Things that bug me

Let's go in the way back machine to last November, shall we? Specifically 11/20/08, when I wrote about the oven repair guy. My oven had been out of commission for approximately three months before he was able to "fix" it. By fixing, I mean replacing every dadgum part of the stove, proclaiming it fixed, and walking away with almost 2,000.00

Since it wasn't fixed until after Christmas, I had no real use for the oven so never turned it on until May 15th of this year. I was going to bake some fish. Turns out that I should have not listened to repair guy number 1 when he said "these ovens take a long time to heat up. Trust me, it works."

It did work, long enough for me to show BJ that night. It heated up and everything. But on 5/15/09, it didn't work.

We were so fed up with repair guy number 1, that we called in a new company. Turns out that the relay board that guy number 1 replaced was shorted out because he forgot to ground it.

Hmmmm... why am I not surprised?

$897.00 later, the relay board is replaced. Repair guy number 2 proclaims it fixed after turning on the oven and we live happily ever after.

SCREEEEEECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..

Not so fast. The next morning I heard an alarm going off in my kitchen at about 5am. It had a code "F4". I hit cancel and went back to bed, not thinking much of it.

Yesterday, I decided to bake some spinach stuffed pork. I got the ol' "F4" code again and a dead oven.

Tell me, is it my destiny to never bake again? Seriously, we've spent almost 3k to fix a 5k oven.

And yes... I've called repair guy number 2. Their work is warrantied for 30 days. He'd better get out here toot sweet.

Whatchoo lookin' at?


I've been away for a while. I think I don't feel like writing when I'm down because I feel like such a whiner. Yes, I know I have a lot to whine about, but I also have a lot to be grateful for. I truly do believe that, even if I'm depressed.

I *know* in my heart that I wasn't let go because I was a bad employee. It still feels awful. I didn't think it would, but it does. I've received email from people I've worked with along the way that have written things like:

I still cannot believe any company that knew what it was doing would let you go. You were one the best processors I ever had, and other people I knew have said so many good things about you, I'm still amazed. I tried e-mailing you at work for the heck of it, and getting your out of office reply made it sink in that all these changes are real. It isn't [name of evil empire] without you.

I kind of need to hear stuff like that right now, ya know?

Anywhocares, on to this and that:

• Einstein continues to be adorable and smart. We 'think' he's potty trained, but still keep a close eye on him. He’s 9 weeks old and knows the following commands:
  
  Sit, Stay, Fetch, Lay Down, Look at me, Leave it (put a treat in front of him and make him wait until I say OK), and Don’t Bite (a very important one- my hands have become hamburger). Here's evidence of most of it.
  
  Sorry bro, potty talk- avert your eyes! Einstein has designated the herb garden as his potty ground of choice. The upside to this is that he smells herbal fresh after he does his business. The downside is that we won't ever use THOSE herbs for cooking. I never really did anyway. I was always in fear that the deer used it as a potty ground too.


• BJ and I went to a TOTALLY LAME job fair yesterday. Even lamer is that it was a 'together' thing. I never thought we'd ever go to a job fair together. We saw news cameras there and they panned past us. I'm really surprised they didn't focus on me. Sheesh. That could have been my big break, being a previous Little Miss America contender and all. I was having a GREAT hair day, I'll have to admit. I got several compliments from the folks I talked to at the fair. Too bad nobody was really hiring or interviewing people with great hair.
  
  The job fair consisted of people standing in their booth, not taking resumes, handing out their job openings on a sheet of paper (mostly sales, even Avon was there!) and telling everyone to go to their website to apply online.
  
  Why oh why did I dress for success? People were there in sweats and flip flops. I might as well have done that too. Nah- you'll never see me in public in sweat pants (well, except for the time I broke my face. I was so out of it, I didn't have time to do my hair or get dressed up to go to the ER.)
  
  I did coax some training vendor information from one of the health care organizations, because I also plan to add HIPAA to my list of training resources. It wasn't a total bust in that regard.
  
  BJ and I then drowned our sorrows at Dairy Queen. He got a burger and I got a shake. I don't think this no-chew diet is producing any weight loss because of my choices, but at least I'm a cheap date


• I canceled my cardiologist appointment because there's some confusion about our COBRA benefits. I'm sure it'll be worked out eventually, but I don't need the stress of wondering if several thousand dollars of tests won't be reimbursed, thankyouverymuch. I'm just going to have to wrap myself in bubblewrap and wear a helmet for the time being.


• BJ and I are getting on each others' nerves a little bit, which is completely understandable. We haven't upped the ante to poking each other in the eye yet, so I think we'll be OK. We've been tossing out snippy statements, but then apologizing about 10 minutes later. I think my constant need to pick things up and put them away is really nerve wracking to him, and his 'leave it to put away later" is nerve wracking to me. If that's our greatest marital issue during this horribly scary time, then I think our marriage is on safe ground. I hope with everything I have that this will be the time we look back on as the worst we've ever had, but survived it just fine. Please hope that for us too.

So that just about sums up my life these past few days. I am 'bout due for a good solid cry, so maybe I'll find a movie to help it along a little.

This is going to be a RANT. I'm mad.

The ER gave me enough percoset that if I took one every four hours, I'd be out of them last Thursday. Maybe they assumed that the face doc would give me more (that'd be a big fat NO). I used my last one yesterday morning and have since taken only Tylenol (not even touching the pain, thankyouverymuch, but I'm still doing it just in case).

I called my regular doctors office to see about getting in so I could get a new prescription. They're booked solid until Thursday because my doctor is on maternity leave and they're short staffed. The nurse suggested I go back to ER or to a same day clinic because they can no longer give prescriptions for pain meds without an appointment.

So that means that I get to sit for probably hours, being judged about having an abusive boyfriend/husband, and then possibly be judged by a doctor as being a drug seeker because they don't have my records.

For the record, I've never asked for pain meds- they've always been prescribed without my asking and from what I recall was only once (other than the head bonks) due to needing to get on an airplane with a screaming sinus infection.

I'd rather sit at home in pain. Seriously. But I'm MAD AS HELL that the drug seekers have caused this problem.

I have a call in to the face doc (who I'm seeing again on Friday) because last night my lips and upper gum have gone numb and tingly. I'm pretty sure that's not a good sign. Maybe she'll get me in today and I can get some pain relief.

I can't sleep lying down anymore because the pressure of my face hurts the broken bones. So, I've been sleeping sitting up the past two nights.

Alrighty, I think that's about all I can complain about right now.

Have I mentioned that I don't get to chew for six weeks? Good grief.

OK, now I'm done.

UPDATE:
The face doc's office called me back and said that the numbness was normal and I asked her about a refill of pain meds. She said that I'd have to come in to pick up the prescription (which I'm TOTALLY willing to do) and she needs permission from the doctor on call (which is not the surgeon I saw). She said that she's 90% sure that he'll OK it.

Cross your fingers.

If you'll recall, yours truly had three things to worry about:
1. My job
2. The 'girls'
3. BJ's job

We all know what happened with my job but now I know it was for the best; the 'girls' have to wait another 3 months for any kind of an answer; and today is the day that the big pow-wow happens in regard to BJ's job.

BJ is feeling really good about how his chain of command feels about him. He's done a great job for his company and has made a tremendous amount of money for them since he started. In fact, this quarter (his first quarter with the company) he made more profit than that facility has EVER made and he made the most profit of any facility in the company this quarter. Go BJ!

But, ultimately it's not up to his company to keep him employed. It's up to the one and only customer. They're used to a certain way of being treated and BJ wasn't aware of this. He thought his job was to make the most profit for the company even if it meant pushing back on the customer a little bit. That was drummed into him by his last employer. His current employer doesn't care as much about profit as it does about customer satisfaction, and forgot to mention this to BJ when he was brought in. They fully admit that it was their fault because they hadn't explained their philosophy to BJ.

As soon as he was made aware of this, he totally changed the way he did things- but was told it might be too late.

Let me put this into perspective for you. BJ is in the distribution business. He's the general manager of a facility that brings in cargo from ships from all over the world (mostly China) and then loads that cargo onto trucks for distribution throughout the state. Because of the type of merchandise he distributes, there are peak seasons. One is right before school starts and the other is right before the Christmas season. During peak, the amount of cargo quadruples (or more) and the customer expects the same turnaround as off-peak months. That becomes quite a balancing act between getting enough people to handle the peak without overspending. BJ's facility was off service levels by ONE day during peak and that's what the ruckus was about.

The meeting today is between the top level executives of his company and the customer. If the customer executives decide that they want to take their business elsewhere, then that means that his company will have to shut their doors and BJ will be out of a job.

The thing is, this particular customer has pulled their business from every.single.facility in our state- and BJ's is the last one. I used to despise W@lm@rt because I thought they were hard on BJ- but this customer is worse and has a horrible reputation. BJ knew that going in, but was up for the challenge. This customer makes W@lm@rt look like a bunch of pussycats.

I hope he hears something today so he can finally take a nice deep breath and relax a little.

It happened. Tonight as soon as I walked in my house.

I'm fully prepared (I think) to hear on Monday, "Lori- this is your 60 day notice". Unfortunately, that coincides with the day I have the biopsy. My whole team has to wait until I'm done with the biopsy and am home so we can all hear our outcomes in person. I think. Maybe we'll be hearing one at a time.

I don't know. All I know is that management wanted to know when I'd be home so I (or we?) could get the news.

I also don't know the outcome of BJ's job. We may or may not find out on the 5th of December.

I also don't know how the biopsy will turn out. I hope I'll find out by the 5th of December.

All I know is that I'm feeling a little crazy right now. There are so many what if's going on in my head. What if the biopsy turns out bad and we BOTH lose our job and insurance coverage?

Thankfully, I have Cobra- but it's gonna cost us almost 1k a month.

I think that tomorrow I'll contact my doctor to see about getting some Valium (or something like it). The panic attacks are coming on more frequently and I'm starting to feel unable to deal with all of THIS.

I've applied for three jobs today, even though I don't know when I'll be out of a job- just so I feel like I'm doing SOMETHING.

Monday. I can't wait for Monday. At least ONE thing will be off my list of "what if's". Only two more to go. Two big ones.

I can't wait until I find out what the lesson is in this. Damn, I'd better learn it because I do NOT want to go through this again.

Ever.