November 2004 Archives

1. A new washer (one that doesn't leak) and dryer (gas) delivered to my apartment and installed! (Not new as in new, new as in different than what I have now!)
2. This, this, or preferably this. (Better hurry, holiday order deadline is December 1st!)
3. To have my cd player installed in my car (including the face plate that I need.)
4. This t-shirt, size small.

My mom called me and Kevin on our way up to Michigan and told us that Grandpa was sick and that she may have to take him to the emergency room. We arrived a couple hours later, and she and grandpa were still home. I guess Grandpa had thrown up on Wednesday night, and had been sleeping in bed all day Thursday. He had gotten up once, but my mom said he was really disoriented and could barely tell where he was going. She kept trying to get him to go to the hospital, but he kept refusing. About an hour after we got there, my mom and Kevin called 911 and they picked Grandpa up and took him to the emergency room.

Only two people were actually allowed in with Grandpa (two of my uncles also came up), so Kevin and I sat out in the waiting room for a couple hours. After a while we found out Grandpa had three or four small strokes and couldn't see at all out of his right eye. He was still very disoriented and hard to understand. They moved him up into his own room, and we finally got to see him. He actually didn't seem all that bad to me. He was eating cold turkey and drinking cold tea, and being cute and complaining about how they never give him anything hot. The couch we were sitting on in his room was on his right side, the side he couldn't see out of, so he kept mentioning that he couldn't see me and Kevin, so I went and stood over where he could see me (while Kevin got to sit in a chair!) At times he was really hard to understand, and some times he didn't make any sense at all. My mom was out across from the room giving the nurse some information and Grandpa would say, "What is Paulette cooking over there?" as he pointed at my mom (Paulette is actually my mom's sister.) My mom had me ask him how tall he was and he said, "Hmm...nine...umm...nine........" and then he looked me straight in the eye and said, "Nine foot nine," very confidently. It somehow seemed really cute, but really sad at the same time. Uncle Hugh would say, "Dad, why don't you eat some of those sweet potatoes?" and Grandpa would say, "No, I'm not hungry" as he kept shoveling turkey into this mouth. After he fell asleep, we all left and met up with the rest of the family at Aunt Paulette's.

My mom was at the hospital nearly all day on Friday. I think she had about 5 hours of sleep the whole time we were up there. Kevin and I sat around and slept most of the day. By the time we went up to the hospital, Grandpa was already asleep. He was obviously really uncomfortable because he kept twisting and turning all over the place, tangling himself up in all the tubes and cords. Usually when I think about someone sleeping in the hospital I think of them just laying there straight on their back in the bed. It was really strange and sad to see Grandpa laying there almost in a fetal position. It was really depressing. Turns out he had a fever, and I'm guessing he probably slept better after they gave him some tylenol.

We left for home early Saturday morning. My mom called me while I was driving and told me Grandpa was doing much much better, so that was really good to hear. I haven't talked to her since, so I'm assuming everything is going ok.

My Thanksgiving definitely did not go as planned. My grandpa had a couple of strokes the day Kevin and I got up to Michigan. So a lot of the time was spent either in the hospital or sitting at my mom's while she was at the hospital. My mom called today while I was on my way home and said he is doing much better now though, so that's really good to hear.

I'm really tired right now, but I'll hopefully elaborate more on what happened later. I have a million things to do though, so who knows. I just wanted to put at least something up.

Out of routine things going on this week:

• Monday: Tonight I am going to get my hair cut, finally! I also need to identify a bunch of my bugs for lab tomorrow (which I may not even be able to go to; see Tuesday)
• Tuesday: I have to take Kory to an interview for working the tollbooths on the Turnpike. I have to skip my entomology class, but hopefully I will be back in time to go to lab. This is the second to last lab, so I really can't afford to miss it.
• Wednesday: Nothing unusual here. The normal, busy, go to school, go to work, go to church Wednesday.
• Thursday: I'm leaving early in the morning to go pick up my brother, and then we're driving up to Michigan to see my mom and that whole side of the family. We're all having Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's, and my mom is going to make vegan mashed potatoes for me. Yum.
• Friday: Still going to be at my mom's. I'm so pitiful that I'm bringing a bunch of laundry that I haven't been able to catch up with up to Michigan with me. So I'll probably be doing laundry and playing with my mom's birds all day.
• Saturday: My brother and I are leaving early in the morning. I'll drop him off, drive back home, and then there's a get together at Carol's house that I will hopefully not be too tired to go to. After that I'll go back home and complain to Kory about how tired and hungry I am, and how I have so many things to do.

Notice that Kory is not going to Michigan with me. He's a big poopy pants and has decided to stay at home and work on homework. So I won't see him Thursday or Friday! I guess that's not too bad. Looks like Kevin will have to take over and sing and dance to Morrissey on the drive up!

For some reason I refuse to get my hair cut by anyone except Kory's sister, Karrie. I really don't know what to tell anyone else to do to it, Karrie just...does it. It's been so long since I've gone to anyone else. The problem with this is that Karrie lives over an hour away from me now, so the only time I can get my hair cut is when I'm out there for work and she happens to be working on one of those days, and is not too busy. So, all of this makes things really complicated.

I don't even remember the last time I had it cut. I think it was back in September. Needless to say, I know the back of my hair is hideously long and gross, and I've been terrified to look at it in the mirror.

Well, tonight I decided to look at it, and what a HORROR it is! I can't believe Kory lets me walk around like this! It's so long, and it's TOTALLY uneven. I mean, the left side is almost an inch longer than the right side! How does this even happen? They probably won't even let me in the salon when I finally get an opportunity to go!

I really can't believe that Kory never said, "Amy, the back of your hair is really uneven, why don't you let me make a few snips just to even it out so you don't look like an idiot?"

I added some photos of my bug collection.

This is my Chiyo-San. He's the softest mini-rex ever and I've had him for about three years now. Chiyo has always been really nice and sweet, especially compared to his demon girlfriend and his demon daughters that he shares a room with. Just recently, within the past two weeks, Chiyo has started coming to me when I call him. This seems really amazing to me, seeing as how the cats I've had never even came when I called them.

So I was cleaning out all the bunnies yesterday, and I called Chiyo, he came over, and I started petting him. Pretty normal. But, as soon as I started petting him, he began licking and chewing the carpet furiously! Like he was really going at it. I would stop petting him, and he still kept licking the carpet. A little later I called Kory in to see if Chiyo would do it again, and he did! I called him over, started petting him, and he started licking.

I decided to test it again today, and not only did he lick the carpet furiously, but he also started grunting and making all these weird noises. Is this some affectionate/sexual behavior? I have no idea, but I hope not! Chiyo was neutered a couple years ago. Prior to that he used to do the feet circling thing, but hasn't since. And I know grunting is usually a sign that they're angry. So I really don't know what it means. Just strange, that's all.

I added a few digital photos of the research project Sandy and I are working on in cell biology. We're separating rat brain, heart, kidney, and teste proteins on polyacrylamide gel. Woo!

Good News: I went to the dentist today and he said my wisdom teeth are fine except for the one that is currently out. It's angled so that a corner of it points down straight into my gums where the tooth below is about to emerge. (I realized that most of the problems I was having before were because there was an infection in the emerging tooth, so it was huge and puffy and painful.) So, my dentist decided to just grind down the corner of my tooth that was causing a problem, and now I just have to wait until the bottom one emerges and hope it fits in ok.

Bad News: The emerging tooth still hurts (just as any tooth coming in does!) And, I am going back to the dentist on Wednesday because I have a cavity and there is something else wrong with one of my root canal teeth! Yuck.

Over the past three or four years, my wisdom teeth have been slowly making their presence known. Every once in a while I would have some slight aching, but nothing more than that. So far, one of my wisdom teeth has emerged, and I haven't had any problems with it at all. But as of this morning, the tooth coming in below that one HURTS. As of this morning, there is no space between my already emerged tooth and the tooth below that is trying to bust out of my gums. When my mouth is closed there is a just constant pressure pressing down on my gums and it's terrible. Even when my jaws are not completely closed, I can still feel something back there. It feels like I have a huge wad of something stuck in the back of my mouth.

I know, I need to go to the dentist. Right now I don't have any dental insurance so who knows when I'll be able to go. I've been reading up on wisdom teeth and right now I am terrified to have them taken out. Just the thought of them digging teeth out of my gums makes me cringe. About 5 years ago I had two root canals because I had two chipped molars that I put off for too long. It was the worst medical/dental experience I've ever had. Most people will tell you that root canals don't deserve their title for being the most painful procedure. Well let me tell you, mine do! Goodness, I don't even want to think about it. When I had the first one done, we had to stop in the middle of one of the visits (they take multiple visits) because it was just way too painful and they couldn't give me anymore anesthetic or whatever. Ugh. If this doesn't make you cringe, I don't know what will:

This is the only thing I really remember about the actual procedure. My dentist shoving all these metal files up and down, up and down inside my tooth. Ugh, and you can totally feel these files scraping up and down inside your tooth. It may not hurt but it is the most uncomfortable thing in the world. And I had this done twice! Terrible.

They'll tell you that the pain you have because you needed a root canal is much worse than the procedure itself, and this is true. The whole side of my face used to ache and ache and ache. I remember the one night I was at a show with Jim, and my tooth started hurting worse than it had ever hurt before. I cried the whole 45 minute drive home, clutching the side of my face.

I know I really need to go get this taken care of so things don't end up like my root canals did. Until then I'll be walking around with my mouth open and only chewing on one side!

I put up a few digital photos of Kory's bike tire, which is funny and lopsided from when the cop hit him.

I added a few new digital photos from my niece's birthday party, and I also set up all the digital photos through Movable Type. So make sure you refresh.

I've had two dreams within the past two weeks about collecting bugs. I know it's lame, but it's not like I can control it.

Dream One: My entomology class was out collecting in some field, and I had this tray full of aquatic bugs. There was one bug that was crawling out of the tray, but I didn't pay much attention to him. My professor came by and said, "Hey, that chinch bug is crawling away!" and he picked it up. He went to hand it to me, and seeing that I was hesitant to take it he said, "Don't worry, it won't bite." So I took it, and it bit me! I let it go and it flew around me three times and stung me each time! Prior to this dream, I didn't even know what a chinch bug was. I didn't even know if there was such a thing as a chinch bug, so I looked it up in my field guide, and there is such a thing. It turns out to be a hemipteran, a true bug, which is not likely to fly around and bite me the way a hymenopteran (ants, bees, wasps) would. I just think it's strange that a "chinch bug" was in my dream when I have no remembrance of ever hearing or reading about it.

Dream Two: I was at my dad's house in the backyard looking for bugs. I brushed against this plant, somewhat like a fern, and like five or six HUGE cockroaches kind of floated out of the plant. They weren't flying (you generally would not see a cockroach flying anyway,) just kind of floated up out of the plant. I was so excited because they were so huge, and everyone knows whoever finds the largest insects is the coolest. So I ran out to my car, grabbed my net and went to catch some of these huge bugs. I'm not really sure what happened after that, but at some point instead of cockroaches coming out of the plant, BIRDS started floating out. So I started catching these HUGE dove-like birds that were floating out of the plant. Why in the world was I catching these birds in the net? So weird! It was like a video game. Touch the magic plant and the big animals will float out so you can catch them! Ha.

I can never take good photos of my birds, but I wanted to let you see that Marzipan and the newly named Myrtle are now best friends! Well, most of the time. So this is the best I could get. Myrtle sings to Marzipan ALL the time, and last night he was even regurgitating for her. Such a sweetheart! Things are all peaceful here in Bird World since I brought Myrtle home. Everyone gets along and they just seem so happy together. They all sleep together on the same perch (even Eleanor!), wake up and play together, preen themselves at the same time. It's great. I haven't seen Eleanor this happy and playful since my Mom's birds were here. And I'm not exactly sure why she is now. But hey, whatever it is, it's working.

It amazes me that kids at school take notes in a 3-prong folder filled with loose leaf paper. I mean, is this not the worst kind of note-taking situation to be in? A flimsy folder with flimsy prongs that barely holds any paper and decreases the margins dramatically. Yuck! Go get a real notebook, or at least a binder so your paper can have some room to move around!

Today my chemistry teacher put a reaction on the board and asked if anyone knew what the product was. He kept saying, "It's a familiar one, and important too." No one knew, and eventually he told us it was polystyrene. He continued on and later someone asked what polystyrene was. He looked confused as if we were crazy for not knowing what polystyrene was, and he said, "It's a packing material." Half the class had this "Huh?" look on their face until finally someone yelled out "Peanuts!" And my teacher was like, "Yes! Peanuts!" Everyone started laughing because it was hilarious to hear my British teacher who never says anything funny shout "peanuts." "I guess here in America you call it styrofoam, not polystyrene." Needless to say, my teacher is very cool and drove whoever wanted a ride over to the polls today.

I just added some new photos from Saturday's bug hunt.

Kory went out bug hunting with me on Saturday, and it was probably the most successful trip I've had so far. We were both really surprised considering that the only thing green in the forest was a little bit of grass, ferns and moss. We caught a lot of bugs, and quite a diversity of them. I even got a Neuropteran! And a pine ladybird beetle, a ladybird that is black with red spots! Oooh, and I caught a really pretty yellow assassin bug eating a fly that was twice his size! So my collection is almost there I think (as far as getting enough points for class.) I still have some bugs in the freezer that need to be pinned, but I am all out of pins! That picture is of me using the aspirator. Most of the bugs I collected were very small, so I used that most of the time we were out.

A new animal was added to my family on Saturday! A new budgie who doesn't have a name yet has come to live with Eleanor and Marzipan. I saw a flier up for two budgies for sale, so I called because I've been looking for a friend for Marzipan. Turns out the family was moving and for some reason they didn't want to take the birds along. They only had one of the two left (I really don't know why they didn't require that both go together) so I drove out to their house and adopted a little boy budgie!

My whole intent upon getting a friend for Marzipan is so that she will quit being such a snot to Eleanor. I couldn't resist yesterday, so I let the new budgie out of his cage and within seconds he had hopped over to Eleanor and Marzipan's cage and was inside playing with a toy! So far my plan has been worked! Marzipan and the new budgie aren't really good buddies yet, but they talk to each other and hop around together, and Eleanor seems a lot happier. The new budgie doesn't even seem to bother her. In fact, they were both eating out of the same food dish earlier today. Yay!

The new budgie is so cute! Like most boy budgies he sings all the time and I love it! I could listen to him sing and chitter chatter all day. Sometimes he gets really excited and gets loud, puffs up his cheek feathers and hops from perch perch. So cute. I hope he and Marzipan become good friends.

Oh, the original owner had named him Amazon for some reason, but I really don't want to call him that. I am trying to come up with some names, so if you have any suggestions, let me know!