Boring Update

Okay, it has been forever since I've updated (but I have a good reason, I swear). So here's some of the stuff that has happened in the almost four weeks since I last posted.

A Month of Goodies

• According to last week's endoscopy, I have a sliding hiatal hernia. Not sure as to the treatment yet, though they have put me on some acid reducers (hasn't helped yet but then I just started it yesterday). We will learn more details on the 12th when the results of the esophagram I had yesterday are in. (Also, I have pictures, but I really don't feel up to spending the time to get them on here right now - when I am feeling better).


• I feel like a human pincushion - I've had 5 IVs in 4 weeks. Of those 5 IVs, 4 of them included radioactive material so I should officially glow now. Oh yeah, and I drank barium yesterday. I am my own nightlight.


• I am currently on short-term disability so no work for me. Which I feel horribly guilty about, but since I can't even empty the dishwasher without having to nap and/or begging for death, it's probably the right move.


• I have learned that you can, in fact, hit your out-of-pocket max with your insurance in one month. Of course, we have good health insurance, so that out-of-pocket max is just $1,500 but still. One month? I find that impressive.


• Of course the reason I have hit the out-of-pocket max is all the things that have happened in the past month (in no particular order)... Ambulance trip to the ER, stress test, chest x-ray, blood tests, CT scan, celiac panel, HIDA scan, abdominal sonogram, esophagram and endoscopy. I think that's everything. Of course, that is excluding the multiple doctor and specialist visits I have had. Pretty much now I'm either sleeping on going to the doctor for an appointment or the hospital for tests.


• After a month of this, I am getting whiny (like you couldn't tell that) and grumpy.

Anyway, that's basically what's been going on. Sorry for those that have not gotten calls or emails returned. Most of the time I lose my breath so easily on the phone it is not comfy to talk and sitting up enough to type quickly causes me chest discomfort. Thank goodness for Xanax, though - the only reason I can type this blog right now and just be a little uncomfortable. Apparently it relaxes smooth muscle, which is what your GI track is so I'm thinking that maybe the hernia slides back down-ish to a more normal and comfortable position?

But enough of the health whine. GREAT hockey news! THE DUCKS HAVE WON THE STANLEY CUP! That's right, baby. Stanley cup! WOOOOO! I told Dan that they'd win the Western Conference in 6 games (and they did) and the Cup in 5 games (and they did)! So good job, boys! I was so happy, I cried. Yes, I admit it, I cried. Just a few tears - nothing like Teemu who had tears running down his cheeks while being interviewed. But then he's waited 15 years to hoist the cup. And you can bet that pictures will be posted of cuppy-goodness in the future.

GO DUCKS!

Oh, and one more thing before I go recline in a non-typing-friendly position. Harry Potter comes out next month (both movie 5 and book 7) so I've been surfing to see what news is out. I ran across some fanfic and one livejournal that takes the worst fanfic summaries and lists them for others to basically MST3K. It's really in the comments that it is hilarious. Some of them kill me. But it is long, so maybe best if you have nothing else to do besides sleep or watch horrible daytime TV (which I've been boycotting, it is so bad). Anyway, funny stuff. (Tracy, if you see this, I keep meaning to email it to you but yeah, that hasn't happened. I think you'd get a giggle out of it).

Now, I'm off to nap.

Woo hoo!

It is official! Harry Potter 7 coming out July 21!

I'm such a nerd, I pre-ordered it yesterday, which is the earliest Amazon would let me pre-order it.

Want to be a nerd like me? You can pre-order, too! Woo hoo! And if it anything like previous releases, you will have it in your grubby little hands the day of release.

Supposedly 2 big characters die. It can't be Harry. I know that. But after that I have no idea who will die. Snape? Malfoy? Hermione? Ron? Ginny? Six more months before I find out! AUGH! I can't wait!

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Woo hoo! Dan and I saw HP GOF last night - late last night. We went to an 11:20 showing of it - which didn't get out until 2:30! We were going to go to the 10:30 show, but we got there only an hour and a half early so the line was way long. So we exchanged our tickets for the next show and we ended up being first in line for that show - though people quickly came in after us. It looks like 2 hours is the minimum amount of time we can show up before an HP movie on the opening day. Crazy, huh? And that was a late movie. I can only imagine how the earlier showings were.

So a little bit about the movie - and be warned, there are some spoilers in here so if you haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, you might want to skip the following quote-block section:

I think the biggest complaint people have is that they left a lot of the book's subplots out and some characters, too. I didn't have a problem with that - after all the movie was already 2 and a half hours long. If they had included everything, it would have been insanely long. I thought they did very good streamlining the plot. Now, I haven't read the book in a good year so I don't have the details fresh in my mind - I can't say if that totally screwed up anything, but I don't think they did.

The movie was pretty dark. I think overall much darker than even PoA, even though PoA had the dementors. But I think that darkness totally fit into the feeling of the book - after all, this is the one where Voldemort comes back and the deatheaters regroup. Very dark topics!

And as dark as it was, there was some great humor, too. I especially enjoyed when Mad-Eye Moody turned Draco into a ferret as punishment. And there is part after Ron has asked Fleur to the Ball...the Beauxbaton girls were walking down the
hall - "And Harry, you know how I like it when they walk". Loved that. There's also a great study-hall scene with Snape. Very funny and one of Snape's best scenes in any of the movies, even though he didn't say a word.

The one disappointment was the musical score - it just wasn't all that hot. I've enjoyed the music of the other ones but this one was rather blah. It didn't ruin the movie for me, but it definitely didn't add to it as the others have. The final song in the credits was way funky - it didn't fit at all. But if a score is going to fail, I'd much rather it be unnoticeable (like it was in this) than be noticeably bad, so it could have been way worse. Ultimately, while it didn't add to the movie, it didn't detract.

All in all I thought it was a great movie. I am very tempted to go and see it again this weekend. I've heard it is even better the second time. Of course, I would not at all suggest it to people that haven't read the books or at least seen the previous movies - it is pretty steeped in the HP lore - stuff happens that isn't explained so people unfamiliar with the story would be lost. But honestly, who is going to see this movie that hasn't seen the first three?

Anyway, now that I've seen this movie, I'm all Harry Potter obsessed again. I just love Harry Potter. I feel like such a nerd - 27 years old and I think I'm going to have to make myself a Hogworts' scarf. Hehe. I can't wait to reread the series again. I am going to do that as soon as I hit book number 150 for this year (9 more to go, baby!), so next month or by January at the latest.

Oh, I also took a Sorting Hat quiz (okay, okay, I took quite a few of them). I was curious as to what house I'd go into - though I probably also did it because I'm a total HP nerd. The overwhelming response was that I should be in Ravenclaw.

"Here in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind."

So looks like I'll be making my Hogwarts scarf in Ravenclaw colors! (The sad thing is that I am not joking).

Catching Up

Okay, as Tracy so nicely reminded me in her comment - it is past time for me to do an update!

Let's see, what all has been going on? I went to a job fair yesterday. It went pretty well - even managed to get an interview with a company, which I went to this morning. The company seems very cool and everyone seems nice. It could be a fun job but it is an hour away, so there would be some trade offs. We'll see what happens there. I impressed the pants off of them (thankfully they were boxer men - haha, just kidding. But I did impress them). Had a few other meetings this week in Dallas - IRG (Independent Recruiter's Group) being one of them. So that meeting goes towards my credits needed for keeping my CPC up.

Oh, did I already post about this? I got my CPC!

YAY! Celebrate the CPC-ness, baby!

A CPC is a Certified Personnel Consultant. It has to do with employment law, specifically FMLA and EEOC goodies and the like. So yay! I'm quite proud of that. That is one thing I wanted to do this year (and that mom wanted me to do as well). So that pleases me. And now I get to have letters after my name - Amanda Zimmermann, CPC. Doesn't that greatly increase my coolness factor? I think it does.

Other stuff.... Late last week I met with a VP of HR who I was introduced to during my last job search. Now she impresses me all which way, she's a neat neat lady. I wanna be like her when I grow up! She's put me in contact with some great people so looks like that could be really good. I definitely want to keep in touch with her - she would be a great mentor if I get in and stay in the HR career track.

There are a few other things that have happened, but honestly probably nothing anyone wants to read about - networking, informational interviews over the phone, etc. Of course, the stuff that I've already posted probably isn't all that enthralling either, but that didn't stop me from writing about it, as you can see.

Oh, Dan and I have settled with the insurance company over the accident that totalled his Camry. We had the property bit of it taken care last month but just got the injury portion taken care of. Well, we have to sign the release and return it then we get the settlement. Once I am gainfully employed in a new position, we will be using that money to get Dan LASIK. Poor guy has had to wait so long. It's been a year since mine has been done and he really deserves to get all taken care of. He'll love it. I know I do.

And the last big news of the day is HARRY POTTER!!!! YAY!

HARRY POTTER!

Today is the release of the fourth HP movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Dan and I are going to see it tonight. I know that there were midnight showings last night and I really wanted to go, but with an interview this morning, I decided that would not be too smart since we wouldn't get home until about 4am. But I wanted to! I'm so psyched about getting to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I'm such a nerd! But that's part of my charm and you love me for it or else you wouldn't have read this far!

Harry Potter Kick

Okay, I'm on such a HP kick right now. I got HP and the HBP at about 1:30 Saturday and finished it at 10:01pm the same day. It was SO good! I admit it, I cried. The ending of the book was really the beginning of the next book, if that makes sense. I have heard that J.K. Rowling, when asked what her longest book will be, said the last one because years 6 and 7 are really one long book that are split into two parts. And I would totally concur, without even reading book 7 (though I would love to if it were out yet). But since I cannot read book 7 yet, I want to read anything HP-related.

So I'm off to search for HP stuff online and see if there is any idea when book 7 is coming out. Oh, and by the way, read HP 6 if you can - it's wonderful!

An interesting occurrence

Something very odd just happened.... I have nothing to read.

Well, I suppose I could start another book. But Harry Potter comes tomorrow and as soon as that comes in, I will start reading it, abandoning any book I have unfinished.

It's a very odd feeling. The urge to have a book by my side "just in case" is one that I never really noticed, however it is currently screaming at me. I am just now noticing how often I will carry a book from room to room, regardless of whether I actually read on it while in the new locale.

I potentially have as long as 23 hours before Harry finally shows up (fortunately, based on past experience, it should only be 16 hours or so, at least half of which I hope to be asleep).

Regardless, the lack of a book to have by my side has me currently very unsettled. Just thought I'd share. (And ask you to keep your fingers crossed that Harry comes soon!)

Pope and the peril of Harry Potter

OMG, this is ridiculous! The Harry Potter books are no more "occult" than I am even though I own a black cat. If I say more, I'm going to end up with a huge long book of a vent so I'll just post the link.

Pope and the peril of Harry Potter

HARRY POTTER

Okay, I just spent my lunch hour not eating, but surfing the net for Harry Potter info. It is this Saturday when book 6 comes out and I just can't wait! AUGH! Yes, I know I'm acting like I'm 12 but I can't help it - I WANT TO READ HARRY POTTER!!!

Amazon.com: Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)