Bi-coastal travel hell

The last few weeks have been more than a little hectic.  I have had more than my share of delayed flights and horrible rental car experiences.  I have vowed to drive to just about any location that is 8 hours or less away.  However, for now I am ready to stay in one place for awhile.  

The first hell trip was to Lake Sonoma, about 2 hours north of San Francisco.  I planned my flight for the afternoon so I wouldn't hit SF traffic on the way from the airport.  My first flight was more or less on time but we got delayed in Phoenix.  My flight was supposed to be in at 8:30 but that didn't happen.  
When we finally landed and got to the rental car counter it was a 2 hour wait for a rental car.  Last time this happened I was able to just uber because the meeting was just a few blocks from the hotel, I had no choice but to wait here as I was staying in Santa Rosa 2 hours away and the meeting was another 30-45 minutes north of there.  By the time I got the rental car and made it to the hotel it was almost 2 am.  I sent a message to a girl I know in the group and told her that I would most definitely not be there at 8.  I don't trust the people over this program to not try and throw me under the bus though so I think I was maybe and hour late at most.  I was very cranky.  

The area is really pretty.  For some reason I really like that part of California.  I didn't expect to have fun but I did.  I met up with someone that was new to the group and her and I got along really well and split off from the old hags and did our own thing for the most part.  We did go to a group dinner the first night at a place called Stark's.  I got a steak salad and the steak was so tender!!  I am not a leftover person but I took what was left and had it for lunch the next day and it was just as good.  There were enough of us that we had to split up and sit at three different tables.  I don't know how I got so lucky but I sat right across from the old hags aka the toxic twins.  It shows on their menu that they don't split checks and that there is a service charge for back of house.  As far as I'm concerned I was ok with that.  Apparently the hags saw the other tables get separate checks and thought they got better service than us so they weren't going to leave the waiter a tip.  I was furious.  I sat next to my new friend and we made sure he got at least 20% from us.  I don't like tip culture but I hate cheap hags that look for a reason to stiff their waitstaff even more.  I ended up using what little cash I had for that.  On my way to the airport I got 2 alerts that my debit card had been used twice at a Panera in CA somewhere.  I called the bank and they reversed the charges but they also cancelled my debit card, that left me with very little money.  Thankfully I had brought my personal credit card and was able to use that and just pay it from the bank account immediately.  The whole thing was just a nightmare.

 

The area is absolutely gorgeous.  

Wednesday  we got out of the meeting a little early so me and my new friend ran back to the hotel to change clothes and eat at Francis Ford Coppala's winery.  It wad very pretty there too.

The food was pretty good and we had a great time.  

Thursday we wrapped up about noon and most of us were driving back into San Francisco and staying the night there to be closer to the airport.  I dropped off the rental car so I wouldn't have to pay to park it at the hotel.  As I was about to get off the tram I realized I left my work phone in the rental car so I had to get back on the train to see if I could get it.  I bumped into Kat, the new friend from the meeting.  If I hadn't I am not sure if I would have done much but we ended up going to eat and hanging out.  We had some great Peruvian food.  Oh, and on my way to the airport I stopped at the Fluevog store on Haight and bought some shoes 😏

They shipped them back for me so I didn't have to make room in the suitcase.  

I took the 6:30 am flight out and made it without any issues.  

I got to sit at home 3 days before hurricane Idalia interrupted my plans.  Monday I got an email asking if I could be in Florida the next morning for the strike team.  So, I started washing my EMO shirts and digging out my deployment ready bag.  The new team I am on is a lot different than anything I am used to, we set up the orders for people to deploy and manage that whole mess.  Luckily Idalia turned out be be a bust for the most part so I wasn't thrust into the role to figure it out along the way.  I ended up flying back home on Saturday.

Again, the flights were terrible.  My original flight was supposed to take off at 1 but they kept pushing it back.  The third time they delayed it I called the travel agent through work and just rebooked on a different flight.  The first flight was fine but there was a maintenance issue on the second flight (fire extinguisher) and they had to sign off on it to fly with that malfunction.  Once they got that taken care of people were getting up out of their seats so we couldn't take off.  We were more than 2 hours late coming in.  We landed a little after midnight and the guy at the rental car counter pretty much told me I was shit out of luck because the car reservation was for the previous day and he couldn't get it to pull up and he was going home.  I ended up just going to the Hertz counter and getting a car through them.    Again, I get like 3 hours of sleep before I have to be out the door for work.  Luckily the hotel was 3 blocks away from the office.  I did drive that first day though because the hurricane was going to hit that day and we had no idea what to expect.   Idalia ended up being a bust, good for the residents bad for my bank account and I was heading home on Saturday, so I wasn't even there a week.  Since my vacation starts October 12 I think I will be stuck at home again if we do get something significant making landfall.  

I got to leave a little early on Friday and went to Jax Beach.  My flight home was in the early afternoon on Saturday so I found a shopping area that was really neat.  It was going way too smooth, flight was on time from Dallas to Tulsa and it looked like we were ahead of schedule to land.  We were all loaded, doors closed, aaaannnnnndddd mechanical problems that if they could be fixed wouldn't be fixed that night.  I called the travel agent again but as she was looking for alternative flights they came over the intercom and told us they found another plan and we were going to have to move gates/planes. 

I think we were an hour and a half late landing.  Not too bad all things considered.  I was so freaking tired though.  My mom went to my sister's house on Sunday and I took her a watermelon and she made sure to tell me that the dark circles under my eyes were terrible.  Thanks mom.  

I was supposed to go to St. Paul next week to plan out a curriculum for a new training one of the teams I am on is developing.  We decided to do it in person because nothing really gets done on webinars.  The full team isn't on the sub-team and there were only 3 of us that were going to go.  We figured with that few of us we should be able to adapt to virtual.  We are going to give it a go.  The thought of renting another car and being stranded while they clean cars or whatever they were doing is just enough to cause major anxiety.  Our FY starts in October and more than likely we won't be traveling much.  

 

            

feeling human

 I am really going to try to do better at blogging.  I don't why but I just fell out of the habit.  

I am feeling better, I just woke up one day and it was like a switch was flipped and I felt human again.  Still struggling with my appetite but I am eating at regular intervals.  Weight was up to 95 on the dot.  

Saturday I did the weekly tip to my mom's.  It was raining and unusually cooler than normal.  We went and got 2 watermelons.  I told the guy that he has created a monster and I have a two melon a week habit.  I got an orange and red and he picked out two of the larger ones and told me to see if those last me a little longer.  The orange is already gone.  He did say he will be open until Labor Day so I won't go into immediate withdrawals.   We are never on that side of town but it is a few miles away from the organization I volunteer at.  There is a smoked baked potato place that I love so I took my mom there.  I was shocked that she really liked it.  She is so hard to please.  She wanted to see if she could find something new to wear for her birthday dinner so we went to Dillard's.  It was sparse.   I don't know how they are still open.  I found some bath towels on clearance and my mom found a pair of pants she liked.  We ended up going to Marshall's and hit the mother load on clearance.  We didn't realize it was tax free weekend and the line was LONG.  Luckily it moved really fast.  

Sunday morning I noticed Truman had a hotspot.  Dennis had left to go to his mom's.  I called and told him I was going to give Truman a bath and take him to urgent care.  Dennis came back home and said he would do baths because he didn't want me to overdue it after the drama of a couple of weeks ago.  We got him in the tub and he was infested with fleas!  It was bad.  We have never had a flea problem and they are on Frontline so it never occurred to us.  In the passed we did Bravecto and it worked well but they didn't like the taste so we had to force them to eat it.  I decided to try topical instead but we are going back.  Both of the boys got good baths and I gave them the last tube of frontline and ordered more of the oral meds.  I went to Petco and got some Capstar that is a short term flea treatment and some topical for the cats.  I am sure the stray cats are to blame.  That and the strange weather we are having.  I felt so bad for not noticing sooner.  They are acting much better now.  

Once we got the flea issue taken care of I decide d I to go see Theater Camp.  It was pretty funny.  Same old story line as most camp movies, broke ass owners having to save the camp from big bad.  But, there were some really funny and cute scenes.  

Monday was an office day and I am so swamped I hardly had a chance to come up for air.  For some reason everyone was being extra loud and it was driving me up the wall.  I found a good podcast (Behind the Bastards, Clearance Thomas and Dr. Phil episodes) and tried my best to tune it all out.  

After work I decided to go to dance.  I hadn't been in a few months.  I was disappointed that the girl that usually teaches has a conflict and won't be teaching through fall.  The lady that taught was a little chaotic and her warm up and across the floor stuff was just odd to me.  But, the routine she taught was very musical theateresque and a ton of fun.  The owner was there and I said hi briefly but didn't really talk to her.  I am still a little salty over her pretty much ignoring me until she wanted something from me.  I realize I really miss it though.  I plan on going to the heels class on Wednesday night if things stay the way they are with me feeling good.

Tuesday was my Mom's birthday and we had reservations for dinner.  My little sister's boyfriend's birthday is the same day and he came in and ate with us.  Both of my sisters and their SO's came and I know it meant a lot to my mom.  I think Dennis kind of balk at the prices, he isn't one for fine dining so I wasn't surprised when he ordered the cheapest meal on the menu.  His idea of fancy is Carrabba's.  He did go in on the seafood tower with lobster, shrimp, crab and some other stuff that would put me in anaphylactic shock, so he did splurge a little.  I am allergic to shellfish and my mom isn't a huge fan so we got onion rings and split them.  He got a burger, I got stroganoff with house made pasta and prime rib tips, mom got salmon.  I ate enough that no one commented on me not eating so I take that as a win.  My sister's boyfriend was not at all what I expected.  He looks a lot like her ex-husband even if my mom swears he doesn't.  He also doesn't have the fuck boy attitude she had been drawn too.  They have been together since December so I guess it is serious?  

 

I wore heels so I didn't look like a munchkin.  

The rest of the week was pretty dull.  Friday afternoon I got my first official advocate call.  They had someone they were finishing up on that they said they just didn't think about calling me on but they had one coming in that they thought would be a good training experience.  I got there as they were finishing up with the first case.  I didn't know anything about the case coming in except they were coming from a town a couple of hours out.  I didn't think much of it but learned that the victim was a male prisoner.  That was interesting.  He said he was trying to protect his 'roommate' and from what I picked up I am 90% sure the roommate was in for some kind of crime against kids.  It was an interesting first case for sure.  

OK, I have to head out.  Next week I will be in California for a work meeting.  I kind of hope we get a call needing help for the fires in Maui.  I figure it would be a week or so before they can really start to even think about that since a lot of the area is destroyed.  

 

Catching Up

 I have kind of fell off the face of the earth.  Lots of stuff going on but nothing of interest to the outside world and not really sure where to start.

Guess I will start with health.  I have mentioned the last few posts that I have been losing weight and having problems with my appetite.  It kind of came to a head a few weeks ago.  I went to work but couldn't make it to my desk without sitting down to rest.  I stayed at work a few hours and decided I was just too tired to deal with it.  It took me a few hours to work up the strength to get back to my car.  I had to sit down three times and seriously thought about going into one of the other towers (our office in a a series of 3 towers, one of which is a private hospital without any urgent/emergency department).  I got to my car and went straight to urgent care.  I parked and walked in and immediately started dry heaving.  I had barely eaten in a few days.  I had tried but it made me very sick.  They got me back really quick so I hate to think how bad I looked.  When the doctor came in she asked me if I knew someone named Jen.  Turns out she is my cousin's SIL and her brother was the preacher at my dad's funeral.  She was very thorough and did blood, x-rays, EKG, and a urinalysis.  At one point she told me to go home and get some rest and she would call me with results because it was going to be over an hour for one of the tests to come back.  She called me and told me that I needed to come back by and get a CT scan.  Long story short I was a hot mess.  My blood sugar was 60, my heart rate was 125 and showed signs of left atrial enlargement, I showed signs of dehydration but with the heart issues she didn't want to give me fluids (?), and whatever she saw on the x-ray that made her order the CT scan.  They suspect gastric outlet obstruction.  So here is my issue, she wanted me to get a scope done to my stomach but my gastrologist blames everything on the old lapband.  He sends me to the bariatric surgeon who says there is nothing wrong and doesn't need removed.  That means insurance won't pay for it.  I am 100% on board with getting it taken out but not with having to empty out my savings to do so.  I have a roof and a privacy fence to pay for and I just can't right now.  FYI, my weight was 93 at urgent care.  I look like a deflated balloon, even the skin on my legs is just saggy.  

Work is insane.  We are doing audits on traffic counters, which is just as exciting as it sounds.  It is 105 outside and the whole process is miserable. I took most of last week off and now I am super behind.  I have to find time to get about 10 lakes done before October.  A few of these are 4 hours away so it requires travel.  My plan is to go into the office Monday and get a final schedule hammered out. To add to the fun, while I was on the first audit on the lake on the TX/OK border that required multiple days and a week away from home and Dennis called and told me that he got terminated because he turned them in on the employee relation line.  Total retaliation but probably not something you can prove and not sure it is worth hiring an attorney over.  I saw his evaluation and it was really great, not to mention the times he was mentioned by name on google reviews.  I am so stressed out.  I haven't told anyone but you guys and my bff.  When he got laid off I did everything for him as far as unemployment but I am not taking that on this time.  He is a grown ass man and he can figure it out on his own.  I don't need the addition pressure right now.  It has been 2 weeks and he still hasn't filed.  He is on daily pain medications for his back pain and with the stroke I think it would be worth it to try and get on disability.  Again, it is up to him to look into.  I have several people I work with that supports their entire family on my income so I could do it.  He is a saver and probably has the first nickel he ever made so he will be fine until he figures it out.  

I have finally got the cat distribution system worked out.  Frankie, the little siamese went to live with a girl I am friends with on FB.  She stayed with us for about a week.  I just couldn't take on anything else right now.

The long hair tabby was a little bit more complicated.  When Frankie was around the two male tabby's were relentless.  I posted on the neighborhood FB site asking if anyone knew who the cats belonged to.  Apparently the long hair cat is a 'neighborhood' cat.  He was in pretty bad shape as he had been fighting with the other cat to Frankie.  He was really sweet and just wanted to be loved on.  It took over a week for the 'owners' to respond, when they did I told them that we had vouchers to get the 3 cats fixed.  She threw a little fit about how she didn't want him neutered.  So I pulled a fuck around and find out and got the cat treated by a vet and neutered.  I posted him on a Main Coon site because I obviously couldn't put him on FB.  I got an email the next day with some lady from freaking Wisconsin and she wanted to drive down that week to get him.  I did a little research on her and the fact that she was willing to drive 11 hours to get him and the fact that he need to get as far away from this hood as possible.  They will never find him.  He had no chip or collar so fuck them.  I told the vet before they did any of the procedures and she agreed with my sentiment.  By that time he had already been fixed and we released him back to the neighborhood, I wasn't about to let them piss all over my house.  Crazy Lady started driving down to get him before I even had him back in custody.  Her and her son stayed at some airbnb and I told her that I had no idea when he would be back.  They stayed for an extra night and I gave her the location of the park by my house because I wasn't about to give this psycho my address and they said they were going to come and look for him.  Just as they were about to call it quits he showed up on my door.  I crated that bastard up and took him to the park.  He was on his way north in less than an hour later.  She has since emailed me freaking out because he had a flea.  I told her that he had been treated with Revolution but they had to bite him to die.  When I say she was apeshit.  She gave me this long story about how she got fleas in a newish care once and it got infested with fleas and she had to just scrap the car.  She sent me an email today telling me that she had to get a second job to be able to afford vet bills and gave me a list of all the things he needed.  I didn't have an adoption fee and bitch drove 11 hours to get a cat and she can't afford vet bills?  I sent her a message back saying yup, pets are expensive and we were taking care of 3 strays in addition to my pets.  I'm not sure if she was wanting me to offer her money but that isn't going to happen.  At least I know he is getting vet treatment.  The last cat, we call him baby daddy, is still hanging around.  He was the most feral and is just now letting us get close to him.  Yesterday he decided he would rather have scratches than food.  I almost yeeted him to the sun at one point for holding down that sweet little Siamese to mate.  She was not wanting any part of it.  And as I said last time she was pregnant when they spayed her.  He has been neutered too so at least we don't have to worry about that.

So, I woke up yesterday and felt much better.  I have been able to eat without getting sick and am trying to eat small meals to keep my blood sugar up.  I have also started back on betablockers for my heart rate.  I attribute my miracle recovery to watermelon 😛 For the last few years we have been buying watermelon from him and when I say they are the best I have ever tasted, I mean they are THE BEST I have ever eaten.  We have gotten 4 from him in the last 2 weeks.  I finished off the orange meat this morning and will probably polish of the red tonight.  Tomorrow is his last day selling so I will have to ask him how long they will last if we don't cut them.  I very well may cry next weekend when he is gone.  

Tomorrow I am going to go get my mom and go to melon fest - yes that is actually a thing, and out to eat.  Her birthday is Tuesday and we are going to take her out to a steakhouse.  My little sister has been dating a doctor and my mom is eating that shit up.  Anyway, for some random reason he invited my mom to eat dinner with him at Outback 👀 some rich doctor he is.  I have reservations at a place called Prhyme and my older sister and her husband is supposed to meet us there.  My older sister is the golden child so set and match.  I win birthday this year.  It will also give us a chance to talk about the NYC trip.  

Sunday I plan on going to see Theater Camp.  I plan on going by myself but I have a feeling Dennis will decide he wants to go.  He never turns down popcorn opportunities.  I have a feeling with all the strikes in the entertainment industry this might be one of the last movies we see in the theater for awhile.  I really want to see Oppenheimer too but I am not so sure about a 3+ hour movie.  They say it was filmed for a specific type of screen but we don't have one locally not sure if I would notice a difference anyway.  

I have done a little stress shopping.  My favorite shoe store had a sale so I had to help stimulate the economy.  

These were the ones I wanted but I ended up getting the beige combat boots and the top green ones.  I already got the boots and they are too small.  The other pair are supposed to be delivered today so I can try them on.  I am really bummed the boots don't fit.  The website says they are out of my size 😭 When I get the other pair I will see how they fit and call the closest store, which is in Dallas.  I would love to roadtrip to the store but I will probably ship them back and hope they can find some in my size somewhere.  They also have the boots in green and orange so if all else fails I will get another color.  

We got our broadway tour season tickets and purchased tickets for the add on limited run of Book of Mormon.  I wasn't sure if I would be able to go as the show was last week in the middle of my health crisis but I am so glad I powered through.  It was the funniest thing I have seen in a very long time.  5 stars recommend highly.  That was the show I wanted to see while we were in NYC but they had already seen it so I'm glad we were able to catch it.  

Alright that's about it for my dull life.  

quickie

 

Things have been a bit hectic.  The ordeal with Bailey turned into a big deal.  Turns out B was due for his shots in January, which is when we were dealing with FIL stuff.  We had to board him for the remainder of the 10 days (5 nights)  I was beside myself, I felt really dumb for letting that happen and like I had really let him down.  I picked him up Monday and he is starting to act like his normal self.  Honestly, it was probably harder on me than it was him.  I don’t think the neighbor will sue, fingers crossed. 

Had my first appointment with the new therapist.  She seems fine but it is too soon to tell as I felt like the entire session was me trauma dumping on her from all the stress I have been under.  I scheduled an appointment at my primary doctor for the next day to see about changing my anxiety meds and to see about my weight loss.  He thinks they are connected and gave me some daily medication and one for acute anxiety.  Both him and the therapist made the comment that sometimes just knowing you have that will help.  It is a fairly low dose of Valium, which I have never taken before.  So, my current weight is somewhat problematic.  On his scale it was right at 100 and at home it showed around 98.  The daily anxiety meds have been making me nauseous so that doesn’t help.  I forced myself to eat a half a peanut butter sandwich yesterday but that was about all I could stomach.  I have to figure something out.  I wouldn’t mind staying around this weight, but I know it will not be sustainable once I get everything lined out.  Who would have ever thought I would have that problem? 

My mom is going through it right now too.  She took her little 2 pound dog to the vet a few days ago and he had a heart attack and died while they were doing blood work.  She feels so guilty.  I told her she was 100% not to blame, she was trying to make sure he is healthy (spoiler alert, he wasn’t).  She is taking it really hard.

In other animal news I found Frankie a home and I thought all was well until I got a message yesterday saying their other cat was really aggressive towards her and they weren’t going to be able to keep her.  So tomorrow me and my mom are going to go get her.  I guess we will try and introduce her to my herd.  I’m not sure how that is going to go.  I am going a work trip next week so the timing couldn’t be worse.  I tried to talk my mom into taking her but she said no way in hell.

For the first time since I have lived in my house the fireworks om the 4^th didn’t sound like a Russian invasion.  I think the huge brush piles at the curb dissuaded most rational people from going overboard.  They finally issued a state of emergency and I applied for a disaster relief loan through the SBA.  The interest rates are like 2% so it’s worth a try.  I need to replace my privacy fence and my roof among a few other things.  I don’t know how long that will take to review.  I am a little concerned that I will take a hit on my credit report, which I have been really working on lately.  That was fast, I already got an email that I was denied.  I will have to call and see what the deal is but I’m really not surprised.  I am not sure what the criteria is but if nothing else going through it will help me at the next hurricane mission.

Post Storm update

 Well damn my week didn't pan out the way I thought it would.  Saturday/Sunday around midnight a derecho blew through and fucked my world.  I was asleep and my mom called to make sure we were awake.  I sat on the far side of the couch with a blanket over me in case the window blew out.  We got lucky in that respect.  The power went during the storm.  When I let the dogs out but walked out with them just in case.  There was shingles all over my hard and the back part of my fence was smashed by a tree.  I have, or had rather, a privacy fence and the neighbors have a chain link.  The tree grew up between the fence.  The huge tree in the front of my house was fine, thankfully.  When Dennis got up I my spidey sense went off and I knew he was going to be a douche canoe.  Sure enough he blew up and left.  I sat in my house without power for 2 nights before he pulled his head out of his ass and brought the generator.  In the meantime I had the tree removed and I wish I would have him put up a temp fence but I didn't.  Now I have to help Dennis put it up and we DO NOT work well together.  

This is what is left of my fence.  My roof didn't fare much better but it isn't leaking into the house.  I am hoping that after all these years of working with FEMA I can finally cash in on all that knowledge.  

My plan for Monday was going to the head spa.  They called and said they had to cancel because they had no power.  I was so freaking disappointed but 100 % expected it.   My mom had her power back by that afternoon.  I want to rebook at the spa before I get my extensions put back in, but right now I have spent so much because of the stupid storm.  

Tuesday I was supposed to get my nails done but she didn't have power either.  I had a mini breakdown Wednesday morning and from what I have heard from other people that was the point we all started to become unhinged.  

So I did very little on my week off.  I cleaned up the yard and bought myself a mini-chainsaw to clean up some other brush in my yard to take advantage of the greenwaste pick up they are going to do.  

Because I have to go outside with the dogs I caught the guy that lives behind me throwing downed branches over the 6 foot privacy fence.  I was pissed.  I walked to the fence and told him as I threw the branch back that the branch the tree came off of wasn't mine and the city is going to do curbside debris clean-up.  As I was walking back to the deck he leaned over the fence to say something, not sure what, because Bailey went apeshit.  He jumped up high enough to bite the shit out of the guy behind me.  It drew blood.  Now I am really nervous about the fence being down.  I am still a little nervous that the guy will animal control or whatever and get him on some kind of list.  Not sure if that is even a thing.  It's so strange because he has been socialized from day one and I'm not sure where this comes from.  At any rate, this is the second time he has bitten someone

When the power first went out we were told the power would be back on by 5 on Friday and that seemed like a lifetime.  Sure enough, power came back on about 3:30 Friday.  I literally cried tears of joy.  This is the first time I have been without power for this long in the summer.  We had a major ice storm about 10 years ago and staying warm is a whole lot easier than trying to get cool.

I have gotten several pictures of Frankie cat from her new family and she appears to be settling in well.  I got a picture of her and their little girl and she looks so happy.  

Now I'm just wasting time because today is the day I am cleaning the fridge and freezer because trash comes tomorrow.  I haven't opened either of them yet and I'm a little scared to see what grew in there.  

 

Spay Day eve

 Well baby Frankie cat gets spayed tomorrow.  I always get anxious with the rescues going off because I know they are scared.  Yeah I know it's for their own good and for the good of the animal population as a whole but not sure how to explain that to a scared kitty.  Her new home is wanting to take her home on Friday so I hope the vet will let us keep her there and let them pick her up there.  As much as I hate the thought of her being at the kennel I really don't want to just let her loose outside the day she has surgery.  It would probably be less traumatic for her in the long run.  She should be easy to wrangle in the morning, she comes when I call her so she won't be a problem.  The boys are another story.  It's anyone's guess when and if they show up.  

She is such a pretty happy kitty.  I love her so much and her new parents better love her as much as I do or I will come and get her!  They have a younger little (human) girl and they can grow up together.

We hadn't seen big boy since I got the message from his "owners" but he showed up while I was outside loving on baby girl.  

He had ticks and several stickers in his fur.  I got what I could until I finally had to go in and charge my phone.  If it all works out we will get one or both of the boys cut tomorrow.  Just have to wait and see if they show up.  If he had gotten here an hour earlier I would have loaded him up and dropped him off tonight.  I'm curious to see if I catch him how long it will take the 'owners' to notice he has been neutered.  They tip their ear but I seriously doubt if the neglectful owners are knowledgeable enough about TNR programs to know they do that when they fix cats to identify them.  But as Patti knows, that isn't always the case.  As far as I'm concerned I haven't seen him and have no idea what happened to that sweet big guy.  People suck.

Friday I went with HMF to see Lion King.  It was amazing.  I had seen it twice before but didn't tell HMF about the march of the animals and the singers in the opening scene.  We had to switch nights so we weren't in our normal seats and lucked into seats on the row they cut down to head to the stage.  That will turn the grumpiest of people into an excited kid.  During the Scar/Mufasa scene the hyenas came down the aisle and one of them turned and made a motion towards a lady a few seats down and she screamed.  Honestly I jumped and probably would have screamed too if it had been a little closer.  

Remind me to never do my hair like this again.  The six-head is living.  You could show an imax film on it.

That was the last show of this season and I'm big sad.  I did get the add on tickets for Book of Mormon, which is one of the top on my want to see list.  I have seen it online and I am not 100% sure HMF will think it is nearly as funny as I do.  Guess we will see next month.  I got our season tickets for next year.  It starts with Aladdin, which I am ambivalent about.  But Beetlejuice is shortly after and that one I am so excited for.  HMF has never seen the movie and I am not sure how we are even friends.  One of my favorite movie quotes of all times is "I've seen the Exorcist 167 times and it just keeps getting funnier every single time I see it" She teaches online for Baylor and has a mini course she teaches at Waco for a month every summer so I told her before she comes back she has to watch it.  We will see.

I also psyched myself up to go get my bloodwork done for the rheumatologist.  My veins love to hide and I will pass smooth out so it's always a joy for everyone involved.  I had a great tech this time and it was pretty easy.  I got the My Chart results back that say I am pretty anemic.  I am not surprised to hear this as I have had a lot of the basic symptoms, one of which being weight loss.  I also got a really significant bruise from the tattoo a few weeks ago.  I have never bruised from a tattoo before.

 

it is fading but it is still there.  I also slept all day Saturday and was so tired I never got dressed.  When I got up Sunday I told Dennis that the first thing I had to do was get some food because I didn't stay awake long enough to eat.  I am the polar opposite of someone who sleeps all day, my insomnia is real.  I have an appointment with my PCP July 13, I am thinking of emailing and seeing if I can move it up.  I might just ask him to do the anemia panel.  Based on past experience and dr. google I think it will end up being pernicious anemia.  I would much rather do B-12 nose spray than iron pills, those suck so it might be wishful thinking, if you can call it that.  At any rate it would probably be better to have that information before I go in.

I changed the batteries in my scale and my weight today was 102.5.  I am barely 5'2" so it's not as bad as it sounds.  I have also set an alarm on my phone and am trying to at least drink a glass of milk if I am hungry or not.  This time next year I will be bitching about how I gained 50 pounds back.  

While I am on that topic, AP really pissed me off last week.  We were talking about random work stuff and she told me out of the blue that I was scary thin and that I needed to stop losing weight.  I was pissed.  We have a guy that works with us that has gained a significant amount of weight and it has noticeably effected his health.  I can hear him breathing from my desk and he doses off in meetings.  He is a younger guy so can't use age as an excuse.  At any rate I asked her if she brought up Jason's weight with him.  It is never appropriate and she has no idea what I am going through.  I added that to my 'if I ever have to file a complaint' list.

I had planned on going to Little Rock next month but since Brooke's mom passed away her sister is staying with her.  Instead I got tickets for the USA gymnastic championship.  Probably the closest I will get to watching olympic gymnastics.  I am off Monday and the competition lasts all week but I decided to take the rest of the week off so I can go to the daytime rounds as well.  I am going by myself so I won't have to coordinate with anyone.  Monday is just pre-heat/rehearsal so I decided to have a little spa treatment with a little of my annual bonus (the rest is going into the bank for the NYC trip).  I found a new trend called a head spa and I am curious to see how that works.  It's not cheap so I won't be going very often and it is 70 minutes so takes a chunk of the day.  I had planned on getting my nails done but since I am taking all week I should be able to find time.  Plus I really like the design she did last time and I'm not in a hurry to change it. 

Update

Frankie was really easy to capture and get to the vet.  She was pretty vocal about not wanting to be in a crate but I unzipped the top just enough to get my hand in and she purred and relaxed a little.  I'm sure the purring to soothe herself.  She was pregnant so that just shows that if there were kittens, they were no longer an issue because she wasn't lactating.  

I got baby daddy wrangled around 11 and got him taken care of.  They said that with the scratches and scabs on him they wanted to get him a stronger antibiotic that would cost $75 and the street cats program doesn't cover it.  I told them to make him healthy but I wasn't interested in getting him house ready like I did with Frankie.  Dennis picked him up on his way home from work and he let me pet him and he ate really well.  We will now have, statistically, 12 less kittens a year to have to deal with.  He ran off after he ate and found a hiding place.  Now I just have to get big boy.  It is storming so I doubt he will be out for awhile.  The vet did agree to hold on to Frankie until Friday.  I also decided to have her microchipped and register it to my "rescue" just in case.  All of the animals I have rehomed have a no questions asked return policy.  I am low key hoping they change their mind on her anyway so I'm forced to integrate her.  Oh, and they said that she was older than we anticipated based on the build up on her teeth.  She is just a tiny thing. We will probably keep taking care of baby daddy as an outside cat but we will have to change his name fore obvious reasons.  They listed him as baby daddy on the vet paperwork 😂

June

 

Still kicking it at what has quickly become to feel like a cat sanctuary. 

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We still have the 3 outside.  I am not sure what happened, but kittens never materialized.  Maybe she was starved and ate until she was bloated, maybe she had them and they didn’t survive.  Not sure but I’m glad we didn’t have to deal with it.  I got certificates through our local street cats chapter to get them all fixed next week.  They are $25 each so I don’t have an issue paying that.  The one big male cat belongs to someone in the neighborhood.  I posted on our FB page on May 23 and didn’t hear from them until a few days ago.  They said they hadn’t seen him for a week.  I was like, no shit.  I reiterated that he was not looking healthy, and they acted offended that I thought they would mistreat their cat.  I mentioned him getting fixed and they were adamant that they didn’t want it to happen.  So as far as I’m concerned, I haven’t seen the cat.  There is one that kind of looks like it but can’t be theirs.  It has no identification so fair game.  They will tip his ear so I am probably starting a turf war. 

 

I am getting pretty attached to Frankie.  There have been a few people interested in her.  Someone related to the people across the street wanted to take her home but I told them to hold off until after her spay.  They asked if I could get her to come out so I did.  They made no effort to interact with her, which I thought was odd.  She didn’t want anything to do with them.  I decided they aren’t the ones.  There is also a ranger in our district that is interested in her.  I don’t see anyway for me to keep her.  I have 3 cats already and I’m allergic. So looks like after her surgery she will go live with them.  She is just so sweet.  They are all scheduled for Tuesday.

 

My friend Brooke had surgery to remove the tumor from her abdomen.  The tumor ended up weighing 30 pounds!!  She said she has lost 55 pounds in the 2 weeks after surgery.  Even better news is it wasn’t cancer.  Her mom has been battling cancer since before we were friends and was in really bad shape and recently was put on hospice.  She sent me a text after midnight Sunday that her mom passed away.  I know she has to be exhausted.  They are just doing a grave side so I sent flowers but I’m not going to drive the 4 hours to attend.  I had planned on going to LR in a few weeks to give her a distraction but I’m not sure if she will feel up to it after everything. 

 

My friend Linda was down last week to clean out MIL’s house.  She said it was so much worse than she thought.  They also worked out a plea deal so all three of the jackass inlaws were released with probation.  The cousin that is taking care of the daughter that was the SIL’s ride or die has figured out some of the lies and swears she is done with her.  Only time will tell.  I will never understand how people can do that kind of crap.  Linda has wanted a tattoo for a long tine and it has always been the sane design and location so I asked her why she hadn't just done it.  She said she wouldn't do it by herself so we made an appointment.  She wanted something tiny and she was done in like 5 minutes so I twisted her arm and she got a second one.  I got this one, 

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which obviously is very typically me since Patti saw it on a random FB page and knew it was me.  It's a small world and I guess I am predictable.  This is my 5th tattoo in less than a year.  I guess we can go with midlife crisis.  I mean it's not like I am going to have the tattoos that long in  the scheme of things.  

Weight and exercise are at an odd point.  My weight had levelled of around 110 but with the stress of things the last couple of weeks has dropped to 101.6.  I am making a concentrated effort to remember to eat.  I haven't been to dance much.  I wonder how much of it is the ADD obsession ran it's course or what.  I kind of got my feelings hurt a few weeks ago because I had sent the owner a text telling her about my hip issue.  She didn't respond until a month later when she needed me for something.  They were having an event at the studio with the belly dance crew.  Belly dance is the one style I have tried that I just have no interest in.  Anyway, I didn't know what the event was, but I got a text asking if I would be willing to help when she never responded to the first text.  I initially just said yes because that's my default.  She wanted me to buy stuff for punch and infused water and I would get reimbursed after the event. Normally on these kinds of things I never let her pay my back and I was feeling more than a little used.  This was happening the same week as Brooke's surgery and she told me to use her as an excuse so I did.  I have been paying for my membership but I really think I am going to take a break and save that $100/month towards the NY trip.  Speaking of, I got my performance award that I need to put in savings for the trip also.

OK, I have to go out to one of the lakes and audit their meter system.