Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sigh.

Here's what has happened to me this February:

1. I got food poisoning. I always thought that food poisoning was when you ate something and a couple hours later your stomach hurt--you just took some Tums and got over it. I learned that that is not exactly the case after throwing up for five straight hours and being taken the ER. There is nothing quite like vomiting into a plastic bag while a handsome male nurse is pushing drugs through your IV line--and then becoming completely overemotional and crying about how grateful you are for modern medicine. There is also nothing quite like being bedridden for nearly a week while your stomach continues to attempt to empty itself of everything you ingest. Thank you, salmonella.

2. Attempting to get my academic life back on track after missing a week--disastrous. Well, I say disastrous, but in reality that's just the neuroticism acting up. I still feel like I'm behind, but I guess I'm really not.

3. Pax's nine-month doctor's appointment happened. He is HUGE--over 20 pounds and 30" tall. He also eats like a pig, although we're still working on "real" finger food (i.e., not puffs/wheels). The main problem is that Pax loves to shove as much food as possible into his mouth and attempt to swallow without chewing, so everything is a choking hazard. Actually, we spent a lot of time rescuing things from Pax's mouth, food or not... he is really very fond of picking up animal hair and scraps of paper from the floor. He's also starting to look less like a baby and more like a toddler, as evidenced by this photo of my darling son in a bear hoodie:



4. Someone please tell me all of the things ever about Willie Bester. I'm doing my seminar project on him and my research is going too slowly. I have books requested through ILLiad that have somehow vanished from the face of the Earth, and I need those books for the project to be any sort of success. HALP.

5. Doing the student bit with the mother bit is continuing to wear me down to my last bit of sanity. Paxton doesn't think that long-winded scholarly articles on geometry in classical Islamic art are nearly as interesting as I think they are, so I almost never get to actually read what I'm attempting to read on a daily basis. Coupled with an online class that I swear is going to give me an aneurysm by the end of the semester and four summer internship applications that are 50% finished and due by Thursday, I'll be lucky if I'm still alive by spring break... in two weeks.

So, there you have it. That's been my entire month! Hopefully, March will be a bit easier to handle...

Friday, February 3, 2012

Eleven things.

NEO-blogger Alicia from Poise in Parma tagged "whoever wants to" in her Eleven Things blog post today, so I'm picking up the baton.

11 Random Things

1. Low-carb ice cream frustrates me. The only "real" low-carb option seems to be Breyer's Carb Smart, which I can only find in vanilla. It tastes slightly of cardboard and sadness.

2. I'm kind of sick of people (mostly my family) telling me that I don't eat enough or that having some more food isn't going to hurt me. Um, yes, it will! Excuse me, I am trying not to get diabetes over here, thanks. I'm 25, I don't want diabetes until... well, preferably never. They're probably just jealous that I'm getting thin again.

3. Paxton is also frustrating me, a great deal more than low-carb ice cream is. He's currently having a growth spurt and teething molars and he's obsessed with trying to walk. This all adds up to his sleep schedule being thrown out the window and a lot of angry/frustrated tantrums. I had to get up at 5:20 this morning to calm him down before the alarm went off at 6:00. There is not enough coffee in the world.

4. This semester is actually a lot more difficult than last semester. I thought commuting 3 days a week instead of 5 was going to be helpful, but instead it has completely thrown off my schedule. Since Pax is growing up and starting to eschew naps in favor of activity (and he's easily bored), I get nothing of adult value done two days a week--I'm too busy re-reading board books, fetching puffs and rearranging baby gates. Cramming a 5-day week into 3 days on campus is proving more difficult than I'd first imagined.

5. I've recently discovered the wonders of TJ Maxx, Marshall's and Nordstrom Rack. I could waste hours shopping for clothes, but for now it's mostly window-shopping.

6. I've got to get costuming again--this coming May we're doing a Regency ball somewhere in NEO (details forthcoming) with the Rifles, which has me hoarding photos of gorgeous Regency ballgowns on Pinterest. A week later, we'll be packing up for World Steam Expo in Dearborn, MI. I need ideas for a steampunk baby costume!

7. Speaking of Pinterest, I am completely obsessed. Follow me here. There's a Nerdmama board!

8. Coming up with eleven things is really, really difficult. Damn.

9. Life with the iPad is sweet. It keeps proving itself surprisingly useful, to the point where I am beginning to resent having to use my cell phone or a computer. It even comes with me to the store--I feel a little pretentious using it for my grocery lists, but it's easier to keep track of then a piece of paper and a pen!

10. I bought new makeup last Avon campaign. My makeup was beginning to get crummy and the stuff I ordered is really nice (and cheaper than the drugstore brands I was using, if you can believe that). I am currently in a love-love relationship with Shine Attract Lipstick, which is a brand-new product... lip color wrapped in a clear medium that goes on like lipstick but shines like gloss. I have the "wrapped raisin" color. Loooooooooove. Go buy it, it's on sale for $4.99 and I can pretty much guarantee you won't be disappointed. I usually don't wear lipstick at all but getting to sample this stuff completely changed my mind.

11. My husband got a raise at work. We might be able to have iPhones again. This is kind of a big deal, because the prepaid phones we've been using have got to be the crappiest phones in the history of mankind. They freeze constantly, crash constantly, have next to no dedicated memory, and sometimes they turn themselves off for an hour or two at a time. No, the battery doesn't die--they just turn off and stay that way. Real winners, these phones.