Playing Catch Up Again

Currently it's still Thanksgiving morning but I want to write this now and submit later so my previous entry isn't lost in the long shuffle. I've actually been up since 7:15a. Couldn't sleep any more. Too many thoughts running through my head. I felt restless and didn't want to wake Mike up with being such. So, what better time than to update here? I cleared out one of my email boxes and did a few other things as well before now settling down to write.

Let's see, I guess the best place to start is doing categories.

WORK: It has been incredibly hectic and stressful. You got a smattering of that back in the middle of September. Well, things got interesting right before the author dinner (which went pretty well -- it was a nice evening and we plan to do it again in February). Anyway, the gist of what was going on in August/September was this: our manager was doing a musical and thus pretty MIA for most of the last part of Aug and all of Sept. Now, he deserves a life because he does work hard and we figured that we could handle things until after the run. Well, we could have if we hadn't had one major debacle after another happen. The new hire problems were only part of what went on. The majority of the problems had to do with the calendar kiosks. I swear to God they are cursed this year. I don't know if it's because we have two instead of our one from last year or what but everything that can go wrong pretty much has with them. It's been enormously stressful and time consuming. So, with Tony unavailable for most of the emergencies, yours truly got to deal with them. Jon and Lindsay were a great help at this time as were the rest of the peeps (Erin, Felicia, Tyler). We managed to keep our heads above water but things were slowly degrading in the store because there just weren't enough hours in the day to keep up. We were massively over in hours because of the kiosk problems and so there were none to give towards improving the slide down (shelving, outside sales, etc).

We thought that things would settle down once Tony was done with the musical. And it probably would have but we weren't given the time to see because the DM decided to switch him out with another store's manager. To say the least, Jessica's people were less than thrilled with the switch. There was some major drama at first. And there was a great deal of tension between Tony and I over the switch. I don't know if he blamed me for what happened but I had tried my damnedest to keep it together and him from suffering any major backlash but I was obviously unsuccessful. Things needed to improve but this wasn't how I would have thought it would get done! Sheesh. And he's been doing some very odd things (out of character) at his new place that makes me wonder what the hell is going on. I think he may have burned out on everything and that makes me sad. But we have too much to deal with at our store for me to find out the truth. Jessica has been working her butt off to get things in order for the holidays which officially (EEEEK!) start tomorrow. She is under a lot of pressure from our DM to do a gazillion things at once and though I have been trying to take a lot of the stuff on myself, it just doesn't seem to help. I am also trying to learn her habits and quirks so that I can work with/around them. That's made things fun too. I'll write more about this at another time. The end result of all of this has been that I have been too busy to accomplish much outside of the store. It's a good thing that I like my job.

HOME: Everything is just peachy with Mike and I. As with all couple, we have our moments but 99% of the time we are sickeningly happy coupling peoples. Mike's been working a lot too so by the time we both get home, we just want to rest and spend some down time with each other. Unfortunately, because of us working so much (don't forget that I still have two classes to teach), our house still looks like a storage shed. We finally got me a few bookshelves for my office a few weeks ago but I only have a few boxes unpacked. A friend has snagged some shelves for us from a business renovation so we'll have more soon which will help a lot. I will feel much better once this place is together enough to have people over and we can stop living in our bedroom and offices.

HEALTH: You may recall that I said that I wasn't feeling well during the anime conference. Well, I made an appointment with the gyno to finally get it checked out. They didn't have any appointments available until the beginning of this month. I didn't freak out this time as badly as a few years ago (which had led me to avoiding the whole thing for so long) but it was very stressful. Fortunately, Julie (the nurse practitioner) is very nice and sympathetic and that helped. And she tried her hardest not to hurt me. She was concerned that I hadn't been "normal" for so long. That it just isn't healthy not to have the whole monthly thing. (Give me a break here, people, I'm trying to phrase things in a non-gross/overdescriptive way.) So, she wanted me to have an ultrasound done to see what's going on because I've been cramping and spotting on/off now since August. During the past week, I've been having bad lower back pain (cramps) as well as one icky day (which, were I "normal" would have been more than one). Michael has been awesome cause he is so not grossed out by any of this. And, bless his heart, he's been worried about me which is new to him (he's not used to worrying about people). He's been putting up with my moods (and there have been times when I have been a very moody bitch but just couldn't seem to care cause of all my frustrations -- but I do try and not let it get too bad). That probably nominates him for sainthood. lol

Anyway, my PAP came back normal. Most of the ultrasound was fine except that my endometrial lining is way too thick. It's supposed to be 8mm or less and mine is 14mm. That's not good cause it can be a sign of endometriosis or cancer. Now, considering my age (postmenopausal women are at more of a risk), it probably isn't the last but we have to be sure since both father and his mother died of cancer (Mum died of ovarian cancer). Normally they would want to do a D & C and test everything but given my spazoid nature about gyno exam type stuff, they (Julie and the reg gyno at USC) agreed that we would see if the pill will help. So, I am currently on a 10-day Provera treatment that should induce some really fun times (aka: good thing I have some personal/vacation time saved up). After that I start on Yasmin. In six months I'll have another ultrasound done to see if the lining has gone down. If it has, yay, no invasive treatment. If not, I get to take a nap and have a lovely scrape job done. Oh, yippee. (sigh) So, I will keep you all posted. I also have to go back in a month because Julie is concerned about my blood pressure. It's too high right now (gee, I wonder why). To help remedy that I am modifying my diet by cutting out all the crap I've been eating because I haven't had much time to make myself good food. I need to get the house organized so I can get my treadmill hooked up and start walking again. Mike and I are planning on taking a trip for my spring break next year. Not sure where or what but I need a vacation and planning a get away will help my stress level. Hell, I'll get paid for that week off (as will he) so why not?

So, there you have it, folks. A cursory catch up on what's been going on. I'll writ e more about work later. Hope you all had a good holiday! Hugsies.