Guitar Town

The city took 10 ft fiberglass replicas of Gibson guitars and gave them to local artists to complete. Each guitar is unique to Austin. they are scattered all over the city. I have found several of them and here they are. Kind of like a scavanger hunt for me. Click on the picture to get a better view. I really like the one covered in Bumper stickers. One of them says Austin Sucks don't live here!

American Idol

I am addicted to this show ya'll. I love it so much. Last night was a good one. I have one question though. What is up with the men in New York City? They all had their eyebrows done! Here in the Lone Star state that would not go over that well.I can just hear it now "what the hell happened to your eyebrows Bubba? Get too close the firepit?"
The one lady who wanted to be the 1st contestant to be taught to sing was clinically nuts! She needed a ride to Bellvue! Can you say Lithium? I loved the guy dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz! (also with tweezed eyebrows)Then there was Ian I think was his name who said he was a superstar and they could ask his friend and therapists.
My poor cousin says she hates reality TV Oh my! Is she in for a rude awakening. My all time favorite show is of course AI but I also love Big Brother,Survivor, and The Amazing race!She told me she needs cable in her room!LOL
I am alone this morning because the talker has a Dr. appt. Her heart is beating erratically.Man if she drops dead I will feel so bad for slamming on her!I do try so hard to be nice. I do really!If it weren't for coming here to ventilate I might be tempted to be verbally mean to her but probably not. I am such a sucker. Like last night when the contestants cried I cry too. It upsets me to see someone cry. I used to not be like that. I mean I worked for almost 20 years in trauma units. But,something happened. I guess like a sponge I could absorb no more grief and misery. I have a scar on the inside of my mouth that I used to bite on whenever family members would start crying at the bedside. I could keep from crying if I bit it hard enough. But then even that couldn't do it for me. If they started to cry then me too.I had to get out. I miss it ever once in a while but I think about it for a little bit and I know I did the right thing. There are so many avenues of nursing out there available to me that I feel I can make a difference without being in that situation anymore. Hope everyone has a wonderful day. The sun is shining here!!!

Hump Day

I love Wednesdays because it is the middle of the week and my girlfriends and I go out for cocktails after work. Nothing like a good margarita to get the juices flowing. One of the nurses here at work is trying to set me up with a fireman. Firemen are fine and all but they all smoke. I have never had a smoking boyfriend. I have gone out with smokers before but only once or twice. Smoking is a big thing for me. I do not like smelling like a cigarette and no way I like kissing a smoker. YUCK!!!!The talker is at it again! She is so passive aggressive it is unreal! I am trying so hard to be positive but so far I am only positive she is driving me crazy! She teased me a little this morning when she told me a Hospice outfit here in town is courting her for a DON position. Oh please let it be so! Maybe I am wrong there may be a God after all! LOL Poor dying people! No, she does have experience in Hospice. This here job I do is very stressful. It took me a while to become comfortable with it. I still struggle sometimes with complicated things and part of my job is to assist with billing as well. I hate that part of the job and am not very good at it as a result. I do not feel comfortable calling folks to talk about the bill. Like if they have signed up for a HMO medicare without realizing it. That sort of thing. There are so many scams out there and these old folks only hear how it will save them money but they are not told they will have a decrease in the benefits too. Some of them have even been signed up after refusing to be signed up. Seems they do not have to sign anything! What a headache! How about American Idol last night. I would never audition in a town like Memphis. I think they would hold you to a different standard than the folks in Minneapolis or Seattle. I think the same of an audition in say L.A or Austin where there are a lot of good singers. I know the girl who sang the spiritual last night was good and she got cut. She should have auditioned in Seattle!Damn President cutting into the show too. Can't he give his stupid speech on Sunday evening. I mean won't everyone be watching TV that night?

UGH! Monday again!

I came in to an empty office this morning. It was so nice. But then the talker came in. I had have my radio on low and I can tell it is upsetting to her. WTF! I should slam in some NIN and turn it up! LOL!When I got to work this morning there was an e-mail from my boss and her boss scolding me for going to the Dr on Friday.Apparently the fact that the appt. was for Tuesday and had to be moved was not enough for them. I didn't submit it in writing. I don't know how much more of this shit I can take. I have told them I am under a lot of stress generated from this office and they know I am on medication for depression,stress,and anxiety. Maybe they just want to see if my head will actually explode on the job! I am sure this will reflect poorly on my evaluation. And still she sits here asking me how to do things she knows how to do. If she doesn't know how to do it then she is a dumb ass and if she knows how to do it then she is just working me! I am at my wit's end!I cannot be any nicer and I am not going to do her job! Thank you so much she says. I learned something new! Yeah you did the same freaking thing you learned last week and the week before and the week before. Okay ENOUGH! I sound like a broken record but god ya'll she is so dang annoying!
The weather is cold again today. Well, chilly anyway. 38 degrees when I woke up and not expected to get abover 45 all day. It is overcast and dreary too. I hate this kind of weather. When I was a kid I grew up in the northern part of the state. That overcast dreary shit was winter all the time. I would get claustrophobic from the cloud cover. I feel that way sometimes now if it is like that for more than a day or two. I have to make myself not notice it so much. I know that sounds crazy but well, I am under the care of a shrink!
I have been having a crisis of faith lately. I am having a hard time believing in a God that is supposed to be omnipotent;able to create and destroy in the blink of an eye. I want to know, really know, why if such a presence does exsist we can cotinue to have such hatred in the world. Not just wars among men but cruelty and abuse to animals,children, and the elderly. I don't want to hear about free will. That is bullshit ok. A cop out. Bullshit to free will.How can any good or meaning come from some sick shit who gets off being cruel to animals or children or old folks. I am not buying it. I am not buying into faith based hatred or judgement. Just because this one doesn't believe in what the other one believes in they choose to settle things with violence. How if you are a kind and loving superbeing can you allow so much turmoil in the world? All over. All the time.I think that this is what you get and if you spend your life waiting for something to happen after you die then you just don't get it. The time to do something is when you are alive. I think this is it. You get one shot and when you are dead you cease to be. I don't think we go somewhere to have our permamnent record laid out before us like some big time Santa list or something. Please! The bible says Jesus died for all sins. So what we can all do what ever the hell we want and still go to heaven.I for one am not going for that either. I say just like my Grandmother says you better act like you know something. I will take away from the bible this much treat one another as you want to be treated and love another. These 2 things sound so simple and are in reality so hard. Then there is the forgiving trespasses of other as well. I have been working so hard on these things, not so I can go to heaven, but because I know it is the right thing to do and I have only a limited amount of time here in this world and I want to be as good of a person as I can. For me and for the rest of the world. I continue to fight the injustices as I see them but not for God. For me and you. Religion is for people with no direction.I am not meaning to cause a stir or offend anyone really I am just having as I said a crisis of faith.It is an ongoing thing. Remember I was brought up Catholic so I am already messed up!LOL! Just something that has been weighing heavy on what I laughingly call my mind!Opps, now the boss is sitting in here with the talker and she is telling her how to do every step it takes to complete her tasks. gotta go

Grey's Anatomy

I love,love,love,this show. I recorded it this week because I went out to dinner with an out of town guest. I was talking with the red weenie dog's owner Adrian at work yesterday and we were both saying how we hadn't seen it yet and he said he didn't record it. I said I had it and we were discussing when he would come over this weekend and watch it. The talker is in the room and she says to us both "the dad dies".WTF!!!!We both looked at her and she started to say something else and we both start going "no, shut up!Do not say another word, we haven't seen it yet!" I say "girl, we both just said we haven't seen it yet" she said" well, we all knew that was gonna happen!" OMG! I have had it with her! She told me later she didn't like Elvis! I told her she made it awfully hard for me to like her! Apparently she grew up listening to Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. Then she told me that Bobby Vinton was the best man at her wedding and her husband played trumpet in the band with him.This so explains it all! I mean how can you not like Elvis? I am not even gonna go down that road with the Beatles!
Yesterday she was out of control. She was stressed out as usual and at one point was crying about how hard the job is. Granted that Friday is always crazy but she only has 80 patients to handle I have the rest of them in theory. In reality, I have them all because she is a crackpot!In morning meeting on Thursday the director told her to follow up on a referral she had taken on an ice day when the office was closed. On Friday morning I saw the referral still sitting in the computer pending not complete for the nurse to go admit. I asked her about it and she said she didn't know anything about it. I reminded her that in morning meeting yesterday the boss asked her to follow up on the pt. She said no she didn't remember that. I said ok but she did ask you to do that. That was at 10 am Friday morning. At 4pm Friday afternoon the wife of the potential patient is calling and upset wanting to know why no one had been out to see the husband...then one of the area managers (the guys who stir up the referrals) asked her about a referral he had handed her Thursday morning. She said"I haven't got a clue what you are talking about" he said " the referral I handed you Thursday morning before Poody got in" "nope, doesn't ring a bell" I felt so sorry for him! He was so nice and said "ok well don't worry about it I can go back to the Dr office and get the information again" I have heard her on the phone to Dr's. ,patients, and family members of patients say things like" I have no idea or I haven't a clue what you are talking about." The last thing these folks need to hear when they call to talk to someone who is supposed to know what the hell is going on is "uh, I don't know" She lets her phone ring, ring, ring, until it rolls back to the receptionist and she then forwards it to me! The nurses call me and say I know this is not one of your folks but if I ask her it will not get done till next week and I need it today! I am so stressed every day by her stupidity!At this point after being here since the middle of October she is either stupid or working me!My Dr. who I saw yesterday says she is working me! "No one is that fucking stupid" and those were his words. He says he will take me out if they do not reduce the amount of stress I am under. I told him the last time I complained I got a shitty evaluation and no raise!I fucking hate her and I am not a hater as a rule but man oh man she is working my last good nerve!When I got ready to leave the office to go to my Dr appt. yesterday she actually was crying and said to me" I don't think it's fair that you are leaving early and I will have to stay till 7pm probably." I said "welcome to my world. If you could just get it up to speed then neither one of us would have to stay late every day" Bitch!One day you will see my blog being done from the Texas Department of Corrections for female prisoners.I love the idea NMOTB gave me of putting laxative in her food. I am so thinking about that. Alright enough of this shit. I am off today and it is raining and cold!I slept in late much to the chagrin of Dooley I assure you! I am off to make a pot of coffee and see what my be-otches are doing!

Thursday already

This week is almost over and I am so glad because I had to go back to work today and share my space with the dumbass who will not shut the fuck up! I was told by my boss that the talker did fine last week. I have been bombarded with questions on everything from the most elemental things to well the whole gambit. She did just hand me an order she has been holding onto for 2 weeks for some blood work to be drawn on jan 11th. Now how in the hell am I supposed to get lab drawn on a day that has already passed?? Dumb ass!!!I hate her! I have decided that I do not give a rat's ass how old she is or how she has never worked on the computer before etc. Hey, before I went to work in the office I didn't even have a computer at the house. In fact, I didn't get a home computer until I had been working at this job for over 1 year. I got 2 weeks of crappy training and then was told just do it!She had orientation from the middle of October to the week I went on vacation and now she is saying she thinks she needs more time in orientation. She has been given patient whose last names end in A-H. She feels this is too much and has to ask me EVERYTHING about them. When I finally told her I needed to get my work done she got frustrated and has been heavy sighing over there for the last 2 hours. I was on the phone today with the receiver in my hand and up to my ear. She was 2 feet away from me looking at me and talking to me! I had to stop my conversation and say to her I am on the phone! She says Oh I didn't see you on the phone! Jesus H Christ Helen! Can you not see?? Too bad that unlike Helen Keller she speaks and is a dumbass!! GRRRRR!!!!! How can I stand this bullshit?? I need one of those excellent martinis!

Hell has Frozen Over!

This is a picture of the best martini in the world!
My sister Anna having some of the best martini in the world.
My cousin Tammie has 4 grandchildren all girls. This is Bailey.
I love this picture!
Tammie and one the her grandbabies.
These 2 are sisters and the oldest one lives with Tammie. She won't give her back is what her daughter says!

I stayed home all day yesterday and am still home this morning. I do however, plan on getting out and going to work today. it is still cold nd rainy here but I think the roads are ok to drive. As long as I stay off the bridges and overpasses that is. The only problem is I live south and work north. I have the river to cross but once I get past that I should be okay. I did nothing at all yesterday. I didn't even get on the computer. Just lay about and watched TV all day. Never even got out of the gown!But, I am getting a little antsy. I don't think I could live up north where the weather is bad all winter and you have to stay indoors all the time. The best part about living at the back door of hell is in the winter you can still have your shorts an sandals on.I really do not have any winter clothes. I just layer them when it gets this cold which is hardly ever.

I'm Back!

I am back from my vacation. I got back last night at 11pm. I was on the train which was running 4 hours late!! The weather up north must have been a doozy! The train was great. I had a whole aisle to myself as did everyone else on the train. I could recline and put my feet up. The rocking of the train was soothing and I could nap off and on all the way there and back. There was a dining car which had not too good food and an observation car that had ceiling windows and the view was great. The weather here is frightful. It is rainy and they say the temperature will not get above 33 degrees. I am thinking we will close up shop and go home soon. I have to go get another mouse because Dooley chewed through the other one! He really missed me! He chewed up the antennae on the phone at home too. Then last night he kept waking up and licking me and I guess he was just checking to make sure I was still there. Bless his heart. I was gone for 5 days. He has never been away from me that long. Not even overnight before. He and the girls are all in the house today because it is so cold and rainy outside.I visited with my cousin and her family on Wed and Thursday my sister took off and came from Ft Worth to get me. We ate at this place in Ft Worth called Lucile's. I had the best martini ever!! the food was out of this world too. I told my sister I wanted to come back for Sunday brunch. We did and we split a pasta dish that had fettichini noodles with Alfredo sauce. It had bacon, ham, eggs, onion, and man on man it was so good. We also had German pancakes with lemon butter! Yummy!!Oh yeah, and mimosas!If any of you have a chance to go there by all means do it. I wholeheartedly recommend it. You will not be disappointed.Okay I will try ot post more after I get home but remember I have to get a mouse to use the computer at home. I got to call my road nurses and tell them to be careful and get on home.

Pictures from Big Day!

It turned out to be a cold rainy day so guess you could say it rained on my parade!

Here is my beautiful cake
This is my crazy auntie Nancy. She is the interior decorator from Wimberly
Jan and Kelly 2 of my bestest friends!
More guests
My court of queens!
Kelly,me,and Alyssa
More fun
My big haul! I got 3 sets of sheets,2 sets of canisters,1 set of steak knives,1 set of flatware,1 set f dishes,Margarita set,2 sets of towels,laundry hamper,2 beautiful throw pillows,decorative bottle to put fairy lights in,and a mirror with a tiara on it so that every time I look in the mirror I will see a queen.

PARADE DAY

Well, I can't stay long because today is the day. I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. My friend Pam came in from Tulsa and we went to Trudy's for Mexican martinis. I got mine free- yeah birthday!Then when I got home I had a package in the living room. It was my new set of dishes! They are so beautiful! I will post pictures next week. The shower is at 3pm and the parade is at 5pm. The parade route will be down Congress Ave to the Continental Club where the Elvis tribute show will begin at 7 pm. Does it get any better than this people??
On another note my MOTHER came to visit night before last! I have lived here for 12 years and she has never been to my house. She has been in town plenty just never to my house. I got a call Thursady evening about 7:30 from my auntie and she said she and another auntie and my mom were on the way over as in 5 minutes away! They stayed about an hour. It was strange to say the least but she brought me new towels and a big laundry hamper. Did I mention I love the shower idea? I am a genius!!
I am taking the train to Dallas on Wednesday. It only costs $30 and takes 5 hrs. There is a dining car and a lounge! I can't wait. I have only ridden the train once before and I was a kid then. I am taking a nice book and I am going to buy one of those clip on tiny little MP3 players,load it up and ride the rails!
Okay, I gotta go get myself some big hair folks!!

Is it Wednesday already?

I know ya'll are tired of hearing me bitch about the "talker" All I will say is she's back today!

On another note, I had dog shit on my shoe this morning. Nothing like getting in a cold ass car and then cranking up the old heater to find it is sending the most billious of scents your way! I had to chunk my shoe in the back seat. Then, once at work I had to do the wet grass twist to knock the majority of it off. It is still lingering and I would get up and go wash it off but the "talker" keeps saying she smells something and I know what that something is! I so amuse myself!