One of the nice things about having a job again is that we don’t stress out as much over ‘surprise’ outings – or rather, we can actually go out on last minute outings or get togethers. It’s a much different feeling compared to just two weeks ago when… the unemployment checks really weren’t going to be enough to make all the bills.
Of course, I am aware that I was only out of work for two months – which is relatively nothing. This unemployment thing is widespread and off the top of my head I can count 8 or 9 people we know that don’t have jobs right now. That’s really crazy.
Last night we celebrated the birthday of our friend KatieW! (She’s an original Twelper) See that scarf? That’s our gift to her and it was Leah’s idea – actually, it’s one of the scarves we got while we were in Lijiang, China. (Actually, what’s funny is that she’s the 3rd Twelper that we’ve given one of these scarves… but at least they’re all different!) Leah wasn’t able to attend since she had to go to a neighborhood association meeting for her community project and um, other social worky type things.
The new job is quite awesome. I can’t wait until we finally get our new phones. After some struggling and odd difficulties, our new phones should arrive on Saturday (AT&T phone reps apparently are quite… lacking.) This means that I can once again keep up with the Twelpers and other Twitter friends during the day. Oh you think this isn’t a big deal, but it really is – because it’s my connection with these friends. And with our circle we say many more things than simple spam/blast/announcements for our blogs. The thoughts that come from nowhere that usually stay in our heads, make it to twitter for all of us to read, or ask for help – and actually get responses – but more importantly for me… and they may or may not know it, but they were a big help in keeping my mood up when I was unemployed and there were no prospects on the horizon.
Because when you’ve been let go from a job, it’s easy to go down that depression route – and it becomes much more of a downward slope the longer you’re out of work.
So we got this email last night:
Dear Mark,
Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it a 7.5 score out of (10) in the Personal Blogs category of Blogged.com.
This is quite an achievement!
http://www.blogged.com/blogs/leah-and-mark.html
We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.
After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 7.5 score.
Ha. 7.5? Whatever.
Leah’s almost done with this 1st semester of grad school and it looks like I won’t have any problem with the time off I need from work between Christmas and New Years. We’re flying out to Phoenix to see my family and our friends there. So… 85 degrees of Christmas this year. It’ll be kind of weird, especially after being here in Atlanta where it’s been in the mid 20′s overnight and around the 40′s during the day. Still, it’ll be nice to see everyone, especially the people who live in Phoenix and are coming to our Wedding in a few months.
Hey! It’s almost the Weekend.
5 Comments
CONGRATS on teh job! I’m still jobless in Loganville… ugh. Hubby was working TWO part-time jobs and with unemployment, we were getting by…but as of today, BOTH of his jobs cut his hours to NOTHING – one to only ten hours a week, and the other, the pest-control company, is only having him do “occaisional sales calls.” Which means maybe one or two days a week. ACK!
Glad to hear you’ll be here around the holidays! You should stop by the theatre, I know Laurie would love to see you!
i would have given you a 7.3 you know that way you have something to shoot for
Thank God for this website!! Now I know I'm not the only one who feels like this after the procedure. I had the EMB done last year because of an abnormal pap and I remember that I could barely walk afterwards. I had it done again two days ago, because unfortunately, my abnormal cells came back after Cryosurgery. I was told to take 800 mg of Ibuprofen before the procedure, but since I remembered how painful it was, I took 500 mg of Lortab. At the beginning of the procedure, my doctor made a comment about me being on painkillers, so without asking my permission to not use a numbing agent, he decided to try to do the procedure without numbing me at all or dialating my cervix. When he realized how much pain I was in, he was like, "Oh ok. So I guess we do need to numb you then." I was really upset that he hadn't done that in the first place.
So he numbed my cervix, and began trying to get the tissue samples. I felt like he was literally cutting something out of me it was so painful. And the Lortab did NOTHING to help the pain. Afterwards, I was bleeding pretty heavily, even though I had just finished my period the day before the procedure. I also got dizzy and lightheaded the next day from the pressure on my cervix, and luckly still had Meclizine from when I got vertigo from Cryosurgery last year. I have also been in extreme pain from the achiness of my cervix/uterus, and have had to take the Lortabs just to make it through the day. I called my doc and spoke to my gyno's practicing partner, and she said the bleeding can last as long as a week. The only thing is, the doctors do not tell you ANYTHING about getting dizzy/lightheaded spells, and they do not properly prepare you for pain you will feel during and after this procedure at all. I am supposed to get my results from both the EMB and cervical biopsy next week, and hope that it's nothing serious. I'm going to print out this blog page and literally bring it to my gyno so that they properly inform all of their patients on the side effects and what to expect during the procedure.