Topical steroid

My doctor prescribed a topical steroid cream for my bout with Pityriasis rosea. The itchiness is gone, which is great. But something else happened. The cream burned my skin. I have some serious discoloration going on that will take weeks maybe months to disappear, per my doc. I didn't even get muscles out of my "steroid" usage.

Scent

I have been observing people lately. Not much in the reading mood during my commute these days (due to the neck pain) so I use the time to check people out.

Women putting their make up on in the morning never cease to amaze me. What if someone bumps into you while you are putting on the mascara. The trains are crowded. You could seriously hurt your eyes. Is the risk worth it?

During the week I never get to sit by myself. Someone always sits next to me. There is that instant when someone sits next to you and you get their scent. Some days I'm lucky and the just showered person sits next to me. Is that Zest I smell? Such a clean odor, it makes me want to breathe deeper. Sometimes it's the person that had a cigarrete seconds before getting on the train. Don't like that much. It takes a few minutes to get used to the odor and eventually be able to ignore it. Why do people smoke? Yuk. Today was a doozie. On the morning commute someone that had a curry scent sat next to me. A strong curry scent. You know how when you walk into someone's house, the house has an odor? Often times it's a good odor, sometimes not even noticeable. Everyone has an odor. Other times, there is a distinct odor. That was what I was reminded of. A distinct odor. On the evening commute someone with some serious body odor sat next to me. Wow! Did you go to the gym and forget to shower? Do you not have a clue? Or maybe you just don't care. It was a nauseating 30 minutes. I had to alter my breathing. But I wasn't going to give my seat up, I was tired.

Body odor guy was also biting his nails. Biting nails in public does not look good. It's a bit gross. Biting nails is silent though, you don't get the nail clipper sound. Yep, I've seen and heard that too on the train. *Clip*Clip*Clip*

Exquisite Pain

The tension in my neck and shoulders has been building this past week. Today holding my head up required major effort. I made a last minute appointment with the visiting massage therapist. I was hoping to catch an hour, but my day was so hectic I was only able to squeeze a fifteen minute appointment. Oh my goodness! It was delicious even though the woman hurt me. It was painful when she hit the high tension spots, but it was a very good painful. The music was Enya-like. Of course. I told her, "I have a meeting in 15 minutes and I can't be late." Those fifteen minutes felt like an eternity. That's how good she was. She's got herself a new client.

I hadn't had a massage in years. The first time was great but extremely uncomfortable. The idea of having only towels covering specific body parts was too weird. I remember my friend and I walking up to the massage building and having to choose the therapist. It was either the extremely handsome guy or the petite older woman. We both chose the petite older woman. hahaha She was also amazing. When it was over I was milli-seconds from falling asleep. The next day I was in pain though, serious pain.

I should work on making massage a monthly (at minimum) event. That or acupuncture. I hear great things about acupuncture.

Simple

1) Gelato on a sunny day. Like today, running out of the office in between meetings to get a minor sugar fix.
2) The way Google changes their banner. Today they had a van Gogh spin on it.
3) Seeing people, anyone, with a genuine smile.

I love how simple, and I really mean simple, things make me happy.

Break

I took a break for about a week and a half, meaning I did not turn on the home pc. (There is no choice at work...unfortunately.) It's amazing how dependent I am on the pc. The need to check personal emails or the random reading. I'm looking forward to September. If all goes as planned, I'll be in Mexico visiting my grandmother. While there, television, computers and radios are not things that occupy my time. It's all about conversation and interaction every single day. The other wonderful thing about my destination is the quiet. I can sit outside and not hear anything. No noise pollution. The air is better too. I'm reaching my burnout point.

Someone from my team resigned today. Makes me wonder if he knows something the rest of us don't. I also said goodbye to one of the contractors today. And tomorrow I will be saying goodbye to another contractor.

My friend has decided to name her baby Sophia after all the potential names I wrote on the white board. Little Sophia will have to thank me in the future, she could have been a Hannah. Nothing against Hannah, I don't like the name because it sounds boring. What would be the nickname? Hann?

Bus

I still don't have my car so I took the bus this morning. These two women were talking (in Spanish) about someone who speaks Spanish but refuses to do so. This is not highly looked upon in my community. People that do this get on my nerves as well. As they are talking about this person they both know, they started looking at me like I'm one of those snobs.

This is always tricky. I've been in situations where I greet someone in Spanish and they answer me in English mildly annoyed. I've greeted someone in English and they answer me in Spanish more than mildly annoyed. How the hell am I suppose to know what language you want to be greeted in?

I've had the encounters where the other person assumes I don't speak English and proceeds to show me up. Ok, if you feel you must prove something go ahead, but don't get upset if I correct your language usage. There is this I'm better than you thing going on. Of course, it's not everyone, but it's there and I hate it.

Back to the bus ladies..."Esta gente con el nopal en la frente." Indirectly directed at me. What did I do? I'm sitting there trying to get to work, minding my own damn business and I am branded a snob. Somedays we run into these lose-lose situations and nobody is better for it.

Lunch talk

Listened to the founder of craigslist give a lunch talk today. Kind of cool to see the founder of the website I have visited too many times to count. He mentioned that the most traffic to the site happens during work hours. Go figure. We're probably all looking for another job.

Bored

I have spent entire weekends reading or watching DVDs, not seeing a ray of natural sunlight in over 48 hours. This is not new to me and on rainy days, like today, even welcomed on my part. Yesterday and today, in my new carless state, I have been bored out of my mind. I don't like to drive in the rain. If the car was parked in its parking space, I would not be bored. Am I so dependent on a car that I cannot enjoy my day?

The thing that really bothered me was not being able to make it to mass today. My parents called and after hearing my woe ask, "Why don't you go to church with your friends?" Oh, because my friends are atheists and are not going to want to spend 1.5 hours in church with me on Palm Sunday where we'd probably not have seats because everyone and their mamma would be there along with their screaming children. "There atheists?" Yes or non-practicing Catholics like yourselves.

Consequently, I have the cleanest apartment this side of the hills. Good way to start Spring. Maybe the lord does work in mysterious ways. ;)

Jinxed

As I am walking to my car this morning I see a leak of who-knows-what coming from my car, that is not a good sign. Not a good sign at all. I have to telecommute due to the unexpected car problem. I wait all day for the fateful call that will inform me the price of my discovery. At 3PM the call comes through, which starts and ends with this: "We need to check that you did not cause any engine damage. We are going to have to keep it here."

Wasn't I planning a vacation just a few days ago? Wasn't I looking forward to escaping? Wasn't I one hour from seriously contemplating buying a ticket to Hawaii? Yes, yes, and yes.

Engine trouble were the only words I needed to hear for me to put a stop to any and all vacation plans. I don't like unexpected surprises like that.

Alaska?

Continuing with my recent adventurous phase, I started looking for Alaska travel packages. I want to escape for a few days next month, so it would not be anything lengthy. Then New York or Chicago came to mind after some suggestions from Rori. She also suggested France in July. But France would require a bigger financial commitment than I want to make and I am suppose to be in either Vancouver or Calgary in July. My big travel expense this year is slated for Mexico in September. (Inshallah... as my friends would say.)

I only hope that by writing this down, I have not jinxed myself in any way. I would be content with a few days in a monastery with 24 hour quiet rules.

Persuasion

Went to see Laurie Puhn, J.D. share a bit of the concepts found in her book: Instant Persuasion: How to Change Your Words to Change Your Life. I am always in awe of people that can get up and speak. Not just speak, but speak eloquently and effortlessly. I want that for myself.

Some people say I already possess this ability. But I don't. It's not effortless and it sure as hell is not eloquent. I can relay information, but I believe anybody can do that. There is a difference.

From the seminar, I was happy to see that I already practice a lot of her rules. I just don't do them consistently and there is room for improvement...as with anything. I'll buy the book soon enough.

Modern Dance

I made a last minute decision to go see a dance performance this afternoon. I was feeling so adventurous I decided to just show up and not call ahead of time for ticket availability. Worse case scenario, I would wind up hanging out in Berkeley for a few hours. I'm glad there were tickets. I don't like Berkeley as much as I used to.

The performance was at the university. All the students looked so young and don't even get me started on the 'fashion.' It brought back memories of my freshman year. Oh, the memories. hahahah

For a couple of years, I've planned to go see an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater concert. I never got around to it for one reason or another. I definitely missed out all those years.

The program consisted of:

Hidden Rites (1973; music by Patrice Sciortino; choreography by Alvin Ailey; restaged by Masazumi Chaya*)

Love Stories (2004; music by Stevie Wonder; original composition composed and produced by Darrin Ross; choreography by Judith Jamison with Robert Battle and Rennie Harris*)

Revelations (1960; traditional spirituals and gospel music; choreography by Alvin Ailey)

Needless to say, the performances were beautiful. Fun. Hidden Rites was very modern. Love Stories with Stevie Wonder music?! Great. A hip-hop thing going on. I was feeling it. Revelations was excellent, and what a lot of people in the audience (repeat attendees) were looking forward to.

In school I had a very snobby attitude as far as degrees were concerned. This attitude strengthened by a lot of hard work and countless sleepless nights to complete the workload. I, and my classmates, literally lived in the lab. Some of the guys used to sleep under the table. Therefore, you could not convince me that dance was worthy of a degree. One evening when things were not making sense anymore because we'd been working non-stop for too long, we took a break. We went to see a friend perform who was taking a dance class in the Arts building. It wasn't just him dancing, it was a rehearsel for the dancers year end show.

I still remember a ballet solo by this girl, who was, plain and simple, not attractive. She started her solo. By the time she was done she was not only the most beautiful woman in the place, she helped me to see the beauty of the arts and respect them. I was moved to tears.

Then it was back to the lab, each of us had chosen our poison. ;)

Pityriasis rosea

I was misdiagnosed. It's not a bacterial infection. The antibiotics did nothing for me. I went to the dermatologist today. Within two minutes she knew what it was: Pityriasis rosea.

The best part was this: There is nothing you can do to speed it up. It usually lasts within 6 to 12 weeks. Best case scenario, it will be gone in three weeks. Worst case scenario, you will have it for 9 more weeks.

The itching is driving me crazy. I was given topical steroids to calm the itching, which I have to pick up tomorrow because the pharmacy didn't have it in stock today.

Hey, maybe I'll get the Christmas tree pattern. Joy!

Screwed

I screwed myself and was screwed by my coworker. Not in the "get-your-mind-out-of-the-gutter" sense, thank you very much. (If that were the case, this would probably be a happy post. Anyway...)

A document that was suppose to be up-to-date was grossly out-of-date. To the point that I had to rewrite the whole damn thing. What I thought was going to be two hours of edits turned into a f*cking all nighter. Meaning that as of the writing of this very sentence, I have been awake for the past 35 hours. The meeting was at 11AM and I finished printing all the copies at 10:58AM. That was close.

I'm upset with myself because I was told it was current so I delayed looking at the document. I already knew what I needed to edit, it was going to be quick. I'm upset with her because she lied to me. I'm upset at the team because we did not review the document at the meeting...they were too busy talking about the new project that takes priority over this one as of 10AM.

I accept my part in this. I am a procrastinator. I used to live for this kind of pressure, my best work usually came from these self-created, stressful scenarios. But today, this is not my thing anymore. I value my beauty sleep too much.

Virus

My computer is the host to one of the IM worm viruses. Someone take my computer away, I don't deserve it.

Saturday - Work

It's the first Saturday this year I had to go into the office. 10 hours! It won't be the last, I know that for a fact. This one was a consequence of too many meetings and too much socializing.

Babyshower #2 Luncheon

J started crying when she saw all of us gathered in the room. That was a hormonal cry if I ever saw one. It was fun to hear all the parents giving advice and hearing them tell us about their parenting learning experiences, aka mistakes.

And to further cement the geek factor one of the guys called into the babyshower. Yes, he teleconferenced into the babyshower. Like my ex-manager said, we've seen it all.

All my work friends are becoming members of the Mommy Club. One by one they are acquiring their membership this year. I'm happy for them, but I really don't look forward to all the baby topics that will begin dominating our conversations.

Design Review

Yeah, the design reviews are interesting. There was a time they gave me butterflies. I eagerly looked forward to all that stuff. Now, I look forward to walking out the door even if it is my genius of a crush leading.

I wonder if still finding them "interesting" will turn into a mini-passion again. After all, donde hubo fuego, cenizas quedan. ahaahhaha

Circus

I wish I were one of the graceful members of Cirque du Soleil. Graceful does not equal body contortionist. ;)

The arts are missing from my life. I'm going to the art museum next week. Haven't done that in ages.

Babyshower #1 Luncheon

"A" had her babyshower today. Doctor told her she could have the baby any day now even though her due date is March 20.

Farewell Luncheon

Today we had a farewell luncheon for three coworkers. Their contracts have not been renewed. One of the side effects from the offshoring endeavour. (Personally, I think I have between one or two years before my job is in danger...that's if I don't leave first.)

If you are a contractor you get paid a lot more than employees. And supposedly, the trade off is that you know the company can be let go at any time and no benefits to speak of. I could never contract. I don't like that level of uncertainty.

March!

Can it be March already?!?