Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

Literally it rained IN my house and ON my head last Friday. Needless to say, we fired the plumber.

We finally were going to build the master bathroom of our dreams. Can you say bathroom heaven??? I had visions of my own personal spa every night after work. David was installing all kinds of doodads. Things to warm the towels as well as our buttcheeks on cold winter days. Marble and granite all around me as I take my rain shower and mist or relax sore muscles in the jaccuzzi. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. We are even installing a bidet. How European of us huh?

There were a few other plumbing work we needed to have done before running the pipes up 2 flights. I didn't think much about it. I knew there would be concrete dug up in the basement. I would be minus washer and dryer for a couple of weeks, but all worth the sacrifice.

That was until I came home from an exhausting day at work to find dirt...YES DIRT paths from the basement door into my kitchen and through the dining room and up the stairs. WTF??? And the plumber? He was done for the day. The stuff under my sink thrown to the side on the floor. Dirt was everywhere!

David is an electrician and has done general construction. I know for a fact that if he has worked in a house where people are actually living while renovating.....he has cleaned up after himself each day. No dirt paths.

I was beyong angry and he came home and was not too pleased though not for the same reasons. Seems the plumbing was going in crooked. David can do plumbing but since he is not confident in it, he wanted a professional. He said, even he would have done a better job, he had a talk with the guy. When Friday rolled around and Chicago had a torrid rainfall....that was the last straw. There was water coming in from who knows where he poked through and seeping down the dining room wall. As I was inspecting the wall.....raindrops fell on my head.

That's it.... YOU'RE FIRED!!!

A friend of ours is a union plumber and his son is an apprentice and they are doing the job now after he heard waht happened. What is it costing us? An old Harley that Anjelika was riding. Though baby girl isn't too happy about it, she understands. Trade off is she wants to be able to use our bathroom once and awhile. Now I'm saying yes yes yes to anything...I just want my house back in order and calgon to take me away.

Here is the chaos that is our basement.....construction to begin again next week.

I Am The Boss of You

Last month I was promoted to supervisor of the Cardiology Lab. Eight years ago, two of the cardiologists I worked with at the hospital joined a group that was starting a Chicago branch. They recruited me to head the lab but since I had to go through the main office there were obstacles to me coming on board. One of them being money, the other my benefits. After so many years at the hospital, I really didn't want to start over. So I turned them down and I would help out on my day off and do testing. In less than a year they had gone through two techs and approached me again. This time I stated what I needed in order to come on board and also what I could offer them. Again we couldn't come to an agreement. As for the docs, they apologized since that part was out of their hands. I came to learn that this was a big group with offices in 3 of the western suburbs, board of directors, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't too upset, I had my job. But then a few incidents happened that thoroughly pissed me off and one of the docs told me I would never advance there. I took vacation time.....I was pissed and needed downtime. As my time off was coming to an end, I told David I didn't want to go back, so he told me to quit. I knew I wouldn't...couldn't do that. My last morning off, I greeted him by again saying I didn't want to go back and he sleepily answered, "So quit". That morning I got a call from the Chicago office manager offering me the job again, without thinking I answered YES. When David got up I told him what I did. I was in shock...what did I do? What about the money, the benefits? I'm going backwards... I'm going into the unknown.

Thank God she called me back. Seems I shocked her as much as I shocked myself and she wanted to make sure I had accepted. Thankfully they had agreed on the things I had asked for. Whew! Two weeks later I was reorganizing the lab.

Seven years later we have grown from 2 docs to 8 docs... from 2 receptionists to 3 with 2 M.A.'s, 3 nurses, 1 nurse practitioner, 1 research nurse, 1 asst. manager and 5 techs, including myself.

Things have been running smoothly and we finally have a full staff. As we grew, I went from tech to testing coordinator ( which to me sounded like a glorified scheduler) and now supervisor. Since I started I headed the testing lab, I ran daily operations. I seriously didn't think that what I was doing was much different than being the supervisor. HA! boy was I wrong.

The daily operations portion isn't bad, there are quite a bit of things the office manager took care of that I didn't have to do. Now I am. The sucky part of the job that I didn't anticipate....the actual supervising of others. Things do change once those same people you work with now see you as their boss and there always has to be a squeaky wheel. To say I was overwhelmed this past month is an understatement. Thankfully I have a great office manager that is not only my boss but has become a friend. She saw me sinking and offered her hand. It's now a transition, which basically means I can do what I do best and work together on the drama and BS.

I am breathing easier today...now if the drama and BS could be handed off as easily at home...I'd be all good.

Road Rage-The New Generation

Yesterday I decided to go over to Barnes and Noble to pick up Jen Lancaster's (she's hilarious, go check her out) new book Pretty in Plaid, with Desi in tow. Though I wasn't in a huge hurry, I found myself stuck behind a woman going 10..ok maybe 20 in a 35 MPH zone. OMG!!! I wanted to pull my hair out. I don't do well in traffic. Yes, I've lived in Chicago most of my life but I have zero patience. There was no way to get around her either. Just as I was ready to say something out loud, baby boy yells GO, GO GO.

I turn around and see him bent sideways looking between the seats at the car ahead of us. As I laughed, I could have sworn I heard "Oh Shit....GO GO GO" So I say "what did you say?" and he repeats it.....3 times. Ok, I did hear right.

Now I'm thinking.....hmmmm, either that boy reads minds or maybe what I was thinking, I actually may or may not have said out loud.

I'll stick to the fact that he may be psychic.....and Mima has learned that he is now repeating EVERYTHING he hears.

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!

Presently there are 125 posts in my Google Reader waiting for me to read. And that's only because I haven't had a chance to read in 3 days. I love to blog hop and check out different blogs. My biggest problem is that I don't always comment. I always plan on going back and leaving a little snippet and then ......I forget. I should tie a string around my finger before I open up my Google Reader. ANYWAYS.... Midlife Musings over at Midlife and Beyond bestowed upon me a lovely award. My first! YEA FOR ME!!! Go check her out, I'll wait.

Now that you're back here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I Need a Martini Mom - Vodka Mom has been around for awhile and has quite the following, but I haven't and don't. So she is new to me. Her stories make me laugh and touch my heart.

The Fifty Factor - After reading one of her posts, I had to start at the beginning. Need I say more? Menopause and humor. I'm there.

Kristabella - She lives in the city and has great stories to tell. Plus I follow her tweets, they amuse me.

Violence Unsilenced - Because no human being should have to go through any of this. Because my best friend went through similar circumstances at a time no one talked about it. She told me years later, I wish I knew back then and could have helped.

Menopausal Stoners - Trish reminds me of my best friend in NY who is 10 yrs older then me and makes the worst poster child for a "Say No to Drugs" campaign. If you saw her you would never think she smokes...you may think she would be uptight. She would just rather have a joint than a martini.

Metrodad - Having kids make for some great stories. He has the same type of humor as my oldest son and my DIL. Therefore he is hilarious

Empty Spaces - I'm trying to learn how to take better pictures. The pictures he posts are thought provoking and they inspire me. He gives proper credit and that's a plus.

Blah, Blah, Blahg - Miss B always has something pretty and she gives pointers on digital photography.

47 and Starting Over - Julie takes you along on her new journey and the fact that she has a warning label on her blog....well that won me over.

BlackBird - I love to people watch. She takes it to a whole new level and you are right there.

Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills - Gotta love her blog design. Always interesting.

Jen Lancaster - When I read her book Such a Pretty Fat , I ran back to Borders and bought the other two. Then I had to meet her and have my book signed. I became a huge stalker/fan. Toma toe/tomato.

Everyday Adventures of Me In The City - Jessica is in her 20's and lives in the city. Ahhh to be in my twenty's again. She talks about good places to eat here.

Women Over 40 Rock - Talent.

Polymath Chronicles - Another Chicago author, Stacey Ballis makes a mean Mionetini

So there you have it. Now to go catch up on the now 128 posts in my Reader.

An Old Friend Becomes A New Friend

"The best mirror is an old friend."- George Herbert

My awkward stage had to have been between the ages of twelve and fourteen. I had gained a huge amount of weight and hit puberty. At 15, I lost the weight and along with it, gained some self esteem. But at 13 I just wanted the Earth to swallow me whole.


Jackie was the new girl in school. She was quiet. I thought she was so pretty. She ended up hanging with my small group of friends. We were friends, maybe not BFF's but friends just the same. Jackie was an artist. At the age of 14 she painted a mural for a local restaurant. She was amazingly talented, and did I say pretty? Very pretty.


We ended up going to the same high school. We even took art class together. I remember her hands being constantly covered in remnants of paint. Besides the murals she painted, she could paint realistic portraits. I never shared the art I created. I was intimated by her talent and never believed I had any. Looking at all the art she created inspired me even though I did mine secretly. I now know better. What I created was just different than what she did. And that's OK. It was just not OK to me as a teenager. It didn't fit what I believed an artist to be. She was an artist and an avid reader. We had alot in common but somehow our friendship fizzled. It's not like we had a fight or even a disagreement. During our junior and senior years, even though we still talked, we didn't hang together that much. I thought she was interested in me being her friend.


Cut to March of 2009, Jackie finds me on classmates.com. She now lives in California, is married and has two kids. One boy 18 and one girl who is 2 4.We begin to email each other every other day. We are not only learning about each others lives but also digging way deep...in ways that are so much easier when it's not face to face. What is so different now in comparison to then, is that we are both more open and honest about ourselves. Who we are now and even who we were then. We expose all to each other, the good, the bad, and the uglies. Raw honesty.


I've learned alot about her and even about myself back then. With my low self esteem, I always figured that she didn't want to hang anymore. The fact is that she was painfully shy and had the same issues herself. Wow, and I thought she had everything going for her. Goes to show how wrong our perception of others can be.


We now have tons in common and have been showing off our art, sharing recipes, and just enjoying getting to know each other in a whole new light. We both agree, we have rekindled our friendship at the perfect time. We can laugh about turning 50 soon and complain about our bodies.


Jackie is coming in June for her nephew's graduation. We can't wait to get together.


Now I have a laundry list of to-do's before then. Is there a way I could diet away 25 pounds in a month without sweating or giving up chocolate? Get rid of my wrinkles without spending tons of $$$. Is there a miracle cream that works to some degree? My grays can be easily taken care of. No worries there. Now to find a cute outfit that makes me look thin...OK thinner. I basically want to look like I did at 35. But I'll settle for a kick ass 49.


I plan on looking fanfuckingtastic.