New stressors!

I thought that once the wedding was over, I'd have all kinds of spare time to get back to doing fun stuff, and there would be a big weight taken off my shoulders.  I thought I might even be bored.  However, I've been finding that my fuse was extremely short last week.  I attribute this to feeling like I'm getting more than my share of things to do.  Work in particular is galling - when people are refusing to learn what to do to help me, but getting more work and short deadlines, all of which will be on my head, it's been making me really angry.  Throw a "15 minute meeting" that takes two hours on top of that, all to rehash stuff we've talked about several times already, and GRRRRRRRRR.

We're in the midst of a restructing at work, so I'm keeping in mind that the current situation is, by definition, short-lived.  I'm going to do my best to work through it and make sure that my attention is on the priorities for getting my part (ha ha) of the work done, and done well.  I'm trying to prune some parts that don't look like they will be formed enough to model, with only partial potential success - we'll see how it goes.  I need to be not only assertive (which is not working on its own), but figure out how to get people to pay enough attention that they understand what the problems are.

The restructure itself is getting interesting.  My part of the company is cutting way back, and my current work group is being eliminated.  The new assignments are being done in groups at the same level, and most of my work group is in the same level as me.  We each have to apply for five open positions this week, and they will be filling all the positions in a couple of weeks.  There's a lot of maneuvering going on, and people are getting (more than a) little weird.  The mood on the hallway here is punchy, but they call it gallows humor for a reason!  One advantage to having a career that's run wide and shallow is that a lot of the jobs are potentially good fits, and I know a lot of the different groups already.  I'll keep you all posted on progress, but we should hear the results in two weeks.

I had some fun over the weekend, hanging out with friends.  Word to the wise, though - if you have a slight Chianti hangover, don't drink a cup of coffee, skip eating breakfast, and then ride in a back seat up highway 1.  Guaranteed car sickness, even if it's minor.

Mom had to go back to the hospital on Sunday, with a fever.  She's been pumped full of antibiotics and we've been told she has a blood infection, and the culprit is a skin bacteria.  They took out her PICC line (an IV to the chest vein that has multiple ports) when she was discharged after chemo, so they've had to stab her several times a day over the last few weeks.  And yet, somehow, they expect us to buy that the infection was from the PICC line.  These guys are starting to piss me off, not least because not all the sticks are necessary ("Oops, we forgot to get some for matching when we took your blood two hours ago!  Give us your arm!").  Dad is asking them today about why she doesn't have a more permanent implant to avoid all the sticks (which would at the very least protect her veins, which are collapsing).  They can't do one now, since her immune system has been compromised by the chemo, but maybe she can get one when she's better.  She also has a blood clot in one arm (related to the STICKS, anyone care to bet??), so now she's getting clot dissolvers, too.  Her fevers are trending down and hopefully she will be allowed to leave the hospital soon. She needs time to regain her strength before she goes in for the second consolidation round.

This weekend will hopefully be quiet, and Kent will be back from New Mexico late tomorrow.  He's been traveling a lot which isn't much fun, but he'll be home the next two weeks.

One of the signs of the Apocalypse

So, it's like this... and it has to be said like this because it's what my internal voice sounds like...

KENT AND I ARE ENGAGED!!

Whew! That's mostly stunned disbelief in the caps, BTW. The families know (there was a lot more screaming than usual in the Mother's Day phone calls this year), and I'm at the point now where I think I can say it out loud without flinching. But it's still really weird.

There's no ring yet, and no date set, etc. I'll have more of the story later but will leave you here with a short conversation that I had with Kent a couple of weeks ago:

me: So, you're sure you want me for a wife?
Kent: Well, yeah, because then you have to do whatever I tell you!

(I fell off the couch laughing before that sentence was even finished. He may be in for some disappointment).

The back row of Ranch 99

So, I was meeting Kent for some pho last night, and got to the mall a little early. This is no regular mall, mind you, but an all-Asian mall, including the Thai goods store, the Chinese sweets store (which sells things like salted plums - I don't get it), the Ten-Ren tea store, and the biggest of all, the Asian grocery store Ranch 99. So, there is plenty to see if you wander around.

I went into Ranch 99 and started idly browsing. I've heard that mangosteens are never available in the US, but I figure if they ever come through, Ranch 99 is one place likely to have them. No dice, although they did have whole frozen durians. A nice old man also tried to steer me away from the "doughnut" peaches, telling me the other peaches were much better.

I wandered through produce (did you know you could get sugar pea leaves?), reached the back of the store and turned left. The first case was packaged meats. And it was a little different than the local Safeway. The first case was mostly pork, including:

• pork front feet
• pork back feet
• pork tongue
• pork stomach
• pork endgut (not sure which part of the intestine it was)
• pork bung (I'm guessing the last part of the intestine here - p.s. yikes!)

There was a package that I couldn't clearly see the label on, that had what looked like skin and something else in there. So, I pick up the package only to read PORK SNOUT! I all but dropped it with a little shriek and took off towards the seafood section. (what would someone need pork snout for, anyway?)

The seafood section is very interesting too, although it can also be a little traumatic if you're not ready for it. There are luminous piles of fish on ice that look very nice, but mixed in you might find skinned frog legs or half a lingcod head staring back at you (apparently good for stock). "Fish paste" was a little worrying. There was a lady digging through the bin of salmon heads; I was curious to know why she was rejecting so many, but not curious enough to ask her. They looked pretty much the same to me.

There were some prepackaged sashimi cuts too, I was surprised to see how far away some of that stock was shipped from. New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan, China, Taiwan - that stuff was from all over.

I was wandering through the dizzying array of ramen when Kent showed up.

Obviously, I still can't quite get over the pig snouts.

This explains some of those dreams.

So dad sent me an email today with pictures of a hip new restaraunt model. Here are some excerpts - these pictures are from Brussels (I think), but they are thinking of similar installations in the US.

See, it looks normal here - hardworking chefs and all:

But check out the long shot!

And there is even ambience.

It's pretty pricey, so I'd have to ask, do I want to do that? And then I see that I've already done it!! (far left)

I've never seen my doppleganger before! I wonder if she is the good twin or the evil one? I'll have to file that hairstyle aside for consideration in either case.