Champ Car Season Starts This Weekend, Work Crap and Corrections

The 2005 Champ Car season starts this weekend! Yippee!!! Yay!!! To me that means summer is officially on its way and that means I get to go to races, which is pretty much what I live for. The first race of the season is the venerable Long Beach Grand Prix and I won't be there. *sigh* My friend Elaine and I went to it in 2000, so that'll have to keep me happy for a while, if forever, as the contract with the LBGP is up this year and the hated IRL is trying to snake their way into it. We hate them, you know.

The races I'm planning on attending this year are: Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto, San Jose (maybe), Vegas and Mexico City (REALLY WANT TO). Not too many now that most of our Midwest races are bye-bye. In the old days I would have also gone to Detroit, Michigan, Mid-Ohio, Chicago, and just last year, Road America. It makes me sad when I think about it. And when I lived in SF, I would, of course, go to Laguna Seca which is a race track I just LOVE! It's not a great track for passing as it's a tad old and the cars are so much more than they were when it was designed, but it still has the legendary Corkscrew which is just breath-taking watching cars go through the turn. I can't even imagine driving it! It's craziness!!! The drivers say that as you take turn 8-8a, all you see is sky as the track falls 50 feet down and then sweeps into Rainey Curve. Lots of people like to stand on the inside of the track at turns 8-8a, but I prefer standing at the base of Turn 9 (Rainey Curve) and watching the cars sweep through. It's one of the most beautiful sights in the world! Man, I love that race track.

Last Wednesday I met Ursamajor for dinner and when I got in my car to go to the restaurant, I saw that I had a note stuck under my windshield. The note was from a guy who had seen my license plate (personalised CHAMPCR) and had to comment as he's also a huge Champ Car fan. I laughed all the way to the restaurant and had to show Urs as she's also a Champ Car fan. This guy is having some people over to watch the race on Sunday and he's invited me to join them. I'm looking forward to it, as it's always fun to find more Champ Car fans with whom to bash Tony George and his ilk. I figured he'd withdraw his invitation when he found out how old I am, but he called the other day and mentioned it again, so I might not be watching the race alone on Sunday!

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I've been having trouble sleeping since I got the shingles and I had been blaming it on the painkillers, but I figured out (and had it verified by the doctor) that the cause was my new inhaler. I stopped taking it on Sunday and I've actually gotten some sleep. I had asked the doctor about the prednisone as well and she agreed that they were probably the cause of the night sweats I'd been experiencing. Talk about being completely miserable. That's been me at night for the past 2-3 weeks. Competely unable to sleep and when I would fall asleep briefly I'd wake up cold and sweating. It sucked! Instead of doing my inhaler morning and night, I will only be doing it in the morning with the same for the prednisone, until it's gone, I guess. I'm really looking forward to sleeping tonight, as I'm hoping to sleep through the night for a solid 8 or so hours. It'll be something new and unusual for me.

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One of my favorite co-workers is moving to a different building. I'm so bummed. He comes in the same time I do which gives me somebody to talk to at 6:00 a.m. He makes me laugh as he's a complete knucklehead. Damn, it's going to be lonely in here.

The good news portion of that is that one of the people leaving my building is someone who needs to be smacked upside his head. This guy is leaving my dept., going to a DIFFERENT building a mile away and he asks me, "Can you get me keys for my new desk?" "Um, no, you're no longer in my dept. And you have to get the keys from the building where you're going to be." "I was just trying to find an easier way to do it." Well, yes, you're quite right, it'd be much easier for you if *I* went to the other building and got your new desk keys for you, but give me a fucking break you lazy ass piece of shit. I'm telling you! Some of the inherent laziness around this place makes me crazy. I was trying to help out one person recently by informing him that parts he needed by a certain date hadn't arrived by that certain date. I sent him an e-mail informing him of this and suggested he contact his supplier to find out when and if they would be arriving. His response??? "Kathleen, please call Supplier." UM NO!!!!! For one, I do not have the name or phone # or relationship with the supplier. YOU DO! Or rather, you should. I wrote him back and said, "I don't have name or number." MUCH TOO SUBTLE!!! He sent me the person's name and number and then promptly left to go on vacation for over a week. And this was at something like 2:00 p.m. and trust me, he didn't get in before 9:00 a.m. Yeah, we got some hard workers here all right. I am NOT their secretary!!!

I don't mind helping people who are swamped and working 12 hour days and just really kicking butt. But when I know that the person is a lazy motherfucker who does jackshit all day long I have HUGE issues with them pawning crap off on me.

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Yesterday the weather outside was incredibly gorgeous, but inside it was SWELTERING. I was wearing a sleeveless, lightweight top, but was just sweating. Of course, it didn't help that yesterday was one of those run around like a crazy woman days. I had to make a run to another building and when I asked the shuttle driver to crank the AC as I was just beyond over-heated, he did something that caused all the cool air to be pumped directly into the back of the minivan. I got NO air at all. I was just dying. Sure, the building person sent out an e-mail saying that due to the unseasonably warm weather there might be cooling issues, but when I walked through the building I found the other areas were quite cool. It was 85F in here. No wonder I was hot. I like hot when it's outside because that's where it's supposed to be hot. When they make you work in a "climate-controlled" building, then fucking control the goddamn climate!!!! Or I'm putting a chair through the bloody window. One of the guys here insisted on driving me home because he was sure I was going to expire as my face was beat red. He took the long way with the air conditioning blasting the entire time. It definitely helped, as did the nice, cool shower I took as soon as I got home. Then I veged on the couch knitting away and watching I Love the 90s, Part Deux.

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Also, I must correct this entry where I claim that my favorite Nancy Drew was The Password to Larkspur Lane. I've been re-reading the books (in order) and I must say that my favorite one is The Secret in the Old Attic. The second I saw the cover I knew that it was the one. I loved that book!!! I don't know why I like it better than the rest, because they're all good, but something appealed to me. It might be that it was the first one I got as a present (I don't know that that is a fact, but I don't know why otherwise), whereas the others were hand-me-downs. I don't know, but IMO, they have all (so far) stood the test of time and adulthood.

And with that, I must leave you and finish up a finance report and then maybe I'll have some lunch.