Melissa's blog

I don't know if I'm being manic today or what, but I want to talk talk talk talk talk.  I hope I'm not manic, because that'd be a sign my medication isn't really working and I've gone to great trouble and expense to take this stuff.

So rather than inflict even more of this on my poor LJ readers, I'm posting here!

I finally got contact info for a good friend (and former roomie) who I haven't talked to in a couple of years.  She sort of fell off the grid.  We talked for an hour and a half, and I probably talked for an hour of that.  After I realized and apologized, it was a real struggle not to just completely go off again during the conversation. 

I'd say maybe I'm overcaffeinated, but all I had today was 3/4 of a mug of coffee (let's say 8-12 ounces) and a 12 ounce can of Coke.  No triple-shot lattes or anything.  So I'm venting here.

All together today, I spent about 5 hours on phone with friends from Bloomington with whom I lost touch.  I haven't talked to any of them since I left after my last visit  I found my friend who fell off the grid!  Also,   Arranging a get-together so I'm not running all over town trying to see everyone. woot!  There's only one person that I know of who needs a special trip, because he's ill and housebound.

I got to spend some time engaging in my favorite pasttime.  :)

I get unemployment compensation.  When I signed up, the state told me I'd get a Mastercard debit card and they'd deposit the money into that account and that's how I'd get the compensation.  When I filled out all the paperwork, I signed up for direct deposit, so my first claim was paid via direct deposit, but I expected the card.  Today my SIL told me my brother had gotten his right away, so I called up the UC folks to find out what was up.  Since I filled out direct deposit paperwork, they're going with that, since I don't need the card.  So I checked bank and wow, money's been there for 2 days!  Sneaky money, didn't even say it was coming in or nothing.

That means that the $ for the debt consolidation folks which is automatically withdrawn was actually there to be withdrawn, which I thought it wasn't going to be, so I didn't bounce my payment to them, which is a Very Good Thing.  I like to keep them happy. 

That means I can afford my road trip to Indiana for my friend's mother's funeral and to visit my peeps in Bloomington *waves frantically at anyone from there*. 

I spoke (sort of by accident) with Howard, the grieving widower.  He is a bit hard of hearing, so the conversation was challenging, we were talking all over each other, and he told me twice precisely what he was making for dinner (carrots AND peas together! how exciting!).  But in our very brief conversation - and I didn't think we were really close enough for this sort of 'true confessions' - he said he hasn't really missed Jane yet and he's concerned about that.  I tried to tell him that I thought it was perfectly natural and nothing to be ashamed of, but he couldn't really hear me.  I did let my friend, his son, know that was on his mind so maybe they could talk about it. 

With Howard, Jane's been in the hospital for a week, so he's kind of used to not having her around, and over their long marriage, there may be a few occasions where they were apart for longer stretches, which would mean it's not odd for him yet that she hasn't been around for a while.  Plus, he's been busy!  Many people deal with crisis by becoming super-capable and organized - I am one of those.  So if you're keeping yourself that busy, you haven't had the downtime you'd need to get in touch with your grief.

I didn't get the stuff up on eBay that I wanted to put up for sale, but that'll just have to wait until next week.  Again.

I didn't get the 8 hours of work in today that I'd intended, thanks in part to the whole '5 hours on the phone' thing.

I have cramps from hell as part of the monthly-courses-from-hell(tm).  (thank GOD for codeine or I wouldn't get any sleep at all.  I feel like parts should be falling OUT, I'm in so much pain.)

Mommy went out (which she had to tell me 3 times that she was leaving).  when I went down for coffee, she'd left a pan on the stove along with a note telling me what I should/could have for dinner and signed it ... well, I can't paste in the symbol, but she signed it Mom and turned the first M into a heart.  I know some people would really appreciate that, and I wasn't completely unappreciative, but the longer I stay with her, the more she treats me like a child.  She's been known to call me "punkin" and complain that she never sees me because last week I left the house every day before 8 AM and come home late and go straight to bed.

I should go to bed, to sleep.  But I am not.  I think I'm anxious that something's going to fuck my work up tomorrow and i won't get my hours in.  But the longer I stay up, the more likely it is somethign will get in the way, like me not being able to stay awake.  Ok, I'm going, I'm going now before the codeine I took for my cramps from hell wears off and I'm back to square one with that.

I was very much looking forward to getting into my first women's networking group here in town.  I joined one in Boston almost immediately upon arriving, and yet I never remembered to find one when I got back to town.*  Through a convoluted web search, I found it one, of a sort:

Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce -- 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., James Centre Banquet Meeting Facility, 327 S. Main St., West End. Women's Interest Network Spring Conference. Cost is $50 for members and $95 for nonmembers. 412-264-6270.

I was hoping there would be no fee.  :(  I could spend the time working more, packing for the trip, preparing everything I need to take to work on in the car...  So maybe next time.  Dad has offered to sponsor me to go to some of these meetings, since he knows how important they are. 

The group I was in when I lived in Boston was free, an evening meeting of women professionals in different fields, more of a social event than this conferences sounds like it would be.  IF anyone knows of such things in Pittsburgh, please let me know.

I also realized months after moving here that I could start attending the HCII weekly free lectures @ CMU like I did when I worked downtown.  I was surprised it hadn't occurred to me before.  But it was summer break, I think, so I had to wait until fall, and then I just forgot until a week or two ago.  I won't even care what the topic is - as long as I have  the time to go, I ought to go.  I have friends to visit in NSH and Wean and perhaps even the Collaborative Innovation Center (I'm assuming this is called CIC?).

I was taking one of my generic medications this morning and I noticed the pills didn't look like they have before.  I didn't have the info that said what the pill was supposed to look like, and you hear all those horror stories about people getting the wrong drugs at pharmacies.  I google image searched for it but found nothing to confirm this was the right medication, and I was on the point of going to the pharmacy to check. 

But there's this forum called "what's my pill?" on www.pharmer.org where people will post pictures of pills they've found and the experts identify the pills for them.  I've often thought that'd be extremely helpful; I've found pills and had no idea what they were, so usually I just pitch them to be on the safe side. 

I searched for my drug name on the site and I got a page of description about it plus a list of all the manufacturers with text description of what the pills look like.  An example:

Thanks to this I was able to reassure myself that the pill I have is actually one of the generics manufactured for the drug I was intending to take.  And I'm so happy about that I wanted to let y'all know this resource is out there.  Phenomenally helpful.

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, favorite type of underwear, music, life, the universe and everything, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other!

If my count is right, I am going to have about a dozen people at my house helping to pack stuff and schlep to the basement!!!  Thank you so so so much, everyone!  I promised food and beverages - anyone have beverage requests so I can be sure to have some on hand and cold if required?  Maybe I'll bring a bag of ice and just fill up the cooler...

I gotta remember to go get boxes tomorrow AM @ Geagle again.  Better bring mum's car too.  They're supposed to have been saving these for me from Tuesday until now, and I had a whole carful then!  Many can't be broken down b/c they're glued closed except taped and it's not worth it to break them down.  I know state store boxes rock, but I don't know when I'm gonna have time to get those. :(

P and I have to go to AAA tomorrow with a witness to have the house deed trxfrd into his name, maybe I can get state store boxes then.  IIRC Deanna said they have a dumpster I can just dive @ Miracle Mile?  How, um, encouraging to know they all open at 9 AM on Saturday.  ;-)

I just got 500 business cards* + 10 "compliment cards" [which look just like business cards to me] + 10 white envelopes + a black self-inking stamp + a t-shirt (up to XL) from VistaPrint.com.au for FREE - only paying $11.50 S&H.**  I found out after I placed the order I could also have gotten free sticky notes.

Most of it was for networking to help me get a job, with the stamp being my mailing address.  For the t-shirt I did something special. 

Since September I've been designing a website for a salon owner I know.  She's nowhere near ready to put her site up, and I'm hate feeling like I can't do anything to help her out with her business.  She says not to worry about it, but we're going on 6 months here, so it's on my mind.  I joked when I saw her this week that I was going to get a t-shirt that says "Christie does my hair!" so I could at least give something back. 

For the free VistaPrint t-shirt, I opted for more professional text.  I put the name of her salon [Signatures], her tag line [Skin.  Hair.  Body.  Life.] and her phone # [412-401-6639, in case you're local and want a fantastic stylist/aestetician].  So now I get to promote her business!  Once she decides on a domain name and we put her site up, I can get one of those "print your own iron-on" things and put the URL on the back.

I thought some of y'all might be interested in knowing you can get all this free stuff.  You do have to use their templates, and one set of the business cards has an advertising bit for VistaPrint on the back (the "professional" set doesn't seem to), but I think that's a small price to pay for all these goodies.  Have at it!

* 2 sets of 250 each, so I could have had different info on set 1, set 2, and the 10 compliment cards/envelopes.
**That's probably AU$, and the exchange rate is AU$1 = US$0.93.

the posts on my 'neighborhood' page go all the way back to last January 29.  Why is nobody using Vox?  (I know why I don't use it, but I'm curious why you aren't.)

let me try these harajuku dolls again here, now that I'm awake...  Excellent!  There we go!  they're a but . . . small . . . but I don't seem to be able to do anything about that.  Maybe you should go look @ them on my LJ, http://valancy17.livejournal.com/495452.html