I'm Tired

The title of this post needs is to be sung in place of I'm lonely in the INXS song 'What You Need'.

As of today, I have completed five 4 hour days back at work.
It sucks!

• My manager quit and the replacement starts mid-September. She is already micro-managing me via email.
• The girl who took my old job has been out 2 of my 5 days with her sick kids.
• There are 2 new empoyees working for me and I can't remember their names.
• 6 residents have gotten together and filed a class action lawsuit against the property and the company for "causing the inhabitability of their home due to the construction".
• 1500 of the residents are maintaining a bitch blog/google group. We have been advised not to join as it may interfere with the lawsuit.
• On Monday, a resident threatened to go back to his apartment, get his gun, and come back down to shoot us all. Lovely, isn't it?

I have regressed in physical therapy and have to take the vicodin again. I have actually gone backwards, and am back in the pool for less intense exercizing and stretching. I am very upset over this, as I was progressing with flying colors and getting a lot of mobility back. My therapist thinks that this regression is due to a combination of: my scar tissue hardening from all 3 surgeries (it is affecting the way I walk, can't get comfy laying down anymore), tweaking a muscle, and stress from the job. She can't believe how suddenly I deteriorated. I was so scared about the pain that I asked the surgeon to do an mri to ensure I didn't break anything back there. He assured me that short of a bus hitting me, my screws and disc would stay in place.

My first day back was last Wednesday.

When I got home, ak said that I have that look again.

What look, I asked?

He answered, the work look, where you seem pissed-off, constipated and about to cry all at the same time.

I asked him to slap it right off of me.

This surgery may be a blessing in disguise, as it has allowed me to step back and really take a look at myself. I don't like what I see, and hate the way work completely takes over me and changes my personality. I realize now that my priorities have gotten completely out of order, and how the office negativity eventually creeps into my personal life no matter how hard I try to shake it off....I am sitting here pissed-off right now!

Ok, enough!!
Everybody have a great Labor Day weekend! :)
Peace out.......

Anyway, at least it is only 4 hours a day right now :)

Happy Birthday, Newlywed!

...and the good times keep rolling for Chrissy this month!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DOLL!

...oh, I just wanted to add that I start back at work this Wednesday. I am on 1/2 days for 2 weeks, and then will be re-evaluated for full days. Not too happy about leaving the cave, but it must be done.

In physical therapy news, I have graduated from the pool to "land". I have been doing a lot of work with Pilates machines - I like them very much! I've been continuing with my walking every day, and have been adding exercises to my home repertoire.

Finally, I went to my Fantasy Football draft yesterday, and feel very confident in my team. akjn is also just looking forward to the beginning of football season. ak put a sweet program on my iphone called Draft Central 2008 for .99, and I that is all I walked into the draft with. All players are listed by rank and also name, and as you and your league are picking, you just mark(tap) that person going to your team, or someone else's, and then the pick shows up as drafted on all of the main lists. It also lists your team exclusively. For less than a dollar, this little application was worth it.

ok, that was it :)

Peace Out!

Chrissy & Eric ... Happily Ever After

...so after texting back and forth Saturday, and then playing phone tag on Sunday, Chrissy & I finally connected Sunday evening, and this is how the first part of our conversation went:

jmn: Hey! What's up? How's Block Island?

cns: Good, good....guess what we did?

jmn: (increased pitch & volume) OMG -are you engaged? Are you married? Are you guys having a baby?

cns: (giggling) The second one.

jmn: (hollering & crying) So happy, tell me everything! etc. etc. ....

..we then proceeded to have what I consider one of the best telephone conversations ever!

I also gave my congratulations to the groom, whose smile I could feel through the phone & across the miles :)

CONGRATULATIONS,

Mr. & Mrs. Eric Schmidt!

Recovery Reads (so far...just keep scrolling down)

Sin In The Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, And The Battle For America's Soul
Karen Abbott

Edgar Allan Poe, Selected Poems & Tales *
Edgar Allan Poe; Gaiman, Neil; Summers, Mark

Sparkles
Louise Bagshawe

Colorstrology: What Your Birthday Color Says About You
Michele Bernhardt

Boom!: Voices Of The Sixties Personal Reflections On The '60s And Today
Tom Brokaw

Possible Side Effects & Running With Scissors
Augusten Burroughs

Black Girl/White Girl
Joyce Carol Oates

Life With My Sister Madonna
Christopher Ciccone; Wendy Leigh

Be Nice (Or Else!): And What's In It For You
Winn Claybaugh

Candy Girl: A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper & JUNO: The Shooting Script (2)
Diablo Cody

109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer And The Secret City Of Los Alamos
Jennet Conant

The Front
Patricia Cornwell

The Collected Poems Of Emily Dickinson *
Emily Dickinson; Wetzsteon, Rachel

Dominick Dunne: Three Complete Novels (The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, People Like Us, & An Inconvenient Woman) & The Way We Lived Then (4)
Dominick Dunne

A Hopeless Romantic
Harriet Evans

Paint It Black: A Novel
Janet Fitch

Bright Shiny Morning & A Million Little Pieces * (2)
James Frey

Love In The Time Of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez

The Little Black Book Of Style
Nina Garcia

Something Blue & Something Borrowed (2)
Emily Giffin

The Beach House & Swapping Lives (2)
Jane Green

Down River
John Hart

The Drowning Season, The Ice Queen: A Novel, Property Of, Seventh Heaven, & The Third Angel: A Novel (5)
Alice Hoffman

Dead Sleep, Sleep No More, & Blood Memory * (3)
GREG ILES

Gods In Alabama
Joshilyn Jackson

San Francisco Stories: Great Writers On The City
John Miller

Anybody Out There?: A Novel
Marian Keyes

Candy Everybody Wants (P.S.)
Josh Kilmer-Purcell

If I Am Missing Or Dead: A Sister's Story Of Love, Murder, And Liberation
Janine Latus

Lady Chatterley's Lover *
D. H. Lawrence

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
Tucker Max

Behaving Like Adults: A Novel, Getting Over It, & A Tale Of Two Sisters (3)
Anna Maxted

Confessions Of A Nervous Shiksa
Tracy McArdle

The Time Traveler's Wife *
Audrey Niffenegger

Harvesting The Heart: A Novel, Perfect Match: A Novel, Picture Perfect, & Songs Of The Humpback Whale: A Novel In Five Voices (4)
Jodi Picoult

CSI: Nevada Rose
Jerome Preisler

Cost: A Novel
Roxana Robinson

Olivia And Jai
Rebecca Ryman

The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star
Nikki Sixx; Gittins, Ian

Names On The Land: A Historical Account Of Place-Naming In The United States
George R. Stewart

Lost Boy, Lost Girl
Peter Straub

Teach Yourself Visually Knitting
Sharon Turner

The Art Of War *
Sun Tzu

Certain Girls: A Novel
Jennifer Weiner

Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel
Lauren Weisberger

The Complete Stephen King Universe: A Guide To The Worlds Of Stephen King
Stanley Wiater; Christopher Golden; Hank Wagner

The Writing Class
Jincy Willett

The Handbook Of Style: Expert Fashion And Beauty Advice Every Woman Should Know
Sarah Woodruff

* = reread ( ) = multiple books by same author

The total is somewhere around 70 books. I did not include any of the puzzle books or magazines, either. I am waiting on an amazon order as I am writing this!!

I wish I could link you guys right into my personal library with Collectorz-it is so cool! They offer a zillion ways to organize your books, dvds, games, music, and comics. All information about a book is available, and I am able to sort the library by author, cover art, # pages, date purchased, etc.

I am having a ball with the scanner playing store, and am trying to figure out the best way to tackle the 20+ boxes of books sitting in the Rita Room right now. If I can do a box a day, it would be good.

Recovery note: I have been walking every day since July 31. ak got me a cool pedometer, and I am averaging 5284 steps per day/approximately 2.6 miles. My goal is 5 miles by September 22, so I think I am on track. I actually did 7170 steps yesterday, so it's not that far off :)

I hope everyone has a FAB weekend!