If you missed my email, the anxiety from my last post was because of an interview.  I still haven’t heard anything back from that, but I didn’t expect to until late this week or next week.  I’m not sure how good my chances are, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I know something.

I’ve found a gym to replace the one near my house that closed.  There’s a YMCA near work that has a deal with employees.  It’s a little further away from the house, but it’s significantly cheaper.  And they do offer a Zumba class on Wednesdays at 5:30.  So I’m heading there after work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the foreseeable future.  It’s not bad!  And I get home for the evening earlier since I’m going directly to the gym and then going home, instead of the other way around.

I’m going to a symposium for work.  I don’t know how I managed to score an invitation – no one has admitted nominating me.  But it’s in Orlando in a fancy, swanky hotel and all my expenses are paid and I get paid to be there and the talks are all about Lean and process improvement and I’m very excited about the whole thing.  Justin’s coming with me because he can stay in the hotel for free and only have to pay for his food and he’ll just bring the netbook and work from the hotel.  He doesn’t get to come to the fancy dinner at the end of the symposium, and that’s a bummer, but it’ll be wonderful to have him there.

From the symposium, we’ll drive up to Luke’s wedding.  We’ll actually spend Monday – Wednesday night at the symposium, Thursday night at a hotel on the road, Friday and Saturday night at a place near the wedding, and Sunday night at another hotel on the road.  We won’t stay in our own bed for a week!  But looking at the price of tickets (greater than $500) and the price of hotels and gas (less than $500), we decided to take the less expensive way, even through the drive will be really long.  It’s going to be interesting!  And the wedding is going to be awesome!

Meanwhile, I’m trying to keep up with tasks at work.  There are a lot of projects to complete in the next couple weeks and I expect them to stack up more than they’re already stacked.  It’s just the way things go.  “Oh?  You’re busy?  Let me give you more to do!”

But it’s not bad!  In the evenings, Justin and I might make dinner together and watch an episode of Pushing Daisies or Eureka, both excellent shows if you’re not familiar with them.  Or we’ll poke at our computers and relax.  His work stuff is going slower than we’d like, just because people are slower at responding to requests for information than we’d prefer.  But we’re still optimistic about how it’s going to work in the end.  Things might be tight right now, but life is still so much better than it was when he was working for the Awful Place.

So life is good!  Busy!  But we make time to relax and maintain our sanity.  Before money got tight, we bought a year-pass to a beach not far from here, and we might head up there this weekend.  It’s a great way to get away from it all for a while, and then I sleep for the rest of the afternoon because it’s exhausting!

It’s a great life!

A little flashback for a minute here:  Justin quit his job on June 23rd.  He handed in his resignation, effective immediately.  He said that he’d help wrap up a few projects, but that he was done.  Not working for them anymore.  Q-U-I-T-T-I-N-G.

He worked on projects for them a little bit for the next week and then we went out of town for a week.  And then he spent a little more time late last week working on things for them.  But the whole time, he’s been pushing that he’s done.  He’s not doing projects; he’s wrapping up stuff and he’s gone.  On, I think it was Friday, they brought him a hard-drive to put files onto so he could give them projects from his home computer and wrap up that stuff.  Monday, he had other work, and they knew about it, so he didn’t answer when they called.  Fourteen times.  When he did call them, he offered to get the drive back to them, but they didn’t want to come pick it up that day.

You can see where this is going, right?

People from his former employment (either the boss and a coworker or just the coworker, I’m not sure) pounded on our front door Wednesday morning for TWO HOURS.  That’s two full hours of knocking and pounding and yelling at the house, interspersed with moments of quiet when I’d sit there hoping that they’d finally gone away.  Oh, heck no, I didn’t open the door!  When people pound like that on my door, I’m not opening it up!  No, no.  I hid up in my bedroom, away from windows so they couldn’t see that I was home.  And tried to concentrate on other things than the people knocking stuff off the backside of the door because they were pounding so viciously.  People who stood outside in upper-80* weather in 85% humidity for TWO HOURS.  People who freaked me the heck out.

Also, people who are apparently a little stupid.

After 2 hours, the police showed up.  Inside my house, I was happily promising to bake cookies for the wonderful neighbor who’d had the sense to call the cops on the lady (because at that time I was sure it was just the one coworker—if the boss had been there, he’d already driven off in a huff) who was trying to break into our house by repeatedly banging on the front door.  (Why hadn’t I called the cops by then?  Good question . . . .)  Anyway, the heroic officer asked the woman for her ID, asked what was going on, and sent her away.

Sounds about right, right?

Here’s the funny part—the disgruntled ex-boss was the one who called the cops.  Yeah!  He called the local PD to come to our house to help figure out why I wasn’t answering the door!  So when the officer showed up, well, (1) the lady coworker was the only one still there because the boss left her to handle the mess and (2) the officer was not inclined to be helpful to the lady who’d been pounding on the door of what might be an empty house for 2 hours.  (Yes, I was still pretending to not be at home—don’t judge me, I was terrified!)  In fact, when the officer heard that she was trying to get back a hard-drive that she’d GIVEN to the homeowner who had offered to RETURN it, he laughed at her.  And then gave her a warning and told her to leave.

Justin sent a delightfully nasty email to his former employer and coworker later that afternoon telling them that the behavior was unacceptable and that he was done doing work for them.  Not still finishing stuff up.  DONE.  He wasn’t going to work for people who pounded on the door of his house and terrified his wife.  He would leave the hard-drive in our mailbox and they could either pick it up, or he’d destroy it.  And I’m not fully expressing the emotion that he put into his email, but he was angry.  He was Steamed with a capital S.  His protectiveness for me came out full-bore and he wrote that email like a paladin would have stormed into the dragon’s den to save the princess being held hostage.  He was really, really mad.

His coworker called crying and apologetic about the whole thing, saying that she only pounded on our door because the boss told her to do it.  To which Justin said that the Nazi’s couldn’t get away with that excuse, and neither could she.  If I had called the cops and if I had answered the door when the officer showed up, I could probably have pressed charges and then she would be the one in trouble because she was the only one still there.  I’d love to see how a judge would react if she stood up there and said, “My boss made me do it.”  That sort of thing doesn’t fly once you get over the age of, oh . . . 8 or so.

But she told Justin what had happened on her end of the story (which is how I know the cop laughed at her) and asked him to tell me that she was really sorry.  She came by this morning and collected the hard-drive (we were at the beach) and left a note on Justin’s car apologizing again (and again said she was “just doing what [she] was told”) and now we’re done.  Justin is forgoing payment for the work he did last week and we’re not having anything further to do with this company.  And people, it feels SO GOOD.

Wednesday:

• Awake at 3:30 to drive to the airport in Charleston.  Drink 30 oz of coffee and get VERY WIRED.
• Fly from Charleston to Chicago.
• Fly from Chicago to Milwaukee.
• Sit in Milwaukee for a long time because our flight was delayed.
• Find a used bookstore in the airport.

Bookstore where?

Renaissance Books

• Fly to Minneapolis.
• Collect our rental car and call Nathan and Co.
• Meet Nathan & Co. and Erica & Ltd. at Erica’s house and have a fun-filled picnic dinner.
• Play with nieces and nephews and lots and lots of balls.  Play in the park.

Fun with plastic balls

• Eat s’mores with Erica.
• Go to bed after being awake for about 20 hours.

Thursday:

• Get up to go running with Erica and plod my way through 2.5 miles for the first time in many, many months.
• Ache for the next 2 days.
• Shower, dress, and drive away.
• Chat with Erica and pass things to Chloe until we get to Eau Claire.

Chloe, show me your teeth!

• Have a delightful lunch with Mom and Dad.
• Go to Goodwill to find shoes for Chloe and buy a hat and purse.
• Drive to Grandma’s house.

Grandma's house

• Have a delightful dinner with Grandma and Dee and stay up late chatting.

Friday:

• Get up and have a big breakfast with Grandma and Dee.
• Sit around chatting and working out genealogy and enjoying company.
• Shower.
• Take Chloe to the park and have fun running around.

Chloe on the playground

• Eat lunch.
• Go through my wedding book with Grandma, pointing out people she didn’t know.
• Say good-byes and drive away.

Group shot with Grandma and Dee

• Drive to Knoxville, IA.
• Get lost.
• Get un-lost.
• Hug Grandpa Doug and other people in the dark and not know who they are.
• Get settled into the camper trailer and meet Justin’s aunt, uncle, and cousin.
• Sleep on a mattress covered in plastic, with heads lower than our feet and get a sore throat.

Saturday:

• Get up and chat with people in the trailer while breakfasting and getting ready.
• Wander down to the pond and meet a couple more people.
• Wander down to the barn and say good morning to Grandpa Doug and Great-uncle Bob and a few other people.

Barnett's barn

• Wander down to the tent and meet Great-uncle Jerry and help him wipe down chairs for lunch.

Reunion tent

• Meet a couple more people.
• Run into town to grab some things from Walmart (a pillow, throat drops, hot dogs, a fan)
• Make it back to the farm in time to meet a whole bunch more people, grab a few sodas, and stand around chatting for a little bit before lunch.
• Have an unfortunate run-in with a gust of wind in a billowy top and face questions about whether I’m pregnant.  Quelch that rumor as quickly as possible.
• Eat lunch.
• Sit around chatting with people.
• Sneak off to take a nap.
• Wander around the property of a distant cousin who raises lilies and hostas.

Randy's hostas

Randy's flowers

Purple flowers

Stone stairs

Grass driveway

Lily

• Jump in the pond for a swim before dinner.
• Meet a couple more people while swimming.
• Go to dinner in a different outfit than at lunch.  No billowing.
• Meet even more people.
• Cheer for the talent show.

Grandpa Doug on harmonica

• Cook s’mores.
• Chat with people until dark.
• Watch the men clear up chairs and tables in preparation for inclement weather.
• Move trash bags to the side so they wouldn’t wash away.
• Walk back to the trailer in awe of all the lightning bugs.
• Die of heat while trying to sleep, even with the fan blowing, with a sore throat and feet higher than our heads and a loud plastic wrapper on the mattress.

Sunday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress.  Feel very groggy, head-stuffy, throat-achy.
• Go to the high school for lunch because of the expectation of rain.
• Cram 130+ people into the high school cafeteria.

Barnetts in the high school cafeteria

• Meet a few more people.
• Eat delicious lunch.
• Release a microphone to the masses.
• Hide in the bathroom for a little bit.
• Walk around the school with Justin a little bit.
• Leave messages on Gillian’s phone.
• Drive back to the farm.

Barnett rock

• Go sit at the barn out of the rain and talk with people.
• Walk back to the pond and watch Justin go swimming while I sit on the dock under an umbrella.
• Change into dry clothes.  Call Gillian.
• Chat with people for a little longer.
• Go see Gillian.
• Chat with Gillian and play with her children for a while.  Forget to take a picture.
• Leave so the kids can get to sleep.  Go out for dinner.
• Watch fireworks as we drive home.
• Go to sleep with sound of rain and cool air blowing.

Monday:

• Wake up, breakfast, shower, dress, pack.
• Throw everything into car.
• Wander up to the barn to chat with people.
• Wander around old homestead house and take pictures.

Git offa my lawn

Outside his childhood bedroom window

Outhouse

Wooden steps

Water wheel

The reason we made the trip

• Sit back down and chat some more.
• Finally say good-byes and drive off.
• Stop for lunch and move our luggage into the back seat.
• Repack everything so it fits into one suitcase while Justin drives.
• Meet Sara at Cheesecake Factory, but walk across the street to Barnes and Noble to work up an appetite.
• Catch up with Sara and wander around the store.
• Go back and have a delicious dinner.
• Wander around the mall a little bit before saying good-byes.

Tickle shot

• Drive to Erica’s house and keep her up late while we finish packing and getting ready.  She braids my hair.

Tuesday:

• Get up a little before 5:00 to pack up, put up the beds, and head to the airport.
• Arrive on time, return the car, check in, make it through security, and only sit a little while before boarding.
• Fly to Chicago.
• Get adopted by an 80-year old woman looking for help getting to her gate.
• Stay more calm about the shuttle bus to another concourse and the time crunch of our layover because of that angelic woman.
• Get to the gate just as they finish boarding and get right on the airplane.
• Fly to Charleston.
• Collect our luggage, find the car, and drive home.
• Pile everything inside the house.
• Shower and curl up to relax.
• Fall asleep and sleep for about 15 hours.

And as a bonus! Wednesday:

• Relax all morning.
• Go to our financial advisor appointment and start making good plans.
• Go to the grocery store.
• Get a flat tire leaving the grocery store.
• Watch Justin put on spare tire.
• Go home and unload the groceries and tidy the kitchen while Justin sorts the luggage into dirty laundry hampers.
• Eat a late lunch.
• Take the car to Tire Kingdom.
• Buy a new tire.
• Go home.
• Find out that Justin’s old boss and coworker had shown up AT THE HOUSE to ask why he hadn’t been answering his cell phone.
• Laugh delightedly that he no longer works there.
• Relax for the rest of the evening.

After dealing with inter-personal issues at his workplace for many, many months, he’s taken the plunge and is going to work for himself!  He went in this morning and told them that he was leaving and it has been an EXCITING and SCARY thing all at the same time.  We’re very excited about the opportunity for him to step out and open his own business.  And we’re also scared about the whole idea that there might not be anything underfoot when he steps out.  But we’re trusting that it’s going to work out!  We have plans!  Plus, Justin had a really great meeting this afternoon with a business who is going to use him as their contracted web designer (and pay him two times as much!).  And there are a few other balls that we’re trying to catch, too, but I’ll stay mum on those until we actually hear more from them.

Anyway!  I couldn’t write about it before, for obvious reasons, but now you know!  It’s kind of scary!  But Justin’s learned a lot in the two years and some that he’s been working there and we’re excited about seeing how well we can handle this on our own!

Pray for us!  We could really use it! 

Update to the update to the thing with my car
Friday morning, I came home from work early so I could meet an insurance assessor (or something like that) who wanted to look at my car and our mailbox.  She was a lovely woman, very pleasant to work with, and she took measurements and photographs of the damage on my car and the damage on my mailbox.  I pulled my car out of the driveway and lined it up with my mailbox and she took photographs of that, too, so it’s obvious that the marks on my car line up perfectly with the damage on my mailbox.

She wasn’t terribly forthcoming about her opinion on the matter, but I got the impression that she understood that the damage to my car was fairly obviously done by encounters with my mailbox.  I asked if she’d be the one to go look at the Tahoe, but she said that the insurance company would probably send someone from the Georgia side of things.

And now I’ve done everything possible for me to do.  I gave a copy of the Security officer’s report to the assessor when she was at the house and she was going to forward that to my claims officer.  I spoke with an agent from my local insurance office this morning and he’s checking around to make sure that there aren’t any loose threads out there.  But as far as I know, there’s nothing more for me to do other than wait for information while the insurance companies duke it out.

Trip to Toccoa
After dealing with the insurance and then running into town to get my oil changed and pick up some supplies from Target, I packed up for our trip to northeast Georgia to go see my family for a handful of hours.  We left later than anticipated (my fault because things took a lot longer than I anticipated that they would) and we arrived slightly after 9:00.  But we all sat and chatted for a little while before heading off to bed.

We got a nice and early start to the morning and helped finish up projects that Mom and Dad had been working on completing.  Holes in walls filled in or created.  Shelves built and moved.  A trip to the post office in town.  Tools sorted out and packed away.  I had a fun morning, mostly just following one or the other of my parents around and helping however I could.  I know there was a lack of structure that was frustrating to other people, but I was just so tickled to be around my family that nothing was going to bother me.  Not humid weather.  Not random project progress.  Not spiders.  Nothing.  I had a good morning.

Mom and Dad left slightly after noon to start their long drive back to Wisconsin and we waved them off.  Justin and I helped Luke and Krista build one more shelf before getting cleaned up and packed up ourselves and ready to head off.  We sat and chatted for a little while before letting them have the house to themselves again.  After a long, hectic week, I understand how wonderful it can be to have a quiet house again.

Trip to Atlanta
Justin and I had planned to hit a mall outside of Atlanta to buy me some new dress pants, since all the pairs in my closet right now either are too big or are from back when I was slender enough to wear them, meaning they’re threadbare and stretched out.  The mall didn’t turn out quite like expected, though, (I’ve never been in a mall that had so many different shoe stores!) and we decided we’d go see a movie.

We found a theatre that was showing Iron Man 2 in Imax and How to Train Your Dragon in 3D and we were going there, when we passed an Atlanta Bread Company directly across from a Barnes and Noble bookstore.  Well, they closed down our Atlanta Bread Company a handful of months ago and it’s one of our very favorite restaurants.  And we love Barnes and Noble.  So we scratched our movie plans and spent an hour wandering around in the bookstore before heading across for sandwiches.  And we enjoyed our time much more than we would have in a movie theatre.

After spending a relaxing evening and morning at a hotel and breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts, we set off for the Georgia Renaissance Festival. We got there probably close to 10:30 and wandered our way all the way around the faire, looking at booths and admiring the crafts and the spectacle.  We watched the joust.  We saw the Flying Debris juggling show.  We saw the Washing Well Wenches.  We saw the Tortuga Twins.  We missed a few acts that aren’t at the fair this year, like Dexter Tripp’s high wire.  I got some flowers stained onto my leg with henna.  I got to eat a turkey leg. We picked up another item from Bronze Age Studios to match the fountain that we bought from them previously.

It was a whole lot of fun.  And I caked on the sunscreen and wore a light cotton shirt with sleeves and a hat and came home without any sunburn.  I’m a little sun-kissed, but not at all burned.  With my complexion, I call that a win.

Plus, it was just so much fun wandering around the faire, looking at all the different things to look at – people and artwork and everything else.  I laughed at the shows, held my breath at the joust, drooled over everything in the Casta Diva shop.  And we left close to 4:00 to start our trek home, arriving at our front door a little after 9:30, I think.  We unpacked, showered, and got ready for bed.

And now it’s Monday and I wish I had another day in my weekend to recover from my weekend.  But no such luck.  Back to work with me!

I’ll try to put up a few pictures from our weekend later tonight or tomorrow.

For the last week and half or so that Justin’s been fighting it, mostly he’s just had the usual business–sitting in the bathroom for hours at a time before coming back to bed for couple minutes of sleep.  But once (twice?) he came back to bed and had uncontrollable shakes for a long time.

Last night, I got up to do the usual business and sat in there for a while.  And then my stomach lurched and gave a big growl and I felt sure I was going to vomit.  So I got up, washed my hands, pulled my hair back in a band (planning ahead, see?), and went to go sit in front of the toilet to wait.  When I washed my hands, I noticed that I was very pale, and when I sat down on the floor, I really didn’t feel well at all.  Everything hurt, especially my stomach, but I couldn’t tell if I should stay where I was, or sit back down on the toilet again and deal with problems from the other end.  (I’m really trying to write about this delicately….)

And then I started to get really cold and woozy and I tried to yell “Help!  Help!” to Justin in the other room because I knew that something just wasn’t right.  But I couldn’t yell loud enough.  And I remember thinking that maybe I’d feel better if was laying down.

And then Justin came running into the bathroom asking “What are you doing?”  And I thought, “I’m being sick in the bathroom, what else?”  And then, “Why am I on the floor?”  I was completely flat on my back on the floor of the bathroom and had no recollection of how I got there.  I started telling Justin what had happened and asked if he knew why I was on the floor.  He said he was sleeping when he heard this undulating “Whaaaoooogh!” scream from the bathroom and then a *thump* as I hit the floor.

So apparently I fainted for the first time in my life.  I’m glad I was already sitting on the floor when it happened because I hit the door of the bathroom with my head and that really could have hurt more than it did.  As it was, my ears were buzzing for a while but I don’t have a lump on my noggin.

We sat there for a while, Justin holding my hand while I lay on the floor.  And then we sat me up and saw how I handled that.  Not too bad, but I stayed there fora while.  We eventually tried to stand me up, but I had to sit back down again because I got dizzy and nauseated again.  Really nauseated.  I think we tried it three times before we just made a quick lurch to the bed so I could lay down there with a bucket next to my head in case I needed it.

I haven’t needed it, but ugh.  My whole digestive track, from the bottom of my esophagus and all the rest of the way, is not happy.  Even my teeth hurt, though that may have been from hitting the floor.  That’s probably where the headache is from, too, though that may be from dehydration, too.

So the whole point of this post is to say, “Holy crap!  I fainted!”  and also that I really don’t feel very good.  I am feeling better this morning than I did last night.  But I didn’t feel badly before I went to bed, either.   There’s just no making sense of this bug.  It’s just nasty.

So, hopefully this link will work.  I’ll post this and then check it and then I’ll know.  But here’s the link:  CLICKY.

And it looks like they’re off by a week because I was hoping to listen to the one I missed on Sunday (Justin was sick and I was “helping” by staying home and sleeping, too).  But they’ve got 3 of the sermons up for listening:  “Introduction,” “Compromise,” and “Communication.”  I just listened through “Communication” again and I’ll have to go back and listen to the other ones sometime again, too.  But while it’s all fresh, let me help clarify a few things that Pastor Michael mentions in the sermon.

He’s been using videos from “Everybody Love’s Raymond” for examples, which aren’t on the podcast because of copyright laws.  And I can’t find a copy of it on youTube, either.  But if you can find a copy of Season 4 Episode 3, the “Can Opener” episode, it’s in the middle of that.

He mentioned Jim & Nick’s and that’s a is a barbecue restaurant and if you ever come to visit us, we will take you there because it is AMAZING.  Delicious ribs.  Amazing nachos.  I’m drooling over here….

This is what he puts up on the screen at the end of the sermon:

• Timing is everything
  • Ecc. 3:1,7
• Think before you speak
  • Proverbs 16:23, Proverbs 15:23
• Don’t send mixed messages
  • Matt 5:27
• Listen, listen, listen
  • Proverbs 18:13
• Encourage
  • Eph 4:29

If I find time in the next couple days, I’ll try to go back and listen to the others, too, and give some notes on those, too.

Anyway, give them a listen!  They’re good!

I actually have A LOT more to talk about filing, but I’m going to take it elsewhere.  I’ve got the website for my organizing business, so I’m going to post all these over on that site.  And I’ll link to it from here so you can know that I’ve written something, but I won’t post it here so you don’t have be completely excited totally bored overwhelmed by it over here.

I’m writing about it because I’m helping a client through this process right now and it’s helpful for me to write it down so I can work through the whole thing.  Paperwork can be really complicated, so it’s nice to be able to really focus on an aspect of it at a time, work through my thoughts, and get them down really clearly.  But I recognize that it’s not always terribly interesting to read.

I recognize it, but I don’t always understand it.   I mean, how can that not be interesting?

Anyway.  Welcome to the beginning of May, if you somehow missed that change-over.  Did April go by really quickly for anyone else?  And May looks like it’s going to be a very busy month for me.  We had plans to go to the Ren Faire in Atlanta last weekend, but stuck around the house so Justin could be sick at home instead of on the road.  He’s starting to do better, now that we’re on day 7 of him being sick.  Day 8?  MANY days. 

In other news:

• Tuesday is my sister-in-law’s birthday, so we’re trying to figure out how to celebrate that with her when she’s busy celebrating it with all of her college friends.  Plus, she needs to do laundry, so she’s got to come visit.  Mwha-ha-ha-ha!
• My parents are going to be within 6 driving-hours from our house all next week, so on Wednesday we’re going to go meet them half-way between for dinner. 
• Sometime in the next couple weeks my mother-in-law, step-father-in-law, and grandma-in-law are all coming to visit and pack up my sister-in-law for the summer break.  Apparently they may or may not be bringing their adorable puppy.    I don’t know when they’re arriving or for how long they’re staying.
• One of these weekends we’re hoping to go to Myrtle Beach to meet up with a couple friends.   I have no idea which weekend this is happening.
• Some local friends of ours are moving and they’re going to need help moving, I believe, on the 22nd, if we’re in town.
• And if there’s a free weekend somewhere in there, we’re still hoping to make it up to the Ren Faire.

Why does it all have to happen in May?!

Plus, of course, there’s the usual craziness with work.  We’re completing one or two projects each week this month.  Compare that to next month, when we’re planning to complete three in the entire month.  Who creates this schedule?!  Drunken baboons?

 But whatever.  Life is good!  It’s pouring down rain today and even that is good because it’s better than the 85% humidity and burning hot sunshine that we had yesterday.  And I remembered my umbrella.  And I got to talk with both of my parents last night and that was fantastic!  And there was a new Castle when we weren’t expecting one.

So life is busy, but life is good, and I’m feeling happy!  I think I’ll go for a walk. 

Justin and I went for a bike ride this evening.  We rode all the way to the end of our road, ordered a pizza, ate it at a table outside, and rode home.  It was fantastic!  It took up most of our evening, but I can’t think of a better way to have spent the time.  Over an hour and a half of dedicated time to spend with Justin?  WIN!

Plus I love riding my bike, but I don’t do it nearly often enough.  My backside, unfortunately, is reminding me why that is the case.  So much pain!

I took 9 pills just now as I’m getting ready to go to sleep:  3 calcium, 2 fish oil, 1 multivitamin, 1 for RLS, and 2 Advil.  I remember being so excited when I got off all my asthma medications.  For the first time in a very long time, I wasn’t medicated!  But I’m pretty sure I’m more healthy now, taking all these pills, than I was then.

I had a difficult brain day on Sunday.  Do you know what I’m talking about?  Where you spent most of the day feeling like you need to cry, but no idea why?  I cried because I didn’t know why I felt like crying.  I cried because Justin’s office was messy.  I nearly cried at church when friends mentioned maybe having people over for dinner.  I nearly cried in the middle of my massage.

Ooooooh.  Massage.  My massage was wonderful.  I hadn’t had one in such a long time and my muscles are so tense.  She was able to rub a lot of that out, but I know that most of it will need more work than that to get them loosened up.  My shoulder-blades are still tender from the work she did on them.  But it was totally worth it!

And then I went home and listened to laundry washing and thought that I should be doing something other than laying on the bed feeling like crying.

I cried on Saturday, too.  We stopped at Lowe’s so we could pick up a few things and I put my foot into knee-high mud boot.  The kind like we used to have as kids, remember?  Except this one was white and cute and I wanted to see if it would fit.

No.  It didn’t fit.  I got my calf most of the way into it and then it suctioned onto my leg.  My calf formed a seal with the plastic material of the boot and created suction.  I couldn’t get it off.  Justin was nearby and I called out to him:  “I have a problem.”  “You sure do,” he said and came over to help me.  And the guy at the key cutting counter just laughed at us because we couldn’t pull the boot off.

I found a rolling stair-step ladder to sit on so I could try to pry the boot off, and then the panic started to set in.  I couldn’t get it off!  My foot was trapped!  The air was going to push out from the boot and my foot was going to turn black and fall off!  (Did you know I’m a tiny bit claustrophobic?)  Justin assures me that we would have cut the boot off my leg before that would have happened, but I still sat there on the step *freaking out* about the boot stuck on my foot.

And eventually we were able to get it off just by pulling at it and loosening the top away from my leg and just plain persistence.  And I sat there with tears running down my face because I had been so worried about it.  A woman came down the aisle and turned to look at us and gave a really worried look before backing away.  “We’re okay,” I said, but I’m not sure she heard me.

No more trying on boots for a while.

But we’re doing good today!  I wore my engagement ring for the first time in a very long time.  It finally fits without cutting off circulation!  The wedding band is still slightly too small, but I got to wear my sapphire today!  It makes me really happy that I can wear that again.

And that’s a rough idea of what it’s like in my brain lately.  Now, I’m going to sleep.

So I went home and asked Justin to rub my leg.  And he did and it was wonderful.  It hurt, but it felt better.  And then he covered me in blankets and let me sleep until about 9:30, when he offered me food left over from our anniversary dinner (baby back ribs, mashed potatoes, and cheese biscuits).  I ate delicious food, poked at my computer a few minutes (gotta log my food so I can get my massage), and curled back up for sleep again.

When Justin came to bed, I asked him to massage my leg again, and he’s a wonderful man because he rubbed my leg again.  And then I was out for the night.

When my alarm rang this morning at 6:00, I wouldn’t have minded sleeping for a few more hours, but I have multiple projects on the table right now, so I had to get moving.  And when I got out of bed and stood on my leg, it didn’t hurt at all.  AT ALL!  It’s completely better.  I have some bruising, but that’s probably related to all the scratches on my legs from the yard work over the weekend.

I’m hearing again and again that what I should do the next time I get a cramp is to stand on the leg or pull my toes up toward my knees.  Both options sound terrible, but apparently they’re wonderful once the pain stops, and that the pain will stop more quickly and result in less residual pain.  So I guess if it happens again, I’ll either have Justin push on my toes or I’ll have to figure out how to get myself out of bed so I can stand up.  But I’m telling you right now I hope it never happens again.  Ever.

To that end, I’m trying to figure out why it happened at all.  There are so many options, but the primary reasons apparently are dehydration or a lack of potassium, magnesium, or calcium.  I thought I had calcium supplements in my multivitamin but turns out that I don’t.  So I have to either increase my dairy intake or start with a supplement.  And I might just do the supplement anyway because this girl doesn’t want osteoporosis.  And I have to figure out what all has potassium in it other than bananas.  And keep on drinking my 64 oz plus of water.

Anyway, since my leg is feeling so much better and since I got a lot of sleep last night and I’m much more rested, I’m having a much better day than yesterday.  I’m actually getting work accomplished and catching up on projects, and with any luck, I won’t have to work on Friday afternoon again.  It depends on how this document goes this afternoon, though.  I was supposed to finish it today, not start it . . . .

But we’re keeping positive!  And I’m going to go step outside for a little while and see what the weather is like.  It’s supposed to be lovely.  The only thing that could make today better would be if I could take the afternoon off and go finish my yard work.