Saints forfend!

I got pulled over last night in my minivan! This NEVER happens to me. I really wasn't that annoyed by it, except that the officer took a half hour running my plates, and made me late to TaeKwonDo. Grr. I knew he couldn't give me a ticket, because he couldn't possibly have clocked me accurately from his perspective, and if he had, he'd have known I wasn't speeding. I was travelling northbound, in the righthand lane, at about 60 MPH. I was being passed by three cars, no less! The officer was across the median in the farthest southbound lane, driving alone in his police cruiser at about 60 MPH himself. There's no way in hell that he was driving that fast in that much traffic and accurately using a radar gun.

But that's beside the point. He made me sit beside the road for a half hour because when I gave him his registration I told him that I thought he was mistaking me for another vehicle, because I had been passed by three cars, all travelling about the speed he was accusing me of.

Forest thinks the officer thought I was mouthing off to him. I wasn't disrespectful at all, though.

Last night I had my first experience with Sony Playstation Tetris. Saints forfend, it's a video game I'm actually able to play!! I had so much fun, I was downright absorbed in it while I was supposed to be visiting Darcy and her new boyfriend. His name is Josh, and he seems like a REALLY nice guy. To top that off, he's in good shape, he has a good job, a nice apartment, and jokes around with Darcy in such a manner that makes me think he has a sense of humor. He also has great taste in stereo systems, and has managed to make Darcy a bit of a priority in his life lately; taking her to dinner, introducing her to his parents, and giving her keys to his apartment! Yay Darcy! This guy doesn't sound like a loser at ALL. I'm really happy for her.

After a 12 hour struggle yesterday to get her passport straightened out in her married name, my sister Karen is on the plane for Osaka, in Japan. She's going there for 6 weeks to teach English in a Methodist Church. This was a bit of a sudden offer, and I'm not sure she's had much time to mentally prepare herself, but I guess she's excited, and I can't blame her. I'm hoping she'll stay in touch via email, though. I'll miss her, and poor Jim will be lost without her. (Either that or he'll spend the entire time locked in his lab at MSU, where he can't possibly be lost.)

I'm still stressing out about this refinancing the house thing. I have had a kink in my neck for days, now. I don't know why it's bothering me so much! I've tried putting it into perspective. It's just a loan. It's only money. If I can't get one from one mortgage company, I can get one from another. What am I freaking out about?

Part of it is that feel badly that it's taking this long to get this done. I'm supposed to buy out my Land Contract on the 13th. I thought when I started the process the last week in June that I was allowing myself plenty of time. Unfortunately, the 4th of July was in there, and apparently a lot of the banking people I needed to talk to took that entire week off. Then the assessor was busy, and couldn't come out until yesterday... the long and short of it is that I doubt if all the paperwork will be done in time. I hate to be late, especially on such a HUGE payment. I also hope there won't be a penalty.

There's a chance that the nature of my job will change in the next few weeks. Our company got a grant to develop the next version of some outdated software, and I've been asked to do project management work for it. I'd be assessing the needs of the users of the current product, to decide what the upgrade needs to do. Then I'll be helping design how to perform those functions, then doing assurance testing, to see that the product works. Then I'll be helping train people on how to use it, and presenting it at conferences and such. All I know about it is that it's a data collection tool for nurses working with cancer patients, and if I do it, it will mean that 40 percent of my time is now devoted to that project. I'm excited about getting some project management experience, and learning about database theory and design (it's really one big database with a client). At the same time, I'm a little afraid, because I have no idea if this is the sort of thing I'll be good at or not. I pointed out to my boss that I have no related training, and know next to nothing about databases or software design. He promised me training, and advice from his personal experience with these things. I guess there are technical people who will be doing the programming, and they just want me to hold everything together, keep the goals in their minds, and serve as a sort of checking mechanism to see that they are on track.

Hopefully I can do that without too much programming experience. I've been looking for a class in database theory, but so far the only ones I've been able to find are 15-week courses in Universities. I don't have 15 weeks to wait, I'm afraid. The first deadline of my project is in November, so I would need to start working very soon.

Speaking of which, I should start working NOW.