Viruses and Ickyness

Since Tuesday I've been feeling less than myself, going to sleep early, waaay less peppy, etc. Last night around midnight I was restless and sweaty and it came to me that I'm running a fever. I never run fevers, like hardy ever. So I get up and take some Tylenol and wake up every 2 hours after that, UGH! So I get dressed for work this morning knowing that I need to submit my case for closure and finish other odds and ends before I'm back in class all next week. By 10 AM I'm almost down for the count. The wonderful thing about not doing shift work anymore is that I don't have to almost throw up on some one's shoes to impress upon them the urgency of needing to go home. It was just that bad at my last place of employment. I actually had to go to work with pneumonia at one time. I, still being on probation, talk to my boss today and all she says is "send me an email and go home, I hope you feel better" *stunned* but not questioning. So I get home and sleep most of the afternoon away.

The Nurse calls this afternoon and I explain my symptoms to her because I'm totally unable to put my finger on just what is ailing me. It's almost cold-like and almost flu-like, so she's telling me about this virus that people are having the same symptoms and fevers with. TA-DA! I must have got it on my last trip to Dallas and the virus was incubating because my sister has the same exact thing. As of now I'm still tired but the fever is gone. I was starting to wonder if it was kid germs because me being a single woman with little contact with kids outside of work have no immune system for kid germs. So mom was talking to my sister earlier and it turns out that grandma was feeling poorly for a few days earlier in the month. It wasn't kid germs at all, it's old lady germs! Thanks Gma, sheesh! Although I still have awesomeness seeping out of my skin I'm still not back to my old self, but I'm getting closer with each dose of ibuprofen and decongestants!

No one likes a crabby Anastasia...

I've got it figured out...mom gave me 50 mgs of Benadryl tonight to keep me docile. As you may or may not know by now, I'm not completely as sweet as I appear to be. I am slightly opinionated and have few problems offending people. I am quite possibly the WORST patient ever, and I have medical knowledge so that just compounds it all. This morning I woke up and my allergies are in full swing, therefore I wake up feeling cruddy. It's not like full blown ugh I'm gonna die cruddy, it's like the back of my nasal cavity is rebelling against the rest of my body and histamines are totally against me. So I go to work, sit through a unit meeting for 3 hours and then lock myself in my office and work on my case and getting it closed. On my way home I'm feeling worse, not to mention this lady in the car behind me in traffic that I swear I felt her breathing down the back of my neck. Really lady, back off! But I digress...I'm talking to mom on the way home and I'm flat out cranky I walk in the door and she immediately doses me up with 50 mgs of Benadryl. For me, Benadryl does wonders with allergy problems and consciousness. So, now I'm halfway awake, witty but very sleepies and I'm giving in at 9:45 pm and going to bed.

Odds and Ends...

That's a picture of the console of my car on the drive home this afternoon...can we say ready for fall? I know I can! The good thing about summer by far this year is there's about 30 dragonflies that have taken up residence in the backyard around 6:30 every evening and I guess what they are doing is swooping around eating bugs, namely flys and mosquitoes and that is fine by me. Usually the only reason people take me outside with them is because I'm a mosquito attractor and no one else gets chewed up like me! It's because I'm soooo sweet! So the fact that a mosquito is meeting an untimely death by being dive bombed out of the sky by this monstrous dragon fly is a-OK with me! At one point my car actually read up to 112 degrees...WAY TOO MUCH! Colder weather coming soon? I'm hoping so and I'm OK with that! It was so bad the other day when I was driving to the bookstore and talking on my cell phone my arm was bent at the elbow holding the phone to my ear and there was sweat running down my arm from the bend in my elbow, what that says to me is IT'S TOO DAMN HOT!

First Case...

So I got my first case this week...they call it a cupcake case because it's pretty easy to deal with since it is my first. Whatev I'm still excited about it! All I'm waiting on is to hear back from the doctor that works with DFPS on her opinion if it was physical abuse or not, medical records, and to meet with my supervisor and poof I'm done! I have a peer trainer that goes around with me and all week she has been saying how good I am with interviewing people, how easy it is for me to get people to talk to me. I am so hard on myself during the first interview I had to keep looking at her for help and by today I hardly needed her, in my head I shouldn't have needed any help but she yelled at me and said "OMG This is your first case and you hardly needed me!!!" so apparently, I did pretty darn good! Also this week I was talking to a lady in my unit and mentioned that I wanted to rearrange my office but my desk was too heavy, she immediately walked down to my office and together we moved everything around and I'm so much happier! Before all the furniture seemed like it was all bunched up in a corner and some of the drawers weren't functional because, well, everything was all bunched up! Now all drawers are usable and everyone keeps walking by and commenting on how much better it looks. Plus I have a handy escape route in case of emergency and people interviewing in my office have easy access to my door to make them feel more at ease, all around better for everyone!

D-i-s-gusting...

So the building I've been at for training is just gross...riddled with crickets, and the bathrooms...UGH are the worst. When did people lose their common courtesy? How can you not notice when you sprinkle on the toilet seat, and why did you not CLEAN IT OFF!!! Can they not notice the stark difference between toilet seat white and pee yellow?!? Just gross...and I can understand people having intestinal problems but are they proud of the smell and if it happens all the time then don't you think you might want to talk to a doctor??? I almost held my breath but I was afraid I would pass out on the bathroom floor!!!

So this has been the first week of investigator specialty training and the woman I keep getting paired up with makes me want to give up. She's almost 50 and has a very unfortunate shape, she has the world's loudest voice with no idea what an inside voice is, and the worst part...no internal filter like none at all! I was able to finish all my assignments and writings and computer based trainings before this class started, she has done NONE!!! The worst part is, it's glaringly obvious that she hasn't done anything. I may have to strangle her with my bare hands. I'd never get convicted, in fact I might get a medal. I made a comment to the trainer today about splitting the 6 of us in class into groups of 3 so that she would go with the other two people and they FLAT OUT REFUSED!!! If that doesn't paint a picture I'm not sure what would. I may take a butter knife to class tomorrow and start sawing away at my wrists if I get paired with her again.

I get my first case next week and I'm totally psyched. The only problem I can foresee is that I'm a shit magnet. My first week of dispatch it was felony stops everywhere. My first week on the ambulance had people keeling over like crazy. My trainer says that we are going to get "cupcake" cases but I fear that mine will be 6 kids in a crack house that are all trained to fight with weapons. We shall see...

Until Next Time,

The Beaverhausen

Beav Mad...

So I drive to Dallas at the demand of my Grandma, I hardly ever drive up there anymore because every time I do there's drama and it makes the weekend feel like a big waste of time...true to form this weekend feels like a waste of time. I leave on the 4 hour drive to immediately hit traffic on 35 but ironically sail through Austin without so much as slowing down. I finally make it to the gay husband's house at almost 10:00 exhausted because I came straight from work and 2 days of legal training. My sister is calling and wanting me to go to a bar with her but when I tell her that I'm tired she's OK with it.

So I'm greeted by the gay husband and then he sits down to play World of Warcraft, really?!? Flashback to my marriage *eyeroll* OK so he continues to play until he's ready to go to bed, by this time I'm ready to sleep too. I wake up the next day and I get up and get dressed, starving because he has no food in his apartment. Again, starving. He leisurely strolls out after what seems like an eternity talking on the phone and going to look up stuff on the Internet. I keep pestering him saying "muscle milk is not food, need food"30 minutes later he's ready to go to McD's...bleh...I end up paying because he makes an excuse about having to get to his wallet and I'm starving.

He wants to go to the circus, fine, he purchases $24 tickets. I don't really have the flexible income to afford that but I went along. Afterwards we go out again for lunch (getting expensive now...) then I go spend hours with my grandma which was the purpose of the drive to begin with. We giggle we laugh we hang I'm happy she's happy it's good. My sister comes over and we talk some more and it's getting late. My sister and I decide to go get something to eat, I invite the gay husband along he picks Macaroni Grill...we go we eat we laugh the check comes and he wants me to pay for him because of the circus tickets?!? So the whole bill goes on my card but my sister gave me cash for her. I'm a caseworker for CPS, just got my first full check. He's a fraud investigator for a large company with a Masters degree and he's getting on me saying keep it cheap this weekend. My version of keeping it cheap is not going out, eating at home, not spending money! It was cheap for him because he made me pay for it all!!! He's saying he didn't know my financial situation, I say yes he did because I told him when he specifically asked earlier in the week. I pack up my stuff and go stay at my Aunt's house and got about 15 minutes sleep because her dogs barked every time I turned over.

I drive 4 hours home at 80 mph getting cut off by mini vans the whole way (I really dislike mini vans) to my mother allowing 6 extra people to stay here. 2 people, OK 3 people is kinda pushing it, but 6?!? 4 of these people are under the age of 16!!! My bathroom is a wreck, my bedroom is a wreck, I can't access the computer because their clothes and stuff are all over! Talk about invasion of personal space. I have to go now so I can clean and have my space in some semblance of order. If it wasn't for grandma, my sister, and my aunt's the weekend would be a total wash out.

Lesbians and Bi-Sexual Girls

OK, so...lesbians, gay boys I'm behind you all the way. I support the right for equal marriage simply because if my poodle/gay husband wants to get married then hey, go for it! I have long worked side by side with people of "alternative" lifestyles. That is actually how poodle and I became best friends, we were first partners on the ambulance! Been felt up by drag queens in the gay bars because they never believe that my boobs are in fact natural. Was once slapped on the ass and kissed on the cheek by an awesome Cher impersonator, hey she was quite awesome! I have made the lesbian jokes, The Nurse even said just the other day if she ever switched sides i'm already chosen to be her girlfriend. Luckily we still both prefer men, no matter how scumbaggie they behave! That being said, this week in class lesbian jokes have been rampant and my friend that I sit next to, and I have been labled girlfriends. Hey, whatever I go along with it, yeah haha lookie at the lesbians, please no flash photography as the lesbians are easily startled. She makes the jokes too and it's funny because most of us sitting together have a huge crush on the cute new trainer, he's sooo cute! So anyways, my friend sitting next to me started randomly touching my arm, and when I say touching my arm I mean like full out laying her hands on my arm or rubbing my shoulder asking if she could get me something. The last person to do that to me was The Persian Trainer, he did it because he is attracted to me but why does she do it? She has become a friend to me, texting and phone calls, meals, shopping, girl stuff. When I consulted The Nurse earlier today she said that maybe this friend of mine is just touchy feely. I am pretty much not touchy feely unless I really trust you and we are really close so maybe that's why it's catching me so off guard. So, what do I do?

The Beav

Taking Chuckie to the Pediatrician

I can't believe I forgot about this...I took Thor to the vet Saturday morning. He was in his little carrier while we were sitting in the waiting room letting out little pitiful meows. We go back to the exam room and the assistant weighs him (in the box of course, it was pre-weighed, much easier that way) and he's a startling 9.5 lbs. That's why I worry about him, because he's so little and can get dehydrated or sick much easier. I had pre-warned the assistant saying that Thor can be quite aggressive and most veterinarians don't get out without a bite or two. So the vet comes in with 3 other people (a little overkill for 9.5 lb cat, maybe if he was a jaguar it would be a different story). By this time Thor is roaming around the room checking it out, sniffing around. The vet starts petting him (mistake #1) and the 4 people try to surround him (mistake #2). He's growling at a low level when they pick him up and put him on the exam table and start feeling around on him. The whole situation fell apart when the rabies shot happened, that's when it turned into taking Chuckie to the pediatrician. Thor screamed so loud (one of those scary Halloween ear piercing screams) I covered my ears and mom scurried like a horseshoe crab out the door. The vet still had 2 shots to give, one being a steroid shot that would alleviate any itching that was causing Thor to over groom. Great, that's all I need, Chuckie with roid rage!!! The rest of the struggle involved only the vet and his intern and 2 full sized bath towels, because 1 just wasn't enough. I felt so bad for all parties involved I almost cried. The vet gave us some phenobarbital to chill Thor out and help stop the compulsion to lick. I haven't given him any yet and since he got the steroid shot really haven't seen him lick himself. The vet also told me that if we ran out of the phenobarb that I could just call and tell him that his favorite patient ran out of pills, really no need to bring him back in. Really, DON'T bring him back in! The thing that Thor does that is different from my other cats is that if you piss him off, he remembers and stalks you until he gets his revenge. I figured the rest of my weekend would be blood soaked and painful, quite the opposite. He was attached to me like you wouldn't believe. I had a shadow, he was all over me like glue. Still is really...my poor angel!

tired and gassy!

Ever since riding with the night investigators last Friday and being back on the schedule, even if for a day, I was on for years I've been tired! I've also started to wonder something...the investigator I was riding with is female, my age, attractive, intelligent, and happily independent and not looking for a relationship. It seems that a good portion of my female friends have happily gone this way as of late, and they are all either 3 years younger or older than me. Is this a trend? Is this our generation? It seems we are all career oriented, supporting ourselves, and perfectly happy doing so. I know that I may not currently live on my own but I'm excited at the prospect and really not rushing back into cleaning up after some man like I did for 6 years. I'm not bitter, very much the opposite, I'm happier than I have been in years! My tolerance for BS dropped down soooo low and even if I do have a bad date it's not the end of the world. I really am curious about this trend. Did we learn from the unhappy relationships of our parents? I personally know that my father once hit my mother so hard it busted her eardrum. Also I know The Nurse had an upbringing similar to that, not that I think that's the only reason but it could definitely be a contributing factor.

Update on clean eating: went to the grocery store this weekend, bought a week worth of stuff to make meals out of and it's all been really good. Tosca Reno was right about saying your energy level will rise and you'll feel better because I really do, despite being tired. I did make a huge mistake earlier and had a chocolate chip cookie or two and man, as soon as they hit my stomach I was down for the count! Also, not to be disgusting and this is an advanced apology to all my squeamish readers, but I have been soooooo gassy. Not little "oops I tooted" gassy, this is full on serious chemical warfare! I'm not the only one, mom's getting the same thing (no matter how much she blames it on the dog).