The Aftermath

"Somebody better stick a camera up my ass today" - Rae-rae, checking into her colonoscopy appointment.

My procedure went swimmingly.  To quote my doctor's quick note on my chart "Good colon!"

However, when I tried to check in at 10am, they couldn't seem to find my appointment.  That's when I said the witty quote above.  They finally found my appointment, and after an hour of waiting, I was whisked away to a lovely prep bay.  I changed into my fabulous gown with matching robe and non-slip socks.  I answered all of the questions, got my wristband...and then my IV.

And let me tell you I was a big girl.  I didn't cry.  I didn't sweat.  I didn't punch the nurse.  She was very proud of me.  Because you know I told her she needed to prepare herself.  She put the IV in my hand, rather than the center of my elbow, so that helped a lot.

After that, I was escorted down to the procedure suite, where I laid on my side with all kinds of wires attached me.  The nurse said, "Okay, you'll start to feel a little sleepy..."  I remember blinking twice and noticing that the the computer monitor letters were getting blurry. 

And then I woke up with juice in my hand in the recovery room.  Poof.  The only evidence I have of something being done to me is the extra air in my intestines.  My middle is huge.  But other than than, nada.

Today, however, is a different story.

My head hurts and is still swimmy.  "Gassy" does not begin to describe my innards.  And I'm just mad.

It could be because, although I slept from 1:30pm to 6pm yesterday, and then went to bed at 11pm, I was up at 5:30am this morning to film episodes eight through 10 of The Collectibles.  In Bothell, which is 45 minutes away, where is was freakin' snowing.  I kid you not.

I made it until noon, but I was just angry and it was showing.  So I asked Todd to set up a ride home for him and Kayleigh, and I came home.  I slept for four hours, which helped the headache, but I'm still mad and still gassy.  It was nice to eat pasta for dinner, though.

I just got a text from Todd that they've wrapped and are on their way home, so it will be nice to hear about how things went today and watch a little footage.  I'm not sure if I'm up to filming tomorrow - we're looking at another 12 hour day.  Guess I'll see how I feel when I wake up at 5:30am tomorrow.

Ug.  I tell ya right now - 5:30am doesn't feel too good at all.  Maybe I should just go back to bed now.

The Cleansing - A Journey

It is 6:30pm, the night before my colonoscopy.  I have just finished my 16oz of gunk and am now working on my two 16oz of water.  I have been on a clear liquid diet all day, despite my prepping effort and buying strawberry and cherry Jello.  Can't have red or purple liquids.  Crap.  So my wonderful son and daughter walked down to QFC and got me some lime and orange Jello.  It's no substitute for pasta, but it's one day.  I can live without solid food for one day.

The bathroom is prepared.  My laptop's electrical cord is there, I have a bucket and tons of toilet paper.

I am ready.

Let's cleanse!

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Well, that didn't take long at all.  One hour exactly and whammo!   The cleansing has begun.  Also feeling a smidge nauseous just from all of the water I've choked down.  Blech.

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Hour two.  Not so bad.  Yes, I've lost all feeling in my toes from sitting, but I've got Netflix streaming and lots of water, so I'm good.  It's not as gross as one might think.  Very...efficient.  And simple.  I wonder how I'll know when I'm done?

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Okay, it's 9:56pm and I am removed from the bathroom.  I think I'm empty.  Aside from being REALLY hungry, this is not the horror I was expecting.  I pooped.  And I'm done.  Big deal.

Now talk to me tomorrow after I've got the IV jabbed into me.  Ha.

'Night.

Coming Soon!

You've read about the Boob Scare of '06.
You crossed your legs with me during the Colposcopy Scare of '09.

And now, it's the procedure you've all be waiting for.  Coming to this blog, RIGHT HERE, in 10 days...

Colonoscopy 2012.

Yes, folks, it's the big one!  The magic, the madness, the sedation, the IV!  There will be purging of enormous proportions!  There will be fasting, jello, clear liquids and, you can be sure, Valium (there MUST be Valium.  Otherwise, ain't no way in hell they're gettin' that IV in me).

I went to see Dr. Pollock (swear ta gawd) because I was having some...*ahem*..."issues" in my buttular region.  I have no qualms about these kinds of things.  I've had crap going on (HA!  CRAP!) all my life.  I blame genetics.  But a woman can only take so much.  It's hard enough feeling sexy in the boudoir with 40 extra pounds on me.  Add these frequent "issues", and well, something's gotta give.  So since I'm a big girl now, I'm having it taken care of.  Before the end of February.  When my insurance runs out.

Smart, yes?

Anywho, after examining me and reading about my parents' cancers, Dr. P suggested a colonoscopy prior to the surgery.  Just in case there was more going on than we thought.  He said, and I quote "I would hate to get in there and mess around, then find out I have to go in again and mess around some more."

I like Dr. P.

So, next Friday, the 24th at 10am, I will be, as my daddy says, roto-rootered (love those hillbillies). Then, on the 29th at 8:30am, I will have, what I like to call, reconstructive surgery.  I told Dr. P, "Make me pretty again!"  He laughed and said, "I can't guarantee perfection.  Just be aware."  This is why he works on the nooks and crannies.

Until then, I will clean, clean, clean!  I will worry about the IV later...

Employment Free - Day 1

First and foremost, I slept until 9am.  Yeah, baby.

I got up, had a little breakfast, had a little tea, surfed a little of the interwebs, then showered and got into my cleaning clothes.  So many projects, so little time!!

First up, under the kitchen sink.  It was disgusting.  That took all of 20 minutes.

But then, the pantry.  And I took pictures!!

This walk in pantry is one of the reason we bought this house.  You just can find space like this in old craftsman houses.  I don't know what we'd do without this thing.

But, as you can see, it tends to get a little out of control.  It's part tool shed, part pantry, part storage.  Too much crap.

So I moved the big tools downstairs to the bottom laundry shelf.  Which required cleaning the laundry shelf, and pulling out the laundry shelf and vacuuming behind it, then vacuuming the whole downstairs and the stairs themselves.  But back to the pantry.

Wala!  The goal was to be able to access all of the platters and entertaining stuff I use.  I had trays and platters and bowls strewn all over the kitchen.  But now, they're on that top shelf.  Easy to get to.  The toolbox is still down there, with the hammer and mallet and some other handy stuff.  All tidy. 

For about two hours.  Then I went into the pantry to throw something in the compost (that white trashcan on the right) and saw this:

It's like we have gnomes that go behind me and mess stuff up.  And I think we know who those gnomes are, don't we?  Grrr.

Tomorrow, I think I'll tackle the crawl space at the bottom of the basement stairs.  I bet a lot of that crap could go to Goodwill.  Look out - Rae-rae's purging!!

What's Up With Me

Well, lets see.

I'm getting over a cold.  Todd's been sick for a couple of weeks, so of course, I caught it too.  Mostly just sinus crap and a cough.  Probably from the sinus crap.

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I've become addicted to Sons of Anarchy.  I'd seen a couple of episodes a while back and thought, eh.  It's okay.  But then we started thinking about who could play Todd in "Green Light" and Todd thought of Ryan Hurst (below - yum) so, of course, we had to do research.  See how Ryan's acting was.  And it was during this research, I became officially addicted to this show.

Don't know about it?  It's about a motorcycle club in Charming, California.  They're a tight family and there's drama and there's killing and there's lots of boys with long hair who drive motorcycles.  Love it.  And while they seem to be all tough and mean, they really do love their family and protect each other.

We were in the Junction yesterday and I heard a motorcycle drive by and got a little excited.  "It's the Sons!"

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Oh, I didn't drink for five days.  That's worth noting.

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I'm on my last leg at work.  I have one full week, then the 13th and 14th, then I'm done.  And no I don't have another job lined up yet.  Two possibilities, but nothing concrete.  I am eligible for unemployment (since my position was eliminated) so we won't be destitute by any means.  Oddly enough, I like the job better now that Super Boss and the 23 year old are gone.  Damn.

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We have a date set for the table read of "Green Light".  Don't know what a "table read" is?  Lemme esplain.

Bunch of actors sit around a table (or, in this case, our living room) and read the script.  We have about 15 actors and each actor has been assigned a part (or two).  Someone will read the narrative (the setting "Dark apartment - nighttime") and then the actors will chime in and read their lines.  I've learned that this is the first step in editing a script.  You want to read it aloud, all the way through, to see how it flows.  Do some lines seem out of place?  Does the jump from one scene to the next make sense?  Does that line even work?

Our friend Lisa is spearheading this.  We sent her the script, she loved it, she emailed with "Time to schedule the read!!"  She contacted most of the actors, she got it scheduled.  She's running the show.  And Todd and I are just fine with that.  We'll listen in on the read (it will be weird to hear someone else saying things I've said) and we'll give our two cents, but this is Lisa's project.  It's just easier that way.  Todd and I are way too close - we'd be critiquing every little thing and the movie would never get made.

Anywho, I'm super excited.  And super nervous.  If you'll remember, faithful reader, this movie is (in part) about my horrible year of 2007 when I made The Ginormous Mistake, and then The Fiasco happened.   We are telling this story to the public.  Yes, my good friends know about that time, and they know that I'm not the same person, but people who don't know me are going to think "What a bitch!"

Hopefully we've written the story in a way that shows how broken I was and how I eventually redeemed myself.  Hopefully.

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Speaking of movie making, we have a full week of that stuff!  The night after the table read, I'm attending a dinner for women in film.  I'm going alone.  Without Todd.  By myself!  I KNOW!

Lisa, mentioned above, is hosting this dinner, so I emailed her and said "Tell me I'm going to know some people there!"  She assures me I will and she's very excited that I'm coming.  Makes me feel loved.

Might need to have Jamie do my hair.  I need to look extra spiffy.

And then the night after that, we have a movie premiere, where Lisa will again be in attendance, as well as most of the women who will be at the dinner AND at the reading.

I believe the word you're looking for is "saturated".

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So, work, movies, social events, TV shows...what else is going on?

Health is okay.  I'm going to start kickboxing class with Trish next week.  The instructor assures me she will not have us sparring again.  And Trish will be with me so I should be okay.

I am uncomfortably overweight now (but I'm happy, dammit!) so I'm a bit more motivated to try and slim down.  I've had chocolate once in the past week.  And I don't drink coffee during the week now.  I drink green tea at work.  Coffee is now a special treat on the weekend (I put lots of sugar in it).  I'm walking a bit more because I'm taking the bus every day.  It's the little things.  I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can quit eating processed foods and carbs and crap.  Baby steps to being better.

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However, all of that is out the window today.  Super Bowl Sunday!  We're going over to some friends' where there will be lots of other good friends and food and alcohol, so I give myself a pass today.  I'm gonna have fun.  Enjoy the day!

I'll be better tomorrow.

Free At Last, Free At Last...

So, most of you have seen my Facebook status - my job has been eliminated.  Believe it or not, I'm happy about this.

Backstory, now that I can speak freely about it.

You remember that my review back in October was, ahem, less than positive.  Things never really rebounded after that.  My office manager and I had a follow up meeting in November, and he expressed his "concern" because the boys weren't coming around.  Still weren't happy with me.

I actually went into Super Boss' office and asked him - "What's up?  How am I doing?  Still like me?"  He laughed and said, "Yeah, I still like you, but..."

Uh.  But?

"But I just don't think this is the right environment for you."

Ah.  Because I'm not a 23 year old blond with a 20 inch waist?  Honey, you knew that when you met me.

It could also be that I'm respectful (even to people I don't like), I don't act like I'm in high school and I think that answering the phone using the phrase "Hey, you retard!  What the f**k, bro?"

Yes.  I don't believe this environment is for me.

Regardless, that's not the reason my position has been eliminated.

I had an inkling back in November.  Super Boss didn't really give me much work to do.  Hell, he didn't really talk to me unless he had to.  But he was very concerned about his commissions.  What was outstanding?  What do we need to bill for?  "Why is this so hard for you to grasp?" (direct quote)  He had private meetings on his Outlook calendar (but apparently forgot that I can just go into his office and look at his calendar because he never, ever logged out or shut down his computer).  He wouldn't give me a gift list for Christmas.  He was suddenly closing his door frequently.

December came, and with it came the holiday party.  As I said, aside from Todd and the receptionist, no one really talked to me.  Including Super Boss.  I met his wife briefly - she actually gave me a big hug and said thank you for taking care of her husband.  I responded with, "I'm trying."

But then, after months of talking to this woman daily, she started calling Super Boss' cell phone.  Never called his office line.  Huh.

Then Christmas vacation came.  Friday, December 23rd.  We had a pizza-and-wine lunch at the office, everyone was jolly, and I gave out little $5 gifts to my people.  And at 1pm, we all left for the holiday.

And Super Boss didn't say "Merry Christmas" or "Have a good weekend!" or "Kiss my ass, ya bitch!"  He actually left while I was in the bathroom.  The receptionist told me.

And, oh, a gift?  A card?  Nope.  Nada.

That was clincher.  I was done.

Oh!  But not so quickly!  Our Branch Manager quit when we returned from the holiday.  Jumping ship, they called it.  One day notice.  And he went to another firm.  In the same building.  Unbelievable.

I was surprised, but my office manager wasn't.  He said it's what they do.  Once these brokers make up their mind to leave, they don't really give "notice".  And you really don't want them to - just get out.

Well, rumors started flying.  Who else was leaving?

Super Boss, apparently.  And he was taking a baby broker with him (you remember Chester and Spike from Looney Tunes?   Super Boss is Spike and baby broker is Chester.  Totally.)

Anywho, Super Boss was jumping ship.  Therefore, big salary position was eliminated.  That position was specifically for Super Boss.  But if Super Boss ain't there, they don't need me.  Know what that means?

SEVERANCE PACKAGE!  WOOHOO!

Oh but wait.  What this NEW rumor going around?

Super Boss is taking the 23 year old with him.  The only other admin assistant in the office.

Freakin' crap.

So, they can't get rid of me.  They'll have no one at all.   But if I take the 23 year old's position, it's a severe pay cut.  She's an Administrative Assistant.  I'm a Senior Administrative Assistant.  That's a few thousand dollars a year difference.  What to do, what to do?

I'm resigning my position next Friday.  My last day will be February 14.  And that's only because I took the 15th, 16th and 17th off - my fantabulous sister-in-law is whisking away to me Palm Springs for five days.  Gawd bless her.


Now to hit the pavement!
Again.
Crap.

Filming and Ice McGeddon

First of all, I’m having a hard time balancing Facebook and this blog.  FB is instantaneous so I tend to not rehash stuff on the blog.  But that means I don’t blog very much.  Hmm.  What to do?

Anywho, lemme update you on our oh-so-exciting life out here in the Arctic.

Saturday was the first day of The Collectibles shoot.  We were up bright and early at 5:30am (shoot me)  and on set in Bothell at 7am.  As always, once we’re there we have a great time.  It’s just the getting there that sucks.

We actually got some coverage in our neighborhood paper, The West Seattle Herald.

That pic of me is even more incentive to lose weight.

We were home by about 7:30pm that evening, and had a lovely evening of vegging out.

Sunday, up again at 5:30am, on set at 7am.  However, this was quite the exciting day.  The snow had started to fall overnight, and while West Seattle didn’t get very much, boy howdy, Bothell did!  So much so that one cast member couldn’t make it, and we had to send people down the hill to get a couple of others. 

We cancelled the catering we had scheduled that day so we could just plow through and wrap up.  This was our last day shooting at this particular location, which meant we also had to pack out – load up all of our gear, clean up, and put all of the offices back the way they were.  That takes a good two hours.

So home at 9pm.  And soaking feet until 10pm.  Then bed.

Monday was much easier.  And much snowier.  We had a call time of 11am, to give everyone the chance to assess the situation.  We didn’t have a problem getting to set, and I don’t think anyone else did either. 

We shot at my friend Michael’s house, that has the bar, the same place we shot the On and On video last year.  We’ve decided that The Mop and Bucket is the official superhero bar.  Todd and I, along with Dan, Landon and Michael’s girlfriend Chris, were all extras in the bar scenes.  You can spot me by my long, black wig.  I believe this will give me another credit on IMDB.  Hee hee.

If I knew how to make an arrow, I would have pointed me out for you.

I need to get a picture up on my profile.

We wrapped the shoot around 5pm, and thus began the Wrap Party.  We plan the shoots this way – wrap at the bar.  Instant wrap party.

But the weather threatening to turn at any moment, the wrap party wrapped up around 9pm and we headed home to our snowy cottage.

And because I’m not new, I took Tuesday off.  I’ve done these shoots before. I am no good the day afterward.  Luckily, the snow really hit Tuesday afternoon and come Wednesday morning, there was no way in hell I was leaving the house.

Same goes for Thursday.

The forecast said everything should have started melting around 1pm on Thursday, but instead, we got freezing rain all morning, which put a half an inch of ice over everything, then it started snowing around 2pm.

It did actually warm up overnight (a whopping 33 degrees when I woke up this morning) so the ice started to melt, which made the roads much better to drive on, which gave me no excuse to stay home.   I did however, take the bus in.

So, a one day work week isn’t so bad, right?  I was quite lazy (loaded word) on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I beat myself up enough Wednesday night that when I woke up Thursday, I was ready to organize!  And organize I did!  And of course, I didn’t take pictures.  Because I suck.

Our office is now a clean, serene place to work on the computer, rather than a catch all for everything that doesn’t have a place.  I am very proud.

And while I cleaned the office, Todd began the arduous task of putting all 600 and something DVDs into three ring binders.  We now have a crap load of DVD cases that we can either give a way or donate, thus freeing up the two bookshelves in the living room for actual books.  Much cleaner, less clutter, ahhhh.

We still need more binders, though.

So all in all a very productive, then lazy (loaded word) then productive week.  And only one day of work.

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Speaking of, there are changes afoot (aren’t there always?)  Of course, I’m not at liberty to discuss those changes yet (any day now!!!) but suffice it to say, my position is more than likely being eliminated.

Fantastic.

I’m not worried.  Really.  I got feelers out.  I think the Universe will take of me.  She knows what I need, and this position for Super Boss is not it.  So this is a good change.  Really.

More to come soon.  I hope.

2012 - Week One

So far, I’m not real impressed with 2010. 

It started off pretty well – hanging with Dan and Trish and Gamy.  Always fun.  I made top hats* so we were festive.  I didn’t drink too much, so I didn’t get a talkin’ to the next day (although, I’d had just enough to where I was uber mushy and cried to Todd for two hours about how much I loved him.  He didn’t seem to mind so much).

But then Sunday, I was a little down.  We didn’t get to bed until around 1:30am, so maybe I was just tired.

But then Monday, I was even farther down.  And then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, in a pit.  Not wanting to get out of bed.  Not wanting to be social.  Not even wanting to clean.  Just…blah and clingy.  I’ve started tracking these days on our Google calendar.  They seem to be coming a little more frequently and that concerns me.

I’ll talk to my therapist about that.

We had a lovely, relaxing weekend of doing pretty much nothing.  Well, except for the production meeting at 9:30 Saturday morning.  That put a damper on my sleeping.  But it was a reason to have brunch and visit with Trish and little Rosiland, so time well spent.  Then Steve came over that afternoon for a visit and stayed for a few hours but he’s low key.  I don’t have to host him.

And then that evening we joined our friend Darlene over at another friend’s house, (and my twin sister, I believe) Lisa.  Todd has known Darlene for a very long time but he just met Lisa this past year.  She’s an actor, writer, director, producer, all around movie gal.  Just like Darlene.   So we gathered to have a screening of some latest projects.

We meant to just stay for a couple of hours, but ended up getting home at 1:30am.  It’s just so easy to get caught up in movie talk.  And I learn so much.

Needless to say, Sunday was a wash.  It’s actually very pathetic – if I’m up past 11pm or midnight, I am worthless the next day.  Remember when I was a 20 something who could party all night and get up and do again the next day?

No?

You’re right.  I wasn’t blogging then.  Hell, there were no blogs then.  But trust me, I was a party animal.  Sometimes  I miss it, most times I don’t.

Where was I?

Oh yes.  Sunday.  Lazy (loaded word).  Since we’ve finished the second draft of the "Green Light"** script, we decided we needed to do some “research”.  Which really meant watching movies all afternoon.  Which was fine by me.  Todd was a trooper and went to the grocery store that evening, and I cleaned the kitchen while he was gone, but that’s about the extent of our productivity.

Because NEXT weekend is The Collectibles shoot.  With a 7am call time on Saturday and Sunday.  So I thought I better save up my energy.  I love these shoots when I’m actually there and laughing my ass off, but getting up at 6am just makes me mad.  “I am not a morning person” is an understatement.

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*We had our mini tops hats for New Year’s Eve!!

Granted, I ended up spending maybe $30 less than I would have if I had just bought the damn $10 pre-made hats, but hey,  I got my crafty on.  And Kayleigh helped me decorate some, so we did some typical mother/daughter crafty stuff. 

Now I’m done for a while.

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** Todd has mentioned the "Green Light" script in his blog, although he's not writing there too much anymore (because of said script, and the web series, and the movie pitch, and the comic strip, and taking out the cat poop) so you may have missed it.

For those of you who are lost, Todd and I started talking a couple of years ago about writing a screenplay that followed him through his horrible year and me through my horrible year and at the end of the screenplay we would finally meet - when I show up at his door to audition.  BAM!  Meant to be.  

Kind of like Sleepless in Seattle, which is one of the movies we watched last night for research.  The two characters go on their own journey for the majority of the movie, and don't really meet until the last scene.  

Todd and I went through our own journey and look where it brought us.