December Photo A Day, Days 6-7-8-9 - Shadow; 6 O`Clock; I Shop Here; This Is The Weather Today

Friday's snow

I'm dreadfully behind and I've been dreadfully sick. I don't know if it's the flu. How can it be? I HAD A FLU SHOT. I worked two whole days last week. I'm still feverish and headache-y and nauseated and I'm so dehydrated and I can't get enough water.

And I'm full of things to talk about but my head is so heavy...I want to talk about Friday's ice and snow and the two and a half hour journey it took to get home and how we actually did get stuck going up our hill, it was pretty funny. 

Mark and I finally switched seats at work, and I love it. Except that I am closer to more annoying people talking so I need better headphones for my iPod. And I have less privacy, but I knew that going in. I didn't count on the annoying people talking part, though. The headphones can't come fast enough!!

I apologize for my sloppy blogging and blog-visiting...I am sure I will start feeling better this week. Pleeeeeease let me feel better this week...

Now on to December Photo A Day Challenge, Days 6-7-8-9:

Day 6: Shadow (Chelsea took this, because I had no idea what do do)

Day 7: 6 O`Clock - My phone screensaver. I've posted this pic of me & Chels before, it's my favorite.

Day 8: Where I Shop - A close tie between Walgreens and iTunes

Day 9 - This Is The Weather Today - Seriously, what would I do without my iPhone?

A hush...

I'm trying to type quietly so as not to wake the kitty, who's sleeping on my desk.
She was sleeping on me, and I was typing one-handed.  Then I moved a little.  How dare I?!  She showed me...
We took the kitty back to the vet for the umpteenth time Friday because her cough is worse worse worse, and the vet said she has pneumonia and it was very serious and she could die from it.
That was enough to send me into tears...the vet quickly backpedaled and said that because she's gained weight in the past week and she's still alert and playful, they're not keeping her.  They just changed her antibiotic (for the third time) and sent us home with a prescription and we have to take her back in a week, but keep an eye on her if she gets worse.
Even her 'meows' are hoarse.
We did get a laugh out of the pharmacist at Walgreens, when we dropped off the kitty's prescription...she's on Zithromax now...I think the pharmacist must have been new because she asked for the date of birth, and I said, "She's a cat," and the pharmacist just looked at me, and looked at her computer...then went into the back...
When we picked up the prescription later that evening, I said, "I need to pick up a prescription for 'G------'", and a different pharmacist working then, "First name?," and I said, "Well, my name is Michelle, but the prescription is for my kitty...," and she said, "Your cat's name?"...
So I brought home the prescription that had been filled for 'Josie The Cat G------'.
:)
Took my daughter to Holiday World for her birthday on Thursday.  It was so HOT AND HUMID!  My daughter had a great time.  I tried my hardest not to whine and whine and whine, because usually that's my daughter's job...let me just say sunburn...on my right arm and shoulder...ouch ouch ouch...
I finished reading the Half-Blood Prince...the world is a darker, sadder place...the end of the book raised many questions I'm hoping the last one will answer, and until then, I'm so :(

A few days late...

I took the beloved child back to the doctor Wednesday...he looked at her ear...and looked some more...said "hmm"...and, "We have a dilemma"...but easily remedied, thank goodness.  New eardrops, this time antibiotic with steroids that DO NOT STING going in, as the Zithromax had not completely cleared up the infection.  Two times a day, and things have been going great so far!
The migraines are back, but now I have medicine to combat them.  If I would only take the medicine properly, I'm sure I would never have migraines at all anymore...
I got off early Wednesday for my doctor appointment, and then I went ahead and took her to the doctor, too.  My appointment was...okay...I thought about cancelling it several times but the last time I had been in my doctor specifically told me to make sure I kept my next appointment.  Every time I picked up the phone to cancel, I could hear his voice in my head saying, "Do NOT cancel this appointment, Michelle!".  How do doctors know this stuff?  It's scary...
My eczema started acting up on my hand Wednesday...it had to be nerves either from the appointment or Thanksgiving...by Thursday morning it was angry red hives...THAT'S a new one, it's never taken that form before...my boyfriend had to stop at Walgreens and get some Benadryl and hydrocortisone for me so I could try to get myself to normal before going to his mom's for Thanksgiving dinner.  It's so embarassing when it flares up...and of course, by Thursday night, it was all back to mostly normal...it's terrible how your body gives you away sometimes!
Thanksgiving day was wonderful...went to D's mom's for dinner....then we went to my grandma's for dinner and stayed the rest of the day (that was a long journey LOL as my grandma lives all the way next door to my house)...All the members of my family were on their best behavior and so, thank goodness, no major drama like there have been at most of the recent family events, just good food and fun and playing with the kids. I'm so very thankful for my family, hard-headed and stubborn though they are, they're mine and I love them all, my daughter and mother and grandparents and brother and SIL and nephew and cousin and aunts...and the rest of my family, my dad and my uncles and aunts and cousins...and D's family, they feel like my own and they love me and my daughter like we're theirs...and I'm thankful for all my wonderful friends, I feel very blessed!

No more jittery, let's go to frantic...

Well, it's 12:01 a.m. and officially D's birthday ... OMG it's his BIRTHDAY!  I haven't been shopping, I haven't baked a cake, I haven't made any plans! 
I'm deluding myself into thinking it's really not that bad.  I should get off work tomorrow way before he does... I'll buy cake mix and stuff in the morning.  I wonder if I have time to bake before I go to work?
I haven't bought his present yet, either.  What do you get for someone who doesn't really have any interests, and mostly only works all the time?  Twice a year I have  this dilemma...
(groan)
You know how you start off Monday and think, wow, I have a whole week to get all this stuff done?
And then Thursday night comes and you think, OMG, what did I do all week?!  Where have I been?!
(Answer: Work.  Y.  Daughter's school.  Daughter's doctor's office.  Daughter's volleyball games.  Church.  Walgreens.  Work.  Work.  Work.  Work.  And, of course, computer.) 
I'll pull it all together, though, just wait and see...

Tired tired tired

And it's raining, raining, raining all the time anymore. 

And lightning and thunder, also.

I took my daughter to Penney's last night to get a bathing suit.  We also bought a belt for her.  It felt like such a normal thing to do... I never go shopping for clothes, but it seems my 11-year old does.  I go to bookstores only, usually.  I also do midnight visits to Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

After we (thankfully) left the mall, I decided we should go to Barnes & Noble to use the gift certificate I got for Mother's Day.

The nearest Barnes & Noble is on the other side of the world from where I live.  I wasn't quite sure how to get there from where I was without backtracking to the Watterson.  So I just decided to head east and figured I'd make it there eventually...

Until I made a wrong turn and found myself going towards the freeway.  Okay, freeway it is!

We got on the freeway and then the skies opened up and dropped more rain on us.  And it was such a beautiful thing...

The freeway we were on runs in a circle around the outside edge of the city...and it's a beautiful drive anytime, really...lots of hills and valleys and meadows and woods to see.  Right when the rain started, the sun had set and it was that moment between light and dark...it was soft gray, and the rain made the greens of the trees and the hills stand out.

The semi trucks were causing fogs of mist to hang over the freeway, and we came over a hill and the valley opened up before us.  I was so glad we came that way!

We did lots more that evening.  We made it to the bookstore, where we couldn't even enjoy ourselves because it got dark and then the winds came at 50-60 mph, making eerie howling noises outside the store...and if I wasn't nervous enough, my grandmother called me three times while I was there, with "Where are you?", and "Did you know there was a flash flood watch?", etc...

We left the bookstore in the middle of the monsoon and drove for a nerve-wracking 30 minutes to get back home. 

But before I went to sleep last night, I forgot all about the scariness of the storm...I only remembered the beauty of the twilight!

Meltdown in the produce section

Who knew?
This latest time, it was at Kroger...late...the store was empty, especially the huge produce section.  My boyfriend had wandered off, leaving me to get my daughter's bananas.
Apparently, the stress of picking bananas can trigger a panic attack. 
There were rows, and rows, of bananas.  Groups of two, three, four, five, etc.  Yellow ones, slightly green ones, green ones.  Big ones, small ones.
I couldn't decide.  The task of actually having to pick something out of this mass of yellow and green suddenly seemed like a matter of life and death, and I couldn't do it...
(and I can't believe, that just sitting here writing this, I'm starting to hyperventilate again.)
I don't know how long I stood there, completely helpless.  Finally, I saw my boyfriend staring at me from the other end of the section, with an 'are you dawdling again and hurry up!' look on his face, which was sufficiently normal enough to get me to grab some bananas, any bananas!, and get out of that aisle.
This has been happening to me a lot lately, only not usually with bananas.  I even called my doctor about it, but flaked out at the last minute and didn't go to the appointment.  It's just too embarrassing...because these moments I've been having are triggered by the silliest things...and then it's over and it's like it never happened.
Except that I don't know if I can ever go to that banana section again.  Maybe if I went to a different store it would be okay...does Walgreens carry bananas?

It's May 10....

and after I get some sleep tonight I think I may have my life back!
My daughter gave me a giant balloon for Mother's Day.  We were out shopping Saturday (Walgreens, of course), and she comes running and asks to borrow ten dollars so she could get my Mother's Day present, and my keys so she could put it in the car.
I give her the money and the keys, continue shopping, and turn the corner and catch a glimpse of a blond-haired girl wrestling with a giant balloon.  I KNEW it was my daughter.
Pretending I didn't see anything, she comes back with my keys, I buy my cards, and we get in the car, where for the whole way home she is holding the balloon down in the backseat and I have to pretend I don't see it, or hear it.
Then she puts it in her room in the closet, where I had to pretend I didn't see it when I was putting her clothes away.
Finally, yesterday, she took it over to my grandparent's house (next door) where we always have Mother's Day, so she could give it to me there.  Next thing I know, my 3-year old nephew that I was watching came to me, saying, "Aunt Michelle, the balloon went up in the sky, she dropped it!"
I dashed to the phone to call next door and speak to my daughter, who I knew would be devastated by this.  I was going to let her know that I had at least seen the balloon and I thought it was beautiful and it was okay!
But I didn't get to speak to her, because she had dashed through my grandmother's house to the backyard, then dashed back through and said she was coming back home, then into my house yelling, "I need to get into the backyard!"
I unlocked the back door and she ran into the backyard, grabbing the balloon that had flown OVER the house and gotten caught in the BACKYARD FENCE!  The balloon was still with us!
About an hour later, with great ceremony, she finally presented the balloon to me.  It really is a beautiful gift from my beautiful daughter, and I was so happy to finally get to see it!

More Chicago Notes

I can't ever seem to start writing until I'm exhausted and incoherent from lack of sleep.  It's very interesting.
The most beautiful thing we saw on our trip:
How to choose? I think that by far the most beautiful thing in Chicago is the LAKE.  Impossibly blue and, to the eyes, as big as the ocean, it's hard to look away from it.  And sometimes there's fog in the distance and you can't tell where the water ends and the sky begins. The trip is worth it for the view alone.
The other beautiful thing is the "American Windows" by Chagall at The Art Institute of Chicago.  Stained glass, more blue, and light, and hints of reds, pinks, greens, yellows.  It's just wonderful. How did I go to Chicago twice before now and miss this?
The best moments of our trip:
For me?  The tour guide dropped us off at the RainForest Cafe and uncharacteristically gave us more time than we needed.  My daughter and I seized the moment, ditched the restaurant as quickly as we could, and ventured out on our own. It was only an hour to ourselves, unscripted, but it was the most fun we had all week. It was like playing hooky, and I got to go to Walgreens.
My daughter says the best moment was getting back to the hotel every night so she could lay down and watch TV.
It's the simple things...
The prize for the strangest thing we saw:
Goes to the big ugly black spider we saw hanging from the top of the building, outside the window on the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower.  How did it get all the way up there?  Everyone else was excited about it...while I was just happy that it was outside, not inside.
2nd place goes to the 6th grade girls' rendition of "Amelia, Amelia, Amelia". 
The new favorite tourist thing that we've never done before but definitely want to do again:
That would be Medieval Times. I've always held out on going there because I thought it would be cheesy.  And it is!  But great fun, as well!  Where else can you get a great meal and front row seating to jousting and some great Buffy-worthy fighting?
The one thing I need to work on:
Where did my money go? Gift shops should be outlawed for people like me who have no sense of self-control when it comes to buying pencils and postcards.  I think I have about 200 dollars worth of pencils and postcards still left to unpack.
My daughter is much smarter than me, she spent all her money on stuffed animals.  At least she has something to hold!