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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
urbanfiber's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | |
| 4:53 pm | Survived the first week at the new job So far, I have survived one week in my government job. I am now toiling away for the city, and working full time. I work in a building that has gargoyles on it. I am exhausted. My brain is full, and I am only starting to learn the stuff I will need to be doing. Here's hoping I can pick it up quick! I work in a cubicle and do a lot of adding up numbers on a calculator. I answer phones and attempt to answer questions. I park in the High Falls parking garage because it is about the cheapest deal in town -- $39.00 per month and it is enclosed so I won't have to dig the car out when it snows during the day. I'm too tired to think straight, and don't really feel ready to go in and start it all over again tomorrow, but that's what I'll do. |
| Friday, October 31st, 2008 | |
| 9:10 am | Endometrial biopsy time! One of the most intriguing aspects of having cancer is that when they give you all the potent meds to keep one kind of cancer at bay, you run the risk of getting a different kind of cancer from the "cure". So, some of it seems a million years away, like when they tell you that some percentage of the people who have chemo end up with leukemia in ten years. Others of it area bit more immediate - I need to take a hormone treatment drug called tamoxifen for five years. And, one of the charming aspects of it is that it causes uterine cancer, so I get to have a myriad of repulsive tests on a yearly basis to make sure it has not, in fact, given me a new cancer. So I had one fun test called a trans-vaginal ultrasound, but they weren't able to "get a really good look" at what was going on -- so I got to have an "endometrial biopsy" yesterday. I was a bit concerned when I saw the test prep sheet --"take ibuprofen every four hours for 24 hours before the procedure" - now, that can't be good. So I did it, and was glad I did. You go in and at first is seems like you are just going to have a pap smear. But, in fact, as my dotor described it, the procedure is like a "mini D & C" - except they don't knock you out. My doctor conversationally chatted about how he was scraping out the uterus to take tissue samples -- as he was doing it. It was not as painful as you might think, but what was weird was after it was over I was too faint to sit up so I had to lay here a while until I could sit up without getting dizzy. My doctor chattily said that it was not uncommon for women to faint after this procedure. I love it. Had I known that, I might have had someone take me in a car, rather than walk to the procedure, figuring it was no big deal. And I don't really feel up to running a marathon today, either. So I ma having a last "day of leisure" --then the weekend, then the New Job starts Monday! More on that later. |
| Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 | |
| 7:16 pm | End of an Era Today was my last day at my retail job. My short term goal was to be outta there before the next "Black Friday" and I met that goal. There are already signs up there saying "Absolutely no one has off on black friday -- no exceptions!" so I am not sorry about the timing on this transition. It was an interesting ride. There are things I will miss, and things I will be glad to be rid of. Standing up for several hours straight has taken a toll on my back and feet -- I have no idea what my new job will consist of, but hopefully, some of it will be performed in a sitting position. I never did get around getting "direct deposit" of my paycheck -- I kept hoping I'd just find another job and I'd leave. One of the gals, Bev, baked me a cake, and everyone was very pleasant and wished me good luck, so here's hoping I have it! |
| Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 | |
| 9:39 am | The best thrift shop sale of the year! Today starts the annual Ronald MacDonald House ABC sale in the old Dick's sporting goods store in Henrietta -- the world's biggest yard sale. It is huge -- and the quality of the stuff on sale is much better than you might expect. People contribute to it all year round and you can find clothing, accessories, furniture, kitchen stuff, office stuff, exercise equipment -- you name it and they've got it. See you there!! |
| Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | |
| 8:31 am | Bailing out the banks You know what I would like to see? I'd like to see all the ceo's of the banks in trouble put on a budget for the next five years. Each of them can make $80,000 per year. No "golden parachutes", no millions of dollars of severance pay for a job poorly done, just a middle class income. Oh, and they have to provide their own health care. They can start with one credit card with a $1,5000 limit and an interest rate of 30 % - add to that a few kids who need to be educated, clothed and fed. That would be a reality show I would actually watch. Why doesn't anyone just come right out and say that people shouldn't spend money they don't have? And that they shouldn't borrow what they cant pay back? "W" spoke to the nation this AM, telling everyone how great it is that the government is bailing out the bank so people and businesses can keep borrowing money. Maybe he should have told them to stop borrowing and pay back what they owe? Would that be too revolutionary? And who has any confidence that they will be able to get a student loan next semester? Or, better yet, how are we going to pay to heat our homes this winter? |
| Monday, October 13th, 2008 | |
| 8:17 pm | Who's going broke? I work in a store. I work in a craft store. I work in a store where you don't ever really need anything. Ever since the stock market went nuts [maybe 10 days ago?] we have been busy. Busy. Unbelievably busy. I have people lined up ten deep to buy Halloween decorations and b*tch that we don't have enough Christmas stuff out yet. I have them complaining to me because they have a 50% off coupon and they want to use more than one of them and we will only let them use one. And, like today, they all pay with $20.00 bills. Or $50.00 bills. Or hundreds. I can't remember how many times I had to get change today - no one paid with anything small. So who exactly went broke with the stock market ups and downs? Maybe they are spending their last pennies on fun stuff to escape from reality...who knows? |
| Friday, October 10th, 2008 | |
| 9:48 am | The behinder I get I took a brief trip last weekend to Washington DC to visit family - it was my sister Abby's birthday, and I heard there would be cake...... There was, it was great to see everyone, but I still haven't caught up on the day-to-day routine here. Part of the reason I have trouble getting back into the swing of things here is that I would really prefer to be living in the DC area so I could just see my family more often without it being a big expensive deal to go hang out with them. Plus, malcontent that I am, I feel at home there, and I've never really had the feeling that this is "home". Never mind that I have lived here 20 years. I keep telling myself to get used to it, but you know, I've come to the conclusion that your brain can tell you one thing, but your heart tells you another. I'd like to clone myself, and have the clone do the drudge work here on the home front. I managed to fit in a Weavers Guild meeting - we're having a show and sale the first weekend in December at the lodge at Brighton Town Park. Brendan has some hand-carved jewelry to sell, and I am hoping I get enough pep together to make some items to sell as well. I'm going to go stimulate the economy by buying sheets at Ollie's. Don't you feel better about the financial crisis already? |
| Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | |
| 8:15 am | Breast care competition What a difference! And for the better! That's all I could say to myself as I went to the University of Rochester's Breast Health Clinic for my annual mammogram. I have been going to the Elizabeth Wende Breast Clinic, and I really didn't like it there. Why not? Can you spell cattle call? Color it pink, have beads for sale in the waiting room, offer chair massages for those waiting for hours for their turn on the mammo machines -- but a cattle call it is. You have to schedule your exam months in advance - and yet, when you get there, you wait. And wait. And wait some more. In a room where 25 - 30 other women are waiting, too. The last time I was there I went in for a 1:00 appointment and it was after 5:00 when I got out. Plus, you get a little private changing room, but then you have to spend hours in an ill-fitting gown in a waiting room with a bunch of strangers. Clutch the front together as best you can while you wait and wait. And, since it is a private clinic, you get to see TV loops of the "fix-it chicks" -- you know, because we are all strong capable handywomen. But if were so strong and capable, why is it all pink and how does buying jewelry enter into it? OK, it was the only game in town for a while. But no more. I showed up for my appointment at Strong, they took me in as soon as I got there. Instead of a nasty little gown, they have large, roomy spa-like robes. Yes, they close all the way in the front and actually COVER YOU UP. Then, there was a small waiting room - no one else in it, but there was not much of a wait at all, they took me right in for the mammogram. They have all digital, brand new equipment, and the whole procedure took about a 1/2 hour. Yes, it was a clinical and medical-facility-looking place, not cutesy-pooh. No pink in sight, and that was fine with me. So ladies, if you need to schedule your annual mammogram [it is October, breast cancer awareness month, after all] think about having it done at the new clinic at Strong -- you can probably get a better choice of times and you don't have to spend a whole day on it. And I don't know about you, but the last place I want to spend any precious free time I have is in a medical waiting room. |
| Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | |
| 4:27 pm | City Bus Riding Hazards So I'm walking in the front door this afternoon, and almost trip on Erik's shoes, which are abandoned right inside the front door. They have a sign on them. "Danger - May have AIDS contamination" So I asked him what was up with the shoes. It seemed that he stepped on a used condom on the bus. Sounds like a job for my husband to clean up but really EWWWWWWW ick. I suppose I should take it upon myself to report it to someone, but to whom? And exactly how would I phrase whatever I said? You just never know when you're going to step in it, do you? |
| Friday, September 26th, 2008 | |
| 9:30 am | Taking my "Equipment" and hitting the road Here it comes! The annual Rant Against the Pink. October! Breast cancer awareness month. The month we are all supposed to "be aware" about breast cancer. Like I'm going to forget. Like I don't notice every time I take a shower. Every time I manage to forget for a few minutes, I bump into some well-meaning person or product with a pink ribbon on it. And I don't find it inspirational, or comforting, it annoys me. Cancer isn't pretty, it isn't pink, it isn't cute. I've always hated pink, and now more than ever. There is one group that advises "Think before you Pink" - that's right, before you buy it because it vaguely says a donation will be made if you buy it, annoy the living Hell out of the sales clerk and ask just how much of the money will benefit breast cancer research. Another group of ladies don't do pink ribbons. They do buttons that say, "Cancer sucks". Anyway, I took part in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk last Fall, and I'm not doing it this year. Instead, the day it is happening, I will be in DC visiting my sister who is being treated for breast cancer. Guess what - the pink ribbons give her the creeps, too. Maybe the actual patients will slowly lead a movement to ditch the cutesy-pooh pink ribbons -- personally, I think boxing gloves might be a better symbol. THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB..... Now, just to bring you up to date about what a mess our health care system is, let me tell you about why I am wearing "medical equipment" strapped to the left side of my chest. I had a mastectomy. On the left side. I'm not a starfish - it ain't gonna grow back. So, I can be lopsided, I can stuff socks down the left cup of my bra, or I can trot off to the "Thelma's Mastectomy Boutique" and buy a fake boob. My insurance is supposed to cover one breast prosthesis every two years - and, in a really generous move, three "mastectomy bras" yearly. Yup - three bras a year -- what a wardrobe. But, they don't do it without a fight. That's me - right there in the trenches fighting for falsies. I stupidly thought that when I was having a regular follow-up visit with my oncologist I could just ask her to write me a prescription, after all, she's a doctor, I was there, it all seemed good. Ah, but wait. When I brought the prescription to the mastectomy boutique, it developed that my charming insurance company , which rhymes with the nonsense word Schmetna, would not accept a prescription for the doctor who is treating me from cancer. No, I had to get a prescription from my primary care doctor. And, since it has been more than six months since I had the mastectomy, I also needed to get my primary care physician to write the insurance company a "letter of medical necessity" stating that I "still needed the medical equipment". Yes, that's right, a fake left breast is "medical equipment." It seems to me that if you are missing a body part, you shouldn't have to get a letter every two years stating that, in fact, the body part has not grown back. I wonder if people who are missing a foot or a hand have to do that? Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a piece of medical equipment that is doing a marvelous job of hanging there on my chest and I wonder how many women just don't bother to fight and stick with the socks in the bra method? |
| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 | |
| 8:51 am | Gobbledegook for the uninitiated In my last posting, I mentioned a couple of obscure terms -- "roving" and needlefelting. Gosh! What gobbledegook it must sound like! Roving is wool that has been carded and combed and is pretty much ready for spinning or felting. You can buy it already dyed or natural, and then use it without a whole huge bunch of preparation.  Needlefelting is way of using unspun wool to make small sculptures or decorate cloth items. See the sample of bear needlefelted sculpture.  |
| Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | |
| 10:02 am | Running off to join the circus..... I will go on record now as admitting that I would run off and join the circus right now - if the circus I wanted to join went on all year. But it is only one weekend a year - the annual Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival sponsored by the Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild. I have gone every year since I discovered it, and it always exceeds my expectations. There's nothing slick about it - the Hemlock fairgrounds and buildings are modest at best, and there are some buildings that are open, some a bit more compact, the lighting is iffy, if you don't like the smell of farm animals and lanolin, don't go -- everything there smells like what it is -- sheep, alpacas, llamas, goats and rabbits -- and don't forget the fascinating non-smelly silkworms that give us silk. Yup - someone brought along a vat of silkworms and they ran lots of demos about how to reel the silk off the cocoons. There was the "sheep to shawl" contest, yes, you guessed it, groups shear a sheep on Saturday AM and need to get a garment of some sort finished by the time the festival ends Sunday afternoon -- carding, spinning, and then weaving or knitting or crocheting-- And there are vendors selling all sorts of fibers and yarns -- the emphasis is heavily on "natural" fiber [the United Nations has declared 2009 the Year of Natural fiber - of course, there are no US events planned to celebrate it, but world-wide, many other countries are going all-out to promote natural fibers....] I bought some roving to do needle-felting with -- I was very restrained since I have a bunch of projects that I have on a back burner and I already have the yearn, just not the time.... I feel very much at home with this crowd. I can sit and discuss things like the pluses and minuses of different kinds of yarn from different kinds of sheep and which ones are better for certain types of applications and yarns. I spent the whole day there Sunday and the only reason I left was that it closed. And most of the people I was talking to were people I had never met before, but I felt so completely at home there with that general "type" of people, it didn't matter. I got to see a blacksmith at work, I got to see someone making linen from flax [which is more involved that you might think] and there were ongoing demos for two days that were all things that most people will never even know exist.....there was a group there demonstrating antique sock-making machines -- made some gorgeous socks, too. Lacemaking, tatting, spinning a variety of different fibers [wool, cotton, bamboo, soy] on all sorts of different wheels, how to wet-felt wool, all the different fibers arts were represented. And, I discovered something about a place much closer to home that I had not realized -- the Village Yarn and Fiber shop in East Rochester now sells spinning wheels and fiber to spin. That makes it a much more attractive destination - particularly since they are selling some fiber and yarn locally produced. Now I have to head back to me "real" life and trudge off to work. Oh well, maybe i'll win the lottery this week and I can go out there and buy that alpaca farm...... |
| Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | |
| 8:55 am | Fiber, fiber everywhere! Lots and lots of fiber-oriented events coming up! This weekend is the annual Fiber Festival in Hemlock, NY - Sept 20 and 21. Sponsored by the GV handspinners, there will be spinning and weaving and knitting and fiber critters and lots of classes and demos and vendors so you can spend every cent you have stocking up on those hard -to-find fiber items... more yarn and fleece than you can shake a stick at. I'm supposed to be at the Weavers Guild table from noon to 2:00 on Sunday, haven't decided yet what to bring to demo. There is a new yarn store in 12 Corners in Brighton - it is called Yarn Boutique and is next to the space formerly held by the knit'n'Purl shop. They are having a grand opening weekend the last weekend in September, and will have some demos of people knitting, crocheting and weaving. So there go the next two weekends -- and the one after I am flying down to Maryland for my sister Abby's birthday, so I'll be hopelessly disorganized for weeks to come...... |
| Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | |
| 9:50 am | what's the scariest thing you can think of? Halloween is coming -- what's the scariest thing you can think of to be for Halloween? Is it a zombie? Is it the Joker from the Batman movie [maybe wearing a nurse costume as well...]? No - it's the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin - she scares me as much as cancer does, and I'm a cancer survivor. |
| Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 | |
| 9:14 am | The X-bus Files There is a mysterious fleet of RTA buses zipping through the city these days. Good luck figuring out where the destination is - a route number followed by a big "X" is then followed by three or four lines of scrolling text describing several different locations in the city. Even better luck going on the RTA website to try and figure out the route and times, and worse luck still if you call the bus office and try to talk to a human. You guessed it, it is the current configuration of routes to bring this year's high school students to school and home again in the afternoon. Due to a bizarre lawsuit last year, the RTA can no longer have specially designated routes that go to a specific school. So, if you're smart [of course, like me] and you know the street address of your child's high school -- nudge, nudge, wink, wink, Route 5X Prince Street translates as the School of the Arts bus route through our part of the city. Oh, anyone can get on. It's not REALLY a school bus. It's an X bus with "in-seat" transfers [that means it covers an entirely convoluted route that ends up at a school in the AM and starts from a school in the PM.] But Lord help you if you don't crack the code. The school district sent out a blurry map with no street names and no times, and it has been an adventure to find a safe, predictable, place and time to wait and catch the bus. Getting home is much easier - school lets out and you catch the bus and ding the bell when you recognize someplace close to home. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that the kids in the suburbs don't have to feel like they are going on a recon mission to find their way to school in the AM? |
| Friday, September 5th, 2008 | |
| 9:36 am | Not dead, just dead tired One of the more amusing aspects [well, amusing to me and disturbing for others] of being a cancer survivor is that people you haven't seen [or communicated with} in a while are absolutely astonished to see you alive and well. And, no matter what you look like, [bad hair, that five pounds of summer ice cream that has widened the rear and changed the center of gravity....] people comment on how "good" you look. Anyway, this blog has been eerily silent for quite some time as I have discovered that I am physically exhausted by retail work, and we have endless negotiations about who gets computer time when. So, I didn't die, I just had, as they say, blank airspace for months. Thank God, the children are all back in school. Erik and Fiona at School of the Arts, Brendan at SUNY Brockport. The adventures begin anew. Brendan came home from Brockport at 11:30 last night and pulled a small animal skull out of the backpack -- we think it may be a skunk. Everyone copes with long schooldays in a different fashion, Brendan fills the time in between classes with nature walks. Some people stop to smell the flowers, Brendan stops to gather the bones. Hey, we all commune with nature in our own ways..... Hoping to get out to the Clothesline Festival at the Art Gallery this weekend -- ten or so members of the Weavers Guild will have booths. |
| Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 | |
| 8:46 am | At last! Humor for the retail employee! [or shopper] Norm Feuti - whatta guy!!! "Retail" is that name of Norm Feuti's comic strip [which unfortunately does not run in Rochester NY's newspaper, but with a little effort one can read it [free!] on the internet. And it is a cute little comic strip. But for a devastatingly funny skewering, roasting and laying out to dry the whole retail work experience, read Feuti's book "Pretending you care - the retail employee's handbook". The author has many years of experience working retail, and he absolutely nails the experience dead-on. It is hilarious, has been called a "Dilbert" for the retail worker. This book details the "behind the scenes" retail world as well as the customer service aspect. I loved it. I am so tempted to post some of the cartoons out of it, but there is a bit of caution. Remember the movie trailer from years ago that has become a cliche - Jack Nicholson growling out "You can't handle the truth!" This is from this weeks actual, honest-to-gosh news -- some guy got fired for posting a Dilbert comic in the break room at his job. And the guy who writes Dilbert found out about it, and turned it into a story line for the Dilbert comic for the past week. So now everyone in America can laugh at the humorless boss who fired the Dilbert reader. Not that I'm a coward, but I don't think I'll post anything from Retail until I move on to another job..... |
| Monday, January 28th, 2008 | |
| 1:48 pm | "Enjoying" my "day off" Hailing, as I do, from the South, I have no problem with doing nothing at all for long periods of time. I can do slow, and easy, and nonproductive for incredibly long periods of time. But today I'm in a quandry. You see, it's "The job". When I was hired, it was for a permanent position, always the same hours, even talk of the Company 401k plan. But, post-Christmas, the bottom line is not rosy. The plain fact is, there are too many of us at work. So, the hours have been cut drastically, and I didn't really want or need today off -- it just showed up on the schedule. There are some days when the boss just comes up and says, "Enjoy the rest of your day!" and tells you to leave for the day. He means clock out before you go, he isn't doing you any favors. I'm slowly creeping my way up the Civil Service lists [I'm on three county lists, #4, #5, and #19] and I'm on one city list [#1] - but due to tight government money there is a bit of a hiring freeze. So I've been trying not to get laid off my retail job until one of the civil service deals comes through - can I pull it off? I just signed up to take another civil service test, this one - believe it or not! - wants someone with a journalism degree and writing experience. So I ponied up my $15.00 fee to take the test march 8. The mills of God grind slowly, and the civil service commission hiring process is slower than that, so I guess it's a question of who will blink first in the retail world. I am attempting to hold onto my retail job, not only for the pittance it provides towards paying the heat bill, but because I have a gut feeling that having any job will make me seem more desirable than I seemed when I had no job. And I think it would make me look even flakier on paper if I went from one dead-end retail gig to another. But I must admit, I was surprized to discover that there is an occupation that makes people sneer at you more than if you tell them you are a homemaker. Yes, you guessed it, when you tell people you work in a store. So I found myself actually wondering, which would make me look stupider and lazier, not having a job or having a sales clerk job? I opted to include my recent retail experience, just for kicks and giggles, and we'll see what sort of a response I get to it. The moral equivalent of running it up the flagpole to see who salutes..... |
| Sunday, December 30th, 2007 | |
| 9:30 pm | Surviving the Retail Christmas Season I do believe I survived working retail in the pre-Christmas and post-Christmas rush. But I'm still stunned. And exhausted. Working on those New Year's Resolutions -- I'll post 'em when I narrow them down. So far I have great plans to re-do myself, my family, the world, every room in the house, the political structure of the nation and perhaps the entire order of the Universe could use a shake-up. That is, if my feet and back don't hurt too much after a shift at The Job. Fun website for cat lovers to visit: www.Icanhascheezburger.com Checking this out daily has proven to be a guilty pleasure of the holiday season. |
| Monday, December 17th, 2007 | |
| 8:37 am | White December It snows and it blows. It is cold, cold, cold, and many, many inches of blowing snow need to be moved so I can go to work. I am not planning to call in, as my children are off school, and If I didn't go to work, I would have to deal with them all day. I am hoping like all heck that all those people who wanted a White Christmas are happier than Hell that we seem to have started the permafrost early this year, and it doesn't look like we will have a day above freezing or a snow-free weather forcast until next June. You know, there are people in Australia who are probably planning outdoor bar-b-ques for the holiday - but I'm not bitter. |