Nerves

 The surgery to remove the lap band that has thrice tried to kill me is Thursday and I am very anxious for some reason.  I am not sure what I expect to happen.  The doctor told me to pack an overnight bag because there is a 50/50 chance I will have to stay overnight.  I did my pre-op stuff yesterday and they said they will give me a nerve block in my abdomen that will last about a day.  That freaks me out a little too, although I am sure they always do this in surgery and just don't tell you about it.  Probably why they say the 2nd day after surgery is worse than the first because the block is wearing off.  I am taking off tomorrow because my mom has an appointment with the eye doctor.  This will give me an opportunity to go by some of the places with pre-made meals and get some stuff put up.  I am preparing like this is major surgery when I was cleared to work the next week as long as I am off pain meds.  The doctor sent a letter saying I had to telework for 6 weeks and surprisingly there was zero resistance at work.  I think it is mostly because I went to the actual supervisor and not AP.  He is smart enough to know not to question and just accept it at face value.  The way the letter was written it could be construed that I can't work in the office because I can't lift over 10 pounds (which I think is his actual intent) so I expected to get push back telling me to use a rolling bag or have someone carry my laptop up for me.  By the grace of whatever deity you choose to believe in, I didn't have to fight that battle for a change.  I will return to working in the office on 10 June but they will not allow me to work in office until I get an official clearance from the doctor.  I wonder if he can be paid off?

Planning has officially began on vacation 2024.  I am going back to NYC, this time with HMF as her 50th birthday is coming up.  My sister, Barbie is not happy about it.  When we were there last fall I said I wanted to go back after The Outsiders opened. * If you aren't familiar with the story, it was written by a Tulsa teacher and is a right of passage for teens, at least locally, to read.  A few years ago Danny Boy O'Conner from House of Pain (they did the song Jump Around in the 90's) came through Tulsa and found out the house the movie adaptation had been filmed in was in serious disrepair.  He moved to Tulsa, revamped it and turned it into a museum * The show opened a couple of weeks ago and although it gets good reviews, I want to see it in it's initial run, which ends 1 September.  My sister and her husband are at their lake house  most of the summer so they expect everyone to work around their schedule.  Well I don't want to wait and I really don't want a repeat of last years drunk fest so I reached out to a couple of friends and here we are.  When I told her I wasn't go to go with them in October she started trying to talk me into going back with them.  She bought tickets for opening night of Tammy Faye, which I honestly would love to see but not badly enough to reconsider my plans to go with someone who doesn't stop at every third bar.  I want to see more than the inside of every pub in the city.  Barbie sent me a text yesterday saying that her BIL is going to Tammy Faye with her but if I changed my mind he would give me his ticket.  I told her that I can't afford two trips and that HMF and I are staying in one room (she would NEVER) and splitting the cost of lodging.  We also plan on eating a lot of street pizza.   That hasn't dissuaded her from sending me texts trying to change my mind.  I have to remind myself how bad they both acted last year because I do kind of want to go and see Tammy Faye but I really don't want to have to deal with the drunken escapades of the middle aged.  OMG, that is the name of our soap opera.

The plane tickets are bought and the hotel booked for 30 July - 2 August.  I need to get the show tickets bought but not sure if we are going to the matinee or the evening show.  We hope to catch another one with rush or one of the apps that offer discount tickets.  That being said, I am really excited.  We are going back to the 9/11 museum and this time we hope to get better weather and see the statue of liberty.  We have traveled together before for marathons and we should get along fine.  

Not much has been going on.  I wen to West Virginia for a meeting last week for the national sign committee I am on.  It was just as exciting as it sounds.  The sad thing is they are serious about it 8-5, No getting out early to site see.  

I flew into DC on Monday.  The meeting was at Harpers Ferry, which is about 60 miles outside of DC.  I was a little concerned about traffic but it wasn't bad at all.  I have a friend on the team that I have trauma bonded with as we are on a lot of the same PDTs.  He flew in on Sunday so I sent him a text when I got there and we met up 'in town' and walked around a bit.  

Potomac River from Harpers Ferry

Appalachian Trail

 

It was a quaint little town with lots of history.  We stopped at a gift store so he could get his wife a shirt and I found a sweatshirt that says "National Park Geek" and had to have it.  We wanted to find a shirt that said we walked the Appalachian Trail since we walked about 0.25 miles of it, lol. Had ice cream for dinner and head back to the hotel.  

Tuesday was a long boring day and by the time we got out I was peopled out.  I ended up meeting up with my friend and going to a fast food place called Roy Rodgers.  

Wednesday we met up bright and early and went to Cumberland, Maryland to visit the federal prison to tour the sign manufacturing plant.  

 We obviously weren't allowed to interact with most of the inmates but we were given an opportunity to talk to the design team.  I resisted the urge to ask what they were in for but I want to believe non of it was related to January 6 😁 But seriously, they had the army doctor that killed his family in there working at the shop at one point (he was granted a compassion release).  I imagine there were some very smart people in there that just let their guard down, as well as the dregs.  The rules are you can't have a disciplinary action for one year before you can even be considered for the shop and it pays more than any other prison job so they really want to keep that privilege - according to the guard.

One of the guys in the group remembered a pizza place he ate at several years ago that was in an old confederate hospital.  A quick check of the goog revealed the name so we headed there for a late lunch.  

Allegedly the attic of the  restaurant had the above drawings and etchings from the soldiers but I have doubts.  Even though you have to have permission to go up there, no one goes up with you and there are literally no signs of body oils or anything on the walls.  It just seemed odd to me.  Regardless, the history of the building was neat and the food was good.

From there we went to Antietam to demo a new app we had built.  By that time I was peopled out and ready to go back to the room.  I had to find a local brewery to get a t-shirt to add to my collection.  The one I wanted to go to was closed so we went to the second choice.  It was fine and the shirt I got didn't have the location on it.  

Thursday was back in the meeting for another mind numbing day.  I checked out of the hotel that morning because I was going to drive into DC after and try to go against traffic.  My flight left at 8:30 and that saved me a few hours.  After the meeting let out I decided to go by the other brewery to check out their t-shirt selection and to have a snack and a cider and let traffic to DC die down a little.  My friend sent me a text and asked me to save him a seat.  We had a drink, both got shirts with John Brown on the back of them, this time with the location on it.  By the time filled the rental up with gas and headed out traffic was light.  I was shocked.  I turned the rental car in and got to the hotel at 8.  I had planned on grabbing food but fell asleep shortly after I got there.  

The view from the plan was pretty neat with the Washington Monument and the capitol building on the horizon.  When I got to my seat someone was in my window seat and I made them move because I wanted to see the skyline as we took off.  Sorry not sorry.

I spent the weekend getting stuff ready for the surgery.  I didn't go to my Mom's but I had to take her to the eye doctor later in the week so I wasn't too worried about it.  

Work is insane trying to get everything caught up from the week before and to be on leave next week.  I also had to get my shit together for our SAAPM - sexual assault prevention month.  The other advocate, as you know isn't my favorite person and it was taxing.  While we were planning I told him we would have about 25 people attend as it is held during the work day and people are busy.  Keep it to an hour and plan accordingly.  He wanted to put a bunch of crap in that would have made the program last 2 hours and I was like nope, not doing it.  I invited some people from DVIS, the organization I volunteer with to come speak and they were there so I felt obligated to stay but jack wagon added a jeopardy game at the end of the program that made it last an addition excruciating 45 minutes.  NO ONE wanted to participate and it was mind numbing.  It is customary to provide snakes and the office ordered a quarter sheet cake.  Jack wagon went to pick it up and freaked because it wasn't enough and got an addition 6 dozen cupcakes.  What the literal fuck.  I mean I envy his optimism but I have been around long enough to be a little more realistic.  I did get a you were right on the amount of cake but I am sure I will have another fight next year when I tell him we need to keep it under an hour.  I just let him take it because I was so freaking aggravated.

DVIS brought their What I Was Wearing exhibit and this is one of the items from it.

  Well that's about all I got.  I hope it all goes well with surgery.  I should be back to working from home on Tuesday.  We will see

✌

 

Weekly recap

Chicago night 1

 I loved Chicago.  It is probably the best dancing/choreography I had even seen in a show.  I am heavily influenced by my love of Fosse so I may be a little biased.  My sister saw that I had gone already and asked if I was sure I wanted to go back for night 2 and I told her I was all in.  For some reason she thought I had seen it with her before but I hadn't even seen the movie.  I had no idea what the plot was, I had danced to several of the songs either as a kid or in the musical theater class they used to have at the studio.  It was great fun.  

I met up with HMF at the Brook, our usual, but it was pretty busy.  There was a 30 minute wait but I found 2 seats at the bar and camped out there.  We ended up eating there and it was pretty good, the food came out faster than expected and the bartender was great so it worked out well.  She told me that the public school she works for didn't renew her contract, which would have given her tenure.  They told her she could reapply but she wasn't about that at all.  She teaches a few classes online for Baylor and they said they might have a post doc research position for her and by the end of the week they had already offered her the job.  They decided to take A out of hockey because of the politics of the organization (how sad is that) and he has gotten very involved in BMX racing, earned a spot in the intermediate level over the weekend after only racing for a few months.  He wants to play football and they are considering it since it isn't much more brutal than hockey.  I am against it 😒but for some reason they didn't ask my opinion, lol.  Hockey is also very expensive.  We don't have enough teams locally to form a league so almost every weekend requires a 4 hour one way trip to either Dallas or KC.  I know that gets exhausting. When HMF went to work at the public school they allowed A to transfer there even though it is outside their school district and he has done well there and she is afraid they will make him change back to his school district.  I guess they will find out soon.

My sister Barbie and her friend Val at Chicago night 2

Night 2 of Chicago.  My sister made reservations at a place called the Daily Grill.  Her friend ordered a bottle of wine and had poured me a glass before I got there.  I really wasn't in the drinking mood but I drank about half the glass.  I ordered the slider appetizer and it had an amazing flavor.  The show was just as good the second night and I was able to watch the background dancers a little more closely and enjoyed it as much as the first night.  I was afraid I would be too keyed up to sleep but I was tired from the first night and pretty much slept as soon as I got home.  It wasn't as bad getting up the next morning as I had feared.  

Thursday was full of meetings at work.  We had our monthly branch meeting that AP requires we attend in person, even though it could be done as a call in.  Not sure what her obsession is about having to meet in person.  She seriously needs to chill the fuck out.  

Friday I went in to the office and took a baby ranger on a field trip to help train him on the sign program.  It was just as interesting as it sounds.  He is a brand new ranger, only been full-time for 4 months and I am not at all happy about the way they are training him.  The told him that he asks too many questions and he needs to just figure it out.  Well at 4 months I would be worried if he DIDN'T have a lot of questions.  We stopped at a place for lunch and he told me that his girlfriend had his debit card so he was just going to snack on some fruit he picked up from the hotel that morning.  I was like absolutely not.  If you want food get it and I will pay for it.  I mean he totally could have used his gov't card but I am not sure they explained to him how it all works given his training and all.  He appears to be a good kid but it was exhausting.  I got back about 2 because I needed to meet with one of the sharp advocates on some stuff and fill out some paperwork.  I was kind of surprised how fast the week went by.  

Saturday I picked my mom up and took her to lunch at a greasy diner.  They have the best onion rings and I hadn't had them in a very long time.  It ended up making me pretty sick, not sure if it was worth it but it was good at the time.  It was also pretty expensive for the kind of place it was.  My mom couldn't think of anything she really wanted to do.  I had picked up some conditioner at Ulta when I meant to get shampoo so I exchanged that while we were out.  By then my stomach was really unhappy so I took her home and laid down for a few minutes before heading back to the house.  While I was laying there I got an email that Fluevog was having a sale.  In a moment of weakness I indulged. 

I had calls on Sunday starting at 8:30 and got a call at 8:27.  They weren't sure what the deal was and the ER nurse asked for the SANE nurse to call them.  I called the SANE and gave her the info.  She sent me a text about an hour later saying they never answered or called back.  I was up and dressed so I ran some errands.  I needed to go to Costco, Sprouts, and Braum's.  We used to get frozen grilled cheese sandwiches at Costco.  You stick them in the microwave for a few seconds then put them in the toaster to get them crunchy.  It's perfect for work.  I guess they stopped carrying them because the last few times I have been they have been out.  I am going to have to experiment and see if there is some way you can do that an home.  It is so stupid easy and convenient.  I haven't found anything else to replace it.  In the meantime Sprouts carries a brand of lunch meat that I actually like so I have been buying that to take to work for sandwiches.  I give it another month until I am so sick of turkey sandwiches I won't touch them for awhile, but for now it is doing the trick. Our office is a PITA to get in and out of to leave for lunch and we have a Subway (no thanks 👎) and a convenience store with very basic tacos, reheated cheese like substance nachos and a random daily special that can be anything from meatloaf to turkey and dressing to chicken chimichurri, all of it cooked in bulk so it isn't very good.  You never know what it is going to be until the day of. There is a deal through Amazon where you get 'free' delivery for Grubhub but you have to order over $15 and it is more expensive than regular menu prices.  To add to that we are in one of the towers of a complex that has 3 buildings, one is 10 stories one 60 and ours is 20 and has controlled access.  There are multiple lobbies so it makes meeting up with them difficult.  I decided I had to do better about bringing stuff and not eating out so I am trying.  I don't like the texture of most food after it is microwaved so that limits me a lot on what I will eat.   At any rate, I got my errands ran and made it home to start getting ready for Jimbo's Drag Circus.  

Barbie bought VIP tickets for some reason, even though she knew nothing about the show.  We went to dinner before and brought the husbands along.  Dennis and her husband get along really well.  We went back to the Brook as it is right across the street from the venue.  It was packed.  We found out there were 3 shows going on, the one we went to, a Herbie Hancock concert, and a world theater play.  The restaurant was very understaffed.  We only had to wait about 20 minutes for a table but service was slow.  As part of our tickets we had meet and greet passes but we didn't think we would make it in time.  As luck would have it we were the last ones they allowed in.  

The guy taking the pictures would say and pose between pictures so I felt the need to 'pose'

Jimbo was amazing and very nice.  They seemed to be gracious and very patient as the groups got autographs and took pictures.  They asked our names and complemented me on my dress.  I said they were stunning and she told me that all it took was several hours and a bucket of paint.  The show itself was so funny my stomach hurt.  Barbie has never watched drag race so there were a few references she didn't get but she enjoyed it.  I have some videos that would probably violate some kind of  standard but there was a chest piece with whipped cream cans built in and she went into the audience and sprayed people.  There was also a bit where she throws bologna that we were sure would hit us.  Sure enough one fell into Barbie's lap.  It was a unique experience for sure.  After the show she hung out on the stage and talked to whoever came up and wanted to meet her.  I was impressed by how nice she is.  When I got home I was keyed up and didn't get to sleep until after midnight.  I need my drug induced beauty sleep but I got a solid 6 hours since I teleworked on Monday.

Which brings us to Monday.  I had a doctor appointment at 9:30 with the surgeon.  The date to remove the band is 4/25.  I will have to miss a work trip to Seattle, which I am a little bummed about but I don't like the committee it is for so it isn't that big of a deal.  Depending on how much scar tissue there is I may have to stay overnight in the hospital.  He told me to bring a change of clothes just in case.  I have a note saying I can't lift anything over 10 pounds and that I may work remotely until 10 June.  I know AP is going to have a fit and say that I can work around the limitation by getting a rolling bag or having someone carry my computer. I am going to fight it as much as possible.  Given the location there is a big possibility of getting a hernia.  AP is teleworking today so I will talk to her tomorrow.  I wish my boss was in, I would really like to talk to him about it but he has been out the last 2 weeks.  Plus he is so wishy washy he would tell me to talk to her anyway.  So sick of this bs.  The surgeon is in the same complex as us so if I need to I will appeal to him to write the note differently that I mush telework for 6 weeks.  I mean, I'm giving up a trip to PNW!  

eclipse watching with baby daddy

I got home in plenty of time to set up for the eclipse.  We were in the 95% range.  If I hadn't had the doctor appointment I would have gone to Little Rock and stayed with Brooke in the line of totality.  She went to their family farm with her in-laws.  They have a 3 year old and when the moon started to crest (or whatever you call it) she said "it's getting late, Emma goes home now" So stinking cute.  The next one in 2046 will go right over Tulsa.  I hope I am still able to enjoy it.  I might be like Emma.  It is unreal to think about how old I will be for the next one.  It doesn't seem possible.  I don't feel old but things like that make me feel ancient.  

Alright, time to get back to work

✌

All the shows

 Two weeks into SHARP training and I am ready for it to be over.  The training itself isn’t bad but the other people I have to travel/instruct with are freaking weird.  The male advocate that I work with is the type to overly mansplain things.  He is really bad about saying borderline sexist things and then talking about negative gender stereotypes.  I finally had enough and told him to stop using gender comparisons and use personality-based examples.  For instance, there is a part we go into about hear/help/hug/handle, and he always says that men want to help or handle and women just want to vent.  I was like naw my dude, you gotta stop that.  We work in a science and engineering based industry, most of us want to fix it.  I got an email from him this morning saying he is going to volunteer to be a peer counselor and wanted me to write a letter of recommendation for him.  Everyone I talk to just think he is very odd and wouldn’t voluntarily share personal information with him.  Come to think of it, I don’t know anyone who would talk to a peer counselor period.  I forgot such a thing existed until I went to Maui, and they had them in rotation.  Glad they did because I made a good friend with one of them.  I would never be able to do it because I would have to tell BFF Brooke everything and that is probably an issue. 

 

We had 2 full day classes last week and I was worn out from it.  They were less than 2 hours away, so I drove there and back, the other 2 stayed in a town 45 minutes from here.  I am really surprised they approved the travel.  There are 2 more classes next week, but I am not going as I have a doctor appointment on Monday and I don’t want to reschedule (and also don’t want to be in a car with them any more than I have to).  More to come on the weird dude later…

 

Last week was To Kill a Mockingbird and I was really looking forward to it.  We switched our tickets to Friday night since I forgot the show was Sunday and had invited the moms to brunch.  HMF sent me a text early Friday afternoon saying she was sick and didn’t think she would be able to make it.  I told her that was no problem, I would go by myself if I couldn’t find anyone to go with because I was really looking forward to this one.  I asked Dennis if he wanted to go and he enthusiastically said yes.  I don’t think he had much of an idea of what it was about but he wiki’ed it and said he was kind of excited about it.  We went to dinner before the show, but our normal place was packed as it was Friday night, so we went to a by the slice pizza place in the same building.  It was good, as always, we had pizza and gelato and sat and talked for a while.  Mostly me complaining about SG (sharp guy) and how he just wears me out.  We walk across the street to the theater and since we had to trade days we weren’t in our usual seats.  We get there sit down, start looking at the playbill and who should sit 2 rows in front of us????  SG.  FML Of course I had to introduce them because he was right there, and he stood right there in the way talking until the lights flickered.  Dude can’t take a hint.  Regardless of that the show was very good.  It was 3 hours long but didn’t feel like it at all.  The adaptation was a little more intense than I remember the book being, but I haven’t read it in a very long time either.  Lots of use of the big n work racial slur which made me very uncomfortable, which is probably the point.  I cuss like a sailor, but I don’t think I could say that word outload and not feel shame even if it is in a script.  Then again, I’m not an actor so it isn’t an issue.  Richard Thomas played the role as Atticus, and he did an outstanding job.  That is the last regular season show for me, Tina, the Tina Turner Musical is next, and I went into this season noping out of that one.  Not a Tina Turner fan at all.  Still on the fence about next season.  I am sure we will talk about it tonight.  We might just do individual tickets because there are 2 no goes for me.  I may have to borrow Jay’s calculator to see what the best option is but Les Mis and MJ are a no for me even if I can suck it up for the shows that got bad reviews.

view from our seats

 

Tonight, I am going to see Chicago with HMF.  Not sure if I shared the story on that one but both my sister and HMF got me tickets for Christmas on 2 separate nights and me being me I didn’t want to say anything to either one of them.  So, guess who is seeing Chicago on back to back nights.  I hope I like it.  Not sure if we are going to dinner or not.  HMF has to pick up A from hockey so she will be a little late getting around.  If all else fails we can opt for the pizza options again!  Tomorrow night we have reservations at 6 but I am not going into the office, so it won’t be as frantic. 

 

Saturday was my me day.  My mom wasn’t happy at all but she got over it.  I got so much done.  Sunday night me and my sister are going to see Jimbo, the drag race winner from last season so I wanted to get something gag worthy to wear.  I ended up finding a blue sequin wrap dress at a boutique for $25!!  Score!!  My sister wants to meet up and eat with her husband and Dennis before the show even though they aren’t going. 
She ended up buying VIP tickets so we get to do a little photo meet and greet for what it’s worth.  I need to figure out what shoes I’m going to wear… 

 

I am going to be showed out after this week.

 

Easter Sunday, we met the moms and my little sister for brunch.  We had been to this place before for Thanksgiving but it was so much better this time.  I think maybe because there are expectations around Thanksgiving meals that are unique to the family environment.  Easter was kind of a sandwich kind of meal for us.  As a matter of fact we had never did the easter bunny thing and I got in trouble for saying something to a cousin when she said something about it.  My granny always handmade very elaborate dresses for us and we got more than our share of candy and egg hunting so it wasn’t like we were missing out on anything.  We also had a black lab that would find the real eggs before us and make himself sick eating them.  Man, the memories.  But I digress.  I had stopped at a new cookie place, Crave, by the boutique and let everyone pick out a cookie.  I may have snacked on one because they serve them warm.  Think Crumbl but better.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  My mom didn’t complain so that is high honors.  We were supposed to go bowling that night for my cousin’s birthday, her and my sister have been best friends since the day she was born just about so we are all pretty close.  She is supposed to get married in June and Laura doesn’t like her fiancé at all, neither does my mom.  I met her but only briefly and she made a comment about how she would never have a rescue dog so that’s an automatic black mark from me.  Anyway, I was going to meet up with them at the bowling alley for a birthday party but as I was getting dressed Laura sent me a text and said that the party was cancelled because they thought fiancé was having a stroke.  Laura said she thought maybe she was just playing it up because she wouldn’t be the center of attention but turn out she passed out while they were at home, so she ended up in the ER.  I haven’t heard back what the diagnosis was.  Dennis asked Laura at brunch if there were going to be a lot of giggling girls there and she said nope, it’s a big ole lesbian party so probably no giggling and lots of drinking.  Regardless I hope she is ok.

 

At one of the SHARP meetings a guy I used to work with pulled out this picture and asked me if I remembered it.  We have so many people picking up fawns and bringing them in thinking they were abandoned. We did our best to educate them but by then it was too late.