Ok, WTF.

I have a question.

Do people in shitty neighborhoods not drink skim milk or something?

I work at a hospital.
Hospitals are very often in a shitty part of town.
I also live "downtown".
Most people shudder when I say that.
However, I live in 'the nice part' of downtown, where there are nice shops and restaurants and stuff.
However, there is no decent grocery store.
So, grocery shopping has become a big event.
So, if I only need a couple things, I don't feel like fighting traffic on the highway to go to the suburbs.

So, I sometimes stop at the gas station/mini-mart on the corner right by the hospital on the way home.

I did this a while ago. I got gas, and I ran in to get milk.
And they didn't have any skim milk. Not like they are out of it- like they don't even CARRY it.
Not only that, but all the milk they DID have had an expiration date in about 3 days. And, was super-expensive.

Today I went back b/c I needed gas, and was going to buy some cereal if they had cheerios.

First of all, the gas was super expensive. And 10c more per gallon to use a credit card. And, premium was 50c more per gallon. I thought the gas grades were usually 10c apart? like 2.79/2.89/2.99. Nope, not at the ghetto-mart. it was 2.76/3.09/3.19. plus 10 if you don't pay cash.

But second of all, I realized there were no price tags on ANYTHING.
So, I didn't buy anything.

But I asked the guy at the register "Um... is there any way to know how much things cost? I don't see price tags anywhere."

And he responded, I think seriously:

"It doesn't matter. This is Hartford. People can't [maybe he said don't] read."

SERIOUSLY?

I'm a little dumbfounded.

More collegiate murder-mystery for Tiny...

So today I got an email from my dad, entitled "WTF?"

The message was a picture of an article he came across when reading one of his medical journals-
About how a surgeon I knew in med school had been murdered.

It said his body was found, stabbed to death, in his apartment, when the police responded to a call from neighbors about a fire.

I.e. someone stabbed him to death, then lit the place on fire to hide the evidence.

And just to add to the horribleness of it-
He was found 10/31.
A brief google search revealed no info newer than 11/5.

WTF have the NOPD been doing for the last month?

Also, I have no heard a peep about this from Tulane.

At least when people were murdered on the Yale campus, then sent out an email blast press release. And it was in the news daily, with udpates, or lack thereof.

Is this crime less newsworthy?
Or is Tulane just not as "worthy" of news coverage as Yale?

Dad had it right: WTF!

Sooooo....
I have to give a presentation at a Regional conference tomorrow. I'm not sure how many people will be there- maybe 100 or so. I'm scared to death.
There is not much I hate more than public speaking. I am DREADING it, so I can't wait til it's over.
Also, my topic sucks, and I don't know that much about it (it's complex), so hopefully they won't ask me any hard questions. And my boss/mentor won't be there (for the first time since he founded the conference 20+ years ago, b/c his daughter won regionals in cross country so he's going to nationals with her)- which I guess is good and bad. Good b/c I don't want to do a bad job in front of him. Bad b/c if I do a good job he'll miss it. And bad b/c if he is there, people won't dare pick on us [his fellows].
My DAD is going to be there... good and bad for the same reasons. He said he'd be a plant in the audience to ask really easy questions to make me look brilliant. :D
The other good thing is that it's only a 4 minute presentation. I really shouldn't stress. But of course I do. So my goal is to run long, if anything, so there's no time for questions.
And, I'm at the very very end, so hopefully most of the audience will have left by then.

But the worst part of all...
So last night I was working on my powerpoint, so I could give a 'dress rehearsal' at work this morning.
I had finally finished, and everything was perfect.
clicked save.
No problems.
Went to quit powerpoint, and got some error like 'powerpoint has a problem and needs to quit. Please save your work and restart powerpoint." So I hit save, again. Tried to quit. Same error.
So I hit save as, and gave it a new name. then quit. No error. Phew!
Then went to transfer the file to my flash drive.
Aaaaand it's not there.
NOWHERE. I searched the entire HD. It's GONE.
An old version was there, but I lost about 50% of my presentation.
FUCK YOU MICROSOFT! ack.
and what about all the autosave crap it does? it interrupts me to save like every 5 min. Where are those copies?
OMG I'm livid.
So, instead of getting a good night's sleep, I get to spend the night re-doing all my slides.

But on a happier note, here's a new picture of the bebe.
I cannot get over the dress. Or the legs. Or those freaking little shoes.

Just to keep the bad stuff so you have to scroll to it, I will start with the latest adorable picture of my niece. (To which I commented "now she has a rocking sheep too?" and my sister replied "no. We were at Pottery Barn Kids. But I think they're on to us- we just play with all their stuff then leave." ha!)



And, what else.
Well, I went to the conference on Friday, and I gave my presentation, and (of course) it went just fine. I was able to answer all my questions. And my cutie-pie dad came all the way to the meeting, and walked around on crutches all day [he had both knees replaced a month ago] just to support me. (maybe not 'just' to support me. He might have learned some stuff too, hopefully.) And, he bought me a ridiculously overpriced super nerd present from the vendor too. (A little 3-in-1 two-point discriminator, goniometer, and penlight. Yeah, I know you're jealous.) So... that went well. Then when I got back into town friday night, we went to see a super fun swing band, and watching the couples who REALLY know how to dance made me really want to learn. They were having so much fun. So, that's on my list.

Sunday went to get a christmas tree... trekked out to a tree farm in the boonies... kneeled in the snow/mud to cut it down... drove home at about 5mph b/c we were afraid it would blow off the roof of the car... and finally put it up. And- it's now thursday and I only have half the lights up. Ack. (so, "decorate tree" is still on the list, along with "buy presents", "make cookies", "send christmas cards" and "tell mom a few things I'd like so she will stop asking". I'd better get cracking!)

Then yesterday it snowed for the first time. Only a couple inches, totally no big deal. I went to drive in to work, and OMFG it was the worst drive to work I've ever had! I don't get it! I figured after 5 years in buffalo with no trouble (in my little MINI, with NO snow tires, I only got stuck once- and that was in my own driveway during the october storm) that 2 inches of new england snow was no biggie. Well, I had ZERO traction, and my traction-control kept kicking in, so I could not get ANY speed, and was going so slow I was probably dangerous. Even though I had the gas floored. WTF?! Maybe I need snow tires. It WAS wet snow, maybe it was extra slippery? Dunno.

But so I was on call yesterday. Bad timing. I was in the OR all morning, and by the time I got out I had about 4 messages from the ER. And a message from the resident who sounded a little overwhelmed. By the time I met him in the ER it was about noon, and he was trying to handle SEVEN snowblower injuries.

WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE?
"don't stick your hand in the snowblower" is not fucking rocket science!!! By the end of today the grand total of mangled hands seen was ten.

And here's the gross pic. This is how I spent about 5hr (in the OR) yesterday afternoon. [sadly, the fingers were too mangled to re-attach. And that stringy thing is a tendon. I don't have a pic, but the fingers are in another bucket, with more tendons trailing out of them like that.]

(picture removed for decency's sake)

Ok, this is a question/rant for the (e:ladies)... ((e:gents), feel free to read on, but don't say I didn't warn you.)

Ok, so one time this summer when I was home, my mom took me bra shopping. There's some little lingerie shop, and the woman prides herself on fitting you perfectly and finding your perfect bra. Sounds good to me!

So, I went, and tried a bunch of stuff on... she insists I'm a size X. (I have been a Y my whole life.) I mean, I know I lost weight, but still. I had a hard time believing her, but she insisted these were perfect.
So, I bought (well my mom bought me) 4 bras. At $60-80 each.

So I came back here and wore them a few times... and every day when I'd come home I'd look in the mirror and notice that really horrible thing where you're bubbling out of the top of a bra. Horrible!!

I finally decided the bras just don't fit. I mean, if I spend 5 min adjusting them and then stand perfectly still, they're ok. But as soon as I move or do anything, I come popping out of the top.

So I only wore each one a couple times. I kept the receipt. And I just never had a chance to go to the shop when I was home (b/c they're barely open on weekends).

So, this friday I went back. Took all my bras and the receipts. They said they can't take them back b/c it's been months, and b/c I've worn them. Which I guess I understand, but still, bummer. But she suggested I try them on again for Deb, and see if we can figure out what's wrong.

So, I tried them on. And, as I had predicted, they didn't fit right.

She brought out a Z. Which seemed better. But still not perfect. But so I was trying to figure out what was wrong... was it the straps? Something I could adjust? she wouldn't even consider going up a size. And she never once apologized to me... just got very accusatory. Saying things like "I can't remember all the way back to this summer, but I KNOW I would NOT have sent you out in a bra like this." And then, the icing on the cake, told me it's my fault. That I must have gained weight. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"?

But despite that... I bought the newly recommended one. (and she didn't give me ANY sort of discount or anything.)

And put it on tonight- and it's exactly the same. Looked ok in the store, but as soon as I put a sweater on, went and put on makeup, and came back out- popping out of the top.

WTF.

So, enough is enough. I'm going to keep the tags on it, and ask for my $75 back.

And I don't care what she says... my good old cotton VS secret bras that I've been wearing forever seem to fit just fine. Even if she insists they're "garbage". And my favorite, sexiest, best fitting bra ever? $12.99 at Target.

But is it just me, or is it kind of awful that she just sat there and blamed me?

I guess I should have known something was up when this (very average sized) woman told me she's a 32F.