:: The Rants ::
What's in this section?
Ever just wanted to vent? Well here's were *I* get to do it.
We Put the “Pro” in Procrastination
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Who knew that this quip would set the tone for the rest of my life?
I have a lot of bad habits, like chewing my fingernails and sitting cross-legged no matter where I am (including restaurants, work, and church pews). Some bad habits, however, were definitely cultivated. I think my time at La Sierra University, and specifically at South Hall, really developed my ability to procrastinate and procrastinate well. In fact, I think it’s set me up to be a procrastinator for life.
At work now, I have to deal with deadlines again. Before, as a trainer, all I really had to do was show, “perform,” and clean up. Now, I have to read, process what I read, develop, and write and then send it out for multiple reviews where it is almost certain that your document will return in a mangled form, barely recognizable as the document you first submitted for review. I had my first hard deadline yesterday. W00t! PROCRASTINATION! My job is to re-write an already existing curriculum, BUT I spent so much time reading the stuff that already existed, that I ran out of time! In the end, I had 3 days to re-write the 100-page document.
I ended up working a little on the weekend and then staying up until 1:30 am the night before it was due. The morning after that was *not* pretty! It even began with a bad omen. I was exiting my parking lot, but it’s difficult to see oncoming cars, so I slowly peeked my car out into the street. There was a car about 6 car-lengths away heading my way and honking and honking. I couldn’t even tell what he was honking at. I rolled back a little in case my car was making him nervous even though he had plenty of room to pass. As he rolled slowly past my car, the old Russian man leaned out of his window screaming angrily at me, “STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEEED! STOOOOOOOOOOOOPEEEEEEED!” while his wife looked on in wonder.
Hmmmmmm...not a good beginning for the day.
Despite the rocky start, I hammered out my document and finished by 1 pm. PHEW! YES! I’M DONE!
...and then I had a talk with my manager afterwards where he said, “Congrats! Good work! Now let me give you about 7 more other deadlines coming up in very close succession!” This is gonna be my life for the next 2 months.
T___T
I think I’m gonna cry.
GIVE ME MY FREAKIN' KEYS!!!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Susan and I just signed a lease for a new apt, for which we were supposed to get the keys today.
As you might guess, since this is categorized under “The Rants,” we did not *exactly* get keys as promised. Susan went out of her way, despite having not slept for a great many days, to drive down to the rental company’s main office in Inglewood. That is NOT close. After waiting for a long time, they gave her the keys.
We decided to meet at the apartment tonight at 7 pm so we can begin the sterilization process. As you may or may not know, I’m paranoid of other peoples’ cooties. I’m fine with my own cooties, but your cooties are disgusting. We met at the apartment, which is also not particularly close to either school or work or home only to find that THE KEYS DID NOT WORK. Some genius gave us the wrong ones!
Now if we were leisurely people, this might not be such a bad thing. But we’re two overbooked, overstressed, overly type-A personalities. This did not go over well. We tried to call the 24 hour maintenance to open the place. We couldn’t get a hold of anyone. We called the leasing agent. “We can’t send anyone over to open the apartment. And no, we can’t give you keys that work. Silly girls. What were you thinking?” At which point we considered breaking down the door. You figure it’s their mistake, they should fix it!
What I would really like them to do is meet us at the apartment with the keys so they can PROVE to us that the keys work. They keep saying, “No, you have to come pick them up from us in the land far far away through trials and traffic tribulations.” Funny, they had a way of sending someone to show off the apartment. How hard could it be to meet us there to give us keys?
Is there no recourse for action? I’m just a little upset. Ok, *really* upset. I wasted 1.5 hours of my busy night just driving there and back and trying not to yell at the guy for not having this all in working order on the day of our “move in.” Thank goodness we didn’t actually have a truck with all of our stuff in it ready to be moved in! I immediately began plotting an escape from our already-signed lease. Surely there must be a legal loophole! Of course, I have absolutely no knowledge of law, so that was a very short thought cycle.
All I can say is if this is the way it’s going to be throughout our tenure at the new apartment, I’m going to have a conniption. Any of you legal people out there know what I might do in the case that they’re really not cooperating and continue to follow this course of negligence? Help!
I’m gonna calm down. Have some nice hot tea. Already had a full own turkey dinner to soothe my soul. I guess we can hope and pray that tomorrow is a better day.
Projectile Vomiting = A Weekend to Remember
Thursday, June 07, 2007
That’s right, you read the title, so you’ve been warned of the content of this post!
I totally blame it on 2 weekends ago when Suz and I went to the Bay Area and had lots and lots of fast food in under 5 hours. For the rest of the weekend, my stomach was cramping, begging me not to put any more food into my gullet. BUT being the trooper that i am, i managed to push through and eat all the food i needed to eat. 
This Saturday, it all came to a head. It started with a headache that led to some stomach cramps and nausea. I really thought i could hold it together through the dry heaving. And then it became not so dry heaving. To take care of the headache, Slim and I had stopped by the drug store to get some Advil and water. I waited in the car while Slim got the goods. I took the medication down and swallowed...and then it all came up again. 
I opened the door and hurled! EEEEWWWW! The security guard came up and asked, “Are you ok?” I gurgled back, “I think i’m fine, but i’m so embarrassed. Can i clean this up?” No, no, don’t worry about it, she said. And then she continued to stand there and stare at me and the puddle in the parking lot (ooo! Lots of aliteration!) while Slim ran into the store again to get soda to calm my stomach. And still she stared on. Uncomfortable!
After resting it out a bit (she’s still staring), we took off (waved goodbye). I just wanted to get home. We were *almost* there! ALMOST! We were in the middle of crossing 6 lanes on the freeway when (dum dum dum!) IT CAME BACK WITH A VENGEANCE! I had time to roll down the window as Slim drove to the shoulder of the off ramp. That’s when all hell broke loose. I puked out the window with abandon. Mind you, the car was still moving. My barf fanned out in a beautiful arc and splattered all over the side of the car, covering it in an ectoplamic goo. AND of course, when i had opened the window, the vacuum had suctioned out my hair, thus involving it in the collateral damage. We had finally rolled to a stop, but the sight of the aftermath made me get sick all over again.
Thank goodness Slim was there. After we got home, i crawled into the shower to wash out the residue while he went out and washed off my car. I then slumped into bed while he went to get food and water for me. I am SO grateful for him. Of course, i passed out for 13 hours straight, and didn’t get to spend quality time with him while he was down visiting, but i’m still so thankful that he was here to take care of me.
And the bottom line is “It sucks to be sick"--and the other bottom line is, “But if you’re going to be sick, it’s wonderful to have someone who loves you take care of you.”
The Unmovable Rock vs. The Mundane Grind
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
I am in a pickle - i can’t decide what Spiritual Season i am going through.
When i say “Spiritual Season,” I am referring to the idea of spirituality in terms of harvesting cycles.
1. Preparation
2. Sowing
3. Waiting
4. Harvesting
I am trying to figure out if i am simply in the “Waiting” season or am I wasting time not taking action? I am in an uncomfortable place where i don’t know if i’m being lazy or just patiently waiting. Both are torturous in one respect or another. Let me explain.
I have always thought that in order to follow the will of God in one’s life, one has to take action. Guidence comes along the way. A good analogy is that of a rock - a rock that is just sitting there is very hard to give direction, while a rock that is already rolling somewhere is much easier to nudge this way and that and to guide in a certain direction. So am i an unmovable rock right now?
Conversely, it could be that i am merely in the “waiting” season where i must learn patience. It’s like Joseph when he was in Egypt in prison after being falsely accused of raping Potiphar’s wife. He hung around, probably in chains for YEARS. Well, he did get to be in charge of the other prisoners, so i suppose that is one perk. But really, that was not fun at all and probably didn’t *feel* like he was doing God’s work at the time. Is that where I am now? Am i just waiting? Faithfully grinding away at a task that seems to have no real significance?
All i can think is that i need to spring into action.
ACTION. That’s the word of the year.
Happy Monday (aka Road Rage in LA)
Monday, April 09, 2007
Ah, i love mondays. And when i say that, i hope you can hear the sarcasm dripping from my maw.
As i entered the freeway to wend my way to work on my 45 minute daily commute, i met with a rude wake up call. I merged into the 2nd lane, making sure i paid due diligence and looked over my shoulder before i made a move. Before i was even halfway into the lane, i heard someone honking wildly at me. I swirved partially back into the 1st lane, trying to avoid what i thought for sure would be a collision. When i looked back again, the car wasn’t even close behind me! In indignation, i moved *back* into the 2nd lane in front of him.
...and then of course, i continued to drive in 4th gear at about 55 miles per hour. Just to make him remember that this wasn’t the fast lane. 
...And i boxed him in so he couldn’t get past me on either side.
So he finally got out and zoomed over to the fast lane with me right on his tail. I chased him. He tapped on his breaks to let me know that he realized i was following him. I juked but kept on his tail. At this point, the guy did something weird. He looked into his rear view mirror and made eye contact with me (though i couldn’t see him clearly at all), and then he did this coy finger-wiggly wave at me, as if he were flirting with me. His wave was reminiscent of icky Mr. Collins in the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice. Ew.
But I stayed strong. I didn’t flinch. Didn’t even register the icky wave on my face. And i continued to ride his tail up to 90 mph. (Parents, don’t worry, i’m exaggerating and it was actually 65 mph! hehehe) Finally, he exited, and i continued on my stoic way to work.
...I did feel a little guilty because i was listening to a sermon about following God’s will in your life. 
Slacking Off At Work
Friday, January 26, 2007
I should be working right now…
So i’m here in the General Surgery Outpatient Clinic right now. We just went live using the electronic medical record (EMR) system, so i’m on the floor supporting. But you know what? Nothing is really happening. I had no idea how many non-compliant patients there are that simpy don’t show up for appointments! Crazy. I mean, aren’t you getting a surgery done? Or didn’t you just have one done and need to get stuff removed? “Oh, i don’t mind that drainage tube. I kind of like it actually!”
So instead of helping people SAVE LIVES (or just remove a cyst or two), i’m sitting here using a COW (computer on wheels) to post. Nothing is going wrong. Everything is slow and methodical. There are a couple bumps but nothing irrepairable. It’s almost...boring. I even spent about an hour just shooting the breeze with this one doc whose last appointment got cancelled.
So the Rant is that i have no rant. How sad is that? The person who has an entire section dedicated to ranting, and i haven’t posted in a rant in months! What’s wrong with me? Have i lost my edge? Maybe there’s just too much to rant about and so it all becomes “normal” and therefore no longer worthy of mention. Hmmmm… Do i need more angry people in my life? Do i need more drama? No. Got enough of both of those. I think i need to live in New York again. Now *those* were some classic rants. Cockroaches, homeless people harrassing you for money and sexual predators making advances on the street. Ah for the good ol’ days again!
Anyway, i should thank my lucky stars that things have been going well enough that i don’t have anything specific to rant about. Except maybe traffic. Traffic sucks. Oh yeah, and my cow-orker/father-figure Jim is leaving to go to a different team. 
I’m sad! I don’t want him to go, but what can i do? So that’s worthy of a rant or two.
Sigh. Ok, well that’s all. I just wanted to keep you all in the loop.