Doesn't matter if you're black or white, just pick one!

Michael Jackson was extremely cute when he was still black. I can't imagine what was going through his mind that messed that up.

I can't think of a single song he or the Jackson Five did that I didn't like. Although I guess I'm one of the four people in America who didn't buy the Thriller album.

Snoring, and Submarines

I finally did what I'd been thinking of doing for a long time. I set my digital recorder to "record" when I went to bed so I could find out if I snore. Man do I snore!!!! I also grunt. I wonder what that's about.

I also wanted to see if there was any indication that I might be suffering from sleep apnea. Unfortunately I'm not real sure what that would sound like. Also, I have a six-hour recording to listen to. So far I've only listened to two hours. I guess I should have thought about that before I recorded myself.

A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with sleep apnea. He said that he was only getting about 1.5 hours of sleep each night. I know I'm getting more than that. Like I said, I've already listened to two hours of the recording. I'll listen to more when I have the time, of course.

I find myself dreaming about submarines a lot. I wonder if this is a Freudian symbol, or something simpler. One online dream dictionary says, "To see a submarine in your dream, indicates that you are cautiously exploring your emotions and examining your unconscious feelings. You still remain guarded about certain emotional issues. Alternatively, the submarine indicates that you need to adapt a different perspective and understanding. You may need to get down to the core of some situation or problem." That works for me. (Whew!)

I really enjoy my dreams. Well, most of them. They're very entertaining. I started blogging about my dreams way back, then realized my mom might read my blog and stopped. (Yes, I'm a wuss.)

Tired again, and Burger King, and Flies

Every day at work I think about the things I want to do when I get home. Every night when I get home I'm too tired to do any of it. I don't even blog because, when I finally get to the computer I can barely keep my eyes open.

After our classroom training we started "transition." That means we take live calls with a lot of "back up" (a lot of people to help us). We also changed from a 7 a.m.-3.45 p.m. schedule to a 11:30 a.m. to 8:15 p.m. schedule. When I get home it's getting dark. I know that's why I'm too tired to do anything - because the sun has gone down. My internal clock says it's time to sleep. Whereas when I was getting home during daylight, my internal clock knew it was not time to sleep. So I could do the things I'd planned to do.

I won't get up early to do anything. I'm not a morning person - never have been - and I still suffer from chronic fatigue. Getting out of bed is still the hardest thing I do every day.

Speaking of work, it's getting better. At first taking live calls caused tremendous fear. It's been a week now, and while I still procrastinate pushing the "Auto In" button on the phone, I'm getting better at dealing with the customers' issues, and I'm not as fearful. (The "Auto In" button is the one that allows calls in the queue to be sent to me.) Still, I'd rather be comfortably rich.

I ate at Burger King tonight. I like Burger King. There isn't one nearby, and I haven't eaten at Burger King in years, but there's one in the city where I now work. So after work I stopped in and bought a Whopper®. It was good, but it could have been better! Next time I think I'll get one of the new sirloin burgers.

I've had a terrible fly problem in my house. I think it's because I feed a stray cat on my front porch, and flies are attracted to the food, and when I open the front door a fly or two will fly in. I had three flying around me and my computer a few minutes ago. I turned off all the lights except in the bathroom. Once I counted three flies in the bathroom, I sprayed insect killer and closed the door. I hope PeTA doesn't find out. I support PeTA, but when they make a big deal out of killing flies, well, . . . . I kill mosquitoes and roaches, too. I wish I didn't have to, but they're nasty, disease-carrying things. Perhaps my spiders will redeem me. I have spiders in several webs in my house. They're not in inconvenient locations, and they help keep the flying insects in check, so I let them be. Yeah, that contributes to my being a lousy housekeeper. But I haven't heard any complaints from the dogs and cats I share the house with.

Going to bed now. G'nite.

Graduation!

I felt so silly sitting there waiting to "graduate." They arranged some chairs in our large break room where we sat to listen to a couple of people talk. I felt like I was waiting for kindergarten graduation. But we did graduate. Five weeks of training behind us. Five weeks of 7:00 a.m. start times behind us. On Monday we don't have to be at work until 11:30 a.m. That will be the first day of a two-week "transition." We will work the phones taking live calls with LOTS of help.

We took more live calls today. I got four or five calls. They were all very easy calls, thank God. No weird stuff. I did have to ask for some help, but not much, and not for every call. I think I may be able to handle this.

We had a big pot-luck lunch that lasted longer than our normal lunch hour (which is actually only 45 minutes). That was nice. Lots of food. Lots of time. Chocolate cake.

I'm glad the week is over. By Friday of each week I'm pretty tired. I catch up on my sleep on the weekend, then I'm good for another week!

My car will be going over 40,000 miles very soon (if it hasn't already - I forgot to check). No, it's not a new car. It's a very old car. It's a 1997 Saturn SW1. As I said in a previous post, I haven't had much need to drive very far from home. Work was close. The town I live in is small. Low mileage. Still, it needs attention. I'm going to keep the oil fresh. I'll take it in for maintenance when it needs it. The severe heat of several Texas summers has taken a toll. I desperately need a new headliner and new sunvisors. And a small bit of the car's body shows some paint issues. Sort of looks like the top layers have been peeling off. It's not too bad, but it's there. I'd love to have a carport, but they cost money to build. I'd plant a big tree for the shade if it weren't inconvenient. I don't have anywhere to plant one that would't affect the driveway or the pipes or the house or whatever. Plus there would be bird poop!

Lost my Phone Virginity

Tomorrow is the last day of training for my new job as a customer care representative for AT&T Mobile. This morning we took our first LIVE calls. Argh. My first live call lasted over an hour and turned out to be my only live call. Someone with a very strong Indian accent calling about a phone that had been ordered but hasn't arrived. I had trouble understanding what he was saying, to start with. Then, mid stream we switched horses. I didn't catch on to this fact until some time after customer number two started talking about cell phone number two. I hadn't noticed that a second person had come on the line with a new problem, so I was trying to figure out what phone number two had to do with phone number one.

At an early point in the conversation I almost got up, put the headset down on the desk and walked away. I didn't. I finally realized what was going on and both the caller and I were quite relieved. By the end of the conversation we were both laughing.

What fun. More live phone calls tomorrow morning. If I'm really lucky maybe I'll have to have emergency dental surgery (causing me to miss the live calls).

My instructor came by after the call and told me, "You needed that call." She meant that I needed that particular kind of phone call to show me that it wasn't the end of the world and that I could, in fact, handle that sort of unusual situation. If I could handle that, theoretically I can handle all the routine types of calls I'll be getting. I think she was right.

We graduate tomorrow (after more live calls and a pot-luck lunch). Next Monday we start the two-week "transition" phase, which means lots of live calls with lots of help and supervision. If we survive that they'll set us loose to work among the rest of the "agents." God help me.

On a slightly related note: I had been working within five miles of home for several years. Because of this, I hadn't had much need, except on rare occasions, to drive more than about 40 miles per hour. Seriously. But now I'm commuting, driving 22 miles twice a day. The speed limit for most of that distance is 70 miles per hour. Since I started this commute, five weeks ago, I find that I now have a difficult time slowing down!

I have driven the local streets hundreds of times without any problems. Now I find myself going around corners much too fast! This freaks me out a little. Why am I having any trouble at all readapting to the in-town speed limits after coming home from work? I'm thinking about that and, if I figure it out, I'll surely let you know.

I'm going to go finish preparing my Mediterranean pasta salad for tomorrow's pot luck. Then I'm going to go to bed and forget about tomorrow's live calls.

Roscoe's Okay

Roscoe's feeling his old self, today. Thank God. And thank God for my great veterinarian. He gave me absolutely no indication that he was unhappy in any way about my calling him and making him come in after hours.

A Little Scare

Roscoe had his second heartworm treatment today. He had to stay at the vet's office so they could watch him because sometimes dogs have a bad reaction to the treatment. I picked him up after work and he seemed fine. But then he changed. He acted like he was sore, not wanting to get up on the couch or the bed. He wouldn't eat. Not even the turkey hotdogs I offered him. Then he started breathing funny. His breating was fast, and he exhaled in "puffs." I called the on-call vet who told me to bring him in. He was, indeed, having a reaction to the treatment, albeit a little later than expected. So the Doc gave Roscoe a fast-acting cortisone shot and some fluids. Told me to bring him back if he didn't eventually seem better. The Doc said that Roscoe should appear better by bedtime, but that he probably wouldn't want to eat anything. I'm to call him (the Doc) if Roscoe doesn't improve. Anytime. Tonight, or tomorrow. He said this with absolutely no reservation. What a great vet! I'll be keeping a close eye on Roscoe tonight.

Here they are!!!

My favorite:
And two others that Dean drew:
The german-style bird is most likely because my last name is german.

About That Talent...

I e-mailed Dean Fraser, the guy doing the Lost drawings who I mentioned in my previous post, and asked him if he'd do a drawing of me. He said YES!! He just sent me the first drawings and they're FANTASTIC!! I will post them here right after I've paid him for them. Not before.

I suggested to him that he could earn some extra cash by doing these drawings for people. I guess he could be a web version of the guy who draws caricatures in the park!