urbandruid

Happy birthday, irreparable!

People I talked to on Saturday night (um, I think it was Saturday night) will remember I said I might be sick, or might be coming down with something. Gotta amend that. I am sick, and it sucks big time. I could not get to sleep last night, kept waking myself up feeling like I was gonna cough my lungs up. Tonight I think I'll dig out the codeine cough syrup my doc gave me last year for the bronchitis of doom, see if I can't clear up this crap before it turns into something even scarier.

It's gonna be 97 today. 97! I know, I know, it's better than the 101s we were hitting last week, but I still have to be out in it, in the heat, hacking and coughing my way around campus and to the bus stop.

Anyway, if I'm quieter than usual (would we notice?) this would be why.

Uuugh, I wanna go back to bed.

It's the trip from hell. I will be so frakking glad to get home it's not even funny. Grandma's driving us crazy, Grandpa is... oy. Too much to say, not enough time to say it. We're not supposed to check out until 11:00, but Grandma's rushing us around like we've gotta leave NOW, Grandpa keeps taking stuff that's not ready to go, out to the car, and....yeah, I gotta go.

Shoot me.

Can I just say that I hate everyone who's going to San Diego Comic Con? Seriously. You all suck and I'm never speaking to you again.

Honestly, I'm insanely jealous, but if any of you are going, have a blast!

Still with the hate, though.

Moving on. I finished season 4.0 of BSG yesterday. I didn't expect to get through it this fast, but they kept sticking "to be continued" at the end of eps, and I don't have anything else to do, so I just kept thinking "one more ep..."

And the last half of the season's not out on DVD until the 28th! ARGH!

I know, I know, it's nothing to the huge 'midseason' wait everyone had who was actually caught up with the show and watching it as it aired, but still, this is insanely frustrating. I want- need -to know what happens. How we get from where we are now to the spoilers I was unfortunate enough to come across.

18 days. I'm seriously hoping that Harry Potter next weekend will distract me for a bit, 'cause I've gotten used to watching my BSG every day, and now I'm kind of lost. Watching extras and listening to episode commentary, which completely rocks, but it's not the same. I miss the sensation of moving forward, watching things unfold.

I could watch other stuff, but I'm in such a BSG frame of mind lately. Buffy's just not gonna cut it for a while, I need something else this good, and I don't think I have anything like that. So episode commentary it is. Plus probably a dozen or so reviewings of the eps I liked.

And fast-forward through some of the stuff that drove me nuts, like the Sam/Kara/Lee/Dee crap. I can see kinda what they were trying to do with that, but it just didn't... argh. The only one of them I really felt any sympathy for was Dee, and even she was a moron. I could almost feel sorry for Sam, too, but... nope. And the other two... oy.

And I was gonna ramble more about eps, but it's too fucking hot in here. Later...

I'm starting to remember why I don't take naps in the middle of the day. I woke up shaky- maybe because the phone rang and scared the crap out of me (stupid telemarketers) and my head's full of images from weird dreams. I think I was in a better headspace before I took the nap, except that I was exhausted. Staying up till 3:00AM and then waking up around 9 will do that, which is why I went back to bed. Tried staying up, as I was unfortunately pretty awake, but then I started to get tired again, so I thought, screw it, I'm going back to bed.

I don't know, really. I'll be glad to get this over with, but I'm not really in the mood to go to the doc's. Tired, grumpy... I'll probably feel better if I eat something, since I just realized I haven't yet today, but honestly, right now it's jut too freaking much. This had better go smoothly, and they'd better not jerk me around again, I swear. Mood I'm in right now, I'd slap that stupid twit at the front desk across the face. This is not, in fact, a good idea, despite how much it appeals to me.

I just keep telling myself it'll be fine, the doc I'm supposed to see will be there, we'll get somewhere with this... but if that doesn't happen... *sigh* No more Ms. Nice Patient, you know? Because if being nice and polite and "yes, doctor" doesn't get me anyplace, then it's time for "I really am as old as that chart says I am, and I have really seen that many doctors for that many medical conditions. And we're done playing around now."

Assertive!Patient mode is sometimes necessary, that's all. And no slapping stupid fuckwit receptionists, no matter how much they deserve it.

Most of you guys know I'm horribly behind on BSG. I've been watching DVDs with my cat, trying to catch up- no, really. Sam likes BSG. She hears the music for the studio logo start up, and she's almost always right there to curl up in my lap. I think she likes watching all the people running back and forth, and the fighter scenes seem to be a particular fave. (Is my cat stalking Starbuck's Viper? Prolly.)

Anyway, I'm only getting through an ep or two a day, sometimes more. I'd like to see more, faster, but I'd forgotten that this is a show you have to process. So I watch a bit, and I let it percolate. And sometimes I have to pause and shout at Tigh or roll my eyes at Baltar, or Gods know, comment to my cat.

GODS I love this show.

But now I'm fishing around for icons, and plotting fic, because I'm just cross-wired that way, skirting icon spoilers, which is a bit difficult when your current OTP is Adama/Roslin... and it occurs to me that this show is going to make me cry. Again.

Today's ep, "Final Cut", s2, which brings the number of Cylons I'm supposed to know about in the fleet to... 4? And that's if you count Doral and Leoben. Or, you know, five, if we count the Number Six in Baltar's head. (Does she count? Do we count head!Six?) So technically I'm still missing 4 out of the 8 Sharon told Baltar about.

Overall Cylon spoiler count- pretty damn close to 12. I know characters we haven't even met yet who are Cylons. *sigh*

I'm trying to come to terms with this the way I did with the Babylon 5 spoilers. Even going in knowing as much as I did, knowing wasn't the same as seeing, and some of it, I swear I forgot, like the Sheridan/Delenn stuff in "In The Beginning." Maybe 'cause we didn't see Sheridan for like a year, and I was always more of a Sinclair fan anyway, but... I digress.

And because I am nuts this way, I'm tempted to app a Cylon Centurion in theatrical_muse. Something along the lines of Bugs & Daffy, or Bob the Shadow Ship...

I really need to get a life. :)

It's funny, for someone with a visual impairment I'm being driven really freaking crazy by the fact that I don't have a graphics program on the Mac. Haven't had one since I got the thing in January. I have some really basic things that came with it, all of which suck, and a few demos I've downloaded, which suck only a little bit less.

One of the things I didn't think of when I decided to get the Mac instead of another PC was that they don't make Paint Shop Pro for Mac. *sigh* I miss PSP. To the point where I actually booted up the Gateway the other night and messed around with some graphics. Of course, when I got the images back to the Mac (a complex file transer system involving a USB cable, my old iPod, and a lot of crossed fingers and swear words) I found out I need to resize the damn thing. Which naturally I can't do on the Mac, because I went ahead and added text to the image. I can resize the base photomanip, no problem, but it'll fuck up the text but good.

*headdesk*

I realized recently that I haven't done anything with urbandruid.net in.... um, a very, very long time. I have the redesign projects started, but they've been stalled because I kind of need a graphics program to get anything done.

So I'm downloading a Photoshop trial, and I hate to say this, but I feel like I'm on dial-up again. It's been going for at least half an hour, is at 17%, and is estimated to take another 1 hour, 31 minutes and 21 seconds. On DSL! I realize it's a big file (1,012.84 MB) but still, this is ridiculious. This damn thing had better work, that's all I can say. If it doesn't...

It really has been driving me nuts, not being able to mess around with manips or make icons or other random stuff like that. And I have no idea where I'm going with this post really, except that I'm bored, I still have almost an hour and a half to go, and I felt like ranting about this. So there you go.

Okay, so here's the semi-condensed version of the story. I may not have mentioned this before, it seeming to be too much to try and explain when I was supposed to be busy getting ready for school, but I've been having these weird reactions to foods for the past... uhm, year or two? And by weird reactions think: "Oh shit, is that anaphylaxis?" We've been pretty sure it's a food allergy, and I kept meaning to bug my doctor about it, but for a while it was only a kind of minor reaction, so I kept putting it off. Then last month I had to go chat about prescription refills, and I thought hey, as long as I'm here, let's have that talk about the allergies.

She said it could be a number of things, and sent me for blood tests. We decided to run the blood tests for respiratory allergies while we were at it. So I went for the blood tests, and they came back... normal. All of them. According to the lab I'm not allergic to grass, pollen, mold, pet dander, or any of the major foods they tested for.

I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on the food tests, since I don't think I am allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, etc. But no allergies? Yeah, right.

So they referred me to an allergist. We have a couple big allergy clinics here in town, though I see them advertised so much I wondered about them a little, you know? But my regular doc's office hasn't steered me wrong yet with a referral, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

My first appointment was last week, and let me tell you how much fun it wasn't. I went in expecting to mostly talk about my food allergies, and the respiratory as a sideline, kind of "as long as I'm here..." But their main food allergy guy wasn't there, and they really wanted me to see him. I'm faceplaming at the idea of two allergists, but you know, whatever. What's one more specialist, really? So I agreed to come back and see the food allergy guy, and we proceeded with the exam. Doc checked my ears, nose, throat, the glands in my neck, tapped on my sinuses, and said, "I think you have a sinus infection."

*facepalm*

I do? ...Yeah, I do. See, here's the thing. I know I've been tired- okay, exhausted- since finals week. I've been tired, feeling really draggy, and haven't felt like doing anything. It's also been hellishly hot, and I always feel a bit like this when it's hot. And it's not that I disgree with the guy, because looking back on the last couple weeks, I really don't. If I think back I can see that yes, I was a little too tired, and yes, my sinuses did hurt more than they usually ought to, and yes, there were the headaches, and, and, and... I'm just kind of flabbergasted that I missed it. I think I would have figured it out eventually, in another couple days maybe, but I still felt kind of stupid. *headdesk*

After we had that little chat, I got to have some more fun with testing. They gave me a peak flow test- here, take a deep breath into this machine, blow it out as long as you can, then take another breath- and apparently the reading sucked. Color me shocked; I've never been really good at stuff like that. So they made sure I was doing it right- I wasn't- and tried again. Still not happy with the results. So I got five minutes on a Nebulizer, breathing in some slightly not so great tasting gas, then got to hang out for ten minutes while it kicked it, then another peak flow test. Better results, but still not great.

Next: Allergy skin tests. I was expecting this, and I was expecting it to suck, but.... wow. Just- wow. I'm trying to think of how to describe it... It wasn't the most uncomfortable medical procedure I've ever been through, but let's remember what I've been though. I think it actually might be the worst thing that wasn't done to my eyes. 90 skin tests, in groups of 5, which breaks down to something like 18 groups of 5 tests. Just little scratches really, from needles with a drop or two of some allergen on them. On my back. All over my back. Maybe if I wasn't so little it wouldn't have taken my whole back, but it did. Some hurt more than others; I remember the one on my lower spine being particularly bad. Some were just uncomfortable. Some started itching or burning right away, some took a while. I think one or two might've been minor itches, but most if not all of them were really bad.

The waiting after the tests was almost worse. There I was, wearing a one size fits nobody paper gown, lying on my stomach trying to both keep my ponytail off my back and keep the gown from gaping in places it shouldn't, for fifteen minutes that felt a hell of a lot longer. Itching like crazy and wishing I could scratch something, knowing that was a bad idea. Finally, someone came to read the test and wipe off the numbers they'd used to label the tests. Hell, at least they didn't draw a grid on my back, like some poor patient I saw on House once.

Shockingly, I am allergic to things. Grass and mold type things. Really? you say. I know, I know, it's very hard to take in. So nice to know those massively expensive blood tests worked, too... Anyway. After a sinus CT to confirm my infection (the whole time I'm seeing dollar signs flying out the window...) I finally got to escape. With a prescription for antibiotics, nose spray for the infection, and a sample of the asthma inhaler I've been using on and off since November. And the promise of more tests when I see the food allergy guy.

Yesterday, I was supposed to see the food allergy guy. He only works two days a week, and I made sure the appointment I made was for one of those days. But guess who wasn't there yesterday? *facepalm* I figured since I was already there, I might as well see whoever else felt like dealing with me. Wasn't real happy, though. The upshot? Enter Allergist #2 (naturally the guy I saw last week wasn't in the office, either.) Allergist #2 checks the peak flow. Doesn't like the peak flow. Cue Nebulizer. More peak flows. Still not happy. Allergist #2 actually comes in and watches me do the peak flow. Couple more times. Lots of frowns and "hmm"s.

Upshot? They think I have asthma. Asthma! He wanted to run the blood test to check for food allergies, but I explained I'd already had it. Naturally my doc's office sent the referral but not the test results, but I told Allergist #2 all the tests were negative. ALL of them. More frowns and a "Hmm." I left with more goodies- another fast-acting inhaler sample, a sample of a daily-use inhaler... and scripts for both.

Oh yeah, and in two weeks I'm supposed to see the food guy. (Allergist #3?) Did make them put down a note to call me if he's not gonna be in, so I can reschedule, but I really hope he's there. If you're only working two days a week, you know, working two days a week would be pretty cool. So in two weeks I fully expect a round of food allergy skin tests... and I hope a diagnosis.

My luck? It's probably "asthma, and btw, here's an Epi pen and a list of stuff you should never eat again." So far everybody has asked me if I carry an Epi pen, and frowned when I said no, so I expect to end up with one of those. *facepalm* I'm really still processing this, and I'm not sure it's totally sunk in yet.

ARGH!

It's the day of my biopsych final, and the stolen-credit-card-mess is the thing that wouldn't die. The bank in its infinite wisdom (later for them...) marked two charges that were legit as fraudulent. Even after I told them, IN WRITING, that said charges were okay. Which is just annoying, except for the fact that they were Paypal charges. Paypal, wanting to 'protect' me from these 'unauthorized transactions' has frozen my account TWICE in the past two days- once for each 'bogus' charge. With me so far? I talked to the bank on FRIDAY, and they put the charges back. Okay and dandy as far as they're concerned, but Paypal filed chargebacks to my poor harmless eBay sellers. Who would now, obviously, like their money. And I would like them to have it.

So what do I have to do? Print two affidavits, get them notarized, and fax them to Paypal. THEN (I hope) this crap will go away.

Did I mention that today is the day of my COMPREHENSIVE BIOPSYCH FINAL? And I really wasn't that stressed about finals week, because I got to skip the Women's Studies final (could have written the test myself anyway...) and the anthro one was a take-home test? But now, NOW I'm stressed. And pissed off. And annoyed.

And trying not to worry about it too much right now, because, hello, psych final. Which I'd like to pass. I'm not so much worried about it in terms of "OMG might not pass" but more like "argh this is a lot of material and I need to concentrate on it."

I'll be glad when it's over, as if that wasn't obvious.

Argh! Argh, argh, argh!

I got this automated phone call from the fraud prevention department at my bank, and I figured, probably no big deal, because last time they were just being a little paranoid.

Turns out? Not so paranoid this time. There's a bunch of charges on there, weird stuff I sure as hell didn't do, mostly little but they were adding up. This woman at the bank was reading off charges to me and I'm going, "No, no, OMG WTF? No, no, okay that one's actually mine... that one too. No, no, OMG!" etc, etc. Long story short, they stopped payment on all that crap and closed the account. I'm to destroy my credit card and any of those 'courtesy checks' I happen to have. (Of those I have none, I always shred them when they show up.)

I suppose I'll go feed my now-useless credit card to the shredder in a bit, but right now I'm a little freaked out. I know it's obviously the best thing to do, closing the account, and I should get my new card in 7-10 days, but this is really inconvenient and annoying.

I'm ALWAYS careful of how I use my card online, and have never ever given the number out over the phone, and I use Paypal for all my eBay stuff, so I'm left wondering what online store I bought from lately got hacked. The bank, of course, isn't likely to tell me if they ever figure it out.

I'd meant to post something today, but this was not what I'd had in mind. And I wasn't having the best week before this. *headdesk*