2ndchance

Sleepy

Well thank goodness for modern meds that make you forget.  I don't remember anything about the endoscopy this morning.  Last thing I remember, they were spraying my throat and attaching a green bite guard.  Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room.

The news was mixed:  no damage to the esophagus, but I do have a hyatil (sp) hernia.  The later is apparently common among adults (40% have one according to one source).  So I get to keep taking the PPI meds and eat more frequent, smaller meals.

After calling my sister and her in-laws, I fell into a deep sleep and just woke up a short time ago.  Now to get something to eat.

Look around

It's always something.

Have had persistent heart-burn over the last year, which has left me eating Pepcid complete.  Dr. tried Nexium for three months but it led to all kinds of side effects.  So tomorrow I'm having an endoscopy of my stomach.  My dad developed stomach ulcers which led to esophageal cancer when he was around my age.  So I guess the doctors want to be careful. . .and so do I actually.  It's minimally invasive and they'll sedate me which is good because I'm not crazy about tubes poking around inside of me.  Heh.

Cleaning Days

I'm cleaning up my room.  It's a task I almost always dread. . .not only because I'm a pack-rat and save everything. . .but because those things can get me off on emotional tangents.  I have saved most of the things kids have ever made for me or given to me.  This includes cards and letters from parents, my family, and things my niece and nephew have made for me too.  Every little piece of something has a story attached, and each piece takes me on a trip down memory lane.

That's why it takes me so dang long to clean my room.

Dell sucks part II (Andrew rawks)

Andrew brought multiple fans over.  Which was a good thing as he had to cannibalize parts from two of them to make it work.  Now my computer has a nice shiny used fan which doesn't squeal.  Yay for Andrew!  We went out to eat with his wife to celebrate.

On the flip side, now my vid card fan is squealing and the colors on my monitor are mainly green.  It's like looking at TV through a chia pet.

Heh.

Dell sucks (rant)

I have been going round and round with Dell computer to get my desktop up and running again.  All it needs is a replacement case fan.  You would think that would be a simple thing.

Not.

Computer sick

My six-year-old desktop has been having some problems for a while now.  The DVD player stopped working around two years ago.  The amount of R-DRAM (Rambus Ram) just isn't enough to keep up with WoW or other games. ..and it is so rare these days that it is too expensive to add on more RAM.  My room-mate gave me his old vid card when he upgraded, as mine was dying.  The monitor has been flickering a lot lately.  And around six months ago, the cooling fan began squealing, indicating that the bearings were going.

WRAP it up for life

Things have been a bit busy lately, and thus I have sadly neglected writing here.  No. . .that's not a good excuse because lots of times I write more when I'm busy. . .more to write about.  So I don't know, but it doesn't matter as here I am.

Just finished an awesome training on learning to facilitate WRAP.  What is WRAP you say?

A Ramble on a Heat Wave

It's nine o'clock at night and the heat index is still 103F.  I just stepped outside to put some trash in the bin, and immediately felt like I needed a shower.  Now I know how my sister and her family must feel in SE Asia.  Heat like this can be dangerous.  In the news tonight, there was a story about finding an elderly person dead in his home.  All over the metro area, cooling centers have been set up for people to go to during the day.  What do they do at night when it is still 96 degrees?

One-way streets

I'm in the middle of attending a conference.  Here is the schedule.  It is sponsored by a non-profit organization which networks 'consumers' (people living with/surviving mental illness)* and provides support and advocacy.  It took me 20 minutes to get downtown this morning to the college campus, and 45 minutes to find the parking deck.  You have to understand. . .my city has all of these one-way streets.  Many of them run in directions that don't make sense.  Most of them change names at least once from one end of the city to the other. 

I could see where the parking deck was. . .I just couldn't maneuver the streets to get to the entrance.  I kept ending up at this park.  Have you ever been on one-way streets, trying to get to a destination that you can see in the distance, but you just can't seem to get there?

There is probably some deep meaning to this whole one-way street thing.  But I'm too tired of being in workshops all day to squeeze the necessary brain pathways and figure it all out.  Maybe tomorrow, when I get lost again on the same streets.  Heh.  This time if I end up at the park too many times, I'm going to stay there and enjoy the weather. And yes, the conference is good.  I'm looking forward to returning over the next two days. 

*'Consumers' is a term being widely used to refer to people receiving services. . .not just persons living with mental illness.  It is the current 'politically correct' term, and I dislike it very much.  But we can't seem to come up with anything better at the moment.

Catch Up

First week of the internship is over.  It was varied and challenging and I thought it went well.  I had to work an 8-hour day yesterday to make up a shortfall from earlier in the week.  It was the first 8-hour day I have worked in almost two years.  I was a bit tired but no worries.

My co-workers seem to be spot-on competent with this field with engaging personalities and a heavy workload.  First impressions are favorable.  The good thing about my job is that I won't have the heavy load of paperwork that the full-time workers will have.  Although I will still need to write progress notes and prepare for group work, I simply wont have to worry about all the files, etc. that often choke the life out of case managers. 

Loved talking with my sister and nephew last night.  My niece was grumpy and didn't feel like talking.  :-)

I like what this man did.  With record earnings, the big oil companies are slamming it to the consumers.  It seems there is always an excuse to raise gas prices. . .the winter, the summer, the war, the hurricanes, etc.  Someone somewhere is getting rich off misinformation.