Week in review

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I've blogged. I guess that's what happens when I'm out at a client and without internet access all day long.

Monday - I got a call on my cell phone from roommate Erica around 3pm while I was at work. I asked her how she's feeling as she had been really sick since Saturday when she went back to her hometown for a friends wedding. She was having stomach cramps and hadn't been able to eat any food or water without losing it one way or another.

She said, "Oh, I don't know. Do you have anything going on after work tonight?"

"Not that I know of, why do you ask."

Erica began to cry and I could tell she was a bit scared and really tired. "Well, I was just wondering if you could take me to the emergency room when you get home."

Now Erica is not the type of person who cries a lot - it really takes something serious to get the water works flowing. I said, "I'm leaving work right now and will be home as soon as I can. We're not going to wait till later to take you."

To make a long story short, we waited two hours before they got her in to examine her. They took a stool sample and gave her a liter of saline IV to get her rehydrated. The doctors told her they would have her results in about 36 hours. She was feeling much better after the IV, but still was not 100%.

Tuesday - We had Continuing Professional Education (CPE) at work. During CPE we just basically watch these videos of people discussing new auditing standards and tax rulings. Basically it's four hours of the most boring fucking thing you can imagine, and I'm an accountant.

That evening one of my former co-workers had a stamp party. I'm a big dork and enjoy stamping and have been doing it for about two years now. It's the one creative, artsy thing I do, and since I love cards this was right up my alley. The only problem I have is that I have a hard time parting with some of the cards I've made. Anyway, I bought some new stamps that I've used and liked but were going to be discontinued at the end of the month.

Wednesday - Erica was feeling better now that she was taking Cipro, and she rented Along Came Polly. Definitely not the greatest movie, but parts made me laugh. I'd give it 1-1/2 stars.

Thursday - I left work early to have the always fun annual exam that females must have. After that I went shopping for something to wear to the wedding I had on Saturday. Apparently at Famous Barr you can buy something the night before a sale, give them your Famous charge card number, they will hold it for you and charge your card the next day at the sale rate. All you have to do is be willing to come back the next day and pick up what you purchased. Who knew?

I was supposed to go to a John Kerry meetup at a Starbucks, but I was running late due to the shopping. I pulled up around 8pm, and Angela and Chris were standing outside. I yelled to them from my car to see if I'd missed anything. I hadn't, but Angela said they were heading over to Karl's for food prepared from Karl's new stove if I wanted to go. Sounded good to me, so I ran home to feed the cats and drop off my stuff.

When I got home I had a quick conversation with Erica. The State Board of Health called to give her her test results back, which can never be a good sign. Apparently somewhere she had eaten food that had been contaminated with a bacteria found in HUMAN FECES! The State Board had to conduct a 15 minute interview with her to determine where the contamination occurred and if anyone else was at risk. She was not allowed to work with her patients at Planned Parenthood or at all at her bartending job until she finished the new medicine that was to get rid of the bacteria in her system.

After dinner at Karl's, Karl and I decided to go karaoke but we couldn't convince anyone else to go with us. We got to the bar and sat down, and behind us was a table of softball players whose team was sponsored by the bar, drinking it up and having a good time. One guy there starts flirting with me, and I was in a good mood so I start flirting back - just for fun as it was obvious to me that it wasn't going anywhere beyond that. On one song he says to me, "I'll bet you oral that I know who sings this song." I asked him who he thought sang the song and he said Herman's Hermits. I clanked his beer with mine because I thought he was right, but he took that as sealing our "bet." We looked up the song in the karaoke book and, sure enough, he was right. So now he thought I owed him oral sex because he won the "bet," but there was no way that was going to happen and I start teasing him a bit but emphatically denying there was ever a bet.

I get up to sing and this is where Karl's version of the story picks up (see his June 25 posting). Apparently the guy began saying things like, "That bitch owes me a blow job," to his buddies. And apparently he got bad enough that Karl and two of the bar regulars jumped to my aid. I didn't know any of this was going on at the time as I was busy reading the screen and singing. I finish singing and sit down and the guy starts talking shit again, but one of those regulars asks me if I'd like to dance (Karl said later that this was an effort to "rescue me" from that guy). When I get back from dancing the guy had moved seats away from me, and shortly thereafter he and his buddies leave.

I really didn't feel threatened by this guy, but when Karl told me his version of events I began to cry. It was really sweet of those two complete strangers at the bar stand up for me with Karl. At the time though I couldn't help wondering if Karl was being a bit overprotective of his "little sister." I was just having some fun and knew that absolutely nothing was going to happen. I now realize that I may have been a bit of a tease and was in no position to make a sound judgment of anyone. And now we have to find a new karaoke bar!

Friday - I had another doctor's appointment, this time to get an Echo done of my heart, just as a precaution after that one test from the emergency room visit came back as indeterminate. A cardiologist will review the tape and discuss it with my general practitioner, and when I hear anything I'll let you all know.

I mentioned before that I enjoy stamping, and once a month the lady that sells the stamp products has what she calls "Stamp Camp" at her house. I met another former co-worker at the mall and we made the drive out together. I really like Stamp Camp because our "Camp Counselor" has all of the projects laid out so all we have to do is stamp and assemble, and I always get some great new ideas for my own projects. We talked with some other camp regulars and had a good time.

I'm going to save Saturday for later. Now I've got to get ready to go to the Pride Parade.