A Crazy Cat's Life

The end of the semester is a difficult time for students, but I forgot how bad it can be for us professors as well. I have been buried in tests and papers waiting to be graded for a couple of weeks now and it's only going to get worse. I'm giving tests next week and finals are two weeks after that. Plus I'm getting in another round of papers from both my classes next week as well. Remind me next time to not give so many tests and papers? At the very least I should give them all multiple choice questions so I just have to slip them into the ScanTron machine and voila! Instant grades. But no. I like to give students flexibility on tests and I'm a sucker for a good essay. Heck, I even give points for effort if the essay is 100% BS. That stress alone is bad enough. Here I am (along with the Hubby) buying a house. We found a really nice townhouse, went through the offer/counteroffer battle, and now have a signed contract going through "attorney review." ...

Wow. I can't believe I haven't posted in my blog since August. Even my cats have been more regular bloggers than me! LOL Why haven't I written? Simple. I'm too exhausted at the end of the day, but in a good way. Both of my jobs are going fantastically. At the library, I got promoted to Adult Services Librarian with a bunch more responsibilities and a hefty pay raise. Plus, I try to work at least 25 hours a week there now if I can. I really enjoy the job and I love the people I'm working with. I even have a boss who is the greatest one I've ever had. I'll put it to you this way. My car was hit the other week while it was at the dealership. I had been depressed and upset about the whole thing. My boss actually called me up the next day just to make sure I was doing ok. What kind of boss does that? Man I'm lucky. Then again, maybe the powers that be are giving me some karmatic respite after the horrible bitch boss I had at my last full-tim...

I was so happy that I got my nice little job at the library, that I was completely freaked out about the phone call I received the night of my last post. The head of the history department of one of the local community colleges wants me to teach a couple of classes this upcoming semester. I had applied to teach there last semester but I had received a "thanks, but no thanks" letter from them. So this phone call came completely out of the blue. At the time, I figured I would teach one class and work less hours at the library. There was no way I was going to give up my library gig since the people there are great and the hours are short. I wasn't going to give up an opportunity to teach either. I figured this would work out ok and not really screw up my disability 'cause adjuncts get paid %$@#. Hehe. Well, not at this college. I hope my jaw drop wasn't too obvious when the guy told me the rate of pay. It was double that of my last teaching gig. This is a big problem...

Well I did it. I managed to get a... gasp ...job. It's not a "real" job where I have to work 40 hours a week. Rather, it's a nice little part time job as a library assistant at a local library. I've been playing with the idea of going into a Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program for a few months so I figured I should find out if I would actually like working in a library before I invest all that money. It'll only be no more than 15 hours a week which should be tolerable for my depression. I start today so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will like this job. I don't know if you heard but Dell will be doing a big recall on their laptop batteries , in that they can blow up. Nice thing to know. Since I have a Dell laptop I decided to check out the information up on their website. This newest recall information isn't up yet, but there was a recall in December 2005 for a smaller lot of batteries. Lo and behold, my lapt...

From the NWS... ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING... AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING. HIGH TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO CLIMB TO THE MID TO UPPER 90S ACROSS THE LOWER HUDSON VALLEY...WESTERN AND CENTRAL LONG ISLAND...AND SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT TUESDAY AND AGAIN ON WEDNESDAY. COMBINED WITH RATHER HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS...THIS WILL RESULT IN HEAT INDICES CLIMBING TO BETWEEN 105 AND 110 DEGREES EACH AFTERNOON. AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE POSSIBLE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS... STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS. Ugh. Looks like I won't be going out much the next couple of days. What is going on this summer. Most of the country is suff...

Summer has to be my least favorite time of the year. Why? I do not handle heat well. Some could say it's due to the fact that I'm carrying around an extra human's weight worth of fat on my body, but I know it's not that (it doesn't help though). Even when I was stick thin I hated the heat. I sweat profusely and I feel like I'm going to pass out if I'm outside too long. Every year like clockwork I suffer from at least one bout of heat exhaustion no matter how well I keep myself hydrated. Today was my first case of heat exhaustion for the season. I wasn't even doing much. I was hanging out at the pool, reading, doing a little swimming. Nothing intense. Just relaxing on a nice summer day, right? Even though it was in the low 90s, this is the coolest it has been in a while so I wasn't worried. Right. After about an hour and half I started feeling a bit faint. Hmmm...did I eat breakfast? Yep. That's not it. I figured I would play it safe and head back...

...for Darren at least. Yes, he started his new job today (he took the job in NJ). I pray that things work out and that he enjoys it and the people he's working with. He was so miserable at his last job so I'm really taking his firing as a blessing in disguise. There was one good thing about Darren's involuntary month off: he got to rest. Well needed rest too. He was joking around that he would've loved his time off even more if he got paid for it, or at least the unemployment office didn't have a mix up with his checks. But that's what we get for him losing his job when the NJ government shuts down for a week. LOL Got to love it. I can't really complain about the whole bit though. Considering what could've happened in terms of financial mishaps, we've been lucky. Thanks to my brother-in-law and our meager savings account, we have enough to pay two months of rent and two and a half months of COBRA payments without too much panic. We won't be gett...

Darren has gotten two job offers! Whoohoo! It looks like our future won't include lots of ramen noodles and mac and cheese. The first job offer is in NYC. It is an increase in pay, has very nice benefits, but it's in Manhattan. If you've never commuted to Manhattan then you may not know what it's like. We live a good 45 minutes outside of the city, but that's without traffic. Darren would be looking at a minimum of an hour and half of commuting time each way. Some people can handle it but I doubt that Darren would enjoy it. I know I didn't. However, if it had been the only job offer he would definitely take it 'cause the job would be something he would enjoy. The second job offer is in NJ. The pay and benefits are the same as his last job and would require a lot of travelling in the area. With the way gas prices are these days that could be a Bad Thing. However, this job could lead to more certifications including the Avaya ACE certification and ...

Summer colds suck. Simple as that. First it was the Norwalk-like virus that had me worshipping my toliet two weeks ago. Now, it is the common cold. Both Darren and I got it from our trip into NYC last week. He had an interview with a recruiter and asked me to come along for moral support. No problem. Then it started raining. And raining. And raining. We took the PATH into the World Trade Center and I figured that there would be one of the ubiquitous vendors selling umbrellas somewhere in the area. Ah no. City regulations have kept these out of the box sellers away from WTC. We had to go four blocks away before we were finally able to find someone selling umbrellas. By that time we were completely soaked. Not fun. Darren was the one who got sick first and then he gave it to me so I've been out for the count most of this holiday weekend. Things are looking up this week. Darren has three interviews in NYC tomorrow, one with a recruiter and two with companies looking ...

Darren is still getting a bunch of calls every day from recruiters and potential employers. It really is suprising how much interest there has been and so quickly. Even Darren seems a bit overwhelmed. He has already had an interview with one recruiter, an interview tomorrow with a local company, and then three interviews in NYC on Thursday! Wow! I've been so proud of Darren through all of this. He could've just curled up into a ball and closed out the world, but he didn't. Though he did say that I wouldn't let him do that even if he wanted too. LOL. The day he was let go he redid his resume, got it up on Monster and Hot Jobs, and then fielded calls from recruiters. To me, him getting laid off is turning out to be a bit of a blessing. I've been saying for years that his old job underpaid him and used and abused him, but he was comfortable there and saw no need to leave. I wasn't going to push him to do something he wasn't ready to do. Now that he e...

The phone has been ringing off the hook, which is a very Good Thing. It seems that Darren's skill set is desireable to a lot of people out there. He has gotten a bunch of calls from recruiters, some for ridulous jobs (a 3-month contract in Minneapolis for example) to some that have some serious potential. He is meaning with one recruiter next week for a possible job opening in NYC. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on all of these. My stomach flu is slowly, so slowly fading away. I still have bouts of nausea and stomach pains, but nothing near the hell I went through on Monday night into Tuesday. The only thing really slowing down is how weak I feel. It's like the darn bug sucked the life out of me. It's also kind of frustrating because I'm really hungry but once I eat I feel like I'm going to throw up again. But I am getting better. Slowly, but surely we are making steps. :)

And here I thought this week couldn't get any worse... It started out Monday night when I got whammed by a Norwalk-like type virus. Ugh. I hate these things. It was a living hell with 12 hours of pooping and puking stuff up. Now I'm just so weak from the whole thing I can barely move. But that isn't the worst of it. Today Darren got laid off from his job. No specific reason was giving except "performance issues," but he never got a warning and they wouldn't clarify what they meant. This was completely out of the blue. I feel bad too because I had him stay home from work yesterday to take care of me, which means I may be partially to blame. The poor guy had been working so hard and was finally getting some of his old confidence back. Bah. I am trying to look at this as a good thing though. Even he'll admit that the stress of his job was getting to be too much for him and they were trying to force him to do a job as tier three help desk, which he...

I've been rooting for Edmonton all season. It would seem weird coming from a girl in NJ, but you can blame NHL Center Ice for that. We got all the NHL games so we ended up watching a lot of Canadian hockey. Since the Leafs blew this season, I started rooting for the Oilers. They were looking really good and I was honestly thinking that they would win the Cup this year. Now, I'm really pessimistic about it. Last night, their goalie Roloson blew out his knee in the third period. Coach MacTavish is now saying that he won't be back for the rest of the series which is a serious Bad Thing. You see, the Oilers have what I called Marty Brodeur syndrome. Their number one goalie plays like 99% of the regular season games and all of the playoff games. What does the backup goal do? Well, nothing really. He's not expected to. However, when the number one goalie gets injured, the backup now has to play for the first time in like five months and is pooping in his pants ...

...I'm now a professional student. LOL. On Friday I graduated with yet another degree. OK...well...technically it's not a degree. It's a certificate, but I had 103 credits upon graduating so I'm close enough to a degree. Anyways, I graduated with a Certificate in Computer Animation and I recieved an academic award in animation as well. Here are some shots from the ceremony: Me and my husband What I painted on my mortar-board Oh ya...the mortar-board got a lot of attention that I wasn't expecting. When I got my BA, it was pretty common for someone to paint something on their mortar-boards. I was really surprised to find out that I was the only one. Hehe. Oh well. :)

As I predicted, the number of Rangers fans at the Devils playoff home opener was pretty high. Though the Devils fans did outnumber them, the Rangers fans made themselves heard with chants of "Let's Go Rangers" and "Hen-rik." Bah. I've lived in NJ for thirteen years now and been a fan of the Devils since I moved here. When I go to Rangers v. Devils games at the Meadowlands, I make sure that I am much louder than those Rangers fans (and believe me...I can be). It was so sweet hearing the chanting switching around after the Devils went up 4-1 of "Mar-ty's Better!" (referring to goalie Martin Brodeur). I hope we beat the Rangers in this series. Not just because I hate the team, more like I hate their fans. I've had beer thrown at me at games by them, had to stop fights instigated by them, and for years have been constantly heckled by them. I remember when the Devils won the Cup in '95. All the Rangers fans said "it doesn't ...

You know you're in trouble when you're writing a 5-page paper on the history of the NYPD and you're already on page 9 of it and haven't even hit the 20th century yet. Yeah. Not good. I think it might be time to wrap it up or else my professor will give me a low grade for making the thing too damn long. Then again, how can you really sum up the history of the NYPD in 5 pages? My new demotivator for the day... Ya, I'm starting to lose my mind. I need to just get this paper done and get on with my life. On a good note, the Devils beat Montreal last night and won the division. They'll have to play the Rangers in the first round but at least they'll have home ice. Then again, with their attendance ratings, the Devils will probably have more Rangers fans than Devils fans at their home games anyways. *sigh*

Ah yes...my favorite word in the English language: procrastination. And yes, I'm doing it right now. I have a term paper due on Thursday for my Criminal Justice class that I just can't seem to get myself motivated to write. I do have half of it written, but it has been a struggle to do even that much. I think the film festival last week sucked all the motivation and drive out of me. It's to the point now that I'm like "noooo....I want to go to sleep. No more work." I will get it done. That's never an issue. I'll just torture myself the entire time. Also on a fun note, I got a letter from the county saying that I have been called for jury duty. Fun. I've served on a jury before, like 10 years ago, but that was a different county. There, it was a one-day, one-trial deal. You showed up for one day. If you didn't get called for a trial, you were done. If you did, you only served on that one trial. Easy enough. The county I live in ...

Yesterday was the film festival that I worked so hard to get my pieces finished in time for. It really wasn't that fancy as it was only the second one the school had and most of the people who contributed to it were students. There were a variety of shorts from documentaries about the Ford dumping in Ringwood to short little animation projects in the works. Some of it was good, some of it was really, really bad. The thing that annoyed me the most about the festival was the fact that there were non-BCC students competing for awards. I guess that's the nature of the beast, but how can someone like me compete with a film maker who was able to do their work under a Fulbright grant? Don't get me wrong, that piece was fantastic, but when it's shown with the other pieces, it made the students' works look like crap. Oh well. What can you do? Personally, I'm just happy I was able to show my work. Darren said mine was the best 3D animation up there, but I don't know ...

You know those really annoying motivational posters that you see all over businesses? The ones with the pretty images and a cute little phrase that is designed to make you feel better about your hellish work conditions? Ya, you know. Annoying things, aren't they. Today I found the most perfect one for the way things have been recently: Hehe. Got to love it. I found it at Despair, Inc . It seems they make a whole line of these. I think I can find a few others that will be rather fitting for me. :) And yes, I have been under a lot of pressure, which is why all of my blogs haven't been updated in ages. Since I got back from my trip to Florida I've been under the gun to get two projects completed in time for the George Stickel Film Festival at school. The first project was the group project for my 2D Animation II class. We did a "policy trailer" for a local film theater. It's the bit of film where you ask them to turn off the cell phones, buy soda and candy, et...

Ah yes. I'm once again behind in my blogs. All of them too, which is a PITA. I just got back from a nice trip to Florida where I visited my parents over spring break. It only took my mom four days to start annoying me and six before I wanted to run away screaming. I think that was a brand new record for me. My mother and I have a very strange relationship. I love her dearly but we are just so different that we don't understand one another. She was brought up in the 1940s with this whole "Donna Reed" type of mentality where the wife stays at home, cooks dinner, cleans the house, and is a mom. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I know that's not for me. I'm a very independent, strong willed, highly educated woman that wants to suck the marrow out of the bone of life. For me, I want to continue with my education, get a job (eventually), and be a mom all at the same time, while hopefully able to afford a maid every once in a while. She valu...

...by Ramona over on Kross-Eyed Kitty . I figured it looked fun so here goes... Four Jobs I've Had in My Life: Adjunct Professor Production Coordinator Professional Tutor Department Manager of a bookstore Four Movies I'd Watch Over and Over: Breakfast Club (my poor husband LOL) Any of the Harry Potter movies The Longest Day Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Four Places I've Lived: New Paltz, NY Binghamton, NY Lodi, NJ Bloomingdale, NJ Four TV Shows I like to Watch: CSI: New York Crossing Jordan Law & Order: SVU Survivor (pathetic, I know) Four Places I've been on Vacation: Toronto, ON Montreal, ON Chatham, MA Naples, FL Four Websites I Visit Daily: GU Comics (a gaming comic) Jigzone (an online puzzle site) CBC Sports - Hockey Call of Fate (my guild's website) Four of my Favorite Foods: Anything chocolate Ice cream Lobster Cheese Four Places I'd Rather Be Right Now: Toronto - Watching my Leafs Florida - It's getting too cold here Providence - Vis...

Hmm. I'm tired, cold, and sick. It must be the end of Februrary. We really haven't had a hard winter this year. Even with that big storm we had, temperatures were mild. However, I think everybody is eager for spring. I know I am. It's rather chilly outside today and the wind is thrashing, which means that my apartment is an icebox. That comes from really poor designing as I think this place has no insulation whatsoever. Sitting near the window, I can feel every draft coming in and the wall underneath it is very cold to the touch. So I'm sitting here wrapped up in a blanket wishing I had a cup of hot drinking chocoate, a warm fireplace, and a very comfy chair. All I can say is that I'm really glad I'm going to visit my parents down in Florida soon. They're complaining it's cold at 70 degrees!

I honestly keep forgetting this is a holiday. If I don't get the day off from school, it's not a holiday in my mind. Today Darren had off from work so I figured we'd head down to Paramus and have lunch with my brother-in-law. Big mistake. The Land of the Mall was packed! Everybody and their dog seemed to have this day off too and decided to go shopping. Bah. It was like the pre-Christmas chaos that I avoid like the plague. Traffic was a nightmare, Route 17 was a parking lot, and every store and restaurant was packed with people. I wanted to run away screaming, but since we were meeting someone, it's not like I could've just left. Just remind me to never do this again and just stay at home on President's Day.

I love my husband. I'm on the phone with my brother-in-law and Darren is sitting there making comments in the background. When he wouldn't shut up, I grabbed the squirt gun on my desk (that I normally reserve for bad kitties) and started squirting him to get him to shut up. What I didn't know is that he had a squirt gun on his desk and he turned around and drenched me! It was a full fledged squirt gun battle inside. And yes, we are both 35 years old. LOL. On a slightly weirder note, when Darren and I were coming home from the store yesterday, we saw a fire truck next to our building. My first thought was "oh no! The cats!" Then when I realized that there was no fire, it slowly dawned on me that the fire truck was stuck. You see, where I live, the road makes a sharp downward left turn and because of the angle, if a driver is not careful, the backend of a truck will get stuck. It's happened before but this is the first time I've seen a ladder truck...

I have to give NBC some credit. They have done a fantastic job in broadcasting the Olympics so far this year. OK, so maybe I need to figure out which of the NBC stations the games are on, but they have coverage for most of the sports most of the day. Kudos to them. What I'm even happier about is that they are actually giving coverage to Curling. Yes, I actually enjoy curling. I got hooked on it one year when I was on vacation in Toronto. As one person put it, it's like chess on ice. A thinking man's game, which is something you know I'm going to enjoy. As you can already figure out, I'm also having a blast watching the hockey coverage. To be honest, I'm more interested in the women's hockey than the men's. Why? I think pros should NOT be allowed to compete in the Olympics and men's hockey these days remind me too much of awful all-star games. I mean, how are we going to have another "Miracle on Ice" with only the pros playing? A...

Oh boy, that was fun. :) We got around 19" of snow this weekend from the so-called "Blizzard of '06." I say so-called 'cause the real weathermen aren't sure if this was technically a blizzard. It's the media having a field day calling it a blizzard. Oh well. I don't care 'cause it was a lot of snow and we all know I LOVE SNOW. For the past few days, I kept on checking the forecasts for the storm and my hopes went up and down every few hours. At one point only 5" of snow was expected, at another it was up to 12" (though I never saw it say up to 19"). It would just be really nice if the weather forecasters would just admit that they can't predict the effects of Nor'Easters. Considering the snow totals, this storm didn't seem so bad. The roads were cleared by yesterday afternoon and it only took us about 1/2 hour to dig out our cars. I guess having that nice, light, powdery snow helped. The cats did love watching...

...just stayed in bed this morning. When my alarm went off I just knew today was going to be a bad day. It started in CJ class. The professor was showing us some videos of police procedurals and one of them was called "Search Your Prisoner." In this video, a guy was brought into an interrogation room. When the officer left, the prisoner pulled a gun out of his waistband and shot himself in the head. Can you tell nobody searched him? This wouldn't have been so bad on its own except for the fact that this was a REAL video from a police station. I can handle reenactments and fake videos, but when I found out this was real, I almost puked. What was worse is that you can hear the blood dripping....ugh...never mind. If you want to see this video, do a Google search under this name, though I don't recommend it for the weak at heart. In between classes, I decided to work on my court observation paper. Last night I went to our local municipal court to observe. Since it was fre...

School is up and running again. My break flew by so quickly and I was just starting to finally relax too. :) This semester I’m taking two classes: 2D Animation II and Intro to Criminal Justice (CJ). Ya, I know, I know. I said I wasn’t going to take an animation class this semester but I just want to get my damn degree done with. I’ve got over 90 credits at this college and no degree to speak of. OK, so technically it’s a Certificate of Computer Animation and not a degree and most of my credits have nothing to do with animation…but I digress. :) Honestly, I don’t know if taking animation this semester is the right thing for me, because I feel sort of burned out right now, but I’m going into it with a positive attitude. I’m hoping that I’ll get something else to add to (and actually put together) my demo reel. Also, Francis is my professor this semester and we know what to expect from each other so I’m not so worried about it. My CJ class, on the other hand, is not so easy to figure out....

That is what has been causing me so much pain over the past few weeks. Sounds nasty doesn't it? On Tuesday I went to see one of the doctors in my primary physician's group to find out why I've been having pain in my lower abdomen. I figured that since she was a female doctor, she could give me a rough "guesstimate" because I didn't know if it was a "female thing" or my bladder or what. Well she didn't do anything except for tell me "I don't do pelvic exams" and "you need to see your ob/gyn." Um...since when did internists become so specialized that they won't deal with certain parts of the body? I made an appointment with my ob/gyn but I couldn't get anything until Friday. It didn't matter that I had been in some serious pain for three weeks 'cause they must have been so busy that they couldn't squeeze me in. *rolls eyes* Well, the pain started getting bad again that afternoon that I said "screw it...

I was just going through Yahoo! News and saw this article about T.S. Zeta. It's amazing to think what about what a crazy year we had with hurricanes in 2005 but to see this storm not only forming but still around? Geeze. We had a total of 27 named storms, 14 of which became hurricanes. Makes me glad I don't live down south.