Member News

[viscousmemories]

I'm selling my house in Austin and moving to the Atlanta area. I've been offered a jerb (contract-to-perm) at the company where my old friend/housemate/colleague (aka squian) works, in Alpharetta, GA. I like Austin a lot and I can certainly imagine returning some day, but I won't shed a tear if it doesn't happen. I'm only sentimentally attached to Ann Arbor really, and the winters keep me from moving back there.

[Adam]

Congrats.

My SO's sister lives in Alpharetta, so it's got that going for it, I guess.

[curses]

I live in Alpharetta, just sayin.

[Ensign Steve]

Dodged a bullet there.

[slimshady2357]

We're in the new house!

There are boxes everywhere even though we've unpacked at least 2 trillion already.

There are so many awesome things about this house, we're pretty much walking smiles right now. It's lovely being out in the country, fields behind us, fields in front of us and the lovely, lovely quiet.

The people we bought from are so lovely, they left us a clean house, a bottle of wine and 12 eggs from their chickens

They also planted loads of veggies in the vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, courgettes, carrots, onions, lettuce, beets and more stuff I can't identify!

We bought this house end of February so they knew they weren't going to see any fruits from their labours, they planted it all for us to have. How lovely is that?

After unpacking, the next step is to get another greyhound from the rescue centre



Edit: Proper broadband isn't coming until Tues, so using mobile data right now... slow and slower are the two speeds.

[Clutch Munny]

I am on sabbatical. There is a huge sandy beach on the ocean, steps from my house, and excellent local wine. My family and my bike came with. I will not shovel snow this year. Feeling very, very lucky!

[vremya]

I has a new jerb! This is the one I was cussing about.

Upsides - full time, benefits, decent pay. It's a non-profit, so I can apply for loan forgiveness.

Downsides- I have to be there at 8:00 AM and I am so not a morning person. And I think I have to dress up. The dress code is "business attire". (Does that mean a suit?)

[Watser?]

Yay, now you can do your complaining in the First World Problems thread again.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by vremya

I has a new jerb! This is the one I was cussing about.

Upsides - full time, benefits, decent pay. It's a non-profit, so I can apply for loan forgiveness.

Downsides- I have to be there at 8:00 AM and I am so not a morning person. And I think I have to dress up. The dress code is "business attire". (Does that mean a suit?)

Probably minimum slacks, shirt and tie. I'd recommend a suit the first day or two until you get the sense of the functional dress code.

[Dingfod]

Wrong thread, sorry.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by specious_reasons

Probably minimum slacks, shirt and tie. I'd recommend a suit the first day or two until you get the sense of the functional dress code.

I can't tell if you're joking, but I think vremya is a lady. The Falco avatar threw me off for a long time, too. Not that a lady couldn't wear that, but she has a lot of other options too, like a button-down shirt and no tie, with a skirt or slacks.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

I can't tell if you're joking, but I think vremya is a lady. The Falco avatar threw me off for a long time, too. Not that a lady couldn't wear that, but she has a lot of other options too, like a button-down shirt and no tie, with a skirt or slacks.

No, posted without thinking too hard about it. To put it more gender neutral: "Business attire" means wearing a suit until you know what "business attire" means to that company. It's a socially enforced standard, but it never hurts to dress more professionally.

[vremya]

My dad said that it never hurts to be overdressed, and time and time again I've found that to be true.

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

Wrong threads, sorry.

Now it is on-topic.

[Sock Puppet]

So ... a couple nights ago, Mrs. Puppet had some bad tummy troubles. We assumed it was something she ate 'cause she has a low tolerance for a number of foods that the rest of us can shove down our gullets with no problems. Conveniently, she already had a doctor's appointment the next day, so she'd ask the doc what was up and maybe get some tablets or something.

The doc pushes here and there on her abdomen. "It's your appendix. Can somebody drive you to the ER or do you need an ambulance?"

My Mom ended up picking her up and taking her. A few tests later, and it's confirmed. Surgeon is called and they have it out that night (Tuesday). We managed to get her out of the hospital the next day, so she doesn't have to spend New Year's Eve there. My Mom really wants to take care of her (it's one of her things), so we spend NYE there and I take the kids* home at midnightish. I had to work on the 31st due to FTA crap I ranted about elsewhere, so luckily Mrs. Puppet had a caregiver while I was out being a bad husband.

So now Mrs. Puppet has a body part out there that will need an membership soon.


*Oh yeah, that's another bit of news. We have an exchange student now that I don't think I mentioned before. That's another poast.

[vremya]

Maybe her appendix can hang out with my appendix and leesifer's uterus.

Srsly, I'm glad Mrs. Puppet is okay and home.

[Novowels]

Hey folks, long time.

It's been an interesting few years for me. juiblex and I became engaged and I applied for my Australian visa in 2011 and everything seemed to be going fairly well. I quit my job and started selling things until I was down to some electronics and two suitcases worth of clothes. Unfortunately during the approval process my father was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, explaining the memory and language issues that had become noticeable in the last few years.

Tried to juggle both setting up care for my father and working on the move/wedding etc and it just wasn't going to happen, I had to make a choice. My father was given less than 5 years to live, and the last couple of years especially were going to be hard -- FTD causes loss of language, dementia, wild mood swings including paranoia and anger, and issues with balance and coordination that just get worse and worse until the body shuts down.

After the visa was approved I traveled to Sydney to visit 'blex but we agreed that at this point I needed to look after my father and spend what time was left with him. The visa office was nice, but they basically said they were not able to extend my visa for an unspecified amount of time (can't really blame them) so I was going to have to just let it expire. 'blex and I also decided that the distance (which had taken it's tolls already) was going to be too difficult to maintain and decided to end our relationship. We still talk occasionally. She has had some health issues but overall is doing well.

I moved back to my father's house in my small hometown and along with my aunt, we began the process of preparing for the end. My aunt, who was always very close to him and had just gotten divorced, became his primary caregiver while I worked a couple of part time jobs to foot the few bills we had left and assisted where I could.

In June 2014, my Grandmother passed away. By that point my father did not recognize most of his friends and family, was nearly impossible to communicate with, and needed assistance walking. He was quiet and respectful but seemed mostly bewildered by the service. After the funeral we spent most of our time at home, and issues like not being able to make it to the bathroom in time and becoming angry and violent when attempting to get him to change clothes or bathe were starting to become commonplace. He was convinced that people were trying to kill him, and constantly wanted to "go home" even though we were in the house he had lived in for over 30 years.

My father passed away in November. He would have been 60 in December. I had to stand in a suit in front of family and friends at 33 years old and tell them what they already knew -- that my father was a good man, and that he would be missed. Then we buried him.

Since then I have been dealing with his estate, looking at my future again -- got interested in going into the veterinary field in some capacity, and trying to get back into contact with friends that I had become distant from both online and off. I'd like to think that many of you are or were friends, even if things got weird there at the end, so wanted to stop in and say hey.

[Angakuk]

Early this morning (Friday) I had to take Mrs. Angakuk to the hospital. Actually, the EMTs took her to the hospital after I called 911. She has been feeling poorly all week and late Thursday night/early Friday morning she practically collapsed and became very confused and disoriented. Turned out she had a blood sugar level of 910 which is extremely high. They stabilized her at the hospital and then transported her to a hospital in the city. I just got back from there and she is doing much better, though she is still pretty sick. The last report I got her blood sugar was down to 300. That is still dangerously high, but a big improvement over earlier. She is now lucid and getting excellent care. Major lifestyle revisions are soon going to be the order of the day.

For some time I have been trying to get her to go to the doctor and during the last week the emergency room. But she steadfastly refused to do so. She can be extraordinarily stubborn!

Anyway, barring complications she is now on the mend and the prognosis looks good.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

[huntress]

Hm. It's been a couple of years. Time to catch everyone up, I reckon.

I'm still teaching at the Academy. Mich's work environment got so toxic during the last months of 2014 that she gave notice as soon as we returned from vacation on 2 Jan. She chilled for a while, decompressing, then a business contact asked her to write grants as an independent contractor, so she's happily doing what she enjoys and is damn good at for a healthy fee in the comfort of our home on her own hours.

In Feb 2014, I fell down the stairs and broke my neck and got a concussion, from which I've fully recovered.

Things at work started getting a bit nasty for me a few months ago. I applied for and was denied an academic promotion because of "unwritten rules" levied by my acting department head about the need to present papers and publish. While this is the rule in a normal university, it never has been (and still officially is not) at the Academy, but the dept head's opinion is law, in this case, so fuck me.

This was pretty demoralizing for me, if only because my colleagues and dept head knew I'd given up half of my 2014 summer to qualify for the promotion.

Then other shit happened. I got a shitty "push-line" on my promotion recommendation form, for which no explanation was given. In one year, I'd gone from a "stellar joint officer etc" to a "solid officer ready for more challenges," which is very clearly damning with faint praise. It didn't bother me a whole lot, though. I didn't care at that point whether I made rank or not, but it was just one more WTF thing to add to my collection. I figured I'd press on with my plan to keep teaching--because I love it--until I was passed over for promotion again, then retire around January of 2017, when I'd be forced out of the service.

Then, just after class on the last day of school, I was served with an EO complaint. A senior (with whom I'd been working closely, as her writing was abysmal) had sent me the outline for her final paper, which began with "according to Merriam-Webster, 'progress' is defined as...." My first comment in response was: "First, NEVER--under threat of forty lashes--EVER cite a dictionary definition in a college paper. That's grade school stuff." Then I went on to suggest how she arrange the rest of her information and which points to develop. So she filed a complaint against me because I used the word "lashes" which was clearly a reference to her enslaved African American ancestors.

I was gobsmacked that an EO complaint could even be filed based on her ignorance, but even more so that my chain of command was treating it as though it had any merit whatsoever. My first response was, "That has nothing to do with American slavery. It's a biblical reference." My dept head, who is a fucking Christian, admitted after I said this that she could see the biblical reference, but "I'm still concerned about your tone."

Oh fuck me gently with a chainsaw. She was determined to get me one way or another. The final straw, though, was when she added, "This is just another data point, Diana."

Another data point?! WTF does that mean? To me? "I'm making a list and checking it twice, because I'm convinced you're more naughty than nice." I decided to not fight this, though; it was an informal complaint, anyway, and there's no official way to appeal it. I figured that if I just let it slide, she'd leave me alone and let me teach my kids and enjoy my work. I'd just roll over, take my licks--deserved or not--and she'd walk away and fuck with someone else.

At the same time, I filed my retirement paperwork. Within three days of that, I had my retirement orders. I'm officially a civilian again on 1 May 2016 (but I'll be on terminal leave and whatnot by mid-February). I'd always known I'd do 20 years and only stick around beyond that if I was still having fun. It stopped being fun the moment I became a data point.

So anyway, a month later, my dept head served me with a Letter of Admonishment (only, she called it a "Letter of Admonition," proving that she hadn't gone through JAG with it) for failing to do something that has never been my duty. She read the bullshit charges to me; it ended with "you have three duty days to respond in writing to this letter." She looked up and me and said, "And I encourage you to do so."

I said, "Oh, I will."

I was finally pissed. Very, very pissed. This Dalai Lama shit wasn't working.

So I responded thoroughly to each charge, with written (email and memos from other officers) support, and I broke down the definitions of the UCMJ Article she'd charged me with (Article 92, Dereliction of Duty) and explained thoroughly why it did not apply. Then I took my draft to the Area Defense Council, who was delighted to help me. She mentioned that she knew my dept head's name well. When I joked that she'd obviously met some of my colleagues, she said, "Actually, it's mostly her students who come see me."

How. Very. Interesting.

So after I submitted my response, dept head told me the next day that she had decided to file her letter and my response in a personal information file (instead of rescinding her LOA on the spot) to be revisited in 90 days. To me, this means the following: (1) I fucking won; (2) this is her way of saving face, and (3) she's using it as a veiled warning to keep my nose clean.

Like I give a shit. My nose is and has remained clean. I have nothing to fear--she does, if she keeps fucking with me. I am working on an IG complaint against her for unprofessional behavior, harassment, and open hostility toward mental illness.*

* She knows well that I've struggled with depression for years, that I see a therapist on a weekly basis, take various medications to control depression and severe anxiety, how fragile my mental state has been in the last few months, and has witnessed at least one of my breakdowns--but this did not stop her from dressing me down in front of junior officers for shit I hadn't even done.

She called down the thunder. Well now she's got it.

And even if I don't get what I request, I've still won. Apparently, accusations are enough. She taught me that.

I think I quoted three movies so far.

Anyhow...I feel much better now that I'm fighting back. More like...me. And? I'm a free woman in about eight months. We won't have as much money, but we've always lived far below our means, so I won't have to work unless I want to.

Also? Dept head can suck my dick.

d

[Angakuk]

This is a short update on Mrs. Angakuk's condition.

As of Sunday afternoon she has been moved from the Critical Care Unit to a regular patient room. She is eating better and her mobility has improved. All things considered she is making excellent progress. Insulin injections, diabetic diet and an exercise program here we come. We will be doing the diet and the exercise things together as I can certainly benefit from both.

[vremya]

That benign lump turned out not to be benign. Stage 1B, so they caught it early. They took the lump out, and now I'm healing up and waiting to see an oncologist.

Not the results I had been hoping for, but not that bad a scenario, all told. Thank god I have a job with insurance now.

[vremya]

Damn, did I kill this thread? Sorry.

I found out today that I won't need chemo just radiation. So relieved.

[ShottleBop]

I learned on Tuesday why doctors consider a UTI in a male to be a major medical issue. I woke up that morning with a vague feeling of being not-quite-right, which by shortly before 10 had progressed to definitely not right, and then quickly turned into something is seriously wrong (uncontrollable shaking (the chills before a fever setting in).

I was on a conference call with clients and opposing counsel and their clients, discussing loan documents we were trying to finalize. I sent out emails to folks on my side of the transaction telling them that I was going to have to go to the doctor, and, as soon as the call was over, called Mrs. S to drive me. On the way, I began to black out. We went to the emergency room. By then, the shakes were gone, and a fever had set in. Turns out I had a UTI, and that, by coming in when I did, I had avoided its reaching my blood and necessitating a trip to the ICU.

I spent the afternoon on IV saline and antibiotics drips, and went home Tuesday with 10 days' worth of Cipro. Back to work yesterday.

[Angakuk]

Maybe we should start a new thread for Member Medical News.