You know it is going to be a long week when it is Monday, and you already have 26 hours on your timesheet.

I'm still at work, so I will write more when time permits.

I love deadlines!

Yeah, Yeah

So I've been MIA for 10 days. What's it to ya?

But seriously...

I've been really busy this past week or so. I recovered from my cramps eventually, and stopped retaining water (and chocolate). We'll see what happens from here, I guess.

Last night I stayed up almost all night (fell asleep around 6). See, I was in bed, and almost asleep, when inspiration struck and I realized how to get past the point in the short story I am working on where I was stuck. I need to have it done by the end of the month to enter it into the contest I am working on it for, so naturally I got up and started typing. By the way, you need to check out Google Docs and Spreadsheets. It's word processing software you can access for free from anywhere, and you can save your documents on line. It also allows for others to collaborate on the same document. Very convenient for those of us who write in multiple places.

I have thoughts on Lent. They ar many and varied. I also have thoughts on why my church should move services to 11:15 or 11:30 on Sunday mornings, so that I will make it every week without oversleeping. I shall share those thoughts at a later date. Right now, I must go back to the drudgery of work. Enjoy Ash Wednesday, folks.

I'm sitting here on the couch shivering and whining because I STILL have cramps and debating about whether or not I should go into the office to deal with the little surprise I just got on the proposal that is due tomorrow. On the plus side, I'd probably get more work done in the office than I will here, on the minus, it is colder in the office than it is here. On the plus side, I wouldn't feel compelled to watch the guys from Nova Scotia rapping in Cajun French that are currently on the PBS station here, on the minus side, my cramps are worse when I'm sitting up than when I'm lying down. On the minus side, I really, really don't want to go anwhere - I just want to take a nap. Minus wins - I'm staying home.

Remind me not to let seven months go by with something not happening that should happen every month. That's a really, really bad idea.

I've turned of the Cajun Canadian rappers and I'm now watching a slightly creepy guy trying to sell a knock-off Bowflex machine. Did you know that lifting weights apparently makes your face skinny? According to this guy it does.

Oh, and I've determined that I will never be skinny. And that's OK. Being a size 0 or smaller is overrated. Though I do envy the metabolism those women must have.

OK. I'm going to switch back to the Cajun rappers and take a brief nap. Adeiu, all.

In deference to all my readers in colder climes, I won't complain about the fact that I can't seem to get warm. Yes, I know the temperatures here are in the 50's and 60's, and I know that seems like a heat wave to y'all, and in truth, it is actually warmer than the normals here (which are the 40's and 50's this time of year), but I'm cold, dammit!

Come summer of course, when we've had 4 consecutive months of temperatures in the high 90's, I'll be longing for these days.

Oh, and I still have cramps and I'm still cranky. And yesterday, I cried because the stoplight wouldn't change. And the day before, I cried because the guy took too long to bring my food at the drive through. Yeah, I'm a wee bit hormonal. I guess that's what happens when seven months worth of PMS gets unleashed all at once.

I never told you about my cool craft project, did I? I found a sweatshirt on ebay that combined two of my favorite things: Snoopy and my Alma Mater. Now, this shirt was old and well worn, and when I got it, I decided I loved it, but didn't want to wear it because the inside is all scratch now. So I turned it into a pillow.

I turned it inside out and sewed up the bottom. I did it by hand, so I used a blanket stitch, but if you use a machine, you could use a running stitch. Then I decided that I wanted the sleeves still on, but I didn't want to stuff them. So I sewed up the cuffs while it was still inside out, then I turned it rightside out through the neck hole, and sewed close the sleeves along the shoulder seams. Now, this shirt was an adult XL, so it took three bags of fiberfill to stuff it. Then I sewed closed the neck. I now have a wonderful, big, fluffy pillow.

You could stuff the sleeves, if you wanted, in which case you would skip sewing along the shoulder seams. Or you could get rid of the sleeves altogether by sewing along the shoulder seams when the shirt is inside out then cutting the sleeves off.

This would be a great thing to do for a sentimental t-shirt or sweatshirt, or that favorite piece of clothing a child has that they just don't want to stop wearing, even though it stopped fitting several years ago (it was a pair of pajamas for me).

Oh, and my new ambition in life is to design fancy teas.

Yeah, Coulda Called This

Knew I was an INFP, and of all the Harry Potter Characters, I would figure this one to be one, too.



Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

I have cramps. Nasty cramps. And about 3 days earlier than the earliest I expected them. Yesterday was the last day I took the hormones, and my endocrinologist said stuff should happen within 3-10 days. I thought I timed things so that I wouldn't be miserable until the weekend.

Surprise.

Go See This. And just think, Ohio readers, it is available in multiple locations in your fine state!

Well, if the fact that all I want to do is eat chocolate is any indication, the medicine to the...ahem...female things...going again is working. Tomorrow is the last day I'm supposed to take it, and results should happen within 10 days. I'll continue to keep you briefed. Not that any of you want to be briefed. But this is my blog, and if I want to share way too much information, I can.

So There.

(Imagine Sheryl sticking her tongue out in an incredibly juvenille manner)

I am freezing all the time. That makes me sad. My office is cold because they still have the air conditioning on, apparently. My apartment is cold because my door is broken, and they seem utterly unwilling to fix it - tape does not block cold very well. It's cold outside. And I seemingly have no tolerance for cold anymore. If I didn't know that my thyroid is apparently normal, I'd think it was low again.

I Have A New Goal in Life

I plan to become rich and famous, say and /or do something inappropriate, and enter "rehab" for a couple weeks. I clicked on a link to the "rehab" Lindsay Lohan just went to, and dude! What a setup! Luxury spas have nothing on this place.

How come doing or saying something that would get the rest of us fired at best, arrested at worse, nets famous folk a fancy vacation?

This is the best tea ever. I just had a cup, and it was like heaven. The Cranberry-Blood Orange sounds pretty good, too. The Ginger Peach is, of course excellent (Barnes and Nobel has that), and the Jerry Garcia Cherry is not bad.

Some people get into wine, I'm a tea geek.

Saw the endocrinologist yesterday. She was wonderful. I was very impressed with the way she took time to speak with me. She prescribed hormones to restart my cycle. She said that, based on the last ultrasound, my thyroid might be a little bit smaller - she estimated it was only three times the size it should be now (I shudder to think what it used to be, then). She also said that she was a little concerned by how lumpy it was, but she'd reevaluate it in a few months and decide from there what to do.

Oh, and on a slightly related note, the other medicine my doctor prescribed (and that the endo. increased the dosage on) is having wonderful effects. Without changing anything, I've lost another half size. I am comfortably wearing jeans that were really tight two weeks ago, and didn't fit at all a month ago.

Having hormones that work is a wonderful thing.

Hello, my faithful readers. I have two questions for you today.

First, does anyone want some Mardi Gras beads? I was straightening today, and I realized I still have a huge bag of them left over from a youth conference years ago. The literally grow on trees down here (OK, they are thrown from floats on trees), so I don't want or need them. If you do want some, e-mail me (addy is in my profile) with your address, and I'll send them off to you.

Second, I am working on a short story for a contest I read about at Faith in Fiction (link is on the sidebar, I think). I'll have a slightly gritty draft ready next weekend (in other words, I'll have done an edit - so the draft won't be rough, but it will be by no means a finished product, either). If anyone would like to read, comment, and rip apart, please drop me an e-mail on that as well. I'm never objective about my own writing, and usually think it is worse than it is.

I feel vaguely icky tonight. This new medicine is kicking my butt. I'm wondering if the dosage is too high. I feel like my blood sugar is dropping every few hours, and that I'll be sick if I don't eat.

OK. I'm going back to work. Yes, you read that right.

I just spent 5 hours editing the most god-awful proposal ever put to paper. And after 5 hours, it is still 10 pages of crap. At least now it is 10 pages of readable crap.

Oh, and the current incarnation of Saturday Night Live is also crap. It is crap with bad music.

You know what else is crap? My front door. I have a sliding glass door, and when I got home last night, I couldn't get it open. When I tried pushing with a hand on either side of the door, the left metal part of the door separated from the glass. I tried calling my building's emergency maintenance number, but it was out of service. I managed, with much cajoling and kicking, to get the metal part close to the glass and get the door open, but there is a gap between the metal and the glass large enough to fit the tip of my finger through. That sucks a whole lot.

In case you can't tell, I'm in a bit of a negative mood.

Hee!

Go read this. It's funny, but it makes me kind of sad, too. I watched a Nature special on either chimps or orangutans and how hard it is on ones that have been domesticated. It made me cry, actually. Some of them were actually afraid of being outside.

I am spending time discovering the wonders of YouTube in between past performance writeups and resumes. If I didn't I would have lost my mind already, as I have to work this weekend.

Enjoy this Easy Reader clip from The Electric Company. I loved this show more than anything when I was a kid. I really think that it played a huge part in my learning to read as early as I did. I can remember going places with my mom and dad and sounding out the signs around me. I can also remember being as excited about reading as Easy Reader. Before I could read, it was all I wanted to do. Once I learned, it was hard to pull books out of my hands.

Since it did work, let me share Alice Cooper and the Muppets from the greatest TV show ever put on the air, The Muppet Show. It is the only show I can remember watching with everyone from my grandmother to my teenage babysitter, and everybody loving.

I'm Supposed to be Working on Resumes...

But I hate that part of my job. So I decided I would learn how to post YouTube video to my blog. This is a test post from Sesame Street without the dreaded Elmo, and with REM. Let's see if it works.

I find it interesting that so many people I know have entered priesthood, religious life, or the ministry in some way, shape or form. I just found out that another classmate from days gone by is about to be ordained a Catholic priest.

I wonder what all that means...if it means anything at all.

Don't mind me. I am in a bit of a spiritual slump. I'm hoping to be able to go here for a retreat this year on my vacation. I really need that time of renewal.

Sigh

So I went to the doctor Monday for the annual thing (not the woman thing, the general thing). They took enough blood for all the world to use. The phlebotomist was good though, and I don't have a bruise.

The good news is that my thyroid is still normal, my cholesterol is excellent (she is still surprised by that), and my liver and kidney function is good. The bad news is that my blood sugar was slightly elevated. It wasn't high enough to be really worrisome, but it was high enough for me to see an endocrinologist and start being treated for PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), which I already knew I had and which I was being treated for a long time ago.

So I'm taking a new medication. It has nasty GI side effects, which I'm not looking forward to. It also kept me up all night last night, despite not sleeping well the night before. And I really have to eat breakfast when I take it, or I risk my blood sugar dropping too low.

Sigh.