~Off Topic Thread~

[Gemmie 142]

Yes, I'm sorry to hear that things haven't been working out for you both. But you know, everything happens for a reason (if you believe that like I do) and I'm sure you'll find happiness in whatever new destiny you're choosing for yourself. I hope you guys can stay friends.

PS - I'll be moving to MA myself next year, shame you had to leave!

[English Muffin 59]

Thanks for the kind words Maven and Gemmie.

I agree with you Gemmie that everything does happen for a reason - I've not quite worked out why my life has taken this turn just yet though!

I'm leaving MA because I really can't handle another winter here, I absolutely hated the last one! I hope you enjoy the state more than I've done.

[Gemmie 142]

The winters are harsh! And the summers are worse to me!

From one extreme to the other...

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Anyways, this morning I was dreaming about getting my period and having stomach cramps... and then I woke up to find that it wasn't a dream. I have work today, as well.

My period seems to be every 5 weeks now, and usually quite painful. Does anyone else have this?

You have my sympathies!

Have you considered going on the pill? I know not everyone wishes to but if you have no objections it can help tremendously with heavy flow and pain.

I can totally relate to the heat too - it's like 100-110 every day here and right now because I am poorly I can't catch my breath if I am anywhere warm... not too great in the desert I've been bedroom-ridden for the past three days and it is driving me nuts. To top it off, we got a bill for $157 yesterday for a service we never even received and I just flipped. I am sick of not knowing how to handle things here - at home I would have been straight on the phone (as we have 24 helplines there) to sort things out, but here it doesn't work like that. Jeremy informed me yesterday that the $300 taken from us by Bank of America will never get back to us - it just won't. So that pi$$ed me off too - why should companies just be allowed to take money from people? It seems totally unethical yet here it is apparently normal? I just don't get it.

That does seem extremely unethical! I'm sorry you've had so many problems thrown at you recently, Aly.

English Muffin - I am so sorry to hear what has happened. Good luck with moving on and with moving to a new state, too!

[Gemmie 142]

Anyways, this morning I was dreaming about getting my period and having stomach cramps... and then I woke up to find that it wasn't a dream. I have work today, as well.

My period seems to be every 5 weeks now, and usually quite painful. Does anyone else have this?

You have my sympathies!

Have you considered going on the pill? I know not everyone wishes to but if you have no objections it can help tremendously with heavy flow and pain.

Hmmm... before, I had no reason to go on the pill as I wasn't sexually active and also had so much time away from Bill that it didn't seem worth it... though now, I think it's time to consider it!

Thanks.

[Ban Hammer 13,474]

g'morning uk.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Good morning, Charles!

[The Red Baron 0]

Evenin all

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

Hello all.. been kind of MIA.. ugh so much going on my head won't stop spinning!

[*julez* 124]

Time for an exorcism?

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

No.. LOL can't let the voices go!!! Seriously.. between the AOS.. working to get the kids ready for school this month, trying to get this blasted Manuscript done for my editor before she kills me i've been swamped.. then to top it off.. my car got totaled about 2 weeks ago... fun fun fun LOL

[Jeraly 4]

As everyone else seems to be having a difficult time of things lately I thought that I may as well add my own tale of woe.

It appears that my marriage is over already.

Scott has had a lot of problems adjusting to living with someone from the minute I got here and it has now got so bad that he can no longer do it. This is the third time he has decided to leave me since May – we managed to ‘talk things through’ on the other two occasions. I won’t go into too much detail but in my opinion he seems to be suffering from some kind of depression that he refuses to seek help for and I had no idea about it until I moved here.

I have now accepted his decision with grace and have chosen to move on with my life.

After much thought and deliberation about whether or not to move back to the UK I have decided to give the US a bit more of a chance first. I have my Green Card now and as long as I can prove to USCIS that I entered the marriage in good faith I should be able to remove the conditions on it after the divorce.

I do however hate living in Massachusetts so have decided to move. Based on internet research and Scott’s personal experience I have made the decision to move to Charlotte, NC.

Anyway, that’s about it really. I’m planning to spend a week in Charlotte from 24th August to find myself somewhere to live and I’ll move down permanently 3-4 weeks after that. I’ll be moving there totally alone and won’t know a soul, which is a little daunting. I’m currently reading “Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers, which is helping.

I won’t be leaving Visa Journey though, I shall be here forever I imagine.

p.s. Anyone reading this from Charlotte.

Oh Gillian I am so so sorry to hear things aren't working out right now Depression is a nasty thing - I suffered from it in my late teens and it is so debilitating. I'm naturally a depressive person (which sucks but I can hide it real well online ) but with the help of my family I got through the worst of it. The past few days here have been real tough for me and I have had all manner of evil tantrums, telling Jeremy that I just can't cope with it all anymore but I know that deep down I can make it. I really hope that Scott gets better and finds some help as it is horrible to live with, even if you can't be together.

But it sounds like you are making all the right moves - you have so many options open to you and moving, while totally stressful and scary, will give you a clean break and a new, independent life - besides, SC is kinda closer to me so when we drive our west-east coast thing (ok we can all have dreams ) we'll nip up through Georgia and into SC for a visit... try and get close to the southern border though

No.. LOL can't let the voices go!!! Seriously.. between the AOS.. working to get the kids ready for school this month, trying to get this blasted Manuscript done for my editor before she kills me i've been swamped.. then to top it off.. my car got totaled about 2 weeks ago... fun fun fun LOL

Oh no Robyn - what happened? Seems like everyone has a plateful of cr@p to deal with right now

Oh - LA-ers - anyone fancy a trip to PS for our housewarming Luau? I've set the date for the 30th August as Jeremy is being really lame about it!! I just wonder if we can get a patio set by then... Any more news on the LA meet up as well? If you guys have a date in mind then I'll see if I can persuade Jeremy

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Count me in for the 30th! Hopefully I'll be nearing completion of my next policy paper by then. Yes, it's time for another maven meltdown as I have a deadline of Labor Day for my next effort. I'm actually rather proud of the last one -- it's made quite a few ripples out in the market (see here: http://www.directorship.com/pg-ceo-blasts-riskmetrics). We'll see how the next one goes.

We haven't set a date for the LA meetup/booze-a-rama yet. Dev's on holiday right now (lucky so-and-so!) but Poiteen and I were thinking maybe the end of next week. All I know is I have sworn off gin for a while. Let me throw this out to Robin and Poiteen for more thoughts...

[Jeraly 4]

Hmmm next week... I'll see what Jeremy has to say - in the meantime I will watch this space for more details!! And yippee about the 30th! I'll tell Jeremy we have at least two guests... that is if you are bringing Bruce!!!

Oh and link came up saying not found Boo!!

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

That is so weird! I copied the link right out of my browser. When I click the link here, it doesn't work. Boo.

Try this one instead: http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=1231

(I'm not usually such an attention #######, but I'm pretty chuffed about how this all turned out. )