thez: Ari IS Inspector Spacetime! Somewhen. (Default)




► I didn’t take any pictures this week (except of family members, which I prefer not to post unless they are an adorable infant), so here are some phone photos from September 2008 of the monsoon rains at dusk in the Catalina Mountains.

► Went with my parents to my grandparents’ house this weekend for their belated birthday celebration. Looked through old letters and high school yearbooks and the like. Learned about the weird trends of 1950s kids, mostly that all the girls gave each other masculine-sounding nicknames. My grandmother was “Melvin”, as in the Jerry Lewis film, or sometimes “Rusty” on account of her red hair. Her best friend was “Ron”. Every other girl signed with her nickname, but I can’t remember more at this moment. Of course, my grandmother went to a Polish Catholic high school (she is Czech, but I’m not sure how many Czech parishes were left in Chicago by the 1950s?), so maybe it’s just a Catholic Slav thing, idk.

► Went to my parents house on Thursday for dinner with my sister and brother-in-law and TINY NEPHEW JAKE for his first non-doctor-visit trip outside the house. My grandparents couldn’t make it on account of my grandmother had just Wednesday been diagnosed with gout, so we surprised them by bringing their great grandson to their house, and oh my god the tears. Even my grandfather, who is usually a stoic, grumpy dude, could not stop smiling.

► I achieved last week’s goals of creating a budget (with bonus handy spreadsheet) and getting my Arizona title and registration! GO TEAM ADULT!

► Since that worked out, I’ll do some more weekly goal-setting. Next week I ought to…
  • see whether or not it’s worth it to renew my national tech certification, and if so, start on that

  • look at ticket prices and dates for my April visit to [personal profile] nanners and the strange foreign land of Canadia

  • CANCEL MY GODDAMN GYM MEMBERSHIP, HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I MOVED I mean there are Planet Fitness gyms in AZ but they kind of suck out here, I have discovered

  • get the apartment more organized so I’m not tripping over myself trying to clean it before [personal profile] mindsplinters's and [personal profile] tatterpixie's visit

  • spruce up Akhet’s profile and do some writing for her this week, even if it’s only a few short drabbles! and I hope to do this for my other characters in the upcoming weeks
thez: The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. (Carl Sagan - Carl is made of starstuff!)


► This Saturday my parents and I went to the Farm at South Mountain, which is a farm. At South Mountain. OK, it also has three restaurants, a gardening/souvenir shop, a cactus/succulent shop, a small grocery stand, and (once in a while) a crêpe stand. The restaurant we ate at was excellent, the crêpe was thicker than I would have liked but still delicious, and I can think of a number of people that I will definitely take here if/when they ever visit here! Also, I purchased some edible flowers, and I deeply lament that mymindsplinters's flower cookbook is on the other side of the country.



► A group that sat down at a table near us were complaining that there were leaves on the table. Of the outdoor restaurant. Situated under a small grove of large, old mesquite trees. This turned into a running joke between my mother and I. “What the fuck is with all this nature at this farm?” “I think a leaf touched my plate; I can’t eat anymore.”

► Work was rough this week. I can’t go into too much detail of course, but it boils down to adjusting to an increase in business, which is good! But that didn’t make it any less exhausting. It led to a spiral of exhaustion triggering depression triggering even more physical symptoms and I left early on Thursday. Which reminded me that I haven’t seen my counselor since before Jake was born. I need to fix that! (I also need to remember that I have alprazolam for these occasions; I haven’t needed it in so long that I forgot.)

► Friday was much better, and also, I made my butt radioactive.

Actually, I was wearing a disposable lab frock, so it was a simple matter of taking it off and donning a new one, but HOW DID I DO THAT? The only thing I can figure is that I got some radioactive material on my glove and, just, scratched my butt without even realizing it? And if I hadn’t set the geiger counter at butt level and then turned around, I would never have noticed.

► MEEJ WROTE ME AN INCREDIBLE FIC ABOUT AKHET AND DIAMOND SUBDUING A MAGMA SPIRIT AND IT GAVE ME GREAT JOY. They CAN team up for the greater good on occasion! NOTP! NOTP!

► Next week, I need to: 1) finally register my car in this state; 2) finally (you will note I’m using this word twice in this list) work out a budget. I said I was going to months ago, but I saw that I have more money coming in then going out, so I just said “eh” and moved on to other things. :\ I need to figure out WHY there is more coming in, and HOW MUCH more, so that I can do things like, uh, put it in my 401K? WHOO, ADULTING.
thez: Ari IS Inspector Spacetime! Somewhen. (Default)


More photos of zoo animals on the tumblr post!

► On Saturday, a friend took me to the Phoenix Zoo as a belated birthday present. Highlights: animal friends! paddle boats! aviary! flamingo mating displays?? followed around by orangutans! orangutans playing on a jungle gym! petting sting rays! SPLASHED IN THE FACE BY A STING RAY! leaving immediately after!

► My dad came to visit on Sunday, and regaled me with tales of his young bachelorhood, including the time the sink broke in his apartment, so he logically decided to gather all his dishes and soak them in the communal washing machine, because ???, and then fell asleep, and left them in there for the neighbors to find.

► THIS WEEK WENT BY SO FAST. Sunday night I had a migraine, so Monday was a haze of pain, nausea, and sleep. Tuesday and Wednesday I was out running errands. By Thursday I wondered how I’d managed to get my apartment so messy despite spending so few waking hours there.

► Thursday my mother visited, and regaled me with a video of Tiny Nephew Jake’s sponge bath. (He had ALL THE CREYS until they started pouring water gently over his head. ♥♥♥) We walked around downtown, and she took pictures of the murals. I took her to one of my favorite cafes, and we were kind of disappointed by the service and food. Don’t you hate it when there’s a restaurant you just love, that’s always excellent, UNTIL you bring someone else there and THAT is when they have a bad day? tatterpixie and mymindsplinters are probably nodding and thinking of The Bookstore Incident.

► Not sure what I’m doing tonight, but it probably involves my couch, my laptop, and blankets. (And maybe a cupcake.)
thez: Sheridan is a lot smarter than he looks! (Babylon 5 - Sheridan is SMRT)
► I FINALLY HELD TINY NEPHEW JAKE! He is so small, it’s like holding a football with a head. He’s been doing really well this week, eating regularly and putting on weight! I’ll be going to see him again this weekend, of course, ♥

► This week was actually kind of boring but highly productive! Every day after work I’ve been cleaning and organizing, and I made it through five years of backlogged papers and files. See? BORING! BUT! Finally getting myself organized, and getting my semi-new apartment in a manageable state, means I’ll be able to spend more time WRITING and EXPLORING/TRAVELLING again without worrying about all the tiny daggers hanging over my head! So I’m very happy that I made a lot of progress towards that this week.

► This is also excellent news because it’s evidence that my mental health has been very stable this week. I mean, the levels of productivity I’ve had this week were previously unimaginable to me. Two days of doing something other than curling into the fetal position after work used to be a high point for me. Also, a couple of times this week, I didn’t feel like doing anything, but I TALKED MYSELF INTO IT. THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE. Once depression takes hold, there’s usually nothing I can do other than to call it a day and make sure I’m getting enough food and sleep to try again tomorrow. I think a combination of experience, luck, and actively working to manage my mental health better are finally paying off.

► Work was much less hectic. It was actually pretty great. Some time I need to go through and talk about why I’m so happy to be in my new lab, and out of the toxic work environment that was my old lab. (I’m sure that not dreading work and not being emotionally drained by the people there is another factor in my improved mental health.)





► MY mymindsplinters Z-MAS PACKAGE MADE IT HERE INTACT! SKULL MUG KISSING ruukachoo'S SKULL MUG! SKULL LIP GLOSS HOLDER! SPOCK, MESSIAH! A SCIENCE SHIRT WITH MYTH BUSTERS, NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, BILL NYE, AND CARL SAGAN? I DON'T KNOW WHY THIS EXISTS BUT I'M GLAD IT DOES. AND THANK YOU tatterpixie FOR THE METALOCALYPSE COMICS, I HOPE YOU READ THEM BEFORE YOU SENT THEM OUT? NOT PICTURED: HOLIDAY COOKIES, IN MY STOMACH.



► And the Star Trek earrings that aren’t ACTUALLY Star Trek earrings, but they sure as hell look like it! Which mymindsplinters assures me was totally on-purpose (“subtle geek-chic!”). Another bonus: they are red, and the swirly design mimics the engineering/security insignia from the original series. ONE EAR FOR UHURA, ONE FOR SCOTTY.



► So, since it was a pretty boring week, have a random picture I took near my home of a sexy Impala
thez: Ari IS Inspector Spacetime! Somewhen. (Default)
► TINY NEPHEW JAKE IS COMING HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL TODAY SJFDSLJFS I AM GOING TO SQUISH HIS LITTLE FACE SO MUCH (BUT V GENTLY)



► Hung out with The Usual Suspects last weekend, i.e. my three best bros from high school, whom we shall simply refer to as L, N (who was visiting from Hotlanta), and M (the Bajoran bff). Mostly just sat around bullshitting as per our usual M.O., but also discovered that everything in the Arizona Center closes disgustingly early on a Saturday night. (“I suggested we find a restaurant here in case we wanted to do something when we were done eating, but that was foolish, because when do we ever want to do things when we’re done eating?” — me) That photo that looks like a wormhole is Her Secret is Patience from underneath on our walk home.



► Character Insight Quote:
N: Thank you for planting the seeds of doubt in our minds.
Z: I do that all the time, though. I feel like you should be thanking me for that more often.
M: You DO do that all the time! I can’t figure out if it’s just a thing you do, or if you’re actually evil.

► WORK WAS IMPOSSIBLY HECTIC. On Monday, we didn’t get our generators. The generators we use to generate our radionuclides. Let me tell you, it is extremely difficult trying to operate a nuclear pharmacy when you don’t have any radionuclides. On Thursday, our Xenon-133 shipment was five hours late. Less horrifying than NO GENERATORS, but still exhausting. I celebrated by coming home, drinking beer, pulling my frozen Birthday Cheesecake out of the freezer, gnawing on said cheesecake like a log because I was too impatient for it to thaw, and falling asleep on top of the covers.

► AUGH I saw this guy at the grocery store with the most beautiful homemade Aliyah hoodie and I’m so sad that I didn’t think to ask for a picture. When he told me he made it himself I had to exit quickly because I was blushing at his talent jfc.



► This was a little more than a week ago, but I was distracted by New Nephew: I received tatterpixie's delightful letter/card (BEST Z-MAS CARD EVER??) and ruukachoo's BEAUTIFUL SKULL GLASS! Which I decorated with a small sampling of my various skull accessories! I'll have to think of an appropriately hardcore drink to make and serve in this glass! :D



► Obtained my mother’s birthday gift yesterday evening, and treated myself to dinner and drinks at the Blue Hound Cafe. The skyline photo is me trying to entice meejit to visit me (I don’t think I have to try very hard).



► DID I MENTION BITTY BOO JAKE? COMING HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL? HE HAD HIS FEEDING TUBES AND IVS AND SUCH REMOVED A FEW DAYS AGO AND HE’S READY TO MEET THE WORLD! OMG!!

thez: Miguel's music is INTENSE, like his FACE, and his SOUL. (Road to El Dorado - INTENSE!Miguel)
On December 30th on tumblr I posted that my pregnant sister had been admitted to the hospital with possible preeclampsia. It turns out that she DID have preeclampsia, and they had to induce labor, so Jake came into the world at 2:03 pm MST on December 31st! He’s only 4 lbs 11 oz, and though he did not cry initially, he later started the sort of wailing that lets everyone know his lungs are a-ok. When my brother-in-law went to cut the umbilical cord, though, they saw that there was a KNOT in it, meaning that it’s probably a good thing he was born when he was.



Unfortunately, his blood sugar was dangerously low (18) when he was born, and they’ve been working for days to get it up and make sure he’s getting adequate nutrition. Because of the early birth my sister’s been having trouble breastfeeding, but she’s started pumping and he’s having a combination of her milk and formula, via both bottles and his feeding tube (my poor bitty-boo has a feeding tube). She was discharged from the hospital a day or two ago, but she’s able to stay in a room there for free so that she can be close to Jake.



I haven’t been able to hold him yet, but a few hours after he was born I was able to spend some time with my sister and him in the hospital, and stroke his head and watch him make funny faces. And my sister shaded his eyes with her hand so that he could open them a little and look around. I am smitten.



(Not smitten as in “I would like to grow a human being inside my body and pop out one of my own”, but smitten as in “I love this tiny human and I will dote on him for the rest of my life.” Also, we can bond over having terrible birthdays.)



Ugh, and I just heard from my mother: they took out his IV today, but his blood sugar dropped again and they had to put it back in.



I still want to write up a review of 2014 and goals for 2015, but so far I’ve been too busy just working and cleaning and being the most fretful aunt.
thez: Sheridan is a lot smarter than he looks! (Babylon 5 - Sheridan is SMRT)
Oh my! A journal update! Most of my "journaling" since May has been at tumblr, as it's all been pretty brief as I've been lacking in either time or motivation or both. But that has changed recently!

I think it would be easiest to tackle this in New Year Goals format.

GIMME SHELTER (NEW SUBSECTION!)
Finally moving into an apartment here! Since June I've been on a waiting list for a rent-controlled apartment complex in downtown Phoenix, and a unit is opening up on November 14th. I have a couple more documents to submit, but other than that it's mine.

I am so excited, and so glad I waited instead of moving out sooner into a place I wouldn't be as happy with, because 1) RENT CONTROLLED, 2) it is actually right in downtown Phoenix. I'm less than a mile away from awesome restaurants and lounges and museums and theaters and it is awesome, 3) I'll be 10 miles away from work instead of 30, and 4) a couple of blocks away from the light rail and other public transit (though I will still have my car). Of course, this does mean that...

Finances
+ I'll have to make a new budget. Pro and con. I love crunching numbers but I hate sitting still. HOWEVER!
+ I've settled my debt! For the unaware, I had nearly $10,000 in credit card debt from my attempt at attending college followed by lots of medical bills (yes, the two are related) (but no, the U.S. has absolutely nothing wrong with its healthcare or education systems /sarcasm). I got that cut nearly in half and I'll be done making payments by September 2015. This is such a huge relief.
+ And hey! I got a new bed like I said I wanted to!

Health
+ mental: Big improvement here! I've been appropriately medicated since mid-June, and on top of that, I've been seeing a counselor for the past couple of weeks and it's going really well so far. She's very sweet and easy to talk to, and we've been pretty productive for being only two sessions in.

Whew! I had more subsections and updates, but I think that's enough for now. I'm feeling overwhelmed just reading this. MOVING. UGH. But also. YAY!
thez: The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. (Carl Sagan - Carl is made of starstuff!)
So in addition to moving across country and starting in a new lab, did I mention that my sister got married? She did! On May 3rd!

First, I should mention she's been with her husband for 9 years now. He's a good guy and has the family stamp of approval.

She paid for it almost entirely on her own, because she is hardcore. My parents contributed a little, but they couldn't afford much. The groom's parents gave her a little money after the wedding was over (because they wanted to be sure their precious baby boy didn't get stood up at the altar?). Whatever. I'm just proud of her for making it exactly what she wanted. (Almost. More on that in a minute.)

Tangent: I recall having a conversation with her about shaving (she does and I don't) and I was going on about the stupid gender double-standard when it comes to shaving/body hair, and she said "Pff, I make [husband] shave too!" to which my response was something like "Ha ha! Awesome!" She is deceptively hardcore.

I was one of three bridesmaids, but the gowns were picked out while I was still living in PA. She asked if I had any preferences, and I said "As long as it's something that works for large or small breasts, I'll be okay." But the other two (D-cup and thin-to-average) bridesmaids coerced her into buying the dresses THEY wanted, so I was the only one who had to pay for dress alterations because I had to have the seamstress sew some goddamn breasts into the huge cups of the corset top.

Said bridesmaids also complained to my sister about the money they spent on the bridal shower. Even though that's tacky as hell. Even though my sister paid for nearly the whole wedding herself. Even though they are both what I would consider to be fairly wealthy.

I am not really fond of her other bridesmaids.

And oh man, I was so out of my element throughout most of this. Darn heteros and their confusing "traditional gender roles". WHAT DOES ANY OF IT MEAN. I AM SO LOST.

Onto happier(?) things.

Her bachelorette party was at Talking Stick, a resort/casino here in the Valley. It was fun and not-too-traumatizing for me as the older sister, until my sister and I ran into each other dancing: her elbow, my head. I went home early with a headache and a bag of ice and a minor head injury, but it was still kinda fun.

The rehearsal dinner turned into "Z watches the kids" night, mostly because the kids started following me around? Long story short, they ended up in the pool with their clothes on, because that's what happens when you leave your children with me: I throw them in the pool (not literally though). They had a good time and also they survived, so I consider it a success.

The wedding itself was at Pioneer Village, which is exactly what it sounds like.



Ooo, aaah! There were flocks of quails and jackrabbits everywhere!

It was a long day, so it's list time:
‣ We got our make-up done at MAC, so if I look good in the photos you know it wasn't because I did it myself.
‣ My sister had a corset-top wedding dress, so I got to lace her up like a tennis shoe.
‣ It was 97 degrees F that day. I thought I was gonna drink ALL THE WINE, but I ended up drinking mostly water on account of sweating so much.
‣ My sister kept doing a little hip twirl/swaying motion while the minister was talking because she was so excited. Too fucking cute.
‣ "look up while you're walking down the aisle" it's an outdoor wedding there is danger at every step how do you even do that
‣ The bride and bridesmaid dresses were all so long you couldn't see our shoes, so my sister wore flip-flops (BUT THEY SAID "BRIDE" ON THEM SO IT WAS LEGIT) and I wore leather boots (good for rattler country). FAMILY.
‣ I was like a foot taller than my groomsman. I like being taller than as many people as possible so this made me happy.
‣ I gave a speech that was really well-received, though possibly because one if my sister's friends gave what was essentially a long, drunken ramble first. ("You saved it." I'll take it.)
‣ My parents were on the dance floor all night long. How did they get so much more energy than me?
‣ Our side of the family started dancing in a large circle, and I tried to make room for the groom's side but his dad shut me down and told me to stay on my side of the line. WHAT. A. DIIIIIIIICK.
‣ At one point I pretended to crumple to the ground on the dance floor because I was so damn tired, so the flower girl grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to one of the tables, saying "You need a break!" Smart kid!
‣ After sundown, there were tiny little frogs all over the water feature, calling to each other! AAAAH SO CUUUUUTE
‣ Instead of throwing rice at the end, we all lit sparklers. No one caught fire. A happy ending.

I took her grocery shopping today because her car broke down. She pulled something off the shelf for her husband. "The things I do for him now that we're married. Oh my god, Stacy..." I thought some deep confession was coming. "Did I tell you they stopped making my favorite frosting??"

Nope, nothing's changed.

thez: Ari IS Inspector Spacetime! Somewhen. (Default)
HEY HERE IS A THING ABOUT MAYBE YOU VISITING ME OR VICE VERSA? Too lazy to copy directly from tumblr. Translate "ask" to "email" for DW/LJ purposes.
thez: O'Brien and Bashir are retro! (Deep Space Nine - What's Up in Space?)
WELL HEY! I've been meaning to update regularly with progress notes on my goals for the year, but all that was turned on its ear because my company gave me the opportunity to transfer to Phoenix. And I took it.

I'm still with the same company, in the same position, but there are some perks:
+ I'm working in a bigger lab, with a wider variety of radioactive material, so I'll learn a lot of new skills
+ Arizona requires pharmacy technicians to be licensed whereas Pennsylvania doesn't, and licensing comes with an automatic (and none-too-shabby) pay increase
+ sub-perk: since I'm already nationally certified, all I had to do was show the AZ Board of Pharmacy my card (they give us cards, for some reason) and pay the fee. Easiest raise ever.
+ LESS WORK DRAMA. Actually there is probably just as much drama, but since there are many more employees it seems to get diffused, sort of. I'm not coming home from work emotionally drained every day.

Incidental perks:
+ I'm close to my family again, and all my AZ friends
+ AZ has a lower cost of living, so I'll be able to save more money

Downside:
- I no longer get to live with Angie and Pixie in the magical land of Casa deRP, and I miss my few but wonderful friends from the east coast. :(
- And there are other things I miss about the east coast. It's not home, but it's a lovely place.


So here's how it happened: last year, my boss in Bethlehem knew the manager of the Arizona pharmacies, and let her know that I was available should any positions open. And one did! In February. He put me in contact with the Phoenix pharmacy manager. I did a phone interview. I was offered the position. After some heavy consideration I accepted. I had a week between my last day in the Bethlehem pharmacy and my first day in the Phoenix pharmacy to haul ass across country. And I did! And I'm living in my parents' house for now. I'll be moving out sooner or later, but I have to balance the pros and cons of living here and figure out when that might be.

The cross-country drive wasn't nearly as enjoyable as it was last time. Part of it was because I was in a rush to get there so that I'd have time to settle in before starting work, and part of it was because I was just so darn sad about leaving. BUT! I did at least discover that the "world's largest wind chimes" are in Casey, IL (making it Tian Xia on the Silvermoon world tour?).

Since getting here, I've been too busy/sick to be sad. Especially sick. Caught a week-long death cold. Actually MISSED A DAY OF WORK my first week there because I was coughing so much that I vomited in the clean room (this is the opposite of what we are going for in the clean room). I just started feeling better this weekend, just in time for a reunion of the Usual Suspects (my 3 bffs from high school).

So that's how the first quarter of my year has gone. HOW DID YOURS GO?? ♥

(╯°□°)╯︵ <3

January 2017

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