Bitchy McBitcherson's Blog

Blog

  • Before You Call Me For Help

    Reboot the fucking computer.

    Also, repeating over and over (and over) “but… it was working just fine before” is not going to help.

    Thank you.

  • Do Me A Favor

    Let me make it clear. In general, I do not mind being asked to do favors for people.

    Some people think that I say yes too often, but what matters is what I think, and that is not what I am writing about today. I will take the time to point out that if I do, it is MY FAULT. I am not interested in blaming anybody else for a task I have taken on, as a favor to them. I am also not going to discuss why I say yes a large portion of the time. I know why, I don’t need help realizing it, and NO it is not because I am looking for validation. I do other dumb shit for validation. Favors are not a part of that. Having people rely on me does not make me feel better about myself. I am not saying it makes me feel worse, I am just trying to make it absolutely crystal clear that:

    A) In general I do not mind being asked to do favors.
    B) If I happen to say yes when perhaps I should not have, I do not blame the people for asking.
    C) My doing favors has zero to do with some need to be needed by vast quantities of people.

    Is it clear yet? I doubt it. Nonetheless, I will go on.

    When somebody is taking the time to do you a favor, take a bit of your time to grasp what the hell it is they are doing for you. Do not assume that because they do something well, it is easy. You cannot, will not, or choose not, to do it, which is why you asked for the favor. I get that. I am not expecting an intimate knowledge of the process out of you. However, you have asked somebody to take the time out of their life to do something in benefit of your life. It is just good manners to try to understand what level of time and effort are needed to go into completing that favor for you. You might even try to understand it and decide if it is worth that time and effort before having them commit to doing the favor.

    So yeah, my description of the problems inherent in the “little favor” you are asking me to do for you, might seem long winded and boring. It is taking far less of your time to listen to me, than it is of my time, to do the work for you. LISTEN. HEAR. ATTEMPT TO GROK. I was not speaking because I like the sound of my voice. I am trying to teach you something, so that you understand why you should not get yourself into the same situation over and over again.

    Go ahead, ask me to do you a favor. That is fine. Do not mistake my competence and work ethic for something being quick and easy. At least give the impression that you are aware what it is you are actually asking of me, especially when I have taken the extra time out of my life to explain it to you.

    Thank you.

  • Still Not Right

    I am definitely still feeling very tired. Also feeling unusually cold. Is it exhaustion from the stress associated with life and taxes, or am I coming down with something? It could all be signs of my meds being out of whack too. It might be as simple as another stage from my dropping the caffeine.

    I don’t know. Don’t really care at the moment either, which in theory should perhaps be troubling, and yet, I DON’T CARE.

    Vet checked out the critters. I wish I liked this vet better. As I have described before, she isn’t awful by any stretch, she just isn’t the type the inspires any confidence. I wish we lived closer to some of the vets who I feel a lot better about. Basically what this one has going for her is:

    she is nice
    she is raw supportive
    she is local
    she does housecalls

    These things are all good, but I would prefer to be able to add “she seems very intelligent” and “she REALLY knows her shit” to the list.

    Xander has a bad tooth and will need to be sedated to have work done on it. This stresses me out quite a bit. Otherwise he is fine, or he was before she got her. Now he is hiding and fuming about rectal thermometers.

    Willow has been given until Wednesday to shit, or else… Basically, the vet didn’t feel a mass and since cat is acting fine and eating an urinating, we can let it go for a few more days, but really she has to crap at some point or they need to do x-rays.

    London, well they all fucking adored London, of course. He is such a scam artist. They kept going on and on about how good, and sweet and handsome he was. He got lots of strokes and snuggles and one of the techs rubbed his belly a long time. What a bunch of suckers. They’ll get back to me with his titer test, and in general he looks and sounds good. She poked at the mini-lump that is on the back of his neck and are not very concerned. I am just supposed to keep a feel on it and let her know about any changes. She also said I could stop by the new office for the open house next week and pick up some cream for his allergies.

    Indy just got a shot.

    I’ve been wasting my day away on a personal project, but at least it is doing something, which is more than I actually feel like doing.

  • Just Checking In

    I am so very tired. My brain feels like it is in a fog, and has for the past two days. Luckily I managed to get some onsite work done yesterday (and not fall asleep in the car either direction), and field 5 calls from another client, plus get a flyer done for somebody, despite the fog.

    Taxes were finished and in the mail in time for the 5PM pick up on the 17th. I did not have to find a post office that was open late, and my electronic filing happened before the TurboTax server crash. Of course, I was two days past the actual due date, but happily for me, the dates fell in my favor this year.

    I just fell while going down the stairs. Now my back, my arms and my left leg hurt quite a bit. The right leg is doing just fine.

    Anyhow, I am alive and kicking (with one leg anyway). Ready to tackle the rest of my to do list… but not today.

    Tomorrow the animals get a visit with the vet. Willow needs her annual so she can stay on her meds. This has timed out well because she also happens to be constipated for the past couple of days. I hate cat shit when it is coming out, and yet it is a bit disturbing when it stops. London needs titers run and the required by law rabies vaccination. Indy alreayd got a once over this year, but also needs the rabies. Xander will get poked and prodded just for fun, since everyone else is. Next week the dogs go to get microchipped because it is THE LAW here now. I am not actually opposed to microchipping, but I so much not a fan of the government imposing upon my personal decisions.

    I need to run some errands today. First, I should probably get dressed.

    I really have so very many subjects I want to write about. Maybe once I wake up I will, even though they won’t be very timely.

  • Day 4

    I woke up this morning without the ‘lack of caffeine’ headache I’ve had since day one. I actually expected it to be worse and last longer, so I guess my dependency wasn’t as bad this time as it has been in the past. Of course that shouldn’t really be a surprise. In the past I was usually cutting off a 6 pack a day of Diet Coke habit plus coffee. I wasn’t nearly that bad this time (many days pass where I don’t even drink a caffeinated soda), but definitely was getting too hooked on the coffee.

    What kind of fucking moron quits the caffeine and the sweets and (most importantly the booze) right as she is neck deep in paperwork and taxes? Yep, that would be me.

    It is a good thing that the weekend and holiday have created an extension until the 17th, because I have run into a few problems (I fucking hate Intuit) and am still not done. I firmly expect to be done before midnight tomorrow though.

  • Friday the 13th – An Anniversary

    On April 12th, 2002, I had surgery to remove my thyroid, which was slowly trying to choke me to death. On the 13th the pathology report came back, with that word – CANCER. It has been 5 years, and as of my last blood test, no signs of it returning (although admittedly I am extremely far behind on my blood tests).

    You can read about my thyroid saga here.

  • Ways to thrill a first time customer – Not

    I placed a first time order with a company (a fairly high end company at that) for a total of 26 items. Today it arrived. The ‘quantity shipped’ on my packing slip shows all of the items listed and marked as shipped, nothing is marked on back order.

    How many items are missing?

    7

    That is a lot. That happens to be more than a quarter of them. How much did that bother me? So much that I called. I actually called. I hate to call. I don’t want to talk to somebody on the phone. I would much rather handle such things by email, but I wanted rapid assurances that this was going to be fixed, as well as an explaination of how such an error could be made.

    Their customer service number is only available until 5:30 PM Eastern time. I was unable to reach them. I’ve sent an email. Let’s see if how rapidly they respond.

  • Another Thing I Hate

    It really irritates me when I go through the effort to look up the phone number for a specific location of a government office, rather than using the main number, but calling that supposedly targeted phone number just connects me back into the main switchboard.

    I just spent time wandering through a phone tree, waiting on hold, talking to somebody and they determined, lo and behold, that I needed to ask somebody at the… wait for it… SPECIFIC LOCATION. They then transferred my call to the front desk of the office I was trying to reach. There, they answered immediately, I had no phone tree and no hold time. The man who answered the phone was polite and informative and I got all the information I needed, in less time than it took me to get through the phone tree of the main switchboard.

    *heavy sigh*

  • Cold (bland) Turkey

    I haven’t been feeling very well, physically. I am extremely busy right now, and very distracted by all the crap going on. When that happens I often forget to take even halfway decent care of myself. I need a chance to reset.

    Starting tomorrow I’ll be cutting out:

    • caffeine
    • all sweets (fake or real sugar)
    • wine (because of the sugar content)
    • carbonated beverages (even unsweetened)

    I will also be cutting way back on sodium.

    I do this every once in a while when I just feel that my body, my needs, and my cravings have gotten out of whack. It usually takes between 2 weeks and 5 weeks for me to perform a reset. Basically as soon as the thought “I really need a cup of coffee” isn’t coming up all the time, I’ll try a cup of coffee. If that one taste triggers me to start desperately wanting coffee, then I know it hasn’t been long enough and I wait another week.

    At some point things go back to what I consider normal and I can, for instance, eat a sweet thing and think, “Oh, that is really good,” and feel completely satisfied, instead of thinking “Give me MORE, right NOW.” Usually some items can be added back before others.

    Also I need to make a concerted effort to take my meds as scheduled each and every day. I am way behind on my blood tests and there is no point going in if I have not managed to keep things regular for a decent amount of time before the test, the results won’t be accurate enough to be worth the bother.

    I am not posting this because I particularly expect any of you to give a shit, it is something I am doing for myself. It is just sort of a warning because the first couple of days I am usually in an extra foul mood. Also a warning to those who eat with me regularly, because I get somewhat boring food wise for a few weeks, the cutting back on sodium has the most impact because I have to be really careful about restaurant foods.

  • Jaw Breaker

    Two nights ago, my friend’s dog tried to kill me.

    Okay, not really, but that is what I keep telling my friend because it is more fun that way. The dog in question is still very much a puppy, and was simply doing a puppy face nip and lick attack, only she did it by frantically (and impressively) launching herself from the ground – 5 feet into the air. I was caught very off guard and did nothing to protect myself, or correct her.

    She hit the underside of my jaw with her jaw wide open while I was mid sentence. It slammed my jaw shut, scrambled my brain and luckily the word she caught me on was such that I only bit a very small side portion of my tongue. She got me with a tooth on each side of the underside of my jaw, which is why I keep telling him that his dog was trying to rip my throat out. One side left a little pointed bruise and the other side had a pinpoint scratch surrounded by a welt. At first there was actually a visible pinch mark in the center too, where her teeth had come together in her nip. I had a headache for about 12 hours.

    I am not even a tiny bit mad at the dog. She was not attacking, she was just doing what comes natural and it hasn’t been trained out of her yet. I am not even a tiny bit upset with my friend. He only got her recently and legitimately has not had enough time to train this behavior out of her yet. He is aware, and is working on it. He also has every reason to expect me to be puppy savvy enough that he not have to be on his absolute top guard with her, it isn’t like he had her around a toddler (and he did correct her as I stood there too brain stunned to do anything but hold my aching jaw).

    The welt is gone, but that spot still hurts a lot, which was really starting to bug me. It is nothing. There is no significant bruising or sign of damage. Just a little red mark that looks like the end of very pathetic attempt at a zit. I am not one of those people that is usually oversensitive to pain. Because of various health conditions I’ve actually lived with pain every day of my life for over two decades, so why the fuck was I being such a baby?

    Today as I was washing my face I finally figured out what the problem was. She actually nailed me with that tooth precisely at the bad point in my jaw on that side of my face. That is where it had been sawed apart and screwed back together almost 15 years ago, and has always remained bone sore to pressure (have a matching spot on the opposite side, but luckily she didn’t tag it). So, it is still sore, but now that I realize there is a physical reason why it still hurts so much, I feel less like a whiny wimp.