The Adventures of January 29th, 2009

I don't have anything specific to write about.  Therefore, I'll just run through my day.

Buddy was great this morning until 9:10.  At 9:10, the doggy-crazy-alert sounded in its super high-pitched-only-dogs-can-hear way.  I let Buddy out to use the bathroom at 9:10 with the knowledge that I needed to leave the house at 9:20 in order to make it to my 9:40 class.  At 9:17 or so, I go to let Buddy back inside and subsequently, put him in his crate.  Now, considering I generally have to lose my feet inside Josh's fuzzy crocs, burrow inside a jacket in my pjs, and venture all the way into the yard to get Buddy to even go outside in the mornings, one would think he would voluntarily rush back in to greet me upon opening the door.  No, no.  Not this morning.

Sensing my impending need to leave, Buddy decided it was a nice morning for a game of tag.  I tried treats, toys, the leash, ignoring him, ignoring him with the door shut, ignoring him with the door open, ignoring him in the yard, chasing after him, yelling, pleading, excitedly coaxing, etc.  He was having none of it.  Finally out of desperation I went inside, left the door open, and picked up the phone to call Josh for ideas on how to get the darn dog to place more than just his two front paws inside the house without running way as soon as I even looked at him.  I walked from the phone over the refrigerator and noticed Buddy lingering in the doorway waiting for me to dodge at him so he could take joy in his escape.  I pretended to yawn while turning my back to him and intentionally knocking a closed bag of treats off the top of the refrigerator.  VICTORY!  Buddy lunged for the treats.  I sprinted towards the door, slammed it shut, and then chased after Buddy who was by that time in the living room under an ironing board.  I was fuming.  It was 9:38.  I reached for his collar to drag him to his crate, but at the last second he dodge to a tiny hole between the leg of the ironing board and the recliner.

And then the ironing board fell over, hitting my leg, and freeing the dog.

I yelled.  Buddy cowered.  I grabbed his collar with one hand, a treat with the other, and slid his little belly across the floor until we reached the crate.  It sounds like animal abuse.  But believe me, it was the equivalent of the mom at the grocery store with that mix of anger and exhaustion holding on to the hand of her screaming child and dragging him along with her while muttering threats.  "BAD," I yelled.  He slid to the back of his crate and didn't even bark when I left the room.  He knew what he had done.  

I trudged across campus in the wind and entered my Media Planning class fifteen minutes late.  I looked at my professor warily.  He didn't even ask.  He did proceed to explain 7th grade equivalent math problems about 3o times each.  Seven questions took an hour and a half.   And these are questions like:  Here is the formula for GRPS.  Gross Impressions/Universe x 100.  If the gross impressions equal 10 million, and the Universe equals 100 million... What are the GRPS?   Not only did he ask every student to explain that equation (13 students), that question alone took 20 minutes.  Welcome to a college class full of seniors.

Next was work.  Never hard, only boring.  Today, I searched through files for duplicates, while paper cutting my hand multiple times.  I also filled the shelf with copier paper.  Then I made 4 labels and got the mail. Challenging.  I know.

Advertising Management... the class I love with the professor who doesn't love me.  Although, I do think that is changing.  I ranted to Josh about all the ways in which my prof treated me like his other students today.  "He asked me how i was!  He used my name for an example!  He actually called on me to answer a question and said my answer was a good one!"  I was excited.  Some students might expect these simple things, but this is unexplored territory for me and ole' Applegate.  The conversation I had with Josh after my first day in the class went more like this:  "He asked everyone to introduce themselves except me.  He skipped over my name in the roll.  I asked him after class if I was indeed showing up as registered.  He confirmed I was.  He asked everyone's opinion on a case study except mine.  He avoided all eye contact.  He ignored anything I said.  He.  Hates.  Me."

And then back to work.  Where I... kid you not... sorted out two coffee cups of rubber bands into stacks of "Thick rubber bands" and "Thin rubber bands."   Exhilarating.  

Home to the chastised puppy who redeemed himself by being cute.

Josh and I went to Bible Study tonight, which we love.  A new couple came tonight, bringing the total to 6 couples, which is a great size for a small group.  Our actually Connection class on Sundays has grown to 40+ people.  We're going to the class Super Bowl party on Sunday.  I'm tivoing the game at home in case I miss any good commercials >_>  

And that's about it!

Oh, except for the whole Josh accepting the offer to officially go into sales at Lochinvar.  Hooray!!!  I'm so proud of him :)  It means we'll eventually be moving, but the guy who will be his supervisor until we do alluded to the idea that he might keep him in the southeast if at all possible.  That would be nice.  I think as long as we're in the South, it will feel like home.  If it's not, we'll still make it home; it just won't come as naturally I think.  

Nothing quite like 50 kids booing you at church...

So Josh and I volunteered (got recruited actually ha) to act in little skits for the K-5th grade once a month on Sunday nights.  Last night was our first time.  Josh was a silent drummer.  I was supposed to be a comedian, but the jokes were all horrible.  To the point that the 50 + kids were actually booing me.  It's funny in hindsight, but it caught me so off guard onstage that I stumbled over a couple of my lines.  First time for everything hah.. We go again on February 8th.  My part is supposed to speak with this obnoxious lisp that I'm really struggling to do.  Josh is going to be the Good Samaritan.  Then on March 8th I'm playing a gardener named Holly Honeysuckle or something like that.  The other actors are really nice, and dramatic in age range.  There are a couple men, one just moved here with his wife and 4 daughters from Dallas to start a church in Smyrna, but it doesn't open until September.  The other does professional voiceovers for tv shows and commercials and whatnot.  He's also a salesman for a bank, which sounds like a pretty good gig from what he described.  There's a Master's student from MTSU focusing on English.  A freshman from MTSU who is about to change his major from EMC to Religious Studies, even though he isn't even sure that's offered as a major at MTSU.  A couple of high schoolers.  One was a freshman.  One seemed like an upperclassman, but he never said his grade.  The guy from Dallas brought his 11 year old and 8 year old daughters.  They were cute.  

Buddy's really cuddly today.  He's been pretty much permanently glued to my lap.  When I got home from the grocery today, I let him out with me while I was bringing the groceries in.  When I opened the door to my car to open my trunk, Buddy squeezed his way in thinking we were going to go for a ride.  He loves rides.  It took me a full 30 minutes to get him back out of the car.  I'd convince him to come out and before I could shut the door, he'd jump right back in.  He would twist himself in pretzel positions to make sure at least one paw was inside the car at all times.  I even came inside, turned off the garage light and shut the door to the house while leaving the car door open, but five minutes later when I opened the door, he had is paws perched on the front dash waiting for me to come get in.  Silly pup.

My classes are going really well thus far.  I really like 3 of the 4 professors I have in class.  My online classes are informative and interesting, but not challenging, which is kind of nice when you're taking 18 hours.  

Josh and I watched Max Payne tonight.  I fell asleep for the last 10 minutes.  I couldn't really get into it.  Sometimes these shoot'em up movies look all the same to me.  Not to mention it was bizarre to see the spoiled girl from That 70's Show holding a gun.

I should really be sleeping as I have class in the morning.  I'm at the point where I have classes with a lot of the same people as we're all trying to graduate within 2009.  I've met someone to at least talk to while waiting on class to start in every class, and I've inquired about becoming one of the lesser-involved officers for the Ad Club.  I know one of the co-presidents, so I'm thinking I'll actually join officially this year to add something to my resume.  I'd like to do an officer position this year so that I can apply for a officer that has a little more responsibility next year.  But we'll see.  I'm not counting on it as the faculty advisor currently doesn't like me.  I'm desperately trying to change his opinion in my Management class as that is a little more my forte than copywriting.  

This was longer than I expected.  Hmm..

Oh puppy...

clearly, i got my camera back :)

other things on the "Buddy is scared of" list include:

hair barrettes
hair dryers
vacuume cleaners
cell phones
my hand if he thinks its bathtime (he's still wet in the above video)

expect more buddy pictures and videos now that I have my camera :)

this is from my cellphone, so it's crappy quality. but i think he's really cute when he's sleeping :)


This is Buddy after a bath and learning about the camera for the first time. Notice the pile of stuff in the floor that resulted when he bumped my desk while running in fear.

Welcome back, good health!

So today is an incredible turnaround from yesterday. When I went for my followup appointment today, the doctors were amazed at how quickly the antibiotics are treating it (I'm not as suprised. I've been more on more medications in the last 24 hours than at any other time in my life. I've got the nausea to prove it. :P) Anyways, I woke up this morning to find my eye only halfway swollen shut. I could still see out of a little sliver. About an hour and a half later, by the time of my appointment, the swelling had gone down even more. Tonight, my eye looks almost normal. It's still really tender, but the redness and swelling is vastly improved.

They may think it's the antibiotics, but I know my fast recovery is a God-thing. The number of people who at least said one quick prayer for me yesterday tops at least 50. God is good and faithful and the great healer.

I'm off to watch American Gangster until I can take medicine again hah.. I can't take them at the same time because they're too harsh on my body. Therefore, I space them an hour apart. I'll start at 10 and take the last one by 12. Too bad I got almost no sleep last night. The shot they gave me had side affects of inability to sleep, feeling hot, and dehydration. All of which I began experiencing at around 11 last night all way until 7 this morning. I would doze a little bit, but I always knew I wasn't fully asleep. The one point I think I actually started to fall asleep, I like jerked up. I don't even know why. Josh was really annoyed hah.. I kicked off the covers and flung all over the place trying to get comfortable. He didn't know about the shot side effects though. He just thought I was being a crazy sleeper. Oh well.

Buddy had obedience training today. He's not so good at the "Stay" command. We played hide and seek in the store though, which was cute. He's been very affectionate today :)

that's about it!

My body is staging a revolution apparently.

I woke up this morning and my eye was swollen shut. I had had a tender area for 3 days that kept growing, but I thought it was a cyst. But it wasn't. So I call a dermatologist, but they can't fit me in for 2 weeks. And I'm not convinced my face has that long as the swollen area was reaching from the top of my forehead to the bottom of my eye. So I went to health services. The doctors are all intrigued. Staph!, they say. I've had staph before, I say. Almost positively staph then! they say. The nurse practicioner was talking about a mile a minute. It's serious, she tells me. It's serious, the doctors agree. It could spread into my sinus cavity and form abcesses and cause confusion, dizzyness, and all around would-be-kind-of-funny-if-

it-wasn't-so-serious behavior.

So they decide on a treatment and 3 doctors and 2 nurses and a nursing student leave our cramped little room to go out in the hallway and discuss the impending mountain on my face. Baxi 4 pills a day, Doxi 2 pills a day, a shot for the swelling, a flourescent strip thingy, a blacklight, a few pictures, and 3 scheduled future visits later, a fourth doctor walks up to see whose causing all the commotion. Then the I hear the nurse say, "Wanna see something cool?" I hear hushed whispers. I hear the nurse say "She sure is a trooper. She drove all the way here with one eye swollen shut!" (That was a very unpleasant experience hah). They walk in and the commotion starts all over again. Staph, shingles, etc!

"She's had staph before!"
"It must be staph!"
"Did you get a culture"
"Tried, but not enough fluid"

back and forth, back and forth.

I heard the doctor in the room next to mine instructing his patient on getting rid of his STD. "That's quite a rash." etc. I hear coughing down the hall. The nurse comes over to me and says "I'm not scheduled to work in here tomorrow. I'll be in the women's clinic. When you come in for your appointment, you tell them to come get me. They'll look at you like you're crazy, but tell them to do it anyway." She says this very fast with a glow in her eye.

It's then I realize I have made her day.

I told Mom, who is entirely freaked out (and actually has reason to be it seems). She's coming to get me to take me to the doctor that treated me last time to find out if I need to go ahead and be on an IV. Excellent.

The First Married Holiday Season

WHOA... holidays are busy. I never realized just how busy they are until this year. Now I know what all the fuss is about.

So let's see.. Christmas Eve I loaded up the dog and presents and headed home to Gallatin. I dropped Buddy off at Josh's parents, then headed to mine. Dad was at work, but mom and Alyssa were just relaxing. My throat was bugging me so it was nice to have some time to just rest before Christmas Eve service. Josh got off work around 1ish and stayed at his parents until church. It wasn't so crowded this year. I'm used to it being absolutely packed out. I also think 3 o'clock is awful early for a candlelight service. It's still light outside when you get out! Anyways, after that, we headed back to my parents for a little bit, and then to Josh’s for Christmas dinner/presents. Josh got a GPS. He really likes it. I get annoyed at it’s constant interrupting of conversations, but it wouldn’t do that if Josh didn’t feel the need to put every single place we ever go into it. Even if we’ve driven there 20 million times. It’s already been helpful for a few other situations though. My Eiffel necklace that I lost was replaced, which makes me happy as it was my favorite. There were other gifts, but those were our favorites from that exchange. Buddy got lots of treats which he likes.

Christmas morning, we woke up at Josh’s parents and then drove to mine for breakfast. Chocolate gravy and biscuits.. Yum J Dad got us lots of goofy gifts that were actually fun, such as a toy gun that shoots these little discs at you. And a toy hand grenade. And some playdoughish goop. Josh got lots of gift cards and I got clothes which were very needed. Again – more presents, but those are the ones that stick out. Buddy got a couple of toys – plush – that he ripped the ears off of within a few hours.

We got home around 4ish on Christmas day and did presents with each other. Josh got me WiiFit which is exciting, so we played that for a while. I got him Left4Dead and a book, that he didn’t actually play until the next day I think, but still it was a nerdy/fun Christmas for us. I still wasn’t feeling awesome, so went to sleep kind of early. We realized we had forgotten to do stockings so we did those day after Christmas. Had lunch with Missy on Friday and hung out at Starbuck’s talking for like 3 hours. It was nice to catch up. Saturday – we tried to put up the Christmas gifts. The house was an absolutely wreck. Josh forgot to put the trash by the curb before Christmas, and it was full. So we were just kind of stuck with all the Christmas trash until the next week.

Sunday was Christmas w/ my dad and stepmom’s family. We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and back to Lori’s parents for presents/waaay too much socializing for a Sunday night. I got books and a Barnes and Noble gift card, and Josh got gift cards as well.

New Year’s was pretty boring. Josh played his video games. I read Twilight (which I have now finished the entire series as of yesterday. Took 8 days which is impressive since I’m working too). We watched the ball drop. Stayed up late talking which is one of my new favorite things to do. Not sure he’s so crazy about it though haha. He’s such an old man when it comes to bed time :P

Garrett and Sarah came over on Saturday, which was great. We played Rock Band and Forkel and ate Mexican and Pizza. Not at the same time, naturally.

Started Sunday night church this week, which was weird. It feels unnatural to wake up on Sunday morning and not go anywhere. But it’s nice I think. Means quick dinners hah

Buddy has been a little bit of a handful the past couple of days. He’s begun barking if he’s mad that I won’t play with him the way he wants to play. He doesn’t do this to Josh. Just me. Then on Sunday, I gave him a bath. We let him out for about 10 minutes before we needed to get ready for church. He dug a whole under these boards that Josh and his Dad put up to keep him out from under the deck. He then crawled under the deck and rolled around in the dirt. When I went to let him in, he ran all over the house with his muddy little body. We had 20 minutes to bathe him, clean up the dirt, and get ready for church. We made it on time somehow.

The next day, he got in the dirt again. His crate permanently smells of wet dog between the rain and his baths.

This pretty much covers the holiday season, I think.

I graduate this year ;)