PooBou.com

I’m still sick, but I went to the doctor yesterday and got some antibiotics, so that should hopefully kick this sinus infection out of my system quickly. Normally I would try to ride it out because I know it’s not good to take antibiotics every time you get sick, but this has been going on for over two weeks, and I’m about to start a new job, so I need it to hurry up and go away already.

Speaking of which, I had orientation for my new job yesterday. It’s another contract at the Giant Software Company, so it’s nothing that I’m not used to - the orientation was all pretty routine stuff (fill out tax forms, watch a video on sexual harassment in the workplace, try not to snicker at said video, etc.). I’m not sure exactly what my start date is, because they’re still waiting for the results of a background check on me. You’d think they’d already have one from the last contract I did, but apparently not. So I guess I may not have the job after they find out about that one time that I was a crack whore. (Ha!) Seriously, I’m trying to imagine what they could possibly find out about me, other than the fact that I was irresponsible with credit cards in college, and that I’ve had a few speeding tickets. I’m afraid that other than that, I’ve led a terribly boring life. Or maybe I’m just good at not getting caught. You’ll never know, will you?

Oh, one thing during orientation that I wasn’t expecting: at some point, the HR lady was speaking about confidentiality and proper use of the company’s network systems, etc., and she specifically said, “So if you have a blog, you need to do that on your own time and not mention anything about work.” I could actually feel myself blushing, and I could’ve sworn that everyone in the room was staring at me. (They weren’t.) So um, yeah. I’ve been warned, and I will proceed with caution. At the very least, I’ll try to remember to change the timestamps on my posts so they don’t appear to have been written during work hours. Heh heh.

Other stuff: Since we got home from our NYC trip, we’ve tried sleeping with our bedroom door open at nights. In the past, we’ve always kept it closed so Teenie can have our bedroom all to herself, and we don’t have to worry about hearing her fight with the other cats at 3 a.m. (I don’t know if you’ve ever woken up to a cat fight, but trust me, it’s not a pleasant way to start your day.) They were all in the house together with no closed doors while we were gone, and I think they’ve started to negotiate their territory pretty well. Beaumont is the only one who’s come to sleep with us for the past few nights. It’s been pretty uneventful. At some point during the night, he’ll accidentally make eye contact with Teenie and she’ll growl and hiss for a couple of minutes, but then they settle down and go back to sleep. Yay for progress!

As for Cleo and Greta, they’ve kind of turned into clique-y high school girls, and they sleep on the couch together because they can’t possibly deign to get in our bed with the other cats. They’ve both turned on Beaumont, too, which is sad. He’ll roll over on his back with his paws in the air (totally submissive pose), and they still swat and hiss at him. I think it’s mostly Cleo (who, oddly, is Beaumont’s litter-mate); she hisses at him whenever he comes anywhere near her. Greta doesn’t seem to mind him too much when Cleo isn’t around, but apparently Greta has turned into Gretchen Wieners to Cleo’s Regina George. Or perhaps Greta is Heather McNamara and Cleo is Heather Chandler, take your pick. And since Teenie hates all of the cats equally, that basically means that Beaumont has no feline friends in our house at all. Dave and I have been giving him lots of extra love to make up for all of the rejection he’s suffered lately. It must be tough being the only neutered boy kitty in a house full of girl kitties. Poor little guy.

1 Comment »

Here’s the recap of the rest of our NYC trip, and be warned, this is going to be long. But first, a funny story. After that last post, our plan for the day started like this: Go to T’s apartment. Have breakfast with family. Everyone gets on the subway and heads down to the ferry, which will then take us to Ellis Island. Great!

Here’s what actually happened. We took 3 steps out of our hotel, and a giant inflatable Scooby-Doo floated by several stories above us. As it turns out, the route that would take Dave and I from our hotel to my sister’s apartment required us to pass through Times Square, which was sort of a main artery of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. And guess what? You can’t cross a parade route. I got out my cell and called my sister.

Me (yelling over the crowd noise): We can’t get to your place because the parade is coming down Broadway.
Her: The what?
Me: The parade? That happens every Thanksgiving?
Her: Seriously?
Me: Um, yeah. In fact, Big Bird is passing in front of us as I speak.

She tried to give me a different route, but basically it just wasn’t happening. So the revised plan became: Dave and I would find breakfast on our own, catch the subway ourselves to the ferry point, and meet up with my family there. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Right. Here’s how that played out. We got on the subway (quick aside: before we got on, Dave stopped to have a smoke in Bryant Park. I just realized today watching Project Runway reruns that that is the place where their Fashion Week show was. Love it!). And because Dave stupidly let me be in charge of reading the subway map, I got us on the correct train, but going the wrong direction. We were in Queens before we realized our error. Oops. So we got off, walked across the platform, got back on the train going the right direction, and rode it to our stop. We had to change trains then, and I was starving to the point of crankiness, so we thought we’d get out and look around for food there. Guess what? Most restaurants are closed on Thanksgiving. So we had breakfast at McDonald’s, which is the first time I’ve eaten there since seeing “Super-Size Me,” and it was just as revolting as I thought it would be. Blecch. Then we finally found our second train, met up with the family, and did the whole tourist thing for the rest of the day.

Friday, we all split up. My folks left, Dave went off in search of boy things (video games and such), my brother used my sister’s guest pass to work out at her gym, and my sister and I went shopping. Ah, Macy’s, how do I love thee? The Macy’s in New York is nothing like it is here. It’s 8 stories tall and takes up 2 buildings. It is truly an awesome sight to behold. And I did well in the self-control department, I only bought one pair of pants (black corduroy, and yes, they were on sale) and one pair of really adorable shoes (only I got them in black, not champagne).

That night, Dave crashed early, so my siblings and I went to this karaoke place where you can rent a room by the hour and sing all the karaoke you want in a soundproof room, just you and your friends. That turned out to be pretty hilarious. I couldn’t even begin to tell you all of the songs that we sang, but a few of the artists include Britney Spears, ABBA, Captain & Tenille, Reba McEntire, Elton John, Barenaked Ladies, Van Halen, Weezer, Billy Joel, Electric Light Orchestra, and at least a couple dozen more that I’m forgetting. We were there for well over 3 hours. It was great.

Saturday, my brother left early in the morning, and we had some time to kill before our flight, so my sister took us to see the World Trade Center site. It’s a weird place to go as a tourist - there’s just a general sadness in the air, and you notice that everyone on the street is a lot quieter. It’s almost like going to a cemetary to pay your respects, or visiting one of the concentration camps in Europe - only in this case, there isn’t really anything left to see except a huge hole in the ground. We didn’t stay there too long, it’s a bit overwhelming. On our way back, we passed through Grand Central Station so Dave could see it from the inside. It’s really beautiful there, and the bustling of noise and activity was quite a contrast to the place we had just left.

The flight home was pretty miserable. I’m still sick - the severely cold weather in NYC didn’t help me at all - if anything, I think I might be worse, and I’m going to try to get in to see my doctor tomorrow. So, from a sinus standpoint, I was in hell for 5 1/2 hours. Also, the in-flight movie was “Must Love Dogs”, which I watched out of boredom, and god, that was a piece of crap film. Good actors, bad movie.

That about sums it up. We had a great time, I’m just happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed now. I missed the cats, too. And hey, I start a new job this week! Woo!

No Comments »

Quick post while Dave’s in the shower: I survived the flight. I got a job. (More details on that later.) We’ve managed to eat some pretty awesome food - some cooked by my sister, some cooked by chefs in a fancy-shmancy restaurant. I got a great early birthday gift from my sister - a pair of jeans that make my ass look fantastic. (How rare a find is THAT?) We’ve been to the Museum of Modern Art and Central Park. We (meaning Dave and I - and probably my siblings, but definitely NOT my parents) got way too tipsy last night at dinner. I’ve managed to only get into one fight with my dad so far. (I’m doing well. Trust me.) And today we’re going to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty before we head back to T’s apartment and eat way too much food for Thanksgiving. I’m wearing my fat jeans in anticipation. Hope everyone has a good holiday.

2 Comments »

I have to be on an airplane in less than 48 hours, and I’m still sick. Ugh. I’ve tried everything I know how to do: I’m downing Emergen-C and vitamins like crazy, drinking tons of water and orange juice, doing that disgusting nasal irrigation thing, and I’ve even tried that “magic potion” that Angie recommended. (And she’s right, it’s not that bad. It’s not good either, but at least I didn’t have to slam it like a shot of tequila. Which would’ve hurt with a hot beverage.) And so far? None of it has made a bit of difference. I’m still miserable, coughing all the time and blowing my nose approximately 37,000 times per day.

Credit where it’s due: my sweet husband went to the store for me to buy the lemon herbal tea, honey, and cough drops that I needed to make that little “magic potion”. Isn’t he a good egg?

So yes, the flight to New York on Tuesday morning is rapidly approaching. I’m still hoping that I’ll make some miraculous recovery between now and then, or that the super-duper heavy-duty Sudafed will knock me the hell out for the duration of the six hour flight. I was worrying about how I was going to pack NyQuil without it leaking all over my bag, since that’s the only thing that lets me get to sleep and not wake up with coughing fits. (And yes, I must have the liquid. The pills don’t do squat for me.) I finally decided that I’m just going to buy a new bottle when we get there, and I’ll leave the leftovers with my sister. So, if I don’t recover between now and Tuesday, at least I have a plan to manage the symptoms. I suppose that helps?

I have nothing to report on the job interview scene. I think they went well - I ended up doing several interviews last week, for a couple of different jobs, but I don’t have any feedback yet. I guess I’ll find out in the next week or two, but I feel too lousy to really care at the moment.

In other exciting news, we have had crazy fog here for the past few days. Right now I’m looking out of my office window, and I can’t even see the house next door. That’s some seriously thick fog. Which sucks for us, because we have a satellite dish, and thick cloud cover = bouncy Internet connection. I believe the term Dave used for it the other day was that our connection was “up and down like a whore’s drawers.” Nice.

I’m planning to bring my laptop with me on this trip, so there may be a blog update sometime later this week from the Big Apple. If not, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving.

5 Comments »

I have a job interview today, and I’m sick. To elaborate: I’ve been struggling with this cold thing for the past few weeks, but it’s mostly been either a constant runny nose or a lot of clearing my throat. (Not even real coughing, just that annoying “AHEM” thing that won’t get out of there.) Nothing too horrible. Today, however, my throat is swollen and achy, I have a killer sinus headache, and I just generally feel awful. It hurts to swallow. Whee.

As for the job, it’s a contract position at the Giant Software Company, and I’m not sure that I’m in love with it, but I’m sure I’d enjoy it well enough if I got it. Plus the whole regular paycheck thing would be nice. It’s a bit weird that my interview isn’t until 6:15 this evening, but apparently the hiring manager (who I’ll be meeting with) is going out of town tomorrow morning, and she wants to meet all of the candidates for this job before she leaves. Hence the evening interview. Kind of strange to go in for an interview after dark, but whatever.

The upside of all this is that I just took two ultra heavy-duty Sud@fed, and I’ll have time to nap off the ensuing grogginess before the interview. Cross your fingers that I don’t yawn too much during the interview. Or hack up something on the poor lady.

3 Comments »

Aaaand once again, the elusive full-time position at the Giant Software Company slips through my fingers. I never even got a real interview on this one, just an email letting me know that they already hired someone. Fine, ho-hum, whatevah. Meanwhile, there have been several possibilities that have started cropping up for contract jobs at the Giant Software Company, and those might turn out to be promising. My little 100-day hiatus is coming to an end, boo-hoo. What that means is that I can officially start looking for jobs now because I’ll be able to work there for another year starting the Monday after Thanksgiving, and it’d be nice to have something set up and ready to go as soon as I’m eligible to start working there again. So, it’s good to get the respective balls rolling now. (Hee-hee, I said “balls”.)

Oh, that reminds me, did I mention that Dave and I are going to New York for Thanksgiving? My sister (occasional commenter on this here bloggy thing) lives there, so my whole family is going to meet up for a few days. We’re staying at home for Christmas, so this is kind of our one big family holiday gathering for the year. Dave’s never been to NYC before, so I imagine we’ll be doing lots of touristy stuff. I’m really looking forward to it.

In other news, Dave and I saw a Henry Rollins spoken word show last night. Happy sigh. I love that man. (I mean Henry - but Dave too, obviously.) I believe this is the 5th one of his shows I’ve seen. It was great, but I won’t try to recreate any of his stories for you here because it just wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be funny at all. However, if he ever passes through your town, you really should go see him. You won’t regret the money you spent on the ticket, I promise.

Also, as of Tuesday, Dave and I have officially been married for 6 months. And I have to say, besides the whole thing with my job ending suddenly, the depression of unemployment, and worrying endlessly about money because I have no income and feel like a big fat leech since I’m not contributing anything to the household other than doing dishes, laundry and all that insanely boring 1950’s housewife bullsh*t, this has been the happiest 6 months of my life. :-) Love you, baby.

2 Comments »

I had to take this picture last night because it absolutely cracked me up.

That’s three cats on one husband. The poor guy just wanted to lie down and take a quick nap on the couch, and they all immediately cozied up on him. I love how Cleo always has to be right up close to his face. She’ll do that to me occasionally, but she absolutely adores Dave and I know good and well that when she snuggles up on me, I’m only a poor substitute for the one she really wants. Not that I blame her, he is a damn good cuddler.

Also, Beaumont has a new hobby. He likes to attack the characters on the screen while Dave is playing video games. None of the cats have ever paid attention to the TV screen or computer monitors before, but this has suddenly become his favorite thing to do.

Go figure. And for the record, the reason why he looks sort of sparkly in that photo was because he had just come in out of the rain. And unlike me, Dave doesn’t get a towel to dry the cats off when they come inside soaking wet.

3 Comments »