If You Have A Moment

A friend of mine, Karrie, needs three different surgeries. Due to the greatness that is US healthcare, her insurance is only covering 70% of one of them, unless she were to get diabetes  in which case it would cover more. You can check out her blog for more details, but basically she has to pay almost $12,307 herself and has only been able to get a loan for $6,000. So, to make a long story short, I've added a ChipIn widget to the right here if you can spare a few dollars and wouldn't mind helping a friend of a friend. Thanks!

Rough Week

Last week was rough. Wednesday wasn’t really any better than Tuesday except it was broken up by my orthodontist appointment. My old orthodontist sent my x-rays, but nothing else, so they had to guess at what wires I was wearing. They removed my bottom wire which hadn’t been off in forever, I wish I had thought to ask if I could brush and floss while it was off. When they took it off, one of my brackets went with it. I think that was number ten. Not really a big deal, they just snapped it into the wire and glued it right back down. Then, as they were putting the new chain on top, another bracket popped off. This was a little harder ‘cause the upper wire is actually tied down to the brackets, so they had to kind of wiggle it around to get enough room to put more glue on the bracket and reset it. Other than that, their office is really cramped and outdated, but what can you expect in the South? They’re all very nice though. Since my records didn’t come
through I had to pay cash for that appointment. I hope they get my stuff by next time and set me up with a payment plan again.

Wednesday evening, despite my whole face hurting and having a sinus headache, I went to the store after work. Why do you ask did I do that? Because the guy that hired me got a new job and was moving to California Friday so we were throwing him a going away party/potluck. So off to the store I went. Then I went home and started baking like crazy. I might have gone a little overboard, but I felt a need to impress my new coworkers. So I took my recipe for low-fat lemon lime layer cake and turned it into mini cupcakes. I figured it’d make two trays worth, or four dozen. I was *slightly* off. I ended up with eight dozen mini cupcakes. While I was rotating pans out of the oven I started pureeing some berries. They were frozen, and I don’t have my big food processor, just a stick blender with a chopper attachment, so I had to do it in small batches. Have you ever tried to strain frozen berry puree? It doesn’t work very well. Also, my kitchen is
quite small and has almost zero counter space, so I was constantly moving stuff around, even putting stuff in the living room to get it out of the way. I went to make the icing, then realized that I can’t mix cream cheese and powdered sugar by hand, and the stand mixer was still full of cake batter, so I set the bowl of frosting ingredients aside until I got the mixer cleaned up. What I didn’t realize is that I set it right by the oven vent, so when I went back to mix it the powdered sugar had melted, oh and I burned my hand on the now super hot bowl. The up side was the cheese was soft so I could mix it. But it was lumpy. So I got out the other attachment to my stick blender and got it smooth, and a decent amount of it splattered all over the kitchen. This whole time I was pureeing berries and trying to force them through a strainer. I tried a couple different
kinds of spatula and finally settled on a small whisk. Of course it was getting late by then so I was trying to be fast and thus splattered berry puree all over the kitchen (amazingly enough none of it got on my light pink shirt!). I finally got all the cupcakes baked, frosting made, and sorbet in the freezer. I took one last look at the disaster that was my kitchen, said screw it, and went to bed.

Thursday wasn’t too bad with everybody bringing in yummy looking food we were all anticipating a nice lunch. We had to go to group training for the Safety Conscious Work Environment. Don’t ask me what that means, I don’t know. Obviously the training was a success. The potluck was really good, tons of food. None of my coworkers knew what sorbet is “is that like yogurt??” Most of them also didn’t know what a stand mixer was either. *sigh* Everybody was raving about the sorbet. The cupcakes were ok but not great; I need to tweak the recipe a bit. I don’t think much work got done Thursday afternoon, with everybody stuffed from lunch and it being Thursday and all. The afternoon dragged by for me with nothing but more training to do. Finally it was time to go home. I hadn’t really heard from my man since Tuesday when he said he wanted to Skype to go over some mail with me (so confused on what mail he could have gotten that he needed to Skype with me about it!). So I was looking forward to chatting with him on IM when he got home
from work. Alas, the stars did not align for me. He never logged in online, and he didn't return any texts I sent. By bed time I was pretty upset, so I even tried calling him, no answer. Even the kitties could not cheer me up.

Friday I got to sleep in a bit, but not as much as I wanted. I had to get to The City by 10 for my appointment with the new doc. I was dragging but I got myself out the door mostly on time. As I neared the address for the doctor’s office I started to get a little confused because it seemed like a very residential area. When I rounded the last turn and found the address I was really confused because I found myself in the driveway of a private residence. There was no sign or label or anything to advertise that this was a doctor’s office. I sat in my car for a few moments trying to gather myself and decide if I wanted to call the doctor to make sure that the address was correct. While I was sitting there a guy pulled up behind me and asked if I lived there,
when I said no he headed towards the front door. As I was getting out of my car, UPS pulled up and headed to the front door too. Quite the busy place on a Friday morning. I took a deep breath and headed up the walk myself. I don’t know what I was expecting, but an older black lady in a house coat was not it. She pointed me into her “office” and handed me the remote to the TV before apologizing and wandering off. Sometime later she came back in a dress and shoes, apologized some more, picked up some stuff and wandered off again. Her “office” was an absolute mess. Papers and books everywhere, hardly room to move, not an empty horizontal surface in sight. And I noticed a poster for a book “Treating ADHD With an Emphasis on No Meds.” Great, just what I wanted from somebody I was trying to get a prescription from.

The doctor finally came back and sat down after fiddling with papers and trying to find things she needed. She asked me to say in one sentence what my main concern was, even if I had multiple concerns. I told her ADD, she asked why I thought I had it, I explained I had been diagnosed by a psychologist in 4th grade and again earlier this year, she then asked what I wanted from her. I was a little taken aback by that, but managed to say I needed to keep my prescription up to date without stuttering too much. It was then that she explained that she is a doctorate, not a doctor, she can’t prescribe anything. I should have just said “thank you for your time” and left, but I’m not really capable of asserting myself like that. She decided to give me
another self assessment (I don’t know why) so I sat there doing that while she answered the doorbell, tried to call my insurance (it seemed like she had NO idea what she was doing), and answered a phone call. She also explained that the man that had come right before me gave her a subpoena, and the guy at the doorbell was another subpoena. I think she talked about herself more than I talked at all. She babbled a bit more, promoted her book, asked if I’d tried going without meds (I have), and finally said she’d write me a nice little diagnosis so I could just take it to another doc and get my meds filled. The catch was she wanted me to come for another appointment. Again, I should have just asked to get it that day or not at all, but I couldn’t
bring myself to disagree. After I made the next appointment she pointed to her calendar and showed me that the notation for my appointment that day had been lost in the scribbles and that’s why she was asleep when I showed up. I was almost crying with frustration by the time she showed me the door. (As a side note, as I’m writing this, maybe I should just cancel the second appointment and ask her to send me whatever?)

After that train wreck I headed to Costco. Usually that makes me feel better, but I just felt blah. Then I headed to Hobby Lobby, I love that store. I needed some supplies for my jewelry making, and I had come up with an idea for a present that I wanted to do. As I walked through the aisles I got sniffle-y ‘cause I missed my friend that I always went with, and the little one. I kept thinking “oooh she would like this” “oh I want to get this for her!” Then getting sad ‘cause shipping stuff is hard and expensive (there’s no UPS or FedEx here). I was still feeling down when I left Hobby Lobby and headed to Petsmart. There’s no pet store where I live, so my poor kitties were lacking in proper toys and such. I definitely remedied that! I spoil the heck out of any creature under my care, and the kitties are no exception. Getting their personalized name tags made me smile a little, but I was still pretty down. After the pet store I headed to Ulta, which started making me miss my friends even more. I decided I needed to make a care package for the little one. She got her first big part in a school play and I won’t be there to see her, so I started gathering stuff that I thought she’d like and that might help with the stress of being a star. I was kind of sniffle-y ‘cause I really miss shopping with her. I also asked to get my eyebrows done, but their girl that does it wasn’t there. I wandered by their salon area and saw one of the stylists had great hair, vibrant dark red and black coifed into curls, bright red lipstick fit for a pinup, and cute stockings. On a whim I asked if they had an opening for a trim, they did, and it was with her! Turns out she’s kind of like an older version of my stylist back home. She
knows how to handle super thick hair, need little direction for styling, and doesn’t try to sell lots of product (although when I asked she pointed me towards some awesome stuff to help deal with the humidity!). I just got a trim that visit, but made an appointment to get color done the next week! As I walked out the door I realized I was smiling, that was just what I needed to lift my spirits!

Later that evening I got to Skype with my man, he apologized for missing me earlier because he had been helping process all the deer his hunting group had gotten on Sunday. The rest of the weekend went by in what seems to be the norm for me now. Cleaned, cooked, baked, read, slept, played with the kitties, surfed the internet, worked on jewelry. I really wish I had so much work to do that I could get overtime. While three days never used to seem like enough time to get everything done before, it now seems like way more time than I need. Today I am applying for grad school. Depending on how much it costs I’m going to start soon even though it won’t be reimbursed. I really need something to take up more time and keep my brain active or I will completely lose it before I’m done with this assignment.

This week looks like it will be more of the same, training, training, and more training. Although I did get some noise-cancelling headphones to wear with my iPod while I’m training so I’ll at least have music…

Is It Really Only Tuesday?

I started Monday feeling optimistic 'cause I was going to get to do actual work for the first time since I moved here. It didn't last long. Went to a meeting at 8 where we talked about our task, all the different ways we could get hurt doing our task, and how we were going to be safe while doing our task. Then we got all our PPE on (personal protective equipment for those not in the know) including hard hat, safety glasses, TWO sources of light (per person), gloves, ear plugs, at least one radio per team, and steel toed boots all around. We called the control room to tell them who we were, how many of us there were, where we were going and what we were doing there. Then we wrote all our names down on the accountability board with where we were going, what we were doing, and when we were doing it. Then we walked the 20 feet down the hall into "The Plant." I'm not kidding nor exaggerating what we had to do before going to do our task. I wish I was. At that point we split into groups by discipline, piping, controls & instrumentation  mechanical, and my buddy and me, civil (just don't ask us to be nice, har har).

My team mate and I decided to start at the roof since our system would be easiest to find from there. Up the elevator we went, and then out onto the roof. The whole while pointing out "step there, don't trip" "watch your head, there's a pipe here" "don't grab that without your gloves" "don't get pinched in the door" because a normal person totally can't see black and yellow danger tape and know to pay attention... or something. Anyway, we made it onto the roof. There was water everywhere, probably a good inch of standing water. We were looking for two tanks, they're pretty obvious. Walked over to the tanks, sloshing through the water "careful, don't slip." Our direction was to inspect the concrete, structural steel and anchorage for these two tanks. The roof, as far as we could tell is concrete with a tar/rubber membrane over it. Meaning you can't see jack shit 'cept the membrane. Looked at the tank bases. We could see an inch or so of the bolts and the nuts that the tank saddles were bolted down with, but we couldn't see the bolt heads to determine their size/type/material. Nor could we see any of the structural steel because it was buried under the membrane and who knows how many layers of tar and calk and sealant they used to patch up the leaks over the last thirty years. We headed down one level to see what we could see from below.

Since the rest of the team was taking the elevator up, we took the stairs down. I've gotten better over the years, but I still dislike stairs that are grating, but it doesn't really slow me down much anymore. Then we got to the mezzanine level... The whole thing is grating, probably a good 50 feet above the floor. I froze. Couldn't breathe, heart stuck in my throat, the whole nine yards. That hasn't happened to me in quite some time. I told my boss when he interviewed me that I am afraid of heights but I will not let it get in the way of doing my job. So I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other. I set my eyes on my partner and just focused on walking towards him. Then we looked up. We were about 30 feet below the roof. We could see the bottom of the framing members for the pumps. They looked ok. But how much detail can you really see 30 feet straight up? We pointed, shined our flashlights around, mumbled, looked at the drawing, repeated ourselves and each other and generally wasted time. Then we went back to our desks.

Later we met back up with the rest of the group to discuss. We told the requester that we couldn't see any of the structure from above without removing the roof membrane, should we submit a request to have it pealed back? No, that's too much work, the tanks haven't fallen through the roof yet, so the structure must be fine, we'll go with that. Thanks for the help! Um... that's it? That's all you wanted? THIS is what you hired me for? I'm a civil engineer with a bachelor's degree from a school that regularly ranks in the top 25 engineering schools in the country, I have over five years of experience as a structural engineer on a nuclear project and I have my PE license and you want me to look at something and tell you "Yup, it hasn't fallen through the roof yet?!"

I have recorded 170 hours in my new position. 169 of those hours have been "training." The one hour that I actually charged to my job was doing something a high school intern could do. I don't know if I feel awkward because I'm so over qualified, or insulted 'cause they told me this was a great career move or what. I've already been reminded untold times that I'm not in "design" any more, I need to get into "walk-down" mode. We don't need to look up stuff in codes, think about capacities or how to repair anything. We observe and report physical findings, that is all. Why did they rush to get me here when they don't even have anything for me to do, simple  though the job is?!

Between not having anything to do, worrying about money (moving is freaking expensive!), and everything else my anxiety is in high gear which means my OCD symptoms are getting worse again. I also can't get my Rx for my meds filled here 'cause a NP signed it in WA and that's illegal in Alabama. So I get to drive back into The City Friday to meet a new doc and hope I can get a new Rx before I run out. Maybe she can give me something for the anxiety, and they I just won't care that my job requires absolutely no brain whatsoever. Oh yeah, and my new position, since it requires no brain, I can't get tuition reimbursement to go back to school to keep myself occupied! Sooooo does anybody want to give me tuition money for Christmas??

Communication and Kitties

It would seem that I need constant reminding that communication is a two way street. I'm not known for being the best listener, especially when my feelings have been hurt. I've always known that I talk a lot, and my man talks little, but over the years we've learned to make it work for us. Apparently I forgot all that when I moved across the country. I was feeling too hurt over the whole move to really think of him at all. He wasn't really talking to me and when he did it was like he'd hardly noticed I wasn't there anymore. In reality he was trying to shield me from the hurt he was feeling so I didn't have to deal with it on top of what I was already feeling. This realization, of course, made me feel like a total heel. We both agreed to try harder to be patient (my kryptonite) and communicate better. I doubt this will be our last bump in the road before we are reunited, but perhaps it will show we can overcome whatever.

The kitties are settling in well. I think the icky messes in the litter boxes are done with (at least they were always in the litter boxes and not elsewhere). I took Lu Lu to the vet 'cause the records the shelter gave me showed that she had some health problems that they hadn't told me. The vet said that she was on the fat side (not surprising since she can't run) and is a little pale (anemic) but he's not too worried. He left me with instructions to keep an eye on her and bring her back if she gets worse or doesn't start getting better. Her fur and skin are looking healthier already. Trisha continues to be an adorkable kitten. She's keeping the bug population in the apartment down nicely. I got collars with little bells for both of them. Now every time one of them moves Trisha thinks there's a toy, it's so cute! Especially when she's the one moving :P They both sleep with me now too. Trisha is usually up by my pillow and Lu Lu sleeps near the foot. Although she comes for bed time snuggles when I first get into bed. Lu Lu still doesn't like Trisha to get up in her business, but she can get a lot closer before the growling starts. Maybe they'll be friends yet!

The weekends are hard. All but one of my coworkers go "home" on the weekends. They all live just a few hours away, lucky bastards. The one that lives here, like I do, is a newlywed. We have plans to go to the City for hockey when the season gets started, but until then he stays with his new bride. I never thought I'd miss the huge weekly Sunday dinners with my man's family, but it conveniently kept me occupied on Sundays. Now I have to occupy myself. I do my errands and chores on Friday, relax on Saturday, and I still have all of Sunday to deal with. This week my man is hunting, so I can't even game with him. So I'm baking. A lot. I have banana bread in the oven, after I go to the store I'm going to make pumpkin muffins. Then I'm going to make some pumpkin lentil soup for the week. Then maybe I'll make cookies. Was thinking about trying baked oatmeal to have for breakfast in the mornings....

Fast & Furious

Wow, I’ve been really remiss in my posting as of late. I apologize. Although now that I’m pretty much settled in there’s probably not going to be many big, exciting posts. I will try to make smaller regular updates though. Maybe weekly or something, we’ll see.

Anyway, the rest of the time that my mom was here we spent mostly unpacking and getting all the little things needed to keep an apartment comfortable and tidy. It was definitely nice to have her here to help me unpack. If she hadn’t, I probably would still be living out of boxes. After I dropped my mom off at the airport Sunday I did some shopping in “the city.” Unfortunately it’s the closest Target, which makes me sad.

Last week at work wasn’t anything particularly special. I finished the training I could access and then did some I wasn’t even assigned. I attended fall protection training, and like last time was not able to adjust the harness to fit me properly. They are designed for men, and this is one situation where you can’t claim they work for unisex. I spoke to the safety guy and showed him the harness made for women, by the same company the project gets all their other fall protection from. I pointed out that I am not small by any means, but it’s not possible to get the regular harness adjusted properly for me, let alone some of the girls here who are half my size, and fall protection is one thing where fit is everything. If it doesn’t fit, it won’t work, and if it doesn’t work, it’s not safe. Hopefully we’ll be getting at least a couple women’s harnesses before I have a need for one.

Pretty much since I decided to move here (and my man said I couldn’t take his cat) I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a cat. Since I’m living in an apartment and working fairly long hours I didn’t want to get a dog, but cats don’t need to leave the apartment and they’re perfectly content to lay around and sleep all day. I had been thinking I should wait until I was settled and my finances were stable, but my mom convinced me I should get a kitty sooner rather than later. So Friday I planned to go into “the city” to go to Costco and Target and Red Wing shoes, and my last stop would be the Humane Society. I had checked out their website and there was an older cat that was missing a paw (they called her Tripod, how horrible a name is that?!). I figured that most people looking for a cat would pass her by, so I decided to see if she would accept me so I could give her a good forever home.

The first part of my trip went well, although I probably spent way too much money. It was 60 degrees or so when I left my apartment, by the time I was done at Costco (my first stop) it was in the 80s. By my third stop it topped out at 92. I found pretty much everything I was looking for, including some good deals. I even found work boots, which was a small miracle in and of itself. After shopping I made my way to the Humane Society. Tripod was in the same chair as she was in her picture on the website. She was a little shy so I sat quietly and let her get used to me. While I waited this little tabby kitten started crawling all over me. She tried to get in my purse, wrapped her tail around my arm, head butted me and purred like crazy. I was totally smitten. Tripod also warmed to me and we head-butted and she purred. And she didn’t seem to mind the kitten that was crawling all over me. I went to the front counter and informed them that I had been chosen by not one, but two kitties. They were so happy and excited; they seem to truly love finding these animals good forever homes.

That’s about where my grand scheme kind of fell through. They required some form of proof that my land lord would allow me to have pets. I knew that I could have a pet as long as I paid the deposit, I just hadn’t had a chance to do it, so I didn’t have a receipt or anything. They even tried calling my land lord to get a verbal confirmation but nobody answered. I was SO bummed, and they were too, but the rules are the rules. I made the drive home alone and sad. Even all my new purchases failed to cheer me up. I knew that my landlord would likely not be there when I got home if I drove straight to my apartment, let alone if I took time to stop and get a money order for the deposit. And since he doesn’t work on Saturdays I had resigned myself to not getting my kitties until next weekend. I figured Tripod would still be there, as she had been for a while, but the kitten was so cute and friendly she’d be snatched up in a heartbeat.

When I pulled into the apartment complex I was surprised to see my landlord’s car in the office lot. I stopped in to see if we could work something out and he surprised me by saying he talked to the Humane Society and he was glad I was adopting a couple kitties and that I could pay the pet deposit anytime this week! He even said he would only charge me for one kitty, even though they usually charge per animal! I was so happy I went into a cleaning frenzy. I put away all my new stuff and used the boxes to make a Kitty Kastle™.

The next morning I called the Humane Society as soon as they opened to make sure I could bring my babies home that day; then made the hour drive back into “the city.”

Other than one family ahead of me making me wait for a while, the actual adoption went well. The kitties are already micro chipped and fixed and should mostly have their shots. Everybody was excited for the double adoption. They even managed to get a picture of me holding both of them at once! They loaded the kitties into their carriers, gave me a couple bags of food, and helped me secure them in my car. Off we went to our new home together!

The kitties, now named Little Lucky Lu Lu and Trisha, meowed ALL the way home. It was so cute and pathetic, I had a really hard time not letting them out of their carriers, but that would not have been safe for any of us. We got home safe and sound and I watched Lu Lu and Trisha explore their new surroundings. I made sure to put out food and water for them, and tried to leave them alone while they acclimated. Lu Lu is kind of shy, and mostly stayed near the carrier. Trisha immediately went and hid in the Kitty Kastle™.

The rest of my weekend was spent playing with, and taking pictures of, the kitties. They make me smile. Trish sleeps with me, right next to my pillow. Lu Lu mostly keeps to herself, but isn’t afraid to let me know when she wants some love. They mostly get along, except when one gets jealous of the other getting love. Hopefully they’ll learn that I have enough love to go around! It was hard to leave them and go to work Monday! They were there to greet me when I got home Monday night, which was much nicer than coming home to an empty, lonely apartment. Now you guys get to be inundated with pictures and stories of my kitty antics! ;)

Apartment Update

Well I got all the stuff that I had shipped (including my car) and have it mostly put away, along with a bunch of stuff I had to buy to make a second functioning household. Here are some pictures of how it looks now:

Bathroom from the hallway

Toilet/shower area (that my Mom scrubbed for like two hours!)

Cute pink shower curtain hooks!

I just fell in LOVE with these colors

Living/dining area from the front door (gah bad photography!)

Sitting area

Desk (eventually entertainment center) and built-in by the front door)

Kitchen w/ new toaster oven and chopping block

Most important appliance in the place: coffee maker!

temporary bed

Closet & dresser (project dresser to the left)

I still have some decorating/organizing to do, but it's getting there. What do y'all think?

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

Or, Catching Up… Again – Part 2

Once the excitement of Wednesday was over I went to bed, ready to see my Mommy on Thursday. When I got to work I hoped that I would have something interesting to do to make the time go quickly until I could leave and go pick her up from the airport. I must have pissed Karma off ‘cause I had nothing to do but read procedures all day! Needless to say the time dragged on. The client had just finished remodeling part of the front building into a cafeteria and auditorium. Between that and the end of the fiscal year they apparently had some money left over and provided a hot-dog lunch for the plant, so that was nice. Finally it got close enough to the end of the day that I headed out.


It took me about an hour to get to the airport and pick up my mom. It was SO good to see her! I can’t believe I went nine months since the last time I saw her! We decided to forgo finding dinner in the city and drove back to the hotel to change before finding something local. I had reserved a room for my mom for the night, since my room only had one bed. The plan was for us both to stay at the hotel Thursday night. And then, while we were out shopping Friday I’d acquire a bed-type item and stay at my apartment Friday night while my mom took my room at the hotel. Yeah, well the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. Anyway, we were both tired so we went to bed early.


Since the movers and the cable guy were both scheduled to show up at the apartment between 8 and 10am, I had to get up earlier than I wanted. Especially since I stayed up “late” playing stupid FB games and talking to friends back home. I met my mom downstairs in the breakfast room and looked glumly at the same breakfast I’d had every day for almost two weeks. After a bowl of cereal I went back up to my hotel room to pack up my stuff to take to my apartment. I got a bit later start than I intended, but still made it to my apartment shortly after 8. And then we sat there.


Despite all the careful planning I had tried to do, I still had basically nothing in my apartment. We didn’t have anything to sit on, nor did we have anything to drink out of (not that the tap water is really drinkable). Luckily the movers came fairly early, around 8:30 I think. They wanted me to check off box numbers as they took them off the truck AND tell them where they went in the apartment. Um, I can’t be in two places at once lady! So I told them to just stack the boxes in the living room for me to sort later. Especially since I didn’t pack any of it, and the boxes were so mixed none of them went in just one room.


Even though I had gone over the allowed weight (1,440 pounds total, $306 overage for the 440 over 1,000) it didn’t take long for them to unload. Apparently 1,000 pounds of household stuff isn’t much at all, when you take furniture into account. After they left, Mom walked down to the gas station next to the apartment complex and found us some second breakfast and bottled water. While we waited for the cable guy to show up, we started unpacking my stuff, and the quantity quickly appeared to increase exponentially. Funny how that works…


Around 10:45 my mom suggested I call the cable company and find out where the heck their dude was. The lady I talked to sounded really surprised that the technician hadn’t called or anything. The technician showed up around 11:15 or so with no comment about how late he was. First he asked to see my computer, then looked at the jack in the wall and said he had to go back to his truck for a minute. Probably 30 minutes later he poked his head back in and said there was a hornets’ nest so he was going to the store to get some Raid. We didn’t see him again for over an hour.


At this point I was pretty irritated ‘cause we had been planning to go shopping in the city after getting the internet hooked up, but now that it was well after noon there was no point in driving that far. Also I was already tired of unpacking. Over the next couple hours the technician came in and out, mumbled about stuff, generally looked confused, and finally called somebody else to come help. I think it was around 4pm when they finally got me hooked up, over six hours after they were supposed to have been there.


After the cable guys finally left we headed for the liquor store for a much needed drink, then Wal-mart for cleaning supplies and a bed for me. Oh and snacky things for dinner. I hung out at the hotel with my mom for a couple hours munching on crackers and chocolate before heading back to my apartment to spend the night. Just about when I got in the door I realized that the pump for the little air mattress I got was battery powered, and I didn’t have any batteries. I thought, well I can just sleep on my recliner, no biggy. I went to log into my computer so I could talk to my man and found that I was disconnected from the internet. I poked at it a bit and tried rebooting the router. It was doing something I’ve never seen before and I was much too tired to try to figure it out. I decided that I was tired enough to just go to sleep, but I was thirsty so I went to fill up my new filter pitcher, where I found it had apparently been dropped or something because the entire bottom was shattered. That was about the time I decided Karma was REALLY pissed at me for something, so I called my Mommy. Thus I ended up going back to the hotel for one more night.

Catching Up... Again

Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, I had just inspected my new apartment. Well, a lot has happened since then, so this will probably be a rather long post. Or I might split it into multiple posts, depending on how it goes.

Actually, let me back up for a minute. I was so busy taking pictures of my apartment that I didn't tell you about my full plant tour. The training manager here was a nuclear operator for the Navy for many years, so he knows a TON. He took me on a general tour of pretty much the whole plant. It’s not as big land-area wise as my old project, but there’s a lot more insides to it. He took me and another newbie through, pointing out various unique things, explaining how the process would work when the plant was running, telling anecdotes from his years as an operator, and pointing out stuff that had been damaged or ripped out. It was all really interesting, but so far outside my chosen field that I really didn't understand much of it. But I did note some highlights of things we got to saw that very few other people in the world ever get to see. One thing was the main control room. It was seriously like the movies… from the 70s :P All dials and knobs and analog gauges. It was also kind of eerie, like time had stopped, and ‘cause there was only one dude in the whole big room. At one point we climbed up a fixed ladder (i.e. it’s permanently mounted to the structure, and 90 degrees or totally vertical) which wouldn't bother most people, but being afraid of heights has it’s disadvantages. There were also a lot of places where there were huge holes in the floor to allow the large equipment to stick up through. In a couple places there was only a tiny handrail between me and a 50+ foot drop. We also got to see an actual fuel assembly (sans fuel of course) and the pool where the fuel would be stored, and the racks they would use to move it around. In another section we saw one of the actual steam generators, where the steam that powers the turbine is created. It was really sad because this one had been cut to pieces by people trying to get at the precious metals inside. Imagine a large tank-like structure, probably 40 feet tall, 15 feet in diameter, with 8” thick solid steel walls. Now imagine a teenage boy with a plasma cutter left alone in a room with it. You *might* have imagined what this looks like. You can literally see straight through it from one spot, it’s very sad. I have to say I was pretty proud of how well I did, until the last bit. We got in this elevator. A very, very, very small elevator. Now, I’m not a huge fan of elevators to begin with, but normally they don’t bother me, but this one was very crowded with the three of us in it. And I was also a bit on edge from all the heights, dark spaces, and overall creep factor of being in a building that’s been abandoned for all intents and purposes for nearly 30 years. So I was trying to keep my anxiety to a low boil when my coworker turns to me and says “Just wait until we get to the top, it opens up and you can see the whole plant from here!” Apparently I gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look ‘cause he apologized and told me he was just teasing. Luckily that was the end of our tour and I went back to my safe little desk. It definitely made the afternoon go by fast! I wish I could have taken pictures to share with you all. But then again maybe I’m the only one interested by this stuff… Anyway, that was longer than I had planned, so I guess I’ll make this a post of its own and make a new post for everything else.