GO SPURS GO!!!

They're up 3 games to 1. Mad they lost the 1 as they could have swept the series, but they must have not wanted it bad enough that afternoon. But, I'm sure they'll win the 1st round. I doubt Phoenix can win 3 more in a row. Spurs only have to win 1 more, after all. I like the playoffs and I also hate them. Nerve-wracking, but they're exciting games to watch. Hope they do well. I think the next game is tonight, so we'll see how they do.

Today, I've got a doctor's appointment. It's mainly because it's time to have a thyroid test, but I've been having other problems as well. I've been having these gastrointestinal problems for a long time. Like maybe a year and a half or so. It started out as just periodic nausea. Then, the nausea became acute and I began throwing up. It would be so bad I'd need a prescription medication to stop it. It's progressed now to where I also have diarrhea in addition to the nausea. Again, it's periodic, so I'll be fine for a while, then suddenly it'll hit me and knock me out for a couple of days. Then, I'm okay again. It's really annoying and it's impacting my life as it can be so severe, so I'm hoping there's something he can do about it. The other thing is that I don't think I'm doing as well on Synthroid as I was on Levoxyl. I have drier skin, etc., etc., all the hypothyroid symptoms, even though my hormone levels have been testing normal. Plus, I've been having fainting spells. It feels like it does when my blood pressure drops suddenly, so I'm thinking I keep having unsafe low blood pressure that causes me to become light-headed and then faint. Not good. I don't know if that's related to the thyroid thing or not, so I've got to tell the doctor about it.

Not much going on lately besides that. I have a psychiatrist appointment next week, where I will discuss those sorts of issues such as my stress level and how absent-minded I've been. Don't know if the nausea might relate to my meds or not, but it seems like it's not related as I haven't had any med changes in a very long time, like much more than a year and a half ago. So the timing is off there for me to think it's related. But I can mention it if my other doctor can't find anything else wrong with me. Or maybe that appointment is at the end of this week. Now I can't remember. I have it written down on my calendar. I just haven't looked at it recently. I need to check before I go off anywhere today.

Got to go to the library today, too. The two books I'd requested are there waiting and I thought I'd look for this other book that I read about. I think they have it there, so I'll just see if it's not checked out. Been reading a lot since there aren't that many jobs out there to sift through. It doesn't take me as long as it used to to get through them all. Sucks, but what can I do? Just keep looking. Well, I guess I'd better go. Sorry my posts have been relatively depressing lately. Hopefully that'll change after my psychiatrist appointment, though. Hopefully I'll be more optimistic.

DUH!

Didn't doubt it for a minute, but the guy was telling me the check would clear. I didn't think so, but he kept saying it would, and even gave me his contact information so that I could return the "money". Yeah, right. So, I didn't expect to have to wire him the money or mail him a money order or whatever. But today, it's official. The check did not clear. I called the bank to double-check. So now I'm in a negative balance on my bank account. I did get the camera, so I can return that now and get the money back. I hate to do it, but I'll have to make some sort of arrangement later. My mom had a plan, so I'll go along with whatever she suggested. I'll get the camera eventually. Hopefully the jobs will follow. But hopefully the money will get credited to my account before the bank has to close the account.

The other "duh" thing is that I had gotten a couple of interviews and I went to Walmart today to pick up some thank you cards so that I could send some out as I'd run out of the old ones. I write them out today and I stick them in the outgoing slot in our mail center. Suddenly, it strikes me that I didn't stamp them. DUH! I'd meant to take them to the post office as I ran out of stamps. Stupid. Obviously, this hasn't been my smartest month. Hopefully things will get better, but I feel pretty stupid lately. Maybe it's my medication or something. I don't know. So, now I have to wait for the cards to come back to me so that I can send them out again, STAMPED this time.

Other than that, not much going on, just the interviews. Not many, just a couple. Still, that's better than nothing. Maybe the cards will matter, but maybe not. You never know. It would look worse to NOT send them, I think. Maybe there's a new job in my future. PLEASE...

My boss took it better than I expected when I told her I was job hunting. In fact, she understood completely and offered to give me a reference. So sweet. If only she'll pay me the money she owes me, though. I think she said beginning of May, but that's a long time to wait when I'm hourly. It's been 5 weeks! That shouldn't happen. Anyway, that's it for now. Almost time to go home. : )

I'm an idiot

Okay, I always prided myself as being a relatively smart person. Apparently I'm only good at pointing out when others are making mistakes. Perhaps I'm only good at things that involve studying and books, etc. I don't know. But I received a check in the mail with no note or anything in it. My natural thought is that it must be a sweepstakes win, as that happens sometimes. When you win, you just get the prize in the mail with no notice or anything. So I deposit the check, wait for the bank to tell me the balance is available, and then I buy a camera as that's what I really needed in order to help me find a job. Well, as it turns out, while my balance said "pending", it wasn't because the bank was checking to see if there were funds in the other bank account or if the check was bogus. I don't know what they were doing exactly. But they tend to make the balance available right away as a courtesy to members. Then, a couple of days later, I get an e-mail and a phone call from this guy who had been trying to set up a photography job with me and he says HE sent the check. Well, I wasn't going to take the job because he seemed kind-of shady to me. There were things about the whole thing that I didn't like. But then, I'd already used the money. Great. So I have to wait for the check to clear now, so that I can return the money to the guy (if it isn't a scam in the first place). I also have to return the camera so that I can get that part of the money back. Of course, I have to wait until I GET the camera as I'd bought it on Amazon and it's not here yet. Great. Just what I needed. More stress. I mean, if I'd known the check was from that guy (I mean it, no note, no return address, nothing in the envelope) I would have sent it right back to him immediately. I wouldn't have even deposited it or anything. Maybe I should have been a little more suspicious of the check, but money's been tight as I hadn't gotten paid yet (still haven't) and I was desperate for cash. I was also hoping to visit R, C, and little E in LA. But, I guess that's not going to happen after all. Anyway, I guess I just needed to gripe.

Tonight I'm meeting RE for coffee. He's also having a little fondue get-together on Sunday that he wanted me to come to. But he told me I could bring a date, so I guess that means he only thinks of me as a friend. I guess I wasn't sure, but it's good to know where I stand. Maybe it could still turn into something more, but at least he's not in any rush and neither am I at this point. Right now I just want to get a steady job (that will actually pay me) before I start worrying about anything else. I had an interview today at the McNay Art Museum here. It's far, as it took me 50 minutes to get there and traffic wasn't really that bad. The job is only part-time and the hours would be weird, but at least I could get paid there. It's in the gift shop as a retail sales assistant, so nothing fancy. The problem with it is that it doesn't start until June as the museum is closed right now for renovations. So I still have time to find something full-time before then.

Anyway, I guess I'll go for now. It's almost time for coffee, so I can decide what tasty Starbucks treat I should go for today. : )

Maybe I should avoid Mi Tierra

I had a good time at lunch. I wish it was a little cheaper to eat there, but at least it's good. Everyone liked it and we all talked and enjoyed ourselves. Then, everyone wanted to go shopping afterward. Well, I thought it might be fun just to go with them and not buy anything. We wandered around and the group organizer took pictures. It was fun. Of course, after a while everyone was tired. In the last store I ended up buying a pendant. I really shouldn't have as I didn't really have the money, but it was this neat-o Mayan design, kind-of like a calendar. That was, incidentally, the only thing I bought. But I really shouldn't have done that. Then, everyone left except for RE, who I'd been seeing, although we haven't seen much of each other in a while. But we went back to Mi Tierra so that I could pick up some sweetbread, but they didn't have much of the Mexican stuff. Mostly donuts and the like. I was disappointed. So I didn't end up getting anything there, which was probably a good thing.

RE and I went walking around a little. We saw this little coffee house across the street, but we really weren't thinking about it being Sunday and the place was closed. So we kept walking and ended up by the Spanish Governor's Palace. I didn't realize it was that close to Market Square, so we decided to go in as the place is fairly small. It didn't take long, so we went back to Market Square and looked around at El Mercado (another building separate from the place we were that was across the street where the parking was. Anyway, after a while we got some bottled coffee and water and went to the park across that street to sit down. It was a nice little park and it was a nice day. Not too hot. We sat and talked some more and even did a little snuggling. Hope that wasn't too obnoxious, but we weren't being noisy, just hugging. After that, RE had to go as he had a bowling league game he had to go to. It was after 5:00 by then, though, so I didn't feel too bad. It was fun.

Today, I'm waiting to hear from my doctor about some Geodon samples as I can't afford to buy the prescription. But they'd been out when I called last week. I'm hoping they have some as I'm out and I don't want to get all confused and absent-minded again. Also, my boss hasn't called me and she had her phone off when I called her. I left a message on her voice mail, but I'd already done that last week and she never returned my call. So I hope she's okay. I'm hoping she calls me back, too.

Anyway, I could spend my day cleaning the bathroom, but I hurt my hand and I can't imagine scrubbing the bathtub with it hurting as bad as it's been. It hurts to type, too. Well, maybe I'll scrub the toilet and wipe down the sink again. The bathtub will have to wait, I think, as that's the one that will take the most effort. Hopefully it won't be too much longer that I have to worry about my hand, though, as it looks terrible and I want it CLEAN. Plus, I'm going to keep going through job listings. Hopefully I'll find something more stable, full-time, with benefits. : )

Yesterday

Dad and I went to our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant for lunch, El Chapparal in Helotes. I had some yummy carne guisada (it's stew, not beef tips with gravy on them). It was awesome. Dad had some things to do later on, like empty all the fax machine parts out of his car so he could take it in to get it repaired today. The brakes are causing him trouble, among other things. So we had to cut our day short, but we managed to do a little shopping at Walmart (not really fun, but we got everything we needed fairly quickly). But we did take some time at Starbucks after that. I remembered to bring my Starbucks cup so that I could get the discount. Then, it was HEB, where I used a few coupons. Really, a fairly short day, but we had a good time. I think Dad was disappointed that he didn't get to buy a new car just yet. I think he was thinking that I'd make enough money to pay my car payment, but that's not happening at present. I haven't even gotten paid and I've been there for 3 weeks already. Plus, that day I was supposed to go in at 2:30, she called and said she didn't need me to come in after all. So I only worked 7 hours last week. Sucks. So, if I ever do get paid, it won't be very much.

Today, I have a coffee meetup at Mi Tierra, the place I went with R and E at Market Square. Should be fun. : ) I'd better get ready to go, actually!

Bored

You'd think that having a job would keep me busy. But no. I don't have anything to do. I'm bored out of my mind. Yesterday I got stuff to do, but she didn't give me anything additional, so I've been just piddling all morning and part of the afternoon. She doesn't want me going in until 2:30. I asked her to give me some things to work on this morning and e-mail the files to me, but she didn't. She said she would, but she didn't. This isn't the first time I've asked her to do this, either. I've asked her on several occasions. Not to mention, that when I go into the office I don't have anything to do there either. I have no reason to go in, but she wants me there. It's HOT in there, too. The a/c sucks and on top of that she leaves the window open. It's 86 or so out there. Not really letting cool air in by having the window open, you know? I wish I could find another job where I'd get more hours. I really need the money and not having anything to do isn't helping me at all. I'm still looking for a job, but there aren't many out there. Most of them, like about 80%, are all medical jobs. Sucks, but that's the way it goes. Even worse, I was cleaning out some paperwork in my boss' office yesterday and I was finding records from '05 and '06 and there were bills in there. Several of them kept popping up saying "past due" and other similar phrases. I just get the picture she's not very organized and she's the type of person I need to bug over and over again to get her to do anything. I mean, I can't even get her to give me work! Not a good sign. It's so frustrating!

Pictures from R & E's last visit

Meant to include these last time. The first one is E in Market Square.


Then we took the "trolley" (actually a bus) to the Alamo.


Then, we rode the river barges at the Riverwalk.


And R snapped this photo of me when I was talking and E wasn't ready:

Recently...

Recently, I discovered I suck at web design. I apparently effed up an important client's website and someone has to clean up my mess. I feel so stupid. I have no clue what I did wrong either. But for some reason, when I downloaded the files, something got effed up and I was the only one logged into the server at the time. So it must have been me. All I was supposed to do was change the phone number on the website, but it was in a Flash format that wasn't compatible with my trial version, so I couldn't do it. Okay, right? No harm done. But the guy has tons of extra files in there that shouldn't be in there, including an old version of the site's homepage. Now THAT'S what's loading instead of the newer Flash site. Uggh. Every time I try to mess with this guy's files, something goes wrong. I think the guy isn't a very good designer in some ways, in that he stores EVERYTHING in the folders on the server instead of just the files needed for the site and he doesn't give the files descriptive names, just things like menu08 or menu02. So it's confusing as hell. But he can do things with Flash that I don't know how to do, so he's going to have to fix it.

The one thing I was able to do was to update the sign that goes out in front of the building as she wanted some changes done to the file that another guy had designed. That I was able to do. So my next project is to update the prices on a menu. Should be simple enough if I have the files. But this other guy has the files and has to e-mail them to me. We'll see when that happens. Most of the time, when I go to the office, I'm sitting there chatting with my boss and reading e-mail as I have nothing to do. Hopefully that will change. I've been bored. But, hey, if she'll pay me to just sit there, that's fine with me. I just don't want to be seen as expendable, you know? So I keep reminding her that I'm willing and able to do other things than what she hired me to do. Hopefully she'll find me some more work next week.

Also, as recently as last week, R and E were here. It wasn't a long visit, unfortunately, but we did manage to go downtown and visit Market Square (El Mercado), Mi Tierra, the Alamo, and the Riverwalk with little E. We wanted him to see the famous parts of the city and remember it fondly. So now, when he sees a picture of the Alamo, he'll know he's been there. Actually, he was pointing it out every time he saw it in this magazine I have! I was worried about all the stairs, but he went up and down like crazy and didn't slow us down a bit. Of course, when he got back to the apartment, he went back to his usual cautious self, but hopefully he's getting braver. He did have his first ride in a bus (the trolley, but they had regular buses running the trolley route downtown for some reason), which he loved. He had the biggest grin on his face every time the bus lurched or went over a bump. One time he even let out a little laugh. He loved the river barges, too. We saw a lot of the historical buildings and even some baby ducks.

Market Square was first, where we spent most of our money, actually. R and I got some jewelry from this little place that got items from Peru. I also got some hairclips from Mexico (inlaid with silver). E got a tambourine and a little mini-guitar that wasn't really a toy but a real guitar, only smaller. I think he's looking forward to learning to play it from his dad. Then, we ate lunch/dinner at Mi Tierra and picked up some Mexican sweetbread for later. Yum! All in all, a really fun day. I wouldn't have minded going back down there another time, but I got sick. Like, what else is new, you know? But I didn't want R and E to go and cried when they left. I was hoping I'd get to go up to FW, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen and they can't come back down here, so I guess that was it, until I can make it to LA. : ( I was hoping we'd be able to see La Villita or some other places around town, but we didn't have time. Oh well. I'm sure they'll be able to come back to visit.

Last night, I had a good time at a meetup for atheists. Some really good conversation there. The food was okay, not great. But the restaurant had a lot of different items on the menu than you usually see in Chinese restaurants. The portions were okay. Really, it was expensive for what you got, but it was pretty in there and the service was good. I met some really nice people, including a guy who was a reporter for Telemundo. He was really hot, too, but I don't think he was nearly as interested in me as I was in him! : (

Anyway, that's the update for now. I keep saying I'm going to keep up with this space, but then I don't do it, so I won't even promise that for now. Keep in touch peeps! : )