anonemouse

I just got back from taking an employment exam for the state of Tennessee, for a biologist position with Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. It was a SERIOUS exam, too, not one of those "we give you an exam just to say we did" things. There aren't any openings right now, but they keep the scores on file. They only give interviews to the people with the top five scores. Anyway, NOT fun. Almost half of the exam was on aquatic ecology/biology (fisheries management, aquatic invertebrates, stream/lake/reservoir health, etc.). I've had a grand total of TWO courses in the last seven years that have had anything to do with aquatic ecology. There I was, trying to remember shit from the fisheries management class I took three or four years ago and the aquatic ecosystems class that I took last year. I knew some of it from those classes and from stuff I've randomly picked up, made educated guesses on some, and did eeny-meeny-miny-mo on some. The rest of the exam was on terrestrial ecology/biology, statistics, lab/field methods, and report revision. I did much better on those sections, I think. I was SO freakin' stressed going into it, though, simply because I had absolutely no idea of what to expect. Plus, it rained like HELL here. Most of you have probably heard about the storms that hit the South last night and this morning. To get to the testing center, I had to make what would have been an hour's interstate drive under ideal conditions. It POURED the entire time. I hydroplaned several times, and came extremely close to losing control of my car once. Seriously, I've never come closer to wrecking like that. I was literally shaking when I managed to straighten the car out. Even the semi-trailers were going about 30 mph. :biggrin: Needless to say, I was a tad stressed when I got to the testing center.

I try to avoid Walmart unless I can go early in the morning or late at night, when there are no crowds. And I absolutely refuse to go at any time between Thanksgiving and New Years. It wouldn't be nearly so bad if they opened all the check-out lanes or if people weren't IDIOTS and learned how to move out of the center of the aisle. I got dragged there against my will on Tuesday to help my mom do the shopping for my dad's veterinary clinic (cat litter, cleaning supplies, etc.). Took us more than half an hour to get through the check-out lane, and we were second in line! The moron in front of us apparently had a bad debit card and didn't have a second form of payment on her, so we waited while she went to the ATM, waited while she was on the phone, and finally waited while a manager came to void her entire massive order after she just walked off and left. And of course, they were remodelling one of the shops immediately in front of us, so there was a jackhammer going the ENTIRE TIME. A jackhammer, for Pete's sake!

Alex, could you change it to where it only restricts the forums that are shown in the new posts? Right now, if you exclude any of the forums, you can't even go to the actual forum and look through it. I'd like to be able to limit the threads shown in the new posts, but still be able to go and see if there's been anything interesting posted in the forum itself without having to change my settings first.

You were thinking of the gastric balloon, I think, that they insert through the mouth and inflate in the stomach, creating temporary restriction.

Honestly, I've got such bad hand/eye coordination that there's no way I'm willing to shave myself, especially since I'd have to use a mirror. Plus, between my genetics and my PCOS, I'm a hair-monster. Even though I'm sure it'll be painful, I'd rather go somewhere where they'll get all the hair. I'm willing to wax (actually, I use Nads) my forearms myself (again, I'm a hair-monster), but there ain't no way I'm waxing that myself.

I hope so! My mom, who was with me at the time, was irritated because we couldn't find that pair of pants again. But like I told her, I don't plan on being in that size for long, anyway, so there isn't much of a reason to get irritated. I'm just thrilled to be back in regular clothes. :eek:

I know what you mean about the apron. I can't wait until I can get my belly cut off, 'cause it does make clothes shopping hell. :tt1: I blame my mom. It's her wonderful genes that did this to me, damn it! :confused:

Count me in, too, ladies! I've always wanted to see the southwest. My parents lived in Arizona for a few years while my dad did his veterinary residency, but I've only been there when I was a baby.

Okay, ladies, I went ahead and scheduled my PS consultations. I've got one scheduled for next Monday, one on February 27th, and one on April 21st. I liked the website of the one that's scheduled for April the best, but I really doubt he'll have May surgery dates open if he's got nearly a 3 month wait for consultations. Here goes nothing! Oh, and I've set up a photo gallery of my before pics at www.makemeheal.com, if anyone's brave enough to look at them. Just PM me for the address and password.

You're not the only one. I've got darker inner thighs, too.

Ahh! I keep going back and forth over this! I can't make up my mind. On one hand, I really want to get it done in May. I'd have a longer time to recuperate, yadda, yadda, yadda. On the other, I'm worried not only about employment and finances, but about whether or not I'll actually be at goal. I don't want to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars (I've seen estimates of up to $20,000 for a TT/BL/BA from one of the surgeons I like) and then have the results look shitty because I lost more weight. I wouldn't be too worried about my stomach, but I don't want saggy tits immediately after I got them lifted, you know? Damn it. I dunno. I've always been indecisive when it comes to big purchases like this. Lol, you should see me when I'm attempting to shop for furniture. I second-guess myself constantly and wind up buying nothing. I'm thinking about going ahead and doing some consultations and getting a surgery date for May. I can always postpone it, I guess.

That's one reason why I prefer to look at my weight loss as the percentage of my excess weight, instead of simply the number of pounds lost. Otherwise, it's very easy to become discouraged when you're surrounded by people who've lost two or three times as much as you have, in the same amount of time as you. When you look at it as a percentage, everyone starts out with 100% excess weight, and that evens things out. If you start out with 80 pounds to lose, and you've lost 35 pounds, you've still lost a greater percentage of your excess weight than a person who started with 200 pounds to lose and has lost 80.

You know, Wheetsin, Carlene, Tired_Old_Man, etc? Everybody's missing!

That gives me a headache just thinking about it.

I've got some stock that I can liquidate and use for the first few payments, if I have to. I'm really starting to think that having surgery this summer may be what I want to do, even though I can imagine the screaming that will come from my parents (it won't be pretty), since whatever job I choose is going to probably be fairly physically active. And of course, I wouldn't be able to take a lot of time off as a new hire, if I wait for December, or at least not as much as I probably should take.

What bugs me is when there isn't a single punctuation mark anywhere in the paragraph. If a single paragraph is more than, say, three or four inches long on my screen and lacks punctuation, I save my head and eyes and exit the page.

I know, I really do need to! My original goal was to have PS sometime in December, but I'm seriously considering doing it this summer (if I'm close enough to goal). I figure, I'm going to be out of a job anyway and have nothing to do, so I might as well be out of a job, have nothing to do, and be healing. The downside is that I'll be out of a job and my insurance will be cut off at the beginning of August unless I can find employment starting around then. And of course, I'd be going into considerable debt to have surgery. All in all, it wouldn't be financially smart to have surgery this summer, but it may be best healing-wise. Does that make sense?

Now, I know a lot of surgeons will combine several surgeries and perform them during the same operating period, and that usually saves the patient money. How many will they usually do at one time, though? I mean, I know I'll need at least a tummy tuck or lower body lift and a breast lift. I'm thinking I might need an augmentation, too, if the breast lift reduces my size significantly (I'm currently a sagging D). I've also recently started noticing the sagginess of my arms, which means I might need an arm lift if it gets much worse. Would most surgeons be willing to combine all of those procedures into one operating period, or would I probably be looking at at least two surgeries? I'd guess a lot of that depends on if I go for the TT or the LBL, right? Since the LBL is a lot more involved?

No, that actually helps a lot! I figured it was basically an individual thing, but it didn't hurt to ask! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't need an LBL. Unless the last 50 pounds comes straight off my back and ass, I don't have too much sagging back there. Most of it is around my stomach, boobs, and arms, so I think I could get away with just an ETT at the most. What I'm seriously considering doing is having a TT and BL at one time, if the surgeon is willing, and then going back and having a BA and arm lift, since I'm not 100% sure I want the BA in the first place. That way, I've got the time to let the puppies heal and see if I will actually want the BA. That's scary! Luckily, I'd probably have my mom around to take care of me (either that or I'd stay with my brother and SIL). If I stay with my parents, my mom doesn't get around that well (she's had both knees replaced), so I have a feeling I'd still be doing quite a bit myself. When you had your TT, how easy was it to move around? The only thing I'm really concerned about is stairs. If I stay with my brother and SIL, I'd probably have to be able to get up the stairs to the guest room on the second floor. It's equiped with a bathroom and all, so I wouldn't really have to come down for several days, but I'm just concerned about getting up the stairs in the first place.

Losing, who is your PS? I'm pretty sure you mentioned him somewhere, but I don't remember where.

This was posted on another message board that I lurk at, and I thought it was very cute and extremely accurate. Hope it amuses all of you as much as it did me.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea, lol! Let us know how it turns out (both the race and the waxing). :biggrin:

Those of you who have had Brazilians, how long does the hair have to be when you get it done? Does it hurt more if it is longer?

No offense taken! I was kinda thinking while typing when I made the OP, so I know there were some contradictory statements in it. The term was just all I could come up with at the time, though. Actually, I was talking about both passive-aggressive people and two-faced people, I guess. The ones that can't make a comment or a post without using passive-aggressive language or behavior (like the example Wheetsin gave of members that post and run, people that just use language that hints at how irritated they are instead of openly saying that they're irritated, people that blame others for confrontations in threads when they're the ones that made an objectional post [i.e., saying that it's everyone else's fault, not theirs]), and the ones that actually are actively two-faced (e.g., pretending to be friends and then badmouthing you to other people). Of course, in some cases, the two types of people are combined into one person, and you get a passive-aggressive two-faced person. Truly, I can understand passive-aggressive behavior IRL (to a certain extent, anyway), since I doubt there are really that many people out there that like confrontation. I just don't get the online behavior, though. Online interaction is about as far from face-to-face as you can get. What's the point of it, online? Makes me wonder how passive-aggressive people are in real life, if they're that passive-aggressive in cyber-land. And again, I know that every person out there exhibits passive-aggressive behavior to some extent. Like someone else said, it's just a behavior. What I'm referring to, though, is when a person behaves like that a majority (or seeming majority) of the time. And like Wheetsin said, I'm using the term in the colloquial sense, not the professional psych sense.

Okay, bear with me for a bit. I'm thinking as I type, so this might be a tad disjointed. :tongue: And to head off any bitching, no, I'm not necessarily discussing anyone on this site, but rather people in general, both online and IRL. :tt1: Does it irritate anyone else when people are passive aggressive? I really wonder if it's just personality conflicts that make so many people seem deeply passive aggressive, or if they really are like that with everyone, not just me. I mean, it may just be the way I'm wired, but I don't see the point in dancing around crap and it really bugs me when people do that. I don't see the purpose in pretending. Does that make sense? I mean, there's no point in being out-and-out nasty to people that you don't like, but what the heck's the usefulness in pretending that you're best friends? Surely it takes more effort to be a really fake person than it takes to be honest. I would think that it'd be mentally draining, wouldn't you? I mean, they're going around pretending to be something/someone they're not, when I'm sure everyone sees through it anyway (I know I usually do). All it does is leave a bad taste in people's mouths. And I'm not necessarily talking about people being passive aggressive towards me. When they do it to the other people around me, it bothers the hell out of me, too. Don't they realize that the people around them usually see what they're doing? You know, the people that are nice to someone's face and then turn around and gossip about them. Do they think that makes the people they're gossiping to like them or trust them? Or the people that intentionally bait folks online, making seemingly nice/unobjectionable posts that really aren't nice/unobjectionable when you read them carefully? You know the type, the people that are very careful about their word choice, taking potshots in a way that they can deny being intentional later. What the hell's the point in it? If you don't like someone, at least have the balls to say so, or leave the person alone. I mean, hell, if I don't like someone, they KNOW I don't like them. I don't beat around the bushes, taking cowardly potshots at them and then denying it later. I don't act like I'm their friend to their faces, letting them help me with personal matters, and then gossip/badmouth them on another website or to coworkers. I try not to be mean to them or truly nasty, but I'm not going to pretend we're bosom buddies, either. Really, is it a personality thing? Are there personality types that are more prone to that type of behavior? Now, I know that all people are going to be passive aggressive at one point or another. That's human nature, I think. We all have moments of childishness, weakness, whatever you want to call it, when we do things that we wouldn't necessarily do otherwise. That's not what I'm ranting about. What I'm bitching about is when people do it all the time, when it's apparently their normal behavior. Are those people the ones that never let their behavior mature past high school, or do they simply have certain personality types that lend themselves to that behavior?