Something funny

Perhaps this next thing is only funny if you were there, or after a couple of beers, but I went out for drinks with some coworkers of mine tonight. We all got to talking about gender relations, and one guy told us his theory of how you could really mess with a girl's head. Tell her she has manly shoulders. Seriously, that's his thought. What's so funny is the fact that he's probably right. There is nothing that a woman could do to have less manly shoulders. No Nip/Tuck will ever fix that. Everytime she wears a tank top, she'll always wonder "do my shoulders look big? are they getting bigger?"

For some reason, I found this funny enough to laugh myself to the point of tears. It might have been that I was one beer down, and getting ready to order another, or the fact that I could tell that he was holding back from telling that to a gal at the table that he didn't like. He is a fairly nice guy, and decided not to hurt a coworker, but I know she gets on his nerves. She's very stand-offish, and I have trouble reading her. She can be very friendly at times, but other times, she doesn't want to work and she complains about it. I know that there are worse people that I could work with, so I'm not terribly upset. I rarely have to really spend any real time with her, so it's all good.

"She's got manly shoulders." Say that to a chick who has pissed you off.

So now it's getting more real...

OK, so I am days away from scheduling my trip to Boston. My renal ultrasound came back good, so things are really progressing. All I have left is a CT scan, and that has to happen in Boston. My plan is to schedule the scan and then schedule the surgery for a few days after that. I really don't feel like paying to fly there for a scan, fly back to St. Louis and then fly back to Boston for the surgery a fews days later. My aunt needs this as soon as possible. I don't think that she's on dialysis yet, and I don't want her to hold off on that for much longer.

The whole thing still doesn't feel quite real yet. Surreal is very much how this situation feels. I know that it's going to happen soon, but it feels so far away. Like February is not starting next week. Weird.

Anyway, so that is what's going through my head now. Not funny, not thoroughly entertaining, but like I said, few of my blogs will probably be super funny.

Kidney stuff

So I had a renal ultrasound today. The tech said that both kidneys look good and healthy. She added her little fine print, "Of course it's all going to true and final after the doc looks at it." I'm cool with taking her word for it, because I'm sure that she's done a ton of renal ultrasounds, so she's probably familiar with what is healthy and what is not.

I think that the surgery is going to be in early to mid Feb. Which isn't all that far off, but it all doesn't seem quite real yet. I know in my head that it's going to happen, but it's just too far distant a concept for me to really believe it. I know that my aunt is still not quite banking on this yet. I think she's afraid to get her hopes up. But I know this is going to go through. I just hope and pray that my kidney takes and that her body doesn't reject it. I think that all this will feel more real once I get to Boston.

Please keep my aunt and me in your thoughts and prayers.

the prettiest scarf ever

now if only I knew how to knit a matching hat....

I just finished knitting a gorgeous scarf (if I do say so myself), and now I'm looking to find out how to knit a hat. I don't want to have to purl, just knit. I know that my friend Cheryl knits hats for babies using four needles at a time... maybe I'll ask her to teach me. Of course, I want to knit a hat bigger than a baby head.... Jennie's got a big ol' head. With this much hair, I have a large hat size for a girl.

Back to the scarf... Seriously.... I need to take a picture and include it with this blog... maybe the next one, I'm too tired and lazy now. But the scarf is totally awesome. Not just awesome, but awesome, awesome (nods to Craig, Jessi and Ben). "You all know what I mean."

Skiing for the first time

I went skiing for the first time on January 13. It was awesome. First off, I got to go for free. All I paid for was my dinner that night (p.s. $7 for a hot dog, chips and a bottled water). I didn't pay for rentals, lessons or lift fee. That rocked. So the lessons went well, apparently, I'm not a half bad skier. I went down the practice slope once, then moved on up to the bunny slope for a few tries. I befriended my supervisors daughter (who was also a ski newbie) and we decided to ski together and watch out for one another. That went well until I was going down the tow rope slope the first time. I was trying to ski side-to-side as the kids were supposed to, but every time I turned, I'd gain speed. I tried to make a breaking wedge, but it didn't seem to slow me down. I did alright though. Only one fall the whole evening.

During my final descent (which I didn't know was my final), I noticed that there was an emergency snowmobile at the base of the slope I was skiing. When I got to the bottom, I realized that it was one of our students (did I mention that I was on a school sponsored trip?) and there were no other school staff around. I radioed that we had an injured student and that I would meet another adult at the ski patrol office. I wanted to stay with the student because she's deaf and I didn't want her to get scared. I know that she can communicate fine with strangers, she reads lips perfectly, people just have to remember to look at her while talking. I also know sign language alphabet, so I decided to stay with her just in case. Plus I was tired, and my legs and back were starting to yell at me.

The rest of the night was spent in the lodge talking with other staff members and students who were done for the night. I had a great trip back to school that night, and slept pretty well, too. I woke up sore as hell, though. Boy, I never realized how many muscles are used during skiing.

New favorite show...

OK, everyone should be watching "Mind of Mencia" on Comedy Central. Carlos Mencia is the funniest comic I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever laughed this much at one comedian. He says what I think but I'm too afraid to say thanks to all the PC assholes out there. I especially like when he tells his audience that he's not slowing down the comedy bus for the "dee dee dee" who fell off the back because he's too stupid to understand a joke. That's so great. I love intelligent comedy. Plus the guy has celebrities on all the time. He's great... so you should start tivo'ing/recording (for all you dee dee dee's who haven't jumped on the DVR/Tivo bandwagon) "Mind of Mencia." He's freaking funny, your life will be better for watching him on a regular basis. Laughter is good for you. Do it!!!!!!

First day back

Today was the first day back from winter break, and it was a good day for the most part. I found out that the husband of one of our secretaries had multiple strokes over the holiday break, so I felt really bad for her, she had it rough. And she's a really good person, too. I love working with Edie.

The good thing was that about 10% of the students didn't show to school. I don't know if they were still out of town on break, or if their parents just let them stay home from school (totally possible in this district), or if parents just weren't aware that we were back in school. From what one of secretaries said, many of the parents that were called trying to find out where the kids were mentioned that it was a federal holiday so they just assumed...which makes perfect sense, I guess the parents aren't really that far off target, but if you're not sure, shouldn't you check with the district website? or call? Aren't there parents out there who keep the school calendar up on the fridge the way my mom used to? I just don't get parents these days. And to think I'll be one someday.

Anyway, so back to my day. I totally freaked out one of the other TA's today. He mentioned that he had in a "rockin' CD for psyching up for Notre Dame games" that includes "Come on Eileen." My response was "Shouldn't you ask her first?" Tim's eyes got really big, and you could just see on his face that he was thinking, "Did she just say what I thought she said???!" It was totally funny. Then I told him my motto, "I don't 'go there,' I LIVE 'there' and my friend Morgan is my landlord!"

And I got wings for dinner. It was a good day.

Tonight, I've been reading "Peter and the Starcatchers" and looking at houses online. It looks like I will SO have to get a job for next year and save like mad to get the dream house for Ben and myself. To keep our payments under a $1000 per month (and I don't think that mortgage calculator puts in PMI, either), at a $10,000 down payment, we can't afford more than a $169,900 house. But our dream house is more like a $200,000 to $215,000, so we will need WAY more in savings for down and for furniture. Now, I could totally handle the 169,900 house, but I think Ben wants bigger rooms than I need, so I guess since he's willing to wait to afford one.....

Well, off to more reading... looking at houses online just makes me want to buy one even more. So Job hunting I go this weekend. I'll be printing resumes like mad. Wish me luck (first interview on Sat. with Parkway, where I did my student teaching).

Happy New Year!

SO I'm down in Kentucky, and New Year's was fun. We didn't get as drunk as I thought would happen, especially with all the liquor that was purchased/brought over state lines (apparently illegally). We drank a lot after dinner during poker. Then we watched the rest of "American Pie: Band Camp." Totally a soft core porn movie with a moral (sort of). And finally we watched the countdown with stroke-stricken Dick Clark and stripper-wannabe Mariah Carey. Then Jessi served homemade Dutch apple pie and I opened gifts. Jessi and Craig also had gifts from home (IL).

Well, off to bed. Happy New Year. What's your resolution??? I'm still trying to figure out mine.