Le Sigh...But it Leads Me to a Good Point

So last night i'm at a cook out. A cook out where the hot dogs were not coming off the grill as fast as I had hoped. So I was in the kitchen filling up on Scoops and salsa and talking to a couple of people about my Hypersomnia. One person joined us about half way in where I was describing my overwhelming need to sleep. And she goes "Isn't that depression?"

Ok, so aside from the obvious annoyance because no, I saw my psychiatrist the whole time I was on the search for a diagnosis and he re-evaluated me and found my depression to be the same and a real live doctor told me the results of the sleep study that confirmed I have a sleep disorder, this bugged me for another reason.

I've read that Narcolepsy is as common as Parkinson's Disease but that it is terribly underdiagnosed. I can believe that. When I first mentioned Narcolepsy to my primary care doctor as a reason I was so damn sleepy all the time she told me that if I was Narcoleptic I would be nodding off while talking to her. Well, maybe, and maybe not. There isn't a lot of understanding about Hypersomnia and Narcolepsy in the general public and doesn't seem to be much in the general medical community. I was lucky to have a primary care doctor who thought a sleep study was a good idea. But what if I had chalked my sleepiness and lack of interest in things (because I was tired) up to depression? Would a psychiatrist think to consider a sleep disorder if a patient wasn't responding to treatment? I would hope so, but it seems really easy to look at a patient with depression who is sleeping a lot and think that the anti-depressants might me making them more sleepy or not helping and changing the meds ten times until someone gives up or just deals the best they can with the situation.

So what i'm getting at here is if you stumble on this post and you've been seeing a psychiatrist for a while and your depression isn't any better consider that you may have a sleep disorder. You might be surprised at what you find out.

Another Post for Twitter, Which I am Not On.

I'm watching The Abyss. Why the fuck am I watching this movie?!?!?! It is exactly the kind of movie I HATE because i'm a pussy who can't stand suspense! I'm a nervous wreck over here! That's why i'm on the computer. I normally stitch while watching tv but I can't concentrate enough to stitch while watching this! And you know what else, the black lady in this movie. I know i've seen her somewhere before but I can't place it. Oh wait, I have access to IMDB now. Hang on while I look her up.

Ok, she is Kimberly Scott and I remember her from the days a few years ago when I would watch 7th Heaven so I could eviscerate it on the Television Without Pity boards. She was Greta, the sassy social worker. And now I only have 30 minutes left and I can finally say I watched this darn movie. I saw the beginning years ago on tv, but the whole crane crashing and being trrapped under water thing freaked me the fuck out. I'm clausterphobic in situations like that. I can deal with cramped quaters as long as I know I can get out. Otherwise forget about it. In fact to get through the beginning this time I had to keep looking out the window to impress upon myself that I was not in that horrible place.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and mention that i'm torturing myself. You know, for shits and giggles.

Am I The Only One Who Was Broke BEFORE the Recession?

So last night I switched purses from my Fall/Winter purse to my Spring/Summer purse. My Spring/Summer purse is the one pictured but pink with brown trim. It's a Nine West and I got it at Ross last year for like $25. As I put everything into it I thought to myself "Heh, i'm Shopping In My Own Closet! Or as I call it Using Something I Already Have Again Because It's Still Good And I've Never Had A Lot Of Money So Reusing An Item From Last Year Isn't An Earth Shaking Concept To Me ASSHOLES!"

I mean really, I know a great majority of Americans were living well beyond their means in the last few years, but did they really never reuse an item? Why is this such a crazy concept that it's become a Whole Thing in any article you read about the economy? Maybe I was the only one broke before the economy went to pot. I don't know. I do know that I love my purse this year as much as last year and it still holds all my crap so why wouldn't I use it again? Or maybe i'm just weird. That's probably it. I'm weird. Oh well, that's ok because I still have a sweet bag bitches!

This Project Was Like Pancakes.

Mitch Hedberg summed up the deal with pancakes. At first you're excited, then half-way through you're fucking sick of them. So true. And so true of this project. I got the kit years ago for my birthday right after I took up cross stitching. I was excited and started on it but then got sidetracked by The Stargazer. I discovered this one again in my Inauguration/Snow Day and decided to finish it up already. Mostly I enjoyed it. But then I ran out of two colors of floss. So I substituted. Then I ran out of the Dark Purple and could not substitute that and had to email Dimensions for more. A week later the floss came and I was able to finish the last 20 stitches I needed it for. Then came the backstitching, most of it done with gold metallic thread. Four strands of to be exact. And what a surprise, I ran out of that too. This time I was ready to be done with this thing so I used some gold metallic I had rather than send away for more. Of course this metallic didn't want to work well with the french knots I was supposed to have around her head so I said fuck it, it's done! I still think she turned out nicely. Except her face. I'm always disapointed in the face on these smaller kits. I guess the designers don't have a lot of room to work with, but I also think they don't really try that hard either. Some fractional stitches to round out her face would have done a lot to make it look nicer. Oh well, I tried. And again, overall a nice project that is finally done!

So This Week is Already Starting Out Better!

First of all Jessica C. had her baby! Hooray for her!

And turns out I won a door prize at a vendor fair that was held at work Friday. It's a USB thumb drive! Yea!

Let's hope this is a trend.

Last Week Was a Very, Very, Very Bad Week.

Monday I met my potential new boss and had a pretty large anxiety attack over that. (Wasted anxiety, she was really cool and I think I would work well with her.)

Tuesday, I think, was ok.

Wednesday I went for a six month cleaning at my dentist and found out I need four more fillings at a cost of $607 dollars. I don't have $607. I do have a Care Credit Card which was almost paid off, but my cleaning was $170 and I didn't have that so i'll be paying GE Money Bank for another year. Oh and of course the super fun time at the dentist while he crams stuff into my teeth holes.

Thursday I went to check in at Manda's Blog to find out she had passed away. Very, very sad.

Friday I got up put on my last clean pair of jeans, my last clean sweatshirt and was about to leave for work when Wally and Jules got into it big time in the kitchen. Wally got his ear scratched pretty bad and in running under the bed to hide got blood on the bedroom door, the wall beside my dresser, the dresser itself, and the carpet, so I was cleaning up blood right before work. Driving to work the gas light on the car came on. Normally we would have been paid on Friday, but the way the days fell this month we will get paid on Tuesday. So low on gas, low on groceries, low on money.

So that's why I didn't post last week. Let's hope this week is better.

I Love You Prilosec...I'll Never Let Those Assholes Take You Away From Me.

Except that i'm realizing now after a somewhat greasy lunch and a lot of Crystal Light (acidic) that I forgot to take my Prilosec this morning. I have some Rolaids Soft Chews in my desk, but they are child's play compared to the Prilosec. I LOVE the Prilosec. Whenever some numbnut starts bitching about how we all take too many pills I think of my Prilosec and sigh longingly. Water used to give me heartburn. Water! So you can see the whole chaging my diet and drinking more water didn't do much to help. Better living through chemistry y'all.

I'm in my Own Private Hell.

The person on the other side of my cube is listening to the Hamster Dance for THE SECOND TIME!!! Remember the Hamster dance? Mildly amusing ten years ago? Well, yeah, he just found it and is playing it loudly AGAIN! If he does it a third time i'll be blogging from jail after I bust up his computer and get arrested for destroying state property! Gah!

Finally! A Wall-E Cross Stitch!

I've waited so long! Hooray!

The Fucker is at it AGAIN!

More cigar smoke! GAH!!! I'm going to hit this person with my ring hand! And with a 0.86 carat diamond it's GOING TO HURT!

Head Meet Keyboard.

So i've posted a lot here about my 99% liberal views and my feminist convictions as well as my marriage and other assorted what not. Marriage and Feminism make strange bedfellows, but I never had a conflict in my mind about entering into what was once a very patriarchal institution because Josh and I aren't that way and I felt that our marriage is what we make of it, not what is has been historically and in some cases still is.

But since the only people who read this blog are my Mom, my Sister, and Jessica C. i'm not famous enough to cause a stir with the whole Marriage + Feminism = FREAKOUT as Feministing's Jessica Valenti and Andrew Golis are.

Jezebel has the whole rundown of the brouhaha including the responses of two conservative asses calling her a bridezilla and other assorted insults for deciding to get married in a way that was comfortable for her and her fiance instead of how they think it should be done. To which I of course say Fuck. Off.

I encourage you to read the post if no other reason than the hilarious All New Marriage Application. But also think about who we want controlling things that are very private and very personal. People who march lockstep with The Way Things Should Be or people who understand that there is no one path to happiness and let adults make their own decisions on their own and based on what is right for them?

10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse

So Wired has up an article about the 10 Annoying Habits of a Geeky Spouse, and yeah, it's pretty accurate.

Josh is very bad about #2, not with Klingon, but with frak. Frak to me is like nails on a chalkboard. It's so far from fuck that it just rubs me completely wrong. Even hearing it on BSG annoys me.

#5 doesn't bother me. Josh can wear what he wants and if someone around him doesn't get his t-shirt then it's no skin off my ass.

#6, oh my God, yes! I cannot tell you how much old computer crap is in our shed or how many movies and video games Josh has. Plus the action figures, books, comic books and other types of swag that he's collected over the years. I don't know how we'll afford a house big enough to store all this stuff, and it just. Keeps. Coming. Every game he buys is the special edition with the figures or the poster or the collectable packaging. I honestly try very hard not to think about it.

The other things on the list are less of an issue with Josh, but I would like to propose a number eleven: Trying to convert your spouse to your kind of geekiness via gifts.

I can't tell you how long it took for Josh to realize that if I didn't ask for a video game for Christmas/Birthday/Anniversary/etc. that meant that I didn't want a video game and not to buy one because I would say thanks but then never play it. It honestly took years of fail on Josh's part to get this. There is a scene in a Family Guy episode where Lois is opening gifts to unwrap another sword from Peter. After a few meaningful looks Josh asked if that was him. I said yes. I have a lot of 'swords' that were well intentioned, but hopeless gifts in the end.

But by and large i'll take the annoying habits of my geeky spouse any day over the annoying habits i've read about with non geeky spouses. Josh's passion for video games/action figures/comic books means that he gets my passion for dolls and collecting cross stitch patterns. He never nitpicks me over money I spend on my hobbies because his invariably cost more. He doesn't hassle me to dress sexy all the time because I don't hassle him to not wear the Gears of War t-shirt again. We'll make space for his stuff the same way we'll make space for mine. As always the geeky marriage comes down to just being a marriage. Compromise, understanding, love. Same as it ever was.

Oh Heaven Help Me.

So someone is outside my building smoking a cheap cigar and i'm so tempted to find them, cuss them out for smoking under an intake vent and then vomit on them from their disgusting choice of tobacco product.

NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING stinks like a Goddamn cigar. I HATE a fucking cigar.

Lord give me strength not to vomit into my trash can.

Glorified Cube 2315 is Happy to Welcome IE 7!

Yes, you read that right. I just now installed IE 7. I finally have tabbed browsing here at work! Yea! I'm excited!

And also, it's Friday! And it's lunchtime! WOO HOO! Time to find a Frontline on PBS.org to watch while I eat my Lean Cuisine cheese ravioli. Aw yeah.

Back to Work.

So i've returned to work after my two days off for Spring Break. And you know what is annoying the hell out of me? That my super advanced Cisco IP phone doesn't have the sense to spring forward. So my computer says 9:47 and my phone says 8:47. I've been through the settings and have found nothing to change the time. The last time the time changed I think it took a month or so for the phone to wise up. Really, really annoying.

ETA: Ok, I have an email in my inbox from Monday about this. Apparently this is an issue with some of these ultra fancy phones and ITCS is working on a fix. It should be worked out by next week. Still annoying. How much did this phone cost? And Cisco knows that it doesn't update for daylight savings? Please.

SPRING BREAK!!! WOOOO! Well, When Are We Going to Get Rowdy?

Bart on Spring Break in Knoxville. Awesome episode. Fun fact, my first Spring Break in college I took a trip to Knoxville. Not my idea I swear. I even got to see the Wig Sphere, I mean, Sun Sphere.

Anyway, i'm an old married woman now and Spring Break for me means that I take two days off work and do my sping cleaning. I had planned to get rowdy with some Venetian Sunsets today, but I couldn't buy the champange this morning at the grocery store. Here in NC you can't sell alcohol before noon on Sunday. I guess someone might get drunk and go to church. So instead I cleaned my corner of the living room, spray painted a picture frame, hosed off my silk plants, washed all the curtains, cleaned the refrigerator, windexed the light fixture in the kitchen, and used a Magic Eraser on the mail box stand.

Tomorrow I plan on putting Killz over the water spots in the ceiling left from past tropical storms, washing my kitchen cabinets, cleaning windows, repairing the doorbell, washing the curtains in the bedroom that can only be handwashed, and trying to bring some order to the chaos that is my office.

Oh yeah. Spring Break. It's a laugh riot around here. It's almost as fun as being at work.

Oh and by the way...

For all of those who expressed surprise at me going out with my freinds this weekend, along the lines of Brandi has freinds? and Brandi goes places? You all can kiss the lower part of the backside of the canister that is my body.

And Lo, The Seventh Seal Was Opened, And Brandi Went to the Club

No, really. I went to the club this weekend with a few freinds. It was a bithday celebration so I felt like an asshole not going. I had fund hanging out and shopping and having dinner with the girls, but I did not like the club.

It always pissed me off as a kid when people would say "How do you know you don't like it if you haven't tried it?" That still applies. Josh kept telling me Friday that I would go to the club and end up liking it and spending all my time there until I found someone new. No, I don't know what he was smoking. These are a few things I know about myself: I don't like loud places, I don't like crowded places, I don't like paying $10 to get in somewhere, I don't like paying huge amounts for drinks, I don't like being out super late, and I don't like paying large amounts of money for clothes that I can't wear to work.

This is what I know about the club: It is very loud and crowded. The cover varies, but can be pretty high. The drinks are too expensive to really catch a buzz on. No on even goes to the club before 10 pm. The clothes that you wear to the club are not clothes you can wear to work. At least not in my kind of work. So it's not a big leap to assume that knowing myself pretty well and what I like and don't like that I can safely guess that the club wasn't for me. But hey, I went. And I am know 100% certain that my life as a homebody who loves to cross stitch while watching tv and going to to bed early is for me. Just like I was before.

General Manager. Not So Great Akshually.

Josh likes to say i'm the general manager of the house. In wrestling this would mean that set up the matches and whatnot and had my own office and was an important part of the organization.

In real life this means that i'm the one who has to call the Turd Merchant to get the septic tank pumped. So...yeah...

Posts I Would Have Put on Twitter This Weekend if I Was on Twitter.

1. Saturday morning i'm driving to Wal-mart and I see Grimace and the Hamburgler outside the McDonald's with ballons doing some sort of promotion. And I thought, do kids even know who Grimace and the Hamburgler are anymore? I haven't seen them in a commercial for McDonald's in ages.
2. My mail carrier still doesn't know what the large yellow DO NOT BEND stickers on my mail mean as I found another package marked that way crammed into my mailbox this weekend. I know you phone it in since you're a goverment employee, but come on.
3. I watched my first episode of Battlestar Gallactica this weekend with Josh. In the four minutes that Guyas Baltar was on screen in the first half of the show he proved himself to be a complete tool who I hate eventhough I probablly won't watch the show again. Unless he gets beaten up or killed. Then i'll tune in.
4. Edward James Olmos really does have skin the texture of a decorative autumn squash. It fits his charecter on BSG as Odama, but I feel for the man in the future.
5. I have a few questions about BSG. First of all, where do the Cylons get their make up and hair products from? They look great where as the Humans look like they haven't had soap in ten years. And where does all the booze come from? If they left Earth with the booze surely it's running low by now. Are they making toilet wine like in prison? And where the hell did the piano in the bar come from? This is just silly.
6. Have you seen the commercial for the weight loss cookies? The one where everyone is saying that they took the cookie from the cookie jar? And they say that you can save all this money by eating these diet cookies instead of real food? Yeah, you're supposed to have ONE COOKIE for breakfast, ONE for lunch, then I guess a sensible dinner as Slimfast used to call it. I'll tell you why you're saving money. Because starving is cheap! One cookie! A magical weightloss cookie that can't taste that good? Fuck you. I'll be fat.
7. Speaking of which, I found out at the doctors a few weeks ago that I have gained weight and am now above my personal limit by two pounds. And a few weeks ago I also found out I have high cholesterol. So i'm changing my diet a bit and hope to start exercising soon. Bleh.
8. Got completely lost yesterday trying to find Jessica's baby shower. (Yes, Jessica C. Check out her blog and her Etsy page.) I actually had given up on finding the place and was heading home when I noticed a sign for the church by the road and showed up an hour late. I hate being late as much as I hate being lost. But i'm glad I made it. I would have hated missing the shower even more.
9. While watching Spongebob this weekend (Yes I watch Spongebob. But only the older episodes. The new ones are unwatchable.) I saw a commercial for a Littlest Pet Shop playset. It came with an exclusive new pet, the porcupine. You dumbasses. No one wants a porcupine for a pet. Porcupines are wild animals and their quills break off once they've lodged in your skin. They are not cute or cuddly at all. The new pet should be a hedgehog. I know they are often confused, but come on. Google porcupine and tell me anyone would want one as a pet. As a former hedgie owner this really bugged me.

So that was my weekend if I had put it on Twitter. Which I didn't because i'm not on Twitter, because I don't get Twitter. Because i'm old. That is also why i'm not on Facebook or Myspace. I'm going to go polish my cane now and talk about how things used to cost less than they do now.