18 May 2009

Damn mouth still hurts

So, on the 11th I wrote a blog complaining about how badly my mouth was hurting. I'm here to announce that the damn thing still hurts! Badly! Okay, may be exagerating a very little bit. It still hurts enough to get my attention and really annoy me. I find myself sitting with my hand across my cheek because A) it somehow makes me feel better and B) if my hands are cold it's like a cold pack (yes, I sometimes get that cold). I quit taking the vicodin on Friday. I suppose this indicates that it's not hurting nearly as bad. I can pretty much control the pain with advil so I suppose that's better. It seems to really kick in to pain mode later in the evening. Like now for instance. It sucks. I'm tired of it! I don't go back to the doc until Thursday morning. I hope to hell it quits hurting by then. It's been twelve and a half days... will this pain ever end!?

15 May 2009

Spinning

So, last night I was out to dinner with some of the ladies that I used to knit with when one of them says she might have a job for me. Woo-hoo! Side jobs are wonderful! She tells me that one of her aunts needs her stairs repaired. That's easy enough. Then goes on to tell me that this same aunt is a knitter and spinner. Ears perk up... definitely sounding interesting. So, she says that another aunt suggested that we barter. I fix the stairs at no charge and the knitting/spinning aunt teach me how to spin at no charge. I think this sounds like a fantastic idea! So, I tell her that I'm all for it. The only requirement is that the aunt would have to buy the materials for me to fix the stairs. I then would of course buy my own roving to learn to spin with. I gave her my e-mail and phone number so hopefully I'll hear from her. I would LOVE to find someone to teach me to spin! Yea! Exciting!

BC Pills

I'm a bit irritated by drug companies and insurance companies. This isn't anything new, but it was thrown in my face again while I was watching the news and it really pissed me off. I heard on the news (or on a commercial during the news) that phiszer (not sure how it's spelled) is going to give away viagra to men that have lost their jobs. Are you fucking kidding me!? This seems like the least of their worries, don't ya think? Why does this piss me off so bad? Well, let me tell ya. It used to be that drugs like viagra and cialis were covered by prescription drug plans (the insurance companies). Covered. Really? Is it that important for a man to get hard? I mean, seriously, I know everyone (most everyone I think) enjoys sex, but should a drug that makes your dick hard really be a covered/paid for medication? I've been on and off birth control pills for the last seventeen or so years and I don't recall any insurance company ever picking up the tab for that. So, they'll pay for a man to be able to have sex, but they wont pay for a woman to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. How does that seem right? Is it more cost effective for an insurance company to pay for the prenatal, postnatal and life long care of a new human? It seems that paying for birth control would be much more cost effective in the long run. Maybe I'm just bitter because the cost of my birth control (each month) has recently gone from $64 to $75. Yes, I pay $75 per month for the convenience of not getting pregnant. When I was gainfully employed it was annoying, but doable. Now, it sucks. It would seriously cost me less to get knocked up, let the insurance company pay for the pregnancy and the kid and apply for state aid. Okay, I know it wouldn't cost me less than $75 a month to raise a kid, but it's just so fucking mind blowing that they'll pay for and/or hand out free viagra-type drugs, but not for birth control. Am I the only one that finds this wrong?!

Getting off my soap box now. kthxbai

Schools out for summer!

School. It's officially over for this semester. Thank goodness! It was a LONG semester. However, on the plus side, I earned two A's (Social Science and Humanities) and a B (Math). So, my GPA is currently 3.75. Guess I'm smarter than everybody thinks! Either that or I just know how to fool people. ;)

14 May 2009

School is OVER... almost

So, after dealing with the wisdom tooth drama last Thursday I realized that I had a final that night in my social science class (which I loved every minute of). Fantastic. In pain. On heavy drugs. Taking a final (that I hadn't studied for). Priceless. So, I studied for an hour or so before heading off to class. I also had a paper due in the same class that night. No worries on that one. I had it written on Wednesday because I knew that with the tooth drama I would not be up to writing a paper Thursday afternoon. Thank God I thought ahead for a change! At any rate, I went to class. I turned in my paper. I took my final. I actually felt pretty confident once I was done.
So, that's one class (out of three) done. Praise God!
This past Tuesday I had another final. It was for my humanities class. My humanities class that tortured me all semester long. While I'm sure the professor is a nice man outside of school... he sucked at school. Holy hell! I can honestly say that I don't think there was a single person in the class that liked him. It took everything in me to drag my ass to class twice a week. I read all of the required readings. I completed all the required homework. I wrote the paper... I got a C. I don't get C's. I get A's. That hurt a bit. I could have rewritten the paper, but I had lost all heart when it came to this class. It sucked the life out of me. Every time I tried to participate in discussion I was shut down. I missed two classes throughout the semester. The only reason that number wasn't much higher is because I believed I needed the attendance credit to carry me through to the end. Oddly, the last week and a half of class the prof decided to let me participate in class. He actually told me I couldn't answer his questions one night because I knew all the answers and he wanted other people to participate. I shit you not! I almost fell off my chair! So, as I said, this past Tuesday was the final for this hellacious class. I studied. A little. I was so disheartened by this class that it was all I could do to force myself to study. Apparently it paid off. I got 128 out of 129 questions right. That's roughly a 99%. That's obviously an A. Knock me over with a feather! So, within about ten minutes of finishing the final he had my grade posted online. I got an A! How the hell?! I even asked him, just to verify, if that was accurate. He said, "You got an A, why are you so surprised?" How do you respond to that?! "Well, since you usually ignored me and tore my paper to shreds, I just thought..." Yeah, I wasn't going to say that. I just said thank you, made 30 seconds worth of small talk and went on my merry way. Holy Hell!
So, I took three classes this semester. Two traditional (on campus) and one online. So far... two A's (in the traditional classes). The verdict is still out for the online math course. I have until 11pm today (the 14th) to take the final online. Then... I'm done! I'd love to say I'm expecting another A, but it'll be more likely that I'll get a B. I'll update when the verdict is in!

Ooh-ooh! Since I'm rambling about school! I was reading in the e-mail Carpenters union newsletter that I get every couple of weeks that my school (which is part of the Chicago Community Colleges) offers courses geared toward earning associates degrees in environmental technologies and building energy technologies. Why is this a big deal? Well, I'm in construction and currently unemployed. So, I went back to school to a) make good use of my time off and to b) make myself more marketable. So, rather than just getting a general associates degree I might as well make it in something that has to do with the construction field. And, since green building is the wave of the future, not to mention something that I'm very interested in, what's not to love!? I'm going to wait until the summer semester is under way and make an appointment with an advisor to see where I stand and what I would need in order to attain this goal. I'm very excited about it!

11 May 2009

My fugging mouf hurts!

I had my lower right wisdom tooth pulled last Thursday. It was impacted and they pretty much had to chisel it out. I didn't think it would be a big deal. After all, I had already had my upper right one removed and it didn't hurt a bit. Ha! Was I in for a BIG surprise! Thursday afternoon my mouth hurt... A LOT! And that was WITH the vicodin the doc gave me. Shit! So, I loaded up on Advil too and that seemed to help. So, for the last five days I've been alternating between vicodin and advil to try and keep the pain under control. Actually, I've been trying not to take anything, but that's not working out so well for me. Think it's counter productive actually. I'm just too stupid to figure that out. Anyway, I called the dentist's office (a surgical place) today and asked if this was normal. Informed that it was and that in another day or two it should ease up and I'll start getting back to normal. Holy Hell! A whole week! My mouf and jaw hurt so bad I could almost cry! I said almost! I have a high tolerance for pain, but this thing is kicking my ass! Oh well, had to vent. Going to find the vicodin now. Cheers!

05 May 2009

So Proud...

I'm so easy. Seriously! I just figured out how to put the status bars with my works-in-progress (WIP's) on the right side of the page and I had to write about it. LOL It took me a while to figure out where the hell to put all the code, but I figured it out! I'm not as dumb as people think I am! Really, that's just an act. If people knew my IQ I'd have to start acting like a grown up. :)