Who the heck do I think I am?

It's been a busy dang weekend.

Yesterday morning, etakyma and I went to the Museum of Science to take advantage of a Groupon offering the chance to tour Cambridge - by Segway. Segways are totally, totally cool.

And wicked easy to use. Amy had a little trouble just after we left the training paddock, but within a few minutes we were both zooming around like pros. We had a fabulous time with our tour guide (Evan), who was Our Kind of Geek. And there were bits and pieces of Cambridge that I had never really known much about. The tour took in the park that was installed as part of the Big Dig, went down along one of the canals built in Cambridge (which I'd actually been to before, but it was at night and I was actually trying to find a restaurant and had taken a wrong turn), and then down to MIT. It was cool to tootle down to MIT again, though I have to say that my perception of MIT's campus and buildings is forever coloured by participating in Civilite.

We freely admit, though, that the real reason for taking the tour was simply to gain the experience of riding a Segway! Which was SO COOL! And I can now state for the record that Quidditch on Segways would be completely awesome and totally safe.

We also saw a Planetarium show (which was marred only by the rather fractious child next to us, but her mother finally took her out), and then wandered a mere half-mile away to the site of my boss's wife's art show, which was good.

A took a nap and then went home, leaving me to fend for myself for supper. More adventur ensued when I decided to have A Beer with my pizza. I chose (unwisely) to use the bottle opener on my all-purpose kitchen shears and when I had finally pried the cap loose, the beer exploded all over my PJs. I swiftly set the beer down in my kitchen sink (thank goodness I had just washed the dishes) and ran to the bathroom to strip off my now beer-soaked PJs and leave them in the tub to dry before adding them to the laundry. Except that when I go to toss the PJs in the tub? THERE'S A SPIDER IN THERE!!

A big one, too.

Yeah. Well, he was down by the drain, so I dumped the discarded clothes at the other end and proceeded to put on fresh PJs - and shoes. Because gods know, I can't be expected to KILL A SPIDER barefoot (let alone naked)! I grabbed my trusty spider-swatter and thus armed, proceeded to Battlefield: Bathroom. He tried to run into the pile of clothes, but I got him before he was able to hide in their beery folds. Terror! But I prevailed. Then I ate - and drank what was left of the beer. Half a beer is better than none?

That was a pretty full day by itself. But then I added today to yesterday.

NEW GLASSES! Ouch. $500 of new glasses (though that's both regular and a pair of prescription sunglasses). No, they were NOT very expensive frames. In both cases, the lenses were way more expensive than the frames, in fact. And guess what? LensCrafters does not accept EITHER my health insurance OR the vision care insurance I took out expressly because I knew I would be replacing my glasses! Well, I understand that I can submit claims directly to both and see what I get reimbursed. But... PITA. All-around PITA.

And of course, had to spend two hours malling while waiting for the glasses (because sunglasses take two hours, not one). Which is okay - I had a birthday present to shop for and I needed new 'intimates' - but zoicks. Those little errands (plus a couple others) set me back another couple hundred (literally). I was in the mall for 6 hours, altogether! And then I still had to hit Target for a couple other items.

Man, I'm tired.

And broke.

But I do like my new glasses. I especially like being able to see properly.

So I went downtown today to fill out paperwork and test and interview with yet another staffing agency - one can never be enrolled with too many. But I didn't want to take the T because dude, my back is still not up to walking or standing as long as it would take to go via public transit.

However, I should have done it anyway.

I drove around and around and around hoping to find a lucky parking spot. All the garages had their "full day" rate signs up and I balked: $23 or $26??? For like, an hour? How much is just an HOUR?

But finally, it was after the time I was supposed to be there, I'd gone around the block(s) about 4 times in different directions, got stuck on one-ways taking me *away* from the target, u-turned to get back without running into more one-ways, and called to let them know I was just looking for parking.... and as I came around the corner, the garage in the same building as the place was taking down the all-day parking sign and putting up its hourly sign: $6 for the first half-hour. Great!

I pulled in and gave the car to the valets (yeah, but the rate was still $12 for the hour), and made it to the appointment.

Where they ran me through MS Office testing, typing test, and then I had to wait a good 10 minutes for a room to open up. (During this time, btw, I realized that this agency's "gimmick" for team-building is that when someone successfully places an employee, the agent rings a bell - and the other hiring agents applaud. All I could think was "How...Pavlovian.")

Anyway, so I'm already over the hour-mark and then we get into the interview. And I probably talked too much, but she wanted me to "take her through" my positions, which is understandable, because my work history is a little wonky. And then she asked if I could meet with a couple other agents in the various arms of their organization (e.g. "creative" vs. "administrative") - and I looked at my phone (which doubles as my watch). EEK. I was 3 minutes shy of two hours on the car.

So I said, "Actually, if you don't mind, if I go right now, I'll make it within two hours" and she was very understanding and I rushed to the garage... Where I realized that between one and two hours, the price JUMPED from $12... to $28.

Thirty bucks to park!!! $15 an HOUR. I almost should have stayed, because the *next* hour was only $34 - at which point, who cares?

But YIKES. Okay, the T would have taken 2 hours of travel, and I certainly would have had to be really careful walking, but YIKES. In retrospect, I should have just gone in at the day rate!!!

I hope it pays off.

Meanwhile, I'm doing the exercise that the chiropractor prescribed. My father had also recommended a particular brand of adhesive "hot" patch, which happens to be relatively inexpensive (especially compared to the thermacare patches), so I tried that during the brush-up tonight.

OMG. No. First off, I'm glad a. they're cheap and b. I got two, because the first one folded onto itself and got all stuck to itself and had to be sacrificed. The second one still got stuck to itself, but in a more wrinkled than folded way, and I was still able to stick it on, albeit kind of at a weird angle. Second, the "heat" it generates is from capzaisin, so it's more of a "spicy" heat than an actual warmth...and it burned more like a chemical burn than a radiating heat. I wound up ripping it off on the way home, because when I was sitting in the car, and couldn't get away from it, it felt like it was flaying my back.

So, yeah. Not doing that again, but at least it was only a couple bucks' worth of experimentation, and certainly not another $30 mistake!

Argh.

So. Get the back back in shape. Then the next order of business is to get ME back in shape - walking and more. Zoicks, I'm gaining weight like whoa.

And lastly, unfortunately, a quick check of my odometer from last year confirms that I will not qualify for the "low mileage" discount with my insurance company. Which is a pain, because apparently I have to suffer another year of surcharge due to the accident in '07, because while the anniversary date of the accident is coming up in a couple weeks, the surcharge wasn't actually applied until January '08. Sigh. So my rates don't drop for another 8 months.

I can haz new life now?

Okay, a few good things so I'm not all about the bitchy.

Alternity continues to rock hard.

I should be able to sweet-talk my family photographer into new headshots when I go to Rochester, which I'll be doing on the way to Crown (along with a haircut at my old hairdresser's). This means I'll have really good professional headshots again, that aren't 20 years out of date, in time for the big StageSource auditions (in early June). Now I need to choose a monologue and song, always an agonizing process, but something that I just have to DO and then not worry about. Whatever - as long as it's memorable, and I do it well, that's the point.

Only two more performances and then I can really focus on the summer shows.

I finished the first draft of my sci-fi story, though I haven't read it over to begin editing it. I fear it is more lame and simplified than I intended when I was outlining, but it's also short, so I have a little room to expand if necessary.

BAF3 is gonna be awesome - it's set to launch at Balticon, where I probably won't be, but that's okay. The book will launch and maybe a few of 1 and 2 will sell, too.

Oh - I almost forgot! There's a new episode of SpellCast out! Actually, it's not new, because I recorded it in December, but it's finally out!

I was going to make this a longer post, but now I think bullets will do:

- The contract job site selected a different candidate. This isn't a horrible thing, as I really wasn't excited about putting 40 miles on the car every day (especially with a 17MPG average right now)

- I did, however walk through the Stoughton Jordan's Furniture and the Stoughton IKEA. But other than lunch (It's not IKEA without Swedish Meatballs!) I didn't buy anything. Yay, me.

- I always fantasy furniture shop at Jordan's. It's fun! This time I found a cool flip-top writing desk and I believe Narcissa Malfoy's bedroom furniture. I took pictures of the bedroom, but may go find them on the website later.

- Instead of my little self-devised "workout" this morning, I decided to finally get out the Yoga DVD I bought months ago. What a workout!

- Yoga on a rug that really needs to be vacuumed, however, is not so fun.

- Having done that, though, I really needed to start getting my books and all back in tubs to get them downstairs. And that's when

- I threw my lower back out. Ow. I was testing the weight. I swear. I lifted with my legs. I did. I gauged the weight, put it down, and I was straightening up. And POP.

OW. OW OW OW.

So, no brush-up for me tonight. I'm icing / heating, trying to take it easy, only moving when I have to....

But, yeah. I'm a dumbass. I'll take the netbook to bed, as the laptop is too heavy to lift right now. At least I can kinda hobble around the apartment. When it first happened I could barely walk to the bathroom for Tylenol.

Ow.

ETA: And now there's something wrong with the power supply to the netbook. Not sure if it's the brick or something else. Sigh. Grabbed the regular computer - and yeah, it actually hurt to carry it to the bedroom, but it's here now.

I'm moving a little more easily, but still hurts. Tiger Balm is my friend.

So, it turns out that K never really felt comfortable with the filing system...so she just didn't file. She had two or three *boxes* of papers under her desk, some of which had file numbers assigned...some not.

R spotted them Monday (but didn't tell *me*, she told T), and we dug them out yesterday. I've spent the better part of two days sorting them into loose number ranges (<1000, 1001-1600, etc.) and looking up / assigning numbers to the pages that didn't have them written already. I'll spend parts of Thursday and Friday acquainting AA!T with the indexing system and working with her to integrate all these into the files.

T kept saying that he thought there were whole categories missing. He was absolutely right.

I just can't imagine. I mean, I know the files get overwhelming - seriously, a job this size needs a full-time file clerk - but to just pile them under your desk and hope no one will notice? Especially when we kept asking for things that were missing?

Oy.


Meanwhile, I went to the dermatologist yesterday and got a steroid injection for the one patch of psoriasis that is wicked stubborn. It HURT. But it should (I hope) clear up that one unsightly area. Being able to wear shorts would be nice. New prescriptions - more preparation for the worst - and possibly more effective treatment? I was also happy to hear that my instinct was right and the uber-wonderful moisturizing cream is a Good Strategy.

So that's good.


Many folks from Coronation got some form of crud. I seem to have a mild case (I'm glad mild!), but for those who are unhappy, hope you feel better soon! Same for etakyma, who was nowhere near Coronation but still feels icky.


And finally CONGRATULATIONS to bosvyle! YAY YAY YAY. Wish I could be there. Unfortunately I've already arranged to be in the Midrealm where beatricedwinter is being taken as an apprentice. Ah, for a Transporter so I can be in two different places on the same day.

Getting a migraine, having to get home (including 2 trains, 2 buses, and a 10-minute walk) with pounding pain, going straight to bed at 6:00 PM...and waking up at 1:00 AM.

I got up around 1:30, had a glass of milk, checked email, brushed my teeth, and went back to bed by 2:00.

Yeah. Um. So basically, I didn't do anything last night. Except sleep. For 12 hours.

Hi, how are you?