Daffodils!
Just putting them out there. Besides this was April and they are gone now. But I feel like it’s my thing with the daffodils. They were pretty.
Hot in the City….
It is Sunday, May 23, in Chicago. It’s a blazing 90 degrees and I have been drinking margarita’s all afternoon. This is my first post, post-nursing, first year. I am done for the summer! Passed successfully the course, the final and the final-final for the past year of material. I will be enjoying this afternoon and evening and start reading some more stuff on Monday. It’s recommended. But, no pressure so its really more for fun. Haha.
Anyway, let me rewind the week, but fast-forward the boring parts (zip it Amanda…some people do not think this is ALL boring like you…har har) anyhoo…let’s see…oh yes…my sister (Amanda) squeezed out yet ANOTHER child into this world…good job! Welcome Everet Jase! Congrats to the family!
I passed my classes, I registered for fall, I paid for fall (lots of money I don’t actually have…and don’t even qualify for using student aid…but hoping for good luck with some working scholarship money, and I bought some lottery tickets also as a back up plan.
Saturday, myself and the family (kids and bf), babysat for the new bean so my sister could go to a wedding and try to wear sexy clothes and drink for the first time in 9 months. She looked cute but the alcohol didn’t take. She tried her best but we are thinking that the bartender thought she was still a pregnant lady and gave her non-alcohol drinks! We have to get that baby weight off! Which leads me to our next big thing…Warrior Dash! It is coming fast and neither of us is ready and I don’t have a baby as an excuse for my chub…only fast food and laziness. So that means you get to follow along on the progress all summer! I may have pictures…they are guaranteed to be funnier this year because they have that same wall for me to not be able to climb over again AND a new net-wall-army-thing that I will probably never get my big booty up on. So you’ll definitely want to stay tuned.
After the babysitting, 3 am, yikes, and an hour drive home, we get to bed at 4. Kids leave at 11 ish to go to an other-family-thing with their dad, and I get the idea to go for a nice bike ride with the bf, you know, get a jump start on the massive diet and exercise program that begins tomorrow for this entire household. The “Summer of Slim”, the “Focus on Fat”, the “Abolishment of Adipose”…we need a catchy slogan for my program, especially since we will all be crying by Tuesday about how hungry and tired we are of this horrible plan…and how we’d rather just stay fat…no no, not this year. My goal is my son. Slim by seventh…that’s good too…hmmmm….anyway, it’s happening and I will be unliked for some time this summer.
Back to the bike ride…we decided on a modest 9 miles (thank goodness the bf doesn’t listen to me, because I first suggested the 19 mile loop we were doing last year, which we would still be doing right now). So, to the trail, on the bikes, riding, riding, riding, sweating, hills, 90 degrees, more hills, sweating, still riding…9 miles is really long, even on a bike, if you haven’t done it in a year, finally down to 2.8 left, I was like, what???, man I thought we were done, but we made it back to the car and even went past and back to make it a nice even 10 miles. Felt good. Felt sexy, in that sweaty, I-just-exercised-don’t-I-glisten-in-the-sun kind of way! And then driving home we go right past this Mexican restaurant with awesome margarita’s and I said that’s what we should do…have margarita’s for the rest of the day. So we change, drive back, drink margarita’s, eat guacamole and enchilada’s with green sauce, and watch the Hawks win it for the city! But the fun doesn’t end there….we need home margarita ingredients!
To the liquor store…got it all, Tequila, mixer, salt, limes….and more heat. It’s still like 80 something outside, no air conditioning inside, wouldn’t put it on anyway because it’s only May, and it’s 8 o’clock pm. I’m on, like my third glass, but it’s hard to tell because it’s never really an empty-fill thing, it’s more like a continual addition to what is already in the glass thing. At any rate, it’s lovely, and it’s getting hard to type or see, because dusk is upon us here in the Midwest. My kids should be home soon. Dirty and sweaty from their day and needing showers for school in the a.m. Well, shower for one anyway…the girl broke her arm again and is limited to baths with her cast sticking out…I have pictures!
I have lots and lots and lots more stuff to tell and write and show and post, I have missed so much since Easter because of school, but I shall have the whole summer to amuse my loyal fan base!
I also have pictures but cannot post any because I am not typing this on my computer where the pictures are. My computer is trying to get reconfigured for better speed and quality of content. So this will have to be good for now.
I have money to post! I have found alot of spare change in the last few months. I have saved it all for you in one location so I can total it up and be very dramatic about it. And I have Cool Words galore thanks to my girl…she has been saving them and is anxious to start helping me. I have Warrior Dash training, and PF 5-Mile training, and get-my-son-slim-by end-of-summer training and healthy cooking (?) attempting, and music! Music music…I have been so slacked…playlists and inspiration….you do not want to miss any of it!!
Also I want to thank my followers, particularly the one who sent me the notice about the creator of my favorite coffee cup…the New York Coffee Cup….we are happy to serve you…blue with gold trim….passing away recently. I have the Time magazine write-up abut it and him and the iconic piece of history he left behind. Thank you for keeping me informed when I cannot! If you want to see more about the cup, click here, NYCC, and if you just want more, I will be back soon with all the good stuff…hopefully late late tonight or tomorrow once the computer is fixed, the kids hit school and I hit the gym (training starts NOW), I also need some healthy food items in the house…we are down to coffee, 4 slices of bread, almond and rice milk, and eggs…which I am going to go boil right now for tomorrow.
Until then, have another drink, maybe one more for tonight, and enjoy the heat wherever you are. It’s good to be back! Cheers.
Happy Easter!
Sorry for the LONG delay…I have been busy with school…it is winding down, so more frequent posts should be coming. BUT, I could not let this day pass without sharing the love from some of our neighborhood entrepreneurs.
Yes that's a liquor store in the background. I ask you, Can a businessman help it, if that's what happens to be on the busiest selling corner?? People gotta drink. And they need Easter baskets. That's just good marketing.
Street Money Update!
Well, it’s pretty late. I did minimal study time and maximal wasting time. So what the heck…here’s a post too! I am not going into any details, check the next post if you want to know how some of this money got here, but this is the official count for today and like, the last few weeks probably. I’m sorry for being a lame web person but I didn’t even check to see when the last time I put this up…so here it is anyway:
Lots of dirty, salty, beat-up, run over, snow plowed pennies; a few nickels, maybe one; and three or four or five dimes. How precise. I swear I will calculate every last drop of IV medication I give you in the future, but I’m tired and these coins are taking up space on my counter…I gotta get them logged.
Total on this haul: 43 cents–pennies; Zero nickels, my bad, I should have checked first; 50 cents in dimes.
I also noticed I wrote myself a little note for various cents to remember: 33 and 10.
So that brings today’s total to: One dollar and 36 cents (I am soooo lazy tonight that I don’t even want to use the “special” symbols button)
For the year so far—Holy Cannoli!—this is February—and late Feb to boot—crap. Check the total here!
A breather….
OMG! I hate to be such a loser….but this semester is kicking my butt. I’m fine in grades but weary with the work. I want to be in my job. I know that’s not possible yet, but everyday I feel like I am earning more coins, leveling up, familiarizing myself with things that made no sense just 5 weeks ago.I liken it to driving. Every time I leave my school, my hospital, my classroom, I think about driving the car on the way home. When I was sixteen it seemed so foreign and difficult to do while doing anything else! My grandma would drive with the tips of her fingers barely on the wheel, moving stuff around in the seats and reaching behind her while talking, adjusting the radio and dangling a cigarette out of the corner of her mouth (I have never smoked, but I so badly wanted to be able to do just that. I don’t even understand the mechanics that were holding it there, lit and burning and smoking into her face and eyes. How did she ever drive like this?? and no seat belts either! Amazing.) These days I can talk on the phone (try not too though, but I could) yell at the kids, change the stations…barely even think about the rules of the road and the traffic and the lights. I just know. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I just know. I am anxious to see how my children will do and so excited for them and all that stands before them. Driving is just one tiny thing in a million things that they have to look forward to and I want to be here for all of it.
But that is really off my track already, and I don’t have alot of time. My breather spaces are short. My clinical day is done, but I have skills and a test to prepare for next week. Quote time: The days are long but the years are short. My days are not short this time around. They seem way too fast and without alot of night-time. I am awake more than I am ever asleep and I never catch up. Summer. I will sleep in the summer. So here is what I have to say for today.
So many things are happening everyday in my small, small, world that aren’t worth the air waves it takes to move this stuff around. And then there are so many things happening in the BIG world that I can’t even post about without crying and because I don’t have the words required to convey my thoughts. Haiti…death in a big way, on a grand scale, pulling the world together in an effort to make any kind of difference at all. And across the big lands…the Olympics…life in a big way on the grandest scale, pulling the world together to watch and wonder at how there is no difference when you run at the highest levels. It’s still all luck and chance and the right place and the right time with the right people and the right equipment to keep a dream alive or crumple it in defeat. I know that the skill is there. I know the years and training it takes for some of these athletes to get in the position to just try. But all the training in the world can’t help if the mountain shakes unexpectedly or the land just drops. One small bump. If you can’t keep your balance, it’s all over.
The thing I like the best in any tragedy and any victory is that everybody, every single person sharing the experience, cries and laughs and cheers with the heartbreak AND the victory. People try to help when they can, and not make it worse, if that’s possible, when it matters. It is my absolute favorite thing about the human race. We do come together when we have to. And we have to. We just really do. I always said I would want to live away from all the people, but you can’t really “live” without all the other people. Otherwise, it’s just you. One person, alive, living. If there is nothing else, there’s really just, nothing. Another lesson learned through better living. Ha. That was a little joke because this quick post took a real serious turn and I want to get on FishWorld! (What?? I know. I hear you. It is pathetic.) Just living life!
So anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the world out there for a few minutes. Haiti, the Olympics, Captain Phil Harris passing away(sadsadsad), the SuperBowl and New Orleans (Yea!!), Chicago, my new friend Merianne and my old friend Beverly (Hey ladies!!), my family and all the kids we know, the BF’s family and his cousin Scotta still fighting the bad blood and staying hilariously upbeat about it (she’s got a website too, trying to pass some time—you can check it out—www.thepapergal.com—and I’ll get you the background info as soon as I can do it justice—newsbreak–I’m going to post the whole note she sent to me right below this one) all the good stuff and the bad stuff and the ridiculous stuff me and a thousand other “bloggers” like to write about. Did you know that Angelina Jolie has a new hair style?? And that Conan O’Brien grew a beard?? I did. But I haven’t had time to give you my opinion. And now I won’t. I missed Valentine’s Day too. VD as all us “older” students say and laugh our butts off. Venereal disease is not funny, but it is funny that people say VD for Valentines’s Day. And venereal diseases are now STD’s and the hilarity goes on and on…so you see where MY head is at. I don’t even choke anymore! I aspirate! Pretty funny huh??
I am ending this here. I stopped with the facebook jewel game that was keeping me up at night, but I swapped the addiction for a bunch of cartoon fish in a virtual fishtank, so I have to go feed my fake fish to grow them big enough for me to sell and buy more. Gotta level up! I think I’m like 26. That’s nothing in the fish world. I’m just a guppy. So I plan on a few more posts. I have found alot of change….in case I didn’t already tell you, we have had several mini-storms of snow in the past few weeks, and at the same time, someone must have dumped a cup holder full of pennies into the parking lot at school, and I have been finding them in giant clumps (like dumped out rock salt) on the ground. So, they’re pretty dirty and salty, and there’s alot! (Just one last little thing regarding my age…I originally typed in that previous sentence, “someone must have dumped an ASHTRAY full of pennies…” and I realized that some people might actually be confused on how an ashtray could have gotten into a car! All you oldies like me, think about it now for a second before you poo-poo me. When was the last time you SAW an actual ashtray in a newer car?? They don’t put them there anymore. Our kids will never know that it used to be an actual feature of a car! Isn’t that hilarious? Don’t you feel old?!?)
OK, I’m REALLY leaving on that. Enjoy what ever you do in the next few days,weeks, months, years of your life…I’m in Chicago. It’s Thursday afternoon and 41°. I haven’t gained any weight lately and I feel pretty good. I hope the same for you!
And pictures. Pictures make it better. Peace.
The Scotta Story—Sort of…
So the bottom line is a diagnosis of aplastic anemia. Idiopathic. A serious shortage of red blood cells due to a serious malfunction of the bone marrow. No good reason for it. 40-70% of all cases are idiopathic and common in the younger adult. Not real comforting when it’s you, but that’s just info from the med book.
Scotta, on the other hand is awesome! Never met her in real life, but love her and her style! SO the website link is in the above post–buried in the middle—gotta promote my insignificance too…and here is her last e-mail to the fam and friends. Check it all out and dare to tell me she’s not a cool chick! (This is straight copy/paste from the lady herself—if there are any spelling errors or weird grammer, that’s all on her! I even left in all the little triangle more/less things that pop up throughout the note! Haha):
Something major to report! Not health related, really, but still big!
Since I have nothing but time on my hands these days and love planning parties and creating things, I have finally decided to try my hand at doing this to a living. Well, not a living so much as a way to supplement my income a little but mostly just give me something to do.
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> So, allow me to introduce The Paper Gal! Check out my brand new website at http://www.thepapergal.com/ to see everything that I can do. There you can also join the newsletter list or become a fan on Facebook. After this (and maybe a reminder or two) I promise all “work” information will come from those places and this will go back to just being about my health and what not!
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> Even if you don’t think you’ll want to buy anything, follow the blog or become a fan on Facebook because I’ll also be giving great party planning tips, ideas, where to find deals, etc.
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> Let me know what you think! I’m really excited and am putting as much energy into this venture as my little blood will allow me!
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> Oh, and speaking of blood, my doctor’s visit last week was uneventful. H&H are the same. Platelets were down to 50, but no real need to be alarmed. They can fluctuate so we are ok right now. I did have a paper cut that bled for about 30 minutes last night, but I am going to say that was just a fluke!
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> Don’t forget to check out the website: http://www.thepapergal.com/ and to become a fan on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Paper-Gal/279528000966?ref=ts. Oh, and please tell all of your friends, family, coworkers, even people you don’t like! And, they don’t have to be local. Everything can be done over phone and email and mailed anywhere in the world!
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> Thanks for your support throughout this and hopefully in this new venture, too!
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> Scotta
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> —
> Visit our community site: http://aamds.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/618225/
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> Powered by Lotsa Helping Hands and Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation, Inc.
Sad note on the white fish in that tank below…
When we woke up for school a few weeks ago, he was gone. At first we thought maybe the other Oscar (a Tiger) ate him. He got to be twice the size of the Albino Oscar, and he was three times as aggressive, so it’s possible. Or maybe the Kissing Gourami (also kind of mean) picked him to death and the Pleco finished him off. Seemed implausible to be eaten just overnight, but you never know. Then I thought to look to the side, there is a small opening in the back, and when the fish fight they splash around and break the surface pretty violently. Well, obviously the fish decided he had it with marine life and threw himself up and out and to the side in between the wall and the dresser. He was kind of dirty and stuck against one of those quarter-of-every-state folder things. We tried to revive him, but no. He was gone. All the dust on him served no protective advantage at all (see next post on cleanliness). We freed him to the universal ocean in the big, green garbage can. We feared the flush as he was somewhat larger than a regular fish. Incidentally, the Gourami died shortly thereafter. Poor, unfortunate souls….
just shy of pretty 