Compression socks and foot pain

Last week, I bought a pair of compression socks. They are open-toe socks that go past my ankles. I wear one on my right foot before I go to bed because my foot pain happens with that foot only.

Last Saturday, I did a lot of walking downtown. The following day, I could feel my foot pain starting. I put on my compression sock immediately. Between one to two hours later, the pain went away.

It seems to be a great purchase. I'll need to test out my theory some more to determine whether it truly works or if this first experience was a coincidence. I'm hoping that it's the former.

Fixing my back with my heated car seat

I tweaked my back yesterday. It's amazing how great and flaky my back can be. Depending on how I sit, I'd be either fine or I'd get back pain.

My car is great. I got heated seats that came standard with my car. I used it on my back and it's all good now.

My car is my back saver!

A break from the boss

I am pleased that my manager is taking a vacation day today. We all could use a break from him.

Our team has a daily chat at 4:45 pm. I start my day at 8:15 am, so I technically am done for the workday by then and say whatever is on my mind before I sign off.

Yesterday, I joined in three minutes later than the start time. I'm always punctual. I wanted to break that cycle.

All I heard was our manager talk about work. When I decided to chime in, he changed his tune.

"I don't want to talk about work. I want cheerful stuff," he said.

"You've been doing that this entire chat," I pointed out.

Such a hypocrite.

Luckily, he had to go to a meeting, which was a nice way to end my day at 5 pm. 

Meeting up with friends and experiencing foot pain after quite an absence

On Saturday, I met up with a couple of friends for a late lunch. It felt like we hadn't skipped a beat. We hadn't seen one another since December 2018. It was a great time chatting over food and drinks. We then went shopping for a bit.

I woke up just past 4 am with foot pain. I haven't had it in quite some time. I ate a banana and took some Ibuprofen with root beer that I had made with my Sodastream.

I have been eating bananas daily, which has helped reduce how often I experience foot pain. My thinking with Ibuprofen with root beer is that the carbonation speeds up how quickly the pain relief happens.

Nearly an hour later, my pain was gone and I slept well.

Busy with medical appointments, but all is well

It has been a busy couple of days with consecutive medical appointments. All is well.

My first appointment was my quarterly one with my family doctor. It was a different than the norm. She saw me, said hi, and asked who my orthopedic surgeon was. I had surgery back in 2011. I needed to do a search to find his name. Thankfully, he is still a practising surgeon.

My doctor has sciatica. I have battled it a number of times since I was 19 years of age and offered exercises to help her get some relief. It's interesting that I was providing insight to a medical professional.

On Wednesday, I had an eye injection with my ophthalmologist. I am doing exceptionally well that I am now seeing him three times a year, reducing a visit. Yay!

Diagnosing my mom's pink eye

I visited my parents after work on Friday night. My mom asked me to take a look at her left eye. It was all red where it should be whitish. It made me think that she has pink eye, which is also known as conjunctivitis.

I have had two bouts of it in my lifetime. The first was a good decade ago and it was the worst. An intern at my workplace had used the washroom and didn't wash her hands. I had washed my hands and then touched the same doorknob. I probably rubbed my eye and there it was. Pink eye.

After work that day, I went to get over-the-counter pink eye drops. A few days later, my pink eye had cleared up.

After letting my mom know what I think she had, I went to the local grocery store to get the same eye drops. I told my mom to give them a try.

On Saturday, I dropped by to see how she was doing. I could see some white in her left eye. She told me that she feels better, and that both my dad and she feel that she's getting better. Cool.

I'm not a doctor, but I am kind of glad that I have experienced pink eye to recognize it in my mom. Here's hoping that she's on the road to recovery.

Breaking bad news too soon

My boss broke the news to me that my incompetent colleague will be let go. I'm not sure if I agree with his move to announce this information so early when he does not have an exact date for her departure.

I had mentioned this comment last Friday to him. The last thing we need is for her to be sad for a while. She apparently wept in front of him and perhaps stayed at work longer than usual the other day. She took Wednesday off as she wasn't feeling well.

She is a nice person. She is simply not a suitable fit for the job at hand. I expected her to take it bad. However, I was hoping that he would have a solid departure date, so that she can prepare. Perhaps he wants her to get a head start with a job search.

I looked at her resume. It says that she is a fast learner. However, when I asked her in my second interview with her (her third), she said that she is a slow learner. Ugh!

Hindsight is easier. I flagged the slow learner comment with my manager. He dismissed it. He now regrets it.

I am hoping that this entire mess is dealt with soon.

Busy day dealing with incompetent colleagues

It was a crazy day at work. I'm exhausted.

I lost count after 43. This number represents how many e-mails ended up in my inbox from roughly 10:00 till 17:00. My guess is that I hit 60 e-mails easily.

I find e-mail to be a distraction. Today was a heavy inbox day. It was full of self-absorbed folks who think that my small team is there twiddling our thumbs, waiting for work. We have a ton of work to do, on the contrary.

One software developer provided two documents to us late on Monday. He asked me on Wednesday whether they were ready for him to share for his final review meeting on Thursday.

I took exception to this comment. First, my team isn't so free that we jump on his late guides and complete them. Second, we didn't know about his meeting. His expectation that we would edit them in time for his meeting was a tall order. Third, it seems ridiculous to send us what was dubbed final documents when he is having a final review meeting days later. Technically, these documents are not final. My team has another stab at making these not-so-final documents final.

I also take exception to the assigned project manager. She can't do her job. I have been doing most of her work by making sure documents get to me on specified dates and following up. Most deliverables have been late. I chase after folks because this project manager doesn't.

I have informed her that she needs to chase after folks. She should not be asking me two weeks in advance for documents. I flat out told her that I am not her problem. She needs to focus on other folks who are late with theirs. I don't see her chasing after them that way.

Then, there was another document that came two weeks late on Monday. I was not informed that this document would change. So wrong. Again, I spoke up.

I am sure that these folks do not enjoy dealing with me. Frankly, I don't care. They are not making my working life easy and are not respecting established deadlines. They are causing grief for my team.

I decided to call it a day just before 17:00. Luckily, today is my final workday this week. I am looking forward to my well-deserved mini vacation.

Texts, Wallet Ninja, and airport security

It's always tough when my guy leaves on business. He left on Saturday night. We couldn't see each other on Saturday, so I asked that he contact me somehow before he flew off, just to let me know that he was okay.

My guy is scheduled to be in Thailand for two weeks. It may change. Naturally, change is a norm in most workplaces, and ours is certainly no exception.

My guy and I exchanged texts for over an hour. It was nice, but it started off a tad rough with the news that he had.

For Christmas, I gave my guy the Wallet Ninja. Its packaging states that it is TSA-approved, meaning that you can store it in your wallet, as designed, and you can bring it on the plane as a carry-on item.

Well, there was a fuss at the security area when my guy went through it with the Wallet Ninja. The supervisor actually had to come over to inspect it.

My guy told me about the issue with my gift. I felt bad. He told me that it wasn't my fault. I snapped a screenshot of the Wallet Ninja's TSA-approved line and sent it to him. We are so predictable, which is comforting.

Naturally, he showed the screenshot to the supervisor. The latter guy's response was that "all products say that they're TSA-approved."

Really? Wouldn't those companies get sued if that were the case? Wouldn't consumer agencies say something about such false claims? My guy wasn't impressed. Neither was I.

I asked my guy what happened. I got the play-by-play broadcast. His Wallet Ninja got confiscated. I told my guy that I have a spare one, so it's his. He told me that I'm such a sweet person.

I was more concerned whether he would make his flight. He did. He was boarding his flight ten minutes later, so I was pleased and relieved.

My guy felt like punching someone after his security ordeal. I asked him not to punch the guy sitting next to him, as we both didn't have that much money to bail him out of jail and I didn't want to hear about his ordeal on the news.

I also said that I would kiss him if I were with him, but could offer a virtual one. That cheered him up.

We are similar in that we get annoyed under such conditions, but always manage to comfort each other. It's good.

As crazy as it is to send a kiss emoticon, I did. I could tell that he liked that. I was pleased that he was okay. I was, too.