This is not for the children*

It's for the Haitians!!!!

*meaning there's lots of swearing today.

Our office is rife with swearing. From the top down. I think I learned how to swear at my office. (Well, no, that's not true, but for someone's sake I'll say that's where I learned to swear.)

To get to the point, I've been working with the perfect storm of frustrations lately. AutoCAD 2010, the worst software update since Vista, drawings on another office's drive, and rain (which slows working on another drive down to an even worse level.) The trifecta of crappy circumstances one could argue. Last night these three items led me to put forth such a string of profanities that I was reprimanded by a co-worker for my language. I decided to install the swear jar in our area, just for our team.



Last night's conversation of what words would be banned and what their use would cost told us how difficult this would be. "Can I say 'effing?" "No." "Well shit. Wait, no Damn. Wait, Crap."

Today we collected $6.50. But it's for the Haitians (said like Cher from Clueless.)



My first infraction today occurred before i even made it to my desk. I was at a friend's desk, and I said fuck. She looked at me (she knew about the jar" and by her look I realized what I'd done. Was my reaction to keep my mouth shut? No. my reaction was to go, "oh shit, fuck." She called my team upstairs to let them know I owed $1.25 before I sat down to work. We got much better as the day went on. I think this is going to be VERY good for us.

because i can't really post anything else here

for reasons i can't explain- i can at least post a survey i got tagged for on facebook.


1. What time did you get up this morning?
7AM

2. How do you like your steak?
medium

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
nine, but i should have gone with my instincts and seen the young victoria for a second time.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
currently: community- all time? impossible

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
who knows.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
bagel, peanut m&ms, and a coke

7. What is your favorite cuisine?
let's just say italian for arguments sake.

8. What foods do you dislike?
indian, anything with lots of spices

9. Favorite Place to Eat?
il capprichio

10. Favorite dressing?
ranch

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive?
civic

12. What are your favorite clothes?
well tailored, good looking work clothes that are well out of my price range. and weekend clothes.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance?
ireland

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full?
half empty

15. Where would you want to retire?
i haven't seen everywhere yet, how would i know?

16. Favorite time of day?
6PM-10PM

17. Where were you born?
springfield, Mass.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch?
sports?

19. Who do you think will not tag you back?
i'm not tagging anyone

20. Person you expect to tag you back first?
see above

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this?
see above

22. Bird watcher?
am i 70?

23. Are you a morning person or a night person?
depends on the day and the activities at hand

24. Pets?
none

25. Any new and exciting news that you'd like to share?
none

26.What did you want to be when you were little?
architect.

27. What is your best childhood memory?
life was pretty good (except for my parents liking my sister best!) so it's hard to say

28. Are you a cat or dog person?
dogs, but still, i'm not really a pet person

29. Are you married?
no

30. Always wear your seat belt?
yes

31. Been in a car accident?
yes

32. Any pet peeves?
people who call me "sar" especially when i see it typed out as i did in yesterday's email from my boss.

33. Favorite pizza topping?
pepperoni and sausage

34. Favorite Flower?
gerber daisies.

35. Favorite ice cream?
mint chocolate chip

36. Favorite fast food restaurant?
chick-fil-a

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
drivers test- zero. learner's permit test? once. but that's because they loaded the machine with the "truck and bus driver's test." sad thing- i only failed by one question. i could be driving the big blue bus right now if not for that.

38. From whom did you get your last email?
client

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card?
i don't have credit cards! (but if i did--- j. crew maybe?)

40. Do anything spontaneous lately?
no

41. Like your job?
redacted

42. Broccoli?
what about it? i'm trying to remember what leslie's boss told her about broccoli or cauliflower being invented in WW2, that was obviously not true, but he believed it.

43. What was your favorite vacation?
the one i'm taking next year to ireland

44. Last person you went out to dinner with?
diane

45. What are you listening to right now?
silence

46. What is your favorite color?
try to remember - apples in stereo

47. How many tattoos do you have?
zero

48. If you could be a different age, what would it be?
can i just go back to 30 for awhile?

49. If you don't already have children, do you want to have them?
i was thinking i might want some this morning when i was reading about the harry potter theme park- you know, so i have an excuse to go without looking like a total geek.

50. Coffee Drinker?
nope, but i'm a big fan of a venti, sweetened, black tea lemonade.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family histories - Ancestors

kaiser scorecard

26 days in

+1
i've been having weird heart palpitations for the past few months. i've attributed them to stress, but i have mentioned them to doctors and been told it's nothing and not to worry. so i haven't worried.

i went to kaiser and was talking to the asthma doctor re: my medicines. she said, "now you know the warnings about advair?" "no, please fill me in." well, apparently advair is an old drug- qvar, with an extra ingredient for god knows what. the extra ingredient causes heart problems in some people, and has caused the FDA to put it on their "black list" ( or something like that) as the last level of watch before they pull a drug from the market. i said, "so why don't i just take the qvar?" i've been on it for 2 weeks now, and the heart palpitations have all but gone away. double bonus- qvar - $10 for 3 months. advair - $10 for 1 month. neither of the other 2 doctors who prescribed it to me told me about the FDA warnings.

+1
every visit has been $15 so far. and so far no follow up bills. knock on wood.

-1
so far they only cover 5 migraine pills a month. this could be a real problem. granted imitrex has gone generic now and if i have to shell out $150 for an extra 9 out of pocket, maybe i can, but it won't be fun. my last insurance covered 18 pills a month.

-1
it can take awhile to get an appointment. i started trying to get an appointment with a neurologist (to get migraine medicine) at the beginning of the year, and the first available is feb. 11. this is when i can talk to someone about re-evaluating the number of migraine pills i get, and also whether i can get botox covered. if i can't, i'll get my dermatologist to do botox. i'm actually not excited about my face being frozen. but i've had at best a low level migraine 60% of the time (i'm attributing it to stress) for months and something needs to be done.

so right now they're at zero.

but when i think of the $1200 asthma doctor bill i still haven't paid off, i feel like they should be at plus 40. i was going to start saving money for a trip to ireland, but i feel like i should put that off til the $1200 is paid off.

in memoriam

dear ren,

you were a good phone, but you'd taken a beating. two and a half years of being dropped and sat upon took their toll on you.

it was time to send you to live with a nice family in the country.

this will be interesting

i'm switching to kaiser.

i've got my first appointment set up for thursday and will see how it goes. i need to get switched over to kaiser, because a) they don't fill prescriptions that other doctors have written. b) they don't cover all my drugs so i have to get my drugs switched over to something they do cover.

i feel like this could be interesting. it seems like a good premise... if it works. if they treat the people like patients and really act as though they care about their health, this system will work. if all they are looking at is the bottom line and how to make as much money as possible, it won't.

it all started because of a $1200+ bill i received from going to the doctor for asthma. i had no idea my bill would be that high, and fighting it is frustrating. i feel like kaiser will eliminate all surprise medical bills. i called to make my appointment today and the guy flat out said, "your co-pay will be $15." and then said, "do you have... and listed off health conditions- so that he could get me in to the system as needing further treatment.

the next thing that led me to switch over was the cancellation of my old policy and the shockingly high price of the next available PPO. i just couldn't afford it, and the other HMO available didn't seem as organized as kaiser.

this is an experiment for a year. if i don't like it, next year i can go back. but i'm giving it a shot. i'll still be better off than millions of other americans.

two weeks peace from work

my two weeks of peace from work-

visiting family

ice skating

chick-fil-a

barbeque

mr. gatti's

homemade soup

schweppes ginger ale

movies:

sherlock holmes- fun

avatar (3d) - pretty but pointless unless you're going to see it in 3d

nine- so boring

the young victoria- beautiful and a near perfect movie

new tv show addiction- dirty jobs with mike rowe (thank you netflix for having back episodes streaming online)

new years eve- party in valley then drinks at bar

new years day- japanese barbeque with good friend, and long drive to and from listening to:

karl pilkington guide to : law and order (funny)

karl pilkington guide to : the future (flat out hilarious)

books: a brief history of the dead

started: down and out in paris and london

started: sherlock holmes collection

and relaxing watching lots and lots and lots of online TV and old DVDs. please don't make me go back to work tomorrow.