No Laughing Matter

For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to find a little SUV for my mom.  She’s needing to get back and forth to doctors appointments and her old truck just isn’t reliable anymore.  It broke down on the way to Austen a few weeks ago so I began looking.  As I’m on the computer all day pretty much every day, I’ve been looking online.  A few days ago I found what I thought was a great deal, so I called the guy and made an appointment for a test drive today at 11:45.  The salesman said Ok and I hung up excited thinking I had found a good deal.

My good friend Jonathan (who I work with) agreed to go with me.  He knows cars and adds the male factor to what would otherwise be a, “Look here boys, we got ourselves a sucker/girl looking for a car!!” situation.  We got there right at 11:45 only to find out that the salesman I had spoken to earlier wasn’t due to come in until noon and the person who met us initially, upon finding out I had spoken to someone else already, decided he was going to go back inside and not help us.  No matter how much I asked, he flat refused. 

By this time I’m getting  a little hot under the collar.  The salesman I spoke to on the phone wasn’t there, the car he told me was available for a test drive was not on the lot and the jerkwod of a salesman we spoke to refused to help us.  Is that normal?  I can understand not wanting to snake someone else’s commission, but to flatly refuse any help whatsoever was astounding to me.

But wait, it only got worse.  Jonathan and I found another truck we thought was a good deal and requested the keys for it so that we could check it out while we waited.  Again, Mr. Jerkwod refused telling us that our salesman would “be here in a minute.”  I decided to wait in the car with the air on while we awaited the arrival of the other salesman.  A few “new” guys walk into the office while we sat there and when one of them came out I decided to get out and go see if he was the guy we needed to talk to.  He and Jerkwod were standing together outside the door when I walked up.  I asked if he was the salesman I was waiting for only to find that he wasn’t.  I asked them if he had arrived and was told that he had.  I then asked if one of them would go inside and ask him to come out only to be told he wasn’t there and that he was probably out on a test drive.

This whole conversation lasted a total of a minute during which Jerkwod and Jerkwod Jr. are snickering while we speak.  By this time I’m so mad I want to spit, but I keep it to myself, turn around and start for my car to leave.  As I turned they both busted out laughing.

All my life I’ve had people make rude comments to me about my weight calling me fat a— or mooing as I walked by.  I can’t prove it, but the first thing my mind did was imagine they were laughing at the fat chick and the black guy driving up together to buy a used car.  Lucky for me Jonathan is an awesome Christian guy and on our way back to work he talked me out of being mad at them for laughing at us.  I was so mad at them disrespecting him and me. 

And in case you’re wondering it was Joe Myers used car lot on 290 at Beltway 8. 

TMI, But You Know You’re Going to Read It Anyway

News Flash!!  I'm fat and for the most part I'm fairly OK with it.  I'd love to weigh what I did in High School when being fat meant I was 20lbs overweight (oh, to have those days back!), but I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that those days are done and dusted.  I think I'd be a seriously happy camper if I could lose 40lbs and get to an even 200.

Anyway, this post actually isn't about me losing weight, but about my weight in general and how I see others and their weight. 

When I was a teenager I loved to go to the mall.  No big surprise there, but while I was walking around I'd people watch.  For the most part I was watching how people interacted with each other; friends with friends, parents with children, husbands and wives, etc.

Where this goes downhill fast is when I would see fat people.  Now remember, at the time I was 20lbs overweight and sadly I thought I was HUGE!!  I would see these fat people and I would say to myself, hey, they've got someone who loves them so there's hope for me to find love.

In the years since it's morphed into something a bit different.  Maybe something a bit less destructive to my self image??  I see people who are considerably larger than me and I wonder if they wish they were my "fat."  Does that make sense?  I've (almost) moved away from the "no one loves me cuz I'm fat" mind set and replaced it with being grateful I'm not as fat as the lady across from me at Curves.  It's a weird kind of "things can always be worse, so stop complaining" way of thinking.

And just so you don't think I'm completely crazy, I have better body self image now at 36 than I ever did at 18 and I've added 60lbs to that original 20 (see body language pics below).  It's amazing what Faith, friends and a little therapy can do for a girl! :)

 

 

Resorting to Drastic Measures

Much to my surprise my office building re-opened Monday. ConocoPhillips decided to hold off moving their employees back in until we (IT and Tcom) verified that the network was up and running and that all printers were working properly, so my co-workers (the remote team and IT at the temp office location) and I walked each of my 9 floors Monday morning to verify. It was a little eerie being there with no one else on the floors.

With everything up and running employees began moving back in Tuesday and it has been nonstop chaos since! Overall it's been pretty seemless with only roughly 10 pc related problems that required fixing or replacing. Considering there are approximately 450 people in the building, I'm counting myself lucky!

But that's not to say working that many issues was a cake walk. My co-worker (actual guy who works with me at the office) and I have been BUSY --- hence the Mtn Dew! It's helped a little to wake me up, but I'm so ready for a day off and not just Saturday and Sunday. I need a vacation!!!

Did I mention my co-worker went on vacation with his fiance most of last week and Monday?? Yeah, he basically missed EVERYTHING! Ok, so he got back in time to help with the move in, but he got to miss all the stress of getting everyone setup at their temp location. The next disaster I'm taking vacation and he can deal with it! :)

Office Refugee

Ever had one of those days? Well, I’ve had one of those weeks!

That’s the below ground loading dock at the building where I work – four hours after it stopped raining Tuesday morning. Initially it was up over the road, in the parking garage and over the road behind the garage. The basement was completely flooded destroying all the electrical and HVAC in the building. I’ve spent the past 4 days relocating roughly 350 people to the building next door where 350 extra people don’t really fit! Lets just say there’s a lot of wiring running across a lot of floor space (taped down for safety).

Thankfully the IT guys had a little extra room in their area for me to pop a squat! Not that I’ve had much time to use it.

Oh, and my coworker (from the flooded building) went on vacation this week. I really hope he’s having a good time in San Francisco!!!!!!

Random pics of the flooding aftermath. The first is of Mayde Creek Bayou over by the house. It was up over the bridge until around 7 Tuesday morning. The rest are from Westheimer Parkway through George Bush Park as I was driving home today.