So, so many things

Wow, so much has happened since February. Here's the brief catch-up:

Finished the book by the end of December (my editor bailed from the publishing company around that time-- and no one bothered to tell me), it published in January.

In December (before the book came out), I got an email from a brokerage wanting me to revise the Microsoft Official Curriculum 5060A. They were obviously unaware that I was sorely mistreated by Microsoft Learning in 2006 when technical editing the original 5060 course. The course was a travesty of technical inaccuracy. It was obvious the writer had never used WSS and was copy and pasting from beta material written by internal staff on beta versions of the software. MS documentation, particularly in the early stages, is notorious for lack of clarity and inaccuracy. Then the writer compounds it by completely misunderstanding what the documenters wrote (very likely due to the fact that the documenters were californian citizens, and the curriculum author was in india and spoke English as a second language). When I found that they were also simply disregarding all of my edits, fixes, and suggestions, I bailed on the gig. These were the people who had the cajones to say "what made you think you were qualified for this project?" "Uh, maybe because I could actually correct the author. If I didn't know what I was doing, I would simply nod my head dumbly at anything they handed in..."

• I turned down the offer, was pursued after they saw my resume online, and finally, after refusing it a second time, was flatly told that MSL would accept no other SME (Subject Matter Expert) to do the project.
• What a load of bull.
• I asked for a fee far above what they, the indians-- because of course this version of the courseware would be outsourced-- wanted to pay me. I then got started planning, revising, and rewriting. The brokers swore they would protect me from non-payment, from schedule problems, and all the other bumps and bruises working with the outsourcers inevitably cause.
• Again, bullshit. The brokers were not only useless during the project, but they were almost useless when it came to getting money.
• Bottom line is, I worked through christmas, new year's, and valentines day. I worked on my vacation (more on that in a moment). Meanwhile, the indians took as much of my work as they needed to create the new revised plan-- then suddenly went radio silent on me, secretly replaced me with someone less qualified, but cheaper and more pliable (and probably internal), turned in my draft material as finished, and never intended to pay me--- All while the brokers did nothing. Nothing. When I brought up the fact that there was a problem, they seemed shocked that things weren't going right. And they took two months to finally get me some money. Of course, I was supposed to be paid $3500 for turning in an outline-- which I did, and $3500 for design specifications. What I am being paid now is a measley $2450. And the broker thinks that's great. And she wrote the original contract with all the numbers listed.
• So that sucked. Meanwhile, the book cost me a year in income and now I've wasted three months revising courseware that I will never get to finish, will be written by someone with dubious provenance, and I will never get credit for any of my work. Oh, and the pay is insulting.
• And, all the while, Microsoft acted like they didn't approve everything the outsourcers did to me, acting as if they had no idea. Which is, patently, untrue.
• Lesson? Do no further work with Microsoft Learning. Never work with an indian outsourcing company. And never use brokers or agents. If you need them to get a gig, you don't need the gig. Trust me, it's not worth it.

I went to Barbados in February (no, I didn't get anything to eat on the trip in, or out for that matter-- yes, planning could have been better...). It was beautiful. I turned out to be terribly allergic to the native mosquitos (bad enough to warrant a call to the resort doctor and a visit to the hospital Medical Center), as well as allergic to the bug spray for the mosquitos (blistering skin on my face and a swollen lip to my nose-- couldn't drink without a straw because I couldn't entirely close my mouth because of the swelling), and allergic to my expensive, hypoallergenic, 60 SPF sunscreen (blisters and a rash on my neck, chest, and face-- where the bugspray was not irritating me).

• NOTE: I did, but not quite quick enough, learn how to overcome the mosquito issue-- better mosquito netting and a great, all natural bug spray-- and the sunscreen problem-- baby face, infant sunscreen.
• Barbados weather was gorgeous, very humid, 80's to 90's the whole time. Plenty of beaches and fresh air (so, so nice and healing, salty and warm). Went swimming in my girls4sports surfing duds-- spf rated of course at the lovely, west side beaches. I ate at great restaurants (and some bad resort bars and buffets). I saw beautiful sunsets, and ironically, several lovely sunrises (since, strangely, I couldn't sleep after five am-- meaning I was pretty exhausted throughout the trip). I got to sight see a little, take some photos, hike around. Overall, after the initial problems with my health, it was pretty cool.
• The downside, of course, was that it was ridiculously expensive. Really, really expensive, and not worth it when I spent three of the five days there feverish, in pain, swollen and delirious.

When I got back from Barbados I got back in touch with the people who do the conference I love so much in Toronto. This year it was called "IT360" in previous years it was called "NetworkWorld Expo". The old crew was managing it this year (the previous year, which I didn't work because of the book, was managed by different people). They were willing to have me speak (which was nice since I'd not worked the previous year), so I signed up to do four sessions.
I spent my free time between recovering from Barbados and the first week of April, preparing for the conference. Meanwhile, my boyfriend cleared his calendar, paid for airfare, and prepared to join me for a romantic revisit to the lovely, frigid, city of Toronto in April. It was going to be great...

• ...The day before we left, I started getting a tight, sore feeling in my chest. I thought it was just allergies and didn't worry about it. The following day, after getting up really early, sitting in a dry, dusty airport, dry plane, dry airport (and customs) in Toronto, overheated, dry taxi, and then getting to the really dry, overheated hotel, I was truly sick. That night I had a fever of 101.2. The following day it was worse-- I was having a hard time breathing, my throat was raw and I was having trouble speaking. Not to mention the symptoms of the fever itself. And the dry cold air on the walk to the conference building from the hotel was really bad (I didn't realize that really dry cold air is very bad on inflamed lungs)..
• I went to the conference before my sessions, and tried to mention to the management that I might have to bail because I was sick. I obviously was ill. However, they were in the middle of a catastrophy because a guy from Florida just didn't show up for his sessions because he was sick. The management and staff only found out he wasn't there when the attendees waited an *hour* (bless those polite canadians) before complaining that the presenter blew them off. Then they couldn't find him at first because he wouldn't respond to their calls to his room. Finally he informed them that he was sick, that he'd emailed them, and that he wasn't doing his sessions.
  
  Emailed?! Like the staff at the conference had time to read their emails during the event?? Who was this guy?!
  
• So, anyway, the management had had to refund all the attendees money for his sessions. And because of that, there was no way they would be okay with me mentioning that, ahem, I was sick too and was wondering if I could just go home...
  
  ...so I ended up teaching with a worsening fever and lung infection for two days, about four to five hours a day. On my feet, talking as loud as I could, in a very, very dry convention center. On the last day, about twenty minutes into my last session, I felt my fever break while I stode there talking. It sucked.
  
• But the canadians were really, really nice. Seriously, they are angels that make it all (minus the illness) worth it. They were totally nice about my being sick-- even though the fever made me rambly in places and my pacing was wretched. They stayed with me til the end.
  

Then, I went home, which is where I am now. I slept the entire day after I got back. It didn't help. So I went to a medi-help clinic (because, by that time, it was the weekend and my doctor was out). It turns out that I did have a slight case of pneumonia. If I had waited any longer it would have gotten bad.

I was given some antibiotics, an albuterol inhaler (because the breath test showed I had seriously diminished lung function), and an appointment to come back the next week.

I took the antibiotics (Biaxin-- an okay antibiotic-- side effects were mild except for the constant, overwhelming, bad taste in my mouth) for a week. They did not entirely get rid of the pneumonia, but the doctor (a different guy this time-- that's medi-help for ya) said it might take several additional weeks to get over it. So now I have to go back at the end of the week to, again, do a breath test to see if my lung capacity is back to normal (the second appointment showed my lungs had improved to only 74% function by the end of the antibiotics).

So I had the early stages of pneumonia while working the conference in Toronto. Great. And it is why, even now, I am still struggling to recover. I still can't breathe properly, am easily exhausted, and have no appetite (a serious problem for someone who is hypoglycemic).

--- and on to more girly stuff now.

Before the conference I was having real problems with my skin. Real problems. I was wrinkling like an old lady, the skin on my face was so dry it was cracking and bleeding, it was papery and really uncomfortable. So it was obvious that my nice, cheap, and easy oil of olay was no longer cutting it. Also, I was having increasing problems with sunlight hypersensitivity. So I needed to really invest in, and regularly use, sunscreen.

I did a lot of research and decided on getting an exfoliant to get rid of the peeling skin and expose new skin, find an alpha-hydroxy, retinol moisturizer (possibly one for night and one for day) to help heal and soften my skin, and to find a healthy sunscreen (despite my Barbados experience with the best sunscreens on the market).

To that end I got some Roc night time moisturizer (alpha-hydroxy and retinol), a neutrogena scrubby thing to essentially do a micropeel, and, because of my problems with chemical sunscreens, some bare minerals powder with titanium and zinc oxide.

Well, Roc worked, but the bare minerals were bad. There is an ingredient they are not obligated to put on their label-- bismuth oxychloride-- that my skin hates. I turned red as a lobster, got red, bumpy hives all over my cheeks, under my eyes, and on my chin. My eyes got styes, and my lips swelled. It was bad.

The Roc stuff worked great though. But with the alpha-hydroxy making my skin even more light sensitive, the imperative for a sunscreen increased.

So I did yet more research and came up with "Everyday Minerals." A mineral makeup company that literally exist to offer makeup that does not have bismuth oxychloride in it. I ordered some samples but got them the day before I left for Toronto. I used them in toronto, and they were okay. Although, by the last, long, performance day, I was looking a little wrinkly, dry, and worn out, I am sure.

Now that I am home, the testing has continued. I am definitely allergic to Avobenzone. It is the culprit. I now have two moisturizers with UVA/UVB protection that don't seem (so far) to be causing any serious reactions. One is Olay completel all day moisture lotion SPF 15, and the other is Neutrogena's Intensified day moisture SPF 15 cream. Both are fragrance free, which is cool.

So now I have a night moisturizer to actually get rid of the wrinkles and dryness, and a day moisturizer to use as a sunscreen. I wish I could use makeup in the meantime, but hey, at least my face no long feels like it's going to fall off...

So that's my story. You are caught up.

In the future, expect to hear stories about the fact that I have been accepted to work part time for both weeks of TechEd in Florida (yes, teched is two weeks this year: separated into a Developer's week and an IT Pro week). That will be fourteen days away from my boyfriend, the longest stretch away from him since we meet fifteen years ago.

There are also other adventures on the horizon, so don't be surprised if more adventure filled posts crop up soon.