Wherein I finally PASS my MRI

So today was take two of my MRI saga. What, didn't I tell you about take one? It was on Friday. I obviously had no clue was I was getting myself into. I arrived with warm clothes (I was told it would be cold). It was in the upper 70s in the room. I had not had any pain meds for my arm since 8:30 that morning (I know, I know, common sense Bug! There's this absence of that commodity in my life). I asked for headphones to listen to music & chose Classic Rock. When she turned the music on I immediately heard "the lunatic is in my head." Not sure Pink Floyd was the best choice for relaxation. She pushed me into the tube & suddenly I couldn't breathe. My chest was heaving. I was sweltering. The giant headphones were smothering me. I thought I would have to press the panic button right away. But I had a good talk with myself & started breathing easier, calmed down, counted to 500. I was going to make it! Then my arm started to hurt. Then a little more. Then it was excruciating & the muscle started to jump. So we had to stop the proceedings about halfway through. I was fairly well disgusted.

Today was a whole other animal. I took some Aleve at 2:00. They gave me happy pills to relax me (they actually made me a bit drunk & incoherent - thank goodness Dr. M drove me there!), and even though they sort of wore off before we got started I was just fine. I opted for ear plugs instead of music and it was freezing in there this time so no feeling of being smothered - in fact she had to stop it this time to put a blanket over me so I'd stop shaking. And I made it! Yay! Hopefully the pictures will reveal a mildly torn rotator cuff that can be fixed with physical therapy.

I was too anxious about this to fully enjoy the news of Dr. M's job. Now I'm full steam ahead. Bring on the rental properties!

Job!

Dr. M got the job!!!!! I've been doing the happy dance & alarming my coworkers (they've never seen me this happy before)...

More details to come as we learn them. Anyone want to come by to help us pack?

Chrissy Snow

I recently took a Facebook quiz which promised to tell me which Three’s Company character I am. I’m not sure what I expected – maybe one of the Ropers – but I didn’t expect the actual result: Chrissy. Really? Well, sure, Dr. M always comments that he thinks I’m a blond who dyes her hair brown. And, yes, I do have a reputation as a bit of a dingbat. But I’m not actually that vacuous, am I? (No comments from the peanut gallery!). I think I’m just easily distracted. And gullible. And not in possession of much common sense. So it probably just gives the impression of vacuity. Really.

Here’s an example. The other night I was cooking green beans. I had sautéed pecans in some olive oil to toast them. And the pan started smoking just a bit (pecans cook fast!) so I turned on the overhead fan. I sautéed some garlic, then added the beans & some chicken broth & simmered a while – I’m from the South – we do not do crisp green beans!. When I finished cooking I went to turn the fan off. I turned one of the knobs over the stove & it went dark in the kitchen. Since I had meant to turn off the fan (& not the light) my brain couldn't quite process it correctly & I thought, "Well now it's too dark to see how to turn off the light!" See – I was just distracted by the darkness. I’m not really a ditz.

Interview

Jo over at A Majority of Two has given us some interview questions. Since we haven't heard anything about Dr. M's job (sigh) I decided to go ahead & answer them.

1. Have you ever been influenced by a work of art – music, painting, book – and if so, how? My first thought was Mister God, This is Anna – but it’s been so long since I read it that I don’t remember why it affected me so (I’ve got it on hold at the library – we’ll see what I think after I read it again). Then I thought about The Bell Jar. At the end of that book I was terrified – she did such a good job of taking you down that path to suicide. It seemed logical, something to be desired. An “of course” moment. Boy was that scary! I vowed that I would NEVER believe that suicide was the logical answer to any circumstance. So I guess that was pretty life-changing.
2. If you were a chocolate bar, what type would you be? Oh totally the one with nuts. I think a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar sums me up nicely!
3. What is your secret weapon to lure the opposite sex? There hasn’t been any luring in many a year, let me tell you! But back in the day, I think my tendency to NOT treat the opposite sex like gods, to laugh a lot, & to make them want to figure me out lured them in. Then they figured out there wasn’t that much there – I just think everything is funny!
4. What, in your opinion, is your greatest accomplishment? I have two: 1. I recognized the other part of my soul when I met Dr. M (just took me a few months to figure it out – “oh that’s the warm & fuzzy feeling I have when we’re together – I thought it was just the ping pong.”) And, 2. the fact that Dr. M & I have kept up our Christmas poem tradition for 16 years now.
5. How many friends do you have on your Facebook account? 64. I just added a friend of one of my brother’s friends the other day – woo hoo!

Ten Things

I’m copying Argent & giving you 10 useless pieces of information about myself. Cause I still have an Easter hangover (not that kind of hangover! The kind where you stay up way too late & then don’t get back on track right away) and I can’t think of anything else to write.

1. I lived in Zambia for a year and a half. I worked in the Baptist mission as a secretary/bookkeeper.


2. I have an accounting degree.


3. I have never worked as an accountant.


4. I’m married to a historian.


5. I never really liked history in school.


6. I have arthritis in my left hip (really – there’s an x-ray to prove it!)


7. I’ve been married for 18 years.


8. I have practically every book Nora Roberts has ever written.


9. Even after 4 years I still miss my Mom practically every day.


10. My husband is my best friend (in all the world!).

Unlike Argent I have no witty commentary to accompany this list. My brain is a chocolate crème Cadbury egg – little bit gooey right this moment!

P.S. Dr. M. has his second interview tomorrow! We are nervous wrecks! His classroom presentation is about prohibition. Did you know that not drinking was considered your patriotic duty during World War I?

Father Knows Best

Don’t you hate it when that happens? You’re in your 40’s & think you know what’s what & then you ignore advice from your Dad & learn the hard way – again.

This is the story of my Baby Arm & how I turned it into The Arm That Wouldn’t Move. It’s not really much of a story. I was helping someone out at church by carrying her baby. The baby was in a carrier (one of those car seat things you can tote kids around in). I’m pretty much a wimp and at the time I thought, “boy is this REALLY hard! I’ll bet she weighs 10 pounds!” Actually, I think she weighed more than a stapler, but just slightly less than a copy paper box - maybe 9 reams instead of 10 (I work in an office – we find our comparisons where we can). Her mom (a tiny little thing) had no trouble at all with this task, so I’m not sure why I felt compelled to help. ANYWAY, I carried the little girl to my car from her apartment, & then into church when got there. I let her mom get her back to the car after church, because by then I knew that I had no business lugging that child around – it wasn’t safe for either of us!

Couple of days later I started to feel really sore in that arm. I just powered through figuring the pain would pass. And then it didn’t. My Dad said I should start doing some gentle stretches with it. But it hurt, so I started favoring the arm instead. I moved both of my mice to the other side of the keyboard. I bought a sling to remind me to stop using the arm. Guess what happened? My unused shoulder muscles started freezing up so that I couldn’t lift the arm at all! And now I’m in physical therapy to unfreeze the sucker. Once we do that we’ll see whether there’s any actual damage in there.

So the moral of the story is to listen to your Dad. And maybe to let the mom who actually has upper body strength carry the baby.

I'm not sick - I'm statistically correct

I’m a hypochondriac. Those of you who know me will be amazed by this news, I’m sure, but it’s really true. This morning I went to Weight Watchers & I’m down 1.8 pounds. This would ordinarily be a cause for celebration, but I didn’t have a particularly good WW week. I spent some time with Cadbury eggs & Ben & Jerry’s (& the week before that there was a tryst with some cookie dough). So after I saw my nice loss I started thinking (scary, I know).

What type of wasting disease do I have? What kind of disease doesn’t have any symptoms, yet causes me to lose weight? I head to the keyboard, ready to type in www.webmd.com.

Then I remember a maxim that I created (& quote often): If I’m on plan 80% of the time that’s way better than not being on plan at all. It’s true – my body is so thrilled to be fed healthy food 80% of the time that it’s pretty forgiving of all the saturated fat it gets the other 20%.


So, I lost 1.8 pounds this week. Hallelujah & pass the hash browns!

The Ants Go Marching, One By One...

We have been invaded by ants. Currently they're just in the bathroom. Dr. M says "squish 'em!" That way the scouts won't report back about this vast white playground called our tub, and the rest of the colony will think they died of smallpox & won't invade us. Wait, that didn't really work in history, did it? We came on over here anyway...

Dr. M's second interview has been moved to the 14th - they don't have class on the 9th (oops!). He says they need an admin to keep them straight. I think I'm the person for the job! Now I just have to convince them that there is a job. And that they need to pay me mucho bucks. Ha!

I am actually going for a walk this afternoon! It wasn't my idea, I was asked, but surely even moving my body reluctantly helps my heart... And really, it's GORGEOUS here today - there won't be any reluctance once I step outside the door. Off I go - into the wild blue parking lot! Not a ton of nature to be had at my office...

Update: Apparently I misheard Dr. M, & my grasp of history is so poor that I thought I was making sense. Sorry! There is smallpox involved, but it's instead of squishing.