Category Archives: all posts

here’s the big news: I’m having knee surgery on thursday. Apparently, I don’t have an ACL in my left leg! so I’ll get a donor from a cadaver (early payback for my mom’s donation of her body to science!) and will take thursday and friday and most of next week off. Daddy-o will come pick me up after the surgery on thursday, and whisk me home to the land of stocked larders and cable tv. I am getting a prescription for narcotics in the mail, so I should be just fine. And next week I’ll come home and have my internets installed and sit and knit and go to the doctors and try not to have to drive. Theoretically, I don’t have to, because my town has such a great main street. Also theoretically, I’ll be able to use the NJ Transit Trip Planner to plot my moves. Apparently I can take 2 buses to the doctors office in Paramus. You know, if it comes to that.

See, my car is a stick shift and my clutch leg is being operated upon. so I won’t be able to drive my own car for a month+, estimated time. I’m hoping to swap cars with someone locally, and if that doesn’t work there’s the kind offer of Mariss to borrow the pittsburgh civic, and if that’s not feasible there’s always driving the camper van. so all I really need to figure out is: should I do short term disability? how likely is it that I’ll be able to work 40 hour weeks from home ? should I take the train to mahwah and have someone pick me up? apparently, that option is WAY easier (and cheaper!) than traveling to edison for work.

Anyway, because of my imminent crutching around, I cleaned up my apartment. Yes! it’s brilliant. not totally cleaned or unpacked, but it looks GOOD. I even started to hang things on the walls! and I feel so great about slowly getting everything in order. I can’t wait to have a dinner party and serve ridiculously elaborate dishes and lots of dessert. I still have to paint my bedroom and sort out all the boxes in there, and find homes for all of my craft stuff (naturally) but it is coming along, coming along.

well, I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to. but I did make a big dent!

* paint at least one room, either hall or bedroom. Bedroom would be better, but hall would be faster. sigh.I finished the hall way! yay. it looks awesome. I took a photo, but won’t be able to post until tomorrow.
* clean the living room. Could absolutely complete this task if I painted my bedroom. Argh, priorities! Um, not so much. I did put SOME things away, but generally I just moved things around.
* mail some stuff to some special people. not so much again. but tomorrow, for real! at least by wednesday!
* go to the library and return/pick up things. yeeeah. see also above.
* drive plants and things to michelle’s house on long island. visit. Done! I had a lovely time with michelle and her family, they are beautiful and kind people.
* pre-drive, make a yummy chocolate cake (or two). I didn’t do this, but I did bring cupcakes to long island. it’s the thought that counts, right?
* finish off then bathroom, kitchen, and closet lists. This will involve shelving and wood cutting. hop to. Also, make a BIG dent on the hall list. HA HA HA! not so much. but I plan to take the wood cutting to albany with me this weekend, so hopefully it will be a piece of cake to knock out after thanksgiving.
* make stuffed squash for the company thanksgiving feast on monday. Did this after I got home from long island. the squashes came out brilliant, even though stop and shop doesn’t carry hazelnuts, apparently, so I had to use almonds instead. I’m in the feasting office today waiting for lunch to be served up, and I can’ t wait. I love potlucks. they’re so fun, I love getting lots of little bits of different kinds of food for the eating. LOVE IT.

I need to get cracking on my poor apartment this weekend. Luckily, I have some lists to help me out. So this is what I REALLY want to do this weekend:

* paint at least one room, either hall or bedroom. Bedroom would be better, but hall would be faster. sigh.
* clean the living room. Could absolutely complete this task if I painted my bedroom. Argh, priorities!
* mail some stuff to some special people.
* go to the library and return/pick up things.
* drive plants and things to michelle’s house on long island. visit.
* pre-drive, make a yummy chocolate cake (or two).
* finish off then bathroom, kitchen, and closet lists. This will involve shelving and wood cutting. hop to. Also, make a BIG dent on the hall list.


* make stuffed squash for the company thanksgiving feast on monday.

um… is that IT? gosh. you know, I am really not LOOKING FORWARD to this level of effort, but I do know that if I get the living room clean and something painted and start to hang up things like the shelf that’s been on my bathroom floor since May, well, I’ll be in a better place. Especially with the hectic holiday season coming up. Besides, I told myself I couldn’t open my NEW SPINNING WHEEL until the living room is clean! So I’d better!

oh, yes. We had a lovely time at mariss’ 30th birthday party. almost as much time as the birthday boy, I hope! I have some poor pictures here, and koray was the unofficial photodocumenter with photographs here.

pittsburgh was brilliant this weekend: it was wooing me back there. it was warm and leafy, and the colors were spectacular, and I still remember how to get places, and my CMU and nonCMU friends were warm and (in some cases really above and beyond) welcoming and happy and fun. Oh, Pittsburgh, you ARE the best place ever.

so the PE on friday went quite well. Also in the going well category: studying on thursday, going to crown heights to stay with a friend who sweetly said yes when I invited myself over and then made me dinner and served me wine and then tea and then a brownie sundae, the car service from her house to pratt in the morning, and getting to the test on time and calmly.

The PE is structured into a “breadth” morning session and a “depth” afternoon session. the morning covered all kinds of civil engineering: transportation, structures, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental. I think the morning went pretty good, but y’all know me, I am WAY better at breadth than I am at depth! lunch was fun with two college friends, and then the afternoon went absolutely swimmingly for me, if I can compare my experience to the fellow next to me who kept cursing under his breath! A friend pointed out that if I don’t do well I can claim inhospitable testing conditions because seriously, this kid was turning the air blue. So, I didn’t feel like swearing, I didn’t run out of time really, and I only guessed absolutely out right on a few questions. The other ones I either knew straight out or was able to make up science for them. My units always worked out. Mostly the answers I got very closely matched the multiple choices, and if they didn’t they weren’t off by orders of magnitude or anything. I was happy to find that the afternoon questions were less heavily geared towards waste water treatment (i.e., not like my practice exam), and more towards other environmental things that I know better.

And after the test I had a quick bite with my college friend, picked matt up from work, and drove down to see gabulon who also took the test and was also feeling pretty good about it.

Now, I have to reserve my judgement on my actual performance until I find out from the testing board if I passed, though, because I have had MANY tests in the past where I thought I did just fine, and in reality, I wasn’t even able to comprehend how difficult and multifaceted the test was. But at least I didn’t run out of time, and I didn’t freak out or start to cry, and I didn’t have to guess on a lot of things. So, in general, YAY. it’s over. DOUBLE YAY.

So, this last week? has been primo busy.

1. Office move. I am now working out of our new, bright, shiny, pristine, no, PRISTINE, Edison office. I was at work last friday until 11PM packing my things and trying to clear off my plate, I had a bunch of files and reports that I didn’t want to move with, and had to review or send to people, so it was a good (though LATE NIGHT) opportunity to get some outstanding things done.

2. PE test. It’s next friday, 10/28. I am stressed, concerned, worried, and also, frustrated that I have to use a vacation day to sit for an excruciating, non-fun professional exam that will allow my company to bill me out at a higher rate. Something about a personal investment as well, but heck, I guess that’s what I was considering my $850 review course fee. I envision a brain fever coming over me, and having to stay out of work to nurture my noggin.

3. PE test. Also, because this PE test is so big, there’s another item. I NEED TO STUDY MORE. heck, I need to study! truth be told I only started studying last week. Sure, I went to a spendy review course but I don’t know if that counts as studying. I have to get cracking. I do NOT want to take this twice, no-sir-ee-bob. fo’shizzle.

4. Home Life. I am tired all the time. so tired. Also, I am getting home primo late and not having time to do much more than read a little, eat ice cream for dinner (it’s ok, right, b/c I’m not actually eating dinner too. sure.), and go to sleep. The heat has come on in my apartment and it hisses in my bedroom. I turned the radiator mostly off, but it seems like it only comes on around 6AM, when I mostly should be getting up anyway. The first night it hissed, stopped, hissed, stopped, and I woke up kind of happily, because I thought it was a piece of experimental music that I’d heard the day before playing on the radio. not so much, so the next time it woke me up I wasn’t as cheerful.

5. Experimental Music. Speaking of music, I got an MRI on monday. The different sounds the machine makes as it magnetizes you are so wild. People have told me it’s white sound and they fall asleep, but I was fascinated. Especially when a ray gun sound came in. The different cadences and beats coupled with the weird mechanical tonalities really made me wish I were an experimental music composer and I could write an MRI suite, or something. I don’t know when my doctor will look at the MRI, or when I’ll get surgery of some sort. But hopefully soon.

6. Matt and I went to sheep and wool, and he bought me my birthday present: a spinning wheel! it won’t come until sometime in November. More to follow, for sure. we also bought a whole lot of lamb for eating. yum.

7. Week before I got a call saying my hybrid was in! and then I got another call saying WAIT! don’t come to albany! it’s not in! it won’t be in until MID-DECEMBER! So, I am totally not getting the civic, though I still want to drive it – I need to get a new car in November b/c my car is so rusty and holey (but not in a Godly manner) that it will most probably not pass inspection, and it has to by the end of November for me to continue driving it. THEREFORE, I will get an insight, for realz. As soon as, you know, I Take The PE Exam.

and there you have it. 7 things, 7 days I didn’t update, nearly the same, no?

suffice it to say, I’m not as blue. Tuesday night I had a series of epiphanies involoving aspects of my life that were blue blue blue. With the magical powers of good friends, the ability to recognize silver linings, and the knowledge that no matter how tough work is, at least I don’t dread heading to the office… all is good. YAY.