Anything but Ordinary

So the 50 degree temperature swings can stop anytime now. No, really, anytime now. The constant up and down in temperature, combined with the massive amounts of snow we've had so far this winter have caused so many potholes everywhere that they can't keep up with patching them all and by the time they do the patches last all of a day or two before they're back to massive craters again and I spend my commute to and from the L station playing dodge the potholes. Let me tell you, its not as fun or as easy as it sounds.

Spent today hiding in my house, with the exception of the quick trip to the store as I was in need of groceries like nobodys business. The reason for the hiding was the fact that with the wind-chills we've been in the -20's to -30s today - which, I discovered, has caused me to not have hot water upstairs. I have cold water, ice cold water, but not hot. Thankfully its only upstairs that I'm having that problem and there was plenty of hot water in the downstairs bathroom.

Spent my day cleaning and watching Band of Brothers on History channel for the umpteenth time. There is so much eye candy in that miniseries it should be illegal and the casting directors should all have shrines built for them for their genius. No idea how I missed it before but Jamie Bamber had a small part in the mini - it took me a second to recognize him but a quick check on IMDB confirmed by suspicion that it was him.

And now I'm off to bed - with the bed warmer turned up to high. Stupid cold weather.

First, Happy (1 day late) Birthday to My Darling Daughter qwyneth!!!!   Hope you had a fabulous day, love :)

After much research and reading reviews and comparing models and the whatnot till my brain leaked out my ears I finally decided on which treadmill I wanted.  So yesterday I went out and bought it....and discovered the box was *huge* and no way in hell were we going to get it in my Saturn.  So I called my Dad who came up with his SUV after work and off we went to pick it up.  How the hell I ever thought I'd get that in the house by myself I will never know....I guess I didn't think the box would be so big or so fracking heavy!.  It took us at least 30 minutes to get thing in the garage, down the stairs and then manouver it into the basement.   Dad helped me get the pieces out of the box (who knew it didn't come fully assembled??).  By that time we were both starving and I declared that I'd put it together later.

Off to dinner we went and then Dad went home.

I went down to start working on putting the thing together....when it says 2 people are generally needed to put it together its right. However, being the creative girl I am the placement of some chairs and a shelf helped act as my "second person".  2 hours later it was finally done and I was sore from all the hunching over to bolt and screw things in place.  Dragged myself upstairs - laid down on the chair massager and promptly fell asleep on the couch for about an hour till the Hermione and Nymphadora decided it was 10pm and therefore time for dinner.  Cats fed and I was off to bed.

We've headed into some freaky January weather....just last week we had days with a windchill of -20.  Today we're supposed to hit 55 and tomorrow the low 60s.....and then we'll drop back to the 40s and then high 20s.  Its cruel to tease us like this, it really is.

In just a few short hours I leave to go sit for my LCPC exam. I think I'm ready, however my brain is also so stuffed full of info and diagnosis criteria that I think it may start to leak out my ears and that would be bad. I will be so happy when this day is over and the test is done and over with - and then the waiting for the results begins but at least my life won't consist of reading the DSM-IV and doing practice tests all the time.

One of my co-workers, B, called me yesterday right after I got back from lunch wanting to know why I hadn't been over to raid her chocolate stash to deal with my stress. I let her know I had, she had been busy yelling at a UR at the time, and that I had also done some retail therapy. I got the cutest dress at Ann Taylor yesterday and it didn't hurt that it was on sale for $70. I'd show a picture but apparently the AT website is down for a few days for redesigning. Now, i just have to find an excuse to wear it.

Also, we finally came out of the deep freeze and its no longer snowing in April - at least not for this week :) Its gonna be 60 today!

Now back to the books.

Make it stop. Just make it stop. Enough with the snow.

Its been snowing all day, its still snowing and blowing - dear gods the blowing. It took me 45 minutes to snow blow my driveway and sidewalk and looking out the window now you can barely tell that I did that. Half of my front yard was devoid of snow when I got home because it was in a 3 foot snow drift across the middle of my driveway. I'm sure I'll be going to work tomorrow but I'll be calling in late as I know its going to take me forever to dig myself out and the plows haven't even been through my subdivision yet. I had trouble getting through the subdivision to even get home tonight, I don't even want to think about what its going to be like in the morning.

So, just stop with the snow. Now please.

So tomorrow I fly away to Houston for jferthesquirrel's wedding.
The 500 mile long 'To Do' list has gotten smaller in the last 2 days.
Didn't leave work until 6:30 on Friday - Had to make sure nothing would fall through the cracks while I was away. Every thing that needed to be monitored or followed up on was assigned, instructions were sent to those that are covering my voice mail while I'm out and I'm sure every thing will be fine.
Dropped the girls off at my mom's on Saturday. That didn't go over well. Dora got herself so worked up and anxious in the car she threw up her breakfast...and of course she had to do it right at the front of her carrier so that some of it fell out of the cage and onto the seat. Yuck.
Mom said they've settled down some - Dora finally came out from under the TV cabinet and Mione has parked her ass on the dining room chair.
Got all the last minute shopping done yesterday, most of the packing done today.
Nails are done, hair cut this afternoon and I'll be all set.

Work has finally calmed down. The new system rolled out December 4th...and it was after Christmas before I finally left work on time. I spent 4 weeks not leaving until anywhere between 6:30 and 7pm. Everyone was pretty much exhausted and cranky for those few weeks but they've made some of the requested upgrades to the system, worked out most of the bugs and we're all adjusting to the new system and able to work significantly faster. Thanks goodness.

I've spent the last week cursing at the Department of professional regulation - those asshats down in Springfield who manage all the licenses issued by the state. I sent in my application in November for the LCPC (my full licensure) exam. I can't get another promotion at work until I have it. So application sent in...and just after new year's I got a letter from the idfpr - my application has been pended until I complete a class in group therapy. WTFBBQ! I had that damn class - even better it was an experiential class, asshats. Its on my fucking transcript - no its not called group therapy it was called personal and professional development but the course description clearly says its group therapy. Anyway - spent a week, thats right a week calling the damn phone number listed on the letter. For 1 week every time I called that number and I called *multiple* times per day, all I got was a busy signal. Every. Single. Time. Finally @ 4:30 on Thursday I got something other than busy signal - I got a recording. That had me on hold for 20 fucking minutes. Finally a real, honest to god, live person answered. And he was the most unhelpful person on the face of the planet. He couldn't tell me what I needed to send in to show that I had taken the class, despite the fact that included with the application was my transcript and *course descriptions*. So after he put me on hold for 5 minutes he came back on the line and said that the processing department would be calling me as they would know what I have to send in. It's now Monday @ 1:45 and no call. Fucking asshats. I don't have time to deal with this right now, so someone will be getting a very unpleasant call from me next week when I get home.

In other news...GO BEARS!

It keeps trying to snow out. We were supposed to get hit last night but the storm got pushed further north and we got mostly rain, some freezing rain. Its trying to flurry out right now but not much is sticking mostly due to the ground being so wet right now. The odd-ball winter weather we've been having for the last month - you know temps in the 40's to low 50's (we're all running around like its fall outside) has finally left. And I can tell you what happens next - every time we start off with weird, mild weather for winter we get bit in the ass, *hard*. And here it comes - The wind chill today is 18 (not too bad, could be worse) and there is a big white blob heading toward us on the radar. As long as the snow either finishes or goes away by tomorrow morning (preferable early tomorrow morning so there are no flight delays) I'll be happy.

These were the dreaded words that I pretended that I didn't hear during the break we had at my CEU this morning. I pretended I didn't see the big white mass moving toward us this morning on the radar too. I figure if ignored it hard enough the fact that it was snowing in October would just be a figment of my imagination. I'm briefly home for lunch and then I head back, but most of the evidence of the snow was gone when I left for lunch. There was a small smattering on the front lawn that seemed to survive but it won't last long.

It's a little on the chilly side today - 39 degrees with a windchill fo 29. Woooo!

My girls are having trouble figuring out what the hell I'm doing at home in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Mione is trying to get herself all comfortable on my lap, unfortunately I have to leave in 5 minutes to head back for 3 more hours. The material isn't boring, but a 7 hour lecture in a hot room that is very dry, in really uncomfortable chairs is not really how I want to spend my day.

And on that note, I grab my scarf and head out again

Well the good news is that its no longer boiling hot. Its only 70 degrees at 6:30am, which is an improvement over the last 3 days when its been at least 90 when I get up at 6am

The bad news is that the rain that cooled us off is...well the yellow and green blob on radar is *huge* and I going to be plenty wet by time I actually make it to work this morning. Nothing I love better then sitting in damp clothes in ice cold air conditioning.

On the up side its Thursday! Woo! One more day till the weekend.

I'll be heading to my mom's for the weekend as she's making me birthday barbecue.

Dad was up last Saturday. Went to Borders and got books, the saw Devil Wears Prada and had dinner. Movie was good - loved the part where Anne Hathaway's character gets sent to find the unpublished manuscript of the 7th Harry Potter book. LOL! Who wouldn't want to get their hands on that. The other best part was when I sat there drooling over the shoe closet...mmmm Shoes. Pretty, pretty shoes. ::wipes at drool:: where was I? Oh, right, the shoes and clothes closet at the magazine. The stuff dreams are made of. Which then prompted my dad, who knows that I've started saving up to by a pair of either Jimmy Choo's or Manolo Blahnik's, to offer to by me a pair for Christmas.

::notices time:: crap, I'm late!

It's WARM!!! *giggles*

Its 38 degrees out and I'm trapped inside. At work. Where its dead and i'm bored.

But its WARM!!!

Don't look at me like that - when the windchill hasn't been out of the single digits, or in Monday's case out of the negatives, for over a week, 40 degrees is a veritable heat wave.

Did I mention that I was bored?