What's up in Utah......

Image: A sunset in Utah. Taken by my friend Jan.

So what is up these days? Now that I am on Facebook, I feel no need to blog much.

Still, it is a good outlet for letting off steam once in awhile.

I have been off pain medication for 22 days now. It's been tough because I still have the pain, but I am trying to learn to ignore it. Not easy. I went through a couple of weeks of being extremely irritable and cranky. I guess that is part of the withdrawal. Now, don't get me wrong... I was NOT addicted to Lortab. I never, ever abused it. I never took more than I was prescribed (which was 2 per day). In fact, I only took one per day for most of the time.

But I was "dependent" on it. My body was used to it (which is to be expected aftering being on it for more than 5 years) and a couple of things happened. One, it didn't really help with the pain that much anymore, and two, if I didn't take it, I got REALLY irritable.

So, I quit taking it in July after cutting the dose down to basically nothing over the previous month. I do take over-the-counter stuff which doesn't help with the pain, but it takes the edge of slightly.

I'm about to make a lot of changes in my life. I am a couch potato. I come home from work and I am tired and all I want to do is sit and watch game shows. All weekend, I watch game shows. I LOVE game shows. But I get NOTHING done.

I need to save up money for a down payment on a car. My cable/internet/phone bill is $150 per month. I do not use the phone because I have a cell... and right now I haven't got a computer so I don't need internet. And if I cut cable out... I will watch LESS tv and the programs I am hooked to like Lost, Greys and House, I can watch online or something.

It's not forever. It's just to save money for awhile. I think it's a good idea. But I have to make sure my new glasses are the right prescription so that I can do some reading instead of TV.

Either way, I have a zillion dvds so it's not like there is nothing to watch ever.

But I need to get off my duff and start taking care of stuff better. I'm getting fat and lazy.

I have to get surgery for the glaucoma. I have to get to an Ear/Nose/Throat doc and find out if I have polyps in my sinus passages because I can't breathe well and it feels to me like I have rocks up my nose. If so, I need surgery for that.

I need a new car. A gently used one, but I don't feel safe in my Cavalier anymore. And it's costing me too much in maintenance.

Baby steps. It's always about taking small steps. Small steps can bring big changes and I cannot change everything overnight. But I can see progress.

Oh, and I stopped taking Protonix (for my reflux) because the pharmacy/doctors office was messing up my refill, so I ran out, and I have not had time to go over and see if they filled it. So I have been off that for a week. So far, I am doing ok without it. So maybe I don't need that anymore. Yay.

Nice pic

I stole this off Kathy's facebook. She and Deiter went to the British Isles a couple weeks ago and snapped this.

So, my weekend sucked. Had to spend close to $500 on bifocals. My check engine light came on. I still need brakes on the back of my car. I have to pay $1300 to David's orthodontist. I need eye surgery because I have narrow angle glaucoma. I also have polyps in my nose so I should have surgery to scrape those puppies out so I can breathe again..... I don't have a computer at home that works.

I get less money in my paycheck because I increased how much is taken out for the medical reimbursement.... which I already maxed half of THAT out just with the eyeglasses that I didn't know I was going to get... or I would have had MORE taken out...

YIKES!!!

I seriously have to figure out where to cut back on expenses. Something has to go. I don't know what... but SOMETHING.

I'm hungry. I forgot to bring lunch. I don't want to eat out so I guess I will eat vending stuff. (Which I already paid for, so it won't cost me anything). Hmm.. danish, candy bars, sunchips, nuts, goldfish, how nourishing.... Not.

I will figure out the lesser of the evils. Sunchips and dried fruit maybe.

I have a headache......

What happened to Happily Ever After???

Or what happened to "til death do you part?"

A friend of mine attended a wedding this weekend. The part of the vows that really stood out to her was that the husband and wife did not vow "til death do us part".... they said, "For as long as we love each other."

And there was something like "I will maintain my fidelity to you...... as long as we love. I will take care of you in sickness, for as long as we love..." Not for "as long as we LIVE"... it was definitely "as long as we LOVE."

I think that is just weird.

But tis a sign of the times.

Cranky Tales

Yeah, I am in a baaaaaaaad mood. Why? Because people just irk me. Why? Ugh. Don't get me started. No, wait, maybe I'll feel better after I rant.....

I shall change names to protect myself from getting my arse kicked by the guilty parties..... So here goes:

Lulu has been in charge of our company Christmas party for the past 3 years. They've sucked. It's a challenge to take on, because you do have 50 employees and 50 different sets of personalities. It's a given that you can't please everyone. I would not want to be in her shoes.

We have a new HR person I'll call Shelly. She's great. Awesome even. Well, being new, she wants input from all the depts so she puts together a "committee" with one person from each dept. to represent the wants of the employees in those areas. Fine. Great idea. I am chosen to be rep for my dept. No problem. Looking forward to it.

We have lots of religious people here who are Mormon. Hence, there has generally been only "alcohol free" types of events. Now, we have a bunch of new people who are drinkers. And they want booze at the party. Shouldn't be a problem right? Ha ha wrong.

We come up with 3 ideas for the theme of the party. One is having a Casino night. We have casino games and play for tickets and prizes. Not real gambling. No money spent. Mormons are against gambling and as I predicted, none of them go for that idea. Second idea is to have a hypnotist comedian to entertain. I've seen them. They are hilarious.

Third option is a Murder Mystery dinner. The Mormons are for this one. The drinkers prefer the Casino night.

You can't please everybody. That's a given.

That is not what has got my panties in a bunch though.

We were told as a committee to poll our people as to what ideas they want. I designed a nifty little interactive form that can be filled out and the results go into a spreadsheet. I meant to use it just for my people... but I showed it to Shelly and she loved it and asked me to share it with the others. Which I did. Which the "others" (namely LULU) did not appreciate. (I told the Others they could use it or not. It did not matter to me.) Lulu sent me a real snippy message about how Shelly appointed her to be HEAD of the committee and that I need to consult HER before I go off and do something like make up a form for the poll. (HUH???) Nobody else on the committee heard Shelly make Lulu the head. I know because I ASKED. Lulu is a control freak and she wants to be the sole person doing this. She is against the committee thing.

Lulu wanted to do a white elephant gift exchange which we have done the past 5 years and everybody HATES it. Maybe 4 people like it. The rest do NOT. She got mad that we shot her idea down. But it's Christmas and everybody is stressed and having to find a gift for $5 for somebody you may or may not know well is STRESSFUL.

Another person on the committee wanted to do the party at a bar. I knew that would NOT go over with the Mormons. No way. They would not show.

Last year's party bombed because Lulu picked a place that was very hard to find and there was no parking and people got real upset. Lulu screws up most everything at work. She is lazy, and a drug addict, and just not the most responsible crayon in the box. Nobody likes her.

So basically it made me cranky because I was trying to do a nice thing by sending out that form, and I ticked off Lulu and some others..... and had some of my people getting all irked that they were not invited to be on the committee.... and getting it thrown in my face over and over that we just can't please everyone. That's a given. So we get to listen to the whiners pitch hissy fits over what gets decided.

Geeeeez. I see why people don't like to be called to the Activities Committee at church. If it's anything like THIS then it's not worth the hassle. Grrrrrrr...........................

Plus, I haven't taken any pain medicine for several days and I know I am going through crankiness because of it. I hate being in pain. But I hate having to rely on Lortab daily to function.

I tried taking Aleve, but I just cannot take that. It gives me gushing nose bleeds EVERY SINGLE time!!! But Advil, Asprin and Tylenol are eating my stomach. I can tell.

Just shoot me and put me out of my misery. LOL

Welcome Baby Luke L.

Karin is an aunt and this is her nephew and I think he's adorable. He was only 6 pounds 9 oz. or 10 oz... I forget which. He's tiny anyhow.

We had our company Lagoon day yesterday. I took David and his friend Bryce as a birthday present for David. I think they had a good time. They pretty much rode nearly everything two or three times.

I'm so tired today. I think I would rather go home and sleep than be at work. No such luck.