The Blah Left Behind When The Sickness Is Gone

So I got sick on October 7th while I was in New York. I probably caught something on the plane (you know, all those people and their breathing). Anyway, it didn't much effect my New York trip because I didn't feel poorly until the evening of the 7th and we flew home the morning of the 8th. Once home I was good, very, very good. I rested. I drank lots of decaf tea; got those chewable Airborn things. I got over the worst of it in a week.
Here's the trouble. So for the last week, I've had that rotten cough and congestion that hangs around after a cold. It's troublesome. I also turned my ankle, which slowed down my return to the living from the land of the lazy sickie. Blah, blah, blah. You get my point.
Anyway the ankle is not bad. I'm doing my best to continue to be nice to it, but it's not an excuse unless the proffered activity is ice skating. It's time to get on it... and I'm trying, but let me whine a moment. it's hard. (imagine whiny voice there.)
I need to do the stuff that will get me a job, but what exactly that stuff consists of evades me.
* Okay I can do my homework for this one last class I am working on. Homework is done. What then?
* I can apply to jobs that I find on indeed. Alright. Sometimes that just feels like a waste of time but I should do it anyway.
* I can improve my resume and my professional network by volunteering. Surprisingly, not as easy as it sounds. I'm still working on that with the USGS
* I can study for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.
* Continuing to study GIS is also a good thing to do
* Preparing for my final exam for grad school is also a good thing to do. Trouble with that is I have no idea where to even start. I take it back, I do know the first step and I already did it. I emailed Elisha (graduate advisor) to ask what I'm supposed to do. I also looked it up on the school website. If she doesn't get back to me in a couple day, that means she's sick and I'll email one of the professors

Yes, this is a bit of a rehash from my earlier post. I'm in the hazzy post-sick no-man's land, short on energy and motivation, trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing and in what order. Well clearly graduating is my number one priority. Does applying to jobs or continuing on the volunteer work front come next. Obviously a job that pays would be best. However, I keep sending off applications into the blue and never hearing back. The shortest road to a good job might be the volunteer experience especially while I am still in school. Let us make it the number two priority. All the studying is hard to prioritize because it has no clear end point. The GIS is pretty important to the kind of jobs that I have been applying to. I am going to make it priority three until I have completed 40 hours of study. Then studying for the FE's will take its place and GIS can have the bottom priority. I need to keep looking for jobs online at least every week and apply to the ones that are a really good fit.
Okay. My priorities are straight. It's time for deep breath and I'll try not to choke on it.

1. Graduate
2. Volunteer/intern
3. GIS 40 hours
4. Search for and apply to jobs
5. Study for FE's

Ok, it's 3pm and I want to take a nap. I think that is probably not a bad thing to do. Let's say I nap for a half hour. When I wake up, I check my email act on any replies and look at research going on at the USGS for an hour. Then I will strategically choose people to bother about volunteering. But first! I check blackboard and find out if there are any new assignments.
http://cbee.oregonstate.edu/graduate-student-advising

Self Motivation

Things that I need to do to keep the ball rolling (so to speak)
1. Send an additional email to the people at the USGS that I was hoping to intern with
2. Finish the online ethics training for my degree
3. Arrange to do my Masters defense

Stuff that I need to study:
1. GIS
2. Prepare for Masters defense
3. Study for FE exam (should overlap with master defense)
4. Keep working through my differential equations course

The Daily Grind Required For Healthy Existence:
Socialize
Eat
Drink water
Exercise (Pilates would be good.)
Dishes
Laundry
Make The Bed

The Daily Grind for Happy Healthy Pets:
Play time for the ferrets
Litterboxes
Fill food bowls
Fresh water

The Extra Things That Make Life Nicer:
Tea in a fancy tea cup
Playing music
Listening to a book on tape while doing laundry of dishes
Lighting candles
Sitting at the table to eat
Coordinating meals with Andrew

More of The August Family Vacation

Haystack Rock

Micky!

Happy Poodle

I love this hotel room. See me. I'm in the bed. I enjoyed napping in that bed.

Yarn shopping with Auntie

Andrew's Second Interview

Andrew's interview today went well. He will hear back the end of this week or the beginning of next week. Whatever the results, I am very proud of him.

More Mustached Tom Foolery

 More from the family vacation in August...

Look out. She's vicious. She's after me!

Me- Don't make me laugh. You'll make my mustache fall off.
Sarah - Heh heh heh. I punched you in the butt. 

Just let me get my mustache back on.

Daddy-o Daddy-o. Let down your long golden hair.
Dad -I don't know guys I haven't got much of that left. 

The Mustache Is A Family Trait

Family Vacations Are Fun

Andrew is scandalized by this tom foolery

Dancing to the rhythm of byum-pum-pum

Sarah want cake.

We cool.

The horror of it all has aged Andrew

Sarah-he's my Dad! 

It's a family photo guys! (notice dad's expression)

Like father like daughter?

Say whaaat?

Walking the Ferret

Bear enjoying the grass

I have been leash training Bear. He's the best candidate to leash train of our three little weasels for two reasons. 1. his personality is good for it because he really likes being held and he's super adventurous. Very little scares him. 2. He's big enough that he can't slip out of the harness. 

A large portion of our walking time involves Bear riding in my arms, on my shoulder or in my jacket. For this activity, the leash functions like a rock climber's hardness. When Bear clumsily tumbles off my shoulder or out of my arms, he ends up dangling from the leash and swinging like a pendulum instead of hitting the sidewalk. 

The more walks we take the better he is at it. When I'm carrying him he hangs out instead of trying to dig a tunnel through my shirt (which I don't appreciate) and when we're walking, he walks more and more in the direction that I want to walk instead of struggling to go the other way.
Who knew? The best purse dog is a ferret.

So many smells to smell

The trouble with taking a ferret for a walk is that it's really hard to take a picture of him. In the photo. He's digging.

The Results of Andrew's Phone Interview

 At the end of the phone interview yesterday, Andrew emerged from our office/library to find me wrapped up in one of my favorite blankets listening outside the door. So I already knew about half of what was said in the interview. They told Andrew at the end of it that he would hear from them in one to two weeks. They called back today to set up an in person interview for next Monday. So far so good. Good job Andrew.

Sarah in The Ferret Prison

Last month Auntie gave us a present of some money to get something fun with. With the money, we bought a ferret prison.

As you may have noticed only one of the people in this picture is a ferret. Sarah Visiting Prison Warden. Pip prisoner. Alex, is a cat. 

The prisoner is trying to tunnel to freedom by going down the the warden's shirt.

Escape attempt foiled.

If you kiss a ferret, does he turn into a prince?

He may be a prince, but he is also still a ferret

Everyone is cuddling nicely.

Pip is trying to go down Sarah's shirt again. 

I think the warden is hungry

Another Writer Blog

Keirsi's blog.
http://prolificnovelista.com/

Keirsi is a writer friend of Abi's. As far as I know I have never met her. Keirsi is not to be confused with Kiri who lives up here and I know through Melanie.
I find the similarity of their first names to be amusing as they are the only writer I know who are publishing their work.

Easy Street Records and Cafe

4559 California Ave SW (between Oregon St & Alaska St) Seattle, WA 98116 

Neighborhood: West Seattle

This is an awesome place for breakfast food. Good food, fun atmosphere, reasonable prices and easy walking distance from my house. What's not to love? Andrew and I went out for breakfast at the place a few weeks ago. 

Andrew- You're taking my picture aren't you? 

Andrew- You are not a very good liar. I know you taking my picture. 

Andrew - Okay that's enough picture taking. 

The food has arrived. What joy!

Pageviews

It's very strange, the viewership of this blog just spiked up to 71 today. That usually only happens when I post a link to it on facebook. I wonder what people are looking at.

An Interview For Andrew

Andrew has a phone interview on Monday afternoon. It's a job that sounds perfect. He's studying his ass off on FE exam material to keep from getting either nervous or excited. I am really hoping that he doesn't get this cold that I have. So far so good. In the interest of Andrew's health, I should really turn the lights off so he can sleep. I still feel pretty crappy. Better, but not better enough. Also having less and less patience with feeling sick.

Sleeping Ferret

These pictures were taken last month

Otaku sleeping on the Blue, the stuffed snake. 

Old, fat ferret fast asleep. 

Snuffle, Snuffle, Cough and Wheeze

I have a full on cold for the first time in a long while. I've been really healthy the last couple of years. Maybe it's Karma giving me a break because I was sick almost constantly the year before that. Maybe I just got everything that was out there. Whatever the reason I was healthy for a good long stretch.

Now I am sick. I really wish my nose would stop producing so much mucus. Why does it do that? That's really where all my trouble comes from. Despite using the Neti pot, my nose keeps clogging. Mucus runs down my throat. My ear hurts and I wake up at six in the morning to vomit. What, prey tell, am I vomiting at six in the morning? Oh just more mucus. Was the bright green thing boogers or the remnants of the Nyquil capsule? Shouldn't the Nyquil be all gone after six hours?  Maybe I should stop taking Nyquil. Maybe my stomach doesn't like it.
Nah. I think it just doesn't like all the snot I am swallowing when I sleep. My nap this afternoon left my with the same feeling and that was Nyquil free. Concusion: Nyquil good. Swallowing snot bad.
Action: take Nyquil.
10 minutes later
In the process of taking Nyquil, I opened the fridge to get water. In the fridge I saw the olives. Mediterranean olives in a glass jar. I could not resist. Yum, yum delicious olive. Uh oh. Now I smell like olives. Andrew thinks that the delicious olives smell disgusting. Look around the kitchen guiltily. Ah ha! A solution. I will eat pumpkin pie. That will cover the smell of olives. Eat pumpkin pie. Yum, yum delicious pumpkin pie. Oh the cleverness of me!