Today

a friend called me about 6:30 am to help me wake up and I chose to go back to sleep for awhile. I still got to work on time (rather than early), though, but three days of insane earliness was probably enough.

Today was payday, thankfully. I got caught up on a lot, but there are still two bills out there I can’t do. But I have a full gas tank, so I can go visit my mom Saturday, and I was able to pay other bills that were overdue, including my electric. I paid the bank (which had been at a deficit since the cascade effect happened, prompting me to move back to the credit union, where fees are less and it’s non-profit). But funny thing, even though I paid in cash, PNC refused to let me close the account today because the cash would post tomorrow. Cash. Crazy. It’s a minor annoyance, I know, but I don’t see why I should have to wait when cash is legal tender and it’s not like they have to examine the $20s to verify they’re real or anything.

I was also thwarted by Time Warner Cable. Yesterday I called to see how much it would be to turn my cable back on and was quoted a figure just under $74. I specifically asked if this would still be the case today or Friday, since I got paid (I thought I was getting a cheque today, so thought I might have to wait till Friday for it to post, but it turns out the automatic deposit went in fine). She assured me that everything would be the same. So I go today and the clerk told me that the woman had been mistaken and must not have looked at the account carefully. Thirty minutes before I called, my account had been closed, raising the amount I needed to pay to $191 or so. Very different from $74. Sigh. I can’t do that. So for now I guess there's the 5GB/month hotspot through T-Mobile that comes with my unlimited phone data plan and the laundry room, which has free WiFi. The good thing is after that I dropped some things off at Goodwill that had been sitting in my trunk and went ahead and called Vonage, which is only about $10 a month, but doesn’t work without cable, and my account was set up to be debited tomorrow. They put the phone account on hold for two months until April to give me time to get service back without having to pay for my phone. Vonage has very great customer service (they once comped me an entire month when I was struggling), and I would highly recommend them. Apparently I have been a customer for 10 years and 5 months. :)

I went to Costco and got a few things for myself and some stuff for friends, who paid me back tonight. I took A to YKWIA’s and we got some stuff at the store for there, and I left him to visit. Now I’m home. I’ve eaten an Everything bagel (2 sleeves of 6 for $5.99) and Havarti cheese (32 slices for $7.49), and I drank some orange juice ($5.99 for a gallon). So my stomach is happy. I also got some tuna. So I have some basics and can go to Kroger tomorrow for some fruit, etc.

When I came out there was a lovely sunset, so many pinks and yellows and oranges—it looked like the sky was afire. I took a picture, which doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea:

Now I think I’ll do some reading and listen to some music. Those are the only things left on my to-do list. I should do the game notes, as I’ll be visiting my mom on Saturday and we will be playing Sunday. But tomorrow is another day. Good night!

Yay!

1. My air conditioning is back on and working!
2. T-Mobile rolled out an over-the-air update for the Samsung Galaxy S5 to Android 5.1.1. :) My inner geek is happy.
3. Class was the best one so far since I started teaching it. I'm getting more comfortable.
4. I saw two deer running across a field near the hospital when we were outside after class.
5. I'm finally eating dinner (macaroni and cheese).
6. I get paid tonight (don't get excited, creditors; it's mostly allocated already)
7. I found out my stove hood light is actually a standard light bulb. I thought it was a smaller one, because it was clear glass and looked to be as old as the actual apartment buildings, which I think were built in the 1970s. :)

I did manage to slightly burn myself with boiling water (important safety tip, always pour the water away from you, not towards, which I know, but ignored).

Put that on my to-do list

I woke up a little while ago and looked to see if my pay had hit my account and found that it was quite a bit less than I expected. Now, last pay day there was an error in calculating my personal time off (I have two jobs at one place, with two pay grades--I don't know how this doesn't happen more) and I got paid about $60 too much. Having been the honest type who brought it to their attention, I expected my cheque to be less by more or less the same amount, although I knew the taxes would affect it somewhat. Now I find that instead I'm about $175 less than normal. So somehow I lost $115 in all of this. I know I'm not the best at math, but I don't think it should be that much. I'm thinking that the PTO I should have had this time didn't get put in, as the amount would be about right. So tomorrow it's definitely on my to-do list to investigate. Unfortunately, my pay statement isn't available online yet, so I can't figure it out now, and my print statement doesn't have the complete breakdown, so what I get tomorrow won't help. I'll just have to wait until it's updated online, which should be some time tomorrow. But in the end this puts me in a bind, meaning my rent will have to be a few days late to pay other bills, which means I'll have to pay additional fees and overall I'll be at a deficit for July, which is when I also have a quarterly payment that's due. Not happy. :( I guess honesty sometimes bites you in the foot.

If it's a case of my PTO not being put in for this pay period, I'll just leave it as is and take the PTO later. I'm pretty low on it right now, since I don't really use it for vacations but rather in little increments for appointments. But if it's another error, then hopefully we can get it fixed.

A mix of good and bad today

On the bad side:

• My really heavy-duty electric stapler died at work. Not happy with this model. I've been through two now. Will be going with one that is a lower page-count for stapling but a different brand and a better warranty.
• I found out that the pharmacy made a mistake last time I got my Novolog Flexpen. The pen I had with me today was actually Novolog 70/30. Since I also take Lantus for long-acting insulin, they advised me against taking it (the 30 part of it is also a long-acting insulin). They had more on order and will have the right stuff tomorrow.
• I was really tired when I got home. I'd had a 3:45 appointment and it took till six to see the doctor. I got out of there at 6:30. I really needed to go to the restroom, but the workers were cleaning them. Good thing I live five minutes away.
• Not surprisingly, my blood sugar has been wonky today. I think it's time to give up carbs as much as possible. They've had free bagels at work the last few days and that's made it worse. I also really have to find a better way to remember all of my shots, to keep on schedule.

On the good side:

• The doctor's office had a sample pen of normal Novolog in a Flexpen, so I do have my quick-acting insulin for the next day or so.
• The doctor realised he had to up the number of pens he'd written the prescription for to cover me for a month.
• I probably don't have a UTI. It could just be a factor of the diabetes. We're treating it, though, because I was drinking lots of cranberry juice, which can skew the test results, and have some pain in my back and lower abdomen.
• I found out that the mistaken $10,000 hospital bill has been corrected. I now owe nothing. Yay!
• It was payday, and our raise went into effect. It pretty much brings my pay back to where it was before those tax cuts were rescinded.

So, it was a mixed bag. But overall it was okay. Tomorrow is Friday and I'm very glad. I'll get my work done (and it's jeans day), go to the pharmacy, and beyond that I don't have plans. The weekend should be busy, but I don't have to do game notes, as they're already finished. Yay! Have a great night and a great end of the week. I'm going to take my nightly dose of Lantus and then head to bed, I think. Good night.

A quiet night

I just got off the phone with a friend. Otherwise it's been a quiet night. This morning I put some more water that I had treated and let sit overnight into the aquarium, and I cleaned out the filter, so the water is gently falling and the fish seem much happier. I need to do some dishes and clean up a bit in the kitchen, but that will be tomorrow's task. The rest of the house is still looking very good from the other day. I've actually been making my bed, something i got out of the habit with when I had my dog because she just made a doggie burrito out of the covers anyway. I'm reading a book on organising your work environment over the course of a year, and one of the small changes they suggest is making the bed every morning, because it gives a boost to your outlook and makes you feel better about yourself and your surroundings. I have to admit, that's true. Also, I've still napped a bit over the last week, but having it made means I don't just 'go to bed' around 8 and stay there.

I guess that's all for tonight. I hope your week is going well so far. Mine will improve in about a half an hour because I get paid, which is good because between my checking and savings accounts right now I have exactly 24 cents. Hopefully I can pay my bills and not be quite so destitute this time, but we'll see. Good night.

Sorry I haven't posted

Tonight I came home, took a nap, and then spent a couple of hours on the phone with a friend. I think last night I roughly did the same, except not so much on the phone. I've barely gotten on the Internet other than to check the weather or do an interlibrary loan at either home or work. This is odd, as I pretty much spend most of my day on the computer and a good bit of it online. As a result of my absence, my newsfeeds are backed up already.

Today I was sleepy and had a slight headache through much of the day. I checked my blood sugar, which was okay, but it finally hit me that I had not had any caffeine today. I had paid my cell phone bill and had something like $3 in my bank account, too little to really access from work and no change for soda. Fortunately I just checked and my direct deposit for my pay has hit the bank, so tomorrow I should be able to pay my rent and some bills and yes, even get a soda or two. :)

Okay, I think I'll take my insulin and head back to bed. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe with a little caffeine in my system I can actually post something meaningful tomorrow. On the plus side, however, I drank the equivalent of 12 eight-ounce glasses of water today, something I don't do nearly as much as I should.

So tomorrow's payday, which is great, although I doubt there will be much left

On the bright side, I still have a $42 credit on my electric bill (even getting some interest, from what I can tell) left over from my security deposit. On the other hand, I need to spend $125 on medicine alone tomorrow, plus some toiletries, pay my bills, get my bus pass, and if I'm lucky I'll have money for some food, which would be great because today I rolled $3.50 in pennies for lunch [they actually had vegetarian chili]. (I didn't even have enough for my 'free' pizza, because even though the points give you the pizza free, there's the delivery charge, tax, and tip to consider.) Fortunately when I got home I found some frozen vegetables to steam that come with pasta, a sauce, and cashews, so that's what I'm eating now. There's also one of spring vegetables in a citrus sauce to have for later if this isn't filling enough. I totally forgot they were in the refrigerator. Besides that there's a box of Irish oatmeal, some expired canned tuna, a can of pears, a can of sauerkraut, and a chickpea, barley, and mushroom soup I threw together from what was on hand, but I'm almost afraid to try it. (I really can't cook.) Still, I shouldn't let that go to waste, so I'll have some in a little while, unless it's just awful. We'll see.

Sick

Last night I came in from work and just passed out. I've had a sore throat for a couple of days. Now I'm sniffling and coughing, the latter bad enough that sometime when I was up during the night I took some cough syrup with phenergan and codeine, and that helped me sleep.

Yesterday was also the first day I wore the boot. I forgot how clunky and Frankenstein-like it is. I couldn't bring myself to sleep in it, as bad as I felt already. I'll do that tonight. But last night I just had to have the thing off of me.

I am so glad tomorrow is the day the car gets fixed, barring any complications. Yesterday the buses got trapped in the transit centre due to fire trucks. I'd taken one to the pharmacy to get some baby aspirin (which keeps blood clots from forming in the leg with the boot) and the next bus just never came, and the one after that was late, so I was about 10 minutes late for work. It was truck night, and I mostly ran the register and put away a few things since I couldn't really get up on the ladder to put away cigarettes.

Okay, I got up, checked to make sure I got paid today, and now I'm going back to sleep for a little while. My head hurts. Maybe I should take some of that aspiring now. I'm thinking aspirin and ibuprofen together are not a good combination. The CPAP machine helps me breathe when I'm sniffly. I hope I feel better soon.

I just missed the bus

I've been trying to wake up ever since 6 am, but strange dreams have drawn me back downward at each attempt to rise. My ankles are the right size again this morning after keeping a cool fan on them all night (this will change over the course of the day), but my left ankle is just throbbing, even when I'm not standing on it. Also, a thunderstorm is on its way, so I may get caught in that.

Argh.

Fortunately it is also pay day. I don't have quite as much as I'd hoped for, but it's enough to cover rent, get some bus money, and go out with my old boss if we choose somewhere fairly cheap.

I think I'm going to go get my umbrella and try to walk over to the store, get some money, and go from there. Today I plan on:

1. Calling my old boss and arranging to meet today or tomorrow.
   
2. Calling someone I know about borrowing his van in the interim.
   
3. Calling the podiatrist and making an appointment for Monday.
   
4. Cleaning up my apartment some.
   
5. Working on notes, both new and old.
   

Wish me luck!

Well, one good thing about being up

I checked, and my second payday has happened for the week, so I now have the funds to cover the car repair, my phone bill, the pizza, and groceries. The cable and electric bill get paid with next week's cheque from the gas station. I'll be a couple days late on the rent due to the car, but it won't be much more than normal. Still, I'm going to ask them if I can set up a monthly debit on the 5th of every month. I don't know if they do credit/debit cards, but it's worth an ask. I would pay less in bank fees if something did not go through right away and it would be paid each month on the 5th, so I wouldn't have a tendency to be late from the landlord's point of view, since my bank pays things like mortgages and rent over smaller debits. At least that's the theory. I could see where it could go horribly wrong, for that matter. But barring things like more car repairs, I'm set to be on time in June (which starts the new lease I signed the other day,) and hopefully that trend will continue. I never got my carpet cleaned for signing my lease last time. I wonder if they'll still do it? Might as well ask; all they can say is no. They didn't offer this time; I guess the recession is melting away such perks. They used to that or give gifts; one year I got the Mummy series on DVD. :)

Okay, I think it's safe to try to go back to bed. Have a good day. Good night, again.

A long but excellent day

A small miracle happened this morning. I was able to get to the gas station without running out of gas despite the fact that I was 10 miles over my normal limit of 26-miles-to-the-gas-light. I was very nervous getting a friend last night because I really didn't think we'd make it and I'd have to call AAA. At least I have AAA. Yay, AAA.

This afternoon my mom came over (along with my stepfather, his mother, and the dog--I'm not entirely sure why) and we went downtown to transfer the car I've been driving for years over to my name. They had already gotten insurance for me from GEICO and paid for six months, so I'm good until September. I have my registration and insurance cards in the glove box just in case I get pulled over (I have a tail light out, so it's a possibility. Unfortunately I don't have the tools to fix it and it's a chronic water-collects-in-the-light-due-to-a-bad-seal-and-kills-the-bulb kind of thing, so fixing it doesn't ensure that it will stay fixed. Next time I go to visit my family I'll try to get my stepfather to help.) I paid for having the title transferred over and I also had to pay some minor back taxes on a car I didn't officially junk and accrued a bill for two years. But it wasn't much, which is good, because although it's payday I have:

1. Gotten gas.
   
2. Bought some health and beauty aids I was nearly out of, like shampoo and toothpaste, to name a couple.
   
3. Had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then got some groceries tonight on the way home from my friends' house.
   
4. Bought a Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse novel that happens to be the next in the series of the ones I've read.
   
5. Paid my cable Internet bill.
   
6. Found a gadget on clearance at the grocery store that was half off (I have trouble passing up gadgets.) It's an emergency radio/flashlight/signal flasher/cell phone charger/compass/siren all in one. It operates with a hand crank, with 30 seconds giving 60 minutes of charge. This is what a former acquaintance once referred to as a 'non-electric radio', which of course it absurd, because it is electric, it just doesn't run on batteries or wires. What can I say, I thought it might be useful in the car especially and it was less than $12. And it works pretty well, too.
   

Okay, it's after 3 am. I'm going to bed now. I've been painting and dusting tonight and I'm fairly tired. There will be more tomorrow, plus two hours at the store for truck night, work at the hospital, and errands, so I should get some sleep while I can. Good night.

See! I'm home at a decent time!

though I wasted an hour trying to get a medication that 1) is still awaiting prior autorisation and 2) was supposed to be called in at my last dosage to brige me over and that hasn't been done yet (the office told me they would on Monday). None of that is the pharmacy's fault, but this is: I was told that they 'won't be carrying distilled water in the future' when I asked where it was. Let's see, pharmacies sell humidifiers, humidifiers and other medical devices require distilled water, hmmm. They have drinking water, pediatric water. I think they may even have soda water. But alas, no distilled. Okay, I forgot to take my meds today; so maybe that's making me a little more irritable than normal. But wouldn't you expect a pharmacy (or at least one that carries the humidifiers and such, at least) to carry distilled water? Oh, well, rant over. But it's to the grocery for distilled H2O from now on, although tonight I didn't feel like going because it was thunderbooming (and still is, although now that Cerys and I are tucked away inside it's finally raining hard, so I'm glad I got in first. And we so need the rain.

I used to have a terrible phobia of thunder. Even as a baby I screamed during thunderstorms. As a teenager I dove under a table in front of company when a particularly loud one sounded. It got better slowly until my honeymoon, where we stood up on top of a hill trying to save the camp by manning wooden tarp poles, and when the inevitable bolt struck enough for everyone else to feel the electricity, I was in foetal position in a puddle of water. So for awhile after that I was pretty sensitive. But it's lessened, and now I can actually enjoy a thunderstorm--at least if I'm inside. :) Between writing and all of those ions being charged, I think I'm feeling better.

Today I was off work celebrating a birthday with Indian food. Yay! So I got to sleep late and come home early, woo-hoo! The friend I pick up at midnight most nights was off, too, so I don't have to go back out tonight unless there's an emergency. Double woo-hoo! I did have one moment where the car died today but restarted with no trouble. I'll keep an eye out for that. I know my fluids are okay; I checked them a couple of weeks ago. And it was a little low on gas (but not on empty) and I've filled up since then, so maybe it will be okay. She has over 240,000 miles on her, is on a salvaged engine, and has a door that keeps falling off, but she's gotten me where I need to go most of the time. I hope there's some life left in her.

Speaking of old but chugging along, Cerys has been sleeping really close to me, although generally not in bed anymore. She'll be right where my feet come down off the mattress, for instance, or yesterday I napped in the recliner and she slept under my feet. So I'm being really careful about where I put my feet. It's adorable, really. I think she's having trouble getting on the bed, though.

This morning I put a little gas in the car and found out that our cheques had come, so I put mine in the bank. Yay! I get paid at the hospital tomorrow and then I can go ahead and pay my rent a little early. The schedule wasn't up yet, though so I left my appointments with my boss (we'd talked for a little while about stuff to do with work) and then tonight after the pharmacy I came back to get the full tank of gas and check the schedule. I'm working tomorrow 5-9 (truck night), Friday from 6-8, and then nothing. That's right, I'm off all day Saturday. Woo-hoo! I think that's number three or four since I started in December 2005. And then I'm off through Wednesday. Granted, I'll only get paid for 6 hours for the week, but that will fall on my off payday that coincides with the next hospital payweek, so it should be okay. It won't affect my rent, anyway, and I think I can take care of my bills as long as it doesn't continue to be that low. We're shooting for about 15 hours a week rather than 27, which is what I was working for awhile. That gives me a little more time for things other than work, sleep, food, notes, and errands. :)

Okay, that's all for now. I think I may curl up for a bit and listen to the thunder.

Today I got to sleep in

because I was off work at the hospital so I could go to the sleep centre over at Eagle Creek and make an 11:30 appointment, my best shot at getting one rather than waiting awhile. I need a new masque for my CPAP but especially a new hose, as my other snapped in two and is only being held together with packing tape at the moment. I met my new doctor, who seems quite competent and nice. He set me up with orders for the masque, hose, filters, and a humidifier that hooks up to the machine. I've been on the same machine for five years now; it's probably near the end of its life, but we'll wait to replace it until it starts to go. The only thing is since the masque needs to be fitted, it would be best to wait until my cold is over. I'm feeling much better today (I found some meds that worked), so I'm hoping Monday would be good. In the meantime, I'm sleeping in the recliner.

As to the afternoon sleepiness I'm having, he doesn't think it's related to blood sugar because it's happening every day. So we're going to do a sleep study on June 15th to see if my machine needs to be recalibrated to a higher pressure.

After my appointment I stopped at the gas station for my paycheque then deposited it and went to Subway for lunch. Then I went to Walgreens and found said cold medicine and cough drops, alcohol prep for all the lanceting I do to check my blood sugar, some cleaner and a cleaning wand, some menstrual pads, and a thank you card for someone who did something very nice for me.

Then it was back home where I cleaned my toilet and straighten up around the house (I need to scrub the tub, too, as I had some pomegranate seed scrub that really adhered, making it slippery--hence the scrubby cleaning wand).

I was relaxing after that when a neighbour, a police officer, knocked on my door. He thought he may have bumped the back of my car with his cruiser, but we checked and there wasn't any damage. It's possible he went into the curb instead. We talked for quite awhile and then I went in and took a brief nap and headed to the gas station for work, which turned out to be full of drama that I managed to stay out of by working for an hour-and-a-half in the cooler getting it ready for the truck. We were all assembled, eating pizza, when the truck was supposed to be there, and yet there was no truck. My boss said something about the fact that it was late for them not to show or call, and then it hit me. Monday was Memorial Day. I pointed this out and they all had a similar Eureka! moment. Whenever there's a holiday the truck comes a day later. So I went on home and will come back for a couple of hours tomorrow for the real truck night. But hey, I got a free meal, and about 3 hours of work that won't have to be done tomorrow in.

After resting for just a bit and relaxing quiet time to transition from the store, I went over to visit a friend. Then I worked on the game notes for awhile. Then I picked another friend up from work, made a Kroger run, did some paperwork, and now I'm here, eating a bit before bed and definitely feeling sleepy. On that note, I wish you a good night.

As you can probably tell, I'm playing catch-up

I didn't manage to cover all the things I have on my list, but did get to quite a few.

Some random things--

Tuesday morning I overslept even though I'd had a chance to recover some of the sleep I'd lost on Saturday night. My blood sugar was pretty high, so I think that was a factor. I never heard my alarm, and according to my clock, I never tried resetting it or anything. It's a little disturbing--I've had one other time when I was supposed to go get someone late at night and slept right through the meeting. My friends tried calling me to no avail, so one of them called another set of friends who had a car and sent them over to check on me. The doorbell never woke me up. Finally, they knocked on my window and set Cerys barking. I finally woke up, groggy, feeling practically drunk. Blood sugar ups and downs are touchy, scary things.

Fortunately the errands I was to run Tuesday afternoon were postponed, so I was able to go home on a nice sunny, warm spring-like day, prop the window open, and I slept for three-and-a-half hours. Then I did laundry, but still got to bed early that night, so today I felt refreshed and woke up early. I'm up a little late tonight, but I'm going to bed soon. I just wanted to update a little.

Hope your week is going well. I'm happy we're over the hump. Tomorrow I get paid (yay!) at the hospital and maybe the gas station, which is good, as I have 44 cents in my checking account as of right now. 44 cents! Agh! I'm looking forward to lunch, which is breakfast; I may use my anniversary card (free meal ticket) for it. We'll see. Or I may save it for when I'm truly destitute.

I'm also trying to decide what to do with the points that I earn in my checking account. Every time I use my debit card or write a cheque I accrue points. I'm over 20,000 now. I could get a $50 Macy's card, among other rewards. Or, I could save up another 20,000 and get a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com. I'm trying to make up my mind. I think I'll wait for now and see how quickly they're accruing. I think it took 6 months to get the 20,000. I've got four years before they expire. I think I'll let them build up.