chocolates.  If you want the name, let me know and I'll email you) and a funky new flashlight.  No kidding.  I have at least 2-3 flashlights stashed in each room in my house.  It started as a joke, but I have gotten so many cool flashlights (did you know Hummer makes flashlights?) that I really look forward to this gift.

So, anyway, I watched almost the entire season of Dexter in one day.  It was awesome.  I truly needed the downtime.  And when I returned to work on Tuesday I discovered that although I did not get the usual party and cupcakes that all the other employees get (my boss' birthday was only a few days after mine which explains why mine will never be celebrated) several of my co-workers remembered the day and celebrated.  I was truly moved by the gifts I got and someday I might actually get around to posting the photos!

I have decided I need to do something fun for myself.  I have gone out nearly every night this week with my friends and it just felt good.  It felt good to not be tied to the computer and clicking refresh on my e-mail 6,000 times a day.  I'm not sure what I want to do next.  I'm signed up for at least one work related class so that will be a distraction.  I am seriously thinking about a vacation.  Aside from holidays and the one or two days I had off during my mom's surgery or visiting Kristen, I haven't had any vacation in a year.  Kris and I have talked about taking a little vacation to Hawaii, but I have also been thinking of visiting extended family in Hong Kong.  Of course, I had wanted to visit the Greek Isles after graduating with my last degree, but buying a house got in the way of that though. 

I'm not sure what plans I have for the blog at this point.  I probably won't have as many things to report and write on and it might largely become a 'fluff' blog like my other one.  Right now I'm just not feeling the strong urge to write, at least not in this forum.  My other blog has been sorely neglected for better than two weeks now and I do need to attend to it at some point. 

Feel free to check back in later and drop me a line when you are around.  It has been so nice to get to know the many PAPs and APs over the last year. 

For those that did not receive referrals before September 1st, please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.  I certainly hope Vietnam opens it's doors again soon.  I am constantly aware that although it is terribly disappointing for all those who have been trapped in this mess, it is worse for the kids.  We can come home each night to an air-conditioned or heated home.  We can eat or drink whatever we want because we can afford to.  We don't have to wonder where the next hug will come from or if anyone will comfort us when we cry.   We still live good lives and want for little.  I wish at least that much for every child.