I received my graded test in my Rediscovery class today. After a lot of angst it seems that it worked out ok. At the end of my paper where I left a note for my professor bemoaning the fact I had misunderstood, she wrote 'But you did a very good job on this! A-' I am so relieved!! Now to finish this one page paper for my 4:30 Pompeii class. I will find out the results of my Irish class test tonight too.
I really blew that one!! I totally misunderstood the criteria for the essay quiz that I had in my Rediscovery class today. I had memorized two explorers from the book The Blue Nile that we have been studying to compare and contrast. Lo and behold the test explanation said compare and contrast peoples (i.e. British, Malmukes, French, etc.). We could cite individuals to tie it all together. Well, instead of letting panic set in I went ahead and did the comparison that I had put together. I wrote a note to the professor explaining that I had misunderstood -- and turned it in. It is 5 points of my grade. I am trying to learn not to get hysterical about life -- and academics. After all ... it isn't fatal if I fail this quiz! Right??
Tomorrow would have been my Mom and Dad's 59th wedding anniversary. It is a day that is easy for me to remember since it is exactly one month after my birthday. This is one of my favorite pictures of them. It was taken one morning after Christmas 2000 as I was returning to Virginia. It is one of those last moment pictures that captures the essence of people. I miss them dearly.
Eeek! I used my WiiFit this morning. I unlocked the advanced step and immediately wished I was doing DDR. It adds stepping sideways on the balance board with purple feet along with the step off the board to the side blue feet! Plus clapping. Of course the pace is higher. Just when I thought I would fall on the floor it says 'let's speed things up.' At that point I just watched (c: I really do need to work on my coordination. My yoga half moon wasn't too bad, but I can't figure out how to raise my hands with the hula hoop girl. I will try the downhill ski later today ... poor little guy, I make him so dejected. Guess I will just have to keep trying until he is happy (c:
I HATE the state of my house. It seems that I never have enough time to keep it neat and clean. I am really going to have to try to find the time with all of the other things going to do better. Allergies are giving me a fit – cats, dogs and grass among other things. All of the dust and stuff in this house is not making things better. And then there is Gus… we have a love/hate relationship. I know he is not well himself. But for the last 12 years I have been the one to have clean up after him. It doesn’t help that he has dirty litter habits. This weekend I am going to have to balance studying with trying to make headway in at least part of the house. I would love to have a clutter free first floor with flowers on the dining room table. I would like to have the rest of the place breatheable and neat! You can find the first part of my rant here.
Well, here I am today … Angry. In this rant I will address the problem of medication. I hate that the pulmonologist added 3 more medications to my daily routine. It seems like my cough is connected to my allergies and acid reflux. She also told me that I am borderline for having asthma. Great!! Just what I need!! In the last month I have had to take steroids and an antibiotic that is suppose to cure Anthrax. Now my list of daily medications include: Actos, Norvasc, Zyrtec, Baby Aspirin, Asmanex, Nexium and Flonase. The beginning of this year I wanted to start getting off of medication. Instead it has been a steady progression of adding things. I hate that I am not feeling well, and that every time I turn around that something else is wrong! It makes me want to cry. This morning the sink backed up, I couldn’t cook breakfast as I had planned. So now it is mid morning and I haven’t even started to try to work all these meds in. Some I have to take with food, some and hour before, etc. Timing is precarious. When you look at the stress of work, school, house, meds – is it any wonder I am just this side of schitzoid? And then the doctor said that I needed to get more sleep!!! Yeah, right )c: The rest of my rant can be found here.
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Yesterday a friend of mine at work brought me a belated birthday present-- A beautiful picture frame of pearls and crystals. Later in the day I opened an email from my sister and attached was a beautiful picture of my mom. It had been sent to Teresa from a cousin in Ohio. It was a black and white portrait of my mother that neither one of us had seen before. Mom was probably 17 or so. It may have been taken her senior year of high school. Luckily I had one piece of photo paper in the cabinet so I printed it and it now resides on my desk in the gift frame of pearls. The picture and frame are a perfect compliment to each other. What serendipity!
What was I thinking? I am a glutton for punishment …no not really. I just tend to overdo when I am doing something I like. I really am going to have to find a way to juggle my study habits. Reading on the bus…ok. But I have to find time to think about these research papers. I met 
with my Pompeii professor today and he said I would have to do some more research for my topic. I will probably have to find something other than trompe l'oeil because I don’t want to end up writing a research paper on wall paint! Mosaics, maybe, if I can find a different angle. In my Irish class I know I can write about illuminated manuscripts … after all they have the Book of Kells.
This evening I set up the WiiFit here at home that Jenny gave me for my birthday. I had to be reevaluated … I guess the set up didn’t save from her machine to mine. My settings were about the same but I did gain 3 Wii years! I am getting better at the aerobic step. It reminds me of DDR which I might have to investigate for the Wii. I am still really pathetic at the downhill ski. Poor guy, who knows when he will be happy! I tired quickly. I guess it is all the steroids and heavy duty antibiotics I am on. I look forward to going to the pulmonologist next week. I think that I must have inhaled something toxic – it is the only thing that makes sense.
Well I had my Dr’s appointment yesterday. We spent most of my physical time talking about this terrible cough that has plagued me for months. I coughed so much this week I actually pulled muscles in my back. Long story short – I am on a round of Depo-Medrol. If this round of steroids doesn’t work the Dr. is sending me to a pulmonologist. Off I went for an x-ray to have when she works up the referral. I also had to bump up my diabetes medication because steroids automatically raise your blood sugar! None of this really makes me happy, especially with my family history of lung cancer. I am trying not to be alarmed, but not hiding my head in the sand either. Two steps forward, one step back. I guess if you do it long enough you will get where you want to be.
What is the only thing that will make any woman go out in the midst of a Tropical Storm? A long awaited hair appointment! I woke up this morning with mixed feelings. The thoughts of being pampered with a much anticipated cut and color versus battling the wind and rain of Tropical Storm Hanna left me undecided on what to do. I finally packed some reading (story of my life these days) and put on my raincoat and headed out the door. I drove 14 miles rain one way in the blowing rain to have my hair done! Refusing to take I-66, I drove the back way down Wellington Drive. Only saw one wreck on the way there. On the way back it wasn’t raining quite as bad, but the wind was up. As the radio told me the area was under a “flash flood warning” I forded a stream across the road around Nissan Pavilion that had not been there a few hours earlier. I made it home safely … with a fearfully wind mussed hairdo, but extremely happy!
I have stacks of paperwork at work to process, stacks of books to read for class, stacks of research to do for papers and laundry to do. What do you think will win out? I hope to take the time in the next few nights to nail down my research topics for the Pompeii and Irish Art class. Probably trompe l'oeil and illuminated manuscripts. Then I can pace myself and try to get them done before the deadline. Last night I was able to pick my class discussion topic … I will lead class discussion on one of our readings about mosaics in Pompeii the last week of October. I keep telling myself I can do this ….but what I want to do is take a nap.
What a lethal combination! By the time I got home from class at 11:20 pm last night I was deathly ill. I didn’t think I would make it through Laura’s Irish Art class. I had used cough drops during Pompeii class and stopped on the way through the Johnson Center for a LARGE soy mocha and a scone. OMG!! I will never do that again. Even to day I feel like a Mac 
truck has run over and backed up over me several times. Which brings me to the state of my body. I am so annoyed that I hurt all the time and that I feel icky most of the time. When will this end? Even when I try to stay on target with my carbs, I walk a fine line between feeling well and being sick. Trying to space out medication and keep my stomach under control is still an issue. When I quit drinking sodas I was able to quit taking GIRD medication. But just the everyday meds that I take drive me crazy. I am glad that I am going for my physical on Friday. I had my blood work done on Monday at the hospital so it should be ready for the MD when I get there. I am falling apart!
