I hate that I am so internet dependent. Ugh.
I keep calling my house to see if my answering maching will pick up, and it does, so I guess I still have power. Which makes me happy, as several of my colleagues do not, and I am starting to see them trickle back into the hospital, looking for maybe a warm bed, or at least a warm shower. Scary to have to imagine even for a second what it's like to be without, and what we take for granted, and what some people don't have... but anyway, so there are more people than usual populating the little 'wing' of call rooms... and there's a desk with two computers. One has a sign on it that says "do not use this computer". And I finally thought "why the hell not? I'll shut it down when I'm done." So I booted up and went to log in... and this computer has a non-QWERTY keyboard!! It's so weird! I've never seen anything like it. All the letters are in the wrong place. There are letters on the top where the numbers go, numbers on the right, W on the bottom... I figured maybe that's why we're not supposed to use it. I think the lady whose desk it is had a stroke and can only use one hand, so maybe that's it. So I was trying to type on this crazy thing and kept screwing up- til I finally realized it actually IS a QWERTY keyboard, just mislabelled. Yikes.

This storm is depressing me. I keep wandering back to the tvs with the weather channel on. One was talking about the "snow ratio"- said this snow is 5:1 snow to water, and that 1 cubic foot weighs 20 lb. That "normal" snow is 20:1 and is 4lb per cubic foot. That plus the leaves is major tree damage. Up to 90% of the trees in buffalo they said. And that the big storm a few years ago was 87 inches of snow, but caused less than 1/4 of the damage this one has. Said this is actually one of the most devastating storms in buffalo history. Wowie wow wow wow.

I thought this was just an annoyance... snow too early... but this is like a big deal, peeps!

And have you heard the name? "october surprise".

LAME.

Ok, back to wandering the halls aimlessly, I suppose...

Sorry for the boring post.

Stay warm... and if anyone needs a warm place, you're welcome to swing by. Well, after I get home tomorrow. (I'm guessing my haircut appointment is a no-go, what do you think?)

Wow... I am astonished at what a mess this storm has turned out to be. I mean, i was thinking "wow, it's snowing, that sucks." Had no idea how serious it is! Now they're saying we're going to run out of water! Last I heard there are 400,000 people without power. A guy at work was calling around to look for a hotel to stay in since he has no power/heat. I didn't realize how lucky I am to still have power.

It took me an hour to get in to work this morning, and I was still the first one here. Reluctantly, I admitted defeat and left my poor little car in the snow, and accepted a ride in my landlord's big mean SUV. I guess being stuck in a place with heat, power, showers and internet is not so bad. But get this- since the hospital is in disaster mode, all "non-essential" employees don't have to come in. Apparently the cafeteria is non-essential. So not only is there nothing for employees to eat- they're not even making food for the patients!! i guess they're just feeding everyone cereal and boxed lunches.

the trees make me sad though. When I was coming in this morning, around 6:30, it was still a mess. It was like an obstacle course... we kept having to re-route to get around roads blocked with trees, and downed power lines. And there were abandoned cars all over. Even in a 4WD truck we were slipping and sliding. But we ended up going down, what is it, Lincoln parkway? Into the circle bye gates, then down delaware. But a lot of the gorgeous old trees in the middle island are all broken and splintered. :(

Well peeps, I hope you are all warm and safe.

-J

P.S. (e:ajay) did you make it to town? did you make it to goodbar last night? i did not. sorry if I missed you!

Just when I think "enough is enough. I need to spend less time on the computer, and more time studying," I find this dumb quiz-

How will you be defined in the dictionary

And here's my answer.

<center><table background="#FFFFFF" border="0" style="border: 1px solid black;"width="450"><td align="center">
<b><font size="+1">Alexis --</font></b><br />
<font size="+1">[noun]:</font><br /><br />A master blogger
<br /><br />
<a style="color: #FF0000;" href="http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=83">'How will you be defined in the dictionary?'</a> at <a href="http://www.quizgalaxy.com" style="color: #FF0000;">QuizGalaxy.com</a></td></table></center>


I think it's a sign.

Hmm. Ok, well I guess cutting and pasting the code doesn't work.
But it says:

Alexis: n: A master blogger.

Ok, so I'm really not amused by this snow. Took this from my back window around 5pm. Maybe I'm not crazy to turn the heat on after all.



And aside from that, what a lame day. A shithole thursday, perhaps.

(though this article (about Londoners "flashmobbing" in the subway to their ipods) is amusing )

Speaking of ipods- the day started with our "office" at work getting burglarized. My bag was stolen, and then later recovered by the elevators- sans ipod. :( However two co-workers fared worse- one girl had her purse including wallet and keys stolen- the empty purse was later found across the street in the psych ward, and one guy had his whole bag, including suit and shoes for an interview tomorrow, not to mention kes/wallet/ipod taken. Some clothes recovered later.

I mean what the fuck. Shit like that makes me so ANGRY. I mean, who just thinks it's ok to steal people's stuff?? Either it was an "inside job" by someone who has access to the room, or someone didn't close the door all the way. But even if the door was open, the room is quite off the beaten path, and no one has any reason to be there- especially from 6-8 am, which is when it happened.

But when the guy called his credit card to cancel it- they said it had already been used 4 times in a 20 minute period at the delta sonic up the street- which has cameras all over... If the BPD can get off their asses and do their job, they should be able to find him on the tapes. They could also try to get prints off the glossy leather portfolio that was moved to get at the other girls wallet. BPD said they were sending a detective, but somehow I'm not holding my breath.

So while I'm bummed to be out an ipod (and fancy headphones, too), it's nothing irreplaceable. At least I got my research files, jump drive, etc back.

So that was the start to my day. Made me miss my only case, too.

Then I had a meeting with the boss... had no idea if I was in trouble or what. Fortunately I am not, and it went fine, but that was stressful.

Then the guy at work that tries to flirt with me, tried to flirt with me some more, and denied his relationship with his GF. Shady.

Then an email that the ex is looking to buy a house with my successor. That hurt a little. Shouldn't but it did. They've been together for a shorter time than we were- and I could barely get him to spend the night. Ah well.

DID have a bit of a civil chat with 'the boy' though. not sure if that's a good thing or not. I should have let it go, but I couldn't help myself. But he was civil, and I'm much more at peace with it all now. Not sure if that makes it easier or harder to move on.

Then I walk out to my car and get shoes full of slush. My parents said it's supposed to hit 70 in RI today- freak heat wave. Guess I will have to ask the landlords to clear their golf clubs out of my side of the garage a little earlier than I expected.

Supposed to meet ajay tonight since I can't make it tomorrow, but I dunno what my motivation will be like. Hot mulled cider and cozy pjs on the couch with grey's is sounding pretty good right about now...

Oh great. My fucking power just went out and I'm running on backup.

Guess i'd better hit publish!

oh yeah, the backup doesn't run the wireless. But power is back already. Just off long enough to make the clocks blink 12:00.

Think I should go nonetheless.

Enjoy the snow, peeps! :/

-J

Ok, I've joked before about being a drama magnet- but this is getting out of control.

I talk to my family all-the-time. But generally I call them. And I never use my home phone. So when my home phone rings, it's usually not good news. Usually a telemarketer. But when my home phone rings and it's my family- I always get a lump in my throat and my heart speeds up and I fear the worst. My latest fear is that one of the dogs has died. Of course, usually there's no bad news. Usually mom saw something funny on tv, or heard a good joke or something. But last summer when mom called it was because my aunt had just been killed in a car accident.

And today, my dad and brother are at motorcycle racing school.

So when the phone rang, and I saw Mom on caller ID, I thought "oh crap". Then I thought "settle down... see what she has to say..." And she starts out "al?" and I can already tell her voice is wobbly, and panic rises again... She's slow spitting it out, and all I'm thinking is "dad and wood are dead... dad and wood are dead..." and I'm hoping "well maybe just injured. Please just be injured. Anything but dead."

Well, after all that build-up - the good news is, no one is dead. Or even (physically) injured.

And the truth is probably too private to post.

All I can say is... my sister fucked up. Big time. And I just hope she can fix it.

I called her when I got off the phone, but she's crying so hard she can't form words. Will try again later.

I'm not a praying person, but this deserves a prayer. :(

God help you sis.
But I love you anyway.

[and to my unwelcome guest- maybe you don't care about this 'fat fuck', but I think some of my friends do. Either man up and talk to my face (and sign your name), or don't talk at all, you little chicken shit. And know this is the last response you will get from me.]