Abigail

My sister had a small scare with the new baby. Abigail had to be rushed to another hospital to go to neonatal intensive care yesterday. Her heart rate had dropped, she was having trouble breathing, and she had a lot of fluid in her lungs. We were really worried for a little while, but I think she's going to be okay. Thank goodness. My sister has decided to blame the hospital that she gave birth in. Granted, it is a small hospital, but the hospital wasn't to blame for Abigail being sick. Maybe (just maybe), it has something to do with the fact that my sister smoked for the entire time that she was pregnant. Apparently, one thing has nothing to do with the other. At least the baby is going to be okay. The pediatrician is supposed to tell them exactly what's going on with the baby today. Now Jenifer says she's going to quit, but whatever. That's crap.

A new car and a new baby

The new car is mine, but not the baby. Ha. Please. Did you really think that? I got a new (used) car and it's great. Hopefully, my bad voodoo will not transfer to this car and I will keep it for a long time. Think good thoughts. It's a 2005 Dodge Neon and I got a great deal on it. And on the advice of Suze Orman, I shopped around for financing beforehand and Capital One offered me a great interest rate. . . a far better one than the dealership would have offered me. Capital One just sent me a blank check and I was good to go. It was so easy. Almost too easy, really. But I love my new car.

My sister had her baby this morning. . . a baby girl. So now I have a niece as well as a nephew. I haven't had a chance to go see her though. Stupid me thought that I was actually going to have a decent work schedule this weekend. Ha. Stupid me forgot that I signed myself up to work a double shift at the shelter today. I had planned to go to the hospital with my grandmother after my shift ended at 3. Then one of the residents asked me if I was working a double. Of course I replied that I wasn't. Then she wanted to know who was coming in at 3 to replace me. So I looked at the calendar to see and I'm like, "Yeah. . . I guess I'm sticking around a little longer than I thought." Silliness. Oh well. I can always go see her tomorrow. I'm off tomorrow anyway since it's Memorial Day. And I don't have class. . . and I'm going to the Rob Thomas concert tomorrow night. Woo-hoo! So I guess I'll go see my new niece sometime tomorrow. Her name is Abigail, by the way. Of course, my sister will insist on calling her Abby. Why do parents do that? So stupid. Why not just put Abby on her birth certificate if that's what you're going to call her? I may just call her Abigail for spite. Hehe.

My stupid, stupid, stupid TiVO. Yes, I am insulting the greatest invention since sliced bread. Somehow, my TiVO (or maybe me, I refuse to say for sure) lost the 2 hour season finale of Grey's Anatomy! I know that it recorded, but somehow it deleted itself. Yeah, I know how crazy it sounds. And I've been trying to see how I can get those two hours back. Of course, there are still three episodes of the season that I haven't watched, but what happens when I watch them? I'm going to be at a loss because there will be no season finale. They aren't releasing season 2 of Grey's Anatomy on DVD until September 12th and that may or may not be in time for the 3rd season. If it's before the 3rd season, then great. I can get it from Netflix. If not, then there is no way I can watch season 3 without knowing what happened on season 2. I know, I know. I'm so freaky that way. I tried to download the program that Luke has in order to get TV shows off the Internet. I have the program and I was so close to being able to download those last two episodes. But apparently I have a stupid firewall on my router and I have to reconfigure my whole router. The whole process is so stupid and complicated that I just gave up. . . for now. So I'm hoping for reruns (which won't happen for months anyway, if at all) or I'll just wait for September for Netflix. It will be torture though. In the meantime, for all you Grey's Anatomy fans out there. . . do NOT spoil it for me. I mean it! I don't want to know anything that happens.

Fun with Luke!

This week has just flown by, probably because I spent it with Luke. I had a great time with him. He was busy with work and still managed to take time off from work to spend with me. Even though I didn't necessarily get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked because of the whole work thing, I still got to spend tons of time with him and we had so much fun. My first night there, he made me brownies. He has never baked me anything before, much to my chagrin. I have been disappointed by this, but he more than made up for it. The brownies were sooo yummy. The best part about going to Luke's was that I got to catch up on my sleep. I'm not kidding. I slept so much. . . but only when he was at work. Well, mostly. Hehe. It was very relaxing. We went to dinner with his friend Jake and his wife Rachel. We had yummy Mexican food and then played some weird board game at Jake's. Everyone totally kicked my ass, but whatever. I was a good sport. Kind of. We also got to attend Rochester's Lilac Festival. It was actually pretty weather and the lilacs were so incredibly gorgeous. They smelled amazing as well. I love flowers. We had a lot of fun. The rest of the week was spent spending time with his family (who are really cool), eating tons of great food (seriously, I miss dim sum at Golden Port already), and enjoying more of the wonderfulness of Rochester. I can't believe I just said that either, but Rochester does have some really nice views. Luke also gave me a birthday present. Yay! He gave me a couple of books that I have been wanting forever and one of them is Suze Orman's book, "The money book for the young, fabulous, and broke." I love her. She is such a financial genius and the book is amazing. She has some GREAT tips on buying a car, which is what I need at this very moment. I have already read a good portion of the book. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this present. Thanks again Luke!!

Okay, so my flight was cool. I actually slept for pretty much all of it. (Big surprise, huh?) I get to the airport parking lot where I left my car and what do I find? My rental car has been hit. Seriously. . . a hit and run. Great thing to come home to. The damage isn't too bad; it's just a small dent. But still. For crying out loud. So I'm sitting there waiting for the police so I can file the report and I'm thinking that there has to be a voodoo curse on me or something. But then I just make a decision. I do not want to be one of "those" types of people. You know the kind I'm talking about. The kind that just complains all the time and everything. I just keep remembering Luke's tribute to me in his blog last year. He said that the quality he liked most about me was the way I never let life get me down. I just keep "chugging along," as he said. I think I probably annoy Cindy with my endless supply of optimism and support. In the last few weeks, it just seems like everything has hit me full force and so many things are happening at once. I just have to remind myself that good things are happening too and there really isn't anything I can do about the bad stuff. I just have to deal with it and move on. I feel better about things now that I've just decided not to let things get me down. Sometimes you can decide if you want to let life kick you while you're down or not. I'm going to keep smiling through every single curveball that life throws at me. I do have a lot going for me. I can be thankful that I wasn't killed in my car accident and that the only thing that needs to be replaced is the car. I can be thankful that my dad is allowing me to live rent free in my own space with him while I'm going to school. I can be thankful that I'm going to school in order to do something that I know I'm going to love and that I will (hopefully) be good at. Even though I'm not religious, I can still count my blessings, so to speak. A lot of times I feel like I'm 26 and I have no direction. But when I think that, I should look at my sister's life. At least, I work hard for my money. I even have a job that is related to the career that I want to be in (finally) and this time next year, I will be in the middle of my practicum and I will have patients. Can you believe it? Someone's healthcare will be in my hands. It's scary and exciting at the same time. So I have a direction. It's just going to take a little while to get there. That's not always such a bad thing.

Well, I guess I've rambled on for long enough. I'm at work currently. It's been a long weekend and I'm going car shopping tomorrow after work. I already have one in mind. It's a 2005 Lancer with 26K on it and they're asking $9900 for it. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. I'm having my best friend Seth to go with me so they don't try to add on those stupid fees that dealers always try to add on. Bastards. Wish me luck!

Bahamian Pics

Here are a few pics from the Bahamas. . . it was oh so amazing. I really wish I was still in the Bahamas. Or San Francisco. Anywhere but here really.







Still organizing pics from San Francisco. . . I'll post some of those later. . .

Crazy Week

I know I haven't blogged since I returned from my trip, but it's been a little crazy this week. I guess it's a little harder than I thought it would be getting back into the swing of things after a nice, long ten day vacation. Immediately upon my return, I had to deal with bills, school, work, and endless other responsibilities that had piled up while I was gone. I have also been detoxing foodwise. Believe it or not, my stomach was upset a lot of the time I was in SF and I think it was because of all the heavy junk food. I was eating healthy for the past few days and my stomach was feeling better. Then I had a craving for McDonald's last night and I got sick again. Seriously, my stomach hates me right now so I have to be careful. I have been in the process of organizing the pictures from my trip. I will probably post some tomorrow so that you guys can see how amazing my trip really was. I did come back from my trip energized and refreshed, so that was something. I needed the relaxation, that's for sure. What's really weird is that I turned 26 during the course of my trip. I don't feel any older. I actually turned 26 the day I left the Bahamas. I didn't mention it in my last blog entry because I actually forgot. Can you believe it? Maybe it was all the fresh air and sunshine that made me just forget everything. I didn't remember until I woke up the next morning and Kim is giving me birthday wishes and a present. Sure, I appreciated the gift, but my primary thought was, "Great, one more thing I have to struggle to pack with all my other Bahamas souvenirs." Hehe. All the people in the airport did keep wishing me a Happy Birthday. When I was in Atlanta and checking in for my flight to SF, the guy at the ticket counter offered to sing to me. I should have taken him up on it. Of course, I wish he would have offered me a free business class upgrade. That would have been nice. Hehe.

Okay, so the night before I left for my trip was not good at all. I was in a car accident. Oy. I have actually been in several in my lifetime (too many to count). My driving has actually gotten better if you can believe it. Technically, I didn't get in a car accident because I was a bad driver. I fell asleep at the wheel. Yeah, I'm not kidding. One minute, I was trying to keep myself awake with the air conditioning and the radio and literally, the very next minute I was on the side of the road. I didn't even realize I had hit another car at first because I did not feel the impact at all. It was very scary to just fall asleep like that. Luckily, no one was hurt. The cops thought I was drunk. It was a clear sign that I need to take better care of myself and start getting more sleep. Seth got mad at me when he heard. He's been worried about me anyway because he thinks I'm pushing myself too hard and now he's upset because this is proof and I could have been killed. Anyway, I've been trying to deal with my car stuff this week. I didn't think the damage was that bad, but apparently my car is totaled. I'm thinking that I don't have time to look for another car, which is ironic since I should be making more time for myself anyway. Luckily, I did have gap insurance so I'm not going to have to worry about losing money on my car or anything. And I'm going to try to find something a little cheaper so that my car payments are lower. Maybe if I save myself some money, I won't feel that I need to push myself as hard with my jobs. We'll see what happens.

So that's been my week so far. That, and classes and work. There has been other stuff, but I'm actually still a little upset over it so I don't really want to discuss it right now. I'll save that for another entry. Next week, I actually leave (again!), but this will be a mini-vacation to see my good friend, Luke. I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, I just finished unpacking last night so really do I have to pack again? Seriously. I'll just buy a new wardrobe when I get to Rochester. Hehe.

I need a beer or a penis

Yeah. . . I hear you. That, my dear friends, was not spoken by me. That was spoken by some fellow tourist as she was shopping for souvenirs. I can definitely echo the sentiment. Come on. . . you know you were thinking it, ladies.

Okay, so the night before I left was kind of a nightmare but I don't want to go into that now because frankly I don't want to think about it. I'm in paradise, for crying out loud. Packing was crazy. I had a feeling I would forget a few things and I was right. I forgot deodorant and my eyeglass cleaner. How did that happen? But I've borrowed Kim's deodorant, so I still smell good. And they have water here so I can still clean my glasses and see all the sights of the Bahamas. Good thing, too. You would not believe the oceans here. The water is so crystal clear it is like one giant swimming pool. It's so warm, too. It's so relaxing that it almost feels like we've been here one big, long day. We've gone snorkeling, kayaking, we've walked about a million miles. We've lounged by the pool and we've eaten way too much.

The Bahamians are so friendly and I've learned a lot about their history. The tour guides have been wonderful. The entertainment has been great. The shopping has been great. I love the fact that the people are never in a rush. I have also grown to love how cut off they are. No cell phones work on the island. Not a single one. Cindy would like that. The pay phones to call back to the states charged $20 per call if you wanted to charge a call on your credit card. You have to pay a $50 deposit just to get your phone activated in your hotel ($25 if you are going to make a local call). Believe it or not, 800#s don't even work from the hotel. I did have important people to call (more to come on that later), but I figured that could wait until I got back to the States. It's kind of nice being cut off from civilization. It forces you to focus on yourself and just relax. As all of you know, this is something I badly needed on this trip. There were so many times I felt weird because there was nothing to do. By the end of the trip, I got used to my thoughts meandering about absolutely nothing. It was nice actually.

Tomorrow morning, we leave this glorious island. In a way, I'm really sad because it has really refreshed and energized me. I did get a lot of much needed sleep here. But I'm also excited because the next leg of my adventure starts. Kim and I are off to San Francisco. And Cindy is meeting us there tomorrow night!!! I have been looking forward to seeing her for days!!

Also. . . I have taken some amazing pictures. Don't worry, I will post the best of the best when I return, along with some great stories.