| (no subject) |
[Oct. 6th, 2007|12:23 am] |
Happy birthday ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) onyxlynxx! I hope your day is as beautiful as you are. If so, it will be a day to savor and remember.
*hugs* |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Sep. 22nd, 2005|01:59 pm] |
I talked to my dad at lunchtime. Some of this is probably redundant news for those watching information about Hurricane Rita, so feel free to skip it.
( Read more... ) |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Mar. 31st, 2005|04:49 pm] |
|
Adriana is now in Austin and enrolled in a new school to start Monday. She brought me along too. I have forgotten myriads of things in San Antonio (I am sure). So far I've discovered I've forgotten one of Adriana's medicines (not a daily thing). I had to re-order it anyway, so I'll probably go get it weekend after next. Now here's hoping I have whatever documentation I need to start work on Monday. Otherwise, tomorrow's going to be a mad errand day. |
|
|
| I got the job! |
[Mar. 11th, 2005|05:10 pm] |
Adriana and I will be moving back to Austin. It's official, but I haven't worked out many of the details yet. What I do know is
-- I'll be in GA next week
-- I'll be back in San Antonio the week after, and my last day here is that Friday, March 25
-- My first day at DFS will be 4/4
They're not relocating me (though the other compensation is good), so I have a ton to do and will probably be splitting some time between Austin and San Antonio at first. Wow, I'm so completely overwhelmed with how much I have to do ... but in a good way. |
|
|
| Bargain Day |
[Jul. 31st, 2004|05:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
Whee! Today was bargain day. After waking up somewhere between 6 and 6:30 a.m., I took my mom to a friend's house. She is off for a 7-day cruise to Cozumel, Cancun, and a couple of other stops. On the way back, Adriana and I spotted a garage sale, so we decided to stop in. She got 4 books and a stamp set for a couple of dollars, and we headed home. The garage sale reminded me that I wanted to find some different furniture for her room, so I looked up the local Goodwill sites. I sat around waiting for a few hours to see if either of the two people who were going to come by today would show up. One was going to do some yard work. The other was going to give us an estimate on a fence. Neither did by 1:30, so I left to grab some food.
After stopping at Sonic, Adriana and I headed to the nearby Goodwill store and started browsing. I spotted a bookshelf that looked a little promising, but it was wobbly, so I decided to pass. Then I heard that all furniture was 50% off today, so I took that as a sign and went back to search again. I noticed a short table underneath several items and cleared them off to look at it. Sure enough. It was an all wood kids-sized table that would make a good work/art table for Adriana's room. I checked out the price, and it was $24.99 regularly priced, so I got it for a mere $12.50. Yay! I took it home, and Adriana fell asleep just before we got there, so I decided to head to another Goodwill to look around, and so she could nap for longer while I got there. This one had more interesting furniture, but it was all auction items which seemed to work a little differently. There was one cool toy chest/bench, but the auction was closed. I'll keep checking to see if they open the auction on it again. We did find a small bookshelf that should work well in Adriana's room and picked that up for $10.
Now, it's hot as Hades outside, and we came home to take a break. I'm considering going out to the last Goodwill store still in the area (the Clearance Outlet) and checking it out. Otherwise, Adriana and I need to get started cleaning her room, so we can set it up better. I really do want to avoid that if possible. : ) |
|
|
| Do you have one of those boxes? |
[May. 27th, 2004|04:04 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
I guess I've decided to pull an all-nighter. That's probably not the smartest thing in the world since I may be driving to Austin tomorrow after work. That's why the universe has caffeine though I suppose. I'm trying to finish cleaning my room before Jim and my sister arrive in town (Jim on Friday, Pat on Saturday.) I've made quite a bit of progress although I still have to find places for all the random stuff that doesn't seem to have a good place.
In the course of cleaning, I found a show box that was still taped closed from the move. Thinking it might have some candle holders or other glass decorations in it, I opened it up. Nope, it was The Box. Remember back before everyone used the Internet on a daily basis to send e-mail? People actually kept in contact with letters and cards (yeah, the kind you buy at Hallmark stores.) Well, this was the box of all the cards, notes, and letters I've saved over the years. I weeded through it to see if there were any I didn't want to keep anymore. I found a couple of cards and letters from my brother. That was a bit difficult. I still feel like there are a lot of things I wish I had said to him. I believe he knew them in general, but it's different actually hearing someone say the words.
I shied away from reading some letters not wanting to get pulled in too deeply. Others I wish I had shied away from reading. Mostly though, it was good to see some of the things written because I could really feel how things were then between various friends and me. It's amazing the number of people I've been close to despite being an essentially introverted person. It's amazing the number of feelings and memories that can fit into a shoebox. |
|
|
| Mmm, Lovely Evening |
[May. 23rd, 2004|01:24 am] |
I had a lovely evening tonight with onyxlyxx and nancynewt. I got to meet rangerjedi (he likes guacamole and sour cream or can at least tolerate them, so I approve). Actually, he was surprisingly courageous in agreeing to break his fast with a loud voice from onyxlynxx's past. He was quite friendly, and it was good to see that (okay, I give up you're going to be Kirby from here on out) Kirby's dating a nice person for a change. After leaving M's company at the house, Kirby and I went in search of pampering and got pedicures and manicures. We both opted for the more dramatic colors. The shop was rather interesting as we got to hear about the lives of strippers and high maintenance, high volume chatterboxes. After we finished up, we headed back to Kirby's for a rest/nap.
A few hours later feeling more refreshed, we started getting ready for dinner which was very reminiscent of times spent at Jester. Usually, I would wander over to Kirby's room, and we would get ready together. It probably would have been more reminiscent if I took her up on her offer of Obsession, but I refrained. No sense in setting any stages for evenings echoing of those times. We headed out to run a quick errand at Amy's and then went to the Cheesecake Factory. We were early, so we sat on the benches and talked and then continued our conversation over drinks and appetizers. Nancy arrived, and we continued having several interesting and enjoyable conversations. Finally, our waiter looked mightily fed up with us (actually he was very nice), so we headed over to Nancy and Litch's house. Chatted with hp and Litch and got licked by several adorably friendly dogs. Litch was kind enough to actually launch ESPN, so he could let me know that the Tampa Bay Lightning won the series. Yay!
Kirby and I headed back to her house, and I'm about to crash. I'll probably be coerced into petting more black animals. As I sit here, there's a sweet black cat staring at me wondering how I can dare to type on the keyboard rather than pet her royal self.
I love Austin. I love my friends. |
|
|
| mmm, banana |
[May. 17th, 2004|07:24 pm] |
Take the quiz: "Which Random Irish Gaelic Phrase Are You? "
Is maith liom bananai
Is maith liom bananai - 'I like bananas.'You're laid-back and you enjoy the simple things in life. Some might say you're a little too laid-back. Just what is it you're smoking, anyway? |
|
|
| Home Improvement - Me? |
[May. 1st, 2004|08:33 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Landslide" by Dixie Chicks | ] |
Okay, so I'm about to take on my first home improvement project. My sister gave me her old dining room table, and it's been sitting in my dad's house for a while waiting for him to refinish. It has some deep scratches that need to be sanded out, so it needs to be stripped, sanded, and then refinished. My mom suggested we just do it ourselves. You guessed it. That wasn't a literal we. I get to do the work. It actually seems interesting, but I'm afraid that I'll mess up the staining and have to start all over again and this is going to be a big job as it is. I have 5 chairs that need some work and a round table with two additional leaves.
My dad (being the helpful guy he is) took me by the store to get the necessary materials. I've printed up the requisite 12 pages of instructions off an Internet woodworking site. Now all I need is time, motivation, and courage. ; )
Actually I figured that I would probably start on one of the chairs, so if I mess it up, it's not as obvious as it would be with the table. Anyone with experience stripping and refinishing furniture have any words of wisdom/tips of what to do or not do? |
|
|
| The second part of my update |
[Apr. 29th, 2004|11:58 am] |
So I had mentioned there was actually more to share. Well, Adriana and I had actually planned a quick trip to Austin for Wednesday evening. She was going to visit her dad, and I had a friend travelling to Austin from Florida on a business trip who I was going to meet in person for the first time. My friend, Jim, is actually a co-worker at our Tampa site. My former manager, Kellie, asked me to help him out with some things, and I've been helping him out on the side on several spreadsheets or databases for a while now. We're pretty good friends and talk on the phone or via our messaging system on a fairly frequent basis. A few months ago, he started joking about me being his fiancee and event sent me rings -- two of those candy sucker rings.
So anyway, when he found that I wouldn't be able to make the trip, he asked if it would be okay for him to come to San Antonio to visit for the evening. I agreed and as things worked out, Adriana ended up being released before he came to town. We went home, and she got to spend the evening being fussed over by her grandmothers, and I ended up spending the evening out. Jim arrived, and we headed downtown for the requisite tourist trip to the Alamo. It was closed, but we walked around the outside and chatted. Then we wandered over to the Riverwalk for a guided boat tour followed by dinner (Mexican food and margaritas, of course).
This was the first "date" I've had in a long time if you don't count the dinner/day spent with the weird Tai Chi master which I don't count. (That's another story that I'd prefer not to go into). We both seemed to connect and had a very nice time together that ended too soon. Especially considering with the distance issue, who knows when we'll see each other again. Actually, there's a very good chance that he will be offered a position with a company he interviewed with in Austin. He wouldn't be moving to Austin, but he would have occassional trips here along with a two-week training trip here. I find myself wanting to say a whole lot about him and not very much at all. I guess the thing is that I think he's a very special person, and I like him a lot. I could see some really interesting possibilities between us, but I don't want to build up any unrealistic dreams or fantasies and just see what happens. |
|
|
| What a week+ ! |
[Apr. 29th, 2004|04:45 am] |
It's been a tiring week and here I sit at 4:15 am unable to sleep. But it's a good thing really.
Last Monday night (4/19), Adriana started running a fever. The weird thing was she had no other symptoms -- just this weird fever thing. After the fever had been around a couple of days and had spiked rather high (105), I took her into an urgent care clinic on Wednesday morning. The doctor examined her, took a rapid strep test, and told me it was just a virus and to treat her fever at home with Tylenol and Motrin. I asked him if I needed to be concerned/bring her back/do anything further if her fever continued or spiked higher than a certain temperature. He said that no, with a virus, there was nothing they could do. Ergo there would be no point in bringing her in. So being the dutiful little guppy that I am, I listened to him and went home. We then had 3 more nights of waking up at 3am to give Adriana Tylenol and sponge bath her to try to bring the fever down. She still had no other symptoms other than decreased appetite and thirst, and her fever was generally lower during the day but would spike high at night.
Fortunately, my family and I discussed it and decided it was probably best to ignore the doctor and take her to the Urgent Care Clinic at my own doctor's office. (We had originally not gone there because they have odd hours and do not open until later in the afternoon). So we went to the urgent care, and the doctor was not convinced it was an untreatable virus and wanted to run lots of tests. We rushed off to downtown San Antonio (during the Saturday of Fiesta) and managed to get to the lab before it closed (despite being given a map to 1212 S Main versus 1212 N Main. Adriana was so amazingly good while they inserted the needle in her arm and drew several samples of blood. We had planned on heading for a treat at Toys R Us, but the doctor called on the way home. She was concerned about a high white blood cell count and wanted us to take additional tests on Saturday rather than waiting until Monday, so she suggested we go to the Emergency Room. We were close to home so stopped in briefly and then headed back downtown. Three closed streets and two detours later, we made it to the hospital. The hospital was very kids-oriented which was great, and we found out that Adriana had a urinary tract infection. The doctor explained that with the type of infection, generally people did not experience the usual discomfort of a bladder infection. Otherwise, we would have had a better idea what was happening. We were sent home after Adriana was given antibiotics and fluids through the IV with the request that we have a follow up appointment with our regular doctor on Monday.
So we went in for our Monday visit and talked to the doctor about another test they had suggested us taking. Adriana was still running high fevers (104.5 and 105.3) Sunday night and Monday morning, so I let the doctor know. She was pretty concerned that we weren't seeing any immediate results from the antibiotics since IV antibiotics usually kick in faster. At her recommendation, we went back to the hospital and were admitted. Adriana continued running a high fever for another day and a half, but she started improving late Tuesday, and we were able to come home this evening. She's doing very well now -- eating regular portions, drinking a lot, much more animated, and her fever is down. In the end, Adriana and I had more time in the last week and a half for just hanging out and playing together, so that was a very positive change. It feels really good to know that my regular doctor (actually an associate of my PCP, but we'll be changing soon) is so thorough, considerate of her patients' welfare, and willing to follow up or do whatever is needed even outside of office hours. Her follow ups and calls to me Saturday were after the clinic had called, and she told me that I should feel free to call her service and have her paged this weekend if I needed to talk with her or had concerns. It also gave me a reminder of what a truly wonderful kid I have. Okay, so lots of parents think that, but in my case it's true. : )
Not only did she follow instructions ot the letter (like holding still during difficult procedures) and was brave throughout it all, but she very rarely let being in the hospital affect her mood or how she treated people. She even made friends with a slightly older boy who was obviously very angry at being in the hospital and had decided to take it out on the nurses and other caregivers since his parents weren't able to be there during the day. They started playing, and his attitude improved signifcantly that evening. Anyway, she's a very special girl.
There's more news to share, but I'll post later today, so I can try to get a few minutes of sleep at least. |
|
|
| Hola! |
[Dec. 31st, 2003|02:09 pm] |
I´m writing this from Mexico. My father and stepmother invited Adriana and me on a vacation to visit my uncle who retired in Mexico. We´re in Morellia, the capital of Michoacan. It´s between Guadalajara and Mexico City. We left Sunday afternoon and spent the evening outside of Saltillo in a cute little hotel with framed tile pictures up on all the walls outside. The first day´s drive was very interesting. Although I knew on a philosophical level that the poverty in Mexico is very high, I was still surprised to see the actuality. I´ve been to border towns, and so I´ve seen some of the living conditions and the people begging or children selling trinkets. Driving through Mexico though you see more of the kind of structures people live in. There were also a great deal of buildings by the side of the road that had been abandoned in various states of construction.
Although we were rested enough to continue on after Saltillo, we decided to stop overnight because everyone warns against driving in Mexico at night. It´s not bad during the day, but at night the banditos come out, and they can pose quite convincingly as policeman. I´ve heard they also tend to target tourists (people with US license plates) because they believe they will have more money. The next day we continued on and arrived in Morellia in the evening. My dad didn´t know exactly how to get to his house, so we went instead to his mother-in-law´s house. I was used to somewhat the hospitality of the culture coming from a hispanic family, but it´s even more profound in Mexico. My uncle´s mother-in-law had recently had surgery on her foot, but she still decided that she *had* to go to the store when she learned that Adriana drinks apple juice, and my stepmother likes cream in her coffee. My úncle´s sister-in-law took me out for a drive around town showing me the "Beverly Hills" of Morellia. The drive was interesting and really put my Spanish skills to the test. Afterward, she stopped to pick up a doll she wanted to give to my daughter who she had met mere minutes before.
On Tuesday, we went to the cathedral in the central plaza. The architecture of Morellia is very beautiful, and the city is amazingly clean although there´s a bit of graffiti that the city leaders are trying to get under control. People found defacing buildings with graffiti will now spend a year in jail. At any rate, the cathedral was very pretty. We left there and went to another former cathedral turned into a series of shops. The furniture here is very beautiful. I found a great toy chest I would love to get Adriana. It was wooden painted in several shades of blue and turquoise with fish and coral pained on it. I could spend a ton of money here, so I suppose it´s a good thing we don´t have much room in the car to take stuff back. That evening, my aunt Lupita joined us, and we drove to a nearby city of Patzcuaro. They are known for the groups of young boys that dance in the plazas. We didn't see the full group but did find a couple of boys in costumes and masks who performed two dances. They performed on the cobble tiles of the plaza with their thick wooden sandals pretending to be old men about to fall and then nimbly throwing themselves about. Despite the increasing pace of their dancing and the unlevel ground, the two maintained the rhythmic stomping to the music and never missed a beat with the music or each other. We headed back to the main plaza while my aunt and stepmother hit some more churches. We had cups or corn to tide the hunger which they served with crema (not quite butter -- not quite cream), mayonaise (i skipped that), ground chili (again, i passed), and some crumbly cheese. It was interesting -- definitely not something I´d have everyday but interesting to try.
That evening, we returned to my uncle´s apartment to find several children playing outside. Adriana finally worked up the courage to join them, and she had a great time despite the language barrier. She rushed up to me at one point and told me excitedly, "Mommy, they like me!" She played for a couple of hours and was quite upset when I made her come inside at 10:30. We had planned to have a quiet day at home today and go to a party later this evening, but it has been cancelled. I decided to stay at home and let the girls (Adriana and my aunt´s niece Wendy) play with some other girls.
I haven´t had the chance to take many pictures, but I´m hoping to do so over the next couple of days before we return on Saturday. I would definitely like to explore other parts of Mexico and perhaps return when I have more time to visit. I hope that you all enjoy a fun New Year´s celebration and wish you happiness for the coming year. |
|
|
| Ewww, mornings |
[Jun. 30th, 2003|06:27 am] |
Well, I discovered something interesting this morning. I can actually access livejournal from work. We are usually not allowed access to certain websites, so it was nice to see this isn't. Maybe next time when I'm babysitting processes or have my computers maxed out on running processes, I can hop on here.
The last (and first) time I wrote was before I headed off to vacation. Since then I've been working every day up until yesterday. Mmmm, day off. I've given up on keeping track of how many hours I'm working. It was working over 60 hrs/week before I went on vacation, and I know I've been working more now that I'm back. I can really say the balance of my "work life balance" scale is really tipped.
The reason for all this is that we had a developer on our team who left to go to another department. He was an hourly staff member who averaged about 30 hours a week of overtime. Since his base salary was more than mine, that made for a pretty hefty annual salary. Unfortunately, I'm salaried, so I'm not seeing the same benefit from all the overtime. Things should be getting better soon though. We already stole one staff member, and we're about to be given another. I'll still be the only developer in our group until I can train others, but at least I won't be having to work all the holidays and most Saturdays.
The good news is that my bosses are grateful for me. Tomorrow is my one-year anniversary, and although I don't expect to see a big compensation increase soon, I think I may have a good chance of getting promoted in the fall. I'm also hoping I may get a trip to New York out of this. Every quarter, the organization picks "All Stars" who get a free trip to New York (corporate headquarters) around March/April of the following year. They of course pay for airfare for two and hotel accommodations (usually at the Ritz Carlton or something similar). There is a banquet and other activities planned. I'm hoping I'll make it on next year's trip.
Other than that, I'm taking an Astronomy course online. I wasn't really planning to, but I had to change my schedule a bit, and it was the only course that sounded vaguely interesting. One of the students made a comment about really looking forward to learning more about "astrology." I think she probably just wasn't fully engaged when she made the comment, but I found it humorous. Our professor took it very well and didn't go off the handle like some Astronomy professors might.
Well I suppose since I am here I should probably get some work done. |
|
|
| Ahhh, vacation |
[Jun. 10th, 2003|01:18 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | relaxed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Beatles / There Are Places I Remember | ] |
I feel the most relaxed now than I've felt in a long while. All it took was the anticipation of five solid days free of work (not counting the Saturdays I've been working lately.) Typically, instead of packing for the five-day trip to Arizona (leaving in about 12 hours) or sleeping, I chose instead to catch up on the important things. I haven't had a chance to post my first LJ entry yet, and I'm finding (happily) more and more old friends here that I would like to reach out too. So in case you're reading this and wondering why I labelled you as my friend, I'll just list some of the names you may have known me as: Belinda, Beli, belladonna, nadir, beli*eve, wyld fyre (ooh, that's an old one.)
So where am I now? I guess it's conceited of me to think that you care, but I'll fill you in on recent events anyway. I was living in Austin, TX until a year ago when my employer decided to relocate to Maryland. While I wouldn't have minded moving to the east coast, I wasn't particularly excited about doing it for my employers at the time. So I decided to accept my severance and retention package and part ways. I moved to San Antonio where my mom lives, and we've been co-habitating. Actually, it's more than just the two of us.
For those who I haven't talked to in a looong while, I have a beautiful, silly, at times annoying, and at times fascinating 3-year-old daughter, Adriana. I always told myself that even if I never married, I would raise a child. Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but that's what happened. Of course, I think I had an overly romanticized idea of what being a parent was like, but I still think it's a good deal. Every parent thinks their child is special, and of course I'm no different. It amazes me how quickly/early kids develop personalities or characteristics. She's already a composer, and she entertains and amuses us with the lyrics she makes up. I guess tied to that is her storytelling abilities. She's also a very social child -- much like I was at her age. I hope that's something she manages to retain while she grows up. Well, I could go on and on here about my hopes as a parent, but I'll ramble on to other info.
The fourth member of our household is my 82-year-old grandmother. I'm not sure between her and my daughter which of them can be more effort. She broke her hip a few months ago, so there's a lot she is not responsible for. She needs help doing certain things. It's just frustrating sometimes because it feels like she expects us to wait on her. I also think that she must have been pretty attention starved because she seems to think she will get more attention by either complaining about how bad/difficult her life is or picking fights. Things probably aren't as bad as the picture I'm painting. She can be pleasant to be around. It's nice to be around her when she's happy. It can just be a strain at other times. Fortunately, my mom and I tend to trade off those other times, so it's not so bad.
If you had asked me how I would feel about living with my mother at age 20, I would have responded fairly negatively. It's funny how we change as we get older. My mother and I are good friends, and I'm grateful that we're living together. It amazes me sometimes at how generous and selfless she can be, and I try not to take advantage of that too much. Someone once told me that I was in the process of figuring out how I saw myself as a woman, and she saw me studying female members of my family -- living and deceased -- to find the beliefs and characteristics I wanted to make my own and which I didn't feel fit me. I would have to say there's a lot that I have learned and would take from my mother in that respect.
In more mundane news, I'm working as a systems analyst for JP Morgan Chase in its credit card division. I've been there about a year, and I'm fairly happy. I have some terrific managers and co-workers, and the work is interesting and challenging. Initially, I was troubleshooting sytem issues with our financial business systems to determine if the issue was systemic, determine the cause, and suggest a solution. Now, I'm working on implementing temporary solutions for our more "critical" issues. Unfortunately, one of my team members transferred to another department last month, and things have been pretty pressured. We have processes that need to run by a certain time of day every weekday and Saturday (including holidays). Although a lot of it is automated, we still have manual processes and also need to ensure that the automated processes run properly. Another team member has been working the early hours during the week, and I've been covering them on holidays and Saturdays. Since I'm also working on development (in addition to previous duties), this has added up to quite a few hours recently. Working 70-80 hours a week is not ideal, but it's bearable as a temporary situation. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get a replacement approved, so the situation doesn't seem temporary. Anyway, all this adds up to me being very ready for a vacation.
So no great insights here .... sorry to deceive you. Maybe next time. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
