Just Like the Movies

If my life were a movie, it would probably resemble a gory vampire flick. Switching primary care physicians has unleashed a horde of new doctors and specialists in my life. And each one of them wants my blood. And not just a little bit here or there, but a few vials before an appointment and another few after, then a few more in couple weeks, and more yet before the next appointment. They're downright blood-thirsty.

FAIR WARNING: If you get squeamish during vampire movies or are uncomfortable with descriptions of blood and needles, you might want to skip the rest of this entry.

To satisfy the pre-appointment needs of one new doctor, I went to the local hospital during my lunch hour to have some bloodwork done. Two phlebotomists with at least five different vials pounced on me. The first woman seemed very unsure of the large, deep vein I offered and had difficulty locating it, looking back and forth between my arm and the other woman in the room. After the second minute of hesitant tapping, I noticed the student designation on her badge. She checked my other arm before returning to the original vein, and after getting confirmation from the senior tech and some reassurance from me, went for it.

I mentioned to both of them that vein was tricky, but that's really an understatement. I've had blood drawn from it at least once a week this month and each time it needed a particular angle and a bit of coaxing to keep it going. So when the student encountered trouble with it part-way into the first vial, I recommended changing the angle a bit and applying light pressure to below my elbow to get more tension on the skin. But she was hesitant to do anything but poke deeper. When she couldn't fill the first or second vials, she handed things over to the senior tech. I'm pretty sure she was getting ready to try a different angle on the same vein, but when she retracted the needle a mini geyser appeared, shocking all of us.

As we cleaned up and prepped to try the other arm, the senior phlebotomist mentioned that she'd never seen anything like that while drawing blood. She had always assumed it was just something they did in the movies and on TV. As luck would have it, a smaller vein in my other arm proved to be cooperative and we filled all five or six vials without a problem. No prodding, no extra poking, and no horror-movie special effects.

I've never been squeamish about having blood drawn or being poked with needles, so I was more than happy to have a student work on me. But at this point, I feel like I've had so much blood drawn that I would rather it be done and over with as quickly and efficiently as possible.

A few new things

• It's raining again. And holding the temperature in the 60s, so there's an upside. All the rain we've seen during the last few weeks has made me contemplate buying a pair or galoshes. Last year's snow created similar urges for high-quality boots, which I still haven't purchased.
• I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things, craft-wise. After two great classes at Ink About It with Dave Brethauer and a little shopping, I came home to participate in a Virtual Meeting of the A Muse Addicts (VMAA). I wanted to use my newly learned watercolor techniques on every challenge, but limited myself to *most* of the challenges. I have a few card ideas bouncing around in my head that I should try to transform into actual cards tonight. And I can't wait to break into the new goodies I brought home, including some new Memory Box stamps.
• Not only am I back into the swing of things, but I'm lucky too. They drew two names in each class to win a pack of Memory Box paper and I was lucky enough to get picked. I scored a pack of summery, 6x6 papers perfect for card-making. The I got a call yesterday from Lori that I won the larger Memory Box drawing to celebrate the latest release. I'm dying to know what I won, but I don't think I'll be able to make it to the store until at least tomorrow evening. Since Jon will be at the Pats pre-season game, I think I can justify the trip.
• In less lucky news, the bloodwork I had done last week came back with lower than normal TSH levels, which means my thyroid is back to it's overactive ways. I need to have more blood drawn before next week's appointment with my endocrinologist. Sadly, I'm going to have to ask him for references for other endocrinologists because he doesn't accept the new health insurance I'm switching to next month. Which really just means I'll have to go through my history and paperwork with yet another doctor and hope that we don't waste too much time in the process.

Adjusting

It's been a week and a half, but I think I'm beginning to adjust to some of the new things in my life. The biggest change has been my schedule -- I'm out of the house just after 8 and home at 6. It's a challenge to be ready by 8, but I've managed so far. It's worth it for the extra time in the evening, which has allowed me to cook more. And the commute is running 15-20 minutes each way, without a lot of back-up or stress.

I'm still struggling to fit my hobbies back in. I haven't stamped in almost three weeks, but I have read a couple books. I do have two classes at Ink About It on Saturday that I'm looking forward to: colored pencils and watercolors with Dave Brethauer (the artist behind Memory Box stamps). I signed up a few months ago and can't believe it's already time to go. I really hope it inspires me to start stamping and coloring again.

The Dark Knight

Jon and I caught The Dark Knight after work today and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was dark, rather sinister, and absolutely enthralling. I highly recommend it.

Quick Update

• Back from a great vacation in Michigan. Saw a lot of family, ate loads of diner food, and did plenty of relaxing. The drive was not nearly as bad as I had feared, although another hour's delay would've made it necessary to stop somewhere in the middle.
• Started a new job today at PC Connection. So far, so good. It's pretty easy and low-stress when most of the day is orientation and paperwork. I did manage to publish my first updates this afternoon.
• We've been enjoying air conditioning for almost 3 weeks. I still wish it were cooler upstairs, but I'll take what I can get.

It's Gettin' Hot in Here

The air-conditioning at our place bit the bullet earlier this week. Since Jon is on vacation, he's been able to see a parade of contractors and sales people come in to make estimates for repair and replacement. Our landlords will be the ones to review and decide on a plan of action, but we'll be facilitating it because we're local. The existing units are probably original to the house and at least 30 years old, so they will likely be replaced.

The big negative is that it sounds like it will be at least a couple weeks until we can get on the installation schedule. I hope to make due without until then. The forecast for the next 10 days is pretty consistently temperate, with highs in the 70s and 80s but lows in the 60s. If that's the case, I think we'll be fine. I mean, people did survive thousands upon thousands of years without air-conditioning. What's a few weeks?

Gettin' Etsy

So, after talking about it for months, I finally listed one of my cards on Etsy. For those of you unfamiliar, Etsy is an online crafts marketplace. It's like the most awesome virtual craft fair ever, providing artists and crafters with the tools and interface to sell their creations. There are so many inspiring things there that I worried my work wouldn't do well. Imagine my surprise when the first card I listed sold within a few hours.

Now that I've taken the plunge, it's going to take all of my effort to finish up my current projects (40 custom note cards, 35 baby shower invitations) and regular work before posting more cards. And posting more work is a bundle of projects in and of itself: setting up a little card photography studio, perfecting my logo and ordering a custom stamp, and developing a design for The Paper Jay. So much work! Happy, inspired work, which is the best kind.

Hot Town

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

It is absolutely disgusting today. The air-conditioning in our part of the office was having problems first thing in the morning and although they said it was fixed, it hasn't improved much. I can feel that there is air circulating, but it just keeps getting hotter. We're up to at least 77 degrees inside and people are really starting to sweat. We've closed all of the blinds, but I can feel the heat rolling off the windows. It's just shy of 100 degrees outside.

Lunch Break

Today's lunch break was the best, most relaxing break I've taken in ages. I waited until almost 1 to head down to the cafeteria with The Great Gatsby, which we'll be covering in book club this weekend. It's pretty gray and drizzly outside, so I grabbed a table next to the windows and sat down with some soup, salad, and the book for nearly an hour. I wanted to stay for the rest of the afternoon, not to avoid work, but because I was so comfortable and relaxed. It was so nice that I think I'll do it again tomorrow.

Add Some Elastic!

I'm wearing a pair of over-sized linen pants today and they won't stay where I want them to. The built-in drawstring would be a logical fix, but not as effectively as it should. My torso is fairly squishy and constantly changes shape, so drawstrings make lousy belts. Heck, belts make lousy belts, unless they're stretchy. Then I thought that a bit of elastic in the back would be great. Which led me to question why there wasn't elastic in all of my pants. The only thing I can think of is that elastic waistbands are for "old ladies" and therefore harder to find where I shop. Hrm. Maybe I'm an old lady already.

Life is Good

I can't believe how good things are today.

The weather is sunny and mild. I had lunch with friends. There's plenty of work, but no big rush on any of it. I'm taking an afternoon ice cream break at Cold Stone with a few co-workers. The weekend is still wide open. And sharing some of my troubles more privately has really lifted a weight off my shoulders. Although I'm most excited about a relaxing weekend, I'm really glad that I'm not dreading next week.

Inconvenience

One thing this job has taught me: how to spell inconvenience! [co-worker]

So Many Things to Say

Despite protesting that I live a simple life where nothing ever happens, things have been happening. And I haven't been documenting them very well. I think part of that is my denial. I want things to be simple, so I try to overlook things when they're not. Classic avoidance.

I haven't been at a total loss for words because I've started several posts in the last few weeks about things at work and in general. I just never finish them. I struggle with what I should talk about publicly and what I shouldn't, get frustrated, and leave the posts unpublished. Each time I do that, I end up feeling guilty about that one thing and avoid posting about all of the other things happening too.

I know a lot of my friends keep more private journals that they restrict to friends (and sometimes family) but I've never really wanted to do that. Since I'm struggling so much with public journal entries, does it make sense to start using a more private journal?

Like a Round Peg in a Square Hole

I started to write a long post reflecting on the last few weeks at work, which have been a true test for me with my only teammate gone for two weeks, but realized that it was all a lot of uninteresting navel gazing. The project didn't blow up and I survived. It also wasn't as terrible as I feared, at least not in the ways I expected. But really, the details of what happened are just boring filler when compared with my realization that I am a round peg being forced into a rather square hole. I sort of fit, but not in the ways I need to.

Clickier

While writing an email about click through rates and lamenting a publisher's click averse audience, Outlook recommended an unusual grammatical substitution:

more clicky visitors becomes clickier visitors

I didn't even know that "clickier" was a word, let alone a better option to my first, admittedly poor, choice.