UUUUGGGHHHH!

Today has been shitastic.

I was woken up earlier than my alarm to a jarring phone ringing, which I ignored for my extra hour and a half of sleep--that's valuable, dammit! It would've been valuable if it wasn't for my cat thinking that my phone call was my alarm, which meant it was time for noms. He did his standard "feed me" routine. Meow, lick plastic, meow, lick plastic, meow, meow, meow, jump on bed, stand and walk on Mama's hair and lay down on her head. My hour and a half was spent trying forcefully to sleep rather than sleeping.

When my alarm went off, I fed the near-death starving cat and checked my voicemail. It was from the Emily Program, stating that my 10:00 AM appointment was cancelled due to the doctor being out. I called back to try to reschedule for a time outside normal working hours, and when I did, the person at the desk said that a nurse was coming in at 11:00 AM to sub, if I'd like to still come in today. I debated on that. Ultimately, yes, I did want to come in today, but my psychiatrist wanted the blood to be drawn as close to 12 hours after my last dose of Lithium as possible, which that would be 13 hours... Close enough, I decided, and it doesn't conflict with work. I told them I'd be there.

In the meantime, I surfed the interwebs. I checked my email to see a message from Dara at my new job. She was writing to tell me of her excitement about my acceptance of the position. She said that the hours of the position were standard working hours of 8:00 to 4:30 (sweet!), but that she wasn't sure if those would change a bit during the first couple of days. She would check and let me know. She also said that the background check wasn't processed yet, so I wouldn't be starting tomorrow as planned. But hopefully on Wednesday. UGH. Are you serious? I am dying here. I need my structure!

Anyway, I got to my appointment and ended up waiting until almost 11:30 while this sub-nurse got situated. Then we managed to get back to a doctor's room and proceeded to putz around another fifteen minutes while she located all of the materials. It was almost noon before she started feeling my left arm for the veins. Now, my veins are always tricky to find, but they're never impossible. This lady poked once and managed to fill one tube before losing the vein (how do you lose a vein halfway through...?). She abandoned that arm and tried the other one. She poked three more times and failed each one. Each time, she tried a different home remedy to make it easier. "Here drink two glasses of water." or "I'll just put on this hot cloth for a minute." or "I'll use this blood pressure cuff!" Ultimately, she gave up and went to get another doctor in the clinic, who came in, took two glances at my arms said, "Nope, you have unsatisfactory veins. We'll have to ship you to Fairview. Sorry!" After that, my things were gathered up and I was ushered out with the assignment of make my own damn appointment and find my own way. UGH. Are you kidding me? I should've known to just do it at my usual clinic, instead of at the Emily Program. What a joke.

I thought about going directly to Fairview and getting it just out of the way and done with. But by that point, it was 12:30, and I was well-over pushing it with that 12 hour rule. Besides, I figured I'd have to have an appointment of somekind, even with just a lab. Sigh.

I sat in the parking lot a little bit and just played on my phone...until it started it's nasty little powercycle loop habit. That did it. FINE, I thought, LET'S END THIS. I drove to Edina to the Sprint store I was familiar with and charged up to the representative. "I need this fixed. It bootloops when I use it too much," I said. He said that it could be a battery or a software issue and brought it back to the technical support team. They said it would be about forty minutes for the testing. Fine, that's fair. I walked around the strip mall. Old Navy. Office Max. Nothing too interesting. I love window shopping. I really want a case for my phone, I've decided, but not one from Sprint. Those are a bit pricey. Cha-ching.  Anyway, after 40 minutes, I checked on the progress of my phone and was told it'd be another 20 minutes. Grr. O-kay. I putz around in the store. I use their phone to try to call Arun and let him know what's up. No answer. I check email and send a few out.

After 20 minutes, I check the status again and see my phone is on the counter...bootlooping still. "What's going on," I asked, skeptically. I'm told that it's a processor issue, but that they don't have the parts in stock yet. Hopefully tomorrow, but they're not sure. They'll send me a text message when they are. And after I get that text message, I can just swing on by and get that all replaced. ...oh, I can, can I? Then he hands me my still broken phone, and I am expected to leave. I do leave. UGH.

I just feel like I've started a lot of things today and nothing's gotten finished. It's all just processing. UGH. UGH.



Not for lack of trying though. I did call Fairview to make an appointment for tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM for my labs to be done. Hopefully, that will all workout. I'll take my pills tonight around 9:30 PM to compensate for any possible delays there might be. I'll drink plenty of fluids today and tomorrow morning to make sure I'm hydrated (apparently dehydration makes drawing blood more difficult).

As for the Sprint and job issue... only time will help with those. All I can do is just sit with the fact that I cannot change the situation that I'm in.