July 25
Well, I guess I failed the stress test.
It was kind of a cool test, all things considered. They took sonograms of my heart both before and after they had me run on a treadmill to get my heart rate up. Which was pretty neat. I only wish I knew what I was looking at when they did the sonograms. And of course the doctor didn't anything at all about what she saw. She seemed to be looking a lot at one particular area, but until I get the rest results back (in about three weeks) I refuse to speculate.
I did find out what my blood pressure is - 130 over 100. Which is kind of high. Especially considering that at my age I should have a blood pressure of 100 over 80. And that is on the high end of the scale, too... Sucks that I have high blood pressure (pre-hypertension) but at the same time it is kind of a relief to know that the occasional fleeting chest pains and shortness of breath are not just all in my head
And in the spirit of "you learn something new every day" I found out that black licorice can contribute to high blood pressure. Which is too bad, because I love black licorice. I always ate the black jelly beans. Heck, even my faorite kind of tea is black licorice. That is probably not what is causing my blood pressure problems, though. It has been a while since I had any, and I don't routinely gorge myself on the stuff anyway.
I must just lead a really stressful life.
July 24
Stuff I need to do today at work - too much.
Stuff that I need to do at home once I get off of work - too much.
Where is all of the free time I was supposed to have when I got out of school?
I was supposed to have a stress echocardiogram test this afternoon, but when I got to the hospital I was told that it had been rescheduled for tomorrow morning. Which was the first that I had heard of it. They left a message to that reguard on my home phone, but for reasons known only to the hospital scheduling staff, did not bother to call me at work or try my cell phone, and were instead satisfyed that leaving a message on an answering machine that I will not see till at least 5:30pm (almost five hours after my test was originally scheduled) was a satisfactory discharge of their duties. Grrr. So now my test is at 8:45 tomorrow morning, and since I am not supposed to have anything to eat or drink at least three hours before the test, that means I can not have breakfast and I will not get my morning coffee on the drive in to work. Which in turn means I will be in all kinds of a bad mood when I turn up for the test....
I bet that I fail that stress test tomorrow, because I can tell you - my stress levels are currently through the roof.
July 21
*yawn*
Let this be a lesson to bookworms everywhere - if it is 8:00 on a Sunday evening, and you pick up a book you have been looking forward to reading. Don't tell yourself you will read "Only a few chapters". Because that will be a lie. If you are anything like me, you won't be able to read just a few chapters. You will need to finish the book completely.
For me, last night, that book was Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff (who also wrote "Fool on the Hill and Sewer, Gas, and Electric) and it took me until about quarter to one in the morning to finish.
Yeah, I know that this doesn't sound too late. But I have to get up at 6am and I am NOT a morning person. So it was hard to get out of bed and off to work this morning, and even harder to be productive when I arrived. Just one of those things...
I can't wait now to go home so I can take a nap.
July 18
I went to the Art Faire yesterday, and as usual it was great fun. Very inspiring, personally... especially all of the beautiful photography. I miss the old Nikormat. I took some great pictures with that camera. I guess I will just have to start saving up and doing some research so that I can get a really good camera - one where I can control the shutter speed, focus, and f-stop at least. Unfortunately, I think that a digital setup like that is going to be pretty pricey... And no matter what Dad says about the future of photography being digital, most of the photographers at the Art Faire still produce their work in good old-fashioned wet darkrooms. One of the artists that I talked to said that when it comes to professional art photography, most of it is still done with film and chemicals, and he thinks that that gives a nicer result. I agree... there is some character that a gelatin silver print has that a photo printed off of a printer just does not.
July 17
Once again it is art faire time here in Ann Arbor. The parts of the city around downtown and the University pretty much shut down for four days to accommodate booths of all sorts of fine arts and crafts - from glassblowing and printmaking and metalworking to mixed media and everything in between - that fills over 30 city blocks.
Most Ann Arbor residents hate the faire, or so I hear. They refer to it with a fine disdane (though even the ones who speak about it with the most vitriol show up to browse and spend)and look down on all of the out-of-towners who show up. Me, I love it. Lots of neat stuff to see and some great people watching as well.
Faire always makes me feel guilty as well... I should be doing more with my photography and pysanky and drawing... and I will. In all of my non-existant free time. Heh. Really, though... I will try...
And since my job is going well and my feeelance design work is going well. I am going to allow myself to make some purchases. Small ones, though. You would not believe what a lot of the stuff that is displayed at the faire has written on the price tags.
July 9
Since I work at a library and am on several library related list-servs, I get to see a lot of job postings that are being disseminated on said lists. Some are straightforward enough, but others let a tone of despiration leak in around the edges. For instance, there is a city (town? hamlet?) about 100 miles north of Detroit that is "anxiously seeking" a "highly qualified" director for their public library.
The name of the town is Bad Axe. I actually thought it was some kind of a hoax until I looked it up on a map. Yep, there it was, in the "thumb" of Michigan. Bad Axe. Say it fast enough, and it sounds like "badass", which may or may not have been the intention of the town fathers...
Anyway, the city of Bad Axe wants to hire a library director with a relevant BA, a MLS, a couple of years experience, yadda, yadda, yadda... for about a $32,000 yearly salary. Good luck.
This is actually pretty typical... librarians are underpaid. We have to have all of these degrees and experience, and it is all for a salary that in most cases is only a little bit higher then a year's tuition of graduate school. Yee-haw. I may work in a library, but because I work with computers and online services and web design and am "highly skilled" I get paid a bit more then the pittance that the "regular" librarians that deal with the public get paid.
July 7
Holiday weekends have been feeling less and less like holidays lately. Take this one... There were storms the whole three day weekend (I lost power frequently) and the weather was so bad in my area on Friday, that any fireworks displays that might have been planned were certainly rained out. Not that Ann Arbor "does" fireworks displays anyway... but I had a nice little barbeque with Katy and Eric and Katy's family in the midst of the explosion that is Katy and Eric's new house, so I have nothing to complain about.
I spent a bit this weekend helping Katy and Eric (and friends) clean, prep, and repaint their new place. I have to say that it is REALLY NICE. When I get a house, I hope that I can get something half as nice as the place they found.
The work is still going on, and will continue for at least another week, since most of the inside is being completely overhauled. But it will look very spiffy when the transformation is complete. As an example... the front bedroom on the ground floor was a violent bullfrog green under the old ownership. Katy and Eric are turing it into a library and the new paint is a soothing, cool blue (the color - according to American Heritage Paints - is "Jazz Blue") with retouched ceiling and trim. The roon needed 2 coats of primer because the original paint color bled through so badly....