Monday, January 31, 2011

SNOW!

Well after returning from a trip to Bloomfield, I am sitting on my couch with a dudley on my foot and writing this blog. Writing a blog from the couch??? Yes indeedy! I got a laptop from my parents since my dad got a new fancy toy. Though I am not very coordinated with said laptop so please ignore any typos. Somehow my thumb hits the mouse pad sensor thingy and then it jumps everywhere inserts words and generally confuses me. I apologize.
Whatever happened to the wistful times of snow days. I have fond memories of snow days, especially my senior year. We ended up with like two extra weeks off due to snow days. This was before the implementation of saturday school and all of the ramifications of numerous snow days. It was fabulous, not only did my BFF end up living with me for those weeks but i lived close enough to the best sledding hill in town that we could meet up with others and sled all day. My parents were very patient with all of the over-night company. Can you say Jurassic Park, Nicole? I do believe that night we had 4 people asleep in the living room. Three on the pullout couch and one on the love seat. Those were fond times when we didn't have a care in the world. The only places we needed to go were places we could walk (like the sledding hill or someone elses house). We had food and didn't have to worry about how we got it (since our parents were the people out there buying cheese weinies, O'boise chips, and Sunkist). Life was great!
Snow days were also sometimes a blessing when I lived out north of West Lafayette. I lived up a "lane" and though I had 4 wheel drive, the drifts would be so high that my poor little tracker didn't stand a chance. We would again be stranded for a day or two watching movies and shoveling paths for our tiny dogs. It was just enough time off to relish but not get cabin fever....okay we sometimes still got cabin fever.
Well now I live in town, my only big obstacle is getting out of the cul-de-sac safely. Though with all the mess predicted, I am a little leary. I did have an "issue" with ice a couple of years ago and it terrifies me. But my Escape rocks and hasn't failed me yet. I backed into the garage so I can only pray that INDOT has actually tried to clear the roads instead of pulling the usual "I will just wait until the snows stops to plow."
It's funny how winter weather is...the first snow is always something we look forward to, the inner child in us still gets excited at the first accumulation. Then at Christmas (though I am sure my dad is admantly disagreeing at this point) snow always adds the right ambiance..again appealing to our inner child. But when January hits, I know I am over snow. I am done with the boots, the shoveling, the scraping, the winter coats, the road conditions, the bread and milk drought, the idiots on the road and worrying about getting home. By January that inner child has been grounded and taught a lesson that SNOW indeed is not fun. So here I sit, surrounded by dogs and cats, listening to the ice hit the windows, and enjoying blogging from my couch. (Apology #2 about any typos).

Monday, January 24, 2011

I wanna be rich

Na na nana na na. Great song by Calloway. But I stray.
Ugh, the ultimate feeling of defeat is asking for money...(or was it getting fired?) I am not the type of person to play Russian Roulette with my bills. I knew someone who was like that, he would pay a different bill every month. Me, I am not a gambler, obviously, since I was devasted at losing bingo. I would rather have all my ducks in a row, however when I do so, then I realize how broke I am. I also use to live on the theory that if I never checked my bank account online that means there would always be money in there....yep, that theory doesn't work either. Then I thought, woohoo, I got payed, I am going to pay for some things that I have waited on....ya know what happens then? You don't have money for the real bills. It seems that the only logical way here is to budget. I was good at it once, I kept a log, dates of bills, but that was mostly when I had a roommate and got paid once a month. Now, I am 33 and still suck at money. It doesn't help that I don't always know what to expect every two weeks. So one of my New Year resolutions is to be a better budgeter! Woohoo...and to lose weight. Wow, aren't I original. And now a totally unrelated picture of Bob the clinic cat. Unfortunately no one took him....and then he promptly got in trouble for "sneaking" off with a package of the free samples....multiple times.

Friday, January 21, 2011

SAD and sad

It is that time of year again, I know I start a lot of blogs that way. But it is that time of year when the SAD starts to get me down. Seasonal Affective Disorder. It usually hits me about this time because in December and November we are still excited about the first snow and the holidays. January is when you start wishing summer would come again or that you had the money to go to a very warm place. I thought I was doing rather well this year, I love the people I work with, things were looking up, and then wammo! It hit me like a ton of bricks last night that lingered into today. I had a doctor once (a real doctor) that recommended tanning to help alleviate the SAD symptoms. I don't know if it is the warmth, the light, or not being bothered by anyone or anything for 10minutes, but it always seemed to work. So my new mission is to find a salon that will let me tan 10 minutes once a week and where I don't have to fight the Spring Break crowd. It is not the healthiest way to deal with it, but better than crying on the couch for 18hours.
The second sad hits a little more closer to home. As you know, my brother won a battle with testicular cancer. He has a blog which is inspiring and very real. (www.theonenutwonder.blogspot.com)
Sometimes, don't you wish that you could take the pain, stress, and trials away from your family members, if just for one day? I wish I could. But we can't. We can support and pray.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah
29:11

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Down with the funk

You may have been wondering where I have been recently. Well I woke up saturday not feeling "right." I couldn't pinpoint the reason why I felt bad so I just lounged all day watching tv and enjoying my snuggie. I LOVE MY SNUGGIE. It is not an actual Snuggie it is a Nightmare before Christmas couch blanket, same thing. Except the super cool thing about this Snuggie is that it has a giant Jack Skelleton face right where Chaplin lays therefore the white hair is invisible. How handy! Well Saturday night brought a night with coughing, coughing, not breathing, coughing and more coughing. Pretty much the brink of misery. Until something dinged in my head. Hmm....my doctor prescribed codeine for my back....codeine is also a cough suppressant.. Excellent. I finally get some sleep so that i can take Dudley to the clicker class sunday morning. Now Dudley doesn't really need the clicker class per se but he is the best out of the three children and I wanted to get some more experience with it so I could use it on the girls. Dudley did okay besides the fact that he is a big momma's boy and has ADD. At least we got some experience. At this point I feel like crap....warmed over, then frozen and crapped again. Or something along those lines. I try to sleep most of sunday but again the coughing is only abated by the codeine which renders me unconscious. Now I have had many suggestions, all of which are useful or would be useful if it could actually work. Like a humidifier. I have one of those. It worked great until the cats discovered it and then I would wake up in the middle of the night and they would be sitting directly in front of it. Everyone needs more cat hair in the air, especially damp cat hair, that would definitely help the cough. So I decided against that. I am sticking with my codeine and benadryl, yep I have been a lively person the last four days. If you have talked to me, you are lucky because it was probably in the time when my codeine ran out but not the benadryl. Anyways, I am now on the upswing, I think. I am to the point where i sound worse but feel better and when I lay down I don't sound like Wheezy from Toy Story. In the midst of all of the sickness my tooth started bothering me. Well since i am taking full advantage of my COBRA before I join the uninsured again, I decided to make a dentist appointment. What concerned me is upon examining the tooth, there was a brown spot on it. Crap, this means a cavity, which means filling it which means gigantic needle IN MY MOUTH. I don't like needles. I work with them everyday. I even got poked by one trillions of time for a tattoo but when it comes to me getting treated with one, bad idea. I remember getting injected in my back and looking at the needle and thinking "wow an 18ga needle, that seems...OUCH!!! SON OF NUTCRACKER! I better sit down...feeling dizzy.." So if I see them, I then identify the size and then I can't handle it. So I have worked with this dentist in the past and he actually put a towel over my eyes so I couldn't see the needle headed towards my mouth and it worked well. This time he trusted me enough to just keep my eyes closed. Seriously, if I looked, I would only be hurting myself anyways. But it is filled, my teeth are cleaned, my head is less stopped up and I am getting cabin fever. Of course the house is a pit at the moment, but I am not that restless to clean it just yet. Probably just find my Snuggie and work on emptying out my DVR some more.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

No words....

Well as I am writing this I am listening to the interview of my brother by a radio station called Naked Church. When mom and dad told me about the interview and the website, I made darn sure to write the address down correctly (for obvious reasons)....of course that piece of paper got eaten and I had to call mom again today to get the address. As I am listening to this, I realize how much of an inspiration my brother is, not only to me but to others. I have always looked up to him, as a little sister would. Granted he pulled the typical big brother stunts like " I dare you to smash up all the black snakes... (ya know the fireworks, the little black pill that you light)" or "You know what would be really fun? cleaning my room." But there were also the times that he would stop at the gas station and pick me up a new california raisin or when he moved away, he would allow his little fat sister come up to visit, no matter how embarassing I was. Now we still bicker but we also have fun in the end, on vacations, at home, anywhere. He is a great brother, one of the best. Listening to this interview I realize how much I completely and totally look up to him. He has survived, with the help of my wonderful SIL's support, and come out to be a point of support to others. He tells it how it is, he is honest, he will tell you "yep, at this point it really really sucked." But that is what people need, people need the honesty. Between his blog and the recent book he had me read (Cancer on $5 a day, not including chemo), it helped me understand the plethora of emotions that he experienced. Yet he is always the one to put a smile on your face. So I guess this is just a sappy ode to my brother. Tom, you are the greatest and I love you.

Us at Jaco's grave. Apparently if I have a little niece or nephew, this is his or her's namesake.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Happy New Year!!....man, I am old.

And a Happy New Year to you, Jordan Knight *wink*

Hope this finds everyone well on the way into a great 2011. Me, myself, had a bit of a rocky start to the New year (thank you stomach flu) but am now on the road to recovery with my gatorade and crackers. I have come to the realization that I am old. I just don't handle things as well as I use to. My first example, or should I say, red flag, was my trip to and from Missouri. I use to pride myself on the ability to stay awake immobile for long periods of time especially when I have good music to listen to or someone to talk to (here is where my brother is begging to differ, well ya know what Tom, I also didn't eat handfuls of chocolate chips for breakfast). Anyhoo, I noticed for the first time on the trips both to and fro that I was struggling to stay awake. Good music..check. Alone in the car so I could sing along...check. Two healthy dogs that could adjust to temperature fluctuations...check. Yet I found myself check the hours/miles/rest stops to when I could make it home. I was even having to limit my caffeine intake because 1.) it wasn't working and 2.) I just had to pee more. Yikes.
Example numeral dos and three. For New Years we decided to celebrate this craptastic year of 2010 leaving by attending 80s prom. Lovely! Great idea! We had a blast, see attached pic (which also inspired my New Years resolution to be addressed in a later blog). Well, by golly, not only did I rally (very proud since we were with a, ahem, younger generation) but I stayed up way past midnight. We went to a bar following prom and continued to party, er, babysit, er, observe again the younger crowd. Yep I was feeling old but nothing new, I was drunk and happy. Yeah, not only did the multiple captain and cokes KEEP ME AWAKE for 8hours when I got home but then it took me TWO DAYS to recover. These are my two points. I remember studying for finals in the dorms drinking Water Joe (sing sloppy joe song here inputing the words Water Joe) and then immediately fall asleep. I never use to have to monitor my caffeine intake. Now, I am cautious if I get a Den pop after 2pm. Especially going out to eat in the evening on a work night, water please, no caffeine. Yep, I said work night. *sigh* Then TWO DAYS to recover, seriously?!?!? I didn't drink THAT much. But yet I didn't shower until sometime sunday afternoon, finally feeling humanish. Wowser. Not cool. So, the moral of this story is that I am old, if I drink plan at least two days to recover, and limit caffeine intake....oh and no long drives. Damn.