A sad event and a question

I know, I know. I should be standing in the corner for not making use of my "retirement" and post more. But somehow this has become a busier lifestyle than having a full-time job.

I promise to write sometime this week. Maybe even tomorrow. But once I start writing, it'll very likely be several posts in one day. So be prepared to read different things at one time. Or maybe I'll just save as draft and post later so as not to bore everyone.

In the meantime, I need some advice from everyone as I am not familiar with American customs. We moved to a single family home in a wonderful neighbourhood six months ago. This weekend, our next door neighbour passed away. We knew she was very ill and dying, but the only help we extended was shovel the snow from her driveway one time. I feel really bad about not trying to reach out. I have no excuses for it. I know her daughter and her family are cleaning up her house now (I see the trash bags piling up) for the past two days. Do I go over with flowers? A card? Do I leave a card in the mailbox? Do I ignore? I want to extend an offer to help with anything that I can, since I'm right next door and obviously much closer than where her daughter lives. I can't offer any physical help, nor can I cook, so should I just not offer help at all? What's the best way to acknowledge that I'm sorry about their loss?

Harry Potter - NO Spoilers enclosed

I finally finished reading the book this afternoon.

I will not post anything about it on my blog without a really good warning and a very well hidden post.

If you're done reading the book, do not mention anything about the contents in your comment, out of respect for my readers who have not finished reading it yet and will not admit it in public.

I really wanted to put a different image at the top, but some of my readers open my blog at work, so be forewarned this may not be work type material. I have a secret crush on Harry Potter. I know I'm old enough to be his mother, but still... I mean, com'n, look at him.

Unemployment

You'd think I'd have all the time in the world with this unemployment deal. Apparently, I have all the time in the world to spend it sleeping, reading Harry Potter, going to lunch meetings, dinner meetings and occassionally check email.

Who has time to blog?!

But meanwhile, I'm collecting a ton of topics to write about. I've got enough to carry me through August.

Not done with Harry Potter yet. I like reading slow, enjoying every written word, going back ten pages for every 5 pages I read, relishing the fact that the series is not done as far as I'm concerned.

Everyone else emailing me asking me if I'm done so they can talk about it - can wait! They shouldn't have finished it so fast.

So there.

Time to go to sleep now.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!

The title of this post is because one of my readers happens to have grabbed my attention with the perfect title for today - MY LAST DAY AT WORK!!!

After 8 years and 8 months, I am done working with this company. Today was my last day. And what a hectic week it's been. I've had farewell parties every single day this week. I'm wiped out.

And what perfect timing to quit my job, just so I can stand in line at midnight and get my two pre-ordered pre-paid copies of Harry Potter, so I can enjoy my unemployment days reading it.

I need to go find my Hairy Potter shirt that I bought at Yellowstone Park three years ago. I wore the shirt last year when the book came out. Can't spoil tradition. I'm going to miss standing in line with "adopted" kids, but maybe we'll find some kids who are need of understanding parents tonight?

In a new twist of events with my quitting a job without anything lined up, I got a call last night in the middle of my farewell party letting me know that my possibly-new-client is expecting me on Monday morning for an interview. Now I'm all anxious and worried about the reason for it. And of course the problem is that the paperwork is still not processed, so I can't start working 'til I get anything official.

I'll write more later this weekend, if I find time when resting from reading Harry Potter #7.

Oh, and one request from those of you who like to spoil it for others, PLEASE don't. I don't want to know who dies. I want to read the book. I also promise not to write a word about the book once I start reading. Nothing.

Hubby's Doctor's appointment

I was busy yesterday afternoon at a company function when my husband called to give me the update on his appointment. So he left me a message:

"I've been sticked and prodded, and got the Tetanus shot, my shoulder hurts, I don't have a sleep disorder. Also the doctor determined that I don't have ADD and that I'm just an asshole."

Doctor's note

I've had it with my husband and decided to schedule him for a doctor's appointment. There's just so much complaining and issues a wife can tolerate, right?

Some of you may wonder what took me so long, after all we've been married 14 years. Well, it's not that, it's just that if I trust my husband to go to a doctor I expect him to be an adult about it and admit he's broke (physically that is, not financially). Instead he's visited a doctor just to come back home and complain some more.

Well this time I got smarter. I saw the doctor last week and warned him ahead of time - "I'll be sending my husband next week with a doctor's note. That is, my husband will have a note for you from his wife with all her complaints." The doctor chuckled to that, but I plan to surprise him tomorrow.

This is the letter my husband is carrying inside a closed envelope to deliver to the doctor tomorrow (and I'm dead serious. This is the exact content of the letter):

• · Multiple allergies during every springtime (specific allergies identified May 2007).
  Medication: Alegra D started May 2007.
  · Lower back problems. Treated by chiropractor once a month.
  · Occassional upper back spasms
  · Occassional headaches
  · Joint pains: knees, hands.
  · Last blood tests done: August 2005 (elevated cholesterol levels with no fasting)
  · Surgery: August 2005. Last follow up: June 2006.
  · Highly irritable when hungry (e.g. morning before breakfast, or late afternoon if the only meal was breakfast).
  · Easily distracted (symptoms of ADD) – only wife is complaining, everyone else thinks it’s okay when husband interrupts mid-conversation to mention an entirely different topic.
  · Unusually tired during the daytime.
  · Trouble staying asleep. Constantly wakes up at night due to back pains and other complaints (possibly his wife kicking him at night in her sleep, or maybe it's the dog).
  
  Overall: nice husband, but needs repair and upgrade.

Dreams Are My Reality

This was one of my favourite slow songs of the 80's. I'd absolutely melt if any boy invited me to dance to this song. I think I melted several times, which only increased the value of the song in my memory.

All my life I've had weird dreams that once shared with a friend became the main reason my friends thought me weird and funny. My best friend to this day still laughs at one of the dreams I told her about when I was 16. My dreams don't make sense. They're not initiated by any traumatic event nor anything realistic. One of those dreams that has my friend laughing to this day was about a fellow classmate, small in stature, who neither of us had any affection for or any type of feeling, so there was really absolutely no reason to dream about him. Yet, there he was in my dream, as I was waiting for the bus at the top of Mt. Carmel, and there he was riding the back of an outhouse on the river behind the bus station (I swear there are no rivers on top of Mt. Carmel! Nor outhouses if you're really curious).

I figured the dreams would become more realistic once I got married. After all, there's no more fantasizing about finding the perfect boyfriend.

Turns out my dreams became even more real than I imagined. About a year after I got married, when we lived in Annapolis, Maryland (a city by any means and not the countryside). I found myself waking up from a dream, and picking up the phone to call the police. About two seconds into dialing 91... I was trying to think what to tell the police officer when they answer my call. So I ran my speech through my head and it took a few seconds before I realised I just dialed the police to tell them that there's a bear riding my husband's pick-up truck across the street and he's running over the school kids because this bear hasn't mastered how to drive a pick-up truck. At this point I was slightly confused as to what I should complain about - the fact that a bear stole my husband's pick up truck, or the fact that someone was driving without a license and running over the school kids. I believe I hung up the phone fairly quick when I realised my husband has left for work already, so obviously he's got his truck with him and I wouldn't have an alibi to the police officer.

Needless to say my husband won't let me live this dream down. Since then every time I wake up mid-dream and want to share it with him, he has this smirk on his face and exclaims, "what did I do NOW?"

It was three weeks ago when I helped a friend pack and leave the country (how dare he?!), and I was seriously sleep deprived when I gave him a ride to the airport at 4am. I got back home and decided I could still sleep for an hour and a half before going to work. Later that afternoon I recounted to my husband the dream I had in that hour and a half of priceless rest.

Mybrid: "I was downtown by the Metro station, and I entered this building there, and inside was a group of young black people, and one of them seemed to know me so he shouted my name across the room. I came over and he asked how I was doing and whether I have a job for him. I had no clue who he was. He gave me a business card and I saw the name was William Smith, but I don't know a William Smith and never worked with one. He then excused himself and went to the changing room. Then the group of people were laughing at their boss who was apparently dancing across a hallway behind the glass door, and chasing a female employee back and forth down that hallway. A few minutes later, the black guy returned to the room with only a towel around his waist, and four snails on top of his bald head. So I told him, 'listen, I'm married and this doesn't impress me.'

Ybrid: "Waitaminute! What did you say he had on his head?"

Mybrid: "Snails. There were four. One pointing at each direction."

Ybrid: "OH! I see."

Mybrid: "Really? You understand my dream?"

Ybrid: "Yeah. It's the four snails of the apocalypse!"

Mybrid [with a blank stare]: "Huh?"

Ybrid [with a look of anticipation on his face]: "Ok, you gotta admit it, it's damn funny!"

Mybrid [still with a blank stare]: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ybrid: "The four snails of the apocalypse! Have you never heard of the apocalypse and the horsemen?"

Mybrid: "I read about them in Terry Pratchet's book, and I know there's horsemen in Lord of The Rings."

Ybrid: "No! There's the one for Death, Famine, Pestilence and...I forget the fourth."

Mybrid: "I still don't get it."

Ybrid: "The snail of death! Don't you get it? Don't you just hate it when the snail of death comes crawling at you?"

Well, since that conversation my husband has recounted my dream to his family, friends and coworkers. I still don't understand it, because Jews don't have an apocalypse nor do they have horsemen related to an apocalypse. Heck, I don't even know what the word means!

But here's my husband's coworker's interpretation of my dream.

And I give to you my own husband's interpretation of my dream (which he drew on sticky notes during a management class to prepare him for the PMP exam):

Only in DC?

Can this really happen only in DC?

D.C. mugger turns out to be a hugger

Is that really all they need? A hug? Well then, maybe this country is going the wrong way when it forbids teachers and counselors to touch or hug a child. Maybe that's exactly what everyone needs to prevent them from becoming criminals?

Just a thought.

Friday the 13th

I've been sitting and waiting for that Jewish good luck of Friday the 13th, and nothing. I suppose the day isn't over yet so I shouldn't despair or convert too fast.

I sent out my global farewell email to everyone in my company. I really wanted to write this farewell email , but I chickened out and thanked my coworkers and friends, ending it with:

To quote the famous prime minister of my country: "I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively." - Golda Meir

Though I considered another quote:

There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones. Anwar Sadat

But I received advice from my boss who's also resigned to end it on a positive note. So I did.

I received over a dozen "good luck" within the first ten minutes after I clicked send. It's all worth it to resign from a company after nine years if only to find how many people really wished me well and cared enough to write a few words in response.

I need some sleep

For those of you following my blog, you've already read about my sleep study ordeal. Well I got the official diagnosis today.

I suffer from engaging in kickboxing while asleep. I suppose the doctor didn't buy the excuse that my dog keeps pushing me off the bed and that's why I learned self defense.

I'm relieved it's not related to snoring, or lack of oxygen, because the solutions to those is sleeping with a gas mask on. While I've done it before, I'm not thrilled about the prospect of being hooked to machines while I sleep. After all, why I did sign that DNR form with my will?

The official name to this syndrome is... Periodic (meaning, it happens every single night, like clockwork, but does not occur every single minute of the night) Leg (it could be the arms as well, but they only tested my legs) Movements (no, it's not a musical event) Syndrome (a collection of symptoms - such as falling asleep watching TV, falling asleep in the car, and falling asleep at work). PLMD in short. And no it is not the same as Restless Leg Syndrome. RLS happens when the person is awake and aware of the pain involved. PLMD occurs in my sleep and I'm completely unaware of it.

So unaware that I was quite surprised to find that I have 30 events per hour, which wakes me up six times an hour. Meaning, I never get a full hour of sleep. Ever.

Of course, I think this has all been resolved with the arrival of our new mattress on Sunday. This awesome mattress shapes itself around my body, totally preventing me from moving. It wraps itself around me, eating me alive, and spits me out in the morning in the same position I fell asleep in. No more issues of waking up at night. Well, at least not as far as I know.

Hubby on the other hand has been tossing and turning all night long (so he tells me, and so does dog testify). So now we're in a dilemma, is there a system where you can have half a bed made of the Sleep Number bed (the one we slept on for the past seven years) and half tempurpedic? And will this marriage last a change of mattress for the fourth time.

I wonder if we should seek a marriage counselor?

It's final

My accusations in my resignation letter have been confirmed this morning. The company indeed does not promote project management. My resignation was accepted via my supervisor who called to ask if I can make my last day sooner than I planned. The conversation he had with the boss totally baffled me because it referenced something I USED to do three years ago, and no longer do (developing databases), and somehow this was inserted into the conversation as if I were quitting because the company does not recognize this type of work as project management. I swear I made absolutely no mention of IT work, and somehow this was interpreted as my definition of project management.

I'm beginning to realise that no matter how long I would have stayed with the company I would have always been seen as a database developer rather than a project manager who just happens to know which tools to use in management and how to actually use them (MS Access, MS Project, MS Excel, Prolog, etc). Apparently, it's undesirable for a project manager to also have technical skills.

Sigh.

Yeah, whatever. Obviously the boss did not understand the entire point behind my resignation. And obviously he has reached the conclusion that within the company's screwed up priorities he cannot offer me the promotion I want. (Notice how I never even mentioned a raise? Because that wasn't the point behind my resignation!).

My last day is July 20th.

I shall remind everyone that I resigned without a job lined up.

But as a strong believer in "things happen for a reason" - a minute after I logged on the computer this morning, I received an email from my future employer that the RFQ I've been waiting for since April 1st, has come out, and the proposal is due tomorrow! This means, a decision about the winning company will be made shortly after (a week or so).

In this strange turn of events it means I may not get the vacation I planned - sitting at home in August and September.

I have to consider negotiating this into my new contract considering the circumstances.

Amazing how things happen all at once and never trickle.

Now I'm under tremendous amount of stress to transfer my work to someone else and remove every porn file off my work laptop before returning it. Don't want anyone jumping into conclusions. And boy am I glad that the former IT guy reading my blog is not going to tell the new IT guy to look for it. (HINT, HINT!)

I'm feeling relieved to be free of the company's bonds, knowing that this is definitely not the right company for me considering how they've dealt with me so far. But I'm also feeling frustrated and disappointed that they didn't get my point which I thought I was very clear about in my resignation letter (right, anonymous?).

I don't know when I'll write the next post, but I'm really hoping it'll be to break the news about my new job. But then again, my new job is with one of those agencies I cannot mention in a blog. So you may all have to figure it out on your own.

I quit! Or not.

Yesterday, after nine years employment with the same company, I submitted my resignation.

But I didn't resign.

And if you're confused, then join the club.

Here's the short version of it. I had plans to resign on July 13th (Friday the 13th), since my mom tells me it's a day of luck for the Jews. So yesterday morning I decided to finally write my letter of resignation. I wanted to be ready a week ahead.

Three weeks ago my company announced that my boss's boss's boss is retiring, and that my boss's boss will be replacing him. Two days later, my boss put in his resignation. Totally unrelated event. He had planned it, and it just happened that the retirement was announced two days before his scheduled resignation.

This rapid evolvement made me determined to resign by the time I finish my current project (end of this month). July 13th would have made for the perfect two-week notice.

But yesterday things started happening very quick. I got a call from my boss (who knows I'm quitting) that his boss and the retiring boss would like to know what I plan to do after finishing the project I'm on at this point. They had two projects they wanted to put me on, and they wanted to hear what I wanted to do.

I decided for the sake of not misleading them to resign right away. So I double-checked my resignation letter and requested my boss to confirm that indeed the hours on the contract were to be depleted by July 25th.

Within two minutes I got a call from my boss telling me, "No! There's a mistake on the spreadsheet. Your hours have been depleted as of today!" I hesitated for a second and said, "What are you saying? That I'm fired?" He then explained that because he's already told the client that I'm staying til July 25th, that the company will have to eat up the costs of my employment between now and July 25th. He sort of hid the fact that after he leaves the company I'll be left with explaining to his boss why I've billed the last two weeks against a non-billable account.

I packed up my stuff, printed the letter and drove to DC to submit my resignation.

Or so I thought.

Came into the top boss's office and explained why I'm resigning (I wasn't promoted like I asked). I'm not sure what I expected to hear, and maybe I didn't think this quite through. But I most definitely did not expect to hear the response I got: "I respect your opinion, but I disagree with you."

Ok, let me get this straight? I'm trying to quit and you're refusing to let me go?

We have projects for you. We need you. We want you to take your boss's place.

Ok, maybe you didn't understand. I'm quitting because of the past! Because I wasn't promoted when I should have been. I'm quitting because this company doesn't care about Project Management and the focus is only Construction.

I beg to differ. This office has a lot of project management.

But the promotions last year were company wide only for construction managers and none of the project managers were promoted (throwing out names of a few for proper factual impact).

Wait, you're talking company wide?

Boss, I'm quitting the COMPANY! Not this office, not you, not the project. THE COMPANY.

Ok, let me hold on to your letter this weekend, and we'll talk again next week.

HUH?

Have a great weekend!


Ok, what just happened? Did I resign or not? WTF!

Fireworks but no earthquake

Fourth of July turned out to be better than I had planned. For the past 14 years in the US I've always had an interesting 4th of July, watching the fireworks. This year was my first time in a different state and closer to the Nation's Capital. A sweet chance to go to the National Mall. But I caught a darn cold that kept me away, so I was resigned to sitting at home and watching it on TV with my husband and mother-in-law, brother-in-law and grandfather-in-law.

Watched the entire evening broadcast on TV from the National Mall, just a mere Metro ride away from where I live. And when it all ended, I stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, when I realised, there's a fireworks show right across the street from where I live, and the street is packed with cars parked on both sides, and I'm occupying prime real estate for this show! This show went on for another 20 minutes past the one I just saw on TV. What a surprise and a bonus! At the end of it, I watched everyone pack their folding chairs from the sidewalk, and go back to their cars, and all I had to do was open the gate to the yard and step back in my house. I just couldn't believe my luck.

My dog wasn't as thrilled about the fireworks and for the first time ever actually behaved himself when I took him out for a walk, as he walked really tight and close to me with his tail tucked between his legs, afraid the big monster of fireworks will get him. Needless to say that the thunder storm above didn't help his confidence one bit. This was also the first time we let him outside, closed the door only to be shocked by seeing our dog literally climb and molest our door in his attempt to come back inside. Poor dog was terrified from the fireworks across the street (which of course I didn't know about until after I finished watching the National Fireworks).

This morning my husband's coworker, who also does real estate on the side, remembered to tell him, "Oh, and you know the park across your street has the best fireworks show in the county!" Geez, thanks for telling us a day AFTER. Some people should just learn when NOT to remember anything and just stay quiet for their own sake.

Happy 4th of July, fellow Americans!

This is my first 4th of July as an American Citizen! And to honor this day, I caught a nasty cold from a green card carrier who left the country last week. So I'll be spending it, at home, in bed.

As my friend would say Ma'alesh.

I was so looking forward to spending the fourth of July fireworks in a different location than Annapolis, MD. I wanted to be at the National Mall this year. Instead, I'll be in the national bed sleeping this cold away.

I love fireworks. Israel is too poor to have large displays of fireworks like they have here, which is of course the reason I became an American. Well that and the little American flag they gave me at the ceremony (if you enlarge the photo, you'll notice me holding it).