Being at Work

[chess]

For ktx:

I wouldn't say that we've fully transitioned from Uni life as a household yet :). Nicholas is still doing a PhD, which means he gets to work random hours and is obviously still in Cambridge, which happens to be an excellent place to pick up random tech jobs. We're still renting rather than even thinking about buying a house untli we have two established incomes (even a good starting salary not being enough for somewhere in Cambridge).

My first week at work so far has been mostly confusing and exhuasting, but I blame most of that on having my period start at the same time (suprisingly, yes, it could have been more inconvenient, it could have been that the One Day Of Shooting Pains And Not Being Able To Stand Still that I get (which is better than the Week Of Curled Up In Agony which is the natural state of my periods) had showed up at Maelstrom rather than work where I could make sure I was sat down most of the time and I think mostly hide the zoning out and wincing from my colleagues. Walking either way after having sat on my rear doing nothing for many weeks is kind of confusing my body. And I still need to work out how to drink more water at work, because I would be rather less swimmy-head-aargh if I was properly hydrated.

I expect I'll survive. Everyone else seems to, somehow. (Having started off with a big cushion of savings from my parents and no debt is quite helpful too, which makes me feel even worse for wondering if I'll manage.)

Comments

[ruhe.livejournal.com]

Congrats on starting a real job. :)

Realistically: everyone wonders if they'll manage (and hopefully that will keep you in line with what you can afford to spend rather than getting horribly into debt by not being realistic). Good luck!

[ahsu.livejournal.com]

This might be a stupid question, but have you discussed those cramps with a gyn? Make sure she understands that you're not just talking about, hey, some cramps and they stink, dude, but about, hey, totally debilitating, I can't move or think cramps. It took years for me to communicate to my gyn that we weren't talking about "discomfort," but about "pain."

Is it possible that birth control pills would help? Of course, sometimes they are the mood-swing drug from hell, but I know a lot of people who have had heavy, crampy periods who have been helped by birth control pills. Including me. Better living through chemistry.

[chess]

Once upon a time I had severe debilitating cramps. Then I saw some doctors and got various birth control pills, which gave me various quantities of depression and rage.

Eventually we settled on the current solution, which gives me one day of occasional attacks of pain (and extra pain brought on if I stand still for more than thirty seconds) and a heavy period, but also only gives me half a week of depression and that co-inciding with the low energy levels from my period.

This is an improvement on the natural state of affairs, which is four days of occasional attacks from 'constant mild discomfort' to 'curling up in a ball crying', bleeding through heavy pads every four hours, and depression for a week before the period, and all of the other solutions, some of which have been better at controlling the pain and bleeding but have led to me having violent rages or becoming suicidal.

[ktx.livejournal.com]

It's good that you can work in Cambridge. My boyfriend already has a job in Worcestershire, and all the Aerospace Engineering activity seems to be around Bristol. Good luck with your new job :-)

[(Anonymous)]

For increasing water intake I would recommend a water bottle beside you if you are allowed it.
Abner

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

Transition is not a verb.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Tell that to the OED l-)

[(Anonymous)]

^^^ I agree.

Set yourself specific intervals, say every hour or half an hour,
where you must drink a quarter of your bottled water, at a time.
And DO IT.

[malal.livejournal.com]

Work tends to be a mixture of the Sucky & the Great. Unfortunately I find the Great pays Sucky, and the the Sucky pays half decently. :-/

Friended BTW. :-)

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

The OED states that it was first used as a verb in 1975 in Aviation Week & Space Technol(ogy?), a periodical (albeit one which seems to be an industrial, rather than public, publication). Modern, sub-literate yank journalists may have power over the evolution of the American dialect but that doesn't extend towards English itself.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Obviously I'm just imagining the educated Britons who use it, then. Good grief.

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

Quite a few supposedly well educated people here use "signage" instead of "signs", and that has a slightly shorter recorded existence. It's also wrong. People use it, and I don't deny that. It is not correct use of the language, however. Education does not preclude mistakes or ignorance, it just reduces the odds a little. I'm as guilty as many, but wilfully perpetuating a mistake is something I try to avoid.

wilfully perpetuating a mistake is something I try to avoid

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I suggest losing your prejudices about language as a starting point, then.

[fhtagn.livejournal.com]

It isn't a prejudice but rather a decision and belief. I am aware that languages can and must change. New concepts arise and old ones fall away. The use of words changes as the subject shifts context. Slang comes into being and dies.

I do, however, believe that to ensure that understanding and communication between both time periods and geographical areas, some form of underlying structure and point of grammatical reference must be maintained. Standardised spelling and grammar mean that books written a hundred years ago are perfectly readable and understandable, something which cannot be said of early English. Standardised grammar means that I, a Scot, can understand a Frenchman, a Spaniard and a Finn when they speak in English. They may all make deviations from the formal English but because I know the underlying form, I can identify those deviations and take them into account.

That being true, the use of "transition" as a verb and "signage" as a word at all do not represent shifts in language, nor a change in meaning. They exist as mistakes made by the ignorant or deliberate modifications by those trying to obfuscate their meaning and thus increase their perceived importance. Repeating them is not an example of evolution, it's just an example of repetition of, in this case, an error.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

If 'transition' as a verb is a mistake then it belongs to a mistake of an extremely ancient class - verbing has been going on for centuries.

Describing people who use language differently to you as 'ignorant' is prejudice.