Matriculation/Convocation and Other Things Not as Interesting

Posted on August 29, 2009 by jenn

Or, getting caught up on my crazy life. I guess its not really so crazy, but it feels crazy to me!

Last Friday, we attended my cousin’s Matriculation/Convocation ceremony at her university. You are all probably familiar with Kayla by now. Her university of choice is only one hour south of here, and we drove down for this rather quick formal welcoming ceremony. We were looking forward to seeing her and seeing the school, as we have not been there yet.

It is dead smack in the middle of a little town. Main roads run through it. Yet it is still private and very beautiful. Fortunately, it was hot in the gymnasium, so they skipped the opening speech and got right to it. All 400 something names. But it was a stroke of luck that we were sitting in the front row of the bleachers and one of the nurses opened the doors and we had a nice breeze coming in at us. Ahhhh ….

Kayla then gave us a very quick tour of the campus and took us to her tiny dorm room. So cute. But it was nice.

I am very proud of that girl. She has grown up into a beautiful and smart young lady, who is going to make a wonderful RN someday.

***
On the homefront, well, like I said, I feel like life is whizzing on by. Is there any reason for that? Well, maybe. I call it responsibility. And the beginning of training for a marathon. I haven’t really been running much, but more than I have for a few months. I feel like I am beginning again. You wouldn’t think that six or eight weeks of low mileage with a few 7-days of no running stretches would do that. But for me … deconditioning is so easy. I have put on a few pounds, and that is contributing. But so is the fact that I’ve been lazy about my running. Combine that with the oppressive humidity. I am having all the usual doubts about me being cut out for running and all that. But somehow, week after week, several times a week, I lace up the shoes and head out and do my run/walk. I manage to improve each time. Obviously, I can do this.

Other noteworthy things:
*Hallie gained a pound of weight. Yay!

*I think I actually have a handyman to do our work.

*I discovered that I hate the Swiffer Wet-Jet.

*My dryer died. Now I have to go to the laundromat. I hate the laundromat. The only advantage is the ability to do multiple loads at once.

*The owners of the condo we rented in Kauai have not sent us the important information that we were promised by now. Naturally, this stirs up a lot of anxiety, as I worry that something went wrong and we really don’t have the condo. Although the rental agreement is right here on my desktop.

*After the initial excitement of my weight workout, I have never done them again. Each time I think I’ll start again, there is a trip in the way. So now … I will say after I get back from Hawaii. Maybe I’ll be ready to commit to those again. I know I have commitment issues, despite being married and having a tattoo, but this is a 2x per week, 25 minute workout. You’d think I’d be able to handle that.

*Technology is starting to overwhelm me.

*These smileys show up in places I didn’t put them. Drives me nuts.

I promised the cats that we could play with their new toy, so I should probably go attend to them.

On Being Ignored

Posted on June 21, 2009 by jenn

In my last post, I mentioned briefly a carpenter who came to the house to estimate some work that we had here for him. That day, he ignored his promise to be there first thing in the morning. Then he promised us an estimate later that day (Thursday) or the next morning. Fast forward to the next Wednesday, and still no estimate. So I called him and asked for it. He called me back promptly and gave me the price which was about half what I expected, so I was anxious to give him the job. I don’t really know why, as he already had two strikes against him. During that call, he said that he would be by first thing in the morning with a work order for us to sign so that we can get on the schedule and said that he could start at the next of next (this) week.

If you are intuitive, you know where this is going. He was NOT there first thing in the morning on Thursday. Again, I gave up a run to wait for him. Finally, I had to leave and I did. He did not come by the next day either. I called him on Monday. No return call. I called on Wednesday and told him that if we didn’t hear from him by the end of the day, I was looking for someone else.

Matt and I seriously wondered if he died. Honestly. I mean … to not even call us back! Rude! And rude is not tolerated.

And the carpenter is not the only one who ignored me this week. I have been trying to reach my doctor to get an appointment. The phone never gets picked up. Again, unprofessional. I’m looking for a new doctor.

So while I am dealing with trying to get these supposedly simple things, I am also trying to train for a half marathon, plan a few trips. I was feeling stressed out. And then, last week, I went to the basement to put some stuff away and when I went to put the items on the table to keep them off the floor and therefore from getting wet, I noticed that the table and all the things on it were soaking wet! PUDDLES!

Arrgh. Thought it was the dishwasher. Since I was in the midst of 20,000 other things, I waited to investigate further until Matt came home, who very easily diagnosed the pipe under the sink leading to the dishwasher as the culprit and turned the knob off. A few winters ago, our pipes burst, and there was damage and repairs to the plumbing to the dishwasher made, so we assumed it was that. Then we did some clean up work. And went for a walk.

Fortunately, the plumber did not ignore us and came out within 3 hours of our call. It was not the dishwasher, but a pipe under the sink. Easy fix. The ironic thing is that I was hand washing dishes, thinking I was doing a good thing, when actually, I was making the problem worse. The bottom of the cabinet under the sink sustained damage and needs some kind of repair. Too bad the carpenter ignored me, or I’d have another job for him!

Oh, I made reference to a trip being stressful. That is because we sent an e-mail to an owner of a house in Kauai that we wanted to rent. And he totally ignored us! Matt found us a wonderful condo. I e-mailed the owners, and they did NOT ignore us. And now we have a beautiful place to stay, closer to the beach than the house was, still with views of turtles for a FRACTION of the price. I guess in this case … being ignored worked out.

I know this isn’t an exciting blog entry. But it does explain why I have been ignoring it. If I wrote more often, I know I could say this much more interestingly. And for this week, at least, I am ignoring house repairs until we get back from our trip.

Hallie’s Wild Ride

Posted on May 27, 2009 by jenn

Some of you know Hallie. If you have read any of the three previous posts, you’ve at least heard of her.

The craziness started last week during one of my nightly visits. She was sitting on my lap and her nail got stuck in the blanket. When she jumped down, her leg was askew. It was sticking out and hanging. It was very disconcerting and freaky. I didn’t know what to do, but was getting up to get the carrier to take her to the emergency room. But the leg went back to normal. Whew. I didn’t think much more of it.

A few days later, when I trimmed her nails, the leg popped out again. I was able to put it back. That is a level of freaky that I didn’t think I’d ever get to. So I called her vet who explained that it the nerves have deteriorated and could no longer control the muscle. He said the leg needs amputated and set me up for the next available surgery day, which was yesterday.

All weekend, I wasn’t sure if I did the right thing. I was nervous. I didn’t want her to lose the leg, although I understood why it happens. I have seen dozens of animals recover quickly from an amputation. It’s no big deal. Until its your pet of course. I just felt that there is something more wrong with her.

She had been losing weight over the last year … and I felt that there was something wrong with her, but blood tests showed nothing remarkable. High calcium and high platelet count was it, neither of which tell us much and she was on a wait and watch status.

Well, in the last two months, she has lost an additional half pound. The vet was very concerned about this and called me immediately. He felt that it is too hasty to amputate … that we need to get behind the weight loss first. So they gave her a dental cleaning since she was under and drew blood and gave her an x-ray.

The x-ray confirmed the doctor’s original thoughts and diagnosis, and amputation would be the proper thing to do. It is her elbow that is actually messed up, not her shoulder. A feline leukemia and FIV test is also negative. Her blood tests showed regular platelets (meaning that the previous elevation was due to stress, as we found out, that can happen), and high calcium and CPK. Nobody really knows why cats get high calcium or what to do for it, and CPK is an indicator of muscle wasting, which we know she has, you can see that just looking at her. The high CPK can mean something with her heart or it can be cancer.

We won’t know unless we do some further testing, seeing a specialist who would probably give her an ultrasound and/or exploratory surgery. Since she almost didn’t wake up from the anesthesia, we are not going to proceed. It’s too risky. We’ll keep her on a wait and watch basis, and if she gets sick we will deal with it. I am accepting that she has cancer, and since there are no malfunctioning organs, I would imagine its an immune type or a bone cancer, although that is NOT a diagnosis my vet can give us at this point. And, in case you are wondering, she is only six years old.

She was shaved for the amputation and also along her back where she had some mats … she looks very goofy right now. I hope to add a photo of that to this post someday.

She was rightfully angry when I brought her home after spending the night at the vet. She growled at me (and she has never done that) while inhaling food and when I was visiting with her, she pretty much just snubbed me. So I’d say that she is doing just fine!

Thanks for reading.