Last night someone was fiddling around with the yellow lever inside my seat, and now my seat won’t open. My purse is inside and I’ve tried everything. I’ve even tried finding the actual seat lock cable and pulling on it, but nothing. I HAVE to get my purse out of there!!! HELP!!!!

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UPDATE: Well, in one final fit of desperation, I hit the key in the seat release position really hard, willing it to push the release, and it worked! The forum at urbanscootin.com really helped a lot. Phew.

Where to start!?

I think a good place to start is that I got a promotion! Whoo hoo. On July 21st I am starting my new position of Manager of IT Operations for a new off-site facility. It is a great opportunity for me to use the skills I’ve acquired over the past 5 years and to learn a whole lot more about everything IT. Its very exciting and I’m doing my share of celebrating.

Tonight I went to the French Quarter Cafe with my co-worker/friend Melissa to see her husband perform. He was really excellent and its a surprisingly cool venue. The stage itself was pretty impressive. I ran into my blogger buddy, Annie Parsons, who was slated to perform after a few more rounds. I thought we would stay long enough to see her, but we ended up heading out before she got ready to play. I really hope I can see her perform soon, since she is totally Nashville-music-scene worthy.

Speaking of Nashville music scene, a friend and I went to a friendly Irish bar in Green Hills as phase II of our night out last night and enjoyed the musical stylings of….some guy who did covers. Sorry, didn’t catch his name. We all sang loudly and threw darts and had a great time. Until one of us slipped in the rain in the parking lot. Yeah…that’s gonna hurt.

OMG, is the mom in “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” new??? She has the same hairdo, same body structure, but she doesn’t walk the same or have the expressionisms. Yes, expressionisms. And yes, I watch the Disney channel. Hannah Montana is on next.

Speaking of Hannah Montana…oh, I cant. But I’m working on something exciting that may eventually involve her. Hopefully. We’ll see. Night loves.

Yesterday I got back from a week at the beach and, boy, is it hard to be back. The trip was really great and I enjoyed spending time with my mom and brother.

My mom arrived in Nashville on Saturday so she got to see my new apartment and sleep in my brand new guest bed. It was nice to have her here, if only for one day, to see my new digs and know that I’m safe.

We left for Norfolk on Sunday around 4pm and arrived on time around 6:30pm. Got our rental car and drove to Nags Head, NC where my brother had already checked in to our hotel. My mom had found this cute hotel called the “Surf Side Hotel”. Its a beach-front hotel, with 3 pools, and a 2-bedroom suite that faces the ocean. We were only staying for 4 nights, so my mom didn’t want to rent a condo (but let me tell you, if I ever go back, we’re renting a condo or beach house. Those things are AWESOME!).

The room was really cute and comfortable, but there was one unfortunate circumstance we had not anticipated. The fires in NC had driven all the little gnats to the ocean. And the ocean wetness drove all the little gnats into the nearest hotels. So, when we arrived, we noticed a few dead gnats on the tile floors (where there was tile, because the room was mostly carpet). At first it was just a few, but as the night went on, I noticed them on the bedspread, desk, and in the bathroom. By the morning, there were HUNDREDS of dead gnats and many live ones in the room. We called a few other beach-front hotels and they were all having the same problem.

Those of you who know me know I’m not great with bugs. Okay, I really despise the little creatures. But I can deal with them when I am in their territory…you know, hiking, camping, whatever. But when they invade MY safe, clean hotel room and make it unbearable, I cannot stand it. Luckily I wasn’t the only one with qualms, so my mom and brother and I decided to find another place.

My brother’s friends, Sam & Bea, just happened to be staying on Roanoke Island, which is still the “Outer Banks”, but is on the Sound instead of the ocean. His friends confirmed that they were NOT having the gnat problem there, so we went to visit the little inn where they were staying. Located right on the Sound’s edge in the town of Manteo, the Tranquil House Inn is an adorable 4-story inn with single, double, and suite rooms. My mom was really intent on having an ocean view to begin with, so when we were forced to flee to the island, she was glad to see they had a sound-front room available. The room was so pretty and they have a gorgeous deck that looks out over the marina.

We were very pleased with our choice to move to Manteo, even though we were no longer right on the ocean and away from the hustle and bustle of the main drag, still only an 8-minute drive away. Monday and Tuesday were unbearably hot though. We barely did anything those first two days. I went to the beach once with Sam & Bea, but it was just too hot to stay outside very long.

Luckily, Wednesday and Thursday turned out to be gorgeous days, so we took advantage of it by going to the beach and checking out some of the local tourist sites, such as The Elizabethan Gardens, named after Queen Elizabeth I, The Aquarium, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the oldest and tallest brick lighthouse in the country, and the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial.

We also got to know a few locals and spent our nights at “Poor Richards“, a sandwich shop by day, a hopping locals bar at night. I almost went parasailing, but was told, compared to skydiving, it’s really not that exciting, so I saved my $80 for something else!

All in all, we had a really great time in the Outer Banks. I can see why people fall in love with it and go back year after year. Although next time I’ll probably try to stay on the beach, I highly recommend Manteo for small families or romantic getaways.

After returning from a week on vacation, and thus a week’s worth of blogrolls to catch up on, this has got to be my favorite Cheezburger post of them all:

Finally! I finally scored a goal! Sure it was in the last 5 seconds of our last game of the season, but what a way to end it! Play-offs were yesterday and we won our first game 6-2. Then, 2 hours later we came back to play again. We were about to be shut-out by the other team when I called for the ball, and placed it right in the corner of the goal. I jumped, we cheered, and the ref blew the whistle to call the game. So, we lost, but I was pretty proud of my shot. Now I’m all pumped up, and have no more games to play.

Not this season anyway!

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m not posting much because my life is kind of at a stand-still for a while. And since I know this is a public forum and know it can be read by anyone, I’m not publishing my thoughts on the situation, just because it makes it more difficult.

Everything was supposed to be “final” last week, but, handling this on my own (aka sans attorney), I missed an integral step in the process and arrived at court only to find out I didn’t actually secure the date. It was quite upsetting at first, as you can imagine, but I soon came to grips with it and worked fast to take the necessary steps to secure the next available date, which is next week. If all doesn’t go as planned, it will be another two weeks before I get another slot. Its not that I’m in a hurry, but I don’t want to prolong the situation either.

One positive is that I’m going on vacation soon with my mom and brother. We’re going to the Outerbanks, which has been frequently suggested to me as a place to visit. So my mom is flying into Nashville next Saturday, and then we fly to Norfolk, where we’ll meet my brother, and drive to Nags Head for a week on the beach. I am very much looking forward to it.

The injury that was a result of my water sports accident last weekend is almost completely healed. I had the stitches taken out on Thursday and you can barely see it even now. Sorry, I don’t have any good pictures. I’m supposed to keep it covered with sunscreen to lessen the scarring, so that will be one of my primary tasks on my vacation.

Oh, and during my soccer games tomorrow. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Championship games, so if we win the first one, we’ll stay to play another one. I’ve had a week off and haven’t practiced at all. I hope I can hold up the whole game. Hopefully we’ll have at least 1 girl sub this time.

you hear about who do stupid things on the lake, especially on holiday weekends? Well, I think I might be one of them. I went out with a friend yesterday and, while inner tubing, hit my eye with my knee. Yes, it is possible…and I’ll show you how if you don’t believe me.

But anyway, I didn’t know it at the time, but I actually got a 1.5cm laceration deep enough to warrant stitches. Unless I could settle with a nice big scar above my right eye. Which I cannot. Here is said laceration:

So, yesterday I spent almost 4 hours in the Vanderbilt ED and was told I did indeed need stitches. Hurray! They did a really good job and it looks even better today:

Nice eye shadow, huh? I think I may put some on the other eye just so they match. Can’t wait to see how colorful it gets.

She finally did it. After years of promising to get a new computer “next year”, my mom finally up and bought a new MacBook:

Not only did she get a brand new computer (the previous one she’s had since 1995), but she upgraded from dial-up internet to wireless high-speed internet through Verizon. To overwhelm completely, she also now has 200 TV channels to watch on her 21-inch television set. Amazing.

The best part is she did it all without telling me or my brother. She has been planning the thing for months and even stayed home yesterday to wait for the Verizon guys to install all the equipment and to set up her new laptop. Then she sent an email, of all things, to let me know she was “wired” (even though she’s really wireless, but whatever, it was cute).

*sniff sniff* I’m a very proud daughter right now.

Now I remember why take-out and frozen dinners are smart choices when cooking for one. Fresh vegetables and bread seem to go bad quicker than they should. Or maybe I’m just not creative enough with the ingredients I have in my cabinet and fridge. That is very possible.

This week marks the half-way point in my project to fully implement the outpatient clinics on the new electronic surgery scheduling form. It has been a long road to get to here, over 3 years of investigation, development, and trial and error. To sum it up, this process allows clinic schedulers to use one form to request OR time, get their patient’s pre-certed for surgery, and schedule a pre-op evaluation appointment. Previously, it could take up to three forms to complete that process.

Additionally, this means that the OR schedulers, pre-cert staff, and pre-op eval staff now all receive the same form from these clinics, instead of every clinic sending their version of the form in a million different ways. The electronic form has been in development and testing for as long as I can remember, but our EMR is finally able to keep up with the advanced tasks we are asking it to perform.

Anyway, the actual implementation has been a huge accomplishment of mine over the past 4 months, and I hope to be completely finished by the end of summer!