yay

So it seems this app works for posting text. Wonder how it will be with photos. I must say I am loving this new phone. It's a bit larger than I had hoped but it seems to actually work in my favor. I hardly need a pc with this phone. It does everything. Oh technology. Look how far you've come. I wonder how far you'll go.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

testing

So I downloaded a blogger app for my new phone and I want to see how this works. Seems fairly easy.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

A Jorb!

So, in case you haven't heard yet, I got myself hired on Friday and I will re-join the normal people as a functioning member of society and go back to work tomorrow. I'm actually pretty excited. I haven't worked since the end of June and I've been tirelessly searching, to no avail, for work this entire time. Fortunately, I have a friend who works for this company and he helped me get the job. Hopefully I don't disappoint them. It's such a relief to me and Dan because we've been struggling big time to live on on his salary alone. We've got some big plans and we need all the financial stability we can get. I'm really glad that I can finally take the weight off of his shoulders. I've felt terrible these months because he's been supporting both of us completely and I never wanted to be one of those wives who depends on their husband for everything. I believe marriage and any relationship for that matter, should be as equal as possible. Let's just hope I don't fuck this up and get fired or hate it. I don't think I'll hate it because I'll be working with my friend, I can pretty much work whatever hours I want as long as it's between 7 AM and 7 PM and I can wear whatever I want. I'm more stoked about the casual dress code than anything else. I've been so miserable at jobs where I can't be me and I have to hide all of my tattoos because they're "not professional." I am perfectly capable of acting professionally when I need to and honestly, I'll probably act more professionally now because I'll be comfortable. I won't be wearing stuffy clothes and sitting in a cubicle around pretentious douchebags all day. This is a small office and from what I've seen, everyone seems pretty laid back and just gets their work done and that's that. I hope they like me!

My dad

Today was really really hard. I woke up to a phone call this morning from my mom telling me that my dad was in the hospital and it was believed that he had a stroke right before leaving work this morning. She hadn't yet made it to the hospital so Dan and I hurried out to Mercy. I talked to one of the PAs who was working on my dad and she gave me a brief run-down of what had happened. Basically, he had a bleeding stroke. His brain was bleeding and swelling. She said when he came in to the ER in the ambulance, he was conscious and talking and doing quite fine. He quickly went downhill and it became a major concern. She told me he was going to need surgery and a whole bunch of medical jargon that I can't even try to spell here. Basically, they had to put a tube into his head to vent the pressure caused by the bleeding and swelling and then they had to cut out park of his skull to get into where it was bleeding and work on it. Then they would decide if they were going to replace that piece or leave it out. So, immediately, I knew that it was much worse than I had anticipated but she seemed positive. My mom and grandma got there and we waited and waited for updates. The surgeon and the PA called my mom and I in for a consultation before the surgery. The surgeon told us that he had a big problem on his hands and that it was life-threatening and going to be a very complicated surgery. They were doing multiple CT scans and each one was getting worse and they did an angiogram and found that the bleeding wasn't stopping and there was a large mass of his blood vessels all knotted up. So, basically we sat for hours waiting to find out if he was going to survive or not. Finally he came out of surgery and was taken to the ICU. We got to see him for a little bit and it was an awful sight. I've never seen so many machines and tubes and he was bloody and it was just so much to take in. He was awake but so heavily sedated. He will be for a while and he's also intubated and using a machine to breathe until further notice. He'll be in the ICU for at least a week and then he's going to have a really really long road of recovery. It's too early to tell what damage has been done and I have no peace of mind because there's still a lot that can happen that can complicate things. We just have to wait and wait and hope for the best. For my friends that helped me through today with kind texts, messages on facebook, etc., I really appreciate it. Special thanks to Pat because I would not have made it through the day without him. I also have the best husband ever.

Jobs?

I woke up this morning and re-wrote my resume. Ugh. I find resumes to be so utterly dull and useless. There's no way to not sound desperate and cheesy. I also don't feel that a sheet of paper is going to sum up my character, my work ethic, my knowledge, skills, etc. I hate the job hiring process of the "real world." I submitted my resume to one place today. I don't know what it is but I found the ad on Craigslist. It's for a temporary data entry position that should last about a month. It's money at least. I'm still not sure what I want to do with my life. I have such a fear of committing to a "real" job because I hate everything and I don't want to start something, hate it and quit a million times. I think I really need to learn that there's no good job out there and that I just need to suck it up and be responsible, especially right now. I have a lot going on at the moment that is very difficult for me to sort out and I need some financial stability to alleviate some of the stress. Why did I ever feel that growing up would be a good idea? When I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be a grown-up. Now, I'd trade anything to be a carefree kid a gain. I'd only have to worry about who I was going to hit with a stick today rather than how I'll pay a mortgage. Those were the days.

What to do, what to do?

Here I sit on my porch with my laptop. I feel like a total technology addict but I'm trying to enjoy the outdoors as well. There's a storm in the distance as indicated by periodic flashes and low rumbles of thunder. I feel like writing but I'm unsure as to what. I feel like ranting and raving but I feel like it's the same thing it always is. I'm jobless and broke and I don't know what to do with myself. So there's that. I'll end that rant there. I mainly just want to be creative in some fashion but I've never been one who's good at anything like that. Maybe I feel like the sounds of the evening and the distant storm should provide me with some inspiration. Maybe I just feel better about having my laptop outside if I'm doing something other than dicking around on Facebook or Twitter. I think I'm mostly at the end of my wits. I apologize for this if anyone decides to read it.

A Restaurant Review

Here's my first (and possibly only) attempt at writing a review of a dining experience.

I had heard from my old boss that The Library on the South Side was one of her favorite places to grab a bite to eat. I was looking for a new place to dine yesterday so I went to their website and perused the menu. The nerd in me was so giddy at the names of the menu items as they are mostly all based on works of literature or the literary geniuses who penned them. Going in there, I had a few ideas of items I would like to try but I had to narrow it down. I had also learned that from 5-7 they have happy hour during which most of their draft beers are $3 and all appetizers are half-priced. Not bad, right? They boast an impressive beer menu and Dan tried something new. To my knowledge, he enjoyed it. I decided to skip over the beer and look at the mixed drink menu. I am not very into liquor and usually prefer beer to any kind of alcoholic beverage but these drinks sounded delicious. I was torn between a couple different ones but eventually settled on Dracula. I'm sure it's obvious to many who know me why I chose this one. That particular beverage was potent! The menu told me that it was made of Jim Beam Black Bourban, DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker and Cranberry juice. It was tasty but it took me the duration of our visit to finish it. Again, I'm not very fond of liquor but I had to try it.

The appetizer and dinner decisions were a bit more difficult. Mostly everything sounded wonderful. Menus are brought to your table in various books. For instance, Dan received a large atlas and glued into the first few pages was the menu. I thought that was clever. I became just as giddy looking at the physical menu as I had when I looked at it online. So many delicious-sounding items with such fantastic names. For appetizers we chose Edgar Allen Potatoes which though not spelled properly, was a generous portion of hand-cut french fries. They came out piping hot, crunchy and barely salted. I enjoy salty foods but I grow tired of establishments that pour salt over everything. These were enjoyable and filling. Definitely more than enough for 2 people to share. We also chose The Magic Pretzel. This was 3 soft pretzel sticks with beer cheese for dipping. I love getting pretzels with cheese as an appetizer but so many places have so much salt on the pretzels that I have to scrape it all off. There was barely any salt to this dish and it was much appreciated by us. The cheese sauce seemed as if it had been sitting out while the food was cooking and it had that cheese skin on top. I could have done without that but I worked through it. Overall, the appetizers were satisfying, especially at half-price.

For dinner, Dan chose the Porky Pig sandwich. It was a large pulled pork sandwich and with it, he got Edgar Allen Sweet Potatoes and an order of fried pickles. He enjoyed it and I stole a bite of the pork and it was pretty tasty. I didn't try the fries as I'm not a fan of those in general but I did try to fried pickles. It's an interesting concept. They give a very large portion of them and I'm not sure it's something that can be eaten in large portions. I had one and that was enough for me at the time. I chose The Two Towers. It was 2 pieces of filet mignon each stacked with 2 large scallops and two grilled shrimp. It was accompanied by asparagus and rissoto which were the vegetable and starch of the day. My meal was just okay. I had asked for the filet to be cooked medium-rare as I love meat more rare than cooked. I tend to cook rare at home but when I go out to eat, I'm never sure how the restaurant will cook so I figure medium-rare is usually safe. It usually tends to be more on the rare side anyway which is okay by me. This time, instead of medium-rare, my filet came out more well-done. Filet mignon is not supposed to be well-done ever. Still, it wasn't bad. I ate one of the pieces and saved the other to take home. The shrimp was also overcooked and didn't really have any flavor. The scallops were not overcooked but they did not have much flavor either. I should say that I have never much been a fan of scallops but I've tried them a few times more recently and found that, if prepared properly, I can enjoy them. By themselves, they taste like nothing and I don't like them but they do pick up flavors very well and can be enjoyable. These scallops didn't seem to have any flavors to pick up so I wasn't too keen on them. I saved a few of those to bring home as well. As for the sides, the rissoto was actually quite tasty but asparagus, again, I don't like it normally so I didn't really eat it. I took a bite only to say "yeah, I still don't like asparagus" and moved it to the side for Dan. I brought home my leftover filet, scallops, rissoto and asparagus and just had them for lunch (minus the asparagus). I heated the scallops in some butter and garlic powder and it really made a huge difference. Much better today than they were last night. All in all, my meal wasn't the best but it wasn't bad either. It was edible but not worth $28. I wouldn't think anything of paying that much for the same meal if it had been better-prepared.

All in all, our experience was pleasant. We didn't have to wait for a table, the drink selections were plentiful, the wait staff was very kind and the food was mostly good. I enjoyed the novelty of it all and I will definitely go back there and try other entrees. I think next time I'll get the Hunter S. Thompson as it sounds very delicious. I say for this trip, 3 stars out of 5.