KOOKY: In the hospital

I didn't land myself in the Emergency Room. My group has moved over into the hospital. Fourth move in 2.5 year, I may add.

My director had, a few months ago, approached me with some space that became free and asked if I wanted to move my team in there. Just like you can lure fish with bait, she baited me with a window.

And I ate it, hook, line and sinker.

Actually, the room isn't that bad. We have real cubical furniture, even though I had to scrounge for second hand furniture, and had a huge headache trying to get everything sorted and done.

I've discovered that new office furniture can cost a couple of grand just for one person, so it can cost about $10K or so for 6 people. I was also told that we had a budget, then I was told we had no money, then I was told we'll see how much money I could save with using used furniture.

The reason why the big run around was because the plan was to stick us in there "temporarily" for two years, so they didn't want to spend too much. Well, two years is a long time, and, as one of my co-workers commented, things that are "temporary" around here tend to become permanent. That's just how things work. I might as well make it as comfortable as possible for everyone.

I am a little worried about germs as we are in a hospital, and I've been told that there are patients on our floor, but probably on the other side of the building, as it looks like there are mainly offices where we are. Nonetheless, there will be a bottle of antiseptic living permanently in our room, as long as we're sojourned there.

Back to the room. It's nice to be working in a cube farm again. I know that people sometimes complain about working in cube farms, but for me, it's a luxury. The last 5.5 years, I've been working in open rooms, so there is absolutely no privacy. That normally doesn't bother me, but it does become a little inconvenient when I'm trying to speak with someone a little privately about something. Plus, everyone can hear everything where there are no walls, or even half-walls, so everyone is in everyone else's business. Even when we're all working, it's really distracting to hear other people talk; this is when I turn up my music.

And after being a bottom dweller for 2.5 years, it's really nice to see the sun again. And the rain.

Someone loves their dog

This looks like a Lost Dog poster, but it's only an owner showing his/her love for the dog. LOL!

Too much stuff

I heard this on the radio the other day. The DJ was reading people's comments online about the fire that is raging through Southern California, and he came across this person's comments...

In nearby Escondido, Susan Healey returned after two days with friends to a house unscathed except for heavy soot in the swimming pool.

"I don't think after something like this you're ever not different," the middle-school teacher said. "I had two days to think about, what are the most important things in my house? And they all fit in my car. I realize now how much junk I have."

It got me thinking, are there things that I can live without? The answer is yes. I posed this question to Hubby, and we came to the conclusion that we both could fit everything that was important to us in our one car. So, is it necessary to have so many things? And the things that we insist on holding on to, and are things "that might be useful one day", or are they really "junk"?

Certainly in this world of consumerism, we have the ability to obtain items when we want, but how often do we really question if it's really needed? And similarly, are we holding on to things that are simply collecting dust, and could either be reused or recycled by someone else? And did we really need to buy that item in the first place? Not until we are forced to think about it will we know.

Lemonade???

To my loyal readers, I apologize for not blogging lately. It's not that I don't have anything to say, I always have something to say: I'm very opinionated, and have strange thoughts, and unusual interests. Just ask Hubby. I've been pretty busy: last week, we had visitors stay over at our house; I was dealing with my pain in the butt; work was busy; Evil Homework is, well, there.

Well, said visitors are gone, my pain in the butt is almost gone, I'm glad I'm actually going back to the gym again, and work is still busy.

Anyways, I've been in panic mode with my school project because I have about 6 months left to finish everything. We are (my best guess) after 2 years, only about 1/2 to 2/3 done, no more than that. I recently had a kind of an epiphany about it.

Lemme explain where I'm coming from with the though first. My current career goal is to move into Project Management. Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger, and while technology still interests me, I don't have the same drive and energy as I once did to keep my skills current, so I'm moving towards more soft skills.

Don't get me wrong, being a Project Manager in IT still means that you need to stay on top of the technology, but it also means that you pay less attention to the technical details, because quite frankly, they are for someone else to worry about.

Anyway, back to the epiphany.

I just realised that how I should be treating the whole school project thing at this point is pretending that I'm a project manager whose been hired to get this train wreck completed on time. And I am approaching the project, and especially my clients, with this attitude. After all, my real job will throw me into situations like this eventually, I might as well start here and get some practice.

Really, nothing much has changed, but my attitude. If you have lemons, make lemonade. I've finally figured out how to make the lemonade. But as my attitude has changed, so has my approach to my dilemma.

While I'm still not happy with the progress, I did have a very long talk with my clients, and I think they finally (I hope) realise what my frustrations were all along. I'm not holding my breath to see if I did get through to them, because, well, sometimes when you try to convince someone of something, some people just never get it. I'm just going to take it one day at a time.

After this revelation, I did feel less burdened and less anxious. My unease hasn't gone away completely, but I am at least feeling a little bit better. However, I've been down this same path before, so I'm trying to be positive about it all. Attitude is key this time around.

And the verdict is...

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction.

Well, my chiropractor called it a SI Joint sprain, but it's really an inflammation. The picture show exactly where my pain the the butt is, but on my left side.

As much as I am glad to have this figured out, it also means that I need to take it easy for a while, definitely no or little exercise. Not exactly what I want; I need to exercise some, if only to regulate my stress a bit. However, I want to make certain that this heals properly, and that I can maintain it so that it doesn't happen again.

Short term pain for long term gain. Or so I tell myself.

I'm sad, I know.

Gobble Gobble!

For those of you who've read my last blog post and/or seen my stressed out Facebook status messages the past week, and have contacted me asking about me, I thank you!

I figured since today is Thanksgiving, that I will list all the things that I am thankful for. Sometimes we tend to focus so much on the negatives of our lives that we forget that we are very fortunate in so many ways. Here's my list:

• I'm thankful for the bestest husband in the whole wide world. Not only does he cook for me, puts down the toilet seat and helps me clean the house, but he also puts up a lot from me, and puts up with my whining, ill-humours and is always there rooting for me. Even after the Really-Embarrassing-Moment on Wednesday, he didn't make me feel stupid and bought me chocolate, and that helped a lot
  
• I'm thankful for my parents, though they still drive me up the wall (especially my dad) that I know they will always be there for me no matter what happens.
  
• I'm thankful that I'm in a stable job, that will allow me to do some splurge shopping, like the cute dark brown leather Roots flat bag that I got today. (Whoops!)
• I'm thankful that I have people around who care that I'm stressed out and asked how I am doing
• I'm thankful that I'm able to do Evil Homework. I have the means and the money to get the education I want, even though it wasn't how I expected to be, and once I have that piece of paper is in my hand, I will pretty much have forgotten all the blood, sweat and tears that went into getting it.
  
• I'm even thankful for the big pain in the butt, because of it, I haven't been sitting very much, which is a big relief for my upper back problems. But seriously, I'm thankful that I have easy access and can afford to have someone to look and fix my health problems, not everyone has that luxury.
  

There's more, I know but that's what I can think of off the top of my head for now. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Update on me...

I had posted this as my status on Facebook yesterday:

Irene is frustrated. Irene had a frustrating week. Stoopid people. Stoopid body. Stoopid Evil Homework. Sigh.

Yes, I had a very frustrating week last week. And it really wasnt' one thing in particular, it was a lot of little things.

Work: I'm dealing with a space crunch, and it's looking like Plan A won't work. Plan A was to move into a new room. I was going to do it later, but I decided to step up the time line as we had more people coming in very soon. To make a long story short, the room I'm moving into is mess, there is half-put-together furniture in there, and I don't know when the rest will be done. I dearly would like to yell at someone, but she is on vacation. I have to wait until Tuesday to discuss Plan B.

Body: Not only now do I have to contend with a constantly sore upper back, but my left hip has decided to give me problems. I can't sit for too long, and standing's not fun either. I had two meetings on Friday, and I was standing up for both of them. I don't see my chiropractor until Tuesday. The pain's manageable, but barely. I've learned what a piriformis is, and have been stretching that, but I'm not 100% certain that is the problem (or the whole problem). I've been telling everyone that I have a pain in the butt. Lame, I know.

However, until I can get this hip thing under control, I'm not going to the gym. As much as I don't like going to the gym, I hate the feeling of my body feeling flabby and me feeling like a slug more.

Evil Homework: I hate it. I have to do it. Enough said.

Rest of Life: I had a really embarrassing episode on Wednesday (not at work), and was throughly tramatised for a couple of days. I had a good cry on Hubby's shoulder, and ate chocolate, and went for some more H&M retail therapy (I have to stay away from that place!), so I do feel better. I was hit pretty hard with PMS too, and coupled with a lot of extra stress, eating too much chocolate, not being able to go to the gym to work off stress, my mood is a little low of late. This last week has been very off for me.

Blergh.