Speaking Up and Speaking Out Part I

Saturday was World AIDS Day. A day to remember the disease is still out there and still growing. I was an HIV/AIDS educator in college and used to keep up on the statistics. I learned a few scary ones today. The vast majority of people contracting the disease right now are between the ages of 15-25 and over the age of 55. It seems the young still think they are invincible and the old think it doesn't apply to them. Every 60 seconds another person under the age of 25 gets the disease.
I lost an uncle to the disease in 1997. Now parents are facing losing children. Apparently, we need to step up education in school. Unfortunately, just saying, "don't have sex" doesn't work. Education also needs to be stepped up for the AARP crowd as well. Just because you are old enough to get an AARP newsletter doesn't mean you are safe from a sexually transmitted disease.
BTW, one of the fastest growing groups of people getting HIV are straight women. There's some interesting food for thought.
I had the good fortune to be present in the 1990's in Washington, D.C. to witness the last time the AIDS Quilt was laid out in its entirety. The Quilt is composed of large panels created by friends and family in memory of someone they lost to AIDS. The reason the whole thing hasn't been laid out since the 1990's it it is now too large to do so. When I saw it, the Quilt took up the entire Mall. If you stood at one end you couldn't see the other due to the curvature of the Earth. I can't conceive of it's size now. Different organization can request a section of the Quilt to display. Part of the agreement is you will read all of the names of all of the people who have a panel. The list takes days to read non-stop. It's a powerful experience to see a Quilt section. It puts a face to such a large epidemic.
I know, I sound like I'm lecturing but I stepped away from educating others on this disease years ago and feel like I should take some steps back toward that.
The visiting pastor in church today spoke of Linus from the Peanuts. She mentioned that if you go through life with your thumb in your mouth like Linus, you can't speak up for yourself or others who cannot speak for themselves.
Take a moment and remember those who have HIV and those who have lost the fight. Most importantly, take a moment to think about those who are at risk for contracting it, especially the teenagers.

back in black

I've been quiet for awhile mainly because I've been rather busy with life and all the amazing changes that can and have been happening.
Funny how all tends to work out. When we moved to North Carolina we looked up and found a Metropolitan Community Church in Raleigh, less than an hour from us so off we went to church at St. John's. For me it has been a really long time however, I used to go to the MCC in Pensacola, Florida so I was actually looking forward to going here. It has been a good experience thus far. We are both now in the choir and often help with some part of the service or another. We've also found a great group of people.
In the mean time there has also been work going full speed ahead. It is a slow uphill battle to get my teams in shape. Most have never worked in a professional setting and have poor to non-existent work ethics. I keep feeling like I'm channeling my former training manager Kyra when talking to them which is really a good thing overall since she taught me quite a lot.
On top of all of this we have quit smoking. I pained myself into quite a corner by starting a quit smoking club at work. I can't smoke at work or some of my coworkers would hunt me down! I was pretty angry on my first non-smoking day but then, I knew I would be. It's worked so far though to use my own morals against myself.
There is so much more it is just bunching up in my head right now so I'll just come back on a regular basis again to get it all out.

Watch those spines

And I thought our cat Charles had to loose some weight...

Week in Review

Another work week has come and gone. I completed interviews for one of my positions and after much agonizing between two canidates, picked the one I think will work best. I know, however, that my choice will cause a lot of waves since the one who didn't get the job has been temping in this position for a couple of months. We'll see in the next few months if my choice was wise.
We finally got some significant rain here in eastern N. Carolina. It was desperately needed though sad to say, desipite 3 straight days of rain, the extreme drought is still present. The down side to the switch in weather was the headache I've been walking around with for three days. It was strong enough to keep me from the weekly basketball game. I went to bed last night instead and awoke to Curious George chasing his own tail on top of me at 4 am. Despite almost 2 years of serious effort on his part, his tail is still firmly attached to his ass.
Life continues to shift and change all around me. I think for the better though sometimes the changes and realizations happen frighteningly fast. I just strap myself in with my trusty 5 point saftey harness and hold on for the ride.
THe headache is still twinging at the edges so I'm off to relax some more...more on the changes later.

more random things

This week has been as busy as ever. I'm slowly filling the holes in my two departments. It never ceases to amaze me how slow the corporate machine can run.
We're still playing catch up from the move. I anticipate getting all the bills up to speed by November just in time to start buying Christmas gifts...
I had a moment of insanity this week and signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. I've been writing for a long time, for pleasure, for work, for this for that, now I'm actually taking a shot at writing a novel. If you are interested in joining the insanity look it up at http://www.nanowrimo.org. 50,000 words, one month. Here's to one hell of a challenge.
I've discovered a way to feed my reading habit inexpensively. http://www.paperbackswap.com. The site allows you to list books you're willing to give away and swap them for other people's books. List 9 books, you get 3 credits to use. Every time you ship a book to someone, you gain another credit. Every time you request a book, you use a credit. So far I've gotten two books and given away one. I have 175 other books listed so if you are interested, go take a look. All you pay is the cost of shipping to get your books out to others.
Despite still playing catch up we splurged big time on the cats this weekend and bought them their very own Supreme Commander Kitty Tower. A carpeted monstrosity with a hiding hole and four platforms. It is a HUGE hit. Curious George, the lowest cat in the cat hierarchy claimed the top spot first and spends hours a day up there guarding his new domain.
If you are the praying type, please keep Tara's son, Robert in your prayers. He is on his second tour in Iraq right now on guard duty. 14 hour shifts and he is wearing down. He really wants to come home and we want him to stay safe and sane. Keep him in your prayers, his unit is there until May. He was due to be released from active service in the National Guard last year but the military used Stop Loss to keep him. He's a good guy with a great wife waiting here for him. We're putting together a care package for him. Apparently cookies and beef jerky are hugely popular items with his unit. So are calling cards. It is very expensive to call home. A 500 minute calling card will give him 60-90 minutes of talk time but the phone can be a life line.
On a totally different note, I joined a church basketball regular Thursday game. A few of my subordinates invited me and I surprised myself by actually keeping up. I've learned to stay out of the inside when the boys get rough but I'm not half bad at defense. I've even bought a pair of basketball shorts! I figure it's a good way to get some exercise and get out of the house during the week. Now if I could just make a basket under pressure I'd be doing really good. What's interesting is the cross section of people playing. I'm having a good time of it though.
Last but certainly not least, A huge Congratulations to my best friend Gary. He got promoted to training developer back in Erie, my old job. He'll make an excellent developer and should be a big help to the team there.

Random Thoughts

• Curious George has decided I need to be up at 5:30 am every morning for the express purpose of giving him attention and playing with him and his toy mouse on a string.
• My alarm does not go off until 6:30 (not including 2 snoozes I allot).
• Terminating someones employment never gets easier and unfortunately, as a manager of a training department, I'm going to have to do this more often when trainees don't meet goals.
• Hiring people is also not an easy task. I have open positions in my department and there are times in the course of interviews that I wish I had a real magic 8 ball to ask, "Will this person work well on my team?" Alas, I have to go with facts and instincts. I guess I'll find out over the upcoming months if those facts and instincts were right.
• Having carpeting in the new apartment is apparently a great thing for the cats. We now have a nightly Kitty NASCAR Race Circuit though the apartment (including over me in the bed) as the cats celebrate their ability to corner like a BMW.
• Neighbors in an apartment building are both a blessing and a curse. They will give you good things like a free beer as you walk to your apartment. They will play old school country music with a top notch stereo system providing a free vibrating foot massage for those who live above them (namingly me).
• Chic-Fil-A has the best chicken nuggets EVER.
• That's about all my brain can handle for now...

Technicalities

My other half took me to dinner last night at Red Lobster for my birthday (see previous post). I told her on the way in, "Absolutely, under no circumstances, do I want anyone in the restaurant singing to me tonight." She agreed and promised. And then proceeded to tell the waitress, Ashley, not to sing to me.
So the end of the meal comes and Tara has that evil look that cats get when they are plotting something and I emphasis again I don't want anyone singing to me. She promises again.
Then Ashley and three other servers walk out with a scoop of ice cream with a candle on it, set it in front of me, I give Tara the look of death and then....
the servers proceed to HUM the entire birthday song. Patrons joined in...
Tara looks me in the eye and says, "You said no singing. You didn't say anything about humming..."
Caught on a technicality. Next year I'm going to say No musical interludes...
Revenge will be sweet and I have until March 31 to figure it out...

Happy Birthday

I'm going to have a rare egotistical moment and say:
Happy Birthday To ME!
I've made it through another year with flying colors.
Now I have a whole new year to try to figure out if getting a year older really makes me a year wiser...
I can't wait to see what the next year brings...

The Death of a Great Author

James Oliver Rigney Jr. better known to millions of people as Robert Jordan passed away last week from a rare blood disorder, primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy which caused the walls of his heart to thicken. He was 58.
Rigney Jr wrote the Wheel of Time series, a sweeping fantasy epic that I've been addicted to for years. The books were amazingly detailed, rich in a multitude of plots and character depth. I always made it a point to start rereading the series about 3-4 months before a new book would come out so I could catch up and remember all the important items.
My friend sent me a link to his obituary last week and I've been struggling with a little guilt since then. My first thought on reading the obit was, "@#$%, he died before he finished writing the series!" I did find out he was working on the last novel when he died. It's release date has been pushed back due to his illness a few times. I also know he was quoted as saying he had extensive notes so hopefully someone will be able to finish it and give his millions of loyal fans some closure on the fate of Rand Al Thor.
Reading his obituary I realized there was an extraordinary man behind the pseudonym with a family, hopes, dreams and I'm truly sorry to see him go as a person not just because he died before he could finish his life's work.
So here's to James Oliver Rigney Jr. I hope he's found something wonderful on the other side.

It's Been Awhile

I know it has been many weeks since I've posted. My life has required a five-point harness and safety bar as of late and I didn't have a way to let go long enough to catch everyone up. I'm just going to fair warn you now...this will be a long one. SO MUCH to talk about.
First: Dad Update
My father had a resistant bacterial pneumonia that effused into his chest cavity. I'm happy to say after 3 weeks in the hospital, major surgery, 28 days of IV antibiotics and a lot of TLC he is doing fine. No more tubes, no IVs and he is down to 1 liter of O2 that he only uses for about an hour a day so that will be going away soon as well. He is also gaining weight back and is happily at home puttering around.
Second: Jewelry Update
The website will be up in a week. We went to a festival in Ohio and did not do as well as we would have hoped due to rain through most of the day but, we learned a lot, met a lot of fabulous women, and plan to return next year as well as attend some other festivals on the east coast.
Third: Job Update
This is the single biggest reason I haven't been online in so long. I was promoted to Training Manager at our Rocky Mount, NC location and was given slightly over two weeks to 1. find a place to live 2. pack my house 3. rent a truck 4. move to new location 5. sell trailer. Believe it or not, we did it all. After the festival in Columbus OH we drove to my parents in Pittsburgh, PA, stored our festival stuff there and visited. From Pittsburgh we drove to Rocky Mount, had 1 day to find a place to live. Accidentally ran into a wonderful Realtor and actually almost bought a house. We will actually be able to buy one in 6 months to a year. In the mean time we found a very nice apartment, signed all the paperwork for that, I met my boss and toured the site and the next day we drove all the way back to Erie. That was Wednesday, September 12th. On Thursday we picked up the truck and started packing. Friday more packing and loaded and a friend of a friend mentioned his brother-in-law might be interested in the trailer. We loaded 95% of the truck Friday, went out Friday night and closed the bar saying goodbye to everyone. Got up Saturday morning, finished loading and left. Tara's sister stayed to clean for us and her daughter brought the interested party in to look at the trailer at 1pm.
We left at noon on Saturday for what should have been an 11 hour drive. We arrived in Rocky Mount at 730 am Sunday.
Did you know 2 cats can meow non-stop for HOURS? Tara had Charles in the truck and he was perfectly well behaved. She had the cage door open and he happily sat in that crate for the entire trip. I had Cali and George. Cali successfully escaped the crate once and after we locked her back up she started to meow and George joined in. From 730 pm to 730 am, non-stop. We stopped every 2 hours and got them out on harnesses and leashes (oh the indignity) but even so, 12 straight hours of, "Mow. MEOW. MEW."
Despite there best efforts we survived and arrived safely. We hired some help from EMove.com to unload the truck. $140 for 2 guys for 3 hours. Money very well spent. They are professionals, treated our stuff with care, climbed the steps 400 times and even hooked up the washer and dryer. Thank you Ed and Jeff.
The guy that looked at the trailer loved it. Payed for it on Monday and we are out from under the trailer. He is already having the last few items fixed before he and his family move in. I'm really happy for them. They seem like great people.
I started my new job Monday and have by trying my best to keep my head above water. I have a lot to learn but the other managers are good people and I have a really positive outlook on this.
Last note. As far as the apartment manager knows we have 1 cat. So we have 2 fugitive cats and 1 fugitive bearded dragon. I figure we can pull it off for the few months we'll be there.
Happy blogging to all. I'm back!