2005-03-13 - 11:42 p.m.

in like a lion...

I feel like telling a story. Would you like a story? Let's do a little catching up.

This entire year so far has just about been a black hole. I realized that when just last week I went looking for something my sister gave me for Christmas, only to realize I have no idea where it is, and I was completely embarrassed to call her and ask if I'd left it at her house. I mean, what would you think if you gave someone a gift and they don't notice they didn't take it home with them until almost 3 months later? Gee, really wanted that, didn't you? But in my defense... this year so far has just disappeared on me, and mostly not in a good way.

Just a few days after I got back from my Christmas trip to see my family, I left on a week long road trip to see my band. That was cool and it seemed the year was off to a good start. I got home from that trip and my inlaws were here waiting for me. That deleted about a week from my life where nothing good or productive happened. Sometime during that week I managed to go on a job interview and begin to start feeling not quite so good.

They left that weekend, and by then I really didn't feel too good. I figured it was just a cold though. I managed to get through a 2nd interview (including an interview lunch with the boss, which is WAY fun when you have a bad cold) by ingesting several dozen sudafed tablets. That next weekend was when I noticed I seemed to have a fever. It was running about 100 for a couple days in a row, so I went to the doctor. Sinus infection. He gave me an antibiotic.

The antibiotic apparently really pissed off the infection, and the next thing I know I have a fever of 102-103. After a few days of that, I went back to the doctor and got a stronger antibiotic. That was so frustrating. I was out of work for four days, which does NOT help my finances any, and also happened to fall during my two-week notice. I won't even tell you how bitchy my supervisor was when I'd call in sick, other than to say, really a lot. But you know, with a fever that high, I could barely stay conscious; forget things like, you know, standing up, getting dressed, and whatnot. In fact, one morning I thought I felt better, so I got up, and got in the shower to get ready for work. Let me just say that when you're standing in the shower, completely exhausted, trying to decide whether you actually have the energy to raise your hands over your head and wash your hair, or whether you should give up and get out of the shower before you pass out, that's a pretty good sign that you're not well enough to go to work. In my humble opinion, anyway.

On about the third morning that I called in sick, with only four more days to go until I wouldn't work there any more, SuperNoClueBitch asked me if I could explain to her over the phone how to do one of the things that was left for me to do on the database. When I hesitated, she said, "Well, you said it would be easy." Hmm, yeah, I did say that, but how do you tactfully say, "Yes, for me it would be simple, but I'd never be able to explain it to you in a million years"? If you'd have to explain the entire concept of importing and exporting data to someone, you should by no means allow that person to import and export anything to or from a critical production database.

It's unbelievable how much that infection took out of me. I lost about three weeks of coherence to that. I did make it back to work to finish up the project - there was no way I was going to leave there without finishing that, even if I had to come back on nights and weekends after I was gone. However, I did get to hear how "disappointed" SNCB (see above) was that we didn't get to do the other seventeen projects she'd had in mind. Ah yes, the ones you could never find time to discuss with me during the whole four months I was begging you for things to do. I remember those. But suddenly those projects couldn't get done because I was out sick. I heard her tell that to three people.

You know what... I refer back to my slogan regarding her. What Fucking Ever. If she can still manage to fool people there that she's organized, then fine and it's not my problem any more. I just hope that when she tries to smear my name around, she eventually gets to the ones (and there are quite a few) who will say, "Really? That's funny, she wasn't like that at all when she worked on my project."

And that, God willing, is the last I will say about that place. Oh, funny footnote though. The week after I was gone, I got a message on my home answering machine from the office manager at the agency that had placed me there. She wanted to know if I had any hours from the previous week, since I hadn't sent her a timesheet. No one bothered to tell her that I wasn't working for them any more.

The worst thing about the sickness and the fever, other than the exhaustion and the fear that my brain was cooking, was the fear that it wasn't going to get better in time for me to start my new job. If you're sick you're sick, but I did not want to start off by calling in sick on my first day. By then I was still a little out of it, but the fever was down, so I could go. Finally about three days into the job, I began to feel like I was over it.

And then something new hit me. And I had to ask time off during my first week to go to the doctor. Again, if you're sick you're sick, but I hated it.

I won't go into the details of this one, which is the one they've been doing all the fun testing for, but it's been diagnosed as a viral infection, which means, we have no idea where it came from or what to do about it, so we'll try to treat your symptoms and hope it goes away. The symptoms are a WHOLE lot better now and not scary and semi-debilitating like they were that first week or so, but I'm sure not all hunky dory yet. But at least my head is clear and I'm not in pain (usually) and I am able finally to resume normal activities (like flying across the country and standing and screaming at rock concerts). I'm thankful for that, because a clear head and no pain are things I had completely lost touch with for about six weeks there.

Which is why I say... black hole.

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -