Hi guys — it's been a while, eh? Looks like the last entry was three years ago, which was three years after the one before, so I guess I'm right on track! Still in Washington, still mit Hund, but gainfully employed for several years now and insanely happy. I'm almost finished renovating my kitchen, another week to go. I hope all of you are well and happy and enjoying the holiday season!
Almost 3 years since I posted, I can't believe it. Time has definitely gotten away from me. I hope all of you are well and happy :)
So I'm still in Washington though unemployed (for almost 2 years). My job only lasted a year, unfortunately, and I've been struggling ever since. I bought a house 6 months into it so there are days that the stress is almost unbearable. But I have a dog now, whose name is Griffen, and he helps take the focus away from all the negative.
Well, I'm back ;) Monday was one month since I moved out of Pennsylvania. Hard to believe.
The move went pretty well, overall. The movers and car transport picked up on the 22nd and then I flew to Seattle on the 26th (I stayed with a friend in the interim). My boss graciously offered me the "mother-in-law" suite in her house until my stuff came. I thought it was going to be very awkward, and at the beginning, it was. I arrived the day of her birthday and she and her husband (who also works for us) went out for dinner, leaving me the run of the kitchen. How do you cook in someone else's home when you don't know where anything is? Let me tell you, it wasn't easy! But I ended up really enjoying the time we spent together, going back and forth to work and then to dinner and so on. Yet, when the car got here on the 30th, I really just wanted to be on my own. First in a friend's apartment, then in my boss' place -- it was too much "togetherness" for someone used to living alone. So I lived in a Best Western until my stuff arrived on April 3. A few things were broken but nothing much to write home about -- the cost of doing business, especially coming from so far away, I'd say ;)
The new apartment is about a mile from the ferry, so I take a bus, but can walk when the weather gets nice. I don't know if I'd do it in the morning but I did walk home one night and it wasn't too bad. I'm starting to get back in shape with all this walking around, not to mention the hills in Seattle ;) Life on the island does have some drawbacks though -- of course it's beautiful, but it's not as convenient as living in the Philadelphia suburbs. The larger stores are off island -- Kohl's, Trader Joe's, etc. I haven't ventured out yet -- I only just finished unpacking this past weekend. It's tough when you work all week -- I'd almost forgotten.
The people are great at my job. Quality assurance is a new area for me but so far, everyone has been really helpful in getting me up to speed. I'm going to a training course this weekend in Indianapolis that should help too. And hopefully I'll get to do some marketing so that some day, I can do risk assessment again :) The goal is to have a practice here, but that will take time.
I know that life is about change, but it doesn't mean that I'm not constantly amazed by it. Within the space of a few weeks, everything has turned upside down. And finally...in a good way.
After my mother passed, I felt kind of aimless. I started looking for a job again and nothing was materializing. I tried branching out from the sort of toxicological consulting I do, into regulatory affairs, and I simply couldn't crack it. There was just too much competition at my level from people who had a lot of experience (compared to my not having any), and none of the recruiters I spoke to came up with anything for me despite their initial excitement.
So the summer wore on. I can't say I was depressed, exactly, but just out of sorts. I decided to go to Australia in October, to visit my darling schlaggy and her husband, and had a ball with them for two weeks. When I left, I had two potential positions I'd interviewed for -- one in DC and one in Annapolis, MD, and felt positive I'd get at least one of them. Well, I got neither of them. And then, out of the blue, a recruiter emailed me about a position in the Pacific Northwest. Would I be interested in that, considering how far that was from my current location? Sure, why not? Especially since my best friend lives near Portland, and I was feeling more and more that I needed a shakeup. Nothing much was happening in Pennsylvania -- it was getting to seem "played out".
So at the beginning of January, I flew to Seattle for the interview. The company was very interesting. It was a small, woman-owned consulting firm consisting of 20 people, which had just bought a data analysis firm of about the same size. The previous owner was retiring at the end of 2013 and the person they were seeking would be her replacement. And who was their main client? NOAA -- managing the Deepwater data. Since oil spills are one of my specialties, it seemed a good fit. And they also liked the toxicology/risk assessment work that I could potentially attract.
After three weeks of back and forths -- a follow-up interview on the phone, contacting references, producing a writing sample and even taking a writing test, I was informed that I was being offered the job.
And now comes the fun part -- picking up sticks and moving to Seattle. I should add one bit of sad news -- Frodo passed away on January 18. He was just 3 months shy of his 20th birthday. Of course, I miss my baby dragon like crazy but it had become such a concern how I would get him out there safely, that I feel like the timing was for the best. He was frail, not eating much, not pooping, etc.
Anyway, that's my story. Is this a happy ending? No, a happy beginning :D
Hello my friends -- long time no talk to you. Unfortunately, this time I come as the bearer of bad news. My mother, Bernice, passed away on Monday, May 7. She was 86 years old.
The last time I posted, my mother had just moved into Sunrise. And during all of January and February, I had her entire apartment in Brooklyn to clean out, utilities to shut off, insurance to cancel and then start up again for the new state, hired an elder lawyer to prepare power of attorney papers, etc., and generally ran around like a lunatic. All while getting her settled and making sure she was as happy as possible. And let me tell you -- in the beginning, she was not. She agonized over the money we were spending monthly for her to live there, and promptly decided that none of her fellow residents were worth getting to know ("None of them are with it."). However, she fell in love with the staff, and they with her. They were always telling me what a pleasure it was to have a resident they could kid around with and come to for advice (Jewish momma ;)), and what an honor it was to take care of her. I truthfully didn't care that she wasn't interested in playing bingo or even having her meals outside of her room. She was starting to relax and accept, and I started breathing again. I figured that in March, if all went well, I could relaunch my job search and get on with my own life. Little did I know...
A couple of weeks after my birthday in February, she developed shortness of breath. 911 was called and she was taken to the hospital -- blissfully, only 10 minutes from my house! (unlike Brooklyn, which is 2 hrs away). It turned out that her hemoglobin was low (it had been before, thanks to her Stage 4 kidney disease) and she needed a blood transfusion. She was in the hospital for 3 days. Less than a week later, she had to go back, and this time, it was even worse. The doctors thought she was actively having a heart attack. The angiogram showed no blockages, however. But other tests showed she was in congestive heart failure. And since, owing to her age and general physical condition, it was considered a terminal diagnosis, hospice was called in.
So we limped along, up and down for two months. She had some great weeks, and some really bad days. Worst part was, the good days started to get my hopes up that maybe we weren't approaching the end. Even the hospice nurse thought we had more time.
But she started sleeping a lot. And last Saturday afternoon, she didn't wake up, and slipped into a coma. By Monday, it was all over. I was there with her when she took her last breath, and I have to say, she had as comfortable and beautiful a death as she could've had, if such a thing is possible.
So here I sit, with a life altered forever. It's surreal, really. Yet, my overriding emotion right now is relief. I don't believe in heaven, so I can't say she's in a better place, but I certainly feel that the life she had -- the incontinence, the fear, the not being able to walk or chew or pick up things -- wasn't worth living anymore. Losing a loved one is really hard, but life does go on. And now I just have to figure out what I want to do with the rest of mine. I'll keep you posted ;)
Happy New Year to everyone out there. I hope you all had nice holidays. What did Santa bring you? He brought me the System Fix virus :( I was down for about a week, but luckily, while it was hard to get rid of, I don't *think* it did any permanent damage (crosses fingers).
Our 2011 ended with a bang. On the 27th of December, I got a call from the rehab facility to inform me that Mom's Medicare coverage was running out...the next day! Medicare allots 100 days per year for rehab, and we exhausted quite a bit of it the first time through. At first, I figured, well, no big deal really. I'll pay for the four days left in the year and then the clock will start again. Wrong. It takes 2 months for the coverage to start again. And at $400 a day (!), there was no way we could afford to pay privately for long. Our wonderful government at work *shakes head*
I had already been talking to Sunrise, the assisted living facility I wanted to move her into, and fortunately, the small studio (the cheapest room they have, and only one left at the time I toured) was still available. On the 30th, Mom officially became a resident of Pennsylvania. And ten minutes from my house! I'd love to say it has all been smooth sailing, but no such luck. Because of Mom's condition (and probably due to the fact that she wasn't able to complete her rehab), she needs far more care than we originally thought (dressing, incontinence, still can't walk, etc.). So the bill is over $6000 per month!! There's no way we can afford that for long either. Let's just say...her funds are not unlimited. And Mom's attitude is bad. She told someone when we first got there, "I came here to die." Ugh.
BUT...because we moved in during December (and not January, like it was supposed to be), Sunrise waived the $3000 community fee that they usually charge (it was a special they were running). That was huge, so there was definitely some good in all this.
I guess I can feel accomplished at having gotten her out of Brooklyn. But now I have to worry about money, and what happens when it runs out. There was really no alternative. She was not able to take care of herself, and certainly couldn't have gone back to her apartment even if she had finished her rehab. And when all was added up, having a caretaker in the house, the rent, food, utilities, etc., also came to over $6000 a month. What's a person to do?
At this point, my position is this. We'll spend the money and I'll apply for Medicaid. She'll have to move somewhere else (Sunrise doesn't accept Medicaid) but at least she's in a great place for a year or so. In the interim, I'm also applying for a monthly veteran's benefit that we can get because my father was in the Navy during wartime. And hopefully at some point, I'll have a job again and can help support this very expensive monthly bill...if I don't lose my mind in the bargain! Happy New Year, my friends!
Oh -- and how could I forget...it's January 4th. Happy Birthday to my darling Till, the sexiest man alive ♥
"I've put this off for far too long." Not intentionally, mind, it's just that there are SO many things going on right now, that keeping up with LJ and fandom and so on has just gotten really hard for me. Especially since three or more days a week, I have no access to a computer while I'm in Brooklyn. So for those of you who've kindly been following along with all this, I hope you'll forgive me for not being a better correspondent. I've put this saga behind a cut. Feel free to skip if you're not interested.
I'm finally all caught up on here, I think. I had to skip 520 to get back to October 12, when I left for a week in Brooklyn (Frodo came too!). Mom was discharged from rehab on the 13th (god, seems so long ago now) because, according to the facility, she had attained her physical therapy goal. However, it had more to do with the fact that the Medicare benefit ran out, leaving me with a huge dilemma on my hands. She really still couldn't walk, and what the hell was I going to do with her?
Luckily, our case was assigned to Visiting Nurse Service of NY (VNSNY), which is a very fine agency, and the package of services includes visits from a nurse 3x per week, occupational and physical therapy 3x per week, and an aide for 3 hours every day, 5 days per week. To me, however, the most important component was the aide, and 3 hrs/day was just not going to cut it, especially since rehab insisted she have 24/7 care. Since at that point, we didn't know whether, or when, she'd be able to have the colostomy reversal surgery, it was looking like I'd have to live in Brooklyn possibly indefinitely. Fortunately, a nurse from VNSNY recommended a woman, Fanessa, who was looking for work and had worked for 9 years on another colostomy case. One call and we had Fanessa for the other hours. She apparently can't cook, but otherwise, she takes good care of my mother, and now that I'm not there anymore (I was there until last Friday), that takes a tremendous load off my mind. Not cheap, but definitely worth it.
On 10/20, we visited the surgeon and arranged for the reversal surgery on 11/14. One of the biggest obstacles she'll have to face is the potential for post-surgical infection. She's gung ho with going ahead with it, and won't hear otherwise. What will happen after the surgery is still up in the air. She's dead set against going back to rehab. We'll see.
In other news, I had an interview in Washington DC on Monday at a trade organization for manufacturers of agricultural chemicals, seed coatings, etc. This will be a very challenging position, and very different from what I'm accustomed to doing -- which is great! I definitely don't want another position in consulting, where my career has essentially stagnated and where I've been laid off from different firms multiple times. This position will still be technical but there will also be interactions with media, work on committees, potential for testifying on "the Hill", etc. etc. Basically I'll be the lead human health advocate for all the member companies. Kind of scary but it's time for a shake up.
However, it also will eventually involve moving, and although that, in and of itself, is hard enough, there's also my mother to consider in all this. I'll be going 2 hrs further south from her. The way that I see it, I can't leave her up in NY, even if Fanessa does come back as her full-time live-in after the surgery. It's just too far. So IF things work out, I'm really looking at placing Mom down there as well, either in a facility or in an apartment. Fanessa has indicated she would come too. Her children are both in the military so there's very little keeping her in Brooklyn. She's from Guyana originally and her family is primarily scattered around the US and Canada. Sounds too good to be true. Again -- we'll see ;)
One final note -- October 12th was the 14th anniversary of the passing of my beloved John Denver. It seems hard to believe that that much time has passed already. But despite the loss, there have also been wonderful gifts in my life that I would not have had otherwise. I'm sure I wouldn't have known many of you. I certainly would've never met the woman who is my best friend, and will be for life. There would've been no Rammstein...well, who's to say? Maybe those guys would've found me anyway :D It's always so amazing to me how life works, how it's so true that when a door closes, a window opens. It's a beautiful thing.
Like the icon says....arrgh!!!! I went out the other day to find that someone had pried a little panel off the bumper of my car. The whole thing is about 3" long and maybe 2" high. It's called a tow hook cover. I'd let it go but it looks crap without it -- see?
Well, I called the dealer this morning and this stoopid plastic part has to be custom painted silver to match the car. It's going to cost me over $50 to replace and the REAAALLLY stoopid thing is, it could happen all over again. Apparently, kids are stealing them and putting them in the spokes of their bikes, like we used to with a playing card. It's like a sort of trophy.
Thanks to whoever the jerk was out there that swiped mine!
I am the president of an online organization called It's About Time. This is part of what I wrote for our September 2001 edition:
9.11.01
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 started out being a day like any other. It was a beautiful, early fall morning. The sky a radiant blue. I got to work at 8 at my office in Exton, Pennsylvania. I read my email. Drank my coffee and ate breakfast. Nothing unusual…..until the news began to spread around that something was going on. We gathered around a radio as the broadcasts came in about the first plane that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. An accident? Had to be…but obviously wasn’t when the second jet crashed into the south tower. Suddenly, my phone began to ring and emails arrived to inquire about my mother, who works in NYC. Luckily, she was home sick that day, as was another friend who works not too far from WTC, downtown.
We found an old TV set and managed to get it working, and we assembled in the warehouse to watch in horror as the other events of the day unfolded. The Pentagon. The crash in western Pennsylvania. It seemed that it would never end. Where next? I half expected to hear that the White House was bombed…and the Statue of Liberty too. It was all too much to comprehend. And then the great Towers fell, like so many dominos stacked end to end. Gone in an instant.
My feet were leaden. I walked back to my office in shock and disbelief. For you see, not only am I an American, who perceived a threat to myself and my family and my country, but I am also a native New Yorker. The grief I felt for my home and the thousands of souls potentially lost went beyond measure. What had they done to “my little town"?
I was 15 years old when those towers first rose into the sky. And to tell the truth, in the beginning, we hated them. Many in New York felt they were ugly and out of scale with the rest of the elegant skyline. There was no huge rush to inhabit them – there was even a time that a good part of the buildings stood empty. But like most things, though, we got used to their hulking presence. They became our Wonder of the World, they were full of life, and business, and tourists would come and gaze up in awe at them, hardly able to even see to the top…
…Gone in an instant. Gone too, our security and our nonchalance in living in the US.
********
9.11.11
I had not lived in New York for almost five years on 9/11/01. I never had any particular connection to the WTC, had never actually been in either of the towers -- once, I went with a friend to the Chambers Street subway stop, which was beneath them. But I remember very clearly on 9/11, standing there in that warehouse, watching the Towers crash (and I seemed to know instinctively that they would, for some reason), that my overwhelming feeling was, "I need to go home." However, I was 2 hrs away and there was no way to get home. None of the bridges and tunnels were open for a while.
The first chance I got to go home to Brooklyn was probably the following weekend. And it wasn't until I drove across the Verrazano Bridge, between Staten Island and Brooklyn, that the nightmare of 9/11 became all too real. For, as you drive across the bridge, you get a marvelous view of the NYC skyline. Only...where were the buildings...?
It was barely another 20 minutes to my mother's apartment. I cried the rest of the way home.
This week's frivolities included going to see the surgeon on Thursday for a follow-up visit. My mother is insistent that she wants the colostomy reversal and won't even think about anythng else. Thing is, the surgeon is going to have to remove her entire colon (because it's severely compromised by diverticula) and reconnect her rectum up with her small intestine. Since the colon's job is to absorb water from wastes, living without one is going to play...shall we say....fast and loose with her digestive system ;)
She keeps asking me what my opinion is but I say that it's not my decision to make. It isn't. As much as I loathe the idea of her having to go through all the trauma of surgery again, I'm not the one who has to live with a colostomy bag at 85. Sigh. And so it goes.
Last Monday, my mother called mid-afternoon to tell me that she was being taken back to the hospital, to the emergency room. Her blood count had dropped and she needed a transfusion. Since I was working on a project, I couldn't get there until mid-day on Tuesday. Wednesday, she was taken for an endoscopy, since it was suspected that she was bleeding from somewhere. It turned out that she had two small ulcers just below her stomach. She's now back at rehab. It never rains 'till it pours!
...and the hits just keep coming. About 15 years ago or so, Mom developed diverticular disease, which ended up causing a fistula to form between her colon and her urinary bladder (you can paint the picture for yourself of what was coming out in her urine besides urine ;)). At the time, the surgeon removed the piece of offending colon and that was that. She was released from the hospital with the warning that she should make sure to take fiber supplements, not eat any nuts or seeds, etc. Well, I went up to visit her about three weeks ago, to find her lying on her back, in agony. We rushed her into the ER and it turned out that her colon had ruptured. Unfortunately, unlike before, the surgery had to be performed under contaminated conditions (her colon -- and her body cavity -- were filled with what the surgeon called "little rocks of stool") and he had no choice but to give her a colostomy bag. At least temporarily, anyway.
Mom is currently in rehab in Brooklyn, where I travel weekly to bring clean clothes (I have to do the laundry -- the rehab is a floor in a nursing home and they don't do it for the rehab patients), food (she hates what they serve), take care of her apartment, etc. She's completely miserable with the bag and only wants the reversal surgery in three months. However, I don't know that she'll be a candidate for it, and frankly, I can see this all happening again at another point since her colon is already full of diverticula. And she's 85. Why subject yourself to such trauma AGAIN if it's unnecessary? But my mother is bound and determined. She finds the bag embarrassing and disgusting.
And the bigger question is -- who is going to take care of her when she comes out of rehab? She's still fighting me tooth and nail about having someone in the house or her going to a nursing home....
One good thing about being unemployed -- I have the time now to do this.
If something earth shattering has occurred here, I apologize for missing it. I haven't been around, really, for weeks. So please fill me in :)
We had Frodo's 18th birthday party yesterday. Three of our human friends came, accompanied by two iguanas and a chuckwalla:
This' the birthday boy surrounded by his friends, Wally the chuckwalla (the dark one on the left) and Pickles (peering over the edge). And here is his cake:
A good time was had by all, scaly and not-so scaly alike!
Actually, it was 18 years ago today that I adopted him but I celebrate this as his birthday. Eighteen in Hebrew is "chai", and it's considered an auspicious number. So Happy 18th Birthday to my wonderful Frodo! And no, you can't have a car!
I got kind of fed up with how bare my house was looking after they took the trees away (MONGRELS). So this year, I decided to plant some ornamental grasses around the patio fence and in front of the house. Have a look:
I have ten plants. They are -- no joke -- Elijah Blue Fescue :)
a big change in my life. It's starting to feel like it's time to get out of Dodge. Not much is happening on the job front, and Mom's home aide coverage ends next week.
So what's a toxicologist to do but start looking further affield and contemplate taking her with me. I sent a resume to a firm in Florida, on the Gulf Coast (Santa Rosa Beach). That would be a gorgeous location, I think. I've been to Pensacola before, and that part of the state appeals to me much more than further south. Of course, if anything goes wrong job-wise, I'm really marooned in an area where not much is going on economically.
But shit...I'm 50. And life is going nowhere. Time to get off my ass.
I finally got to the gynecologist after canceling the first appointment (it was the week of my mother's first "episode"). The GYN put me on a low dose birth control pill. I have a follow-up appointment (actually, my yearly) in a month and then we'll see where we are. I'm not thrilled -- I gained weight on this same pill about 20 years ago, and I don't want to go through that again (especially when I work so hard to keep it off!) -- but I gather that the pills have been updated since. We'll see ;)
I went up to Brooklyn last week on Wednesday to bring groceries and generally check on things, since the nursing agency was supposed to send an aide to start on Wednesday. In the afternoon, the physical therapist arrived, and the first thing she did was take my mother's blood pressure. It was 241/110, and she had a bad headache. Fearing she could possibly have a stroke, we were sent to the hospital emergency room (her doctor was away for Passover). We sat in emergency all night, from 5PM until 11AM the next morning, until she was transferred to a room. We were told she could go home that evening, but the doctor who was supposed to sign the discharge orders never came back after his morning rounds. That meant leaving her there overnight until Friday. Because we had no coverage over the weekend, I stayed until Monday AM.
The cause of the whole incident looks like it was her regular hypertensive medication stopped working. Now she's on new medications and they appear to be working.
So a trip that was supposed to have lasted two days ended up being five. And how many pairs of underwear do you think I had packed for this? ;)
My mother and I have a signal. I ring the phone once and she calls me back. We do this because if the cordless is being charged, it takes her a few minutes to get into the kitchen to pick up the wall phone.
Mom normally calls me by 4, 4:30, especially now since I'm not working. So Monday, around 5, I realized I hadn't heard from her. I called. One ring. No response. I tried again a few minutes later, thinking maybe she was in the bathroom. Still nothing. OK. I left it for a few minutes and tried again, letting the phone ring the full seven rings this time. Nothing but my own voice on the recording. I remembered that it was Monday, and she goes to a retina specialist every fifth week -- could it be that she had an appointment I'd forgotten about (wouldn't be the first time) and that it was running late? She usually calls me on her cell but OK -- I waited. Six o'clock. Still no answer. I then called her next door neighbor. She wasn't home. And I'm beginning to panic.
I made myself dinner and attempted to choke it down. There was nothing else to think but that something was very wrong. Finally, I ran upstairs and threw some clothes into a duffle bag, all the while calling 911 in Brooklyn. Finally, just as I was going through the door, she called.
She was on the floor again. I told her not to worry, that 911 was on the way and that I was getting into the car. A two-hour, white-knuckle ride later, I found her back on her bed -- the police had been there, and she was covered in urine. It turns out, she had been in the kitchen doing something when her knees buckled out from under her (again). She slid to the floor and couldn't reach the wall phone in the kitchen. The cordless, which she usually has in her walker basket, needed to be charged, so she couldn't use it to call out, and the cell phone was in her bedroom. Failure on all counts. It turns out, she had been on the floor for almost 10 hours.
We went to her doctor on Tuesday and he found a pinched nerve. Don't even get me started about this doctor -- he does nothing but throw pills at her, despite her history of herniated disks and spinal stenosis, not to mention two years of complaining about back pain that he never found until now (?). But at least we have a path forward. She needs surgery and we found her a nursing agency that will give us 20 hrs a week on her Medicare. That's a start, anyway.
But Life Alert? She won't even hear of it.
I was there until Friday, and will go back again Wednesday. I'm whiped.
...that is the question. As a woman who's had a hysterectomy (and only 50), it looks like I'm the cohort best served by the newest data out there with respect to benefits vs. risks. Any of you have any experience to share? I'm seeing my gynecologist on Tuesday to discuss possibly getting an estrogen (only) patch, and I thought I'd see what you guys have to say.
ETA -- I should've said this originally -- my "power surges" are annoying but manageable, and I haven't had any night sweats or really bad mood swings. But what I do have, that's driving me crazy, is the mental fuzziness. There are days that I can't spell, can't string two words together, etc. I'm a technical person who's out of work and looking for a job in my field -- I've already futzed up an interview because I couldn't think straight. I want the HRT to help with that specifically.
In other news, my mother saw the kidney specialist yesterday and was told that it was one of her medications making her ankles/feet swell. Her kidney problems do not appear to have advanced since she was first there 2 years ago, so that's really good. She has finished her course of Procrit/iron so the anemia's gone for the time being. I just wish she could find an answer to her chronic pain issues. Still no movement on getting help in the house for her. I'm working on it ;)
On Monday, I attended a Brownfields conference in Philadelphia, which had 7,000 attendees! I passed out a bunch of business cards and got some good responses. We'll see.
It had to do with an interview I'd gone on, and the fact that the job was already filled, and that I'd been basically brought in on false pretenses?
Well...this is ARRGH Part 2.
This morning, I got an email from the idiot recruiter who knew about this all but didn't tell me. Actually, I got two emails from her. The first, sent yesterday at 5:30, was a posting from Careerbuilder for the same damn position THAT WAS ALREADY FILLED:
"I have an opening for an Ecotoxicologist in New Jersey. I am reaching out to you as I think you would be a perfect fit for this role. Relocation is covered in this position.
If you are interested in this role, please send me a copy of your resume in a Word document to my below email address..."
This morning at 9AM, she sent this email, subject line "Ecotoxicologist Opening":
"Thanks for taking the time to speak with me about the Ecotox role I have open in New Jersey. Unfortunately my client has chosen other candidates to move forward in the process at this time."
This is a form letter. I knew that they'd hired someone, they told me at the interview, and I was never actually ever in contention for this position.
I emailed her and said, essentially, WTF? We were discussing the possibility of them creating a job or using me as a consultant (and they appeared to be very interested when I was there). Her answer to me:
"I may have titled my email wrong to you and for this I am sorry. What I was trying to let you know is at this time, xxx does not feel you are a fit for any of their openings whether full-time or on a contract basis."
Again -- there was no opening. I'm still totally confused by all this. I emailed again to get clarification -- basically, "what the hell happened?", and this was her final response:
"xxx let me know this morning, they won’t be able to create a position for you at this time. I wanted to let you know so you could move along in your job search with other firms and not rely a xxx."
OK -- I get it. Thanks but no thanks. I'll live. But she's obviously a moron, and that's incurable.
Northeastern. You're probably from somewhere near New York City, possibly north Jersey, or Connecticut or Rhode Island. If you are from New York City you may be one of the types who people never believe when you say you're from New York.
If you are not from here, you are probably one of the following: (a) A Philadelphian who can't stand the way other Philadelphians say "on"; (b) A Yat from New Orleans; or (c) Someone from England, Australia, or New Zealand, in which case why are you doing this quiz in the first place?
Take this quiz now - it's easy!
That's absolutely my accent -- and I *am* one of those who people never believe is from NYC!
It was 9 degrees this morning but very sunny. And since the house was nice and warm, I thought Frodo (aka King Farrouk) might like to sit on his pillow and look out the sliding glass door in the dining room. He gets a real kick out of basking there and bobbing at anything that moves -- leaves blowing, the mailman, etc. When it's very windy, the house is too cold for it, so this was a great treat in February.
Well, I was sitting at the computer, he was at my feet, and all of a sudden, I looked down and saw Frodo with his mouth open and his tongue arched. This is the iguana universal signal for "I'm stressed!" And in his case, I gather he got too hot. Or possibly the sun on the snow was too much for his eyes. HOWEVER...he has legs, he's not in a fish tank, he could've easily moved his preciousss self out of the direct light. But no. He's letting me know he's stressed and he's not moving a muscle.
And that, my friends, is the very definition of stupid. It's like the old one about geese standing around in a rain storm and drowning because they're too stupid to close their mouths. A good thing I love his almost 18 year-old self dearly :D
Here's a picture of King Farrouk -- notice his very dramatically closed eyes:
Perhaps others have already posted this, but this' the full video version of yesterday's press conference in New Zealand for The Hobbit. The cast already seems to have a great rapport, and personally, seeing Aidan Turner there is making me VERY happy!
Hello Kats and Kittens -- yes, it's really me, after a long stretch of posting only birthday greetings (when I remembered to, that is! grrrr, menopause) or fandom updates (JA, Rammstein! More on that later). Just wanted to throw in a quickie (!) since I might feel like expounding more later on -- one never knows!
