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

✌