doctor_terry

I went to a doll meet at an INDOOR Sonic today! Didn't know the fast food place known for AWESOME onion rings and nice carhops had a sit down place run like Whataburger! It was a neat experience. We had a good turnout for a rainy Saturday and I think the proximity to Grapevine Mills Mall made the meet something folks could combine with an afternoon of shopping. We (as usual) had more dolls in attendance than people but it was fun! Renee made it a party atmosphere by bringing doll-sized champagne glasses and giving one to every doll who looked old enough to drink! Lots of pretty dolls and my newest girl - a Rosette School Fir (her name is Winry!) made her debut at this meeting! Here are two pix - one of most of the resin attendees and one of Edo and Winry! ENJOY!

<input ... ></input><input ... >Today I marched with the Tarrant County Democrats in the Fort Worth Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.  Lots of fun - perfect weather - and got to do a little networking while my feet pounded the pavement!  I wanted to get more involved with working for my party beyond being just the secretary of my local chapter.  So if all goes well I'll be working at a local polling place during the primaries this spring.  I got to meet a lady who works for the County Board of Elections and got my name in to work during the primaries.  The work isn't high pay but it's a way to get more involved in local politics.  In my quest to find a teaching job I got my resume and assorted other paperwork in with a placement agency that specializes in finding jobs for teachers. After sending out 300+ resumes last summer and getting only FOUR interviews and NO offers I think it's time to work with a pro.  Hopefully by this time next year I'll be back in a classroom teaching science and NOT hip deep in debt!  Today was a hopeful day... :D

Don't hate me but I FINISHED ALL my holiday shopping TODAY! All I have to do now is get my tree up and decorated and gather what I need to make dinner on Friday and I'm DONE! First year I got all the gifts and such done with days to spare! I'm usually one of those poor slobs out there fighting the crowds on Christmas Eve because of a last minute person that got on the holiday list! This year I got my list together EARLY and for financial reasons cut it DOWN a lot! Only close friends and immediate family are getting stuff from me this year! All the casual friends and co-workers got cards if I had their addresses. I've been out of work since June 1st so I didn't have the money to buy gifts for all the folks I would have liked to get gifts for this year. Hopefully 2010 will be a better year for me and next Christmas I will be able to play Santa :D to my friends and family! Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a great 2010~

Wandering around EBay today I found an Angelic Pretty Lolita dress in a size that would fit an American! Not a twiggy wanna-be Japanese girl American but a regular American with boobs and hips! This caught my eye since the only way I envisioned seeing any of this style of clothing on anyone I knew was if I made it for them or they stitched it up for themselves! MOST of my friends are NOT fat - they are just "normal" ladies with boobs, hips and stuff that doesn't seem to exist any farther East than Hawaii! Not that Japanese girls aren't lovely - THEY ARE! BUT if an American desires to dress in their fashions they are out of luck unless they happen to be built like a petite Japanese girl! My friends who do Lolita mostly make their own clothes and do a super job of it! BUT I know they would LOVE to wear the real thing" if they could find it in their size! Anyone who has anything to do with Lolita fashion in Asia take note - IF you make a line for American ladies THEY WILL BUY IT! TRUST ME!

If you saw my spine X-Rays you would understand the Franken-back' reference! I now have 4 bolts in my back that look like what is sticking out of Frankenstein's neck times two so there you go! If I could get a good screen cap of my X-rays I'd post them and let everyone see what was done to me! I AM feeling better! I AM driving (even though technically I am not supposed to!) but I can only drive trucks or SUV's or vehicles you have to climb UP into! I can't be crouched down like you do to get into little Japanese rice burners (like what I own) because it hurts too damn much to be in that position right now. What I can and can't do seems to vary by the day and the weather! Overall I am still sore but I mostly feel the pain at the END of the day. I wake up moderately sore but after a day on my feet and being active, doing my therapy, etc. I am reaching for the pain pills so I can get a nights sleep. I don't take pain stuff during the day anymore - only at night - so THAT is a major improvement IMHO! Still can't work though because the drive to my job is an hour and I can't sit in ANY car that long without being in pain. SHORT trips I can do but long ones hurt. I want to go to doll meets while I am recovering but so far all the ones I saw were out of my comfortable driving zone :(
But it's early in the month so I have hope something might pop up in Denton, Flower Mound or Lewisville...!

Good news and bad news. Good news is it's been 24 days since my spinal fusion surgery and I'm healing well. My physical therapy is going along and I walked a MILE today! Yay! I was so tired and sore afterwards I passed out on the sofa for an hour but each day I'm able to walk more and more which is a good thing. Bad news is the doctor said I can't drive for 3 MONTHS which means my feets are going to be all the transportation I will have unless I bum rides from friends and family. So I am going to double my walking efforts so I'll at least be able to walk to the nearest strip mall where the Albertsons is so I can do some minor shopping and stuff like going to the bank, dry cleaners, drug store, etc. Being stuck at home blows but Ive been using my time well. I'm actually getting sales off my listings on Amazon which makes me happy since I can't work until I'm able to drive again. I'm also going to be listing stuff on EBAY to get up some cash to cover my bills while I'm laid up. I've also been experimenting with making Gothic Lolita clothing for 60 cm ball-jointed dolls. All that lace and frills is a bit much for my old sewing machine to handle but I'm making it work. When I fall into the money pit I am replacing that 40 pound dinosaur I've been using since I learned to sew decently with something light weight that does embroidery stitches!! In the meantime I am making do with what I have and having fun trying to figure out the patterns in the Gothic and Lolita Bibles I have (which have ALL the directions in Japanese!!) and am making neat stuff for my girl dolls. Anyoen coming to YuleCon will see my efforts at the BJD Fashion Show at the con!!

I had my spinal fusion surgery on Wednesday October 21st.  While I was in the hospital I was on a morphine drip and a regular IV.  The regular IV was how I got all the antibiotics and fluids and stuff.  The pain medicine was kept in this electronically controlled box and to get the machine to dispense the medicine I had to push a button that looked a lot like the Nurse's call button.  It would only dispense the medicine in 6 (or was it 8) minute intervals.  So the patient had to do a lot of clock watching to make sure they got the medicine and it took me a day to  figure it out (after calling the nurse like 6 times!)  I asked why I had to get the pain stuff that way instead of a pill or a shot and I was told that the way they had it set up got best results. Maybe if the data was collected over a LARGE group it showed overall a better result but it didn't work that well on me.  I had to clock watch very seriously for an hour to get in enough doses to notice any effects, AND the doses were 1ml EACH.  So to get a "normal" shot  which might be like 10ml  to 12ml  I would have to sit there and press the button 10 to 15 times which would translate to staying focused on the medicine gathering task for like 2 HOURS.  Supposedly if you keep dosing yourself 1 time every 8 minutes you will keep a more level amount in your body and not get LOTS of pain/NO pain spikes and valleys that can happen with shots of pain medicine.  It's a good idea but you need to have the level you want as your happy medium to be comfortable enough for the patient doesn't dread that little urge to go to hit the head.  Put another way - when it's so bad you ASK to be catheterized just to avoid the walk to the bathroom - THAT is majorly bad.   People thought there was something wrong with me because I complained about the morphine drip.  I'd have no problem with it if it was AUTOMATIC.  Like I had to turn it OFF if I didn't want it.  THAT I could do.  It was spending 5 days checking to see if it was time yet that irked me.  AND being drugged up with EX-LAX and stuff like it because you'll explode if you don't drop a healthy crap the day after major surgery  pissed me off to no end.  I barely ate anything the days preceding my surgery and just drank lots of water, juice and like stuff like that in the day or so after. So what happened? My body said F U to all the "gonna make you poop" medicine and returned it ALL rather explosively all over the bathroom floor.  Well force feeding me that crap ended right there. AND I did "go" on my own 2 days after the surgery with NO HELP from the potty patrol. So now that I am home I go potty when I need to, drink lots because food and I are a little on the outs, look at my meds a little puzzled because they ALL say "4 to 6 hours as needed"  and walk around in a bit of a daze because the house IS STILL CLEAN!!!!!! :)

My friend Barbara has 9 ADORABLE kitties that are just made of love and fur and live for the lovings! HOWEVER, they are indoor/outdoor cats in that they go  out to roam and do their "business" and hang inside to eat and be with their people.  Downside of kitties that do this is they can get into the local fauna and well when you cuddle them they can pass along what they got into. So I cuddled a cat that go into the poison ivy and I now have poison ivy on the insid eof my elbows and arms from when I carried the kittie around like a baby!!  So...I have this lovely itchy rash and am slathering on the creams to keep the rash from spreading and the itch from gfetting unbearable.  Does this mean I'll stop loving on Barb's cats? NO! I'll just remember to wear LONG SLEEVES next time I go over to visit and cuddle on her little balls of love and fluff!  :D

I saw PUBLIC ENEMIES - it was okay.  I liked HALF BLOOD PRINCE and TRANSFORMERS ALOT MORE!

I passed my Life and Health Licensure Exam with an 80 on Sunday! YAY! I had to pass this as part of my training at my new job! GOD that test was HARD!!  So much facts, figures and stuff. I am NOT good at memorizing numbers - I'm better at concepts and definitions.But it's OVER and once I submit the paperwork to the state of Texas and get my official license I can start working and GETTING PAID!!  I still have one more hunk of training to go through for another license but I was told I don't have to rush and do that immediately.  I can give my brain a break and work for a while, make some money and then sign up for the Securities class.  I need to get a license to sell securities because my company is a financial services group and they mange people's stock and bond and mutual funds portfolios and a rep can't look at that stuff legally until they are licensed. 
So getting THAT license will be my next goal but I'm going to wait until after I have my back surgery to start work on that.  I'll be laid up in bed anyway for a few weeks anyway after the operation so spending my recovery peiod with a fat textbook to keep me busy makes sense!  I go in early October for the operation so I should be up and around in time for Halloween!  My biggest ptoblem will be finding a costume idea that will work around a back brace.....!
:)

I wish that one of the 300 resumes I put out to 300 possible employers turns into a JOB!  I had only 3 interviews from those 300 resumes and I NEED WORK!  I owe 50K to Baylor Hospital and that bill isn't going to pay itself!  So my wish for June is for a JOB!!

In an hour and a half I am OFF WORK and OFF to A-KON!  I had all my actual work done by 10AM but have to stay until my shift ended at noon.  I get paid for the hours I am here but I wish I could have left early to be at the con!  I picked up my badge Thursday afternoon fighting Dallas traffic BOTH ways to get to the Convention center to do that but it was worth it.  All I have to do now is go home, change into con clothes and get my butt to Dallas!  Won't be able to afford to shop because my job ends June 1st but at least I'll get to see all my friends and hang out, do the panels and see all the cool cosplay! A-KON gets bigger every year - soon it's going to be as big as Otakon if it keeps growing the way it has been growing. This is it's 20th year! OMG!  It's the oldest anime convention in Texas.  I like going to A-KON but I stopped wotking this con because I liked doing gaming track and unless you ran CCG tourneys or video gaming it wasn't a well-attended bit of programming.  I will be going to AnimeFEST also at the end of tyhe summer and hope to be in Artist Alley for that show like I was last year.  I didn't sell much but I had fun hanging out with everyone in the Alley so it was cool.  Hope to see some of you LJ folks at A-KON!!

Just returned from Steppes Warlord which has been dubbed Waterlord because of all the RAIN that descended upon us Saturday night! No, nothing floated away in the monsoon and my tent held up far better than I thought it would but it was still a soggy Saturday in the campground. For those of you don't know me very well I'm into medieval re-enacting and this weekend was a major event my re-enacting group holds every year in Canton (they use the site that is home to Canton First Monday Trade Days).  Despite the wetness, I had a blast! TWO members of the household I'm a part of got married in a traditional Byuddhist ceremony.  A section of the campground was turned into a Shinto Shrine and a Buddhist temple for the wedding.  The wedding party (and especially the bride and groom) did A LOT of work to turn the campsite into a slice of Japenese heaven.  It was really incredible and I was glad I was asked to be a part of it!  The next big camping event is 30 Years which celebrates how long our group has been around bringing the middle ages to life.  Should be fun and a load drier since 30 Years takes place in July!! I know I haven't played in the game much but I promise to try to be more active once school is out (my last day is June 1st)!  It's just that my free time lately has been spent with my friends here rahter than the ones I've made in cyberspace (sorry guys!)

After mailing out 200+ resumes and cover letters to middle and intermediate schools in 10 COUNTIES I may have a nibble! One of the principals I wrote to actually CALLED ME for an interview!  It's to teach a 5th grade self-contained class of about 19 or so students in a SMALL school in Milford Texas.  The school has all grades K-12 housed in one building and the student body there int he WHOLE SCHOOL is like 250 kids!  Milford is a small town about a half-hour away from Waxahachie where Scarborough Renfair is held.  Its 90 minutes in GOOD traffic from Keller which means I'd have to move down there if they give me the job.  Even f I moved there I'd still come back to Keller every weekend sin e Keller is my REAL home and anything I got down there would just be work week crash space. 
I'm still hoping a school CLOSER to me calls but after the dismal results from the last bunch of teacher cattle calls (aka "job fairs") I went to I'm not in a position to hold out too long.  I've got 2 big strikes against me - a Masters degree and teaching experience - which means only a district that can't get a new graduate teacher for the job MIGHT have to look at someone like me.  The last 2 jobs I got were from "desperate" districts that couldn't get the cheap help and had to pay what the State of Texas says you have to pay for a teacher with a Master's degree plus X years of classroom experience. 
I'm willing to do what it takes to stay in teaching.  I'd LIKE to teach for a district in my area but Keller is notoriously cheap and tends to recruit teahcers right out of college so it's unlikely they will even pay attention to the resume I sent them. ALl th eother districts I wrote to that had science postions I'm HOPNG at least look over my credentials.  I went to 2 HUGE job fairs in April and left 50+ resumes and didn't get so much as a email in reply.  The big one that was supposed to go on in may got cancelled because of the Swime Flu.  So HUGE  lost chance to get a job because that fair was supposed to have like 100 schools at it with jobs!  ALL of those schools got letters and resumes from me via the post office.  AND one of them actually contacted me (which was the Milford School) so I'm going to go out there and see what happens.
AND if they are the ONLY school offering me a job by the end of July I'm taking their offer and relocating.  Sorry to say this but I owe over 60K (most of it on a bank loan that covered a HUGE doctor bill)  and no one is going to pay that money back for me.  I NEED a job.  I HAVE to work.  I'd rather do that here in Keller but sometimes you have to sacrifice what you like to take care of responsibilities.  It sucks but you do what you gotta to get the job done.  Everyone will still see me but it'll be only on the weekends! 
Hey - if you have any friends on school boards and want to put int he good word for me I'd appreciate it! I'd love to stay here but I NEED A JOB to do that!  See some of you at A-KON!

There are days when I like being here in Texas and other days when I wish I never moved here.  Today is one of those days I wish I was still living back in NJ when I had no horrible debts and was teaching at  a very cool school.  Right now I am teaching at a great school but it's a private school which means that because of the economy and enrollments going down I have no job after this term is up.  I've been plastering the DFW metroplex with my resume and hitting every job fair I can get to - will be going to the largest teacher job fair in the DFW area on Monday May 4th.  Losing a day's pay to do it too since - unlike ALL the other teacher job fairs I've been to that were run on weekends when people have off work  - the brain trusts in charge of running THIS huge job fair HAVE to do it on a Monday!  Guess they figure teachers that are already working won't come leaving room for all of us who have no jobs come next fall.  Schools from like 10 counties I think will be there and I am desperate enough to take a job that forces me to move so at least I have an income.  I CAN'T afford to have no job.  I'm $80,000 in debt and NEED to pay that money back ASAP.  And the sad thing is I had NO debt when I moved here. ALL that came from 6 YEARS of combined under-employment and NO employment and BILLS up the ass AND a week's stay in the hospital for surgery that was NOT 100% covered by insurance.  So if ANY of my Texas friends want to know WHY I can't afford to do anything that costs money NOW YOU KNOW!  I'm still up for cheap events like my local RPG group, matinee movies, SCA, and doll meets but conventions (except those I'm staffing) and stuff that involves wear and tear on the car is out.  I still want to stay in touch with my friends that aren't local.  The Internet is a great tool for reaching out and touching someone (and so is the telephone!) so I'll be online to hang out whenever I'm not out pounding pavement in my job quest!

EDIT NOTE - NO MORE BIG JOB FAIR ON MAY 4th. Some clown thinks we;re all infected with the pig flu so they cancel what SHOUD HAVE BEEN the BEST networking for teaching jobs for like 10 counties.  This blows man.  Moe I am scrambling to put together resunms with attention grabbing cover letters and tear shrrts from science magazies Im publidhrf in. am so tired my typing if fail,  I'll br puttinh likr 100 resumes in the mail monday ansscatterung them to the winds and prasyer they get into goof hands.All I need is 1 good paying job teachuing sciene and all will be well../ Weell keep you podrf/  zzzlogginh noe got zzzzzzzzzzz

Sweet - I do kids breakfast cereals to get my brain its glucose injection so I can face the morning commute at oh-dark-thirty to get to school!

I don't eat when I'm depressed as a rule.  However, if it's the "Winter Blues", you know, its -10 outside and you just came home after braving a LONG day at work and commuting home in the cold then NOTHING beats a hot bowl of home made chicken noodle soup (or Campbell's if you're like me and not living with Mom anymore!) and a "sammich"!   Something that reminds me of home always makes me feel better on a cold winter day!

Hugh Laurie (He's HOUSE in House!)  He's actually from the UK (fakes a good American accent for the Fox TV show!) but I think he'd LOVE the chance to work on a classic British series where he can be himself and show off his other talents (the guy has music chops too!)
Just my .02!
Dr. T