I’m pretty close to mentally retarded in the mornings. Ask my husband - he’s got stories galore of nonsensical conversations, pushing/pulling/rolling me out of bed, me stumbling around blindly and doing all sorts of random things. Until I’ve had a shower, I’m not even coherent. Until I’ve had coffee (even after the shower), I’m cute, but extremely low-functioning.
Case in point:
Because I’m mentally deficient in the morning, and because I had to get up before the sun today to get up to our new hospital (north on I65, toward Chicago from Indy), I drove south (toward Kentucky).
Understand just how dumb this is. Not only are there many, many signs for 65 in downtown Indy where I live/get on the interstate… but I drive on 65 every day to and from work. I’ve lived just off of 65 for 4 years. I know 65.
Apparently, though, not when I’m morning-moronic.
It took me 10 minutes of driving south to realize I was headed the wrong way. By the
time I’d gotten off 65S and found my way back to 65N (because I’m also navigationally challenged in the mornings), I’d lost too much
time to make my meeting. So I got up before dawn for nothing, and have
to do it all over tomorrow.
Day 3: IKEA, Kristen’s Baby Party
Busy day. We went to Baltimore, met up with friends from Hawai’i, who now also live stateside, and make my first trip to the wonderland that is IKEA. Those guys are SMART. They make it really easy to spend lots of money. Babysitters, in-store cafeteria, pencils and pads of paper… It’s amazing. I found myself getting seriously sucked into the gotta-have-it American materialist mentality.
We’re going back tomorrow to maybe get some furniture. =)
Then, we went to a party Kristen’s parents threw for her and her hubby and their new baby. They’re in from TX, and all of the family friends and old friends were invited. (Kris and I were friends in high school and after.) I got to do a little catching up with her and her brother (my only “little brother”), and with an old friend from high school (Sara!), as well as with other friends of mine (actually, my friends’ parents, whom I now consider friends). A good time until I started dying from cat exposure.
So, home we went. And I coughed up a lung.
That night, Grandpa (who had been refusing to go to the hospital) expressed a need to see a doctor. So Mom and Dad took him. He was admitted with low blood pressure and renal failure. They hooked him up to lots of antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and he started getting better right away.
Day 4: Melissa’s Birthday Party
I coughed all night. David even considered moving out to the couch, it was so bad.
Grandpa’s situation improved.
David and Leah made Melissa’s cake, and we had the afore-blogged party.
Day 5: We didn’t go to the beach.
Between me being sick and my Grandpa spending a couple of days in the ICU (thanks, all you well-wishers), we decided not to go to the beach.
So, we stayed home and played games instead.
Day 6: I have bronchitis.
Seriously, that was the big news of the day. I stayed home coughing and coughing, then went to an urgent care clinic and got my Dx. Then I went to a drugstore and got my drugs.
They moved Grandpa to a regular hospital room from the ICU.
embedded by Embedded Video
Download Video
(Sorry Mac folks, it’s a wmv. Because I don’t have a Mac. And because I had 10 minutes.)
Here’s Melissa, enjoying her birthday soda:
Here’s the cake, up close and personal:
… and here’s a bracelet they gave out. What does it say, Shmel?
Left just after work on Thursday. Had a meeting with a… difficult… colleague, then a “touch base” (bizspeak drives me crazy) meeting with my managers. Then, off to Pennsylvania.
Day 1: Driving.
We drove for 8½ hours. There’s a whole lotta nothing between Indy and Blue Ridge Summit, where my folks live.
Day 2: Hershey Park.
Dave’s first time at Hershey - Leah and I took him. It’s been 8(?) years since I’ve been to HP, so there was a lot of new for me, too. Turns out Dave’s not a fan of the “scream coasters” - kind of a bummer for him. We avoided riding them during the day to save him the waiting in line, but Leah and I wanted rode a few late, just before the park closed. Thankfully, the longest line we waited in was only half an hour long, and Dave rode a tame coaster twice while he waited. =) My favorite: the StormRunner. That’s a fun coaster.
Here’s us on the Chocolate World ride (which, since the last time I rode it, has gone from educational and borderline boring to being on multimedia steroids):
Only a few more days until we drive east! I’m pretty darned excited for a change in location, if not an actual vacation. I’ll have to work (the deadline’s so tight that my team leader canceled her vacation), but dangit! I wanna visit family. I wanna go to the beach.
Starting to get my life back under control… or at least that’s how I feel right this moment. Come back in 5 minutes and I’ll be quietly panicking.
Today’s accomplishments:
- I got my email inbox down to 98 current personal/client emails (down from 240-some). It’s been months and months since I’ve been below 100 - and that’s with filters set up so that many emails skip the inbox entirely! This is what happens when you try to keep in touch with people and keep up with a web business in addition to volunteering.
- I’ve finally made contact with Beth, the woman fostering a Ridgeback we are thinking of adopting. We started planning a meet-n-greet in… June? But there was tonsillitis (Beth, not the dog), then natural disaster - she lives in Cedar Rapids, IA with all the flooding, then family crises, then a month of family reunions for us, then VBS, then vacation… I think we’ll finally get to meet in August. Maybe. Hopefully.
- I’ve finally got my Tekyn stuff together - I’m up-to-date with all of our clients, and have even picked up a new one over the weekend. That one will be fun - he knows his stuff, and knows what he wants while still being willing to listen to my suggestions. Refreshing. =) I got the go-ahead to start building a framework today.
All that despite working a full day and nursing a very ill (bronchitis, folks, mixed with some acid reflux) husband to sleep (not to health - his body has to do that). I’m feeling pretty good. =)
Last night, there was this amazing storm. It rolled through after we went to bed, so I wasn’t ever awake enough to think about recording a few seconds of it - and now that I want to share it with Leah, I’m kicking myself.
It was riotous - lightning never more than a second apart, and more often than not, 3-4 bolts PER second. Thunder crashing constantly - never silence or the sound of rain, just some very loud crashes amidst a dull, rolling roar. (This is the first time I’ve ever understood the phrase “rolling thunder”.) It was intense - an awesome display of power.
But I had other things to think about. The street was flooded - a river that ran almost up onto the sidewalks. The water was rushing - we had to check the backyard and the basement for flooding (after the big flood a couple of years ago, we always do a check before we enjoy the storm).
And there was the dog. Who was hysterical. Accompanying the constant roar of thunder (for at least two hours), we heard the constant whine of a scared dog, punctuated with little (and big) yelps when big crashes came.
This is something we’re not sure about. He’s very frightened of thunder and fireworks (and gunfire). In the past, we’ve tried staying up with him downstairs (he’s not allowed upstairs). We’ve tried bringing him upstairs to sleep in our room (didn’t work, so he’s still not allowed upstairs). We’ve tried leaving him in his crate and draping it. We’ve tried ignoring him. NOTHING calms him down.
Aside from the dog’s misery, we were pretty happy - I love storms like that. Everything about them. The sound, the blinding light, the charge in the air before it breaks, the smell of the rain on a hot street, the lightness of the air after the storm has passed…
We didn’t get much sleep last night. But man, what a show! Wish you were here, Leah.
.. back to life, back to reality… isn’t that from a song from the early 90’s? Well, whenever it’s from, it’s stuck in my head.
We’re back from another action-packed weekend. Another weekend, another reunion, another bout of illness from these Aukerfolk. Dave’s ill and I’ve been experiencing stomach distress. Enough distress that while I DID participate in and lose the Schrader classic [mini-golf game] as is my tradition, I did NOT ride the carousel or join the cousins at the batting cages this year. Instead, I took pictures and then crashed on a picnic table bench.
Also, it’s VBS week at Woodruff Place Baptist. I may post a few funny pics, but I probably won’t blog too much this week. Maybe.
We’ve been reunioning this month.
Weekend #1: Dave’s dad’s dad’s family (Aukermans)
Weekend #2: Dave’s mom’s mom’s family (Schraders) <- this weekend
Weekend #3: Dave’s mom’s dad’s family (Funks) which we’re missing for…
Weekend #3: Dave’s 10-yr high school friends reunion
David has a lot of people to reunite with… =) I enjoy these reunions, though. This is something my fam doesn’t do.
I’ll take some pics this weekend and post ‘em so you can join in the reunion festivities (now that I’ve figured out why my photos weren’t transferring from my camera and fixed the issue).
-
Photos
More Photos