miishal

wow so who even uses lj anymore really? but I need a place to put this up that can handle things that are longer than a handful of words, and lj is still vaguely accessible in that regard. so here it will go until lj finally shuts down.

Essentially, I spent almost a week in the hospital having a 7cm endometrioma (chocolate cyst) removed from my left ovary. This was my first surgery, and these are a handful of observations and thoughts about that time. Warnings for tmi, bodily functions, hospital stuff, blood, and probably other stuff. It's not graphically detailed but I don't really leave too much out.

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Right now I'm sitting by my gate in Vancouver staring at my plane as they fuel it and load it up. It's pretty cool. In a couple hours I'll be boarding and then off to Japan for exciting times! The past couple weeks seem like a crazy blur of getting everything together, and that it's all fallen into place is amazing. Here I am, and here I go. Come get me, world!

Your rumours are true, I am falling off the continent at the end of the month. Things have been in the works for a while and I haven't wanted to say anything due to the slim chance that maybe somehow something would have happened, mail fire 2: sorting machine's revenge but seriously. I'm basically packing and getting rid of my shit, and waiting for my visa to arrive.

I'll be teaching at a preschool/young grades English immersion school in Koriyama. I am so excited you guuuuyyysssss! It's hard to believe there's only a week and a bit left to go though... it will both go quickly as well as drag at the same time as all momentous occasions go.

erhakjghaf I GOT MY POTTERMORE EMAIL YOU GUUUYYYSSSSSS

Today was one of the admin girls' last day, so we went as a team out to Boston Pizza for fishbowl Friday to see her off. It was a lot of fun, and it's actually really surprising how much camraderie the team has. There are always plans for team events and stuff, I found out that they will often go to movies too! I think it comes from being able to talk to each other while working, as it's pretty common to talk while doing entry.

It was an interesting night because for a while we had our centre manager as well as our unit manager for a little while too. I didn't see the centre manager for long since she was there earlier than I was, and the unit manager only stayed for a couple drinks. Our team supervisor was there basically all night and wow. I really really love this team and it's almost physically painful thinking about having to leave to go back on the phones sobbb.

The thing about having a bunch of people who work at a call centre together is that invariably what happens is you start sharing call centre stories. Most people who work at call centres have probably worked at a few different ones, and there are always horror stories of customers or of coworkers or even just conditions. Call centres are essentially engines of human misery, designed to test the limits of just how far you can push someone before they snap in some fashion (whether from rude people or horrible staff/supervisors or awful conditions). Sharing call centre stories is like comparing scars in a way, trying to see who has the worst experience. It's a mutual catharsis, because you're in sympathetic company.

We all shared stories, I think it started out talking about weird/pervert calls that we've had... and I had a lot of them when I worked Sundays at Startek (as well as during training when we were on the phones till 11:30pm), and then it went from there. It went more the staff/conditions route which I don't have a lot of horror stories with - my experiences were more with the customer side and the fact that the policies were so awful you were basically set up to be screamed at constantly. Really, though, Startek wasn't as bad as some other places I've heard about, especially 24/7 or Sears. Quill has been fantastic, I think I can count on one hand the instances I've had and even those are amusing now that I look back... oh angry lawyer, you were so angry!

On Tuesday it will have been one month since I started my controlled eating plan. It takes a month to make a habit, and I'm happy that I've made it this far. From now on out it should be easy, although I know I will have to watch and be careful not to fall into what is convenient again. One thing I have noticed is that I don't need to eat as much, which makes me happy since I'm filling up on good, healthy foods and not getting bloated.

About a week ago I started laying down the plans to start the Couch-to-5k running plan, and I finished the first week. I've forgotten how much I enjoy running, and while I'm sweaty and puffing a lot, it's a good start to a foundation of fitness that is easy to maintain once I get going.

The next step is a bit ambitious, I admit, but it's something I've been thinking about for a while... and I need to learn to stop thinking and take action. Next week I am going to start a training regimen that will condition me in the hopes of being able to start training for Parkour. I've been fascinated by Parkour for a long time (SURPRISE something that no one could have ever imagined) but of course I just sat around and got lazy and never did anything about it - even before Japan when my weight was relatively under control and I probably would have been able to train fairly well. The first step is building the muscles, obviously, and a lot of the stretches are things that one can easily do without needing to go to a gym.

I probably should go get a month at a gym and just do my workouts there since it's all-inclusive for running and stretching and there's mats and equipment to make everything easier. I miss being a student and being able to go to the gym when I please... alas, it is time to grow up and pay for services.

On Monday I will start my muscle training, and we'll see if I can keep up. I'm really nervous about it, but it's something that's good and something that I want. And that's the most important part, isn't it? Part of Parkour is putting your fear aside and being confident in yourself and your abilities... I know I can succeed if I put my mind to it, stay focused, and stay dedicated. The last part is of course the hardest step...

I'll check in next week with my findings and feelings.

POINT FORM UPDATE GO GO GO

- yaaay birthday someone alert the Sunset Squad robots to take me to the Near-Death star as I am an old woman now. I ended up spending my birthday sick with heat exhaustion. Even with the windows open in my car there was absolutely no difference between interior and exterior temperatures. Thankfully with some rain the humidity disappeared so I haven't had to repeat it.

- Tron: Legacy at the IMAX fffffffffffff /screams forever

- hung out with some friends on Friday where we watched a movie called The Room. This movie was both hilarious and terrible... hilarible? It was an hour and a half that I will never have back, if nothing else. If horrible acting and awful sex scenes and plot holes you can drive a semi through are your thing then definitely give it a go. There's also a flash game for it on newgrounds which is amazing and may be better than the movie itself.

- caught up to the rest of the world and saw Deathly Hallows 2 on Saturday. I've already talked to a few people about my feelings on the movie so I won't ramble too much about it here, but I was basically not prepared for the emotions the movie created. It's almost hard to believe that it's actually over.

- I really like doing fax and I love the team so much aaaaa they're such awesome people. The thought that I will have to stop doing this at some point in September and go back on the phones makes me so sad. By the same token I haven't actually had a proper coaching yet so I have no idea how well I'm doing. I was supposed to have one on Monday but my supervisor left early in the day and I never got my half an hour. I'll have a 15 on Monday but I'm actually really nervous about it.

more later. Bedtime for meeeee

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I appreciate your words of kindness and encouragement. Let's make the next year better than the last!

age++

Another month goes by. I actually meant to post sooner but with stress and not feeling well I've ended up putting it off.

Started fax on Tuesday! It is really fucking intense. I think I said that before, but oh my god. My record is 79 faxes right now, and that is nothing. Some of the others can do 120 easily. I need to hone my numpad touch typing to be as reflexive as my letter touch typing, that'll probably up me a bit. Today was pretty horrible because I kept having issues I needed to confirm on about half of my faxes, and then I spent about 45 minutes fixing an order because they needed to take half the items off and the list they'd sent in had the items all out of order (180 item order fucking kill me).

Starting to like the early shift again. Liking not being on the phones. Dreading my first coaching because I'm expecting so many errors. Sob.

In other news I think the desire to go to ElecTRONica grows more and more every day like some damn day-glo disease. WHY DO YOU DO THIS THING.

Made to to season 4 of Supernatural, and I'm not sure what direction this is going but I guess we'll see...

I am cutting this post short because it is time to curl up with a hot water bottle in bed until the pain goes away. Cutting it too close with my pain pills again, bleh.