an update...

We are definately not a health group of people right now. In fact, someone called my boss jokingly saying that he needed to get some new people here because one is in the hospital, I've had a cold since Mid January and the other one's titanium joints are rusting.

To get serious for a minute, I have a cold that has been lingering for a LONG time. It started in Dallas in January, went dormant for a while with only a hint of a cough here and there, and then came back with full fury last week while I was off. I was the one who came into the show not feeling well. As I'm writing, I'm feeling much better, but not 100%.

Shrek has been admitted to a hospital in his neck of the woods for low potassium. When your potassium is low, it effects muscles and all sorts of things. Remember the heart is a muscle. One of the dangers of low potassium is cardiac failure. His potassium levels are in the low 2's now. They were at 1.5 when he got to the hospital by him, after he was released by the one here with potassium pills. Normal is 3.5-5.0. He still has a way to go before being released.

TG is suffering from the flu. Again, not something you want to be battling while not in the comfort of your own house. If you can't be in your own house, you at least have to hope for real porcelain. Well on site we have neither. He left about halfway through the day today to hopefully get better for tomorrow. Rest is all that will get you better.

To fill in for Shrek, we have the kid. He is a hard worker and eager to learn. He's also a great guy. Everyone loves him. We had him with us last year on this tour and he fits in well. He met his gf while with us in a hotel bar, and he's still with her. She lives 2 hours from where we are, so she came up for a conjugal visit this weekend. He'll be a happy man in the morning. When he last worked with us 3 weeks ago, he was late coming down to go in to work. It was the morning of the time change, and he apparently forgot. He was called in the middle of the act and he answered the phone. Being the nice guys that we are, we told him to take his time getting ready, and left one of the cars for him to drive in with. We're all living vicariously through him.

I really screwed up my personal life bad lately. More on that to come.

A scary moment

Shrek, a guy i work with ended up in the hospital today. He was discharged and still not really feeling well or looking good. There's something more wrong with him, but i just don't know. I'll have more to write on this later, like how scary it is to be in a hospital in a foreign place, and how much it must suck to be his wife, on the receiving end of the phone call saying that he's 700 miles away and in a hospital.

It's always nice to be wanted

I saw a job posting that I might be interested in at a company that I used to
work at. I still have lots of friends there, so I asked someone if they knew
who it reported to. They responded and then asked if I was thinking of coming
back and I explained to them I'm not looking to leave where I am now, but if
the right situation were to come along, I'd really consider it. I'm just now
starting to try and figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I got a phone
call today from this person saying that he has found 2 perfect jobs for me with
in the company, and that he's already mentioned it to one of the VP's who we're
both friends with, and she wants to talk to me about the job.

This is basically exactly what I DIDN'T want to happen. I think I'm going to
have to go and talk to her about it and listen. I guess it can't hurt, but at
the same time, it could because if I'm not interested in them (I know one of
them involves moving to LA) now, perhaps a year or two from now when I am
actively looking, they may not take me seriously, thinking I'm just stringing
them along. At this point I do have to go talk to them right?

I love this place

I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I need some OJ. My fridge is pretty empty. Anything in the fridge is really old. I think there is still leftover Mac and Cheese from when the Lady in Red came over in December. Cleaning the Fridge is on my list of things to do today. Anyway- It's raining and I don't feel like walking in the rain to ShopRite to get the few groceries I need. I can't drive because I found out on Thursday that I let my insurance lapse on my car, and well that would be wrong. It'll be insured again by Monday, so it's not that big of a deal. What to do?

Order groceries on-line of course. To be delivered. My local ShopRite, for a 10.00 fee will do your shopping for you, and deliver it. I know that I won't get to pick out my own fruits (ok, it's not like there's fruit on my list) and meats, but to be honest with you, I've never really been that picky anyway. Especially if I've just going to use it to make Taco meat from, does it really matter? Cook well, everything will be fine.

I'm now off to clean out my fridge before the new food comes. It's almost like I'm multi-tasking.... I like that.

Forty-Six

Until this past Monday, I had been home for 46 hours over the past 46 days. I've been lamenting that fact a lot. That's a long time away from home. I definitely got cranky at times while away and was not my usual cheerful self all the time. I had been working long hours. It was definitely taking it's toll on me.

I'm a multitasker. I'm actually very good at it. Typically it's not until the 5th thing that my work begins to suffer. I'm really not kidding. It's probably the reason why I excel at my job. When working long hours and suffering from sleep deprivation, my ability to multitask goes down. At one point in Daytona (which was immediately after the superbowl) I think I was at most able to do 1/2 of a project at a time-- Meaning that it took me twice as long as it should have to get something done. This was very frustrating.

At home, things slid as well. I have a cleaning service. During the 46 days I was gone, they came 4 times. Plus the day that I had left. That was a waste of money. I have a few bills I can't pay electronically- one of them I forgot to pay. That's just not my way.

I've lost touch with several friends and my family during this period of time. Between working long hours and being on the other coast for most of the time, I just dropped. It's not that I didn't want to talk to them or catch up with them, but I didn't make time for itm and my relationships there suffered. My father apparently was diagnosed with some form of vertigo (treatable). I didn't know. I went down to see him on Monday when I got home to make sure that he was ok. That made it be day 47 really.

My feelings about this changed slightly tonight. I just saw a promo for the movie Stop Loss. There was a line in there "I can't go another year without touching your face". We all have different feelings about the war, and this isn't the place for that. Regardless, you have to feel for the troops who are serving away from their families and friends for that year. It gave me a different perspective on things. Here I am spending nights in hotel rooms, complaining about not getting home, or only getting home for a brief amount of time, and there are soldiers sleeping in barracks or tents or on duty not getting home for a year at a time. I was off base on this one. I am lucky. These long stretches happen to me only once in a great while, and then I end up with a period of time home and off to make up for it.

A day of Dread

I'm going to come out and admit it. I'm not really much of a morning person. With my job however, there are many early mornings required. Over the years, I've gotten better at it. Everyday I need to be out of bed and function before 7am can still be a struggle, but I've learned to deal with it. My prime functioning time was always 9pm-3 or 4am. I've shifted that a little bit because of need, but if given the choice, my body would like to work then. That's when I've had most breakthroughs in troubleshooting, or editing, or solutions to problems.

I've been this way as long as I can remember. In college, I was rarely coherent before double digits. When I worked for the network, I always preferred the 3pm-11pm shift, and dreaded the 8am shift. The workload was the same, just my ability to deal with it was better in the later hours.

On Sunday, I have to be at work by 6am. Sunday is also the start of Daylight Savings Time this year. Every year, I have this problem. I never know quite what to do. My sleep will suffer no matter what tonight-- I've resigned myself to that. I never know what to trust when it comes to actually waking up. The alarm clocks are all foreign and I never trust them. I don't know for sure that my cell phone will actually change at the right time. At this particular hotel, wake up calls have been a crap shoot. So in addition to my usual wondering IF I'll get the wake up call, I'll also be wondering if the hotel will actually set their clocks to the right time before making said call. I chose wisely, and while it'll be before I want to get up if it comes at the right hour, it'll also be just before I need to meet if it comes at the wrong hour.


With that, it is time for me to go to bed. Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite.

Feeling Old

I just had one of those old moments. I'm sitting at the airport, waiting on my flight out for the week (and when I come home from this trip, I'm home for 18 days straight). It's hot and steamy in the airport. I look around and there are kids sprawled out all over the place. I feel this is odd since it's a Tuesday and I don't think that Tuesdays are a day that class trips are supposed to start.

I continue to look around, and realize what's going on here. I've mistaken these college students, going to Florida on Spring break as high school students going on a supervised trip. I did think that the ladies were dressed a little slutty for being in High School, but they just look young to me. The next thought that entered my mind was- "Do I take them to the Presidents club and offer them free liquor?"