(no subject)
So. Let's see what has been going on lately:
- I am finally not being constantly assaulted by allergies. I ended up having to go to the hospital a couple of times and they wanted me to have steroids again, which I refused. As a compromise, I did agree to Flonase and Advair, which are both still steroids, but they are localized and not systemic. This means that my nose is mostly clear and my lungs are not all wheezy, PLUS I'm not going to get backne and the unmentionable rash as side effects this year. SWEET. Breathing, AND not being itchy and disgusting all over? WIN/WIN.
- Despite being "blacklisted" at the school due to my ~*radical*~ ideas on discipline (as in, actually do it every now and then) they called me to do a special sort of assignment. There's this little autistic boy who had to be hospitalised for something or other so they asked me to take him his work and sit with him for an hour every morning to help him with it. So naturally, I did. I started May 21, did it for two weeks, took a week off for vacation, then did it the last week of school. It was hard getting up that early in the morning and a little depressing to visit the ward, but rewarding in the end. He seemed to enjoy doing homework by the last week and I was honestly a little disappointed to go. The hospital had asked if I could keep coming after school ended, but since the parents couldn't afford to pay me and the hospital is 30 minutes away (read: gas is too expensive for me to volunteer) it didn't work out.
- Erik switched me to days at the craft store, after months of begging, because it was finally possible. YES. I also work between 30 and 35 hours now, rather than 20. It is tough getting used to getting up in the morning, but it is awesome. It freed up some time to take a German class finally, which is going ok. It's a little slow, but I think it will pick up and I will learn a lot. I'm also sort of looked at as unofficial assistant manager by the new people, which is pretty cool. It's REALLY unofficial though, I seriously have no pull or anything, they just come to me for help and stuff.
- I had an epic quilting sweatshop week and actually completed all of the quilt-related items, plus some more quilting stuff, on that last to-do list! Jody (a lady I work with) had agreed to quilt a few of my quilts and then show me how to long arm, so she quilted 2 existing tops and I finished 3 more, then prepared 2 quilts worth of practice material...then the long arm broke. It was broken about a month and they just finished repairing it (tentatively, they're still sort of wary) but Jody's gone on leave and may not return, so I may be sort of screwed. As far as quilting goes, after the epic few days I started on my three small baby quilts, hoping I'd have them done in time to quilt them myself, but since the long arm broke I was like "eh, whatever," and they are not done. Hah. I also never finished my skirt because the gathering was pissing me off, and Janet PCSed so I was a little sad and just never picked it up again. I did do all of the little clothing repairs referenced in that last to-do list, but I did one of them way wrong and I think I ruined the shirt beyond repair (I ironed stabilizer on to the wrong side by accident).
- THE BIKE: Most of my free time lately has been taken up by restoring this bike. I looked it up on the internet and as far as I can tell, this is a 1963 Murray Skybolt. I was afraid to dissemble it myself so I had the guys at the bike shop do it. Since then, I have scrubbed most of the chrome clean, primered the underneath parts of the fenders to prevent further rust, soaked all the parts (nuts, bolts, bearings, etc) in CLR and scrubbed 90% of them into nice sparkly condition, and started to strip the original paint off the frame. I am getting impatient with that though because I'm using a cordless drill and the battery keeps dying before I can make significant progress, so I'm thinking of just stripping away the rusty areas, scuffing the remaining paint, then priming and painting. I am torn on whether this is a lazy, half-assed thing to do though. I have injured myself on multiple occasions- several times in the leg with the drill/wire cup brush, then while scrubbing the little parts by brass-brushing my fingers too hard. So now I can honestly said I put my blood, sweat, and tears (ok, not so much tears, but I can sure put some in before I'm done for good measure) into this bike and sound hardcore. ^_^
- My hair is as close to natural as a bottle will allow. I got bored and dyed it brown, but it was a bright sort of tea color and it was just too light, so I went back over it with something a little darker and ashier, and it's just about natural. Normally people who get bored have brown hair and choose blue or purple to break the monotony. After like, a decade of blue, purple, and black, I guess one resorts back to brown. Ha. Note to Dad- I AM NOT BLONDE. I haven't been since I was perhaps 5. The boxes that seemed to match ranged from Medium to Dark Ash Brown, leaning Dark. I finally chose "Tobacco" after "Bronze" was just too bright. Also, it's about...arm pit length? You probably know what I mean. I wish it would grow faster but that whole not-eating-very-much-meat thing probably doesn't help. Oh, also, I have totally failed the new diet of actually eating food. I seriously need to work on that. I just keep forgetting because I still don't get hungry. The dietician suggested I get some extensive blood-testing done to get to the bottom of my lack of hunger, but I just haven't made time yet.
- I have three friends here, outside of work: Dan and Larissa, and Sandra. Dan and Larissa PCSed this past Wednesday. Aside from working a lot, this is the other main reason I have not been online, as we had been cramming in friend-time before their departure. It was way too sad. I am happy for them though, in fact doubly happy. Not only did they get out of USAREUR, they got out of the Army entirely. Well, he's still in the Reserves I think, but they can actually have a civilian life and not deal with the Active Duty lifestyle now.
- My mom and sister came for a visit. Overall, it was a distaster. Here are the bare details: They arrived Friday, May 30th. We were supposed to go to Prague but I got sick (see above, where I detail trips to the ER). We went around Heidelberg and the Mall on Saturday, didn't do much of anything Sunday, then went to a theme park on Monday. Tuesday I went to the doctor, Wednesday we saw Heidelberg Castle, Thursday Kaina had an 8th grade graduation ceremony, then we started the trip to Prague. We rented a nice car but it was still an awful trip...we got there late Thursday night, spent most of Friday, then came back that night, which was even more awful than the trip there and entailed a nasty argument. Saturday we were supposed to go to Schwetzigen Palace with Sandra but we didn't, as everyone was pouting or something, and then they left on Sunday the 8th. My mom called once to ask if we'd seen something she thought she left, but other than that I haven't really heard from them...just seen the nasty comments they've made online. Don't want to get into it- tired of dealing with it.
That pretty much covers most of the important things, other than things that have been noteworthy in other people's lives (Erin's househunt and then lay-off crisis, Sandra's impending back surgery, Josh finally going to get his GED AND having a plan to get his teeth fixed, Clayton going back to the Marines but getting injured AGAIN so he's not going back once he's healed this time, one of my friends getting pregnant but I don't want to say who because I'm not sure about the etiquette of announcing pregnancies and she hasn't made a general announcement yet to my knowledge...). There is a little news about the PA School/Moving Home stuff. David did put his packet in, it has been reviewed, and he received a notice that it was "very promising" and his scores were "impressive" compared to the other applicants, but I'm sure there are other factors to weigh in so I'm not getting my hopes up until we get the final news, which will not be until August 1. We talked about moving to Texas while he's in school (which is located in Texas) but not only is it "not recommended" that soldiers bring their families, he heard some rumor about it not being an accompanied station anyway, meaning that if we do go, moving there is definitely out of our own pockets, and living there is probably also. Now I'm a little worried that they might make Kaina and I stay here ALONE until he's done with school, which is 2 years long total. I will post more details as I get them.
I am mostly done, but I have one more thing to talk about. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT MY VAGINA, STOP READING NOW!!! You have been warned.
I went ahead and bought a menstrual cup. I'm excited enough to post about it because I think it's sort of a serious life choice, as menstruating/things related to it are a major part of any woman's life. There are a lot of reasons I've chosen to try it, namely that I want to decrease the waste I produce, plus I hear that women often have less cramping/clotting issues with the cup because it doesn't have the chemicals and/or plastic that processed pads and tampons have. But mostly, it's that I want to use fewer disposable products, otherwise I'd just use organic pads/tampons. Out of the 6 or 7 cups on the market, I chose the Diva Cup, despite hating the word "diva," because it's the only one available on Drugstore.com and it was just easier than ordering internationally. It came in the mail a couple of days ago, which was right on time because my period is supposed to start today or tomorrow. I did a "dry run" yesterday (recommended to get used to using it before the mess comes and leaking is at stake) and it went ok, so I've got it in right now in anticipation of the ol' red tide. I imagine it will come any second actually as I've been cramping as I've been writing this. It looks huge, but it is seriously not uncomfortable at all unless the stem is at such an angle so as to poke, and I haven't gotten the hang of taking it out so that kinda sucks. (It goes in little because you fold it, but it comes out big. o_O) I will definitely post about my experience with it because I think most of you guys reading would be interested in trying it for the ecological benefits, but may be squicked out because it's not a standard form of dealing with one's period and it's a little disconcerting to think about having a silicon cup lodged in one's vagina for 7 days or so. We'll see how it goes.
That is all. I'm off to the store, then I don't know what we'll do. Kaina's off at a friend's house because there's a Jonas Brothers concert tomorrow (don't ask, I don't know either) so David and I have an evening alone. Of course, he forgot our anniversary (4th year, June 14th...not mentioned in the above post as there was nothing TO post) and told me I was getting fat, so...how much fun can this be? We shall see.
- I am finally not being constantly assaulted by allergies. I ended up having to go to the hospital a couple of times and they wanted me to have steroids again, which I refused. As a compromise, I did agree to Flonase and Advair, which are both still steroids, but they are localized and not systemic. This means that my nose is mostly clear and my lungs are not all wheezy, PLUS I'm not going to get backne and the unmentionable rash as side effects this year. SWEET. Breathing, AND not being itchy and disgusting all over? WIN/WIN.
- Despite being "blacklisted" at the school due to my ~*radical*~ ideas on discipline (as in, actually do it every now and then) they called me to do a special sort of assignment. There's this little autistic boy who had to be hospitalised for something or other so they asked me to take him his work and sit with him for an hour every morning to help him with it. So naturally, I did. I started May 21, did it for two weeks, took a week off for vacation, then did it the last week of school. It was hard getting up that early in the morning and a little depressing to visit the ward, but rewarding in the end. He seemed to enjoy doing homework by the last week and I was honestly a little disappointed to go. The hospital had asked if I could keep coming after school ended, but since the parents couldn't afford to pay me and the hospital is 30 minutes away (read: gas is too expensive for me to volunteer) it didn't work out.
- Erik switched me to days at the craft store, after months of begging, because it was finally possible. YES. I also work between 30 and 35 hours now, rather than 20. It is tough getting used to getting up in the morning, but it is awesome. It freed up some time to take a German class finally, which is going ok. It's a little slow, but I think it will pick up and I will learn a lot. I'm also sort of looked at as unofficial assistant manager by the new people, which is pretty cool. It's REALLY unofficial though, I seriously have no pull or anything, they just come to me for help and stuff.
- I had an epic quilting sweatshop week and actually completed all of the quilt-related items, plus some more quilting stuff, on that last to-do list! Jody (a lady I work with) had agreed to quilt a few of my quilts and then show me how to long arm, so she quilted 2 existing tops and I finished 3 more, then prepared 2 quilts worth of practice material...then the long arm broke. It was broken about a month and they just finished repairing it (tentatively, they're still sort of wary) but Jody's gone on leave and may not return, so I may be sort of screwed. As far as quilting goes, after the epic few days I started on my three small baby quilts, hoping I'd have them done in time to quilt them myself, but since the long arm broke I was like "eh, whatever," and they are not done. Hah. I also never finished my skirt because the gathering was pissing me off, and Janet PCSed so I was a little sad and just never picked it up again. I did do all of the little clothing repairs referenced in that last to-do list, but I did one of them way wrong and I think I ruined the shirt beyond repair (I ironed stabilizer on to the wrong side by accident).
- THE BIKE: Most of my free time lately has been taken up by restoring this bike. I looked it up on the internet and as far as I can tell, this is a 1963 Murray Skybolt. I was afraid to dissemble it myself so I had the guys at the bike shop do it. Since then, I have scrubbed most of the chrome clean, primered the underneath parts of the fenders to prevent further rust, soaked all the parts (nuts, bolts, bearings, etc) in CLR and scrubbed 90% of them into nice sparkly condition, and started to strip the original paint off the frame. I am getting impatient with that though because I'm using a cordless drill and the battery keeps dying before I can make significant progress, so I'm thinking of just stripping away the rusty areas, scuffing the remaining paint, then priming and painting. I am torn on whether this is a lazy, half-assed thing to do though. I have injured myself on multiple occasions- several times in the leg with the drill/wire cup brush, then while scrubbing the little parts by brass-brushing my fingers too hard. So now I can honestly said I put my blood, sweat, and tears (ok, not so much tears, but I can sure put some in before I'm done for good measure) into this bike and sound hardcore. ^_^
- My hair is as close to natural as a bottle will allow. I got bored and dyed it brown, but it was a bright sort of tea color and it was just too light, so I went back over it with something a little darker and ashier, and it's just about natural. Normally people who get bored have brown hair and choose blue or purple to break the monotony. After like, a decade of blue, purple, and black, I guess one resorts back to brown. Ha. Note to Dad- I AM NOT BLONDE. I haven't been since I was perhaps 5. The boxes that seemed to match ranged from Medium to Dark Ash Brown, leaning Dark. I finally chose "Tobacco" after "Bronze" was just too bright. Also, it's about...arm pit length? You probably know what I mean. I wish it would grow faster but that whole not-eating-very-much-meat thing probably doesn't help. Oh, also, I have totally failed the new diet of actually eating food. I seriously need to work on that. I just keep forgetting because I still don't get hungry. The dietician suggested I get some extensive blood-testing done to get to the bottom of my lack of hunger, but I just haven't made time yet.
- I have three friends here, outside of work: Dan and Larissa, and Sandra. Dan and Larissa PCSed this past Wednesday. Aside from working a lot, this is the other main reason I have not been online, as we had been cramming in friend-time before their departure. It was way too sad. I am happy for them though, in fact doubly happy. Not only did they get out of USAREUR, they got out of the Army entirely. Well, he's still in the Reserves I think, but they can actually have a civilian life and not deal with the Active Duty lifestyle now.
- My mom and sister came for a visit. Overall, it was a distaster. Here are the bare details: They arrived Friday, May 30th. We were supposed to go to Prague but I got sick (see above, where I detail trips to the ER). We went around Heidelberg and the Mall on Saturday, didn't do much of anything Sunday, then went to a theme park on Monday. Tuesday I went to the doctor, Wednesday we saw Heidelberg Castle, Thursday Kaina had an 8th grade graduation ceremony, then we started the trip to Prague. We rented a nice car but it was still an awful trip...we got there late Thursday night, spent most of Friday, then came back that night, which was even more awful than the trip there and entailed a nasty argument. Saturday we were supposed to go to Schwetzigen Palace with Sandra but we didn't, as everyone was pouting or something, and then they left on Sunday the 8th. My mom called once to ask if we'd seen something she thought she left, but other than that I haven't really heard from them...just seen the nasty comments they've made online. Don't want to get into it- tired of dealing with it.
That pretty much covers most of the important things, other than things that have been noteworthy in other people's lives (Erin's househunt and then lay-off crisis, Sandra's impending back surgery, Josh finally going to get his GED AND having a plan to get his teeth fixed, Clayton going back to the Marines but getting injured AGAIN so he's not going back once he's healed this time, one of my friends getting pregnant but I don't want to say who because I'm not sure about the etiquette of announcing pregnancies and she hasn't made a general announcement yet to my knowledge...). There is a little news about the PA School/Moving Home stuff. David did put his packet in, it has been reviewed, and he received a notice that it was "very promising" and his scores were "impressive" compared to the other applicants, but I'm sure there are other factors to weigh in so I'm not getting my hopes up until we get the final news, which will not be until August 1. We talked about moving to Texas while he's in school (which is located in Texas) but not only is it "not recommended" that soldiers bring their families, he heard some rumor about it not being an accompanied station anyway, meaning that if we do go, moving there is definitely out of our own pockets, and living there is probably also. Now I'm a little worried that they might make Kaina and I stay here ALONE until he's done with school, which is 2 years long total. I will post more details as I get them.
I am mostly done, but I have one more thing to talk about. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT MY VAGINA, STOP READING NOW!!! You have been warned.
I went ahead and bought a menstrual cup. I'm excited enough to post about it because I think it's sort of a serious life choice, as menstruating/things related to it are a major part of any woman's life. There are a lot of reasons I've chosen to try it, namely that I want to decrease the waste I produce, plus I hear that women often have less cramping/clotting issues with the cup because it doesn't have the chemicals and/or plastic that processed pads and tampons have. But mostly, it's that I want to use fewer disposable products, otherwise I'd just use organic pads/tampons. Out of the 6 or 7 cups on the market, I chose the Diva Cup, despite hating the word "diva," because it's the only one available on Drugstore.com and it was just easier than ordering internationally. It came in the mail a couple of days ago, which was right on time because my period is supposed to start today or tomorrow. I did a "dry run" yesterday (recommended to get used to using it before the mess comes and leaking is at stake) and it went ok, so I've got it in right now in anticipation of the ol' red tide. I imagine it will come any second actually as I've been cramping as I've been writing this. It looks huge, but it is seriously not uncomfortable at all unless the stem is at such an angle so as to poke, and I haven't gotten the hang of taking it out so that kinda sucks. (It goes in little because you fold it, but it comes out big. o_O) I will definitely post about my experience with it because I think most of you guys reading would be interested in trying it for the ecological benefits, but may be squicked out because it's not a standard form of dealing with one's period and it's a little disconcerting to think about having a silicon cup lodged in one's vagina for 7 days or so. We'll see how it goes.
That is all. I'm off to the store, then I don't know what we'll do. Kaina's off at a friend's house because there's a Jonas Brothers concert tomorrow (don't ask, I don't know either) so David and I have an evening alone. Of course, he forgot our anniversary (4th year, June 14th...not mentioned in the above post as there was nothing TO post) and told me I was getting fat, so...how much fun can this be? We shall see.