FanWorks Convention

It's Thursday! And as per my usual, I'm up at 4am. The dog is not particularly amused. My sister sleeps in til about 5:30am and doesn't come out to the living room until 6, so this is an adjustment for him. I got such side eye when I sat up and turned on the light. Now he's resting on the couch next to me under a blanket. We turn the heat down at night, so it's a touch chilly, but we all like to be cool to sleep. He seems to be perking up, but he's still very itchy, so hopefully the shot kicks in soon.

Today, I have work til 2:30pm, and then an interview at 3:00pm, so I'll be moving when I get off work. I may actually see if I can head out at 2, and just come in half an hour early tomorrow. The interview is almost directly next to a really tasty restaurant, so I'll probably order from there and bring it home for dinner. I'll cook tomorrow, as I got out think sliced chicken breasts, and I have a big box of stovetop stuffing to make rollups.

I was having a headache and some nausea last night, so I bowed out of Brindlewood for the night. Wednesday night games are really difficult for me, because I get up so early. And with college starting on 4/9, it's not going to get any better. University of the people runs their courses in weekly intervals, from Thursday-Wednesday. Which means if I am struggling on an assignment, it's due on Wednesday and I'm going to have to figure that out. Instead I went to bed early and slept pretty well.

Work was pretty quiet. I took about 20 calls, and the rest of the time was off the phone. I'm getting a little bit annoyed with my bosses. That means that I'm spending half my time doing what the new job will entail, yet I'm not yet getting paid for it. It's starting to piss me off. I like doing it, but I'd like to move into it fully. I don't really know how to drop a hint, so I might just have to come clean and ask about the timeline. It's been nearly a month since I put in my application, so it would be nice to see something beyond "Your application is being reviewed.

I've got a package coming today and one coming tomorrow. Todays is more crab. Since the crab I ordered from Costco was rancid, I went ahead and ordered another box from Sitka Seafood. Crab feast time!

They'll be the normal Dungeness crabs, which are sweet and delicious.

I had a thought late last night about our trip. I was talking to poisontaster about the plane ride being so long, and it occurred to me that I'm going to have probably around 19 days of PTO stocked by that time. Why not leave Friday and fly in wherever our connnecting flight is out of (probably LAX). Then, we'll have Saturday to relax, maybe take a hop on hop off around LA, and then fly to Hawaii the next day. Coming back, we'll do the same. Hawaii to LAX on Saturday, then LAX to Baltimore on Monday. It'll give us a little cushion and let us walk around between 6-7 hour flights. I haven't run this past Jess yet, but we'll see what they think. I've never seen LA, so that might be fun. The alternative would be to fly into San Francisco, though that would probably require two different airlines.

That would only use 7 days of my PTO, and it might be a little easier on our middle aged bodies? Okay, lets be real, on my middle aged body. Jess is 10 years younger and in much better shape than me.

It would still give us 6 nights in paradise, which is all I want. There's not a direct flight from BWI, so we'd have to either break it into segments or fly out of DC, NYC or Philly. I'm not sure I could handle a 14 hour flight, anyway if I did.

Fortunately, I can't make our flights right now anyway, so I have time to consider. And also see how our 5 hour flight goes to Seattle in 2 months.

As I said yesterday, now that I've upgraded to an ocean front room, with the view of Diamond Head, I'm very happy. Hawaii is super expensive, but I've got 403 days to save up.

To start getting ready, I went on Torrid and ordered some more bike shorts. I also did some hype buying for the trip. Soon, we shall have a variety pack of macadamia nuts plus some coconut shortbread. Also, I got a lovely flowy top for any dress up occasions.

I've been mostly looking at cheap eats so far, but I'm going to have to look at what restaurant we'd like to splurge for. I'd still like it to be locally owned, but I'm aware that that could be tough. But we'll see.

Alaska is now 63 days away. Even though it might not seem it with all the Hawaii talk, I am so looking forward to going. I can't wait to see everything. From Seattle to the ship, everything is brand new. I've never gone west of Texas, so it'll be exciting.

It should be interesting, spending 10 days with the sister and brother in law. I don't really know how that's going to go. I love them both, but sometimes they also drive me crazy. I guess with the ship, I can always find something to do away from them. There's plenty of game shows and trivia and enrichment programs I can go do. Or, I can go out on the balcony and get in the hot tub and relax. Or go to the thermal spa and get in their therapy pool or steam room, or lounge on the warm lounge chairs.

So far, I'm loving my new Macbook Air. It's doing what I want, at a good speed and with a much bigger screen. We'll see how I love it once I start school, but I think it'll be good. It's a little harder to type in the morning, since it's much bigger, and sits differently on my lap, but we're working it out.

The job today is for our concierge program. So basically, I'd be making appointments for spoiled executives and rich people. Which is fine. I already do that, since I get all the VIP patients to deal with. And it pays more than Radiology. If I get it, I might have to think on it. It'll depend how much they offer for, I guess. Radiology, I'll probably cap out around $30-$31 per hour. Concierge, I might get as high as $34 if they really want me. I'll have to decide if that $3-$4 is enough to leave Radiology. I guess I can try to negotiate and see if I can bring Radiology's offer up, if they ever get going on the application that is.

Tomorrow, we have a blissfully relaxing night, and my sister will be back around 7pm and I can sleep in my own bed. To be fair, it'll probably involve videos about food in Hawaii.

It's sad, one of the biggest attractions, the Polynesian Cultural Center is actually owned by the Mormon church, so I'm not sure we want to go there. Apparently it's a fairly good depiction of Polynesian culture, and provides jobs for locals, but LDS just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and feels exploitative.

I think there's probably enough other things to do that we won't miss it, though. We'll just go to a local owned Luau and get some of the same culture. I definitely want to do the Kualoa Ranch and do the movie set tour. Jurrasic Park was one of my formative movies, afterall. They have a UTV tour that goes around the ranch and shows the sets from Jurrasic Park, and Hawaii 50. It sounds like a cool and fun thing to do.

Okay, time to do more of my orientation. It's multiple units, so I'm going to do them one a day, so as not to fry my brain. I've got til 4/4 to finish. Everyone have a terrific Thursday!

Good morning and happy hump day!

Yesterday was a trial. I spent most of the day trying to fill in slots, and dealing with unhappy patients. I still have one slot to be filled. The pissed off patients, I can't help. Then, it was off to Yoda's vet appt. He was pretty good, aside from screaming when they lifted him up onto the table. Verdict, allergies and a possible skin infection. So he got his cytopoint shot and some antibiotics which will hopefully help him.

He had a real bit of trouble getting his pills down. We're out of cream cheese, so I ordered some fudge, but it's apparently too sticky, and just gets stuck on his teeth. Then, he bites the pill and is unhappy. So, I'll be buying some cream cheese for him. He won't take them without bribery. Then, we were sitting on the couch and he started just crying and whimpering. We were about to grab the keys and head to the emergency vet, but he settled down. I think he might have been laying where he had the cytopoint injection and moved wrong. He seems fine this morning. I did not sleep well, worrying about him.

Today, I shall work on getting my slots filled, and take a few calls. We've got Brindlewood, and I'm going to be struggling to stay awake for the game, but I'll manage.

Tomorrow, it's off for my interview. I'm a little nervous, but not much. Having a back up job even if it's slow moving, kid of takes of the pressure. This job pays higher, but if I don't get it, it's not going to change my life.

And bonus, the interview is right by a really good restaurant, so I can pick up dinner for Jess and I afterwards! Win win.

Yesterday, after having watched some videos on our hotel, I made the executive decision to see how much more the ocean front would be over our ocean view. Ocean view would mean we'd have to go out on our balcony to see a side view of the ocean, where as Ocean front is right there.

Shockingly to upgrade to a Club room that overlooks Diamond Head and the beach, it was only $600 more for the whole trip. So, of course I took that deal. We're going to have the prettiest view in Waikiki.

And we still get access to the club lounge for breakfast, and dinner snacks (which can make a meal--god knows we did it at Disney.)

I figure that pretty much pays for itself over six days, just not having to pay $20-40 a day for breakfast. We'll probably share a plate for lunch, because the lunch plates look enjormous, usually for around $15-20. Dinner will probably be a little more expensive, except for the nights we go looking for food trucks. There's one that has a prime rib plate lunch that looks amazing.

I got my orientation log in, so I'm going to do that next. I know I also need to find and scan my GED before I start my program. The first semester is kind of onboarding courses so you can try it out and see how it goes. My first program runs from 4/9 to July. That gives me a good stretch to see whether this is something that I think I can do.

So far, the sister being away has been kind of nice. We're able to sit in the living room without being peppered by what she sees on her social media. On most of my social media sites, I can block names and words. I can't do that with her. I love her very much, and I do miss her, but I can't deny that it's lovely to have the quiet. Sleeping with Yoda less so, but I can deal for two more nights. She'll be back on Friday, and I can have my bed.

Today, the vet will probably be calling about Yoda's liver enzymes. We retested them as the non specifc number has been high. This may mean Cushing's Disease. If it's up, then he'll have to do another test, an all day one where they measure his cortisol over 8 hours.

I think he probably does. He has the excessive thirst, the pot belly and possibly the lethargy. Either that, or he's the laziest little overstuffed sausage to ever live. That's the only labs that are out of whack, so it's not diabetes, probably not cancer. Cushing's would probably mean that he has another few years on medicine. But he's alreay 10 years old, so that's probably his natural life expectancy anyhow.

The dog sitter declined to come back for a second try with him, so boarding it is. Once we get him feeling better from this, we'll take him for a one or two night stay and see how he does. There's a very nice place near us that has a special program for older or special needs dogs, so we'll try that. Once he's been there for a few nights and done okay, we'll do 4-5 nights. Just so he sees that we'll always come back.

Then, it'll be time for the cruise. It means that I'm going to have to find someone to come in a few times a day for Boodle as well, but that's okay. I can do that. She'll probably enjoy the peace and quiet while he's out.

Okay, time to go forth and look at orientation. Everyone have an awesomely amazing Wednesday!