it's been a long week, and not because of the holiday either. thanksgiving was actually nice. we went to mjay's folks, which was a bit uncomfortable, but they were friendly so it wasn't too bad. the food was good, although for christmas we're going to take some martinelli's so saxy and i have options to drink other than alcohol, milk, and 7up (the tribulations of not being an alcohol drinker, lol). we ended up leaving a little early because taz had run out of one of his medications that morning - his risperdal. this particular med helps him regulate his emotional state and he had lost it once between dinner and dessert. not in a bad, bad way - he started crying when frustrated, something he hasn't done in ages. rather than keep him in a situation that could result in more frustration or worse issues (the risperdal also helps with his temper), we left shortly after dessert. we refilled the risperdal yesterday, so he's okay now.

and i also managed to get a few things done during my time off: more revisions of chapter 12 (which is about halfway done), a crit at dii, some dii admin stuff, and a revision of the first part of my novelette stolen priest. alden.nu was moved this weekend to a new server by the host and went pretty smoothly for the most part - the only loss was the elists which i'm in the process of setting back up. (if you were on the alden.nu updates list, you'll need to resubscribe as soon as it's set up again.) i also received my first paycheck - just under $400! i wasn't expecting that until monday, so it was a very nice surprise.

however, it wasn't all fun and games this weekend. my period hit with a vengeance - it had to be the worst cycle i've ever experienced. i'm sure it has to do with the stress of the last month and the new job, but, man, why couldn't it have gone the other way and been nearly nonexistent instead? yea, i know, it doesn't work that way. it just would have been nice for it to work that way. i ended up spending most the weekend in bed, in pain, and not just from the womanly stuff. a new storm brought in a storm headache with it yesterday and my asthma has been acting up all weekend.

that's one thing i'm noticing about georgia - my asthma is triggered almost daily out here, usually early in the morning when it's really cold. since the state tends to be humid, the cold and damp trigger it every morning. i'm trying to get back on taking my other meds on a regular bases, but may just stick to the primateen mist since i may now be without medical insurance. i need to see if it's too late to renew my visitor status out here. really, my asthma and my iron are my biggest concerns, both which can be handled without prescription meds, so being off insurance wouldn't be good, but not a total disaster. i've been thinking about just dropping off anyway, since there's no real insurance out here under the $800 kaiser would charge linnorm for 4 people. mcat pays that much to a completely different insurance company. we'll have to see about all that. in the meantime, the primateen works well.

i actually wanted to write here in whysper a few days ago - i've had a lot of things i've wanted to journal about since i started working, but i've been so tired that i come online to check mail and boards, then i need to lay down. i usually want to lay down only for a bit then come back and write or something, but once i'm down i usually end up staying down. i keep hoping i'll adjust soon and it won't be a big deal to take a brief rest, then come back to write and whatnot. but right now, it just doesn't seem to be happening that way. as a result, journal entries on how different the schools are and other things are getting lost. by the time i get back to being online enough to write a journal entry, there doesn't seem to be any point to writing an old one. lol

and the holidays have brought up a few other concerns. i figured we'd be okay by the end of the year, but it looks like it won't be until january or february when everything evens out for us. saxy's working less during the holidays and i have nearly a week off for thanksgiving and two weeks for christmas. these are days i don't even have the option to work. so my first checks will be sketchy, and pretty much all going to rent (and still be a little short). even with taz's money, we might end up scrambling for the rent this month. the good news is that it will get better. i'm finally getting called by more than one school in a day and getting called almost everyday. once these major holidays are out of the way, the checks will be large enough to at least cover the rent all by themselves.

and once that happens, everything else should fall in place.