Our Life In The Desert » Awesomeness

Maybe I need a list post?

Brandy — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:32:55 +0000

I carry a spiral bound notebook with me everywhere I go. It’s small and it fits in my purse and on any given day, I pull it out and jot down things I want to write about at least five times a day. But when it comes to sitting down and putting fingers to keyboard, I draw a blank. I sit here with my Dashboard open and I write a few words and I think I’m getting the thoughts down and then suddenly, it’s like I have a memory dump and all I see is the BSoD.

The BSoD is not a good sign. It’s like writers block, except there might be drool involved and I’m pretty sure my eyes gloss over for 20-30 seconds, minimum.

I’ve resorted to turning this place into a personal journal and I hate that. I remember when I used to be witty and funny and fun…ya know — back before they told me I was going to die and back before my ankles would swell to the size of a fat mans thighs because of my medication.

Ah, the good ole days…

So, I think I’ve decided to try to put forth a bit more effort — once I’ve kind of settled some of the personal stuff I’ve got going on.

I’ll start with this little tidbit:

A week after moving to California, I was asked on three (it might actually be four, I can’t recall) separate occasions if I needed help or if I needed someone to call for help for me because I had these bruises from moving — one gnarly one on my arm and the other on my calf. Apparently, the people in California are very friendly and willing to help when it comes to possible physical abuse — and that kind of freaked me out, because I’ve never been around that type of thing before. John joked that it was because it was such a rampant issue in the area — but really, who knows.

I am happy to report — after flying through countless cities, sitting next to strangers and spending a lot of time surrounded by people I don’t know while at the hospital (and doing just general living while here in Texas) — the only comment I’ve gotten about the 20+ bruises on my arms was one made by a lady to her husband, in a hushed voice they assumed I couldn’t hear.

I was accused of being an IV drug abuser.

Ah — Texas, how I love you so.

I also found out today that I have blood poisoning from one of the IV sites on my right wrist (the really bad looking one in the pictures) — I suspected yesterday, when I posted on Facebook that I was seeing red lines on my arm. It was confirmed — I’ve got antibiotics on board to try and fight that mess.

It also means I’ve been instructed not to visit the hospital any more, due to an already compromised immune system and the fight that’s taking place in my body right now.

Yup — it’s been a damn good year, I have to say.

*The picture is my dad, Shooter. Isn’t he charming? Yes, that’s an ear ring and a pony tail. Don’t ask. Really…it’s just best you don’t.

Focus is a very good thing

Brandy — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:20:41 +0000

Well, there sure has been a lot going on around here. I haven’t blogged in a bit and to be honest, after the shenanigans of last week, I just wasn’t sure I was going to. It’s sometimes hard being exposed and even harder being exposed to people who, for whatever reason, have nothing better to do than to try to make life difficult for no good reason.

I’m sticking to my guns on the password change. I know it’s a real pain for everyone, but if I do decide to blog about personal stuff like I had been, I’m changing the lock.

In other news — after almost two months, I closed up discussions with two clients to start working on their projects. We’d started talking back in May, but with everything that was going on then (and it was about half as much as what I have going on now) I just didn’t feel like I could shoulder any more.

But — in true Brandy fashion, I’ve decided to ignore all the crap and focus on work.

It’s my cure-all. It really is.

So things are up and running. I’m working with a software development firm that focuses on mobile app development. They work for clients and build custom-to-order apps for Android and iOS, but they also do in-house work and right now, that’s my focus.

If we’re friends on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve probably seen me chat about Watsit — it’s the (slimmed down, beta-ish) browser version of the mobile app that will be hitting the Marketplace and App Store in the coming weeks. It’s pretty nifty and promoting it, so far, has been fun. This is a new arena for me — but not one I’m inexperienced in. I love gaming and I’m stoked to be a part of the project — so you’ll see a lot from me regarding that.

Shameless plug for the Watsit Facebook Page and Watsit Twitter Page — you should get in on both of them.

The other project is smaller, but just as awesome. I’m doing some back-end support and general ‘filling in when and where needed’ for the Support for Special Needs website. Julia Roberts and Dawn Friendman launched the site over a year ago and they’ve been having really good luck working with the special needs community and specialty vendors. Unlike some of the other sites I’ve worked for — this site offers a lot of support, even for the really hard stuff, to parents and caregivers who live with and care for people who have special needs.

Shameless plug for the SupportForSpecialNeeds.com Facebook Page and SupportSN on Twitter — Julia does a great job of keeping everyone updated on what’s going on on the site, so check them out.

In addition to the two new projects, I’ve been contacted by the local TV station and asked to participate in a piece they’re doing on Social Media and it’s impact on customer service. I’m on the fence about that at this point. I keep going back and forth on doing it vs. not doing it. I think a lot will depend on logistics and the amount of information they’re willing to share with me regarding the piece, before I agree to participate. I’m a research and prep kind of girl and the thought of being deer-in-the-headlights interviewed on live TV, even in the small Bakersfield market, makes me throw up a little in my mouth.

That’s what I’ve been up to this week. It’s nice to have something else to focus on and something else that requires my attention. The result of that has been pretty spectacular and I’m really hoping it continues to be that and more.

The rest — well, it’s the same. I just care a little less now.

I get up early. Real early.

Brandy — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:44:03 +0000

It all started years ago, when the company I worked for decided to outsource its development process to web developers located in Bangalore, India. They worked an opposite shift than we did, but the need for overlap was profound (they just weren’t that spectacular). As a result I started getting up at 3:30/4:00 AM to work side-by-side with the developers assigned to my products so that we could have maximum overlap time.

It was helpful and useful and painful all at the same time.

But it got me used to getting up really early and it’s something I still do, for the most part…or, I do, but then I usually take a short early morning nap, because let’s face it — I’m not as young as I used to be. Plus, I don’t sleep as well as I used to…

Anyway…when John (aka, the old ball and chain) left for Houston in March to attend two months worth of training for his new job– the two hour time difference really made a ‘big’ difference in the amount of time we could spend together. After talking about the difference and trying to come up with ways we could bridge the gap – we decided we’d start a morning workout routine.

So, each morning, I get up at 3:30 AM, hydrate, get dressed and set out for a speed-walk with John in my ear.

I realize that 3:30 is pretty early for most of you – but what I didn’t realize was that 3:30 was late for some people.

Most notably, those rolling in from the club scene.

I seriously must be getting old.

The first week we started our new routine, I happened across a girl just getting home from a night out on the town. When I walked by the first time, she was being helped out of the back of the car by someone who, I assume, was less drunk than she was.

By the time I made round two, she was snoozing soundly on her front porch, with her friend/driver nowhere in sight.

And that isn’t even the most awkward or strange thing I’ve seen – because almost every morning when I’m out walking with John, chatting and talking about the day ahead of us, I run into someone who is urinating in their front yard/side yard.

What the hell is up with that!?

Don’t even get me started on the two dogs who have taken a keen interest in my early morning walk past their house. They randomly materialized one day last week and now every morning, they greet me with great excitement – so much so, their owner has joined in the cheering section.

I get up early. Really early. Or late – I guess it depends on your view of the world.

I may have pissed you off and I’m sorry

Brandy — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:52:51 +0000

Man, I got in a funk yesterday and I just couldn’t get out of it.

It was really bad. I was bitchy and unwavering in my frustration over things I couldn’t control. It was a real pita for me – so I can imagine how it must have been for those around me.

I’m better today.

A little.

If I pissed you off yesterday, I’m sorry. I really am. I’m not normally that aggravated. Ok, that’s a lie – but I really am sorry, that part isn’t a lie.

It’s 5:32 and I’m on my second cup of coffee. I’m going to finish it, take a shower and go to the office. To say that I have a ton of things to do would be a mild understatement.

The weather here is finally turning nice. I realize when I say it’s in the mid-90′s that some of you will think I’m insane – but I’d like to point out, it’s been over 110 here since, like, April. This 90 degree stuff – it feels like long pants weather.

I mentioned yesterday, on Twitter, that I had almost totally stopped reading adoption related stuff. It’s true. I actually had a conversation with John a few nights ago that went something like this, “Man, you have no idea how awesome it is to go a full day without being barraged by adoption related commentary and opinion.”

I wonder if this is what it’s like when the loud music stops in a torture chamber?

All in all - I am very happy with where I’m at. I just need to keep chanting: “grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Some things aren’t my battle and there isn’t anything wrong with that

I’ll work on a Tuesday post, later – I admit, I forgot it was Tuesday!

Weekly round up, with free vent included – act now!

Brandy — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 23:48:05 +0000

I haven’t really been doing much updating. I sat down last night to work on a blog post, got all side tracked, decided that I was ‘over’ it and then didn’t blog at all.

I was going to blog about the time I was standing in the breakroom at a former job with someone higher up in the company and he shared his opinion of birth parents with me, before he remember that I was, in fact, a birth parent.

It was interesting.

He didn’t back peddle at all.

I guess it’s good that he feels so confident in his feelings – to bad he’s a complete jackass (oh, and wrong…but I’m not the only class of person he feels should fall off the face of the earth).

I had started thinking about it because I was having a discussion with a friend about hostility in the workplace, hostility towards classes of people and more specifically, hostile reactions to personal thoughts and opinion shared about various topics in blog form.

It was an interesting conversation – but I admit, it brought back memories of PTSD-like feelings I had about working in a place where I felt like I had to constantly dress for battle – and that was really hard.

Anyway – so as I was saying, I was going to write about that last night and decided not to…then I decided I’d write about how things have been going over all…

…then I decided to go to bed.

Yeah, life *is* that exciting.

Things are going pretty well. I cut it damn close with the new insurance – I almost had to pay out of pocket for a medication I was going to be out of today, because there was a problem with my insurance and it wasn’t going to be active until it was resolved. In true form, however, I took control and got it mostly resolved…although it’s not 100%, it did save me from having to pay out of pocket for my (very freakin expensive) drugs.

Also, I think my numbers are heading back up. I emailed the Dr. earlier today and I am going to the lab on Monday, but I can more or less feel it, which sucks. Also? I’m yellow – which explains the picture at the top of the post…

I mentioned earlier in the week that Jerrett password protected his PC because he felt he needed privacy – then he promptly forgot his password, rendering his PC useless.

It’s currently sitting on my desk being formatted – a clean wipe of everything he’s ever done and ever had on his PC – all because he wanted a little privacy. Here is my desk:

Yup, total freakin nerdsville right there my friends...

In other news – I had to take my car to the shop because I was getting sick of feeling like I was having my shoulder dislocated every time I pushed the brakes (there was a little jerking going on) – turns out, I needed to have my rotors machined, which I suspected – I also got the pads replaced and $240 later, I’m right as rain. I’m glad, because all the stopping during rush hour was really getting to be a pain in the arse. Or shoulder. Or both.

After the greasy guys were done working on the car, I decided to take it over and have it washed – it’d been a while, because I’d been kind of putting it off…and after much deliberation over whether to take it to the place where they are always complete jackasses or the place where they have this windshield replacement company who refuses to take me off their no-call list who harasses you in the line while you wait, we decided not to deal with jackasses.

It turns out – they must have merged – because now, the harassing windshield place is run by a bunch of jackasses. It really was a treat.

It went like this:

The guy first forgot to ask us about the scent we wanted – so when John went back out to tell them, the guy got all pissy because the car had already gone around – he then proceeded to hand John the little inserts you stick in your AC vent to make it smell good.

Yeah, sorry that you suck at your job dude…you’re right, have the customer handle it…more specifically, have the customer not only do your job with their own car – turn around and start getting snarky about how you’ve now forgotten the tag number of your /other/customer and demand that he go over and read it off to you.

At this point, if John hadn’t been so tired, I’m sure we’d have left – he was pissed and I was frustrated because when he gets pissed, he isn’t the most enjoyable person to spend time with.

Then, as I’m sitting there trying not to think about all the ways I can get out of having to spend the rest of the day with him, they pull my car out of the wash tunnel and it has soap dripping down the side.

Soap!

I’d just paid for a car wash and hand wax – I don’t want soap left on my car!

So as I’m sitting there thinking, surely they’ll rinse it the rest of the way – they start wiping it down! Wiping it down with soap on it!

So I quickly took a (really, really crappy, but you can get the idea) picture and went inside to talk to the Manager.

He agreed to re-wash and proceeded to do that…but once it came out, it looked the same…soap everywhere…it was quite frustrating. Our second conversation wasn’t so agreeable – he suggested I basically suck it up – that the soap wasn’t an issue, that he washed thousands of cars and the soap is normal and they just wipe it off…no biggie.

Yeah, it’s a biggie for me…and that didn’t make me (or him) happy. I demanded a refund and got my car (soap and all) and left.

It was pretty frustrating – but I was happy to see, I’m not the only person who was having a bad experience – another customer was pointing out issues with her car as we were dealing with this…apparently, she felt the same way I did – the service used to be great, now it’s not so much.

It certainly doesn’t make the scales tip in their favor in the future when I’m trying to decide if I want to deal with assholes or harassing windshield repairmen – especially now that they’re covering both bases.

Anyway – I’m home now. It was a sucky day, but at least my breaks brakes (that’s the second time I’ve spelled it breaks) are fixed.

Guess I better get back to work on Jerrett’s computer – it appears to be done formatting

Will it ever end?

Brandy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:57:49 +0000

I’m ready for the summer to be over.

I keep reading on Facebook and Twitter that it’s finally fall and I get kind of sad. I love fall. I miss fall.

At any rate, I thought I’d give you a quick look at what the weather is doing here. This could be a screenshot of any day since April, really. But it’s not. This is the weather forecast for the next four days.

Oh and the AC is still out. FML.

I am officially unemployed and kinda pissed at my iPhone 4

Brandy — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:38:06 +0000

I’ve been going back and forth on what I wanted to write today. It was supposed to be my last day at my former employer, but I ended up leaving earlier, because I’d done everything they asked me to do and I was just kinda killing time – something I could do at home.

So, I am comfortably unemployed – at least until Monday.

I celebrated today by going and getting my hair cut and colored. I deserved it.

I also might have taken a two hour nap. At 8 AM. I can neither confirm nor deny.

I thought I’d feel different. I thought I’d be sadder. I was really sad for the two weeks and two days that lead up to leaving, but all I felt when I finally left was relief. Enormous amounts of weight lifting relief.

So, Monday starts a new chapter and I am super-freaking-excited about this new chapter.

I can’t seem to put how I’m feeling into words just yet, so I think I’ll stop trying.

In non-job related news – I ended up getting an iPhone 4 a few weeks ago, because my old iPhone 3 crapped itself and here are my thoughts on that:

I shoulder talk because I think those bluetooth things are quite possibly the most ridiculous looking thing you can wear on your head and I have yet to find one that I can activate and get on my face when I need it – and I refuse to wear it ALL-THE-EVER-LOVING-TIME in the event that a call comes through where I need to use my hands – so if you can get that shoulder talking thing fixed, so I don’t hang up on people, that’d be grand.
Hi. I’m fat. When I put the phone up to my face to talk – I routinely A) Hang up B) Dial random numbers C) Scroll through my Contacts and manage to some how cheek conference call in random people – like, my Dr.’s office – not cool. I never had this problem with my old phone – it seems like the screen would go inactive on my iPhone 3 when I had it up against my fat chipmunk cheeks – so if you can make that happen on the iPhone 4 so I can stop conferencing in my Dr.’s office while on the phone with my husband giving him a grocery list – that’d be grand, also.
There is some random glitch with the OS on the phone that makes my email inbox have eleventy hundred empty emails. See screen shot below. This is, by far, the most annoying complaint I have because it simultaneously makes my unread message indicator show that I have unread messages, which I do not – and when you have unread message OCD, like I do, this is NOT a fun or neat trick.

Unacceptable "Feature" of my iPhone4

Here’s a helpful hint: (No Sender) (No Subject) This message has no content – DO NOT SHOW IT – THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE HERE!

/rant

Moving on…

My current favorite person’s (formally known as, my coworker, Chuck) husband worries about me when he doesn’t see me online on Facebook – how cute is that? CFP is pretty freakin awesome – and the fact that her husband worries about me when I’m not on Facebook is either pathetic (on my part – because holy crap, how much time do you have to spend on Facebook for people to worry about you when you’re not online) or enormously touching – right now, I’m going with touching – because I’m not prepared to call myself pathetic. Yet.

Mr. CFP: You are almost as awesome as your beautiful bride. Almost

[I feel like I need to elaborate on my Facebook usage, before the folks from Intervention show up at my house. I use a 3rd party IM chat client called Digsby. I am usually signed into some type of IM chat throughout the day, by virtue of my job (working with off-site contractors) - this also allows me to stay signed into Facebook Chat without actually being *on* Facebook. So, yes, I am /on/ Facebook Chat all day - but I am not generally *on* Facebook all day - I realize this explination makes me seem even more guilty than if I'd not tried to explain at all.

Ok fine...I have issues - send the men in white coats.]

Wow, this knitting business is serious…

Brandy — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:51:41 +0000

Earlier this week, a coworker and I were talking about some things we could do that to ‘keep in touch’ after I left and started my new job. I like her, she’s good people – so I was game.

We decided, after spouting off random ideas for like 3 seconds, that we’d take a knitting class.

Yay!

Have I ever mentioned that I’m not crafty? In the event that I haven’t, I’ll go ahead and do that now. I’m not crafty. Shifty? Yes. Crafty? Not-so-much.

Anyway, Yay!

First, I pride myself on my ability to pick up things really quickly. I. Learn. Good.

But for the life of me, I could not grasp this knitting stuff.

Now I should say, the lady teaching the class probably shouldn’t be teaching. She starts with, “Ok, well, I don’t knit pretty. I’m self taught and I do it differently than any of the standard methods.” – Fine, I can deal with some randomly modified stitchery or whatever – my goal is to knit and I don’t figure it’s going to matter a whole lot how I get to the end, as long as I get there.

Yeah – uh…I felt like a complete and total freakin idiot. She would show us a step, and let me be clear, when I say show, she would cast off like it was a race and she had to first place or die and I’d just be sitting there, mouth agape wondering what in the crap just happened.

She did this a number of times. It was frustrating.

But not nearly as frustrating as learning that three of the six participants in the class were actually seasoned knitters. They had like blankets and stuff…they yank them out and start asking questions – and I’m sitting there thinking, “uh…beginner class, hello!?”

Towards the end of class, she shares with us that we can learn to knit by watching YouTube.com videos.

Wait…what? What’s the $56 for then? *sigh*

I came home, watched the same ‘casting off’ video eight times and finally got it – if all I had to do was cast off, I’d be in good shape…but I can’t ‘get’ the stitch.

It’s not clicking for me, but I’m going to keep trying. I have to, I have home work this week…but don’t ask me how I’m going to do it, because I’ll be danged if I can figure out how to do a stitch – much less enough of them to equal a 4X4 square.

Yeah…I think I might have to cheat and pay someone to do my homework for me…

A Cat Bite? Are You Kidding Me!?

Brandy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:39:48 +0000

It went something like this:

The alarm goes of at 4:09 here – sometimes I get up, sometimes I don’t. This morning, I decided to go ahead and get up so I could get some stuff done this morning before work.

Then, as the old man opens the door to leave, a cat runs in the house.

(Some back story – I’m a cat lover. I have two cats. With encouragement from my Dr. we decided to make them outside cats, because he was worried I’d get a scratch that could turn bad. They’re altered and they stay in the backyard – plus they have shelter. I’m not heartless)

Anyway – the old man opens the door and in runs this cat. I freak out. He freaks out. The cat darts into our bedroom and under our bed like s/he’d been studying blueprints all night and knew exactly where to go.

So, what do we do? We try to get it. J’s on one side of the bed with a broom, trying to ‘push’ him/her out and I’m on the other side, holding a towel so I can ‘direct’ him/her into the carrier beside my bed.

What happens? Oh, the cat comes screaming out from under the bed, jumps into my arms, starts shredding at the air with its claws like in the cartoons – then proceeds to CHOMP DOWN ON MY LEFT INDEX FINGER.

Top of my finger

Bottom of my finger

S/he then jumps out of my hands and starts running down the hall. At that point, I’m holding out my hand in front of me as it dripping blood, not quite sure what to think.

Right now, I’m waiting for the Dr. open in an hour. I did wash (scrub) my finger and my wrist with soap and water, then peroxide, but because I take steroids, its better to go ahead and get on antibiotics.

Already, its pretty swollen and warm and I can hardly bend it…fun times. (That stuff keeps oozing out of the bite…)

S/he also scratched my wrist pretty good:

Ugh.

Unbelievable!

**Also, no comments about my nails…I can’t type if they’re any longer than that…and its hard to type with 9 fingers – so deal with the typos/missinf words…this sux!

A New Chapter In Our Lives

Brandy — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:43:43 +0000

Sorry about the short post last night. It was sort of an afterthought. You guys have rocked this journey with me for so long, I’m sorry that I didn’t think about posting sooner.

So, a new job…pretty nifty, huh?

I should recap some:

The pay isn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s more than what I’m making now. I should add, however, salary was less of a factor than other issues when making my decision to move on.
The commute is longer, but I don’t think it’s going to be a huge deal
The benefits are interesting…the insurance is actually a bit more expensive (which I thought was a little odd) but there are other ‘perks’ that make up for it. They do a lot for employee morale, it seems.

Overall, I’ll be making a little more, but I will also get more in the way of benefits – like vacation, floating holidays, holiday time and other perks.

I’ve got some paperwork to sign this morning and get back to them, so I am going to do that then it’ll be all official-and-in-writing. I did put my notice in yesterday, so the ball is rolling now with my current employer. I’m still not sure what to expect on that end. I don’t know if they’ll want me to honor my 3 weeks notice (I gave 3 weeks, by the way) or if they’ll walk me out after they’ve had time to discuss matters.

Anyway, more about the job:

The position is with a large web company that focuses on women’s issues. I will be working in their “Parenting” department which focuses on all things parenting related. It’s less seriousness and emotion (like adoption) and more every day parenting type stuff. It seems like a really fun and inviting place to work – I spent some time there last week (during their last interview) and it was refreshing to see them all kind of pull together on a small project and make it happen…less working against each other for personal gain and more working with each other for company gain…something I’m excited to be a part of again.

So, it seems like a really great step for us (the family), but I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t scared to death. When we made the decision to move to Arizona for my current job, I recall feeling much of the same. It was such a leap for us, but I knew it was good.

I know this is good – but I’m still scared.

As for the Dr. visit yesterday – that was fairly uneventful. Because stress can have such a huge impact on your health, he’s actually encouraged me to find a new job for some time, so he was pretty excited that I was reporting that I had done just that and would be starting my new job on the 16th of August. We went over my numbers, which are still not where he wants them, but not as high as they were back at the beginning of the month. We talked about my meds (which he raised, again) and we talked about the plan for the next few months, since most everything will have to be put on hold until the insurance is all squared away and then we just BS’d, because he’s great like that. We talked about the iPhone4 (neither of us have it, but we both pre-ordered it and declined it upon delivery due to reported problems) and we talked about the iPad (he has one, I don’t) and then he told me to come back in October, once the insurance was all squared away.

That’s really it. I’m closing a chapter on the last 5 years and looking forward to what the future holds.