p i x e l s c r i b b l e s – Page 84 – the thoughts and experiences of Heather Meadows

Office evolution

This is what my office looked like originally.

At first I shared the office with a full-time graphic designer. Nowadays I have the office to myself, except when various people come in and use the graphics computer.

When that change first happened, I rearranged the desks like this:

This was okay for many months. I really liked having the extra work space that the second L-shaped desk gave me. However, the room was really cluttered, and I felt I could do more with the space if that second desk was taken out. I ended up trading it for my boss’ old desk, and I put the graphics computer on her desk rather than the flimsy white table it had been sitting on. Everyone was pleased to be using a real desk at last, and I was happy that the room was more open. You can see that layout in this movie I took at Christmas time, and in these two pictures:

However, the loss of the arm of that second L-shaped desk eliminated what I considered to be useful privacy. Now I had people coming up standing behind me all the time, which was the last thing I wanted to encourage. It’s just not feng shui.

So I spent a few months pondering what sort of furniture arrangement would make it so that people wouldn’t stand behind me, and also allow better traffic flow through the office, since it’s essentially a hallway these days. Finally I drew up a floorplan of the room using the ceiling tiles as measurements, and that enabled me to move things around without actually moving them…so I tried lots of different arrangements that I hadn’t considered before.

That led me to this work-in-progress:

It may not look like much in the pictures, but I got it rearranged a bit more after I took them, and I think it’s going to be pretty sweet when I’m all finished (and I’ve had a chance to dust, yeesh). Only time will tell if it’ll keep people from coming up behind me, but the idea is that the arm of the desk pointing towards the door will create the feeling of a hallway, so that people won’t turn left and come into my desk area.

What’s great about this layout is that there is a much wider path to walk through the office. I’m thinking it will work out pretty well.

I’ll put up final photos once I’m done.

Edit: I just realized you can’t really make out the door I’m talking about in any of the new pics. It’s to the left of the CD shelf. You actually do see it in the second new picture, but it’s hard to tell that it’s a door :>

(That gray strip alongside it is not the door frame; it’s a shadow due to the fact that the wall juts out behind the door, causing the door to only open about 90 degrees. The reason for this is there is a water fountain on the other side of the wall. And Now You Know.)

Brookie’s here!

And here she is.

She and David and I met for lunch at the Boll Weevil. I ordered the exact same thing I had a week or so ago with a group from work: chicken salad sandwich (they make it with honey mustard and horseradish!) and potato soup. Then, of course, I had to have dessert…a piece of chocolate raspberry rhapsody cake. (This was different from the other day, when I had the 7th Heaven chocolate cake…)

Anyway, enough about the food. It is so great to have Brooke back in town. Now I just need to make sure I spend as much time with her as possible! She has already dedicated next Wednesday to me, and hopefully we’ll do all sorts of fun things and maybe even take a half-day trip somewhere…but one day is not enough! I still miss the days when I could call her after work and say “What’s up?” and just go to her place to hang out. My evenings are very quiet these days, except for those occasions when I get to go out with work peeps.

They’re making plans to move back to the States someday, maybe in two years, so by the time our next lease is up at this apartment, I might have my best friend back ;>

Daily routine

Here’s a list of things I would like to get done during the course of a day.

Morning, ideally:

-do a full stretching routine
-go for a walk or work out in some other way
-shower and put on makeup
-eat breakfast
-pack lunches
-do freelance work for an hour and a half (two or three days a week)
-work on writing/AMRN stuff
-plan, prepare, and shop for dinner
-mess around online or watch videos for 15-30 mins (I always tend to do this in the morning, so why not plan for it?)

Lunchtime:

-eat lunch while working
-go on a walk or work out at the Y during actual lunch hour

Evening:

-cook and eat dinner
-ride the bike (on its stand)
-relax

I am going to go ahead and post this, but it’s incomplete. I need to figure out how long each morning thing would take me and how early I would have to get up to accomplish it all. I think the writing and freelance work would have to be on alternate days, but even then would it be practical? Because I have to start working out in the morning regularly; there is just no way I can’t.

Also, I obviously can’t try to start doing everything at once after I’ve nailed down a routine. I’ll have to come up with a good plan and then start adding each item one at a time every week or two. I’m already set to start freelance this Friday, so I guess that’ll be the first thing.

The eye of the tiger

This is one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

The ultimate work(out) station

I want a new desk for work.

This desk needs to support two monitors, one CRT and one LCD, an oversize keyboard, and a phone. Ideally it would also have room for a printer or two and a way to keep the CPU itself off the floor.

The work surface should raise and lower so that I can either stand or sit.

The desk should have one file drawer and one or two miscellaneous drawers.

It should also have a fold-out treadmill and a fold-out exercise bike that will retract into the desk when not in use. Ideally the controls for these would be built into the desk, as would retractable hand grips.

I can almost picture how this desk would work. It would have to be at least L-shaped, if not U-shaped. The arm or arms would contain the exercise equipment. There are already products that can raise a monitor and keyboard; for this desk they would just have to raise two monitors at once. I’d prefer it to look snazzy, so instead of a product sitting on top of the desk, I’d prefer the desk itself be adjustable. That would ensure that there would be space for the exercise equipment to fold out and lock in, as well.

Okay, universe, you have your assignment. When can I expect to see this desk in my office?

Quality time

Check out this fabulous fatherhood PSA from the Ad Council. (Click for full size.)

Nice.

Fleurs

More pics here.

Expenditures

I copied all debits listed in our checking account for the last 90 days into an Excel spreadsheet, then labeled each one with a category. I sorted by categories, totaled the categories and all the expenditures, then calculated what percentage of our spending each category was.

My categories may not have been completely accurate, because I can’t always tell what a debit is for, and I also may have debits that fit more than one category. I also left out transfers to savings and two one-time debits that didn’t really fit anywhere.

Here’s what I found out.

Bills: 21.99%
These are our regular bills that we will arguably always have, like rent, phone, internet, power, websites, etc.

Food: 19.67%
Eating out and ordering in.

Car Payments: 14.91%
My Yaris. Sean likes to make double payments each month. Should be paid off soon.

Health: 14.88%
Various bills related to my congestive heart failure. Nice.

Entertainment: 8.47%
This is mostly the purchase of DVDs and books from Amazon.com, though it also includes a few webcomic-related purchases (t-shirts, books, subscriptions).

Furniture: 7.26%
The dining room table, my desk and filing cabinet, and the decorative stuff I recently bought at Target.

Groceries: 3.89%
Anything I buy for home use, including toiletries and cleaning stuff and, of course, food.

Beauty: 2.47%
My salon visits and Sean’s haircuts.

Gas: 1.92%
I really thought this would be higher in the list.

Clothes: 1.87%
This isn’t accurate, as I usually use my Cato card to buy my clothes, so this percentage only includes the stuff I recently bought Sean from Lands End.

Family: 1.58%
Basically if we spent money on family, like presents or cards.

To put that in perspective, here’s a nifty pie chart:

I knew we I spent a lot of money on eating out, but that is a pretty big portion of our overall budget.

I’m not sure what to make of all this yet. It’s definitely given me something to think about.

Partay

I had a bunch of workies over to hang out today, and it was a lot of fun.

Rex arrived first, then Steven, and finally Gene, Kelsey, and Samantha showed up. We all hung out and snacked on the chips and goodies I’d prepared, then went out to dinner at Giuseppe’s, which is just up the road. Dinner was good, but they took way too long making Sean’s takeout order, so I felt bad about keeping everyone there waiting on it. Finally I walked up to the counter and they handed it right to me :P

But things were good again once we were back at the apartment. We played Wii tennis, bowling, and golf for a long time. Samantha brought her Wii and Rex brought extra controllers. It was really fun. Hopefully someday I’ll get my own Wii.

After everyone left I cleaned up right away. It’s best to do that rather than leave it to the next day, I think. Besides, I have laundry to do tomorrow, so it’ll be nice not to have to clean the kitchen and dining room too.

Pictures start here.

Stop taking pictures of food. Seriously.

Sorry, Brandon. Not gonna happen:

Sushi from Fujiyama, 2/10

Tuna fish on honey yeast bread with pasta salad, from the ever-wonderful Boll Weevil, 2/11

Coconut creme cake from Boll Weevil. It was soooo good.

Garden burrito with beans and rice from Nacho Mama’s, 2/12

It’s my own damn fault

The National Symphony Orchestra is playing tonight at the USC Convocation Center in Aiken.

They only travel to one city each year. This year they happened to pick a city in my area. When I first heard about it I was so excited that I leveraged my media contacts to get myself a pre-sale password. I bought two extremely good seats.

For weeks I looked forward to the concert, gazing fondly at the pink tickets that had arrived in the mail and sat waiting for that fateful day atop my desk.

Those tickets are in my purse right now.

For the past several days, I’ve bragged to friends and coworkers alike that I was going. I was so excited I couldn’t hold it in.

So why, pray tell, am I not there, taking advantage of what might very possibly be a once in a lifetime chance to hear the official symphony orchestra of the United States of America in person?

You want to know? It’s a really, really stupid reason.

I couldn’t find the place.

Matter of fact, I couldn’t even find the city of Aiken.

It’s all my own fault. I’ve only been to Aiken once before, and I’ve never been to the Convocation Center. I should have gone up there to find my way sometime before tonight. Or I should have gotten good directions from someone.

As it was, I was following my Google Maps printout when all of a sudden I hit a detour somewhere around Graniteville, and after that I was nothing but royally screwed. I couldn’t find the next road. I actually passed a sign with the highway number on it, but there was no arrow or anything letting me know if I was on the highway or if I needed to turn somewhere. I kept going straight, and to tell you the truth I have no idea where I ended up. I do know that when I turned back around and stayed on that same road, I ended up in familiar territory…back in North Augusta, just as the concert was scheduled to start at 7:30.

The whole experience was so humiliating and frustrating that I just want to curl up and die.

But I’m having friends over tomorrow, and there are chores to be done. Maybe I can just pretend it was meant to be, so that I would have time to prepare for company.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make me feel any less stupid.

Weird observation

I can’t remember ever hearing a news story about a plain-looking, regular student killed in a wreck. They’re always beautiful and sociable and everyone in the school knew them. Do news outlets just not bother with the unpopular kids, or are popular kids more likely to get in wrecks?

I support Montel Williams

Or at least, what he said on Fox and Friends:

He’s right. Shut up about celebrities, stay out of people’s private lives, and focus on what’s important. Yes, fans do mourn Heath Ledger. But they can do that on their own time; they don’t need a TV show to help them.

And don’t argue that it’s a happy-shiny morning show, and what Montel said was too depressing. If that’s the case, then why talk about death at all? Are you then saying that Heath Ledger’s death is a lighthearted one?

Japanese name-based personality tests

Kayo linked to a couple websites where you put in your name and they give you a personality assessment. I went to the Japanese one and found a whole bunch linked from it.

heatherの脳内 (Heather’s Brain):

This one created an image so I’m unable to copy and paste the characters and try and figure out what it means. It doesn’t look good, though, does it?

Edit: Kayo says:

嘘 (uso) means a lie.
寂 (jaku) means sad or lonely.

But she also kindly pointed out that my full name has a better meaning:

友 (you) means a friend, friendship or friendly.
休 (kyu) means a rest or a holiday.

heatherの脳内フェチ (Heather’s ~~Fetish~~ Passion):

爪 means claw or nail.
己 is “ore”, the masculine personal pronoun…I’m wondering if this is also how you specify a dom? However, I’m also seeing it in a combination where it can mean “by oneself”, so I don’t know. I probably need a native speaker to tell me what it means.

I’m not really sure if this is saying I’m into manicures and tough guys, or if it’s talking about sexual things. I’m not sure how the word “fetish” is being used.

Edit: Kayo explains things in the comments. Yes, I think we can safely say that I am into myself. Not sure about the nails though!

heatherの前世の脳内 (Heather’s Brain in a Previous Life):

賭 means gambling.
酒, of course, is sake, or alcohol.

So apparently I was pretty worthless in my past life!

heatherの鞄の中身 (Inside Heather’s Bag):

鞄の種類	あのブランドっぽいハンドバッグ
鞄の中身	シックなハンカチカルボーンおとまりセット眼科の診察券生徒手帳

Translation:

Type of Bag	~~brand name-like (?)~~ designer knock-off handbag
Bag’s Contents	Chic handkerchief Japanese sweets from 20 years ago (guess I won’t be eating them!) ~~? (maybe something to do with music?)~~ overnight toiletries ophthalmologist patient registration ticket student notebook

heather弁当 (Heather’s lunch):

My obento costs 620 yen and contains rice (米) and something else. Again, it made an image, so no copy and paste :(

Edit: Kayo tells me that “貝 (kai) means shellfish”.

Hospital observation

In the hospital again! (And looking great, I might add.)

So, yesterday at work something odd and scary happened to me.

I was down in the studio with the chief engineer, working on graphics for one of the weather computers. I had gotten a bit flustered about a problem and was trying to make sure it got resolved before I went back to my desk. There were a few people in the weather center and all the chairs were taken; the chief engineer was crouching and I was standing up.

I got tired of standing so I knelt on the floor in seiza, the formal sitting position where you fold your legs under yourself–you’ve probably seen it in anime or martial arts. Your legs can easily go to sleep in this position. I wasn’t thinking about the poor circulation it would afford me and how that might not be so great since I’m on diuretics; I was just pleased that I could still sit that way.

At some point the weather guys were talking to the engineer. They were all standing up and talking over my head and I was sort of listening to them. All of a sudden, I felt myself falling forward. Then I felt myself catch myself. It was kind of like how you start to fall asleep and then jerk awake suddenly, except I was lucid the entire time. I could still hear everyone talking as blurriness filled my vision until I couldn’t see. I’ve had that sort of thing happen before, a lot actually, since I started heart medication, but it usually went away in a second or two. This time it lasted as long as it took me to finally wrest control of my muscles and stand up, a surreal passage of seconds during which I felt myself jerk backwards over and over uncontrollably.

I don’t know how severe it was or how long it actually lasted, but I didn’t fall down and no one even noticed. Their conversation continued as I was finally able to reach out and stabilize myself against the desk to pull myself to my feet.

“I just had some sort of seizure,” I said, for lack of a better explanation, “so I’m going to go call my doctor.” Everyone called after me in surprise as I strode out of the weather center and back up the stairs. I continued to be blase about it until I had gotten to my desk, made the call, and gotten the machine. As I described the problem my voice started shaking and then it was a huge struggle not to cry.

Once I was done leaving the message for my heart doctor I tried to go back to working, but I couldn’t concentrate and I was starting to feel freaked out. One of the directors came in to make graphics for her show, and she started chit-chatting with me, and I couldn’t do much but babble in response. Finally I said, “I’m not really coherent right now because I just had a seizure or something.”

“Are you okay?!” She started asking questions and I felt overwhelmed so I finally just said “I don’t know,” and she ran out of the room and got my boss.

My boss came in and I tried to compose myself and call my GP, since the cardiologist hadn’t called back yet. I got a machine there too and hung up.

“Do you want to go to the hospital?” my boss asked. The director had asked that too. I didn’t know if I needed to or not but I was scared.

“I guess so,” I said. My boss practically sprang out of the room and found someone to drive me over to the ER.

I wasn’t feeling any spasms or having any vision issues, just the normal slight dizziness upon beginning to walk that I have grown accustomed in recent weeks to experiencing, so I walked out to the car with the promotions assistant and she drove me to the hospital and stayed with me in the ER for as long as she could before she had to go pick up her daughter from day care. I explained my symptoms to a nurse, waited awhile, got registered, and then waited even longer.

I’m pretty sure it was 7 o’clock before they finally called me back. The episode happened at 3:20 and I’d arrived at the ER at 4. By then I was feeling all right and I had actually just asked the nurse if I could leave.

I was put in a room and had to wait some more. Then I explained my situation to a doctor and he ordered labs and urine and an EKG. These various things occurred at various times. I saw another doctor who pointed out that the way I was sitting probably set it all off. A nurse put in an IV and took me to a different room with a stretcher.

Then that nurse was taken off my case and a different nurse was assigned. He let me know that we were waiting for someone from upstairs to evaluate me and decide if I needed to stay. Another doctor came close to midnight to tell me I would be admitted overnight, given fluids, and observed. That doctor brought me something to eat; I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since around 2 o’clock when I had Wendy’s with Fichtel. My hospital fare was a diabetic sandwich lunch with sun chips and an apple, and it was delicious.

I waited a long time to be put in a room. There was no TV in the little ER room, so once I had eaten my dinner and taken some pictures I had nothing to do. My cell phone had no reception. I laid on the stretcher and tried to sleep, but the ER noises made it difficult.

At one point I was taken to the ER Observation area to be put in a room there, but the nurses said they’d been told I wasn’t to go there, so I ended up back in the ER room. It wasn’t until 5:30 that I was finally placed in a room upstairs.

Much to my chagrin, the people on the other side of the curtain from me were snoring in the loudest, grossest way possible.

Also much to my chagrin, nurses kept coming in to take vitals and check things and have me sign papers and set up fluids and set up a loaner CPAP. I was able to sleep until 7:30, when a nurse came in for vitals again, and then I took the CPAP off and resigned myself to staying awake.

The CPAP had blocked a lot of the disgusting snoring noise, but now I had nothing to protect me. I tried my television which helped some. Eventually my neighbors were awakened and I was relieved.

Breakfast was not good. It was so not good that I didn’t bother taking a picture. Fake eggs and tasteless grits. However, there was an orange muffin that was actually really yummy, and it was all served with orange juice and milk, which softened the blow.

Two different doctors came around one at a time after breakfast to hear my complaints and give me their opinions. Finally, right when I was starting to eat lunch, the whole cadre came in. They all agreed that I was reacting strongly to my heart medicines and I needed to cut back on the diuretics, which had dehydrated me to the point of renal failure. The fluids they’d been giving me all night combined with stopping the diuretics temporarily had brought my lab numbers back to acceptable levels, so I just needed to talk to my cardiologist about changing my doses.

After they were gone I ate lunch, which was even worse than breakfast.

I remember when I was hospitalized for leukemia, I couldn’t stand the smell of those plastic containers, and the orderlies had to remove the lid out in the chamber beyond my room so I wouldn’t smell it and throw up. At least it wasn’t that bad.

Sometimes I think back on my time at the Markey Cancer Center with nostalgia. I think that it was nice to be taken care of, to have my diet planned out, and to sit around all day goofing off. This experience reminded me of the reality: my life was dull and depressing and I lived solely for those fleeting blocks of time when I was allowed to go home, to see something different, to walk outside. Those moments were bookended by weeks of hospital stays. No, nostalgia, I do not want that life again.

After lunch I fell asleep watching TV. One of the doctors, a cute guy who was pretty flirty, came in and asked, “So, want to stay a few more days?” I fortunately knew he was joking, and responded, “No, I think I’ll pass.” Then he said I would be able to leave in about an hour, which was wonderful news. We shook hands for about the fourth time (and joked about that too) and then he said, “I’ll let you go back to sleep. Enjoy your nap,” but of course I was too excited about leaving to sleep, so instead I started getting my things together, tidying up after myself, and getting dressed.

Finally a nurse had me sign discharge papers and I was free to go. I didn’t bother waiting for Sean to come up to the room; I grabbed my stuff and strode right out of that room, down the hall, and into an elevator.

There was no dizziness and no blurry vision as I headed outside to wait for Sean to arrive. I tilted my head back and gazed at the blue sky above and felt no vertigo. I felt normal. It was nice.