MetaChat - Three Point Update

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11 July 2007

Three Point Update Mom's doing all right.→[More:]1. My mom was moved to rehab today after 6 days in the hospital. Her stroke was minor, it didn't affect her speech, brain or face, thank God. She's lost some use of her right arm & leg. Thanks to my niece I still haven't had to drive down to San Diego yet, I've been able to finish up some things here first (I'm going Friday). But I've talked to my mom at least 3x a day and I just can't believe how positive she's being. She even raved about the hospital food to me... I'm almost wondering who this person is that's impersonating my mother. She keeps saying, "You don't have to rush down. I'm getting better." where in the past she would've been desperately asking me when I would be arriving as though if I didn't get there soon she'd run out of air. This is much, much better.

2. My puppy woke up hopping around on three paws in the morning. Two of her favorite people in the world were here, and she was so calm that it was clear something was wrong. It freaked us all out so I took her to the vet & it looks like when she was playing with the neighbor dog yesterday she stepped on a bee. They gave her a shot and I gave her an allergy pill & she's getting better little by little. She got so exhausted from being a big baby with the vet that she's been passed out for hours now. Poor little pathetic thing... all day she's had such a sad, victimized look on her face.

3. I've been working on creating two lines of textile patterns for WEEKS, trying to really do a good job because it's a new thing I'm trying to learn how to do. I was told I was being paid by the pattern & that they would choose at least five patterns for each line. So today they picked 15 for one group and I told my client I needed to start getting paid. So she said, "Okay, so I'll pay you for these five." I know my jaw dropped. I said, "But you picked 15. I was being paid by the pattern I thought." She just stared at me as though she had no idea where I could've gotten confused.

I'm SO annoyed. I spent almost a month on this only to find out I'm making less than I should've made in a week & I'm not even done yet. I just have to keep reminding myself it's a lesson learned... and I have a new skill. But still, I'm annoyed. I've been pretty clear about my feelings, but I'm not going to fight her on it. I'm just going to make sure I don't let it happen to me again. At least I have some nice textile stuff for my portfolio, which makes me happy. I'm pretty proud of it. Just wish I could be proud of my bank account too. Sigh.

Okay, that's it. I'm done babbling. Your turn now.

post by: miss lynnster at: 02:12 | 22 comments

I'm glad to hear your mum's doing better. With the work thing, IAAL and I cannot repeat this enough: GET IT IN WRITING! Even if it's just you confirming your understanding of something. If you're understanding's wrong, they should tell you. If they don't and you go ahead, then they're 'estopped', after the event, from saying "well, you got it wrong".

it looks like when she was playing with the neighbor dog yesterday she stepped on a bee.

Did she have no idea that yesterday was National Don't Step On A Bee Day?

posted by essexjan 11 July | 02:42

1) I wandered into my favourite US politics IRC channel for the first time in weeks today, and somebody told me that Cindy Sheehan has come out of retirement! Good on you, Cindy! I knew she couldn't give up. I am just sitting here grinning. :)
2) Doing web research for a website of resources for women and children who have been trafficked into the UK.
3) Nice, quiet boss-free day. Will monkey with computers later.
4) International don't step on a bee day is useful, adorable AND hilarious!

posted by By the Grace of God 11 July | 04:29

p.s. well done your niece and mum and YOU, miss lynnster!

posted by By the Grace of God 11 July | 04:30

1. Have started cycling again, and I'm loving it! It feels as though my world has just got a bit more accessible.
2. In lovely quiet university library doing some work - all the undergraduates have gone home, and it's just me and some worried looking PhD candidates.
3. Plotting purchase of spiffy new ThinkPad. It's a lot of money so it'll take me a long time to make up my mind to finally do it. But this old Vaio is sooooo slooooow.

Enjoy your bosslessness, BTGOG! And miss lynnster, hope your mum continues to improve and that your pup is back on four feet soon!

posted by altolinguistic 11 July | 05:22

1. I have finished my work for today (I started it at around 6.30am).

2. I am going to have a protein shake and then head off to the gym.

3. It's still cold here, I am in sweats and a hoodie and I had to put the heating on earlier. It's bloody July!! Where is summer?

posted by essexjan 11 July | 05:45

1. Excited for the CD release!!! We're playing Maxwell's this Thursday.

2. Feeling like there's too much that needs to get done in the off hours. We're having supply chain issues, etc. with getting the cd where it needs to be and our press is a mess. We barely got the word out about the show tomorrow. I think we're starting to see that we might need help in this area. And yet, it's difficult for us to go down that road for a multitude of reasons so it falls back to us and we stutter, stop and flail about.

3. Tired. First practice in a while last night (drummer's been away), then met my someone for drinks afterward.

(ps. patterns!)

posted by safetyfork 11 July | 05:57

re. ej's no. 3 - yes! I agree! where is bloody summer? It's 11th July and I have only worn a short-sleeved top on one day this year so far. Pathetic. Still, at least it's stopped raining.

posted by altolinguistic 11 July | 06:16

I'll give you our heat for your cool!

posted by safetyfork 11 July | 06:33

how much have you got, safetyfork? 30 degrees C is about as high as I like to go. It's about 17 here now. Perhaps we could have some of yours?

posted by altolinguistic 11 July | 06:41

Today is better than yesterday, high should be around 27 degrees C. I'm putting in a transfer request of a couple degrees. Let me know if it works. :)

posted by safetyfork 11 July | 06:47

1. Boss is at work today for one of two days this month. Luckily I have a lot of work scheduled.

2. Even 27degC is too hot, although a welcome change from the last couple of days (which was more like 34, 35degC).

3. Ran 4 miles last night in that ridiculous heat. I am stupid.

posted by gaspode 11 July | 07:23

1. yellow lab pooch has 3 fans on her (one of which has a bowl of ice in front of it) and she's still hot, she's so damn hairy. shaving not an option, according to the mrs.

2.busting ass on a new contract job b/c I'd like to look fabulous so we can cut out the middle man w/o pissing him off too badly. I'm hoping they will think I'm so fabulous that I can subliminally move them to hire me directly.

3. I'd gladly offer 10 degrees to Englandites to warm them up. We have upper 90's here.

4. miss lynnster, poochums best wishes. and that sux on the tile design bullshittery.

posted by chewatadistance 11 July | 07:45

1. Dreamed that I was sitting on the curb of the parking lot by Sorrento's Pizza & Subs on Route 40 (Baltimore National Pike) across from Chatham Mall, near the Route 29 interchange. There's a Sunny's Surplus right across the way, over towards St. John's Lane. Towards the other end of St. John's Lane is Dunloggin Middle School, where I went to summer lacrosse camp as a kid and learned to break knuckles (mostly my own) from Dick Burns, then the head coach of the UMBC Retrievers. I took violin lessons at the Music & Arts Center in Chatham (that's pronounced "Chaddum") Mall from a woman named Rosemary, who eventually had a falling-out with the store manager and gave us lessons at home (over by Howard High School), where my brother and I read through her bookshelf of Stephen King over several years, while the other had a 30-minute lesson in the next room. In any case, Sorrento's wasn't all that great in comparison with either Italian Delight (great pizza, mob front) or its inferior successor in the Columbia Mall food court, Mama Ilardo's. Plus, if you wanted a sub, you could just get a cheese steak from the Wawa or Arirang Hill, over by Howard County General Hospital in Columbia. It was a great dream, just sitting there on the curb, bullshitting with friends, out late, nowhere to go.

2. I'm halfway through the translation I'm working on; the boat brochure (for the fishing charter in Cancun) has a lot of technical nautical terms, and while I can find many of them in English-Japanese dictionaries, I'm chary about using any of them until I've cross-referenced them to the point of surety. So I've done the easy half, and now I just have to keep from accidentally calling the yacht a trawler and the marina a harbor.

3. Miss lynnster, I'm glad to hear your mom's safe and in relative good health; I recognize the calm she seems to be feeling, and it's just great that she's in good spirits. It's also great that you're going down to see her. Best wishes on her recovery and enjoy your visit, I'm sure your mom will. By the way, when I was a puppy, I stepped on bees all the time. It's certainly not a recommended activity. My mom would say, "Why don't you look where you're going?" I'm walking around barefoot in the grass, mom, and the bee flew underfoot and stung me. What's to look out for?

posted by Hugh Janus 11 July | 08:37

Well whaddayaknow. My dog stepped on a bee on "Don't Step on a Bee Day." Typical. She doesn't like being told what to do. :)

posted by miss lynnster 11 July | 09:23

My two-year-old niece stepped on a bee yesterday, too. Poor little thing. (She's my favorite, too. The only one so far who's been smart enough to love me best of all the aunts. She even calls me "momma.")

Glad to hear that your mom is doing better, miss lynnster!

posted by jrossi4r 11 July | 09:41

1. Busy at work.
2. I managed to walk the dogs this morning during what would apparently be the only half hour downpour of the day. By the time we got back, soaked, it was sunny.
3. All this family stuff is almost over. Phew.

Bee stories!
1. My dog ate a bee once when he was a puppy. Ever since he's been mildly traumatized by all flying insects - he wants to chase them and snap them up, but, but they're dangerous! Argh! Instinct and memory collide, causing collie dog to perform hilarious neurotic circles in living room.
2. My son, age 12, explaining massively swollen foot: "If I had known there was a ground bee nest there, Mom, I wouldn't have skateboarded barefoot over it."

posted by mygothlaundry 11 July | 09:47

Kitchen people STILL haven't gotten back to me after telling me a date would be given last week---it's up in the air whether the spoiled prince or the new owner will have to allow access.

Emailed my father after the guy who produced the Edie Sedgewick movie (son of a family friend) was mentioned unflatteringly in the NY Times...he became a baby daddy after a one night stand but fobs off the child care on his mother (who WAS his half-sister's nanny after her mother died) when he has custody. Asked what was happening with my grandmother, but was only given more info about M which was written up in the New Orleans paper. Emailed my brother to tell him HE will have to deal with it when chupahija becomes incapacitated, that she and my uncle would not be in the situation they are now if they hadn't blown off the reports of elder abuse and that the only women on jdate who would want anything to do with him once they learn what a smug little prick he is are the gold diggers. My parents' number appeared on my caller id last night, but no message.

Went to gym yesterday for the first time in weeks. Considering switching from Crunch to Equinox when membership expires--their locations with pools are more convenient for me.

I'm glad your mother's doing better, miss lynnster. Nthing the longing for ej's cooler weather---I hate NY summers and wish I were up in MA.

posted by brujita 11 July | 09:50

1. I was up until 5:30 a.m. finishing up the packing! I had to get up at 7 a.m. then to meet the movers!

2. The movers are here, and I really don't know what to do with myself other than stay out of their way.

3. I have no bed to sleep on tonight, just hard wood floors. I am so tired though, I don't think it will be any problem at all!

posted by Sil 11 July | 09:50

1. Uploaded my resume to a few jobsites this morning.
2. When I saw my mom last week, she said that I looked good (I have a tan from porching and I've put on weight) I told her idleness must agree with me.
3. Finally found my copy of My Dark Places in a box yesterday, and when I turned on the TV later on, I caught the last 2 minutes of a documentary about the whole incident. doo-doo doo-doo...

posted by jonmc 11 July | 10:37

1. too hot. And it is getting hotter by the minute. Not a good hot either. I need vacation in Antarctica.

2. I bought an awesome bag for myself today. I like big brown bags with lots of whistles and bells (metaphorically speaking, silly). I am proud of myself that I found it. I am not proud of what I paid. But it's the only thing I bought. So maybe es okay.

3. I have to leave again tomorrow. And then again in two days. And I do not nearly travel to where I actually want to go. Why is that, dammit?

posted by carmina 11 July | 10:49

1. I've done nothing this week other than the most mundane possible computer support shite.

2. I am going to go and play a gig tonight.

3. Time to drive away in my ridiculous (loaner) car and go have some fun.

posted by chuckdarwin 11 July | 11:07

1) Finally found and fixed the source of the intermittent miss in my car - a broken wire in a harness terminating in one of two 40 pin multi-function connectors to the Engine Control Module. What a b*tch to find and fix. Nearly 12 hours of jiggling, wiggling, and repairing over the last 3 days. The kind of thing you can't easily hire done on 10 year old cars, that is satisfying to finally fix yourself, because you're doing something that the pros would be throwing up their hands on, or trying to price out of being done. And the car has a new set of spark plug wires and a coil pack, for a total of $67 in related parts, at least $25 of which (the spark plug wires) it really needed anyway, getting to this result.

2) I finally got a 125 used CDs I bought 3 weeks ago, in one big box.

3) I did a couple hours of bush and tree trimming in the relative cool of the morning, and have a yard full of small branches and clippings to get rid of, before I can mow, again, this evening. Summer + rain + sunshine is making all the vegetation that was stunted during the spring drought wake up and put out. At least my water bill will be down next month, if the rains keep up. And the fire threat is way down, now.

posted by paulsc 11 July | 12:15

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