love.

marvel at my tech craft and dispair

audio cable: $9

ipod nano box: $0 (well $150, but at least an ipod came with it.)

glue gun, scissors, screwdriver: $0 (i had them laying around.)

too much time on my hands: $0

resulting ipod nano dock for my stereo system: priceless

uhm, there might be a problem here.

tonight i purchased my 9th pair of birkenstocks.  the 13th pair i have owned in my lifetime, it all started with mocha bostons (i wore them with white sweat socks in high school, very un-trend-setting).  i also had a pair of green pvc birk clogs waaaayyyy before the crocks (also turned heads in high school, not always in the best way).

oh, and just a little plug here, this is my favorite business to purchase birkenstocks from:

http://www.simplybirkenstock.com

the stores and site are run by a great couple, and they are based in new hampshire, so any sale is tax-free.

the pool calls

i’m swimmin’ not bloggin’

birthday

my mother’s birthday was this past weekend, so guess what that means?

that’s right!  funny story!

so i call my mother and this a how the conversation goes:

me: hi, happy big 6-0.

her: no, 5-9.

me: oh come on, just embrace it.

her: no, i am 59. (she says in an annoyed tone)

me: no 60.

her: 59.

me: you know, usually one would want to stop at 39, not 59.

her:  i was born in 1949.  i am 59.

me: um . . . oh.  what?

the conversation continues.  yes, in fact my mother is 59 and not 60.  and now she is a pissed 59 year-old.

there’s more . . . my sister called me at work today to tell me that my mother called her last night.  here is how that conversation went:

her:  how old am i?

sis: 58.

her: no, i am not 58!

sis: how old are you then?

her: 59!!  your sister said i was 60!!!

all i have to say about that is at least my sister got it wrong too.

standard

we had company over the weekend, and due to lack of breakfast food (that did not require that i cook it) we decided to go out to panera.  we ate breakfast sandwiches and egg soufflés, plus coffee, plenty of coffee.

here is my issue with coffee: ever since we bought a keurig from costco most other coffee tastes like crap to me.  i can do espresso and lattes out, starbucks is great, panera has a good house latte (although, the steamed milk is more like bubbley dishwater rather than the starbucks velvety foam).  yesterday at panera i had the house latte, followed by a cup of drip-brewed coffee.  it tasted nasty.  nasty.  we then had like a ten minute conversation about how liz and i think most coffee that does not spew out of our keurig is crap.  it is my coffee standard.

that slurpy sound the keurig makes as it spits out the last few drops of a cup makes me drool.  very pavlovian.

i liked, i stole

this is bummping around allmediocre

one word:

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Your significant other? work

3. Your hair? short

4. Your mother? far (thank god . . .)

5. Your father? same

6. Your favorite thing? sleep

7. Your dream last night? whack

8 Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? quit

10. The room you’re in? living

11. Your hobby? crafting

12. Your fear? bees (eeeek!)

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? elswhere

14. What are you not? perky

15. Muffins? tops

16. One of your wish list items? house

17. Where you grew up? CT

18. The last thing you did? write (on paper. yes they still do that.)

19. What are you wearing? jammies

20. Favorite Gadget? ipod (new)

21. Your pets? cats

22. Your computer? blinking

23. Your mood? pluh

24. Missing someone? girl

25. Your car? saturn

26. Something you’re not wearing? earings

27. Favorite store? costco

28. Like someone? girl

29. Your favorite color? grey

30. When was the last time you laughed? saturday

flowers

this week at work i received my first floral delivery ever, and it was gorgeous! the flowers were from a patient who had surgery late last year, it was a special case and included a doctor from yale university. insurance companies being as they are, had told me that the yale doc would be paid as “in network” at 80%, but when payment was made for the surgery they paid as “out of network” at 60% after a $500 deductible (which is crap). the insurance company then tried to argue that the surgery was “elective” and “not medically necessary” acting like they had done the patient a favor by paying at all.

apperently i made such a huff and fuss that the insurance company not only reprocessed the claim as “in network” for the higher payment, but paid the claim at 100% with no payment due from the patient. i don’t know how they did this . . . it must have been a mistake, because no amount of huff and puff to an insurance company will ever result in a higher than contracted payment.  (yes, i am bitter)

anyway, the patient has given me credit for this fluke and gave me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers ever. i have a picture i took with my cell, i’ll have to post it later.

tiny little garden

hanging tomato plants (6) with a good bunch of thai basil in the center (see the purple bud on the close-up?) i saw this idea on the victory garden last summer and just had to do it.

on the top: rosemary, sweet basil, mint, sage, thyme and italian broad leaf pasrsly, in the back row is chives, and in the center is some very small and pathetic looking dill weed i planted from seed. i also planted the chives from seed.

on the bottom is a photo from the front side.

it’s what’s for dinner

a rotissarie chicken from costco

bolthouse farms yogurt ranch dressing

organic spring mix

delicious

broke down, yo.

yep.  i did it.  in a moment of great weakness i put my head on liz’s lap and uttered the word “nano.”  within hours we were firing-up the computer and downloading itunes.

in 2005 we purchased mp3 players, a couple of samsungs at about $90 each, i had convinced liz that the ipod was overpriced and most any other mp3 player could provide us with years of happiness.  they did, but lately i have felt like the samsung has been greatly lacking (as liz has been pointing out for the past three years).  and i have wanted more because i have been listening to music so much lately (due to my current bout of depression).

feel better music

nasty acne and finally something that works (for me)

i have had acne since elementary school, at times it’s been pretty bad and sometimes it has not been too bad at all. when i was in high school my mother brought me to a dermatologist who gave me antibiotics and a few different tubes of junk (most of which stung and/or smelled bad and didn’t really work). i did not want to bother with this dermatologist anymore, and my mother would tell me that i would have to go and use the prescriptions because she was embarrassed to go out into public with me (yes, she is an asshole). i never thought it was all that bad, and i felt like i would grow out of it eventually, it didn’t really bother me. besides, i saw lots of people who had it much worse.

as i have gone through my twenties the acne has not gone away. i have used plenty of drugstore acne treatment items, without much result. a couple years ago i found a website: acne.org. the simple method explained on this site was the first thing that ever worked for me. even thought i got sick of using benzoyl peroxide and stopped the method, i still think that it is a really good thing.

when i started my current job i started to see the esthetician who works out of the same building as my office.  when i started having facials she used this skin peel called “z-peel” which is fantastic, and she is now using and offering “mama lotion” to her clients.  i love it, my acne is almost gone except for a couple blemishes i get when i have a pms breakout.  this morning i found that acne.org has mama lotion reviews, clearly it doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s the best thing i’ve ever used.

confessions

i am taking a day off from work tomorrow.  thank god.

i could not even get into blogging about the things that happened to me in the office today because i would for sure be either dooced or violate hippa regulations in a bad, bad way.

i have an appointment with my primary care doctor tomorrow, in which i will demand a large increase in the dosage of my psychotropic medication, and suggest an additional drug to make me sleep (all night long).  it’s not so much work that’s got me down, but it’s what’s got me down that is making me nuts about work shit.

my pcp will try to get me to talk about why i need this stiff increase, but i will again refuse to tell him and defer him to my counselor.  i have some issues that stem from my childhood (much like most other people).  and man, i am not dealing well, yo.

freaked out, yo.

here are a few highlights from my workday:

• i walked in the door and not so much as fired up my computer when one of the clinical assistants walks up to my desk as says: “did you hear about the note?” to which i replied: “no. uh, i just got here.” she proceeds to tell me about the note which read: “clinical assistant (real name omitted) you must know and understand the signs and symptoms of toximia/pre-eclampsia and be prepared to answer questions.” written in the hand of dr. i thought to myself: oh, no she doesn’t because i am sick of dr treating the clinical assistants (paid $14-16/hour) as triage nurses (paid $28-35/hour). this is an issue that will take a few days for me to straighten out before i can talk to her about how wrong she is here.
• i spent 15 minutes on the phone with a nutty patient who wants dr to see her for free, sans-health-insurance, just because she has been a (problem) patient for many years.
• i spent 10 minutes hiding in an office down the hallway hiding from the above mentioned (problem) patient while listening to her rant to my staff about what a “bitch” she thinks i am and how one of them should book her an appointment, free of all charges, just because she has been a patient longer than i have worked there. she also left a letter for dr marked “do not open. attn: dr. confidential.” in scraggly handwriting complete with grease stains on the envelope.
• yelled at dr again today because i made a mistake scheduling an appointment, so now she tells me that now we “need a system” so that this never happens again. we do have a system, and a damn good one at that: using the computerized scheduler. even that is not human proof. this yelling took place in the front office with all of the staff in the room, this may have been unprofessional, but i got a couple pats on the back afterward. that’s what dr gets for ticking me off in front of every one, usually i can bite my lip, but after all the issues i had already dealt with . . . forget it. i freaked out, yo.

it’s what’s for dinner

junk-food style lite

pizza:

chips:

(ok, not so “lite”) beer:

it’s what’s for dinner

because i do bad things:

because doing bad things makes me feel guilty:

the evil genius mind-readers at starbucks

in a past career i was a starbucks addict, at this point i was off the coffee and did not use daily or even weekly (my current career got me back on the coffee, now i am a daily user again). i constantly craved starbucks iced tea like i had craved dunkin’ donuts iced coffee as a teenager, i could not pass the place without pavlovian drool. i felt guilty about all of that plastic cup usage, so whenever i could i would save the cup to use another time (the baristas gave me some weird looks). i always thought that it would be super cool and cute if they made re-usable cups that resembled the disposables for both hot and cold drinks, it really is a nice style. two years ago starbucks popped out with a hot re-usable mug that looks just like the disposable, and after christmas 2006 liz found one on sale that matched the red holiday style. so cute. still i wished that the evil genius would make a re-usable cold tumbler.

last friday morning all of my channeling paid off. i stopped at starbucks on my way to work knowing that a couple shots of espresso would pull me though the day. i ordered a venti latte and an english muffin with ham, egg and cheese (yummers). i was about to pay when out of the corner of my eye i spotted it:

here it is with the one liz bought.

when i got home from work i was all excited to show it to liz. i said “dear, i did a bad thing. i bought something i don’t really need.” i pulled out the cup and placed it on the table, she looked at me like i was nuts and said “yeah, so.” at first she did not realize it was something i had paid $12.95 for, she thought it was an empty disposable cup, and was not impressed that i felt guilty about purchasing an iced tea.

from bad to worse

i yelled at my boss today. yes, yelled.

then on the way home i broke down and ordered a pepperoni black olive pizza so that i would be able to eat, emotionally. i was surprised at how well i handled it (the pizza). i didn’t eat the whole think like i wanted to, there are plenty of leftovers. that gives my brisk walk on the treadmill just a little more purpose.

killer day

holy crap. i need to have a brisk walk on the treadmill to knock out all of this stress, then pass out after a cool shower. i will be listening to lateduster on my mp3 player.