When it rains, it pours....

I swear I would have posted sooner if it weren't for the fact that the last month has been total ass. Seriously. First my dear, sweet baby had to be put to sleep. And then, the next day? I had to have my car towed to the mechanic b/c the spring on the strut broke and Michael and I had to shell out over $600 to have new struts put on. Have I mentioned lately that we are just hemorrhaging money? No? Well, we are.

Flash forward one week (we'll skip the part about how I was too sad to concentrate on studying) and I get a phone call from my aunt to let me know that my mom had been admitted to the hospital for a bowel obstruction. Blarg. So, Michael and I hop in the car and drive the 2.5 hours to Indy to go see her. The good news is that she's better and is back home. The bad news is that I have an exam tomorrow and I don't feel even close to prepared for it because, you see, it's hard to study when you have to drive 2.5 hours to Indy and then try to study at a hospital. Also, there's no sleeping at the hospital either.

But it isn't all bad. I have wonderfully supportive friends who surprise me with a gift card to my favorite upscale grocery store and an amazing husband who played the part of June Cleaver so that I could study. Oh, and I finally got a job. I figured it would just be easier to go back to waiting tables than to convince people at doctors' offfices that I really, really do want to be a receptionist for a piddly $10/hr. Now I'll make more money and no one asks me about why I left my last job or any of that other crap. And (this is the best part) I got my braces off. I'll post a picture soon...after I get thru these exams this week. I promise.

So, things are looking up. I'm still really sad a lot of the time but there are a lot of good people and good things going on in my life. Yep, things are looking up.

So hard to say goodbye...

Asia didn't make it. Around midnight this morning she had developed another case of bloat and her condition was so poor that we had to put her to sleep. She was such a great dog and we loved her so much. She was funny and sweet and a really, really good girl. And I just can't believe that Michael and I are here again so soon after Shana. We really thought Asia was out of the woods but I guess she wasn't. It's the nature of bloat and there isn't anything to be done for it. But that doesn't make it any easier.

It's 4:30 in the morning and I can't sleep. How can I sleep now that our baby is gone?

Since you asked...

Here are a couple of photos of Asia. Sorry, Manda, I wasn't able to get one of her wearing the e-collar (that was a disaster).

This is day 2 post op.







This is from Tuesday. She's wearing a UW t-shirt (and getting pus on it - bwah ha ha ha).












This is from yesterday. Just look at that sweet, sweet face.












And this is the get well card that our nephews made for Asia. The little stick man is a self portrait of Lucas. Max's contributions are on the inside of the card. The two of them came up with the idea all by themselves. It was very sweet.















And this is Michael showing the get well card to Asia. I think she was thinking "Go make my food, bitch. I'm starving." That's how I know she's on the mend. That dog has such a potty mouth.

Day 8

Well, folks, here we are at day 8 post-op. Asia is doing really well except for the open hole in the side of her belly where the catheter used to be. Oh, and the weird pouch of fluid that has collected back near her pee pee (that's my technical term for it) that makes it look like some weirdly stretched out testicle.

In all seriousness, she is doing great. We've had many a sleepless night and we've had to fuss at her because she won't leave the bandage alone and every night at midnight I wake up and she's done something to that damned bandage. Like Saturday night. She chewed, nee, destroyed the bandage and it was hanging around her middle by a piece of medical tape. And then there was the whimpering. So we went to the emergency vet to make sure she didn't cause any permanent damage (there wasn't) and an hour and $83 later walked out with a newly bandaged dog and some pain pills for the inflammation. Did I mention that the inflammation was caused by her chewing off the bandage? Stinker.

Actually, on Saturday we went to the vet twice. As soon as she got home from her first appointment Michael took her outside for a walk and she had a BM causing her bandages to bunch up entirely around her little doggy hips. So....we went right back to have her re-bandaged. And Sunday went well, too except that the lovely folks at the emergency vet used some sort of super duper sticky tape that NASA probably uses to hold bits of the space shuttle together to keep her bandages on and forced me to cut it out of her fur. Now she is sporting a really bad haircut.

Then on Monday she developed a pocket of fluid around the catheter so we called our vet at home and, bless his heart, he had us bring her to his office on Labor Day for a check up. He took out the catheter and cleaned her up and sent us home with a happier dog. Wouldn't you be happy if someone removed a nasty looking catheter from your body? Unfortunately the hole left by the catheter was abscessed so we have to leave it open to drain. We've been managing the seepage (and the licking....you know, dogs really are grody little creatures) by making her wear Michael's t-shirts with a little D@isy Duke tie in the back. I'll post pictures as soon as I can find the cable.

And we went back on Tuesday for another scheduled check up. She's been doing really well....she's eating and she's able to go for a longer walk during the day. And, this is the best part, last night she slept all night without messing with her hole or her weird pocket of fluid. There was much rejoicing. Except for the fact that we were up at 3:30 because Michael had a plane to catch. That lucky bastard gets to go to Vegas for 3 days for a conference and I have to stay at home and hold down the fort. (Love you, honey!) We had a minor setback of retching this morning but luckily she's holding down her food and antibiotics and seems okay. Thankfully my MIL was kind enough to stay with her today while I went to class. What I need now is a vacation. Except that this particular medical emergency cost a few thousand dollars so the only vacations we'll be taking are trips to Lankytown where we can stay with my dad and eat PB&J on the trip out and back.

But she's worth every penny of it. And no doubt the vet can continue to make payments on his snazzy Lexus SUV for many months to come.

Feelin' stressed...

My poor sweet girl is trying to sleep and I'm at home sans Michael and just feelin' stressed. Blarg. I have an interview tomorrow at 9 (receptionist at an eye surgical center) and I don't feel particularly stressed about the interview but more so about starting a new job and school starts next week and Asia has to have that catheter in until Tuesday and Michael leaves for a conference next Wednesday and god I wish he didn't have to go. And I no longer have any closed toe pumps with a slight heel so now I have to go buy some. All my nice pants that I used to wear to work are a little too big now and don't fit quite right so I bought a new pair but they're too long unless I wear heels but you aren't supposed to wear open toe shoes on an interview. And because I've been home all day watching Asia like a hawk with no one to keep me company I think I'm going a little nutty. But did I mention that I'm getting my braces off next week? Catheter out and braces off--there are my silver linings.

Not out of the woods yet...

Well, we've had a pretty eventful couple of days around here. At the moment Asia is resting (passed out is more like it) in the living room and I'm trying to quietly keep myself busy while keeping an eye on her at all times.

Last night we took her to the emergency vet clinic to spend the night just because Michael and I are so ill-equipped to care for her at home so early in the recovery process. Yesterday she had to be rushed to the vet for some IV fluids and to have her catheter drained. What makes this so tough is that gas builds up inside the stomach as the stomach slowly gets back to normal and we periodically have to open the cath to get the gas out. Well, we weren't getting any gas and she was growing steadily more uncomfortable and becoming distressed. And then we went home but once we got there a thunderstorm was brewing and it was too difficult to know if she was pacing and panting because of the storm (her usual behavior besides trying to tear our house apart) or because she couldn't breath because of gas build up. So our vet called the emergency vet to fill her in on what was going on and Asia got professional treatment all night long.

And here I am sitting at home with her watching her to make sure she's doing okay and dreading having to wake her up in 30 minutes to expel some gas. It took her so long to go back to sleep the last time I did it that I hate to wake her. See, this is why we can't have kids. I would be a totally and insanely neurotic parent. All I have thought about for the last 48 hours is this dog and her well-being. She's as close to a kid as we're planning to get and it kills me that she's in pain and uncomfortable and there's little but time that can help her. Blarg. The vets said that the first 3 days are the hardest and tomorrow is day 3 so hopefully we can get through that and by then Michael will be home with me for 3 days to help play nurse. Thanks to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts:>

Always trust your instincts...

If I hadn't Asia might have died. Fck. Yesterday Asia very suddenly developed bloat. For those of you who have read "Marley & Me" this is what Marley has near the end of the book. But thankfully I was at home when it happened and the vets were able to see us right away and they saved our baby girl. The scary thing about bloat is that it happens suddenly and needs to be treated immediately or the animal dies. And sometimes the animal dies anyway.

But thanks to Dr. Fournier and Dr. Shaffer Asia is now at home and trying to rest. She's not out of the woods yet but she's doing a lot better and thankfully I can be home during her recovery.

I just feel so bad for her--she can't seem to catch a break. Between the allergy problems, heart worms, tooth extractions, general weirdness and now this...she just can't get ahead. But like Shana, we love this dog like a kid and we would go to the ends of the earth for her. She has been so brave through all of this and I just hope she will have an uneventful recovery.

A trip down memory lane...

As most of you know, Michael is still looking for a new job and that has been the dark cloud of gloom that has been hanging over us since last September. No, he doesn't have any job leads at this time but we're doing the best we can to keep moving in a forward direction. Part of that means we've decided to consult with one of our neighbors who is a realtor and who specializes in historic districts (especially ours) and she is going to come out and help us figure out what we could be doing NOW to get our house ready to go on the market should Michael get a job offer out of the area. I'm sure that the big list of things to do will make us feel a little nutty and overwhelmed but ultimately it gives us something to do that's productive and will make the whole moving thing a little easier.

And even tho we might not actually have to move, the job market here for people like Michael isn't ideal so we will, in all likelihood, have to move. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, yesterday we spent a couple of hours cleaning out our junk room, I mean guest room, and made our pile of books to sell and the pile of stuff for G00dwill and the pile of trash, etc. And we cleaned out a lot of stuff and it felt good to go through it. Not only will it make the future possibility of packing easier but I also feel like we did a good job of dejunkifying the room. And while we were in there I found all of our wedding stuff: extra invitations (can you say homemade x-mas cards--by god I am NOT going to throw them away), cards, receipts, my slip. And then I found the video of my high school graduation. And the day planner from my senior year of college. And the dog resumes Ang made for Shana. And tons and tons of cards and notes from all of my fabulous friends. It was fun to see all those funny little notes and all the different addresses where I've lived over the last 6 years. There were pictures and ticket stubs and the program from V@gina Weekend. And then I found the folder of stuff the Hum@ne League of Lankytown gave me on the day I adopted Shana. That part was really sad but overall it was a happy little trip down memory lane and it reminded me of how lucky I am to have such funny, amazing, super-smart and fabulous women (and dogs) in my life. That reminder is exactly what I needed.

Living the single life...

As most of you know, Michael has been on a sailing trip for the last 7 days and will be returning home tomorrow night. So, all week long I have been living like a single person and doing things that I don't normally do. Like, say, watching a lot of t.v. By my standards, it's a lot of t.v. And eating junk instead of cooking real meals for dinner. You know, eating D0ritos for lunch. D0ritos aren't lunch. You might eat them with a sandwich at lunch but no. I ate just that for lunch. What is wrong with me?

I did study. I did. And I did some laundry and bought groceries. I was somewhat productive. And after my final on Wed. night I just did nothing. I laid around, read books, and ate D0ritos. And today I took Asia to the vet to have her teeth cleaned (and have 6 teeth pulled--I swear that dog has got to be the one to get a PT job) and then ran errands. And I wasn't a total bum--I have gotten up by 7:30 every day which is sleeping in at my house.

And now the lazy party is over. Michael returns tomorrow and starting Monday the search for a PT job begins. And finishing the kitchen. Stupid kitchen. I can't believe I let myself be this lazy. I never do this. Maybe that's the problem. I don't let myself be lazy often enough and I just went hog wild. Oh, hell.

All kinds of wrong...

This is me not studying for my final because 1.) I'm a procrastinator and 2.) this is still really bothering me.

On Monday, I'm sitting in chem lab and there are 2 groups of 4 students at each table. A girl, we'll call her Insensitive Asshole or IA for short, sitting in a group at the far end of the lab bench is talking about her work study job on campus. She was talking about how she has to index some papers that apparently list all of the HIV positive students on campus and she was lamenting the fact that the students' names were blacked out with marker. She said "Believe me, if I could see through that marker, I would go look up all of them on F@cebook so I can see what they look like. I want to know who they are." And then she went on to talk about how the stack of papers was about 2" thick of names of students with HIV.

And I was so...surprised...and disgusted by her comments but I didn't what to say. So often I'm sitting in class and hear the other students talk about things that, um, highlight their immaturity. And I just ignore them because they are young and immature and, hey, they aren't having a conversation with me. But this crossed the line and I just sat there totally stunned by her insensitivity and asshole-ness. So, dear people of the internets, what would you have done?

Veg!

As many of you know, Michael and I joined a CSA farm this year and are finally reaping the benefits of our fee and bi-weekly toil on the farm itself. Behold! Chard (apparently we're going to get a ton of this), green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers, corn, lettuce, jalapeno peppers and the very beginning of the carrot crop. This week's distribution is far more....plentiful...from our first distribution which consisted of 5 pea pods, a fistful of lettuce and 1 tiny radish. But then we didn't have rain for ages in the early spring so our veg was a bit stunted.

Anyway, I've already made fresh salsa and tonight I'm making a potato and chard gratin. We had some corn last night but until these braces come off I still have to cut the corn off the cob before I can eat it. Did you ever see the C@lvin & H0bbes strip where Calvin says "It's not summer unless you have corn smooshed in your teeth and butter dripping down your chin?" I'd say he's right on the money.

One time at band camp...

So, WSU has a bunch of kiddies here for sleep away band camp and while that's not how we did band camp, it brings back the memories nonetheless. It's kind of fun to walk from building to building and hear the drum line or see the color guard and it reminds me of those few short summers where we (you know who you are) spent tons of time together laughing and carrying on all the live long day.

And this isn't the first time I've been thinking back to those days. When Michael and I were in Lankytown 2 weekends ago we went to HHS to play some tennis and the new courts are located on top of the old stadium parking lot where we learned our coordinates. It was kind of weird to be there, but not in a bad way, and "Yesterday" has been running through my head ever since. I think I've pretty much blocked most of the crummy memories from that time so all that remains are the funny, amazing, loud and crazy times we had. Sometimes, when I'm feeling homesick, that's what I'm homesick for. Band camp. Go figure.

Been a while....

Well, the last 3 weeks of freedom between summer sessions are now behind me and I'm back at school (a new school this time) for more punishment, I mean, chemistry. It was a very busy 3 weeks where I spackled, sanded, spackled and sanded our kitchen and it still isn't ready to be painted. Not ready. Durr. There's some hand sanding left and then the cleaning bit before I can put up a coat of primer. Not to mention the spackle dust that got inside all of my cabinets and drawers and all over my dishes and utensils.

I did some fun stuff in there, too, but talking about it makes me homesick for my friends so I'll just leave it at that.

And now I'm back in Ohio and back to the grind. Can't complain tho (that's not entirely true: my computer screen died so I had to send the whole thing to HP to be repaired and I officially hate all airports and TSA with such a passion that I'm going to put myself on some FBI watch list because I'm going to send them all hate email) b/c Michael and I are going to have a date night on Thursday and are going to see HP5. And? HP 7 is out on Friday night at midnight so you can find me at the local B&N waiting in line for my copy. Can't wait!

Hoping to Ogg...

That I do well on my chem final (and isn't that Terry Pratchett just so witty?) 16 hours from now. Rarely have I felt as incompetent and stupid as I have while taking this class and the fact that a summer session of organic chem awaits in July makes me cringe. I've just got to keep telling myself that it'll be okay. It will. Right?

It's a crazy day in the neighborhood...

A crazy day in the neighborhood...
Won't you be my,
Please, won't you be my,
Won't you be my (probably) crack-addled homeless neighbor who's shilling for drug and/or booze money....?

First, I'd like to point out that Michael and I really like our neighborhood despite the occasional petty theft and weird homeless people scamming for money. But Tuesday night really takes the cake re: neighborhood issues.

Around 9 pm the doorbell rings and I assume it's my next door neighbor. Instead I find this skanky-looking lady standing on my porch with one of those weird grape vine angels. This picture doesn't quite do it justice but this lady was holding one that was 5 feet tall and strung with little white lights (puke). Anyway, she launches into some really long story about how she got this from her sister to sell so she can make ends meet while she tries to get on disability, blah blah blah. She tells me it's only $20 and it's real pretty.

My response? I tell her that I just quit my job and we don't have the money to buy it from her as lovely as it may be. I can't believe I offer these people explanations when I tell them no. How stupid is that?

Anyway, she wanders down the steps and back to the sidewalk and asks if there's anyone else she could ask aaaaannnd I told her I didn't know anyone for her to ask. Then I go outside to go water my crispy-looking bushes (we need some rain here big time. It looks like it does in the middle of August) and I see her drag this stupid angel over to my neighbor's house on the right. Poor Nick, I felt so bad that she went over to his house.

So, before she can come back and ask me again to buy the stupid angel, I go back in the house and figure I'll just water the bushes another time. Unbeknownst to me, Michael goes outside to water the bushes and also encounters the lady with the angel and she tells him a different story as to why she's selling it (can you say crack addict?) which, btw, is different than the story she gave my next door neighbor about needing to buy diapers. Anyway, Michael tells her no and she wanders off down the street. Then he sees her in the yard of the house 4 houses down and she's holding birdfeeders in her hand. She didn't have birdfeeders in the beginning of this ridiculous scenario because she STOLE THEM from the lady whose yard she was in. So, Michael confronts her and asks if those are her birdfeeders and she tells him that they belong to her. So, he tells her that he knows they belong to our neighbor and to put them back and then comes back to our house and calls the cops.

Michael: I think someone is stealing something from my neighbor's yard.
Police dispatcher: What is the woman taking?
Michael: Birdfeeders.
Police dispatcher: Can you describe the woman?
Michael: She's about 5' tall, brown hair and carrying a 5' grape vine angel

You know, my friend Carrie used to be a dispatcher and she said they got calls like this all the time. Anyway, the cops show up, 2 cruisers in fact, and they put the woman in the back of one cruiser and the big stupid angel thing in the trunk of the other cruiser only it's so tall and wide that they can't shut the trunk and half the angel is hanging out the back of the cruiser.

Shortly after the crazy lady is taken away by the cops we take the dog out for her last peepee for the night and we see the police cruiser driving thru the neighborhood with that angel hanging out the back. He sees us and pulls over to ask us if we know anything about it. Michael tells him that he's the one who called to report her and the cop tells us that she stole it from someone and he was trying to find the owner. We told him that neither one of us have ever seen that thing before but someone else in the neighborhood told him it belongs to someone on our block....seriously, if I had seen that on anyone's porch I would have been making fun of it every time I passed by.

Anyway, the next morning we take the dog out for her walk and we see one of our neighbor's birdfeeders didn't make it back and was lying in the grass next to someone else's house. I've been hoping to run into the lady that owns them to tell her that she might want to put them in her backyard but I haven't seen her yet.

But, wait! There's more. The thing about this neighborhood is that if your stuff isn't nailed down someone WILL steal it. We've had flower pots stolen a few times, theft of power tools from our garage (during broad daylight when Michael was home) and our rain barrel has been emptied not once but twice. And about 6 weeks ago someone stole the bungee cord we use on our trashcan to keep the raccoons out of it. So, Tuesday night is trash night and it was also a recycling week so we put out our recycling bin. Around lunch time on Wednesday afternoon I came home from school and my trashcan and recycling bin were out front but I decided to I'd get them later. Well, I go outside to walk the dog later in the afternoon and my fucking recycling bin is gone. WHO THE HELL STEALS A RECYCLING BIN?

I'm pissed so I call the cops and report that it's been stolen (seems petty but it's my only recourse). And later I find out that one of our neighbors saw some homeless guy who not only stole our recycling bin but had stolen other things like aluminum siding. Yes, folks, I said aluminum siding and it presumably was stolen off of someone's house. (Not the first time that's happened in this neighborhood). So, she called the cops and they arrested the guy and took all of the stolen goods....somewhere.

My bin is gone for good but the county department in charge of the recycling program here in Dayton is having a new one delivered on Thursday. We don't know if anyone claimed their stolen angel yet but I'll be sure to keep the internets posted.

Oh, the bureacracy!

I smell a rant coming on...

I want to preface this by saying that I'm very grateful for the tuition remission benefit Michael gets at the university. But. The process of registering for and the taking of classes at said university has been nothing short of a pain in the arse. WTF?!?

First of all, signing up in the first place for classes was a big mess b/c Michael had to do the work of having me enrolled. He went to HR, who sent him to the bursar, who sent him back to HR, etc. until finally, he got me enrolled. This is only the first of many hoops thru which my beloved had to jump, although for the sake of brevity, I will only list the highlights below.

Then there was the fun and exciting part of acting as my academic advisor and getting me registered for classes. The first one, stats, had to be a class that was offered at night since I was still working full time. There was a class offered at 5:50 pm and it was full. So, because Michael knows the dept. chair, he contacts him to get me into the class and is successful (yay!). And, as you all know, I got a B in that class and all was right with the world.

So, then there's the registration bit for the winter semester. Because I am low woman on the student totem pole (I have the status of an undeclared freshman, apparently) I got wait-listed for a few classes and then there was this big pain in the butt over the classes that were offered that I needed to take all being taught at the same times on the same days of the week so what is a student to do!?!? Ultimately, I got into Abnormal Psych and Anatomy and Micro and Physiology, but then I had to drop Micro and Phys for reasons I won't bore you with here. But here's where the story takes an interesting turn:

Somehow, when I was dropping Micro and Phys, I got dropped from Anatomy (this occurred after the first week of class during the add/drop window of opportunity) and I DID NOT KNOW THIS HAD HAPPENED!

So, on May 10th, when grades are posted online, all I see is my Psych grade (got an A, btw) but no Anatomy grade. So, I call the registrar's office and am told that that means my prof never turned in the grades so I would have to contact her directly. Okay....so I email her and never get a response. So, finally, after 2 weeks of waiting, I call the department secretary who tells me that the roster shows that I dropped the class back in January!!!!! What the hell!!!!! I tell her that I dropped Phys 307 not Anatomy 305 so, she refers me back to the registrar. The registrar explains that somehow Michael dropped me from Anatomy via the online advisor webpage thingy (which he did NOT do, incidentally--the university uses this lame ass web crap for it's registration stuff. What ever happened to doing your schedule on paper, having your advisor sign it and walking it over to the registrar's office?) but notes that this problem can be corrected. (big sigh of relief here)

Alas, the dept. secretary comes to my aid and fills out the forms to have me retroactively added back to the class and submits my grade. I want to give a shout out to Laura who saved the day and is my new favorite person. As for my grade...I got an A.

In case I forgot to mention this...

Asia's final heartworm test came back negative. Our baby is all better now!

And now it's only a matter of time before we have to drop another couple hundred bucks at the vet's office. It always seems to work out that way...but you know what? She's totally worth it.

Just look at that face!

Day 1 of Freedom (Unemployment)...

• Got up at 6 am to walk the dog and get ready for class
• called my dad before going into class
• 8 am chemistry class...woo...can hardly contain the excitement
• 9:15 go to library to do homework
• go to Michael's office to scrounge up change for a snack (this is the last time I leave the house without any money or snack in hand)
• have lunch in the dining hall
• go to the post office
• go to the grocery store
• put on a load of laundry
• walk the dog
• take a cat nap on the couch
• do more homework
• cook dinner
• do more homework
• rotate laundry
• do more homework
• blog

Sounds pretty exciting, huh?

The Universe Speaketh, part II

Universe: Well...?

Me: I quit. My last day is Saturday.

Universe: It's about time.

Me: Yep.

The Universe Speaketh...

Universe: Seriously? You need to quit. NOW.

Me: But what about my replacement? I haven't told her enough about the job...

Universe: She'll be fine. You need to quit.

Me: But what about the volunteers?

Universe: ...sigh... They'll be fine. They'll help train the new person just like they trained you.

Me: But what about...?

Universe: GET ON WITH IT! (to be spoken a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Me: ...sigh...