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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Feeling Worn and Torn

Well, it's one more week until my CVC Central conference trip and it can't come a moment too soon. Work is truly wearing me out. Or should I say, the ATMOSPHERE is wearing me out.

The irony is: it's been REALLY SLOW. Hardly any patients at all. YAWN.

I got a message from a coworker (with whom I seem to have, whether I like it or not, a like-hate relationship with) telling me that it was my turn to have a night off and that if I was needed I would be called in later. Good. No bullsh*** from her to deal with. But it threw off my body clock again...

No matter where I go to find employment, there always seems to be someone who takes innate pleasure in trying to bully me in order to make themselves feel better. I'm not imagining this: it's TRUE. It's the untold secret of workplace social culture. The fact that I'm also not much of a workplace "player" makes things WORSE because people don't know me very well, nor do they have an interest in doing so because I don't play "the game". At least, not by their rules anyway.

Anyway, we've been at this since May 2007 when she came back from a birthday vacation on the "outs" with one of her closest friends at the time. She's treated me with the hot-n-cold contempt that the friend was doing to her apparently. They had a major fallout, hate each other now and said friend (who also happened to be another coworker) eventually left for another job, but it had nothing to do with their fight.

To make a long story short, she still takes out her anger and frustrations on her MySpace page, making veiled references to me on occasion through her mood updates or survey bulletins. Unfortunately, neither of these features can be deleted from your account and I have a hard time ignoring them as I am in touch with a lot of nonprofits I like to keep in the loop about.

(For the record: she became a contact of mine BEFORE all this nonsense happened - me being naive as I was when I first started working there...)

So, being tired of all the negativity I've been reading, I'm ditching the old page for a new one since there are other contacts I'm no longer in touch with anyway and starting fresh. No sense in being proverbally chased away when I have as much right to enjoy the Web as much as anyone else. I plan on finishing this transition shortly before I take off next week. Maybe I'll do the same for the Facebook page too. She's not on there, but there's just so much clutter....

OK. I feel better now that I've gotten that off my chest and can move on to better things. :)

TWILIGHT: OK, yes I am now officially addicted to reading the series that I've held off reading for so long. It was like that with Harry Potter, too. I kept holding off on reading them because I got weary of all the (over) hoopla, that I think I held off just for the sake of it. But, at least the whole series is out now and I can polish them off consecutively without having to wait for the next installment to come out. Hmm, good thing or bad thing?

Started the first book, Twilight, this week and am halfway done. Working on my Twilight knitting swap project too. Bringing it to SnB tonight for some pointers on how and where to pick up stitches 'cause I'm still dense when it comes to reading knitting patterns. :-P

Here's what I'm working on:



Of course, followed by the obligatory kitty shot. Heh.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lesson Learned from the Past

Well, pink sock had be euthanized with a good old-fashioned frogging. It was just too warped looking, even to stuff with catnip and call it George. Yes, that UGLY. So now it's an official Ravelry UGH. RIP.

Got a new schedule change at work. Now I'm supposed to be in 3 hours earlier and leave 3 hours earlier, which may wind up to be curse rather than a blessing. Now, instead of dealing with one set of strong personalities I get to deal with a completely different set. And ALL the stupid-ass politics that come with. Which includes a CLIQUE. ACES....

But I am getting ready for my trip to Kansas City MO for the CVC Central conference and making some professional connections with other member of IVAPM (International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management) so I'm totally psyched. Getting my travellables together, hopefully my knitting project for Twilight Knitting Swap and got me some business cards for networking.

I happened to have found some old photos that were taken before I left NY of my little neonate Emily before she passed on. These pictures are wonderful but come with a twinge of sorrow attached. If she had survived (she had become septic and none of the doctors I knew would help me with her because "Mom abandoned her for a reason") we would've been able to celebrate her 5th birthday this upcoming October.



I decided to make this one the cover of my new business cards, courtesy of MOO. They did a wonderful job, I think.

The one thing I learned about this whole experience is to become a better advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. I've seen better neonatal kitten rearing resources out now that weren't available when I had Emily so I'm going to be making a library and be better prepared, just in case I get blessed again with another kitten raising opportunity.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Playing catch-up ...

Well, don't know why the widget I tried to have put on this site showed up as a blog but I'm now writing a real post so hopefully that will get bumped. :)

Back to work this week after a reprieve. I think I need another one because it's even MORE stressful now than it was when I was last there. BAH! Thankfully I just started a 6 week yoga class. Hopefully that will help things.

Making progress on my Training Sock. I took it out with me to the 1st Annual Durham Stitch n Pitch at the Bulls game Wednesday night. Have no idea who won because I was more enthralled with "wrestling the porcupine" than I was watching the game. And the bag of knitting goodies the organizer had put together for us. She rocks!

Now, either I'm REALLY a beginner at this sock knitting thing or the pattern is written a little wonky. But no matter, it's looking OK. It's good practice. And a future cat toy. Heh.


And it's NOT going to be Nicky's if he doesn't stop looking away from the camera EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to take his photo - ARGH!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Demo - Personal Cause Widget

Friday, July 4, 2008

My New Knitting Project - Wrestling the Porcupine!!!




Happy 4th of July!

Last night I did something I haven't been able to do in a long time, and WAY overdue I may add. I got to make it out for my Thursday night SnB and see some old friends that I really missed and make a new one that was kind enough to shows me how to start off my FIRST EVER sock. With DPNs. Which I've NEVER done. Yay!



As a tip from another new knitter friend from my OTHER knitting group, I downloaded the Training Sock Pattern on Knitty by Kate Atherley to just get a feel for the basics 'cause I have no clue what I'm doing. Perfect patten for me. Heh.

Just before anyone asks, yes I belong to more than one SnB. They're like cats -- you can never have enough. ;-)

So I got the scrap yarn, pink stuff from the ol' stash-a-roo. Check. US size 7/4.5mm DPNs. Check. I'm good to go. The best part is I don't care how many messups I make because that's what this is all about. When it's done, it's getting stuffed with catnip for my little miss anyway.


I think the next thing I'm gonna try to work on is something for The Snuggles Project, of which I'm a member. They've got some basic snuggle patterns I'm gonna look through and I've found a couple of shelters in their database that accept snuggles. Now, I'm getting psyched!

That will be my knitting goal for the week. If I'm lucky in the upcoming weeks and months to come, I'll be able to control the body clock better and make it to more weeknight stuff because I need to de-stress and have a life.

I'm also trying to plow through my laundry-list of library books. Still working on An Inconvenient Truth but since the new Sookie Stackhouse book is way overdue, I'm trying to finish that up first. Charlaine Harris write a Southern Vampire series which, except for the last book, is pretty good. So far, this new one's a good one. I think it's called From Dead to Worse but I don't have it directly in front of me so I can't confirm. HBO is turning it into a series this Fall. OK, now I want HBO on top of Planet Green and Showtime. Time to upgrade the cable package!

One more major thing on my to-do list is to follow up with some comments and suggestions from my petitions on Care2's Petition Site (see sidebars widgets, DID YOU SIGN?!?!?!?). Actually, the feedback is mostly from the horrific website I'm trying to get shut down. I'll keep you all posted. Fingers crossed!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Doing Better, One Step at a Time

Did get to go out for SnB on Sunday and glad that I did. Got to meet up with some good friends and make a couple of new ones. I have some time off to enjoy this week so I might actually get to see my Thursday night SnB peeps too. That would be awesome, since I haven't seen them in a good 4 to 5 months when I last had time off.

Well, I'm happy to report that the work badness that occurred last week has resolved better than I had hoped it would. Can't go into any details because it's too personal but I'm looking forward to (I'm hoping) some improvements all around. Strangely enough, I feel a lot stronger and more in control of things in general. And I've gotten to the point where I'll be putting up with a lot less happy horses*** from people whose behavior I deem unprofessional or just downright unacceptable.

OK. I've said my peace here. Now onward and upward! :-)

Now that I've some personal time to recharge, time to look into compiling and finishing my "laundry list" of things to do, including some quality time at the ZOO - HA!

And to finally finish reading Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I keep getting reminders from my 43 Things account asking how my progress is. Oops!

Sunday, June 29, 2008

To SnB, or Not To SnB

Every Sunday morning, my SnB in Durham meets at a local coffee house. Actually, it should be renamed Stitch-n-Laugh-Our-Asses-Off because that's REALLY what goes on. HA!

Unfortunately, due to my work schedule (which may change, depending how you look at it. Another post.), I haven't been able to make it because I've been too tired to get MY ass out of the apartment to go have some people time.

I happened to have had the week off so I'm rested but yesterday was bad because my stomach was acting up again. I have a sensitive system that likes to inform me at the last minute possible what's acceptable to consume, and what isn't. Yesterday, it was 2 cups of coffee (oh, the irony...). So when I wasn't lying down or trying to read a book I was getting rid of coffee (which through hindsight I think now were actually blood clots) and half a small bottle of extra strength bismuth (aka the "pink" stuff).

My body is still feeling a bit "don't leave the apartment JUST in case" residual feeling. So I'm still debating whether or not to make the 30 minute trip.

Maybe not. I haven't picked up the sweater in a month. I'm not sure I remember where I left off and I have no backup project to take with me either.

But I do need people time. I don't get enough of it outside of work. We'll see.

I'll keep you posted. :)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Breaking Dawn

I haven't even read the first three books yet and I'm already waiting for the last (WTF?!?!) one AND the movie.

Because Robert Pattinson is TOTALLY yummy.

Never-you-mind he's probably too young for me. I'm entitled to my fantasies too.

So BITE ME EDWARD :-)

Get this widget!

Friday, June 27, 2008

My Weasley Sweater aka The Infinite Project

I need a bit of a diversion from the "week from hell" I've been having between work, the fridge and disturbing badness towards animals I've been reading about on the Internets so I'll focus on something new. Or, in this case, something old (a year or so): my Weasley Sweater project.

Knitting is something I really love and I'm pretty new at it. I don't take enough time to knit as I should because there are times when I have the attention span of a flea and just don't focus. That's why this is kind of an old project. I've been at it a year. But I love it and I think the end product will be very gratifying every time I get to wear it. Whenever THAT may be - HA!

I found the pattern on Alison Hansel's The Blue Blog. Luckily, my LYS had the exact yarn I needed, Rowan Felted Tweed, so I was able to get started right away. But the pattern also called for Size 3 needles, which are TINY. It took me a little getting used to because I usually knitted using Size 9s and 10s but I actually enjoy the smaller size too.

I should have seen the warning sign in front of me saying "this-may-take-you-a-while-because-you-still-don't-know-
what-you-are-doing-yet" in the fact that getting gauge took FOREVER. Did like 4 gauge swatches. And a gal that used to be in one of my SnB groups, who is a PHENOMENAL knitter, tried to help me with it and was herself STUMPED. But she figured it out and steered me in the right direction. Yay!

Starting it was easy enough. It's mostly stockinette stitch. Knit one row then purl one row, repeat until you get the measurement you need for your desired size. Which was great. Easy and straightforward. I can do that. Now that I've done both the front and back, I have to work on the neckline and the impending sleeve areas along the sides. This is where I'm kinda stuck. When I started out by doing the first panel, I tried to size it along myself and I felt it was maybe a little snug. So an SnB friend recommended making the other panel a little bigger so I wouldn't have to frog ALL THAT WORK but I'm not that an experienced a knitter to figure out what to do with regard to the next steps. And I STILL have to learn intarsia for the "H". Oh oh...

Oh well. I will prevail - I am determined! I'm not in any hurry, anyway.






Thursday, June 26, 2008

Online Activism

One of my FAVORITE things to do online is participating in online activism.

I have memberships at Care2, Change.org, thepetitionsite and Alley Cat Allies to name a few. The best thing about them is that I can sign petitions and participate in making some kind of difference. I wish I could donate to everybody but the problem is $$$.

Unfortunately, I chose my profession for the LOVE, not the MONEY. Veterinary technicians just don't make enough, more often than not. If the profession were better regulated (it's getting there, it's just not there YET...) things would be different. But I digress. Whole other post entirely...

Anyhoo...

A Plurk peep of mine posted info about this horrific story of a local TV STATION bulldozing and killing off a local feral cat colony. OK, now that just PISSES ME OFF.

Feral or not, you don't f*** with cats while I still draw breath. Period.

So I created a petition on The Petition Site, sponsored by Care2, and an action under the Feral and Homeless Cats header of Change.org. I've never created a petition before so this should be a good learning experience.

So, without further ado, here's the link so you can go and sign. Pretty please. With kittens on top!

http://www.tinyurl.com/5ajxyp1

And buy ORGANIC products whenever you can. They're superior products that are better for you anyway. Not to mention, it's gonna PISS OFF their advertisers which is a MAJOR BONUS. HA!!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Good, the Bad and the UGLY

The good news is I just got a brand-new fridge. Brand spanking new. Just out of the box. Yipee Skippee. :-)

The bad news is something BAD happened to me at work this morning.

The DOWNRIGHT UGLY news is something REALLY BAD happened to me at work this morning.

Can't write about it just now. The way my luck is going, I'm bound to jinx myself and make it worse.

But I just needed to see something in writing, no matter how little I am writing about it.

And I need some alcohol. LOTS OF IT. Like NOW. :-(

Monday, June 23, 2008

Death of a Refrigerator

Well, I thought it was weird last night when I noticed that the fridge was making these intermittent sounds every 15 - 20 minutes or so lasting around 30 seconds and then being quiet but being that I'm gone most nights, I didn't think anything of it.

Until this morning.

Milk wasn't that cold. Check freezer, cool air not really a-blowin'. Picked up box of frozen spinach, dripping wet and mushy. FRAK.

Called up the front office to tell them and they were nice about it. Not too long ago, the light bulb for the stove top underhanging of the nuker blew and with it the circuit so I let them know about that too. I had played with the circuit before but I guess I just don't have "the touch" so I've been without food nukage for a while until this morning.

So apparently I can get reimbursed for anything that is unopened. They asked me to take photos and make an inventory so I just finished that. Most of the freezer stuff has been there a little while so I'm probably gonna have to track them down on the next few grocery trips. Not bad, considering I shop at either Whole Foods or The Fresh Market. Recently I've been patronizing Earth Fare, but that's only recently.

At least the fridge itself was almost empty. The irony it this whole thing was that I was too lazy to get off my keister to go food shopping yesterday. Know I know it was all for a higher purpose. (OK. But it makes me feel better when I secretly tell myself that....)

Alright. Now it's about 6:45pm and the office closes at 5pm daily. This better mean I'm getting a NEW not RECYCLED fridge. Especially now that I'll have to leave the apartment to feed myself. Because pasta ain't gonna do it. I'll be hungry again later. I just know it. And I have no potato chips. :(

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Intro

Just writing a quick intro tonight since it's late and I'm pooped. Been a baaaaaad girl and spent the whole day on the computer playing with all my new Social Networks, mainly Twitter and Plurk, and the new Flock Eco browser (which I'm a HUGE fan of BTW....). :-)

I work as an Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) in Raleigh moving down here from NY about 2 years ago with my 3 kittehs: Matty (Himalayan), Mindy (Grey Tabby) and Nicky (Russian Blue). So my blogs will be primarily about their adventures and my MISadventures. Among other things.

Oh yeah, I also knit and scrapbook photos. I'm crafty that way. ;-)

OK. Without further ado, here are the kids:



As you can see, guarding my bed (yeah, I KNOW it's unmade...) is a very important job.

Lazy. Just like their mother. Heh. ;-)