This is primarily a photo post, as I just got film developed.
We will begin with pictures of my mice, named Robbie and Dr. Jekyll. They have since learned not to both run in the wheel at the same time. And here's one more pictures of me being very happy that I have a mouse in my hand.
And on a more tragic note, some of you may remember that several weeks ago, I discussed a dead bat in my parking lot. I thought this was an odd, odd sight indeed. I've never seen a "wild" bat before, let alone dead in my parking lot in central Illinois. So, umm, I took a picture. His name is Baron VonBloodenson, by the way.
Following the bat we have Halloween. Here's CJ and I as Mario and Princess Toadstool, and one more picture in character. I think it's adorable and it's a damn shame we didn't wear our costumes for more than two hours. I worked hard on that outfit.
Apparently I'm not going in chronological order here, because before Halloween was the play I was in, "Trouble is My Business." Here's the entire cast, and here's me (Nancy Drew) with David (Hercule Poirot).
And just for good measure, here's the cutest picture that ever existed.
In other news, I'm home on Thanksgiving break and basically doing homework and working at B3 all week. That's fine with me. I have a lot of stupid projects to work on and if I'm getting paid for 25 hours of customer service, that gives me more money for Christmas presents. Hoorah! But I miss my friends, and roommates, and CJ...
And on a random note, I would just like to proclaim that I am still under the opinion that "Wicked" is one of the most overrated musicals ever. The music is trivial and basic, the plot isn't original, and the characters are shallow. It's like something Andrew Lloyd Weber would write, and if you know me, you know that's a HUGE insult. How did this piece become so immensely popular?
I just had the most frustrating creative writing class EVER. As you know (or maybe not), Brooke was just replaced by another teacher due to medical problems. That's a whole subject in and of itself. But today it was like a huge power struggle. This new teacher steps in and says that he's basically just a facilitator, and we're doing fine running class how we should be, and then today, he stepped all over everyone's work and made Val REALLY mad by insinuating that no one who graduates from ISU is smart enough to get a job and then completely disregarded the fact that we were supposed to be workshopping in order to blabber on about poetry and motivation and 3rd tier schools. And half of the class went into an uproar trying to regain power, and the other half just sat there looking stupified. And it was dumb and annoying. What a situation for us to be in now. Where are you, Brooke? We never thought we'd miss you this much!
In other news, I'm almost completely over my cold of doom. Metamorphoses is over, so all I'm working on is a directing scene and the new RJ/CJ movie. I have five gigantic projects due in the next three weeks. Looks like I'll be working at B3 (at home) and on homework all Thanksgiving break...
I go home tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad to be home and see my family and such, and Charleen, but that's really about it. It will be nice to have the short break and work on some stuff, but I'll miss CJ, and my roomies, and my ISU friends (Liz!) even though I rarely see them. Still debating if I should go to Jen's Thanksgiving party or not. I have a feeling that after the whole "Julie hates everyone and we hate her" fiasco of the summer, I'm not wanted there. So we'll see what's up.
I'll post pictures soon. I have some cute ones from Halloween.
I suppose we’ll start at the beginning.
I’ve begun my costume work on “Metamorphoses,” and while I’m thrilled with the show and most of the crew, and while we’re getting out around 10 every night and there have been no major problems yet in spite of the billions of costumes, I’m very disappointed in the choice of crewhead. Mainly because I was supposed to be the crewhead, but couldn’t because my Monday class goes until 5:50, and instead of me, Chloe was chosen. Chloe. And that’s all I’ll say about that.
Halloween was fun, although I wish now that I had gone to the theatre party as well as Ted. I know why I didn’t – I was very tired, had worked all day, didn’t want to drive to Bloomington…But CJ and I looked really good in our costumes, and I wanted to show them off. Oh well. I’ll post pictures when I get them developed, but for now, you can see us here…Theatre of Ted
A short paragraph of standardness: I’m busy, I’m tired, too much homework, blah blah blah.
A short paragraph of happiness: I get to take an entire honors class next semester on false memory! Huzzah!
And now, the fun begins. Yes, children, the election. Skip if you wish.
I am not disappointed in this election. I think it came damn close to 50/50, which is what I expected. I think people in this country are finally realizing that Bush has been lying to us about so many things, and we’re losing all respect from the rest of the world, and over the next four years, there’s a real possibility of a draft starting, of more budget cuts from education, of Roe vs. Wade being overturned. No, I’m very happy with the people of America for standing up and voting and making it so damn close.
I AM disappointed in Kerry for conceding. According to cnn.com, as of 11:30 this morning, Bush had 254 electoral votes and Kerry had 252. Three states had not been counted yet. New Mexico and Iowa, while very close, don’t matter much because they have so few electoral votes. But whoever wins Ohio wins the election, and currently, Kerry is behind by 136,221 votes in Ohio. That seems like a lot until you take in to consideration the 140,000-250,000 votes that HAVEN’T BEEN COUNTED YET. And yes, the chances for Kerry were small, and yes, Bush would most likely win. But what happened to sticking it out? What happened to “winners never quit and quitters never win?” What about John Edwards, who last night said something to the effect of “We are going to count every single vote, you deserve nothing less” and then conceded 12 hours later? Kerry is a wimp. Almost 50% of America voted for this man who was supposed to be better than Bush, and he’s a wimp. Which is better than being a lying, sniveling, stupid monkey like Bush is, but still, Kerry’s a wimp. And I am so disappointed with him right now. What gives him the right to run a campaign and get half of America on his side and then drop out November 3rd just because things don’t seem to be in his favor? STICK IT THROUGH!!!
*sigh* So. If a draft is reinstated, CJ and I are moving. That’s been decided. He wants Canada, I want Great Britain, but either way, we’re getting the hell out of here. I will never get a job in theatre education at this rate, and when I get to teach English, I’ll just be teaching to the tests. Don’t kid yourselves; children all over this country are being left behind. Not to mention that 11 states voted to ban gay marriages, which is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Not to mention that my high school just lost our entire extracurricular program, and they went from 6 plays a year to 2. Not to mention that all the other countries, who know what’s really going on and aren’t blinded by the American media, are so disappointed in us by now. And that’s what I hate the most, that German man on the news this morning sobbing and saying how he doesn’t understand why we would do this, why we would vote for a man who is making the rest of the world miserable. Just go to bbc.com and read what’s REALLY happening. Did you know that American publishing companies are being blocked from publishing books that were written in Iran, Sudan, and Cuba? Did you know that our troops in Iraq just had their time there extended?
Anyway. I’m done. I have to go buy bread and take some quizzes and go iron costumes. I’ll update again when I have pictures.
Hello, darlings! It's been a while, eh? I shall update you on the exciting events of my life. Warning: This will be lengthy, but I'll attempt to keep it as pithy as possible for those ADHD children out there.
I suppose the excitement starts on Friday. I was scheduled to work from 9-2, which didn't make me too happy considering the call for my play was at 3:30, but whatever. I woke up early, glanced up at my clock, and it was 8:05 (I thought). My alarm was to go off in about five minutes, so I figured I'd stay in bed until then.
Three minutes later, my cell phone rang with my B3 ringer. Hi, Julie? It's Tina from work. You're scheduled to work from 9-2 today.*pause* Yeah, I know. *pause* Well, are you coming in then?
As it turns out, it was actually 9:05. I can't read clocks. And my alarm clock had run out of batteries in the middle of the night and thought it was only 7 AM. I rushed to work, feeling horrible, only to learn that our district and regional managers were there reviewing the store. Luckily, they hadn't hit customer service yet, but still. So anyway, worked, blah blah blah. Came home, showered.
PLAY! Trouble is My Business went REALLY well. The audience really liked us, and we all had fun, and it was so much fun to work on. I think I did a million times better Friday night than I ever had in rehearsal, which I'm sure made Deb happy. We had a few snafoos, but nothing that wasn't expected and well covered. We had fun. It was wonderful. And thank you to all my friends who brought me flowers, and Nona who brought me flowers even though she wasn't there, and my parents and CJ who stole centerpieces to give to me. Cheapos. Anyway, it was fun and good and fun. And I'll have pictures to share soon.
Saturday, CJ and I drove up to Madison, WI to my Aunt Barb's place for the annual Biagi family Madison gathering. Or whatever you want to call it. So CJ met the rest of my family (he'd met most of them already) and we had fun and stuff. We found a lake, and a playground, and a, umm, camera. Thanks to Aunt Rose for the pictures. And here's the whole family (that was there, at least)... Billions of Biagis. But yeah, it was fun, except for when we were driving the 3 hours home and I missed the exit from 90E to 39S, and then there was NOWHERE to turn around and NO exits for the next 40 minutes, so I ended up going to 290 and 355 and taking 55 down and adding, like, 45 minutes to our travel time. Ugh.
Sunday we went to McDonald's for lunch and then I did homework and cleaned the mouse cage. I'll also have pictures of the mice soon. I want a digital camera...*shakes fist* Anyway, then CJ and I saw Citizen Kane at the Normal Theatre. I liked it, but didn't think it was worthy of being number one on AFI's list of best movies ever. CJ and I disagreed about it for a while.
So now I'm sitting here at my desk surrounded by my play flowers, hating my homework, and wishing that my Venus Fly Trap wasn't so dead (I guess I was supposed to leave the plastic cover over it for moistness or something). This week brings the start of Metamorphoses costume crew, I Heart Huckabees, 12.5 hours of work, a football game in Coal City (the things I do for my boyfriend's brother), and Halloween Ted.
Leave me comments, dammit!
The whole point of this mini update is to let y'all know that there's a new addition to the "Generally, I Like It" page. A nice little rave about Vicks Sinex. Read it now.
Also, I love the play I'm doing. And I love Deb. And I love (most) of the cast. And I love my 11 friends who have given up their time and money to come see me perform! *cheers*
And I love CJ for randomly bringing me a rose and lottery tickets last night.
Hey kids! What haven't I said since I last updated? Let's see...Well, if you read my LJ as well, you already know this, but CJ and I got pet mice! There names are Dr. Jekyll and Robbie. CJ wants Dr. Jekyll to develop a serum and turn into a racoon at night. Robbie is named after Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They're terribly adorable.
I got cast in a show! It's called "Trouble is Our Business," it's being directed by Deb Alley (who everyone knows I love), and it's a dinner theatre/murder mystery thing taking place homecoming weekend. I play Nancy Drew. Everyone else cast is either a grad student or adult, I believe, meaning that I'm terrified to act with the likes of David Sollish and Kim Pereira. It's on October 22nd at 6 pm and costs $15 for students (dinner is included in that). So come see me! Let me know if you're interested and give me money by October 11th, because I have to put reservations in.
I just did a photo post on LJ as well, if you didn't see. Pictures
I have a nasty little cold that doesn't seem to want to go away. It's VERY slowly getting worse, which means I'll have it for, like, two more weeks before it decides to get better. Which SUCKS.
The day after my play, CJ and I are driving up to Madison to see the whole Biagi family. Everyone else is staying overnight, but we're driving back because we need Sunday for homework/work if they want me...But yes, Janessa, this means you get to meet CJ! Tell Joe to be nice to him!
Got my new cell phone today! Hoorah! It's adorable, and little, and colorful, and has cute rings. Hopefully it also has decent reception, because really, that's all I'm asking for.
Classes are decent. Still hoping for straight A's, but who knows.
Eventually, this website will be updated. I don't have any recent (or decent) writing on here, and it seems that no one has said anything interesting in the past few months, for there's nothing new on the quotes page. What's up with that?
CJ and I had our six month anniversary on Friday. Went to dinner, which was lovely. Bought each other wonderful presents. I love him very much. Our two families are meeting on Saturday, we're all going out to dinner...Yeeks...Hopefully they'll be fine.
GET OUT OF MY NOSE, SNOT!
Hello, Loves. I know I haven't updated in a while, I've been very busy...So I'll try to keep this pithy.
School is going well. I took the world arts test of DOOM last week. That class is a lot of stupid memorization. C&I 212 is BORING. Stats is BORING. I know I bitched about creative writing earlier, and I still hold that my teacher expects far too much from us. However, I'm enjoying the class a lot more than I originally anticipated. I'm being forced to write stuff that I never normally would, which is beneficial, and I like my classmates a lot.
Apartment life is going well. I'm almost never here, LOL, but when I am, life is good. No more sewage problems! *cheers* My roommates rock my world. But Liz, Lizz and I are looking for a fourth roommate for next year, so if you're interested, let us know and we'll put you in the running! (:
Theatre is going well. I'm doing costumes for Metamorphoses, but other than that and the classes, I'm not terribly involved this semester. That's probably a good thing, just because I'd be overextended. I've been at TED, of course (I pretty much have to go now because of CJ) and I did a piece at the first TED that everyone really seemed to like. I'm an extra in the newest Jared/Rico project, so Friday night found me at a fake goth party dressed in black leather pretending to be a pretend vampire. It was the best fake party EVER! No, seriously, it was pretty fun until I was really tired. I love all of my theatre friends very much. And I still suck at four-square.
Work is going well. Gets me money. They're being good about my schedule and not giving me too many hours.
CJ is going terribly well. I love him very much. He loves me very much. That's about all I can ask for.
Tirza just came in and told me to relay the fact that I made out with her yesterday. This is not true, but merely wishful thinking from Tirza's brain. And by the way, poor Tirza and her poor knee and stupid orthopedic doctors.
Went to Ruby Tuesday last night with *takes a breath* Lizz, Liz, Eric, Tirza, Emily, Nona, Shannon, and Michael. We had a horrible waitress who hated us. But we had tons of fun! That's probably the most social I've been since coming back here. I wish I saw more of my friends, I'm just always so TIRED. If I'm not busy, it's because I'm passing out. If I'm not passing out, it's because I'm too busy. Oy.
Umm...Umm...I think that's all going on right now. I promise I'll try to update more often, I'm just, like, freaking out with my stupid creative writing journals and gazillions of assignments. Right now, I'm going to update my to-do list and start some quick homework assignments. Leave me comments of love!
I can already tell that this is going to be one of those entries that will make everyone laugh at my misfortunes. Stuff like this only happens to me, I swear.
Firt of all, what's with the blogger search bar suddenly appearing on my page? I e-mailed blogger about it, and all he did was give me a code to lower my entires so the date will still appear which, btw, didn't work. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks, random commenter!
I suppose I should start at the beginning, eh?
Classes started on Monday. Mondays and Wednesdays will be fine, I think. Social Science and Reasoning Using Statistics is boring, but should be easy, and there isn't a huge amount of homework at all. Mostly everything is done in class. C&I 212 will be a lot of work, but at least I have people in there to keep me sane (Lizz, Molly, Chad...).
Tuesdays and Thursdays will kill me. Theatre ed was alright, other than the fact that I'm team teaching in six friggin' days. Oy. Then, world art. This class might be interesting, if not for the teacher of DOOM: Maggie Duncan-Flowers. I was warned about her, and I should have heeded these warnings...She actually said "umm" 232 times in the first 20 minutes of class. I counted. It was awful. And it looks like there will be a lot of pointless memorizing. A short break, then off to costumes, which will be OK, AND my class doesn't have to do tracings! Wahoo to that! But then, off to creative writing. Which makes me so mad, it deserves its own paragraph.
First of all, I'll have you know that I, as well as three other girls in my class, specifically wanted to take this class with Zona. So imagine my surprise when halfway through the summer, the teacher was changed. I figured it would be fine, though, the teacher sounded very Italian and I like pretty names. Then, two days ago, the teacher was changed AGAIN...And now, we have Brooke Nelson, grad student of doom. This woman is insane. First of all, she has us writing in our notebooks for one hour every single day. ONE HOUR EVERY DAY. That's a heck of a lot to pile on top of our other assignments. Plus, she was very clear about what she didn't want in those journals - No personal experiences, no true stories, no reflecting on an event...Just pure creative writing. For one hour a day. In her words, "I don't care how much you love your boyfriend, and I don't care if you're upset that your grandparents died." Touching, really. Then, she tells us that we do have books for this class, only they weren't ordered for us cause she didn't tell them too, so good luck finding them. Then she gives us an assignment from our PIP packet, which we don't have yet, that's due tomorrow. THEN she gives us an assignment from a book that she didn't even order for us, telling us that we can just "buy it in our spare time," NONE of which we have because of this class. Good lord. Oh, and by the way, she doesn't give excused absences, and made it very clear that even if we're in the hospital, or there's a family emergency, our grade will be lowered for not attending class.
This woman is rude, and expecting far too much from us, and is the least understanding woman I've ever met in my life. And I would drop, but it's too late to get into another class, and I definitely don't want to be left with only 12.5 credit hours. That's pathetic.
So I get home yesterday and begin to complain to my roommates, who all have their own completely legit complaints about their classes/teachers/inability to get overrides. And in the meantime, there's this weird maintenance man here, fixing things that we never told him to fix. So by the end of this, he leaves us with a new closet door for Tirza, a new doorframe for Lizz that is poorly installed, nails and sawdust all over the floor, and his exacto knife lying on the floor with the blade out. Safety first, kids. So we clean up after him, and I wait for CJ to call for dinner, which he doesn't. So I'm all sad and make macaroni. CJ finally calls me, and I'm complaining to him about my awful day, so he comes over to make it better...
His idea of making it better, apparently, is telling me a "hilarious" story about how he might get to go on a date with someone else. But it's OK, because it doesn't mean anything, and it's just for comedy. *blank stare*
So I freak out at him, and long story short, we fix everything and blah blah blah.
So now, it's today, Wednesday. I wake up this morning, go to the bathroom, start to brush my teeth, and realize the toilet's overflowing. "Weird," I think. So I plunge it, flush again, and it overflows again. By this time, there's water in the bathroom AND the kitchen, and it's not terribly clean water, either. It's getting progressively more sewage-like. So I freak out but have to go to class, and leave my roommates with the promise that I'll go buy a mop.
Class is boring, I was frustrated and wanted to get out of there, my cell phone went off for the first time EVER in the history of me even though I'll swear I put it on silent, and my teacher bitched me out for it, even though we were working in small groups at the time and even though two other cell phones had gone off before mine.
After this I ran to rapid print to get a booklet I needed, only to learn that they don't take credit cards, so I had to write a check.
Went outside to get CJ's car so I could buy a mop, and found out that it was torrentially raining. Got soaked.
Got to walmart, stepped out of the car, and landed in six inches of water. Ran inside, soaked and cold, bought a mop, got out.
Came home, mopped up a storm, listened to Tirza's equally bad day involing the reliving of grade school gym (trust me, I feel her pain). Then I plunged, plunged, plunged, the water went down a lot, I plunged some more, and we came to the consensus that I should try flushing again. NOW the bathroom is flooded with sewage water, the maintenance man was really snippy with me, and I'm waiting for the maintenance man to come and fix whatever's wrong.
Currently, I'm sitting here watching brown water slowly seep out from under the bathroom door, dreading the two hours of creative writing I have to do since I didn't do it last night, trying to figure out how to get my pip packet without having to go out in the downpour.
This BITES.
Greetings, Children! I thought I should give y'all an update, since it's been two weeks, and a lot has changed.
Briefly, before I get into the apartment stuff...CJ won third in the stand-up comedy competition, but should have been at least second. My last day at the Downer's Grove store was very long and tiring. Leeny and I went to Chicago Premium Outlets and bought a LOT of stuff. I have yet to memorize my audition monologue that needs to be perfected by Thursday. I wish I had seen Heather more this summer...I'm a terrible person for not calling her again like I said I would.
OK, on to move-in! First of all, packing is a big fat pain. You just never know what you have room for and what you don't. In this case, I think I underestimated myself. I actually have some extra room in my apartment that I wasn't counting on. Madness! Move-in itself went pretty well. It's FAR less hectic than moving into dorms! The hardest part was moving my bed and getting them on to the bed lifters, since the carpet doesn't like to let things slide. Other than that, Daddy, Matthew, and CJ were big helps. It took me two days, but my room is together and I love it. I want to spend all of my time in here. Too bad I'll actually be spending all of my time in the theatre building. (:
I'm currently getting my internet connection from a totally random host. I plugged in my wireless card, and it's getting a signal from somewhere...I hope this keeps up, because it would be a pain for me to have to hook up an ethernet cord (our router is in the living room, and Lizz's boyfriend did a fantastic job of stringing up everyone else's cables so they're hardly noticeable, but now I'd have to do it myself). Oh, random wireless host, never go home or turn off your router! I'd be so sad!
Continuing my week of minor annoyances (which isn't worth going into, except this one), my cable doesn't work. Everyone else's does, but the guy couldn't find the hardline that goes to my room...IE, the plug in the wall isn't plugged into anything. Oy. So I have a tech coming out sometime between now and noon to hopefully fix it. AND I forgot my remotes at home, which is a huge annoyance because I can't watch TV in bed, like I'm used to, unless I want to get up and turn it off when I'm done. Ugh.
But other than that, life is good. I've been grocery shopping several times (because once just isn't enough, apparently), watched "Love Actually," had a really good Olive Garden lunch with Matt Russell as our waiter, won some money on scratch-off tickets my mother bought for me, and enjoyed the company of my super-cool roommates. My two favorite quotes from the past few days...
Emily: "They're like, 'I'm a fetus!' and I'm like, 'Oh? How was the birthing?'"
Tirza: (to the cable man) "We're honest people, I promise. (to me) Oooh, look at what I stole today!"
That's all, kiddies. Pictures of my room eventually, if I ever get my film developed. I miss my mommy's digital camera.
EDIT: I also updated my site, finally. You can find updates in "I'm the green fairy," "the show must go on" (in acting and tech), "poetic enough for you?" (in the dream journal), "children of the revolution" (for those of you I deleted, I still love you, I just haven't seen/talked to you in a billion years!), and "naughty words" (in friends' quotes). Woot.
Hello, children! It's time for an exciting update going back to last week. Let's see here...
Sunday: After working late the night before, I slept in and then drove to Peoria to pick up CJ. We stopped in Normal to eat dinner at Olive Garden (unfortunately, neither Lisa nor Matt were there), and got back to Lombard around 10:30.
Monday: CJ and I slept in and eventually got up to run some errands. Rather, CJ tagged along like a good little boyfriend while I ran some errands. (: We went to the post office, had lunch at Yorktown, and stopped by B3 to say hi to some people. I wanted to buy my cool Dali clock, but they were all out. Boo. We had dinner with my family, and then started to watch "Spellbound" - The Hitchcock movie, NOT the spelling bee movie! It was very good, but I was very tired, so we didn't finish it.
Tuesday: We woke up early and drove to Spring Green, Wisconsin, to visit The House on the Rock. I think CJ had fun...He's hard to read sometimes. He might just have been humoring me. But I love HotR, so hopefully, he did too. Plus, they take pictures now. We stayed there until around 3, when we got a call from RJ reminding CJ that the film festival which RJ had entered The Werecow into (a movie they made together) was that evening. I very much did not want to go. CJ told RJ we weren't going to go. We drove back to Lombard, when CJ decided we WERE going. Then, back in Lombard, I got all upset and CJ told RJ we were back to NOT going. Eventually, we ended up going. Good thing too, because CJ won for best screenplay. Very exciting. It was fun, too...Some of the films were good, and I got to see a lot of people from ISU. Izzo, Mikula, Caitlin Barlow, etc. Good stuff. CJ and I came back home and intended to finish "Spellbound." I fell asleep again.
Wednesday: CJ and I got up fairly early and drove to Naperville so the Simmi's could approve of him. Hopefully, they do; he was very quiet. Emily took a stuffed monkey I brought her and promptly named it "Monkeyhead." Danny proved that he's a better shot than I with a bow and arrow. I found it slightly creepy that in Emily's barbie dollhouse, a Gollum figure was laying in the bathtub. We left them and went mini-golfing, where CJ totally killed me. Had lunch at Portillo's. Came back home and while I started to clean, that didn't get very far. Had dinner with my parents again, and then went Laser Questing with my bro and his friend, Lizzy, Todd, and Katie. Good times, but I was quite nauseous, so I definitely didn't do well. We had a very late dinner at Simon's, and then those three went back home and CJ and I returned to my place. Watched some Sports Night (which, btw, I've gotten CJ addicted to!), and finished "Spellbound." Good movie. Went to bed.
Thursday: Back to Peoria we go. On the way, we stopped in Normal to get CJ a parking space at a restaurant across from A/C H/W. (Btw, Lizzy, CJ says thank you so much for the tip!) Got to Peoria and had just enough time to change, put on make-up, etc before his friends came over. I met far too many people to remember their names...Well, I remember their names, but not their faces. Anyway, it was nice to see Brandon again, who I just adore, and everyone else seemed very nice. The group of us trecked over to the comedy club, where the Tuor family met us, and sat down to watch the Amateur Stand-Up Competition. CJ of course made it to the finals, which are next week. Plus, I learned how to play Mow, which is an awfully intelligent card game. It took me, like, three rounds to even figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Anyway, congrats to CJ for being so successful this past week. Went back to his place, watched some more Sports Night, went to sleep.
Friday: CJ had to get up early to take Kyle (his bro) to court for a speeding ticket, but I slept in. When they got back, I got dressed and CJ and I had breakfast and then went to his mall. We were hoping to run into his father at work, but no luck. We did, however, have fun at Victoria's Secret, where CJ turned about 17 shades of red. I do my best to embarrass him. We went to see "The Village." I called the ending about an hour early, so I feel special. Went back to his place, played Mario Party, ate spaghetti, and watched some more Sports Night before I had to go back to Lombard. I cried, of course. I always cried. On the way home, I started feeling really nauseous (second time in a week). Not cool.
Saturday: Still nauseous when I woke up, but I went to work. Started to feel better once I drank water. I think I was just dehydrated. Got off work, changed, made myself pretty, and went to the Hanson concert! No mean comments, kids. Let's just say it was AMAZINGLY great. You can read my full review here . And here's a picture of me and Keren Sanchez, who's friggin' gorgeous.
So now, I'm just bumming around, working and baby-sitting, packing up my room, and wondering how I'm possibly going to move in so soon. And I still need an audition monologue. Yeesh. In the meantime, I must clean my room...
Hey, kiddies. First of all, I've updated my LJ with a picture post, so if you don't normally check that out, do so now.
Other than that, a brief update in my life, bulleted for your convenience.
One last thing...This Friday and Saturday is the annual Janus Family Garage Sale! If you're in the area, come by between 9 and 3. If you know any high school girls, I'm selling my BEAUTIFUL prom dresses, so send them over. Come buy things from me! (:
Very short update - I HEART SHOPPING! Went to IKEA with Lizzy and Leeny, then the three of us had lunch, and Leeny and I headed back to Lombard to hit up B3 (for my discount) and a few other random stops.
I got almost everything I need for school, which is awesome. My room apparently is going to be blue and green. I even got a duvet cover and new sheets for $40 total, and a TV stand, and a blue and green mirror, and a pretty floor lamp, and a really awesome independent headboard/shelf system...And of course everything I needed to contribute to the kitchen/bathroom area. But I'm so excited to move in now! Hoorah!
PLUS! So far, I've spent $80 myself on my credit cards this month. And I have $280 in my bank account. So I'm fast on my way to paying off daddy! Hoorah! AAANNNDDDD Keren owes me $75 for the Hanson tickets, so that almost makes me a millionaire!
And speaking of millionaires, I won $30 on a scratch-off ticket today!
This has been an absolutely lovely Friday.
Hey kiddies, long time no update! Now that I'm alive again after the tonsilectomy, I shall update you on my very exciting life. I'll try to keep this brief in order to keep you interested.
The weekend after the hospital fiasco, CJ came up here again to do what we were supposed to do the last weekend. We went to the zoo, which was a lot of fun, we watched the original Stepford Wives, and we went to the drive-in. It was lovely to see him, and lovely to finely be feeling better and be able to leave my house.
That Tuesday (where I am now, like, June 28th?), I started work again. I was happy to see that my managers didn't hate me for needing so much hospital time off. I also started baby-sitting again, so my tan is getting a bit darker from taking the kids to the pool. Work at B3 is great. Most of the time, I really enjoy it, and it's WONDERFUL to be getting paychecks again. I'm dreading going back to school, where I don't have a job. I should call Pip and see if they're still hiring for the fall. There are very few places on campus I can work, though, because of my schedule, and it would be even harder off-campus.
Saw Dr. Tonsil on July 1st. He told me that I'm the fist patient of his in six years to have a complication. That figures.
On the 4th of July, I worked for 9 hours and 40 minutes. Exhausted, I went to Ashley's party. It was very nice to see everyone again. We established that I have a gambling problem, and that instead of spending so much money on fireworks, Lombard should fix some potholes. We played Scene-It, which I actually knew a few answers to. We watched The Fabulous Janes for a while, who I adore. But I was very lonely under the fireworks. Almost everyone else was all coupled up. It was like being a reject from Noah's Ark or something. But like I said, it was great to see my friends. Yay! And yay to Lizzy for driving all the way out here to visit!
In tragic news, we must all mourn the death of my boyfriend's self-image (if he really had one to begin with). I drove down to visit him Monday (two days ago), only one day after he dyed his hair blonde for The Wizard of Oz. As I anticipated, he is an AWFUL blonde. It's so absolutely terrifying that his parents agreed to let me dye it back when the show is over next week - They said that even if I turn his hair green, it will be an improvement. I concur with that statement. I'll have pictures eventually. Other than being horrified of CJ's hair, Peoria was lovely. We had some lunch, watched the Twilight Zone marathon, ate the dinner his wonderful grandmother cooked, and while he went to rehearsal, I cleaned his room. I made it pretty. (: Monday night, we played Cranium with the whole family, which was fun. I had never played before, and it's a really good game. Listening to CJ hum "Respect" was unbelievably funny, and his grandmother is hysterical at charades. We then went upstairs and, umm, bowled while everyone else went to sleep. Yes. I thoroughly enjoy bowling. Tuesday, we went to breakfast and watched The Manchurian Candidate before I had to leave. Wiping tears away, I drove back to Lombard.
So now, I'm working a lot. 13 hours tomorrow between my two jobs. Friday, I'm apartment shopping with Leeny and Lizzy - Yay! But then I'm working all weekend and every day next week, until I drive to Peoria again on Friday to see The Wizard of Oz and fix the horrible mistake my boyfriend made to his poor, defenseless hair.
Does it make sense that saying goodbye to CJ is only getting harder? I expected it to get easier as the summer went on. It plateaued off for a while (wow, is that spelled right?), but now, it's getting harder again. It seems like the more time I spend with him, the more time I WANT to spend with him. And it just isn't fair that I can't hug him and kiss him and hold him every night like I want to. And I know everyone reading this who's in a long distance relationship is like "Blah bah, whatever, I have it worse," and I'm not denying that, but it's just really hard. Grr to me being overemotional.
Yes. That was my short post. *snorts* Does anyone actually read this? I want everyone who reads this to leave me a comment, just so I know. *grins*
Hey, kids. I just wrote two e-mails and one LJ post without making any terrible amount of pain killer-induced typos, so I think I'm ready to type this up...But again, minor typos and grammatical mistakes, I'm SORRY! I'm not quite myself yet.
So I went in Wednesday morning to get my tonsils out, right? Everything went fine with that, I came out of it feeling all right, had a popsicle at the hospital, was brought home to sleep. The doctor gave me liquid vicodin to take and also warned me that around 6 PM, the topical anesthetic would wear off, so it would probably start to hurt a little more, but the vicodin would help that. So Wednesday, everything was mostly OK. I slept a lot and tried to drink fluids.
Thursday it started to get worse, which I wasn't expecting. I was trying to drink fluids, but it was REALLY hard. I started coughing up mucus, which they also said was normal, so I didn't worry too much about it other than it was really gross. By Thursday night, I was having so many problems swallowing that it literally took me about 1/2 an hour to get down the tsp. of vicodin. It wasn't so much that it HURT swallow, because while it did, it felt more like I just COULDN'T swallow. My throat was swelling, and everything was getting bad. My parents started worrying about CJ coming down, and at this point, I knew the weekend plans probably weren't going to be happen, but I just figured I was having a slow recovery...
On Friday, things got much worse again. Dad kept trying to make me drink, and I couldn't. I really just couldn't. It was immensely painful and difficult. CJ got here around 11 AM and had to watch with pity as I constantly spit up mucus and my own saliva, because I couldn't swallow it. Dad called the doctor who prescribed a steroid to bring the swelling down, but unfortunately it was in a pill form (wtf, right?), so Daddy crushed it up into pudding, which I had enormous difficulty eating.
At this point I should explain the pain scale, eh? Anyone familiar with it, skip this section. The pain scale rates your pain for 0 - 10, 0 being no pain at all, 5 being moderate pain, and 10 being absolutely the worst pain imaginable. The doctor's goal is to keep you around a 2 or a 3.
All day Friday, I was around an 8. At two points on Friday I was at, like, a 9.7 - CJ witnessed both of these moments, when I had coughing attacks and was sobbing and convulsing and trying not to die, basically. Poor CJ for seeing all of this grossness. My Daddy didn't want to take me into the hospital, though, because he assumed that I just wasn't drinking enough and said that all they would do was give me fluids through an IV. That was fine by me, I just wanted to go!
When my Mom got home, she threatened to bring me into the hospital, at which point CJ explained to her that I had already asked to go. Mom thought that was pretty odd, considering I HATE doctors and it would take an AWFUL lot for me to willingly admit myself into the hospital. So after some calls to the doctors and such, my parents, CJ, and I headed off to Central DuPage again.
Skipping all the details, they put me on an IV as soon as I got there and I started feeling almost instantly better. Not only was it hydration, but it was dilaudid for pain and an anti-inflammatory drug which worked WONDERS. I hadn't been able to speak for almost two days, and within 1/2 an hour, I could whisper full sentences. The doctors in the ER determined that my tonsilectomy wound, through no fault of my own btw, had become infected. It was yellow and oozing and REALLY gross from what I understand (though I didn't get to see it, my mom had the doctor show her). So they admitted me overnight.
Poor CJ, who was so good through all of this, went back to my place with my parents and stayed in my room all alone. I felt awful for that. I tried to sleep at the hospital, which I had done little of previously, because of the pain. The next morning, CJ came back out and spent nine hours sitting next to my hospital bed. It was absolutely the nicest thing in the world for him to do. All day Saturday I was still around a 6 on the pain scale, and nurses were coming in and out with more IV bags and taking my vitals and stuff, and I could hardly talk, but CJ stayed there and held my hand. I couldn't ask for anyone more special in my life. There just aren't words to thank him enough for that, it means so much to me.
So by Saturday night my new doctor said I could be released if I wanted to, or, if I felt up to it, I could go home then. I didn't feel up to it, though, especially since I didn't want my first time at home to be at night. I knew I wouldn't get any sleep, and I felt like I needed to be on the IVs more, and I was really worried about getting worse as soon as I came home. So my family went home, CJ stayed with me and we watched "The Man Who Knew Too Much," and then he left around 10:30 to go back to my house and I went to sleep.
So Sunday comes. At this point, my pain's around a 5 without meds and a 3 with meds, which is pretty good. The doctor gave me pills, but they are SO miniscule that I was fine swallowing them. I was starting to try and eat pudding and soup and stuff. So the doc stops by in the morning and releases me, and unfortunately, CJ had to head back to Peoria. My dad came in and got me all checked out and all, and now I'm home.
Since coming back home, I'm feeling better every day instead of worse, which is a friggin' Godsend. I threw up twice Sunday night from a bad reaction to my new antibiotic, but it hasn't happened since, so it's not a big deal. It hurt a lot, but it's not a big deal. (: Charleen dropped by with a card, which I'm very thankful for. (I love my Leeny!) Almost all of my family has called, the Simmons's have called, and many people have left me on-line wishes to get better. So I'm trying! Yeesh! I'm moved from a liquid diet to a soft diet, so I've been having, like, mashed potatoes and oatmeal and stuff. Not together, of course. I've actually been getting out of bed occasionally. I'm almost through season 4 of FRIENDS. And once I REALLY feel better, I have GOT to clean this room. It's awful.
So today's Tuesday, and I'm hoping to be back to my almost-normal self by late Thursday, I would say. I don't mean with eating, just with feeling better. I feel awful for ruining the whole weekend with CJ (we had such fun plans!), and I told him that if I'm up to it, I'll come down Saturday or so. I'm sure I'll be up to it, I'm just not sure if I'll be ready to drive that far. I'm still a little spacey, you know? But we'll see what happens. I start work again on Monday...
So, the moral of this story is that botched tonsilectomies SUCK. Like, that hurt more than anything in the world I think. I told CJ it was worse than childbirth, and he said he would hold that statement against me when the time comes, but seriously, at least you can breathe and swallow during childbirth. My poor throat.
Thanks to those who've been around to take care of me while all this is going on: My parents of course, Matthew, CJ, Leeny for the card, and Lizzy for the brief phone call while I could sort of talk. Everyone leaving nice messages online, of course. God, for not killing me, cause that would have sucked.
Off to lay down again now. EL FIN. *takes a bow*
I am so sick of myself it's ridiculous. Sounds pessimistic, eh? I kept telling myself that I would be fine, once I got into a routine. And I know I'm not fully in a routine yet, what with JUST starting work, and not even seeing the Simmi's once yet. But even now, while I'm easing into a routine, nothing's getting easier. I still want to get out of Lombard, I still miss my school friends, and I still miss CJ. I miss what seems like ages ago and was really only weeks ago when even if I wanted to be alone, I knew I didn't have to be. Now, even if I want companionship, there's no one around. I miss walking into Airport and knowing people, or playing 4-square if I'm bored, or nightly rehearsals. I miss having commitments that extend outside of the work day. Most of all, I miss being within walking distance from CJ and knowing that no matter what happened, everything would be fine because I would see him that night.
I'm starting to feel like none of that is real anymore. I talk to CJ on the phone and it's like he's just a voice. I see my friends and everything's great, but as soon as they're gone, it feels like they were never here. I'm great while I'm at work, but as soon as I leave, I'm back to feeling lonely.
It doesn't help that I've been in almost constant pain for the past few months, and now that it's getting towards the end, it's only getting worse. My throat feels like it's closing and there's nothing I can do to stop it. It hurts to swallow and it hurts to breathe, and all I want to do is jam scissors in my mouth and take out my tonsils myself. The antiobiotic I was given yesterday hasn't helped at all yet, and until the 16th, I'm stuck feeling sore, and tired, and cranky. And once my tonsils are out I'll probably still be sore, and tired, and cranky. And once my throat completely heals, who knows how I'll feel. Hopefully by then I'll have enough of a routine to start to feel like a normal person. And I'll have just seen Lizzy, Tirza, and CJ, so maybe I'll be better. I have to call Heather and make plans with her, which will be fun, and once I feel better, I'll see Liz as well. Hopefully, I'll start baby-sitting soon.
Maybe I'll feel better when I have money. If I can pay my dad back, it will be a huge load off of my shoulders. If I can make it through the summer and still have enough money to get through the semester, I'll be happy. If I can afford to buy myself something pretty once in a while, I'll be thrilled. Is that so much to ask?
Maybe I just need to get out of here...