out of the blue and turned around
marshall brought home some kind of sickness last week. my sister invited us over to have dinner with her and the kids last wednesday and i decided to ride my bike. it was great getting out on my bike again. i'm still a little shaky, but i'm gaining more confidence. i need to just do it more and i'll get nice and comfortable on my bike. i think riding more in regular clothes helps relax me when i'm most anxious. :) [aside: as i stated writing about my bike, this song (the title is "jitensha" which is japanese for bicycle) came on my ipod. creepy! :P] so yeah, even though i got out there, i still felt this crap in the back of my throat. you know that feeling of impending sickness doom? well, even though i had a great time eating dinner with my sister and her family (plus, picking up my girl scout cookies), i came home and felt like crap. i woke up the next morning with a raging sore throat and the feeling of utter exhaustion. i called in sick, as did marshall, and i slept a few more hours. since disney helps me when i'm sick, i watched all three toy story films back-to-back. marshall stayed for the first one and then left to play more mass effect. i honestly don't get being able to play games when you're sick. i'm all about being on the couch and staring. anyway, i ended up sleeping throughout toy story 2, but managed to stay awake for the third. i went to bed early that night and didn't feel any better on friday, so i called in again. there was a lot going on in the office, since a large portion of our workforce lives on the coast and were forced to stay home or evacuate due to the tsunami. it didn't make much of a difference that i was home. friday is when i slept the most. since i went to bed around 9:30 thursday night, i managed to sleep until 11am friday morning. i stayed awake for an hour before going back to sleep and sleeping until 3ish. all in all, i think i clocked in 27 hours of solid sleep between thursday and friday. i was just so tired. this led to self-diagnosing and friday afternoon i could've sworn i had mono. i had the sore throat, constant headache, lethargy, and photophobia (sensitivity to light). anyway, i've seem to have kicked most of it, but i still have this crap in the back of my throat. i have to take an expectorant when i got to bed, so i'm not plagued with an itchy throat cough caused by nasal drip. :(
+_+_+
saturday morning we swapped TBC (the breakfast club) for volunteer work through my high school. they have an annual "alumnae day of service" where local alumnae donate their time to help local community services. i originally wasn't going to attend, but nic guilted me such that i couldn't turn away. there were apparently so many last-minute cancellations they were worried about not having enough people to help out. i felt bad, so i dragged marshall with me (nic brought jesse, so he wasn't the only boy), and we got up bright and early. after a bagel breakfast, our group set out to inn vision, which is a shelter, food bank, and day care center. while they aren't necessarily a true homeless shelter, they do provide homeless assistance and assistance for those who need help with day care, job searching, and also provide help with finding housing assistance. we were at one of their locations and helped sort canned goods and then helped sort, hang, and stock their clothing store. they've set up an actual store, which is a tremendous upgrade from their original room of bins. they wanted to give people a more dignified way of "shopping" for clothes and with mervyn's closing, they were able to get their hands on clothing racks and hangers and put together a great place for men, women, and children to get their clothes. we managed to sort quite a bit and their store looked great when we were done. i was happy to help and it was fun being with friends from high school. :) afterward, we got lunch provided and then nic completed the transaction with an aqui "swirl". :P it was a great day.
i did a little cleaning and clearing up later that day, which felt even better. i got rid of the donation bag, which has been sitting in our entryway for at least a month, and packed up our lamp which has been broken since late last year. i went to BBB, armed with my 20% coupon, and found a replacement lamp. i am so happy to have more light again in our living room. since i've been doing more school reading in the living room, having such little light was frustrating. now, it's much more inviting. :)
+_+_+
sunday was shopping day. we got our tax refund last week and marshall asked if i wanted anything before it went to pay off some of our credit card debt. after thinking about it, i realized i could use a new pair of headphones. i don't have nice headphones for at home, as i leave my trusty DJ headphones at work for blocking out the world. my ipod headphones are OK, but are losing their pizazz. i mean, i've had them for at least 5 years now. so, marshall and i trekked out to fry's to see what they had. marshall needed new headphones, too, since he's worth through his, wearing them almost day-in, day-out, since i bough them for him. fry's had a wide variety. originally i was going to go with earbud-type headphones, but i was immediately drawn to the beats by dr. dre. i tried them out and they were beautiful. they're a little heavy, but i'm already getting used to how they fit. they're solid and the reinforced cable is removable from both ends, which is great. they also come with a separate phone cable, so if i ever get an iphone, i can use those instead. they're, of course, heavy on the bass, which helps since ipod is bass-wimpy. the sound quality is clear and crisp. i'm really happy with them. marshall was swayed, too, and got a pair of black ones (mine are white). while we were at it, i also picked up a few more movies for our collection: fantasia and fantasia 2000, on blu-ray, fifth element, on blu-ray, and nurse jackie: season 1. i had to haggle with them about FE because it was mismarked as being $8.99 and they were going to charge me full-price. psh... i pushed back and said "well, it was clearly mismarked, even though all the information matches." turns out someone put the wrong PLU#. in the end, i won. woo! go me! :D
+_+_+
the time change this weekend has really taken a toll on me. yesterday was horrible. it took me an hour to fall asleep sunday night and, then, it FELT like i was getting up at 5:30, when the alarm was set for 6:30am. i was a wreck. in the end, i took the night off and watched fantasia 2000, instead of doing any homework. i have a paper due sunday and i haven't started anything. this week will be all about that paper. i'm hoping i have more inspiration for this than the last assignment i had. i just hate research! anyway... i also planned irish stew for dinner for st. patrick's day and then corned beef and cabbage for the weekend. i also opened my big mouth and offered to make irish car-bomb cupcakes for our little office celebration on thursday. luckily, i work from home tomorrow and i can bake during the day. :)
+_+_+
saturday morning we swapped TBC (the breakfast club) for volunteer work through my high school. they have an annual "alumnae day of service" where local alumnae donate their time to help local community services. i originally wasn't going to attend, but nic guilted me such that i couldn't turn away. there were apparently so many last-minute cancellations they were worried about not having enough people to help out. i felt bad, so i dragged marshall with me (nic brought jesse, so he wasn't the only boy), and we got up bright and early. after a bagel breakfast, our group set out to inn vision, which is a shelter, food bank, and day care center. while they aren't necessarily a true homeless shelter, they do provide homeless assistance and assistance for those who need help with day care, job searching, and also provide help with finding housing assistance. we were at one of their locations and helped sort canned goods and then helped sort, hang, and stock their clothing store. they've set up an actual store, which is a tremendous upgrade from their original room of bins. they wanted to give people a more dignified way of "shopping" for clothes and with mervyn's closing, they were able to get their hands on clothing racks and hangers and put together a great place for men, women, and children to get their clothes. we managed to sort quite a bit and their store looked great when we were done. i was happy to help and it was fun being with friends from high school. :) afterward, we got lunch provided and then nic completed the transaction with an aqui "swirl". :P it was a great day.
i did a little cleaning and clearing up later that day, which felt even better. i got rid of the donation bag, which has been sitting in our entryway for at least a month, and packed up our lamp which has been broken since late last year. i went to BBB, armed with my 20% coupon, and found a replacement lamp. i am so happy to have more light again in our living room. since i've been doing more school reading in the living room, having such little light was frustrating. now, it's much more inviting. :)
+_+_+
sunday was shopping day. we got our tax refund last week and marshall asked if i wanted anything before it went to pay off some of our credit card debt. after thinking about it, i realized i could use a new pair of headphones. i don't have nice headphones for at home, as i leave my trusty DJ headphones at work for blocking out the world. my ipod headphones are OK, but are losing their pizazz. i mean, i've had them for at least 5 years now. so, marshall and i trekked out to fry's to see what they had. marshall needed new headphones, too, since he's worth through his, wearing them almost day-in, day-out, since i bough them for him. fry's had a wide variety. originally i was going to go with earbud-type headphones, but i was immediately drawn to the beats by dr. dre. i tried them out and they were beautiful. they're a little heavy, but i'm already getting used to how they fit. they're solid and the reinforced cable is removable from both ends, which is great. they also come with a separate phone cable, so if i ever get an iphone, i can use those instead. they're, of course, heavy on the bass, which helps since ipod is bass-wimpy. the sound quality is clear and crisp. i'm really happy with them. marshall was swayed, too, and got a pair of black ones (mine are white). while we were at it, i also picked up a few more movies for our collection: fantasia and fantasia 2000, on blu-ray, fifth element, on blu-ray, and nurse jackie: season 1. i had to haggle with them about FE because it was mismarked as being $8.99 and they were going to charge me full-price. psh... i pushed back and said "well, it was clearly mismarked, even though all the information matches." turns out someone put the wrong PLU#. in the end, i won. woo! go me! :D
+_+_+
the time change this weekend has really taken a toll on me. yesterday was horrible. it took me an hour to fall asleep sunday night and, then, it FELT like i was getting up at 5:30, when the alarm was set for 6:30am. i was a wreck. in the end, i took the night off and watched fantasia 2000, instead of doing any homework. i have a paper due sunday and i haven't started anything. this week will be all about that paper. i'm hoping i have more inspiration for this than the last assignment i had. i just hate research! anyway... i also planned irish stew for dinner for st. patrick's day and then corned beef and cabbage for the weekend. i also opened my big mouth and offered to make irish car-bomb cupcakes for our little office celebration on thursday. luckily, i work from home tomorrow and i can bake during the day. :)