Frustrating

Long story short - Rod found out about some shady things going on by some of the other salesmen at his work. One salesman managed to cheat the company out of around $60K. He was terminated Monday. Other associates are under investigation right now for other things they were doing that actually wound up paying them more than they should have been paid commission on.

This has led to harassment and retaliation from the shady co-workers, and thanks from all the people who are doing their job the honest way. Rod came home from work early this evening and is in our bedroom right now. I was on my way out the door to take the dogs for a walk when he pulled up. He showed me a picture of what some people did to his drawer at work when he got there. Rod claims that he's not feeling well, but I totally and 100% believe that this is related to what he came into at work. Sad thing is, neither one of us has faith that the store manager is going to do the right thing about the harassment or any of this situation at all because the store manager and the guy who got fired are good friends.

He's documenting everything so that he's protected should anything come of this.

Zen

Yesterday I reorganized my (new) bookshelves in alphabetical order by author. Rachel called me a nerd. I say she's right.

Vent

I know I am sure to offend someone by what I am about to say, but at this point I really don't care.

I HATE UTAH. I HATE LIVING HERE.

I am sosososososo tired of the inability of people to separate church from life. A few weeks ago I was trying to explain to my mom the frustrations I have with living in a predominantly LDS area. And yes, I'm LDS. Am I a good example of a good Mormon? Hell no. I cuss, I drink Starbucks, I watch rated R movies, I don't care either way about gay marriage, to say the least.

Anyway, back to where I was going with this. I was telling my mom that most of Rachel's friends are LDS. I have a HUGE problem with this, and I know it's because I was 1 of maybe 30 Mormons at my at least 2,000 student high school. I was able to get a good mixture of what everyone was. I grew up around lots of Catholics, Born Agains, Jehovah's Witnesses, Lutherans, Agnostics, Athiests... you name it. Around here, there's NO VARIETY. I HATE THAT. I hate that Rachel will never learn about what other people believe. I hate that Rachel will never really get to experience what it's like to be with school friends and then go to Mutual and be with just church friends. I hate that everything around here is based around the Mormon belief. Just about everything closes down on Sunday. Ooh, guess what we did last night?? WE WENT OUT TO DINNER. On a SUNDAY! My back was out, I didn't feel like cooking, and we went out. Yep, I'm going to hell for that one. And I'm going to hell for saying hell. (I'm exaggerating, to an extent.) There was a broadcast for women this past Saturday. I was offered a ticket to go with a friend to SLC and watch it live. I didn't want to go. I could have watched it on TV, but I didn't want to do that, either. I have no intention of reading the talks when they come out in print. I hate how there's no sense of free agency around here. I'm not interested in any of that - does that make me an apostate? NO!!!!!!!! I am exercising my free agency to live the way I live and do the things I do, and you know what that gets me around here? I get ignored, unless it's something churchy, which I always get invited to because that's peoples' jobs around here - to get me interested in all things church. Now don't get me wrong. I have a testimony of things pertaining to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you know what? I am not the type of person to be religious 100% of the day. AND!!! I hang out with Presbyterians A LOT! And I love them!! A LOT!!!! I made a smartass comment about the forget-me-nots that one of the General Authorities was talking about. I know exactly what they mean, and it just happens to be that almost every female LDS friend I have on facebook is going apeshit about those damn flowers. Posting quotes, posting pictures, posting pictures with quotes, posting quotes with pictures...

Call me an untraditional Mormon, I don't care. I'm exercising free agency to live the way I so choose, to not be consumed by my religion, and to actually enjoy things. President Hinckley said, "Life is to be enjoyed, not only endured." Well you know what? I'm enjoying my life!

My room

I've been spending a lot of time in my craft room lately. I'm even posting this blog from my craft room. I know exactly why this room has gone ignored for so long, and I think that's why I have migrated here on my days off and in my spare time. It's been 6 months since I made the decision to stop going to UVU. UVU sucked the life out of me for three years. When I was there, I did nothing but school and work. Work and school. Nothing else. The only time I set foot in this room was to make my Christmas cards. Seriously, weeks would pass where not one person came in here. I've been going to Stevens-Henager for almost 5 months now, and my stress levels have dropped to an all-time low. I am so incredibly happy with my decision and have no regrets whatsoever.

Since I've spent more time in here, I've rediscovered my passion for dextrous things, and noticed even more so how I go in cycles. I've made about 50 cards of varying kinds, some for me, some for friends. I went through my stitching a few months ago and completed about 4 pieces. Now I've pulled out the boxes of photos that have been collecting dust for those 3+ years it's been since I started UVU. I'm going to work my best on getting these photos on pages, in the best order that I can remember, and work on taking more everyday pictures of Rachel doing Rachel stuff.

I think I owe Rod and Rachel a huge apology for my behavior since January 2008, because it was then that I started going to UVU and lost who I really was and who I really am.

Greatest thing since a paper slicer.

I was in Robert's about two months ago and was looking for a few specific things when I found their new little Martha Stewart section. I came across this not so little item.



This is a paper scorer! Hard to see from the smaller picture, but this is one of the greatest inventions EVER. You have no idea how long I've wanted one of these. I didn't think twice about buying it, especially considering that I could use the 40% off one item coupon. I make a grundle of cards at Christmas time and have always had to score my cards using a pencil, a ruler, and a bone folder. PAIN IN THE BUTT. I've been on another card-making spree, and now that I have this lovely item I am churning the cards out considerably faster. Just thought you'd like to know.

Angry Foot III

I'm not saying anything on facebook because I am friends with people who don't understand healing. Or in my case, un-healing. I was sitting at the piano in Presbyterian this morning and looked down at my foot. HUGE ball of sticky clear gel looking stuff oozing from the 3mm section of my incision that still hasn't closed up from my surgery 2.5-3 months ago. I wiped it up, played the next hymn, looked at my foot afterward and saw another lump of the same crap. Wiped it up. Tried to find the source of the ooze and found it. Drained as much as I could. Got home and drained a little more. This is what cyst #3 was oozing when I went in for surgery #2. I just barely saw the podi on Thursday. Was my foot acting up like this? Noooo. He gave me some lidocaine patches to put on my foot to get rid of the pain in hopes that it will trigger my body to start healing. Those actually made the pain intensify - excruciating is the least of the descriptor words I can use. I'm holding on to all the pictures I've taken of this latest debacle with my foot so that when I see him in another 3 weeks he can see what's happened during the interim. Meanwhile, my Lyrica intake has gone from every 3-4 days or so to every day.

What have I tried to help heal my foot? Antibac cream scrip the day of the surgery. Raw essential coconut oil. Smart Silver drops. Two different scrip antibiotics. Then I used nothing. Scrip steroid cream. Neosporin. Some other cream he gave me. All are doing NOTHING.