Got to leave work today after only an hour and a half – AND THEN when I got home, I got to call the Poison Control Center.
Yes.
So, I have this recurring fungal infection under my wedding band. It’ll go away for a while, then come back. Usually it’s just a minor annoyance, sometimes it gets really bad: itchy, scaly, oozy, and I have to run back out to the doctor for the prescription-strength stuff. The problem is, it’s basically on my hand, near the palm-side. The skin on your palm is incredibly thick, and this is usually a good thing, because we pick things up with our hands, and we need the extra protection (say, against burns or scrapes or whatever else). The downside is, once you get a fungal infection on your palm, it is incredibly difficult to treat. And by “treat” I really mean “get it to go away for good.” Because you have all these layers of skin, and the first couple or so are tougher (to protect your hand, right), so the antifungal will kill the fungus on the first couple layers, but that sneaky damn fungus will just hide out in some deeper layers and then crop back up when the circumstances are conducive (like, you stopped using the antifungal, and you got your fucking finger wet). So, basically, I have a recurring fungal infection. Fun stuff, good times. I usually just deal with it because the only way to keep it from coming back ever would be to not wear my wedding ring, and even that wouldn’t totally guarantee no more fungus, so fuck that.
Anyway, new breakout yesterday, pretty itchy from the get-go, and I use some of this new maximum strength shit Greg picked up for some athlete’s foot not too long ago. (Side note: I used to get athlete’s foot ALL THE DAMN TIME when I was younger. It was like athlete’s foot and strep throat once a month. Seriously. Once. A. Month. Not kidding. I wish I was. Thank god that shit’s over and in the past.) I put some on my finger last night, and the itching stopped – sweet relief! I also washed my hands twice – skimping a little around the base of my ring finger (don’t want to wash off the antifungal *there*), but focusing extra on my finger tips (don’t want to ingest this nasty shit, or rub it in my eyes or anything).
Somehow, I must have ingested a tiny amount anyway, in spite of all my caution, because I got this FUCKING FOUL taste in my mouth this morning, that just kept getting stronger and stronger and worse and worse. Coupled with nausea and diarrhea. It got bad enough that I worried if it was any worse I wouldn’t be able to drive myself home, so I left work.
Got home, and called the Poison Control Center. They fucking rule. I will most likely be donating to WCPE and the PCC this year, because holy shit, the PCC rules: they’re free, and they’re incredibly knowledgeable, and if you are badly poisoned, they will call an ambulance FOR YOU and tell the EMTs what to prepare for, and basically hook your ass up. And most of the calls they get, they can resolve/treat over the phone, which saves you the cost of a doctor’s or ER visit. The woman I talked to was extremely helpful, managed to figure out exactly what I was talking about ingesting even though I wasn’t sure of the pronunciation (undecylenate/undecylenic acid), and totally didn’t make me feel like an ass, which is a wonderful bonus, as far as I’m concerned. The good news is, I ingested what they call “a lick or a taste,” a negligible amount, and it tastes fucking NARST, and might make my face feel a little numb, but I’m okay. Just rinse my mouth out with water, drink 8oz. more water to dilute the taste, good to go. With larger doses, there’s a risk of nausea, upset stomach, or diarrhea (and my digestive system is such a fucking pansy that I got those symptoms with this negligible amount, but whatever, at least I’m not poisoned!), but the toxicity of undecylenate is pretty damn low, so I’d have to eat a ridiculous amount of it before I needed medical aid.
Now I just get to wait until I finish feeling shitty, but that’s alright, because I’m not poisoned! And the narsty taste is still there, but the swishing and diluting did help quite a bit, so it’s tolerable. Before I wanted to vomit. Let me repeat that if it didn’t impress you enough: I WANTED to VOMIT. I would usually rather do just about anything (short of dying) than vomit, but earlier today I wanted to vomit, just to get the taste out of my mouth. The inside of my mouth, and my tongue, wanted to crawl out of my fucking face to get away from that damned foul taste. Now it’s tolerable. Bless you, bless you, Poison Control Center. Their number is 1-800-222-1222, in case you want to keep it handy, just in case. They are awesome.
Had to leave work early today, due to headache, nausea, dizziness, general malaise and feeling-really-gross-and-vomitous-ness. On the way home, at one point I was behind a truck with a bumper sticker I hadn’t seen before, and was gobsmacked by: “Impeach Obama.”
Really? What are we going to impeach him for? Presidenting while black? Fuck off and die, you racist asshole. Or maybe we’re going to impeach him for not only being better than Arbusto, which isn’t saying much at all, but for actually being pretty fucking great, period – which then makes Arbusto look even more like the piece of shit he was. Or maybe we’re going to impeach him for releasing those torture documents that Arbusto would rather have had destroyed? Here’s the thing: any memo, any report, any piece of paper, even emails, any DOCUMENT, that is produced by a public office in the course of its work – that’s all a matter of public record, according to law. (I know this because I took a class and some workshops on archiving, and records management and retention/disposition. I could dig up the pertinent link to prove this to you, but I’m really trying to bitch real fast and then crawl my miserable ass into bed, so I’m not going to right this minute. Sorry. Also, if you ever heard shit like, “The CIA has a training pamphlet for assassins and you can get it if you just request it by the correct record number from this specific agency” – um, I don’t know about the assassin pamphlet specifically, but the rest is definitely true: you can actually request copies of all public records, or request to see/have access to, and as long as you request it properly – like, the right record number to the right office of record who retains it – they have to produce it.) That’s why we have presidential libraries/archives – to store all those records (which, in this instance, really refers to what most people would consider “documents”). And they’re public record – as in “on the record” and “available to the public.” So, getting your knickers in a twist because the documents were released and not shredded or conveniently “lost” somewhere so the public could never find out how fucking atrocious, heinous, inhumane, and ultimately INHUMAN your candidate really was? You’re not just being a whiny dick, you’re a whiny dick whining about not being able to do illegal shit. Shut the fuck up already and stop making me ILL. No thank you for making my headache worse, and adding “revulsion” and “just-plain-ill-ness at people in general for still being so shitty and hateful” to the malaise mix.
Yeah, so anyone with an “Impeach Obama” bumper stick, can eat shit and die, in my book.
Then I get home and have a more minor irritation, but I’m blogging it nonetheless because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a “mistake” but a specific someone trying to get back at an uppity bitch who doesn’t know her place (that would be me). I happened to remember, when I got home, that I needed to update my credit card info with ADT, since they auto-charge. (No thanks to whoever hacked Visa, and forced me to be given a new card, and then have to remember who to call to update my info with so I don’t get late fees. Booo to you hackers.)
The shorter version is, way back when we were getting ADT set up, everyone I talked to at the corporate office were wonderful and pleasant and a joy to work with. This one dude out of a more local office – and the only reason he called me in the first place is he was trying to claimjump our actual rep’s commission – anyway, this one dude out of the local office (closer to us, I guess, but I’m not sure exactly where they’re located) was a pushy, rude motherfucker who kept trying to bully me into getting a cell phone backup when I made it perfectly clear we did not want one, and he generally took that whole “do what I tell you, little lady, because you are too dumb to think for yourself” tone, which is sooooo not the tone to take with me. And I kept trying to be polite, and trying to get him to acknowledge my boundaries*, and finally he trots out some bullshit, smarmy-ass crap about how I should really just listen to him and do what he says, because 1-he’s my local agent, so I’ll be answering to him anyway “if anything were to happen”, and 2-he can provide better customer service than corporate could. About the first reason – *we’re* paying ADT for this service, so if anyone is going to be “answering” to anyone else, it’s ADT who’s going to be “answering to” us. Maybe he meant “work with” instead of “answer to,” but the choice of that phrase is a macho move to try and throw power around, and felt almost threatening, like, “If you don’t do what I want you to, when you get broken into, I’ll make sure sweet time is wasted before calling the police for you,” and fuck you very much. I did respond verbally, to him, about his second reason, by pointing out that, actually, corporate had been nothing but pleasant and helpful, while he, on the other hand, was not listening to me, was incredibly rude and pushy, and wouldn’t quit badgering me about the stupid cell phone backup that we adamantly didn’t want. At which point he said, “Well, you’re coming on pretty strong now.” and hung up on me. Yeah, hung up on me. I guess that’s another example of how his customer service is better than corporate’s. Anyway, I promptly called corporate to tell them that I wasn’t at all pleased with this bullshit, and that if he really *was* our local agent, I wanted to request a new one. Turns out, he’s not *our* agent, he was just trying to claimjump. So fuck him. I think he might have gotten in a little bit of trouble about it, and I think rightly so – it’s what he deserves for being such a pushy, rude dick to his clients, and also for trying to claimjump. (There’s probably another word I could use to keep from repeating “claimjump,” but it’s eluding me right now.) Anyway, so a couple weeks ago, “somehow,” at the local office, a cell phone backup got tacked onto our account, as if it had been installed. Luckily the credit card that got pinged for the accompanying charge had been deactivated by then and replaced, so the charge didn’t go through.
When I called corporate today to update my credit card info, they were like, “Oh, by the way, the charge for your cell phone backup was rejected and is still outstanding.” And that’s when I was like, “We don’t have a cell phone backup, please get me to whoever I need to speak to about clearing it up.” Which, after several transfers (because, honestly, I feel shitty and wasn’t explaining the problem very clearly – it had nothing to do with ADT’s people), ended up being a VERY NICE and helpful woman at our local office. (So, nice and helpful customer service can be had with them, just not from that one dude, whose name I don’t remember anyway, not that I would blast him on the internet if I did, because I’m fucking classy.) And she cleared it up for me, and apologized profusely. “I just can’t understand how this got added to your account in our office, when it’s clear in your file that you don’t have a cell phone backup.” Oh, I have a suspicion. But, since she took care of it, and the charge didn’t actually go through, I’m just going to chalk that suspicion up to…I don’t know, paranoia? NO – hysteria. Because that’s what all snotty bitches who come on too strong have, right? Anyway, I’m not going to worry about it. But if we ever get another spurious charge that somehow magically got tacked on our account by the local office, then I *will* call corporate up and have a little chat with them about that one particular dickbag and get them to look into it and make it stop.
Now I’m going to go take some ibuprofen and some anti-nausea, and “make out with my pillow.” (If you don’t get that, you should start watching The Unusuals.)
*My therapist says this is part of my mistake – that when people ignore the boundaries I’m setting, I shouldn’t try to gently point out the boundaries again and give them another chance to respect my boundaries. Instead, I should just be like, “I’ve been perfectly clear about what I want, so there’s really nothing more to discuss at this time, so I’m going to hang up now.” I think she’s kind of right – it *will* mean I’m being less passive and more assertive, but I think dicks like this guy are still going to interpret it as me being a bitch. Not that I really care what they think, they’re dicks.
Dear DirecTV customer service reps,
When I tell you that I’m trying to check on the status of a rebate, but that your rebate website is down and your rebate call center is unresponsive, it is NOT AT ALL HELPFUL to explain to me slowly, like I’m a total dumbass and can’t understand multisyllabic words, that I need to check the rebate website or call the rebate call center. Yeah – the ones that I JUST TOLD YOU aren’t working, but are in fact crashing my computer and hanging up on me, respectively, and have been doing so for a week.
Eat a dick.
Love,
Kathy
My sister, Susan, just sent me this exciting article about finding Cleopatra’s tomb.
I took a whole class on her in college, and loved it, and she was really a badass. Alot of her own propaganda most likely was destroyed when the library at Alexandria burnt down, so we spent much of the course reading Octavian and Josephus – and they fucking hated her, and had agendas of their own, so we got to see some of that, and read between the lines to try and get closer to the truth, and…it was just neat. Cleopatra is awesome, basically. So I’m terribly excited about the possibility of finding her tomb, and avidly looking forward to Schiff’s book on Cleopatra.
Please go read this Pandagon post on the stupid teabagging shit, and then scroll down and pay special attention to the first comment by denelian. All the comments are interesting, but for me, denelian’s really resonated STRONGLY, especially the last two sentences:
“it makes me want to cry.
its so goddamned STUPID and IGNORANT.”
Bwahahah:
Wait 'Til They Do “The Thong Song” in Middle English
Girls, singing: My milkshake bringeth the lads in the square, prithee, 'tis better than yours, 'tis better than yours, I could teach thee, but I'd levy a fee.
4 Bus
Victoria
Canadia
Overheard by: Fair maiden Juliet
via Overheard Everywhere, Apr 17, 2009
2k9SC: 2.09 miles
Today was kind of a long, rough day. But I got my ass on the gazelle, and now I’m watching Kathy Griffin’s latest special. And I think I’m about to hit that delicious Tomasello cherry wine in the fridge.
2009 Self Challenge cardio distance (2k9SC): 0.94miles
So I signed up for Self’s 2009 Challenge today. I don’t give two shits really about losing weight, so I’m probably not going to be following their meal plan. I mean, I know I should try to eat more fruits and vegetables and stuff like that, but I’m not into dieting for weight loss’s sake. I’m more into working on eating more healthily (but not obsessing over it or making it into a punitive/restrictive kind of thing), and I definitely signed up basically to kick myself in the ass and be more active on a daily basis, but I also need to work on self-acceptance, so I’m going to focus on keeping track of how much more weight I can lift, or how many more reps I can do, or how much more distance I can cover; how much stronger and fitter I’m getting, not how much weight I can lose. Fuck that noise. Anyway, today I did their week 1 strength workout and 15 minutes busting ass on the gazelle (0.94 miles).
I also had to leave work early today, because I felt so fucking awful all of a sudden around 3. So it’s a huge improvement that I feel good enough around 7ish to exercise; especially that the dizziness and nausea are gone (if they weren’t, I wouldn’t have been doing shit other than falling over, boo). It could be a couple different things, what’s been making me feel shittier than normal lately, but I’m trying to drink lots of water and get plenty of rest, and otherwise not worry about it too much. Two possible (but I don’t think very likely; I *hope* not very likely) candidates are an ear infection or a kidney infection – I’ve had intermittent pain and itching in my ears lately, and yesterday my lower back was killing me for about an hour and I would’ve sworn it was my kidneys except then it went away as quickly as it came on. I think the most likely candidate is my new birth control, since I took it for one month and felt kind of crappy while I adjusted to it, then forgot and refilled the Aviane and took that for the last month, and am now back on the low-ogestrol, and possibly readjusting. I was reading up on period aches and pains and PMS the other day, and apparently differing hormone levels are responsible for most of that shit – so I guess it’s possible switching back and forth between birth control pills (with different levels of hormone) is what’s making me feel like ass lately. But if I still feel really, really shitty next week, I’m going to go to the doctor to make sure it’s not bacterial or something. Anyway. Wanh wanh wanh.
Fringe was pretty sweet last night, and I’m looking forward to Lost and The Unusuals tonight. And Greg spoiled me pretty rotten over the weekend, including getting me a GameCube that hopefully will work with Harvest Moon, so I’ve been playing that the past couple days. (Our first GameCube, bought used off ebay, would run HM through the first year, and then freeze when the second year should have started. I’m hoping this new GameCube won’t do that, but we’ve got a 30 day window to return it if it doesn’t work, so I’m trying to rush through to the second year and find out.)
