Posts Tagged ‘Work’

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Non Stop…

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

This week has been the week from hell and unfortunately it doesn’t look as though it’s going to let up any time soon.  On Wednesday it was announced that we’re switching over to the new system at work that has been in the ‘creation’ process for the past couple of months.  The problem with this is the fact that there has been absolutely no training put towards this system so everyone is basically lost right now.

We had a little bit of a ‘training’ session on Wednesday and come Thursday morning we were all kind of thrown into the system that has so many errors it’s unreal.  It’s heavily coded with ASP/AJAX and with the way it’s trying to read the database things just aren’t working out the way they’re supposed to.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much choas at work as I have in the past few days.  We’ve wound up switching over to the old system mid-way through the day on both Thursday and Friday because the productivity that we usually have with the old system was well beyond what we’re able to accomplish with the new one.  So it’s my hope that we’ll get to use the old system a little longer just so we keep moving at the pace that we’re accustomed to.  This new one has slowed us down so much it almost feels as though we’re wasting our time with it.

Over the course of the day on Thursday we were able to input about 100 assignments with the new system – this took us 8 hours.  However, when we got fed up and switched back to the old one we managed to put in about 150 assignments in the course of 45 minutes.  This has to tell you something when it comes to how things are going to look within the next few weeks.  As of right now I’ve got about 6 hours of overtime, this includes the two hours I’ve just spent at the office this morning (Yes, I also go in on Sunday mornings for a few hours – I told you this place was sucking the soul out of me!) – so my next paycheck should at least be for something decent which helps me considering there are a lot of bills to be paid in upcoming weeks.

On Friday I left at 6:30 – when I’m actually supposed to leave – and ran home in time to wash up and wait for Alicia and Dave to get to my house.  We were treating Dave to dinner for his birthday and went to Friendly’s.  Yesterday Alicia and I were out for a few hours at KMART and Dollar Tree to pick up stuff for the surprise party we’re holding for him later this afternoon.  So right now I’m finishing things up at work and Alicia’s going to pick me up and then we’re going to head back to her house to finish getting things together.

We have this pretty elaborate plan in order to keep Dave out of the house for the afternoon.  He keeps wondering when Sean and I are going to get married.  So I said “RING SHOPPING!”  So I gave Sean my dinky $7 walmart ring and said “Here, this is a half size too big for me, go to Zales and do some ring shopping – take Dave with you and then I’ll text you when I want you guys to head back to Alicia’s house”.  Alicia thought it was a great idea, Sean was confused (as usual) and Dave is completely clueless as to what’s going on so it’s working out VERY WELL right now.  As of my last text from Sean he and Dave are eating lunch at Johnny Rockets and then probably surfing through a few jewelry stores in the mall to see what he can ‘find’.  So that gets Dave out of the house and gives Alicia and I plenty of time to get the rest of the stuff setup.

I also told Sean to throw his bathing suit in the trunk of the car cause it’s a rather warm day and I know the pools open at her house.  Granted there really isn’t anyone going in the pool but I know Sean will more than likely dive right in anyway so at least it gives him something to do.  We more than likely won’t be there for that long, everyone has work tomorrow so she’s expecting things to clear up around 6:30.  Which is fine for me, I still have some things to do to prepare myself for the week ahead.

We’ll be down one person in Dispatch tomorrow, she’s taking a much deserved day off.  But Monday – unfortunately – is one of our CRAZY BUSY days.  So on top of going to the new system plus all of the claims we’re bombarded with on a Monday morning/afternoon – I’m hoping things run smoothly!

In any event, Alicia’s on her way here to pick me up.  Sean just sent me a text where he sounded surprised because the waiters/waitresses dance at Johnny Rockets during certain songs.  Boy is it going to be an INTERESTING day!

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Unreal…

Monday, May 18th, 2009

The past few days have been absolutely annoying. There was a huge issue with my database being deleted. I wound up having to pay for it because supposedly it’s OK for hosts to charge you to restore a back-up even though you weren’t the one to have anything to do with it crashing in the first place. So someone finally realized it wasn’t my fault so thankfully I was refunded for it. I was up until 3:30 in the morning on Saturday trying to get that one fixed.

Sunday – I was supposed to go into work with Fran because there’s A LOT of cleaning to get done but since I was exhausted from the night before and Fran wasn’t feeling well because her back was acting up we both decided it would be best to just stay home and relax for the day. Unfortunately you can never relax around here, there’s some kind of a daemon walking around and he’s taking out just about everyone he can.

Last week, a few people passed away. Now, thankfully I didn’t personally know them but other people surrounding me were connected to them (six levels of separation..). A kid that went to school with my boss overdosed. A man was hit by a car and thrown a good 50 feet onto the grass of one of the churches in town and the ass hole who hit him decided to just keep driving. How can you hit someone with that kind of force and just take off?

Sunday (yesterday) as I was sitting down to begin working on the new template for krissy.nu we had a power surge and I lost everything. About a half hour to an hour later that one mini power surge then turned into absolutely no lights at all. I get a phone call from Alicia because she’s currently on her way to some huge accident in Locust Valley. Someone going east-bound wound up crossing over the west-bound side of the road and splitting a light pole completely in half, they were then air lifted for medical attention and this entire section of town (it was about 6 blocks up from me) was completely out of power for a few hours. Sean and I wound up heading down in that direction before we went grocery shopping. I’ve never seen a pole look like that before, and I hope to never see it again.

So I get my shopping done – excellent deals going on this week if you’re a Pathmark shopper btw – I come home and make dinner, I take a shower, and try to relax for the rest of the night. I get a text message from my boss asking if I could come in at 9am instead of 930 and then with my response to her I got nervous because I hadn’t heard from her in a while then I come to find out that in this major accident up the road there was a silver altima involved (which she drives). Thankfully, she wound up calling me a little while later, explained the delay and then instantly 200 pounds was lifted off of my chest.

With the way things are going lately… I know things come in threes but there are way too many triplets to deal with right now. There is a major evil entity walking around the Gold Coast and I truly do not like it.

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What the hell?

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

I went to blog earlier this morning and was then interrupted by a “Welcome to WordPress” message.  I’m sitting here thinking “Crap, either I was hacked or there’s some kind of database malfunction”.  Sure enough it was the database but seriously now, why did that come out of absolutely no where?  Maybe it was a sign from someone that I needed to reconsider the template that I had in my head, I really don’t know.  All I know is I’m dead set on doing something light and airy and when I did finally have the idea in my head? Someone else already did it!  I wanted to just do a simple sidebar/blog combination that didn’t take up much room but was primarily a CSS only layout with no images at all.  Why? Cause simple is always better and I can code a CSS template on my laptop while I’m on my lunch break and not totally kill my battery being as I’d only be using Notepad anyway.

It’s a gloomy day today.  We had four days of sunshine and then magically the clouds came back and now it’s just…blah…. I’ve noticed on days like this that weather really does play a factor in not only MY mood, but the over-all moods of those around me.  Everyone is coming across as really grumpy today, and it sucks!  The lack of oxygen in this place doesn’t really help either.  There really is no point in having so many windows and none of them can open.  If I ever had my own office area, the biggest requirement would be the ability to crack a window!

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I’m Lost

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

The past couple of months have really been hard on me.  I’ve found myself having a lot of trouble completing things that I start.  I also have this overwhelming feeling of lonliness even though I’m surrounded by friends and family who care about me and are part of my daily life.

I think my problem is that I still haven’t accepted the fact that Lu is gone.  It’s one of those things that’s haunting me and I just wish I could figure out why.  There are so many unanswered questions and that’s really what’s taking my toll on me.  I want to know what happened that night, and I know exactly who to ask because I’m confident that they had everything to do with it but I’ve kept to myself because I just don’t want to interrupt everyone else’s ability to move on.

Work is also taking it’s toll on me.  I’m tired, fidgety and smoking about a pack and half a day just to cope with everything going on, on top of the stress.  I want to have the time to sit down and do something for ME but I keep agreeing to everything else for everyone else and even blogging right now just seems out of place for me considering I’m doing it from work (which I would probably get in trouble for) but there’s absolutely nothing to do right now.  I don’t think we’ve ever been this DEAD at 6:30 before.  It was a relatively slow day, which I guess was a good thing but at the same time it’s kind of annoying when you know you’re being paid hourly to basically sit on your ass with nothing to do.

That’s probably why I’m having such a hard time lately.  While I really have no time to myself, the line of work I’m in gives me a lot of time to be quiet and THINK during the day.  To spend 9 hours a day THINKING it really begins to take it’s toll on you.

I’m rambling, I don’t even have a complete thought for an entry right now…there literally was just nothing else to do.  I just know that I’ve sat here all day wondering how I can change things on this site.  I’m sick of the premade template, and I do have some ideas floating around in my head for a new theme but I honestly don’t know when that’s going to actually turn into a physical project.  Maybe I’ll have some time this weekend.  I was thinking of doing something tonight considering Sean is watching the season finale of LOST but I was thinking of just making some Mac & Cheese and curling up outside until it was time to go to bed.  The only thing I really look forward to is FRESH AIR.  I work in a place that’s overloaded with windows, but none of them can open so there’s all kinds of ’stuffy’ going on!

In any event, there’s 20 minutes before I get to leave…maybe I’ll find something to do.

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Downtime

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

OK so I forgot to renew my domain. Thankfully a .nu is only $30 a year now as opposed to the $60 for 2 years price tag that it once was. So I thanked myself for not touching my paypal card and managed to clear the $30 registration fee. There are a lot of plans that I have with this domain, as well as the others that I own, but I honestly just don’t have the time or the care anymore. I just don’t want to let this domain, or acidgloss.net die because they were my ‘babies’ for the longest time.

I’ll say this though…with the way the economy is going and the never ending cycle of crap that I’m getting thrown at me financially…when this site does become active again – you’ll have to excuse all of the sponsored articles. Just treat it as a word of warning!

Time to head off to work.

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NO! I’M NOT OK!

Monday, March 30th, 2009

I know that I’ve noted in previous entries that it was my goal to post more often.  Unfortunately the series of events that have happened over the past month have given me the lack of a drive to do so.  So while I appreciate an email every now and again asking how things are going, my honest response really is that I’M NOT DOING OK!  Anytime someone asked me something in the past I noted that I was fine…and even though I have never been fine….that’s just not the truth anymore.

I’m still taking Lucy’s death very, very hard.  It’s a lot different than Joe’s passing, but hurtful just the same.  With Joe, I knew he was going to die I just never believed it for my own selfishness.  He was sick for a very long time and it was only a matter of time before it caught up with him.

With Lucy, however, she wasn’t sick at all.  She was a very healthy person, she ate like a fat girl and was stuck in a skinny body but health wise, a random cold like any normal adult would be the only thing to get to her.  So being as she was in such a horrible car accident, the shock of waking up every morning without her being around is really beginning to take its toll on me.  I haven’t yet had my break down, I’ve been very weepy and depressed, but no breakdown in sight.  Typically they happen at the worst possible time and I honestly thought that the drive out to Deer Park was going to be worse for my weepyness but that ended in a few minutes, mainly once we got off of the 107-S.  I cried for a few minutes, a song triggered an old memory of when things were so much easier.  Unfortunately that’s just about all it did…it just triggered memories that I’ve been constantly replaying in my head but have been unable to show any strong emotions with it.  So yea, that’s where I stand with that.  It’s painful, and I just can’t seem to cry enough to the point that I just feel guilty.  I don’t know if my emotions have completely been shut off or what, but you’d think that with EVERYTHING going on right now I’d be able to be more than a zombie.

To add insult to injury – The growth on Bella’s stomach has been removed.  The biopsy results confirm that it was cancer, and now I need to bring her to a specialist to continue treatment.  I’m already putting in 40+ hours a week at work, and this just means that I’m going to have to step up on my design work so I can bring in some more money for the months ahead.  It really sucks that when things just start to get well and Sean and I get ahead on bills that some major thing just blows up in our faces.  He and I have also been having some trouble lately, but we know what’s wrong and we know what needed to be taken out of the situation and now we’re working on it.  I’m still completely and whole-heartedly pissed about it but everyone knows where they stand now.

So essentially, my reason for not having a complete emotional breakdown is due to the fact that I haven’t yet been able to deal with any single thing lately, there’s multiple things on my plate right now and I don’t really know which one to start with.  There’s a lot of changes at work, there’s changes in my love life, there’s changes in my family, and there are people missing who deserve to be here.  I still don’t understand why useless fat assholes are walking the earth refusing to do a damn thing with their lives and the “gods” take someone that was on a set path for greatness.  It confuses the shit out of me and just makes me bitter towards humanity in general.  Everyone wants something for nothing, no one wants to get off their asses and put in an honest days work because there’s always the “easy route”, but people like Lucy who were working and going to school to succeed in life – are just taken away from it.

Pat and I have spoken a bit over the course of the last month and he blew me away the first night at Lucy’s tree (it’s really done up, if you’re on 107-N going into Glen Cove you’ll know EXACTLY where it is), and he went on to tell me how even though he hasn’t physically been around for a while because of his bands schedule and what-not, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t working really hard to give Lucy the life and friendship she deserved.  He wanted her there when the band hits it big because she’s entitled to have friends that take her all over the place and where she gets the perks of celebrity, and everything else they’re working on.  And it really is true…she deserved so much better than she ever go.  All I could do is love and care for her, which is what friends do.  The perks of our friendship was she ate very well and if there was more than a 10 minute period of her not laughing and smiling when she was with me, that just means I had to push that much harder.

She deserved the ultimate happiness in life, not to die.  It’s as simple as that.

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Employee of The Month 01/2009

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Employee of The Month It’s not the greatest of pictures, but I snapped it quick with my phone before I left work yesterday.   My supervisor presented me with my plaque on Wednesday.  She’d announced it previously but with being sick and then the whole shit storm that is my life kind of threw up on the table last week, nothing really happened with it.  But since it showed up at the office (obviously it was ordered) and there’s quite a few extra people in the office this week (mainly appraisers buying franchises and a boss flew in from Cali for the meetings) I was asked to just display it on my desk.  I’m totally bringing it home tomorrow night to show everyone.  I personally didn’t feel as though I deserved it when I was told that I was getting it but now that I’m thinking about it, I’m proud of myself for being able to fight through the headaches and annoyances known as our office…heh.  So it’s been on my desk with all of my other bits and bobbles.   I’ve got it next to the heart shaped Bamboo that Sean got me for Valentines Day. Everyone in the office is like in love with it, so I’m glad I can give people something funky to look at during the day.

Today was OK.  I had a little bit of weapyness on the way to work because I’m having a lot of trouble dealing with the fact that Lu isn’t around anymore.  My right-hand on numerous occasions and always eager to just come and hang out with me and just relax outside to shoot the breeze.  It’s just so strange to wake up one day and know that there’s a huge part of your life that isn’t there anymore.  I know I’ve mentioned her in every update, but I believe that’s heavily based on the fact that I’m still in shock about things.  I haven’t officially had a melt-down yet and I’m just not sure of when it’s going to hit me…all I can do is hope that it happens when I’m at home thinking about her and not while I’m at work trying to keep myself composed for a ‘professional’ environment.  I’m actually surprised at the fact that I’ve been able to stay at this job for as long as I have.  I have a lot of trouble focusing on things but I guess I’m just one of those people that needs to be in an office environment because working from home never quite felt right for me.  Sure the money was  better, but it got pretty damn boring, and my wrists always freaking hurt all day long from typing on AIM all day.

In any event, it’s getting pretty close to 10PM so I think it’s time to get ready for bed.

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Employee of The Month

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

On Friday my supervisor announced to me that I have been chosen as Employee of the month for January.  I was a bit shocked by it, to be honest.  I honestly don’t feel as though I deserve it considering I’m still in the training process but I’ve been thinking about it lately and I have to say that I finally do believe that I actually do deserve it.

For the past month I’ve been coming in early to cover absences for other employees.  I don’t usually leave until well after I’m supposed to because there’s numerous files to status and make follow-up calls on and I’ve worked on a few different claims in the past month that have caused nothing but problems thanks to incomplete information and I’ve managed to actually get in touch with owners who typically wouldn’t answer their phone in order to get the information we need.

On top of my actual job of handling all of the emails that come in to the company (I’m the master email account for claims, statuses, assignment updates, cancellations – etc.) I’m in the process of learning how to assign claims to appraisers, what key terms to look for (photos only, heavy equipment, invalid phone numbers, etc.).  I also send all of the digital files to the appraisers for certain insurance companies, that’s probably the most time consuming thing considering there’s typically 2 files for every one assignment (hard copy & digital copy) and each digital one not only needs to be emailed to an appraiser, it also needs to be downloaded and added to the server individually from the website.  So naturally the work load is a bit overwhelming to me right now, but taking it day by day I’m picking up on things a lot quicker than I thought I was going to and I’m very happy with the turn out.

The upside would be that I get a plaque for my desk so I can have it as a constant reminder that I did actually work my ass off and have been since I started the position.  The only downside to being employee of the month is they no longer put a $200 bonus in your paycheck.  You’re just given a free day off where you’re punched in in the morning and then punched out at night.  I just need to give a little bit of notice before I decide which day I’d like to take off.  I would like to take a three day weekend and maybe head down to Atlantic City since I haven’t been there in over a year and I’d really like to get away.  Unfortunately I also need to deal with the NY DMV considering my liscence needs to be changed so I don’t get screwed on my taxes next year.  So it’s a toss up on which one I’d like to do first.  I’m actually thinking of just taking care of the DMV stuff on my way out of town and then heading down to AC right after.  The only problem is I won’t have any photo identification on me because NY sends your liscence in the mail, they don’t print out right then and there the way DE does.  So  yea, that’s the downside.

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Idiots

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

For some god forsaken reason I tend to attract absolutely stupid people and working in the field that I do, two an hour is an understatement.  During the day I deal with numerous different insurance companies and for the most part they aren’t that bad but there are occasions when I’ll have to call an Adjuster and knowing their names and past experiences I know it’s not going to be an easy phone call.  We have this one company where the  adjusters have no idea how to use their systems and always send us the wrong information, or just incomplete information in general.  They never tell you if the assignment is for the insured or the claimant and typically the location of the vehicle (what we assign by) is completely different than what’s actually listed on the paperwork.  Why? Because they don’t care to follow up with the owner that’s now OUR job!

The assignments I hate the most are when you need to get in touch with the Attorney because the owner is incapable of telling you where the vehicle is.  So for the last 7 days I’ve been trying to get in touch with this lady and she hasn’t returned one phone call and even her secretary is dumbfounded by the fact that I haven’t gotten the information I needed considering this guy is PAYING the lawyer for a damn reason! So since it’s hit the 7 day mark in our system with absolutely no activity I’m happy to be able to close out the assignment today.  It’s just an endless parade of pains in the asses.

Ugh!

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Still Kicking

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

I know I haven’t been around in a while, but knowing how the internet works I’m sure no one really gives a shit anyway.  Work is taking it’s toll on me so I don’t even have the time to check my email anymore.  I’m home early enough with nothing to do so I can finally sit down and at least update to let you (those who do actually care) know that I’m alive, I’m just too damn busy.

I have no drive for just about anything anymore, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing ’cause I’m out of the house all day and making some pretty decent money.  I’m enrolling in school with the next pay check so I really won’t be around to do much of anything when that happens.  I’m finally getting my Bachelors so I can find a job that pays a bit more in a field that I used to, at one point, enjoy very much.

I’m permanently living in New York, Sean and I are working hard at getting our own place so we’re no longer a burden on anyone, even though we pay our own way around here and for others as well.  Hopefully with a degree under my belt and all of the work that Sean’s been doing lately we’ll be able to get something nice and cozy just for us and Bella (of course).

On the animal front – Bella’s been doing OK but she’s got this horrible growth on her stomach that’s cause for concern.  It’s gotten much larger as we’ve been up here and right now it looks as though there’s a ball (a little larger than a golf ball) stuck under her skin on her stomach and it’s just kind of hanging there.  I’m pulling money together so I can have it removed.  It’s uncomfortable for her, and everyone can see that.  She isn’t as active as she once was and her appetite has gone out the window.  She can’t sit or lay down properly because it gets in the way so it’s certainly time to get rid of it completely.  I originally wanted to get it taken care of a few months ago but bills are very tight and it’s just not something that I can afford since the VET isn’t willing to work out any kind of payment arrangements.

Dad’s doing well, no sign of cancer thanks to his treatments.  My mother, on the other hand, it’s been pretty much up and down for her for the past few months.  She’s been pretty weak, and it’s been hard for her to get around so my sister’s over there a lot helping her out.  I would be if I wasn’t always at the office.

I don’t think I ever mentioned anything about this job since I started there – it’s been about five months since my start date.  I love the environment, can’t stand a few people, and have bumped heads a few times but that’s my personality.  I’m working with two absolutely wonderful ladies and I’ve spent a lot of time with one of them outside of work because she’s one of the coolest people in the world.

In any event, my 10 minutes online has certainly stretched a bit further than I would have liked it to.  I would like to update more often but I don’t have the ability to do it at work during any downtime and by the time I get home at night the only thing I’m looking to do is keep my head on a pillow until the following morning.  I have been able to check my email more often though so anyone still floating around feel free to drop a line (krissyville @ gmail.com)  let me know your new web addresses too – I haven’t kept my list updated in quite some time.  You can even comment with it, I have them all on moderate anyway.

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Not sure what’s going on…

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

This past week was a bit better than last weekend but not really by much.  September is just turning into one of those months that could probably be wiped off of the planet as far as I care.

WORK
Things have been going OK.  I’m learning a lot of new things and it’s a lot to take in but thankfully I pick up on things pretty quickly so I’ve been OK so far.  For the past week or so I’ve been in the training process by an uber-cool chick who’s had a lot of patience with me, even though I took over her desk.  Supposedly when I go in tomorrow I’ll have my own desk and computer but who knows if that’s going to happen because the one making it happen keeps changing his mind on things.  Either way I hope to be less of an inconvenience to her soon.

I know for sure that I’m going to keep this job, while I would prefer to be doing something in the design field, I guess I can handle just having a decent desk job for the time being.  The people are all nice, it’s relatively easy work (once you get the hang of it) and the downside for me is the amount of time I’m probably going to have to spend on the phone but eventually I’ll suck it up and get over it.

DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS
Everyone is sick.  A kid at work had walking Pneumonia, I had my abscess kicking my ass for a few days, colds and germs are flying around all of the schools right now thanks to whoever was incapable of covering their mouth when they coughed.  Lu got pretty sick this past week as well, but her’s was more chest pain than anything.  Sean’s allergies have been kicking his ass pretty bad this week as well.  I really hope that there’s enough medicine in the world to cover everyone else that’s sick.  Thankfully I was able to steer clear of the Pneumonia because of the antibiotics that I’ve been on.  The downside is the abscess is coming back on the other side AGAIN.  I don’t want to live on antibiotics the rest of my life so I really need to get my teeth straightened out.

I want to hold off until I have Insurance this way I’m not shelling out $2k per tooth considering the three root canals that I need as of right now.  I kind of wish everything would just fall out and then I can worry about implants or something.  At least they wouldn’t hurt as bad as the real ones.  I’ll take a screw over an infected nerve any day!

STORMS n SUCH
Alicia was in New Orleans when the hurricane hit this past week, and upon evacuation she made her way up to Mobile, AL which was currently under tornado warnings.  Thankfully after a lot of shit she was able to make it home so she’s at least safe and sound right now.

The storm that was supposed to be “oh so bad” for the Island was a total dud last night.  It moved itself further north than originally anticipated so we were hit with some minor wind but I’ll admit it was a fairly decent amount of rain.  I was soaked to the bone TWICE before I picked up an umbrella and all of the wind managed to knock that out of play within a half hour of it’s purchase.  Why can’t they make them stronger the way they used to?  Dad had a huge umbrella for the last 20 years or so that finally gave out on him, it was solid wood and never once had an issue.  I know you can get them for $3-$4 but Jesus…make them last  a little longer!?

AGN STUFFS
I’m a week behind on email, I know it’s pissing a lot of people off but the lack of time does play a major role in things right now.  I’m trying to figure out how to schedule everything so I have a few extra hours during the day so I can maintain my own business but I’m not sure how that’s going to happen if I can’t change my hours at work.  I’m doing 10-7,  I’d like to do 8-5 or even 9-6 this way I’m home at a semi-reasonable hour where I can sit down and have dinner and then work until I have to go to sleep to do it all over again for tomorrow.  I don’t personally see that happening right now though.  Maybe in the future I’ll be able to do it, but not too sure as of right now and trust me when I say that’s getting on my nerve.

I have three accounts to complete – to my knowledge – and the only REAL time I have for them is on the Weekends. I look at a computer all day long but I’m not permitted to check personal email at work. I can understand their reasons for it, most of the sites are actually blocked anyway, as far as I know.

CELL PHONES n SUCH
Within the next couple of weeks Sean and I are going to get the cell phone stuff situated.  We’re going with Verizon because they have better coverage on the Island (mainly due to the slew of cell towers, on the north shore at least.  I know for sure that I’m picking up the Voyager and slapping a data plan onto it for unlimited browsing and what not.  My second choice is the pink BlackBerry Curve (8330).  Either one would give me all of the options I need.  Sean is looking to pick up a flip phone but he does want the ability to get online so I have no idea of what choice he’s going to make.  Either way we should have all of that taken care of soon.

In any event, time to check my email. – oy!

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Super Shitty Weekend

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

I left work on Friday with the goal of doing some minor clothes shopping over the weekend and then basically vegging out. While I did get myself down to DOTS, things still didn’t go as planned.

Saturday was some-what of a down day, minus the fact that my tooth was bothering me. My sister treated Sean and I to dinner and her and I were both vegging out in the living room playing with the dog. The next thing we hear is this extremely loud bang and our doorbell rings three times, very quickly. By this time Bella had made her way down to the door because she tends to bark with door bells, not uncommon with bratty animals. I go out to see what’s up and I’m then thrown into the dumbest argument in the world with the guy who lives in the next apartment.

He came out in a fury stating that I had gone out of my way to let Bella into his apartment to rip his papers up and have her take a shit on his carpet. Yes, this was his complaint. I had the “audacity” to find a key for his door, let my dog in to take a crap, and then bring her back into my apartment with out anyone seeing me.

Let’s back up a little bit though, shall we? I’ve lived in this building for 20 some-odd years. My grandmother owns the building and when she’s not around we’re basically the ‘active landlords’. Meaning, if somethings busted – it gets fixed. For as long as I’ve lived here I’ve never ONCE gone into any of the other apartments if there were tenants renting. I was in Jen’s apartment a lot when she was living up here but we were friends and the kids loved the dog. However, she moved out in 2006. I have not stepped foot into that apartment since.  I lived in DE for a year and a half with Sean and ever since I’ve been back up here, and working, the only thing I wish to do at the end of the day is go into my bedroom and crash.

Now, at night I have my friend Lucy over.  Sometimes it will be Alicia and Dave as well.  Hell, we’ll even throw Colin into the mix sometimes.  We hang out on the porch sitting at MY table (nope, not a community table for the other tenants, it’s mine – I’ve been using it for years.  ANYONE who’s been here, knows that.  It’s my designated smoking section.  The table just happens to be about 10 feet from his (neighbors) window.  We make every effort in the world to not get too rowdy and he’s also never said a damn thing to me about the noise.

So let’s fast forward to Saturday (again).  He’s going on and on about how I’m disrespectful and I have 15 minutes to find the landlord (grandparent’s) or I’ll be sorry (Yes, this is called a threat!).  So I called her house, no answer, I was then told by my sister (who works for my grandparents) that they’re out at a party.  So he’s continuing to scream that I need to call her.  Explaining the lack of alternate contact means nothing to this prick.  Thankfully, however, my sister had my grandfather’s cell phone number.  So I call and the conversation basically went like this:

Me: Momma? The douche in the middle apartment claims that I put Bella into his apartment to take a shit and rip up his crap.

Momma: What?

Me: Yea, he’s screaming that I need to call you or I’ll be sorry.

Momma: What does he want me to do?  I’m no where near town, call your father.

Me: OK, but I’m sure he’ll have a major complaint on Tuesday.

(Yes, every time he goes downstairs to pay the rent or just to cause trouble – he’ll give someone a face full about the horrible living conditions and storm off.  Asshole, you’re paying $700 a month for a small studio apartment, utilities and cable included – get a fucking life).

So I call my father, he can’t leave work because he’s the only one there.  And at this point there’s steam coming out of this guys ears.  He’s waving this tiny piece of toilet paper around claiming it was my dog who shit there.  Now, I knew just looking at it that it wasn’t hers.  Why?  She’s been sick all week and shitting green liquid, this was a perfectly formed brown turd that resembled the large turd sitting on the grass down on the sidewalk (which at this point, was no longer there – guess who stepped in shit?)

My mother was then called in, she sent someone down for EMS to hold down the fort until a cop could get up here.  The douche-bag was screaming about how he’d call the cops so I went out of my way to have them called for him.  I know, and anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn’t allow my dog into someone else’s apartment – especially if it was just to take a shit.  What douche-bag doesn’t understand is that I wouldn’t do anything to screw up someone else’s income and I know that while he’s paying shit money it’s still keeping the mortgage paid on this building.

So the EMT shows up and has no idea as to what’s going on, we explain that he’s here for SHIT, literally.  He then laughs, which is no surprise because I found it amusing as well.  The cops are taking a while to get here, which is no surprise considering the police department in this town absolutely SUCKS because they’re too busy bull shitting with each other.  Saturday, there was supposedly some large fight down in the Landing (horrible area) where all hands were on deck.  One managed to sneak away, he came up the stairs with a shit-eating-grin on his face and my sister (known for diarrhea of the mouth) started in on him.  She explained the situation, he chuckled and then went into the guys apartment.

We knew we were fucked the second he opened the door.  They’re best fucking friends.  So he walks in, see’s the crap and then turns around to come out to us and point the finger.  Why? Because of course you’ll take HIS side over mine.  So I threw a hissy fit (with valid reason, of course). The douche bag comes out of his apartment and starts shooting his mouth off in a different tone than before the cop had shown up.

Supposedly I let the dog run loose whenever I please (even though she’s never outside with me anymore).  I’m outside of his window smoking up with friends until 3am and he’s going to have this place raided for drugs.  Yea – that’ll fly.  I’ll gladly piss in a cup or have a needle rip some blood out of my arm to prove his theories are shit.  Why? Because I’ve never touched anything illegal in my life.  AND I’m picked on for it too.  Heaven forbid I think anyone who smokes up or sniffs is a loser (recreational or not).  I do smoke about a pack of cigarettes a day but I’m also 23 years old and it’s completely legal to do.

The cop didn’t believe anyone of us when we told him that douche bag threatened us, he also believed that I’m that disrespectful and would actually allow my dog to shit in someone else’s apartment.  So the cop wrote down our information, laughed and then left.

Supposedly he later went down to EMS and spoke to my step-father (who sent over the EMT) and explained that this guy was a nut job and not to take him too seriously.

So I was close to killing someone, I walked into the house and almost put my fist through a wall because I needed to get the rage out of me, and taking it out on the douche bag just wasn’t worth the jail time (because yes – I was angry enough to do it in front of a cop).  I called Lucy and told her to basically get her ass over here ’cause I needed OUT and angry driving wasn’t an option.  We hung out in Bayville for a little bit, she brought me back here ’cause something came up with her girlfriend.  I then called Alicia and her and Dave picked me up and I was out long enough where I could mellow out.  Staying here was absolutely not an option for me on Saturday.

This entire time, my tooth is freaking killing me.  I just came off antibiotics for another tooth and then I knew damn well that the other side of my mouth was going to blow up like bloody hell.

SUNDAY

I wake up in a lot of pain, I can see the swelling going up on my left cheek and I haven’t been in this kind of pain since the last time I dealt with an abscess in my mouth.  This one, unfortunately, I knew was going to be much – much worse.  Why? It’s one of my top teeth and when you have an abscess that close to your optic nerve you know the turn out isn’t going to be good.  So I chugged some aspirin and then took some antibiotics that I had left over from a previous infection (horrible teeth – estimated $16,000 worth of work to get me back to where I need to be.  Front teeth are fine, it’s ALL the back ones that are shot to shit!).

I did some shopping with Sean to get some clothes for work – I still don’t have all of my stuff up here yet. Came back here and basically went to sleep.

MONDAY

I woke up with the intent of getting to work and just relaxing while I’m training.  It didn’t work out that way though.  I woke up and couldn’t see out of my left eye.  It’s not that it was swollen shut – it’s that it was completely black.  When I pressed down on the intense swelling around my upper lip/nose area – my vision went from black to blurry – OK so the infection went up further than I thought it would.  I schedule an emergency appointment with the dentist so I can be put back on antibiotics and then I call in to work and explain that I’ll be absent for the day.

I go to the dentist, and instead of giving me antibiotics up front he wants x-rays done.  So I’m being poked and shifted and I’m changing rooms because his machines are messed up (for some reason).  They finally get the two x-rays they need (out of the 3-4 taken) and he then goes on to tell me how much trouble I’m in and tells me that if the nerve was completely dead he’d give me a root canal right then and there but being how I’m so infected the pain would be unbearable.  So he gave me Amoxicillian, asked if I wanted a pain killer but I refused because I have aspirin, and then sent me on my way after he told me I’m going back on September 9th at 8am for a double root canal – yea, like I can go to work after that.  I’ve got no choice though.

I slept for the rest of the day, in an extreme amount of pain and knew that Tuesday wasn’t going to be any better.

TUESDAY

I wake up and the swelling is worse than it’s ever been before, my eye is swollen shut and I called in.  I slept for the bulk of the day and then told myself that as long as I can see on Wednesday I’m going to have to go in.  I’m on probation and thankfully a doctors note is the only way I can keep my job right now.  I’m still in training, I was supposed to do a lot more this week too, so I have no idea what’s going to happen today.

WEDNESDAY

It’s pushing 9:30 and I need to get out of here.  I hope my time out of the house is much better than the crap I’ve been dealing with in-house.

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Four Days Down

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

I started at a new job this past Monday.  It’s now Thursday morning and I’m finally able to get online to check my email.  A lot of client stuff that I need to take care of over the course of the weekend.  Sean has been picking up my slack in the hosting department.  Thankfully he knows how to use the new billing system, and has some experience with cPanel because that’s really the only thing to do.  Major things I’m sure he’ll kick in my direction but for now I’m sure he’ll be able to handle things on his own.

I’ve been doing 10-7 for the past few days, yesterday I worked through lunch so I could leave at 6 but you’re required to do a 40-hour minimum week.  So I’ve got to be in at 9:30 today so I can work until 7:30.  It’s a pain considering I’m not sleeping very well but that’s also because I’m not used to the hours yet.  I tend to come home, throw some food down my throat and sit outside with friends as though I’m still working for myself and don’t need to be up early in the morning.  Eventually I’ll be able to balance the two jobs and a social life, for now I’ll just take it day by day until I can get into the swing of things.

When you work for yourself you set your own hours, so I got used to crashing at 4am and waking up at 10am and then working for the bulk of the day and basically hanging out for the rest.  Now, at 9am, I’m sitting here trying to hold my head up and I just woke up at 7:30.  Tonight I hope to crash by 11, that’s my biggest goal.  Friday should run pretty quickly, then I’ll get some work done before I crash on Friday night – I picture myself crashing for 12 hours or so, just to make up the loss in hours.  I didn’t really fall asleep until about 1am this morning, and then only getting like 6 hours of sleep on top of that – not fun.  :: crosses fingers :: hopefully I don’t drive off the road on the way to work.

Anyway – email is basically up to date, so if I haven’t responded – don’t take it personal, blame Gmail ’cause I more than likely didn’t get it, I responded to every one I saw.

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Keeping Busy

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

After a long talk with Sean, I’m moving back up to New York permanently.  There’s a lot going on up here as far as family is concerned and I’m at a point in my life where I’m supposed to be out on my own, but I’m also the kind of person where family always comes first.  So I’ve actively been putting in resumes to places all over Long Island in just about any industry I can find.  I’ve applied to numerous web design jobs, secretarial jobs, even to a company that just lists products on eBay.

My recent application was to the hospital here in town, it’s my mother’s old job (technically) and I know for sure that they want her back.  She’s unable to do that at this point in time so I applied and now I’ve just got my fingers crossed.  It’s per-diem work but once you have your foot in the door you’re basically set.  So I can start at per-diem (basically call you when they need you) and within a few weeks I can be full time – it really just depends on what they need and when they need it.

We’ve been in NY for much longer than we’d originally planned.  Sean doesn’t want to go back down to DE by himself, and I don’t blame him.  I know I’ll miss him too, considering we just celebrated our two-year anniversary.  So it’s been a very difficult choice to make but as soon as there’s enough money coming in, and an apartment in a reasonable price range opens up we’ll be able to get him moved up here and we can continue our life together on our own.  I know the first couple of weeks are going to be hard on us, only because we haven’t not been together for the last year and a half (considering we’re living together) but I’m completely confident that we’ll be able to handle it so I’m not too concerned in that department.

We’re staying up here for another week or so and then heading back down to either pack my stuff or go back to the drawing board.  If I know for sure that there’s no job up here than I don’t know if I’ll stay here.  I want to, I really miss everyone, I just don’t want to leave Sean and still not have any money coming in up in NY, it wouldn’t change my situation at all – in many regards it would make it worse.

So I’m crossing my fingers in hopes to hear something from someone up here.  I did apply to a place out in Brooklyn that I’m crossing just about everything for.  It’s a great salary and it’s in the web design field and that to me would be a dream-job situation.  They’re looking for a front end developer with strong HTML/CSS and Blog skills.  I guess being a one-trick-pony for the past couple of months is something to laugh about now considering I’ll be able to use that portfolio to get my foot in the door.  It’s a dream job that I’m going to have to travel for though.  Luckily it’s only a block or two from the train station so I’m not too concerned about the commute.  I can very easily get to the train here in the morning without any real issues – it’s right up the block so if I have a car or not I should be able to handle it.

In any event, I have to push some more applications and get started on some design work.  I also need to finish some work for Adam.  He has a very complicated template that needs to be coded for CSS.  I’ve had to really stretch my know-how just to get the basics done.  A lot of layers on top of layers and being able to accomplish that without absolute positioning is working out pretty well.

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Uneventful

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

This is one of those days where the truly isn’t anything going on.  I spent my fourth in house with my dog and a sleeping boyfriend.  He hasn’t been feeling very well so we decided it would be best to stay in.  The original plans were rained out anyway so it wasn’t a total loss.  I caught up on a few things, messed around in Photoshop for a few projects and now it’s knocking on 5AM but I’m not even close to being tired yet.  I know Bella’s exhausted, I can hear her snoring from here.  Considering she’s at the other end of the apartment, it’s safe to say she enjoyed her toys all day to the point that her compact little self basically just went ahead and crashed.

My father is pulling a double shift, he should be home in about 2 hours from now.  He left at 3PM this afternoon and since 7AM is rolling in – I’m sure he’ll be exhausted.  I’m tempted to just stay up for the whole day and then crash later on in the evening but I know that’s not actually going to work out.  I have to pull some stuff out of the dryer and get the beds setup so I can go to sleep.  Sean was so tired he’s sleeping on a bare mattress.  I personally can’t handle that but I’m sleeping on the floor tonight anyway so I’ll be able to get the sheet back on the aero-bed with no problems.  We alternate between the bed and the floor, it’s the only way to save our backs.  Mine isn’t doing very well at all – the lack of proper seating is taking it’s toll on me.  While I absolutely love being “home” I have to say that finding a chair that you don’t just sink into would be much better for me.  Big comfy furniture is great, but not when you have chronic back-problems, you know?

My old bed (twin) is rather comfortable, which I’ve proven for the last couple days of over sleeping.  The aero-bed, I just can’t seem to get the proper pressure set to it so no matter what I do I tend to be uncomfortable.  It’s my luck that I’ll have finally figured it out the last night that we’re here so that’s going to be annoying but I am looking forward to falling into my big comfy king bed when we get back to Delaware.

If all goes well we do hope to be moving up to New York within the next 6 months or so.  That heavily depends on a few job applications I sent in up here, as well as quite a few freelance jobs that I’ve quoted.  We know that in order to come up here we’re going to need to earn about $4,000 a month in total.  So finding a position that will bring me at least $2,000 a month shouldn’t be so hard.  I just need to get myself into an office where I’m making $15-$20 an hour.

I applied for a job on the Island that I found on some job-search site (not sure which one – considering there are like 10 of them that I surf through regularly).  I sent in my resume and hopefully I’ll hear something, starting salary is $75,000/yr.  I think that will easily bring in the $13,000 a year I’d need to find a decent apartment up here.  I’m thinking of looking into my grandmothers building (only because I know everything so well) but I may see what I can find at the Avalon – I really like their rules, even though no one else seems to.

I’m the kind of person who can’t stand chaos, and this is coming from someone whom has a rather large extended family.  But at the same time, if I’m going to be spending about $2,000 a month on rent I want to know that I’m going to be able to enjoy the experience.  The Avalon has a series of rules that would drive a few people crazy but the big ones for me really make it worth spending that kind of money.

1 – Children are to be seen and not heard.
2 – Pets are to be seen and not heard.
3 – No loud parties.
4 – Guests are to be cleared with the main desk.

All that says to me is silence, and no crazy wacko’s walking around the building at all hours of the night.  Private off-street parking which makes me feel safe considering the area that most of the Avalon’s are located on the Island aren’t the best.  Private pool and massive work-out rooms so I’ll be able to keep on track with my diet.  The in-house washer/dryer helps me a lot too, apartments can also come furnished if requested so why wouldn’t I do it?

It’s a lot to think about, either way I’ll have to wait and see what happens.  I’ll tell you now that if they hire me I’m going to take the weekend to head back down to Delaware and pack my stuff to come back up here – I’ll stay with my father for a little while until I can find an apartment of my own and once that happens Sean will come up and the rest is history.

It would be nice, it would be flat out fantastic but money talks … unfortunately.

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What a week…

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

I’m still working on getting everything moved over to the new data center.  Thankfully I was able to find one that knows exactly what they’re doing so I couldn’t be happier with my choice to finally make this move.  I have a lot of other things going on, mainly work related but it’s nothing too big right now to really make a huge deal out of.

Sean and I have extended our mini-vacation.  We’re not on Delaware (if you haven’t guessed).  We loaded up the car for a big family trip and now we’re staying a bit longer than we originally planned.  We left about 2AM on Wednesday morning, we didn’t get here until about 7AM so that’s quite a trip to take.  Traffic and my little break down certainly didn’t help us, and by the time we were crossing over the bridge we were basically driving directly into the sunrise, and of course neither one of us had any sun-glasses with us so that proved to be a bit difficult.  We got here just as my father was heading out to work and thankfully he didn’t notice the huge box in the back seat of the car.  He got that the following day (his birthday).  I made dinner, had my aunt and uncle over and then on Sunday we fired up the new BBQ (Dad’s gift) and enjoyed burgers and dogs for my sister’s birthday.  All in all that went over well.

I saw my mother, she was diagnosed with Bells Palsey a few weeks ago but after surgery on Tuesday the test results showed that she has Sarcoidosis.  It’s an auto-immune disease that will never go away but it can be controlled with the proper medication.  Unfortunately she has it pretty bad and that’s where the paralysis in her face has come from.  It was a little strange seeing her like that but there’s nothing you can really do to stop it.

My dad’s cancer has been cleared thanks to his radiation treatments.  He’s lagging a bit though.  Even though the radiation is no longer in his body he’s a little worse for the wear so he’s having some trouble getting around.

My aunt (mother’s sister) went in for surgery on Monday.  She had a lump on her skull and underneath her cheek muscle that doctors need to run a biopsy on.  She wound up checking herself out of the hospital on Tuesday against doctors orders and now it’s a waiting period for the test results.   One ass hole doctor basically said “You’re riddled with cancer” but he made this remark before the tests were even looked at, let alone processed.  So it’s safe to say that bedside manor is non existent – even in the ICU!

So it’s safe to say that almost every member of my family is falling apart to some degree.  My aunt has always had medical problems, but now my mother has them pretty bad, my grandfather will more than likely need two knee replacements and my grandmother, who’s 60 pounds lighter thanks to Weight Watchers, just had surgery on her eyes and is still feeling the effects of the botched surgery she had a few years ago on her ankles – they’re no better than they were before the surgery and thanks to sliced nerves they’re much worse than they should be.  The doctor was able to get the lawsuit dismissed, apparently “I do not recall” seems to be a good enough excuse for a judge to void a lawsuit.  :ugh:

Something tells me I’ll be moving back to NY in the near future.  It’s not the fact that Sean and I have been talking about it for a while, it’s the fact that I expect to have an upcoming year where everyone drops like flies and being 5 hours away really wouldn’t be a great idea.

In any event, time to return some emails and continue with domain transfers. Oh joy!

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