Recruiters, Ahoy!

Apparently, something on the various job sites clicked with recruiters this week. I keep getting random phone calls and emails from recruiters. I wish I knew what it was so that I could add more of it to my resume! :-)

That was fast

I got a job offer yesterday. I took it.

Saint Louis Bound

Well, I may as well admit it. I am going to be moving to Saint Louis. I have already started to transfer stuff down to Jen's place and I am packing up more of it as we speak.

Hopefully, I will get myself organized and out the door in a reasonable fashion. My problem is that I have discovered that I do not like to move. I get myself all settled in in a space and I like to stay there for a while. In that while, my packrat sensibilities usually get the better of me. Back when I was moving almost every year, life was easier. I had no time to build up all this crap.

Unfortunately for me, I have been here for almost 4 years, making the task of clearing out the junk just a little intimidating. I actually have a room that seems to be nothing more than the place where I put all the stuff I don't know what to do with. Gonna be fun to clear that one out...

Current Job hunt status

I had a phone interview this week and it appears that it went well. The recruiter called to say that the client seemed happy with me. There are some more interviews, but as of right now I appear to be the top choice. I should hear more on Monday or Tuesday.

Job search condurndum

I seem to be in some gray area between being a Regular Joe and being a Senior Joe. It is making job searching kind of irritating. I keep getting contacted by recruiters and consulting companies that want Senior guys but then they say I don't have enough experience. It's kind of irritating.

Change of focus

Since I seem to be alarmingly healthy these days, I have not had a lot to say in this blog for a while. I think it is time for this to focus on something else for a while. That something else is going to be my quest for a new job in lovely Saint Lois, MO. Hopefully, this will be a short change in the blog. Whether it takes a week or six months, I try to keep this updated on my quest for employment.

Been a while, eh?

Once again, I have been lacking on updates. I have no real excuse other than the fact that I have been working ludicrous hours at work and I never seem to think of adding to this while I am at work. It's a real bitch actually having to do some work, eh? :-)

Anyway, life is going pretty well other than having to work so much. I am actually starting to adjust my schedule so that I get up earlier so that I can actually go to work and get out earlier. It's been surprisingly enjoyable. We'll see how long it lasts.

On the medical front, things have been quite good. Haven't even been in a hospital except for routine tests this year. Nothing unexpected at all. That's also a surprisingly good feeling!

September 11th

Given that I was sitting in Midtown Manhattan when the first tower was hit, had a college friend on one of the planes and knew far too many people who worked in the vicinity (though thankfully, no one in the towers), September 11th has always been a tough day for me. Hell, it took me three years just to be able to go back to Ground Zero and visit.

I find many the things that have been done in the name of "protecting" us from future happenings like this to be more than a little reprehensible and a black mark on the memories of the many people who died as a result of the attack. Hopefully, when Dubya goes away in January 2009, some good sense will be restored to the people in charge and their attitudes towards things like this.

I hope everyone has a decent day and takes a moment to remember the attack and put in a word with their chosen deity that this sort of thing never happens again anywhere.

General update

I've realized I have been slacking here again. I have a good excuse though.

1) I have actually been having a life. In the last month or so, I have been to my girlfriend's twin's birthday party, to Chicago (for the first time, no less) to see the USA Eagles play Munster RFC in a Rugby World Cup tune up match, had my girlfriend, her mother and her kids come up and spend four days running around Minnesota with me.

2) I got a new boss who is essentially rebuilding my department from the ground up. This is not a bad thing, but it certainly is making me do things in ways that take a lot more thought since I am not familiar with them.

3) Just to make my life complete and full of fun, had a friend lapse into a coma. Not just any friend mind you. This is the woman who gave me moral support during all of the kidney transplant stuff. She has suffered from various ailments her entire life and just when it looked like most of the issues had been dealt with, this happens. Life is bloody unfair. Anyway, I have been spending a fair amount of time in the hospital visiting with her.

So that's what's been going on with me. How's everyone else been?

Just in case you were wondering...

I am fine. I was nowhere near the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis yesterday. In fact, that bridge is the wrong direction for me to go to or from work. The only regular reason I would have to be on that bridge these days is if I were going from my office to a medical appointment, since all of those seem to be in downtown Minneapolis these days!

Thanks to the folks who have already contacted me asking how I am doing. It's good to know you have friends who think about you! :-)

Sorry for the long absence

It's been a while since I've posted and that is mostly because I have been busy as all get out at work and at home. I'll try to be a little more on top of things in the future.

Sad News

I found out that a friend of mine from College has died. I don't know much in the way of details yet, but I expect I will find out that information in the next couple of days.

I don't really know how to deal with this yet. It gives me a whole now prospective on my hospitalization last fall. If my friends and family were feeling anything like what's going on in my head right now, I feel like I should apologize for the next year or so for putting them through that, even though I know I had no control over it. This is the first time I have experienced the death of someone my age that I have known for a long time.

I guess I will post more when I know more.

Things I need to do before going to Jody and Adam's wedding

1) Go to my doctor's appointment on Friday
2) Get to Hair Police for dread maintenance
3) Unpack my old Dell Optiplex and recover the files I need from it
4) Actually finish listening to The City of the Dead radio drama

I'm sure there is more I need to do and I think I will add them to blog entries to keep myself reminded

Oh yeah! 5) Buy Adam and Jody a wedding Gift!!!!!!

I'm amused

the reason I am amused is that I am wearing a t-shirt a friend sent me recently (thanks JWIII) from the show "Spamalot" that says, simply: "I'm not dead yet" , which makes me laugh in a somewhat morbid way.

Weekend plans and comments on health

I talked to the doctor's office a few days ago and it appears that all is well. My creatinine is even edging down a bit to make the news even better.

I've decided it is time to start enjoying life a bit more. I think I am going to break out my bike this weekend and go riding around Lake Calhoun. It's supposed to be nice (unlike last weekend's rain-fest) and I think I could use the outdoor time as well as the exercise. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of regular rides again.

A good weekend

This has been a good weekend, despite having to go to work. I got to have breakfast with a couple of my buddies and it was quite a good time. I managed to get some household chores done, which might be the biggest surprise of all. And I managed to go to MicroCon (a local comic convention) and managed to stay under budget. not by much mind you, but I got some cool stuff and am quite happy with it.

Latest medical news

OK, so I talked to the doctor's office today and it appears that my creatinine is holding steady, which is not a bad thing I guess, but I would have loved to see it go down a bit after the steroid treatment. It looks like there is a lab error on one of my blood tests, so I have to go back and get that done again. Hopefully, it will not turn out to be something that actually requires some sort of treatment.

More fun with drugs

As of right now, it appears that my rejection episode is over. My creatinine level is stable (we'll see if it goes down) and most of my blood tests came back normal. The only thing that is making me a little cranky is that my blood sugar came back at about 350 on Monday, so they put me on something for that. Just what I needed, more drugs. I also found out today that they are upping my Prograf dose, from 4 to 5 mg. Nothing big, but I'd rather take less drugs than more.

I'll be going in on Tuesday for more blood tests, so we shall see how all this goes.

Yay, Steroids!

Well, I'm done with the IV steroids for my rejection episode. I got my last dose today and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to follow up on this. I'll post the results from that when I get them, most likely Monday afternoon, maybe Tuesday. There will be a post once I hear from the doctor.

Mild Acute rejection

I got the results from my biopsy yesterday and it appears that there is some rejection going on. I am now getting three days of big doses of steroids to make it go away. I am about to leave for the second dose right now.

I have a checkup on Monday at my doctor's office to see how things are going. Hopefully, I will be all better then. More as I know it.