blast....am I that predictable?

Wendy's Challenge

4 Jobs I've had
1. Various Retail stores
2. Nanny
3. Academic Services Associate
4. Music Librarian

4 Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. A&E Pride and Prejudice
2. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. Anastasia (it's a cartoon but i love it anyway)
4. The Shawshank Redemption

4 Places I've Lived
1. Park City (5 different houses in 15 years)
2. Salt Lake City
3. Claremont, CA
4. Different place in Salt Lake City

4 TV Shows I Enjoy
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Lost
3. Law & Order: SVU
4. What Not to Wear

4 Places I've Been on Vacation
1. London
2. Paris
3. Lake Powell
4. San Fransisco (but I'm a little bitter right now)

4 Favorite Restaurants
1. Pagoda
2. Patty's
3. Paradise Bakery
4. Rumbi

4 Websites I Visit Daily
1. blogspot.com
2. gmail.com
3. msn.com
4. tmz.com

4 Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
1. London
2. in bed
3. my own place
4. Somewhere fun I've never visited

4 People I Think Will Do This
1. Annie
2. Wendy-but she already did it
3. Ash..maybe?
4. KT
(tag, you're it!)

The Horrible, no good, very bad day...

Just a quick disclaimer...this is going to be a long post, so for the weak at heart beware...(that means you, damien)

You know the saying, "when it rains, it pours"? I have felt the full force of that obnoxious cliche this week. So....here we go. I flew to San Fransisco on Sunday afternoon for my interview with Google on Monday morning. My flight got in at noon so I had the entire afternoon and evening to bum around and a rental car to do it in. After stopping by my hotel to check in and being told by the snotty front desk person that check in time wasn't until 3pm (how was i supposed to know that? I didn't book my room, the nice people at Google did that for me) I decided to go into the city and see some of the sights. Little did I know that "going into the city" meant driving at least an hour. After driving an hour and taking a slight detour to a target i finally get into "the city". It was a 20 degree temperature change from my hotel in Mountain View and it was foggy and slightly misting. I'm driving around trying to find the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. No matter how many times I consult my mapquest directions or the map the rental car place gave me, it's no use. I basically drove an hour to drive my SFU. I give up and drive back to Mountain View and reach my hotel, tired, hot and hungry. I check into my hotel and order a pizza because i am far too tired to put forth the effort to go out and find a restaurant and i have a feeling the person at the front desk isn't going to be too helpful. So I spent the evening in my hotel room eating mediocre pizza and reading Harry Potter. Could have been worse.

Monday morning. I'm supposed to meet Camille Hart at 9:30 in the lobby of 1400 Crittenden at the Google complex. I present myself to the receptionist at 9:15.

"Hi. My name is Kelly Buie. I have a 9:30 appointment with Camille Hart." The receptionist types away at her computer and says to me,

"Camille isn't in today."

"......"

The next 40 minutes are spent trying to find out who i'm supposed to met with. Turns out it's a guy named Tom. Tom is in a different building. Tom has a meeting he needs to be at at 10:00. It's 9:50. He gets my cell number and tells me he'll call me later and we'll meet some time this afternoon...noonish. My flight back to Utah doesn't leave until 5:00, no biggie. I am to now wait for Jason. Jason shows up at 10:10. We have our little interview and after he asks me where I'm going next. I tell him, I'm supposed to meet Sheela to take the Admin test. Not sure which building or who Sheela is because no one ever tells me their last name. After figuring out what building Sheela is in i get back in my car and make the 5 minute drive to the other side of the Google complex to Sheela. Walking to my car, my heel catches on the steps and i almost do a face plant on the sidewalk. I settle for slightly tweaking my ankle. It doesn't hurt too bad so i ignore it and move on.

I present myself to the receptionist in the lobby. "My name is Kelly Buie. I'm supposed to meet Sheela to take the Admin test." (sounding familiar???) The receptionist looks at me
and says,

"Sheela who?"

Again..."I don't know." Because no one ever thinks it would be a good idea to tell me their last name and I, in all my smartness, forget to ask.

So the receptionist spends about 15 minutes trying to find Sheela and i'm sitting in the lobby watching people come and go. He finally finds sheela and she's only passed me about 4 or 5 times already. So i go in and take the Admin Test. It's two LSAT type logic games. But these aren't your typical LSAT logic games...i've done those. I can do those. They're hard but i can do them. The Google Logic games are like LSAT questions on acid. They make no sense. I do the best I can, which wasn't very good, and go to find Sheela. She's not in her office where she said she would be. Turns our she's gone to lunch and didn't bother to tell anyone that I was in there.

She shows up and asks if Tom has called me yet. Nope. She goes in to call him. Turns out he's in a meeting for the rest of the afternoon and won't be able to meet with me. I'll have to come back tomorrow. I politely tell her, "I'm flying back to Utah this evening." She gives me a blank look and goes back to call Tom. "He'll call you later this week for a phone interview. Thanks for coming in. Bye." doesn't even bother to walk me out.

It's about 1:30 at this point and i've got some time to kill before I need to return the rental car. I drive back in the direction of my hotel so i can get back to the airport. I get lost...again...thanks mapquest. I get some lunch at Togos (probably the highlight of my trip, sad yes?). I fill up the rental car and head to the airport...again, getting lost. (Mapquest, i hate you). I finally make it to the airport and i'm thinking...."thank goodness! nothing else can really go wrong at this point." I walk into the bathroom to change out of my interview clothes and they had just finished mopping the floor but didn't put up a "slippery when wet" sign and i'm wearing heals. Needless to say i go down...hard....on all fours. I'm embarrassed and in pain but i shrug it off. I change and go to my gate. My knee is throbbing and my ankle still hurts. As i'm sitting there waiting for my plain, my knee is getting larger and it's harder to walk. Awesome. I get on the plane and get home. I get a phone call from Google telling my that I didn't pass the Admin test (duh) and that they would not be pursuing my application.

Whoop-di-flippin'-do! After getting lost three times (thanks again, mapquest!), falling twice, hurting my ankle, banging up my knee and my hip...i really don't care that i didn't get the job working for the completely unorganized company that basically had no idea that i was coming.

I wake up on Tuesday and basically spend the entire day recovering from Monday. If i'm honest with myself, I'm disappointed that I didn't get the job. BUT thankfully i don't really have the time to linger on it too long before life forces something else for me to fixate on. Yes, it doesn't stop there.

I went to the doctor Wednesday morning. Turns out, no, I don't have PCOS. I have Hypo-thyroidism and Pituitary Cushings disease. What's that you ask? well...I'll tell you. After having an MRI (now that's a fun one) they found two "spots" on my Pituitary gland that will need to be surgically removed. The pituitary gland is located on the very front of your brain in between your eyes. yeah. my thoughts exactly. I have to do one more "test" to determine which of these spots, if not both of them, are causing the problem. To do this, they have to sedate me and stick something up my nose and take a blood sample from each of these spots. Sounds pleasant, no? After they've confirmed the source of the problem i then will be referred to a Neurosurgeon who will actually perform the surgery. It's a 2-3 day hospital stay and then recovery time at home afterwards. And because your hormone levels are normalizing you feel like crap for a while afterwards. Maybe i'll get lucky and i'll get my own personal McDreamy.

But wait...it doesn't stop there!!!! Trying to schedule this last "test". My doctor said to have it done at LDS hospital...LDS hospital doesn't accept my insurance. University of Utah Hospital does so we call them up. No one knows what this procedure is. They've never heard of it. It takes my doctor's office to call them and faxing over the doctor's order for it for them to find someone that does the procedure. Comforting...yes? So no one is all that familiar with this procedure and they're going to stick a needle up my nose, towards my brain....right.

This coupled with my general distrust and dislike of medical personnel in general, does not bode well.

It's a slippery slope we climb

I have been doing so well. I haven't really thought about him too much and I don't jump and run when he calls. I was moving on. I thought I had moved on. And I got cocky. I thought...Wow! Look at me! I don't need him! Why was I so interested?! He is so not worth my time. And that's when it hits you. It blindsides you like a freight train. You had no idea it was coming because, "you are so over him"...duh!

I haven't really seen or talked to him a ton lately and I wasn't obsessing over it either, which is the surprising factor here. But he said something the other night and there was a look and i just can't get it out of my head. I keep replaying it in my mind and wondering over and over and over again - what did he mean? Was he going to say more? What is wrong with me?

Although, in my defense I will say this...the obsessive thinking and wondering is not to the fever pitch that it was before. It's more of a mellow obsessive thought process. I wonder what he meant by that but not enough to really dig for more information. If it happens to come up in conversation again, sure I may try to finagle more information out of him, but I'm not going to force the topic. I still have a tender spot in my heart for him. I wish i didn't but the truth of the matter is, I do and i guess i probably always will.

This blows.

I've got a bone to pick with you

I really think that whoever came up with the ingenious idea for WebMd should be dragged from their home and tarred and feathered. Well, that may be a little harsh, but they should be punished. I know they probably thought it was a great idea and it would be helpful to the masses but really, i don't think humanity (myself included) can handle it. That's why we have doctors. They go to school for years to learn this stuff and here we can just go online and self diagnose! Genius, really. Boredom and the Internet are bad enough as it is, lets add in the ability to diagnose our own illnesses. BRILLIANT! Really...brilliant.

Poked and Prodded...

I'm not sure why but I seem to have really bad luck when it comes to getting my blood drawn. It seems that I always get the people that have no idea what they're doing or are new. I went to get my blood drawn yesterday at the Salt Lake Clinic. My doctor told me to go at 7:30 am so I got there a little before that so I could sign in and whatnot. First I sat there for over an hour because the person doing the checking in was confused about my lap request. I had two. One was a standing order and the other was a one time deal that I was having done that day. She just couldn't figure it out and no matter how many times I told her she just couldn't seem to get it. And then you add in the fact that I was dropping off something too...it was just too much for her to handle. Second: So i finally get called back and the girl (different girl from the confused check-in girl) looked a little nervous and unsure of herself. That's exactly what you want in someone that is about to stick a needle in your arm and fill several large test tubes full of your blood. As she's getting everything ready she is looking up at the wall and a check list of things to do behind me. Again...not something you want in someone drawing your blood. She takes a good 2 or 3 minutes to find a vein that she likes. I generally have pretty good veins and it doesn't usually take that long. She then swabs my arm several times and jams the needle in the vein she finally decides she likes. She then fills 4 large test tubes and then puts the cotton ball on. She then proceeds to initial the paperwork and put the stickers on the tubes when she realizes that she forgot one. She looks at the sheet, counts the already filled tubes and then looks at my arm. She excuses herself quickly and I can hear her talking to the other phlebotomist asking her to come and do the other one. The other girl walks in and gets the other tube in about 2 minutes. So if you ever have to go to Salt Lake Clinic to get your blood drawn, just hope and pray that you get Brittany and not Juliene.

So i got poked twice yesterday and once the person had no idea what they were doing. I don't like people in the medical profession. I just don't. I'm sorry if that offends any of you out there but for people that are supposedly so smart and capable, they sure do mess up a lot. And i know they're people too and they make mistakes yadda yadda yadda...i don't care. I don't want my doctor making mistakes. I don't want to hear oops! or uh-oh. Even if you're not sure of what you're doing, don't let me know that! And again...phlebotomists aren't doctors, i know but if you're coming at me with a needle don't show me you're scared or uncertain.

While I was waiting an hour to get my blood drawn Elder Russell M. Nelson came in to get some lab work done too. As he walked in people watched him as he sat down and everyone was watching every step he took. One woman was walking by and she simply gushed.."Oh it is such an honor to shake your hand!" and moved on. Another woman was sitting behind him and kept looking over her shoulder at him and finally she said, "Oh Elder Nelson-it is such a privilege to hear you speak and to meet you!" Then there was the guy that was trying to play it cool. They were sitting next to each other and they were both reading the newspaper -one was reading the Trib and Elder Nelson was reading the Deseret News. The guy finished his paper and said, "Elder Nelson, i'd offer you my paper but it isn't any good today". Seriously...leave the guy alone! He's getting his blood drawn. Allow him a little privacy and peace and quiet. How would you like it if you were sitting in a doctor's office and every single person in the waiting room was watching you and more than half of them came up to you and started talking to you like they knew you. Leave the poor man alone!

Should I be worried....?

Maybe I don't react to these types of situations the same way "normal" people do. Maybe I don't actually believe it will happen. Maybe I've heard so many different things that I don't actually think this could be it. Maybe I've just gone through too many people telling me too many different things...all of which turned out to not be true. I'm over it.

Cryptic enough for you??

The Surreal Life...not just a television show

About a week ago, my sister claimed she saw Naveen Andrews at the Smith's Grocery store by our house. Naveen Andrews plays Sayid on "Lost". She and my brother-in-law said they saw him looking at hair care products. I wasn't so sure it was actually him. I mean, what on earth would he be doing in Salt Lake City? I mean, if you're going to visit Utah, you'd think he'd be staying in Park City or Sundance...not the Avenues in downtown Salt lake City. But then my younger brother said that his friend saw a bunch of the Lost cast at the Salt Lake Art's Festival. I still had my doubts that Annie and Travis actually saw him at the 6th Avenue Smith's Grocery store. So Annie and I were at this same Smith's on the 4th of July getting food for our little BBQ we were having that night. I look in the rear view mirror and see this guy driving by in an early 90's Oldsmobile-ish type car. I did a double take and yes, it was him. It was Naveen Andrews. He was at my Smith's. But again...what he's doing in Salt Lake City I have no idea and for this long too. It's been at least a week and a half since Annie and Travis saw him. So I have to say, I was wrong. Annie and Travis actually did see him and for whatever reason he's staying in the Avenues area.

I got an interesting phone call yesterday on my way home from work. I didn't recognize the number or the area code but I thought it might be someone calling from one of the jobs in Claremont that I sent my resume to. Usually I don't answer numbers I don't recognize because when I do, it's usually someone speaking very fast in spanish looking for a James something or other. It's a good thing I did answer the phone because it was Shelly from Google. They want to re-open my application. They're going to fly me out there in a couple of weeks to finish the interview process that we started last summer and I need to take the Admin test. I was stunned. I'm still in a little bit of a shock. It may change my moving plans. I would probably move sooner than if I move to LA. AND that throws a wrench in the plans for Katy and Sara. So i'm a little confused at this point.

Completely unrelated to Google or Sayid....I am completely frustrated with friends. (Damien this is for you). Why can't everyone just get along?! I don't understand why my friends just can't like each other. I mean really...it would make my life so much easier. And it's not that they won't be civil or polite to each other, because they're good people and aren't rude, it's just that they would rather not have to try-you know? It just ends up being an awkward evening of trying to bridge the conversation between groups of people. So I end up having to segregate my friends and divide up my time between them when really it would just be so much easier if they could all just be friends too! It would make life so much easier. It's annoying and i'm done with it. I'm going to hang out with who I want to hang out with, when I want to hang out with them. I'm tired of the quasi-guilt trips and the not so subtle barbs. Last time I checked, we are all adults and we should start acting like it. Don't get threatened if I decide to hang out with someone else.