Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Lately I've done a lot of whining and moaning about my health issues. Sorry. There have been other things happening that are blog worthy. Like the "talkin' to" I got from a Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center employee yesterday. During the route I had to run yesterday afternoon I ended up having a 30 minute layover at the Casino. So just as I was told to do during training I made the loop around the employee parking lot and parked on the outer edge closest to the interstate and set up shop for my break. I was playing a mean round of Angry Birds on my new iPhone 4 when I noticed an older black lady making a beeline for the bus. I'd been parked for maybe around 5-8 minutes...just enough time to get really engrossed in the flinging of birds at pigs with the swish of my finger. As she approached the bus I could tell she was irritated and ready to vent. I opened the door for her and that's when she unleashed her fury. "Excuse me miss but you are suppos...

That's what I'm calling my gallbladder now.... since it's dictating my life as a whole right now. I put food in my mouth and within the hour it tells me in doses of pain how much is likes or hates what I gave it. If it hates it, it makes me work late. If it likes it, I get a short break until I do something that pisses it off again (which I typically will). Right now it's been confirmed that The Boss is an a$$hole and needs to find another job. But the doctor wants to make sure I'm good to go before having it removed from its' position. So on Monday morning I have to go drink a couple of cups of barium and let an x-ray machine see my insides. Basically they want to check out my small intestines to make sure there isn't anything wrong with them before proceeding to the surgical suite. Since I had been seen and treated for a small bowel infection back in May the doctor feels like it's too high risk to proceed with surgery without first checking thin...

Today I got up early and drove myself to my new vacation home... you know... the local hospital. I was scheduled for a nuclear medicine test called a HIDA scan , to check out my liver and gallbladder. During this test you're injected with a radioactive liquid they call a tracer and then lay still for an hour while an x-ray like machine takes pictures of your abdomen. The first thing to start glowing on the screen is the liver, which serves as a filter for the body. Apparently, my liver is oddly shaped and made the technician comment about how weird it was. Nothing abnormal, he reassured me, just every one's liver looks a little different and mine has this special little curly end on it. But anyway. It took about 30 minutes for the tracer to start making my gallbladder glow on the screen. The tech also pointed out a small portion of the duodenum was glowing faintly beside the gallbladder and liver. After that it was hurry up and wait.... the following 30 minutes seemed to t...

The other day I was running the trolley route and I picked up a husband and wife couple that were headed to the local city pool to cool off for the afternoon. It was about 98 degrees out with a heat index of well over 105. It was freakin' HOT! When the couple boarded my pseudo trolley I wondered if they had brought soap and a rubber ducky with them as well, because judging from the body odor emanating from them both I just assumed the trip to the pool wasn't just to cool off but maybe also to wash the stink off. They found a seat, right behind me, and began having the mundane conversations that most people have aboard the bus. Just every day chatter. Then I heard the wife whisper to the husband, "Do you smell something burning?" "No, there's nothing burning honey you're sniffers' just messed up from the heat." the husband replied. "Are you sure, ask the driver if she smells something burning...." she pleaded. "Excuse me miss, bu...

Yesterday I swear every crazy person in the valley got on my bus during my evening shift. It wasn't especially busy, even for a Saturday afternoon. But I got a few cuckoo clocks on board. The best of them was this one guy I'd picked up on my way up river on the first part of my shift. He's a uniquely odd kind of guy. I've seen him around about town for years so I'm fairly familiar with his special brand of crazy. But I've never really had to deal with him up close and personal until yesterday. So he gets on the bus and selects the seat closest to the front door which just happens to be directly diagonal from my seat in the driving position. The seat he chose faces the aisle, not the front window, so not only was he sitting close and was also facing me essentially. To give you a visual: if I were to turn slightly and outstretch my arm and he were to sit still and outstretch his arm, we'd nearly touch fingertips just like in the "Creation of Adam...

I had been having bouts of chest, back, neck, shoulder and jaw pain. A fullness, pressure like irritation more than actual pain but the doctor said that essentially it was pain. I know it WAS a pain, but it wasn't really painful to the point of saying 'ouch'. It had been happening for three days and on Tuesday, the morning of the 4th day, it happened again. That time it was the ouch kind of pain. Normally Tuesday is my day off. But out of the kindness of my heart I accepted a two hour overtime assignment for that morning. On my way up the road after acquiring my bus it started as a small, uncomfortable pressure behind my sternum. It slowly spread thru to my back and up into my neck and jaw. And as it progressed it began to hurt like hell. By the time I was done with my route it had begun to subside and sort of settled into my right upper quadrant as a dull achy pain. I went home, told the hubby it was time to head to the ER. I was worried and getting annoyed by wha...

I just spent over 20 minutes letting Internet Explorer install it's newest version on my laptop. Of course, the first three times I tried to open it after installing and then restarting my computer it crashed. Fourth time it worked, but froze up for like 8 minutes and then everything looked weird as hell. I'd had it. Internet Explorer has been giving me fits for months. Freezing up all the time, screwing with my surfing and blogging and status updating and such. So I decided to do something I'd been considering for some time. I went over to mozilla.com and downloaded the latest version of Firefox. Soooooooo much better. Now, does anyone know if I can actually uninstall IE? I've tried locating it in my control panel in the add/remove software section but apparently it's trickier than I thought to find. Of course with my luck, it's impossible to remove IE and I'll be stuck with it hiding in the corner pointing it's nasty little finger at me, hexing m...

Last night the hubby and I watched Kick-Ass on Netflix. I'd overlooked it more than a dozen times on the new movie listings while looking for something to watch. Thinking it was just not my style of flick. But last night the hubby decided that we were gonna watch it. I was reluctant and nearly retreated to the bedroom to read. But I'm so glad I didn't because well....it kicked ass. What a great super hero movie. It was action packed, witty, silly, and touching in a weird kind of way. I'm NO fan of Nicholas Cage but his part wasn't that big in the grand scheme of the movie. And integral part, yes, but not on the screen a bunch. Which is good for me. He really annoys me. The kids in the movie were great, however. I love Christopher Mintz-Plasse aka "McLovin". And Clark Duke who played the awkward nephew in Hot Tub Time Machine. I don't think I'd ever seen Aaron Johnson, the kid who played Kick-Ass, before but he's definitely a new geek crush. Of ...

I fought back the tears all the way across the parking lot. I had a rough day of it (and it's technically not over yet) today. I thought things were going quite well. My passenger loads were light for the better part of the morning. I'd say my first three hours were cake. Then the crazies came out. I suppose I should have expected it. It is a Saturday and I was running what we call "main line". It's the busiest of pretty much all routes, probably because it's so convenient for so many people. And of course, being a sunny bright and beautiful Saturday, they came out of the woodwork in droves. Little by little I managed to get further behind schedule. When I realized I was running more than ten minutes late I called into the dispatcher to let him know what my status was. The curt response I received started the downward spiral for the rest of my shift. I know he didn't mean anything more than just what he said which was "Okay thanks." But for some ...

While not a complete disaster, since the trolley was not really as bad as I'd presumed it would be, was still a bust for me. It was hot as ballz and of course the trolley has no A/C. But despite sweat soaked clothing and a layer of grime and filth it only took a 15 minute shower to be remedied. What got me most about the 8 hour trolley run was how I was constantly being compared to and sized up to the regular drivers' standards. "Mike doesn't do that." "Mike would help me with these bags." "Mike would get closer to the curb." And on and on... I swear I had to keep saying "I'm sorry I'm not Mike." and "Well that might be how Mike does it but I'm driving today so I'll just do it my way, ok?" Mike (name changed to protect the innocent), aka the man that took vacation this week SPOILS his riders. He has his way of doing things and he certainly and quite obviously pampers the folks that are regular trolley riders....

I have the (dis)pleasure of running around the town on the trolley route today. I'm sure it's gonna be a blast (sarcasm at it's finest). It has no A/C, horrible fumes, and fussy riders who will all whine that the regular driver betrayed them by taking a week off. The only really good parts are that it runs a simple fare system and it's not equipped to haul the disabled in wheelchairs. I know that sounds wrong, but when there is NO A/C to retreat to after hooking up all of the securements for a wheelchair passenger it's not cool. I hate sweating. I'm gonna sweat a LOT today regardless. It's supposed to get to near 90 and I have to wear my blasted polyester uniform. Polyester doesn't breathe. No no. :o(

I'm a bad blogger friend. I'm soooo far behind on the blogs that I once regularly followed. I've not read anything that anyone else has written in a while. I do feel bad about it, but I've just not made the time to catch up. So, sorry. During the vast majority of my available free time I've been watching stuff on Netflix or napping. The life of a bus driver is hectic and demands that you catch rest whenever you can. I have some wacky schedules and find myself frequently in need of sleep. The stuff I'm watching on Netflix: I finished all available Bones episodes. I then started Weeds, of which I am in to season 2. I also started watching Ancient Aliens which I highly recommend for anyone into the world of Ufology. I watched all 10 available episodes of Hot In Cleveland, with Betty White. Funny stuff! Together with my husband I've watched a few episodes too many of Hoarders and a couple of really interesting episodes of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (U.K.) W...