Disney Classics on VHS
I actually miss the VHS tape. There is something nostalgic about watching classic Disney movies with friends on the couch. We made fun of the movie, we found faults, we laughed and reminisced about our childhoods and what parts scared us or not, and we commented about various aspects/parts of the movie, etc. It was a fun night to just hang out and spend time with my gals. I wouldn’t have traded it for two more hours of sleep. It was a bit sad for me, for I feel I have lost that child-like wonder and simple pleasure of enjoying a movie and not knowing all of these things that we now bring up/out as adults. But alas, we all grow up and grow out of that. Didn’t ruin the evening for me, but I still appreciated the time I had with them.
What movie did we watch?’ you might ask. Well, we watched “Beauty and the Beast” in all it’s NON-digitally enhanced/remastered colorfulness.
Nights at Stephanie’s
So, I have some really cool roommates. Stephanie is probably one of my favorites, mainly ‘cause I feel I have connected with her and that I can share anything with her. The past several nights, or, I guess, throughout this past week, I have visited her to distress, for encouragement, and to just be in a quiet, calming and positive environment.
Anyways, she’s just an AMAZING friend, so say the least. One night, a while back, she came to my room and we just took some time to chat and “bond” as we were resting on my bed, and she was trying to encourage me and some of the funniest things came out of her mouth that got us both laughing. I jokingly told her we should have a “quote wall,” to which she objected and said that it would be filled with the many things she says…they are funny to me, and they often happen most at night….late at night. She told me one night when we were in her room that “We need to have one of these talks when it’s not late at night, that way I don’t say silly things to you.” We
will be having a “date” in my room – my surprise to her – and we hope to also get together again so I can give her [another] massage. = ]*** Note: I am SO thrilled I live in a house where several girls are open/accepting to the idea that I enjoy giving massages and actually want them. Not many have asked/received so far, but that is fine by me. Not only that, but I’m not looked [down] upon for my strange ways and love for natural remedies, etc. ***
In any case, tonight (Monday night,) I went to her room to just curl up on the end of her bed, like I did last night, and we ended up talking some. I saw a book on her bed (my guess for her human sexuality class,) that was entitled, “If we are what we eat, then I’m Fast, Cheap & Easy.” That reminded me of a similar quote I read in another book (“If we are what we eat, then I’m fast, easy, and cheap.) So I asked her, “So, you know the title of that book? (I indicated the book, and she nodded.) What would I be?” She looked at me puzzled. “I mean, how would you describe me? Based off of what I eat.”
“Oh….you’re healthy, colourful, and…..well….crunchy.”
“Crunchy?”
“Yeah. Well…..sweet. That’s what I mean.”
“Um…no. Crunchy (holds up right hand,)……sweet (holds up left hand.) They don’t quite say the same thing to me. They are not the same thing.”
We had a good laugh.
Work
Work is work is work. I don’t feel I’m getting any better, and my job/duty seems to be consistent, yet not so much. : / Not sure what to think. Actually, I’m feeling less competent as the weeks go by. Though….I did work a LOT for the paper this past month, having published near six articles and three photos – all of which I’ll be getting paid (yea income of some kind,) – and I enjoyed it along the way, growing and learning in the process of figuring things out. I’ll only have one for this next week (10 November – 16 November.) Not sure about the week following. Will meet with my editor on Tuesday about that.
The work that I do not, I just feel...awkward. I feel like I’m not doing anything productive. : / But I do get to see a good handful of people I know from around campus. I dunno, really, what to think at this point. My brain is so fried from linguistics and is reeling with ASL stuff….not to mention life, social life, spiritual well being, and so on and so forth.
Visiting Crystal
I found out way back in October that – through the kindness and generosity of my friends Stephanie and Kate – I get to go see one of my dear friends who live up in Hillsboro! I have not seen her in about two and a half months, and to get to see her brings me great joy. We tried in October to get together, but plans conflicted and it didn’t work out. However, God is good and He just arranged the WHOLE thing so beautifully so that we could meet up and hang out for a day. We will be seeing each other not this weekend (13th) but the NEXT weekend (20th.) I am SUPER excited and can’t wait to spend the day with her…just BEING there. That in and of itself is more than good enough for me and quite satisfactory. I get to give her my small little gifties and I get to just be there with her. = ) *that’s my warm smile* But…yeah. I can hardly wait and am already anxiously counting down the days……I actually also have a HUGE surprise for her that I can’t wait to show….I only hope and pray that she doesn’t figure it out either before or during me showing her. That, and I just want her to be surprised. Oh! As a plus: I get to meet her parents! : D
Linguistics
I’m so sick of linguistics. Too much terminology. Too many words to remember the meaning and concepts and other "fun" rules/forms of whathaveyou to remember. Thus: I am NOT a linguist, nor do I wish to become one. Too many rules and symbols to know and too many structures and phrasing and other formatting things to know. : /
Three words to describe that class (LING 210, WOU): too much terminology. Or [to] [m
ʌt
ʃ] [t
ʊrm
ɪn
ɑl
ɪgi]
Wednesday’s Blood Drive
I’ll try to keep this short since I could go into GREAT detail, but will try to give just the gist. I have told this story too many times, and I guess I’m just a bit tired of telling it again and again and again……I haven’t changed the story, but I have either added/dropped details or descriptions based on how I was feeling or the person, etc. It was not “fun” to tell, but kind of “fun” to tell of my experience and what went wrong and what theories were as to why it went wrong, then comparing that to past experiences.
In any case, to make a long story short, here is my blood donation story:
I went to go give blood for the fall blood drive at my school, and checked in just fine. I had already made an appointment online the week before, so it wasn’t too much of an issue for me to “get in.” I skimmed through the materials and got my number – 43.
Once I was called in to do the pre-test-thing, which went smoothly. That was nice and quick. My vitals were taken. My main concern was that my iron would be too low, since about a month or so ago I was “diagnosed” to be anemic. The required count/number for iron is 12.5 (I asked, hence, I know) and mine was what? 14.7. I was good. My blood pressure was 122/75 I think it was…still in the clear. Once this whole thing was done, I was lead to a table. The man was about to go on break, so he wasn’t going to be my phlebotomist, but he prepped me some. He complimented me and my veins and how good they are.
Once my phlebotomist arrived, she wiped/cleaned my arm with iodine and then taped on the tube She warned me of a short prick, and it wasn’t that bad, actually; short, sweet and not really that painful. It lasted but a moment, which was nice. I then squeezed a little football every four to five counts. Looking back, at times I think I squeezed it too fast for “too long” too many times. Towards the end, a DIFFERENT phlebotomist was watching me. She told me I was almost done. I felt great. Then, BAM! I got dizzy, and so I told her, and I don’t remember what she said, but I remember feeling fine, then (now knowing what happened) ended up seeing people/place(s) that shouldn’t have been there, but it was so relaxing and it seemed like a few minutes, though it was only for a short bit.
Next thing I remember I saw white with dark figures over me speaking. Wet, cold towels then were laid over my neck and forehead. I heard a ‘Did you have a nice dream?’ but I couldn’t respond. It took all mental effort to cognitively “come to,” as I was trying to remember where I was and what was going on. Yeah: I passed out. But it is more than likely due to the fact that I didn’t eat far enough before I came to the drive. Part of the trouble was that I had worked all that morning until “shortly” before the drive. I didn’t have much time to eat much at all.
I had a hard time recovering from my passing out and eventually had to call a friend to come and pick me up. They wouldn’t let me leave, though, without eating a package of Grandma’s cookies (oatmeal raisin,) I didn’t want the chocolate chip nor the Oreo. : ( I also had to drink a few little cans of orange juice. My friend was good and helped me out all the way and even sat with me a while, making sure I ate my cookies, though I wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to eat them. She even sang me a song she made up right then and there. It made me laugh, and I still [sort of] remember it, and it still makes me laugh. I am so blessed to have a friend like her.
Thursday
I was so off today. I didn’t know how my body would react, but with an easy
ten hours of sleep from the night before, since I was SO exhausted and tired from everything that I went to bed at 7:20 ish (could have gone to bed earlier, but I had to do a BUNCH of email correspondence for my articles and classes and so on.)Overall, aside from the fact that I wasn’t ever too hungry, felt sick when I ate, had little energy, had trouble focusing, my day wasn’t too bad. I didn’t feel super good overall, but it wasn’t a bad day. Just a challenge, though I felt my linguistics class (of all things) went the best of everything that day. : ) Got to get out of ASL
really early, too! : D
Friday
I don’t want to talk about Friday. NOT a good day. Wish not to remember it. Too many stressful and icky things that happened. : (
Local Service Project
Today (Saturday,) as part of a requirement for Alternative Break, I had to go volunteer at a pre-set destination. This weekend it was the Boys & Girls Club in Salem. It was a lot of busy work, and with thirty students showing up, we were able to accomplish a LOT. It was fun, enjoyable, and often times relaxing to just work with my hands and work with other teams/students. MOST of my team was not there. I don’t have to do the other service project set for next weekend which is “required,” ‘cause I served this weekend AND I already have plans that I’m NOT, by any means, am about to change.
Sadly, as I was working, I ended up talking with one of the other trip leaders who is taking their group to California to a horse ranch/place. I kind of regret not signing up for that one, but for whatever reason, I chose Montana. Part of it was the location and part was the working with animals, but I was SOOOO torn between that one and the horse one. I told the leader, Shannon, which I had many years of horse experience and rode for at least eleven years. She was ‘ooo-ing’ and ‘awww-ing’ that I had so much horse knowledge and experience, yet didn’t sign up. I am sad now that I didn’t. : ( Not to mention that my group leaders have not been doing a great job at communicating nor being very responsible, seeing as they make last-minute changes/SHORT notice changes and expect people to move everything around that….not too happy with that. >: ( Not that happy, too, that I was already “forced” into a meeting that made me have an even MORE stressful day and not fun time. Grrrr…
Hoping things work out better. My team seems like a great group of people with good intentions and a great spirit; I just wish we had some better leadership. (No apologies, either, with informing changes with short notice…aaaaaannnd, they are very impatient. No more than 12 hrs passed between receiving an email and them calling following up to make sure that I reply, when, in fact, I hadn’t had a good chance to sit down and respond.)
Well, I think that is it for now. I’ll close and let you get back to whatever it is that you are doing that is far more important that reading this blog. : /
