The Information Highway is Paved With Good Intentions and Porn

So, I’m sitting here at work, basically just trying to keep myself sane until 5pm, when I decide it’s definitely time for a blog update. My poor bloggy has been so neglected, sometimes I think I should just give it up and hit the delete button, but then I remember all the really good stuff I’ve written here and I just can’t bring myself to do it. I tell myself that I’ll get better, and post more often, but as they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and apparently so is the internets. Good intentions and porn.

Things have not really changed too much since my last post. I’m still struggling in a job I can now say that I honestly hate. It’s not the position at all-I love my role as a receptionist. It’s actually what’s going on within the restructuring of the company as well as the behind the scenes drama-rama that’s just making everyone insane. It’s only getting worse with each day. Needless to say, I am looking for another job-no big surprise there, right?

I think I’d like to do something a lot less receptionist-y, and maybe more administrative. I have mad admin skillz! *sillygrin* I’d also really enjoy something in which I could actually use my college degrees-maybe editing or proofreading?

Of course, if I won the lottery and became a multimillionaire, this would all be a moot point and I’d be writing blog updates from Cabo, so maybe I should just better start working on that!

My dad is doing well, though we’ve been told he’s reaching the end of his physical therapies and will need to be moved to a permanent, semi-private room soon. He’s no longer a candidate for assisted living as he is still very impulsive about his decisions and is not very ambulatory by himself. What this means of course, is we’ll now have to switch to private pay and begin the whole process for applying to Medicaid. What a pain in the ass.

I just began another bellydancing session with Michelle at The Goddess Hour. Loves it! I’ve also been working a lot on my hoopdancing with the help of online tutorials and I found a wicked awesome online hoop community, Safire Dance, through Safire’s youtube hooping tutorials. I’m not brave enough yet to post my own hoop video-I fear I still look like a seizure victim at times and I’ve not lost that “learning a new trick” face of utter concentration. When I’m more confident in my skills and flow, I will definitely post some vids!

I have some new pics to post too, which I’ll try to do either tonight or sometime soon.

Smoochies!
~TC

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The Good, the Bad, and My Aunt Ellie

So, I’ve been trying to write a blog post for days now, but nothing’s coming. The problem is not that there’s nothing going on. The problem is that there’s too much going on and honestly, where do I freaking begin?

Some stuff I can’t discuss, namely the stuff at work. Work is completely ridiculous right now. Things are happening in upper management that are just drastically changing the face of how my company has always done things. Employees are nervous, scared, confused, upset, frustrated, angry—you name it. There is very little communication. Couple all of that with what’s going on with the economy and you have a pretty good idea of the chaotic mess we face daily. Not good.

Dad had quadruple bypass surgery 10 days ago at Rochester General and is doing great! He was discharged this past Monday and is happy to be back at the nursing home. I’m still having a really hard time balancing all this Dad stuff. It takes so much time from not just me, but Craig too. Finances, appointments, visits, needs, wants—it is definately alot. And then dealing with his sister, who’s been such a huge bitch, is just another headache. She called on Sunday around 7 or 8pm, the night before he was discharged, telling me she and her family were coming for a visit this coming weekend from PA & MD. Several times, I very patiently explained why I thought this was not a good idea. He’s just getting discharged, he needs recovery time, he will be very tired and not really up for an extended visit. She told me in no uncertain terms that she comes “now or not at all.” She also was intent on asking wildly inappropriate questions, such as how we’re paying for his care. *shakes her head*

She doesn’t understand. This is not about her. It’s about him. Let the man have some recovery time for crying out loud, before you come blasting your way up here, expecting all day visits. Saying you’re coming now or not at all, doesn’t punish me, it punishes him. I could give a shit whether you came or not. In fact, it would be one less headache for me if you stayed home. And it is absolutely none of her business how we’re paying for anything! Of course, I said none of this to her in the spirit of niceness, getting along and respecting one’s elders.

She didn’t hear a word I said the entire conversation, but rather competed by talking over me. Just like my dad does. I just let her do it. She was rude and classless, and bullied me for information, while I was nice to the Nth degree and tolerant, oh so tolerant. At the end of the conversation, I was left with the impression that she will do whatever the hell she wants to do, regardless. I think she thinks I am deterring her visit because she believes I’m hiding something from her and so now she’ll be more determined than ever to get up here this weekend. Grrrrrr. Let the poor man have some rest!!!!

I feel stressed. I feel like I have no control over my life. I feel like my life really isn’t even my own any more. It sucks. THIS SUCKS. And there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

There is some good stuff though. *sparklygrin* I’m enrolled in bellydance classes again-actually my 8 week course is almost over and it’s nearly time to sign up again. I took a hoopdance class as well this time around and absolutely loved it. I’m completely hooked now. As soon as my instructor posts her new class schedule, I’ll be signing up again for that as well and bringing a friend or two with me.

Thanks to Facebook, I’m back in touch with my cousin John (from my mom’s side) *grinwavies* as well as a few other people I’d kinda lost track of. Yay! I heart Facebook.

We saw Fleetwood Mac in March and had mad awesome seats!!!! Craig had gotten us tickets for my birthday the day they had gone on sale. Then a couple weeks before the concert, I won two more tickets, also pretty great seats, and gave those to a friend of mine and her boyfriend. It was such an AWESOME show. I loved it!!!!!! And I was sooo sad when it was over-I didn’t want it to ever end. Lindsay, Stevie and Mick all looked fantastic and performed as though they enjoyed every second of it. It was a magical night!

The nice weather is slowly starting to get here. Yay! I’m excited about doing gardening and flowers and vegetables again this year.

My inlaws are moving back to this area from TN. They close on their new house in May, so that’s pretty exciting. We’ll be glad to have them back.

I’m rereading the entire Laurell K. Hamilton “Anita Blake” collection and so I haven’t really read anything new, so to speak, in awhile. I’m on the 14th one right now-“Danse Macabre.” These later books are so full of the ardeur-it sometimes gets a little tiring, but I do still enjoy them. Once, I’m done with those, I wanna reread Charlaine Harris’ “Sookie Stackhouse” series, hopefully before the new season of True Blood starts! *happysigh* I lovelovelove that show. That alone is worth the cost of HBO, not to mention the Tudors and Big Love and all the other great series.

I’m also addicted to The United States of Tara on Showtime.

I guess that’s about it for now. Happy Hump Day! We’re almost to the weekend-yay! Now, if I can just make it though the rest of the day…..

Smoochies,
~TC

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A Comfortable Pair of Shoes

My father has worn wingtips his entire life, or at least as long as I have known him. He had wingtips he would wear to the office, and shiny, flashy wingtips he would wear for a night out. He would wear a pair of old battered wingtips to putter around in the yard or to take a walk or a bike ride. He always wore dress slacks or work slacks as well, with the constant button down collared shirt. No shorts, jeans, or sweatshirts for my dad. I’m not sure why he was so opposed to wearing casual, comfortable clothes however I can speculate that maybe his style of dress was simply a reflection of how he felt inside, and how he viewed the outside world around him.

Recently, my dad has begun wearing sneakers, as they are required during his physical therapy. His therapists had me buy a size larger than what he had requested because, come to find out, he had been wearing the wrong size his entire adult life. The size I got him was perfect and for the first time in his life, my dad was wearing comfortable shoes in the correct fit. Even now, weeks later, he seems always amazed at how comfortable they are and how good his feet feel.

Last night at the hospital, I had an opportunity to see my dad’s bare feet as they stuck out from beneath his covers when the nurse asked him to wiggle his toes. His feet are deformed and knotty looking from years and years of stuffing his feet into too small a shoe size. They look painfully awful and I can’t help but think how sad it is, that he’s lived his whole life this way.

In fact, his feet are kind of an analogy for how he’s lived his whole life. Uncomfortable with himself, I think, and with others around him, he used formality as a type of wall to close himself off from the world. He would rather live pinched and uncomfortable than open himself up to things he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, understand. Maybe he feels that by doing without any luxuries or comfort, and suffering silently on a daily basis, that that somehow makes him better than everyone else, stronger, more resilient.

We all end up at the same place eventually. Time has a way of creeping up on us. It’s difficult for me to understand my dad and his quirks and eccentricities, and I have long given up trying to “help” him see another side of things. Now, I smile and make small talk, and bite back the remarks that might argue or upset. We have never had a bond or a connection, we have never had an in-depth conversation, and perhaps it for this very reason. It pleases me though now to know that at the very least I was able to give my dad a comfortable pair of shoes.

Smoochies,
~TC

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