I forgot how much I liked hydrocodone...

So, I've actually been using some of my two weeks of sick days this week. I am having an ERCP at 11:45 this morning. Supposedly there is a gallstone blocking my bile duct, which is why I've been having so much pain and why I am getting jaundiced. I ate last night for the first time since Tuesday. I've scheduled my gallbladder surgery for November 5th. Although I kind of wish it were sooner so I could just get it over with. But they said I should feel a lot better after this procedure. It's just really bad timing, since Shannon and I are moving Saturday. But she's been awesome and has been moving my boxes and stuff over to the new house this week. I don't know what I would do if she and Jack weren't so awesome. Other awesome people-Rachel, Dave, my parents, work. My dad booked it back from Scottsville the other day when Dr. G said I should go see a surgeon right now. He knew I was scared, so he met me there. In that he got there like 5 minutes after I did. Rachel and Dave have been checking on me a lot via phone and even offered to come help move me. Work has checked on me every day that I left early and yesterday when I just didn't go and they offered to drive me around and even to come help pack my stuff (it's been a slow week). And Rachel, proactive as she is, called the doctor for me the other day. Thanks dude, I couldn't think straight to remember what I wanted to say. I feel better now that I have hydrocodone and have eaten. But if my sedation is anything like my dad's was last year, I will mostly be sleeping the rest of today. I'm staying at my parents for a day or two since my place is all crazy right now. So to sum up, I am still sickly, just in a different way than I used to be. And every one of you is awesome. Thanks for everything and I'll probably blog again sometime this weekend.

pain

Perk of having the same GP for 15 years-they totally know that when you say you're having severe abdominal pain, you're not kidding. I called mine yesterday and told them this and while they didn't call me back until 6:30 at night, they said to come in at 7:50 this morning. So I went and tomorrow I am to go have an ultrasound. Dr. G. said my symptoms are textbook for gallbladder problems. I told my dad this and he said that's not like me at all, so it's probably something completely different. I like to think I can take a little pain (after all, I am prone to migraines), but it was very not fun. I got so flustered after I threw up that I couldn't decide what to do, so I tried to call Rachel, but she was at the hospital. Also, she totally told me it was probably my gallbladder when I was having pain the evening after Dad's party. I trust her, since she's a medical professional. Anyway, then I called my dad, who was like, uh, yes if you have pain so bad it makes you throw up, you should do something about it. What can I say? I'm not good in a crisis. But I figured it out enough to know that there was no way I was going to the emergency room, since it wouldn't really help me to sit in a waiting room for 3 hours while still being in pain. So I called Dr. G. and squirmed around on my couch. Work was really nice about it and sent me home again when I returned after taking a three hour lunch trying to wait it out. So I got to stay home and listen to it rain. I do love rain.
Also, Shannon and I got our keys on Sunday and started moving some of her stuff into the house. I really don't have time for a medical condition this week. Maybe next week, when we're finished moving.

good times

Christina just reminded me that I haven't posted in a while. Sorry about that. I know my legions of adoring fans have been sad. Anyway, the surprise birthday party we threw my dad went very well. I was worried, but about 50 people showed up. And he didn't know until we told him, which surprised me because he kept looking at me like I was up to something. We wound up having to tell him to get him there because of the UK game. But I think he was pleased and he felt the love.

Also, these gems from my awesome nieces-Addie, running away from where my dad and Zoe were removing pumpkin goop from the pumpkins he was carving, "Tha's nasty! Tha's a nasty punkin' patch!" Apparently she didn't realize pumpkins were stinky and goopy. Zoe, after listening to Rachel and I discuss how she thought the girls needed an easel, "Yeah, we need a weasel for Christmas, Mommy." And then we laughed at her. She took it well. And Addie can totally say my name with all the consonants that are on my birth certificate. I was excited. No more Anea or Aura. I can't believe how much they've changed every time I see them.

glee-inspiring

I think Shannon and I are going to get the place with all the paneling. As adorable as the other place is, the 70s porn dungeon makes more fiscal sense. Also it's funnier. It'll be fun and we'll have an interesting time working around the paneling. I think we might try to cover part with fabric. Or there is removable wallpaper or wall decals, but they are expensive. We'll see. We're meeting the guy at 6 tonight and I guess we'll give him some money. I don't think we can get anything a whole lot better for the price. Plus, his pet deposits are absurdly low. He wants $25 for the cats and $40 for Shannon's dog. Isn't that awesome? It should be an interesting place to live.

I have been laughing so much lately. I think I'm way too easily amused. I've also been talking to the AL Benzes a lot and that's always entertaining. Not to mention the fact that some of the homes Shannon and I looked at inspired laughter. Also, 30 Rock started again last night and it was good. And I am loving some of the new shows that started recently. Gossip Girl is awesomely trashy fun and Pushing Daisies was so bright and absurdly weird that it seemed cartoonish. Which is actually what they were going for, I think. And I am so thrilled that David Anders is on Heroes and back to being a fake European mastermind type. I did not like him at all when he was on Grey's Anatomy. Apparently he's only awesome when he is channeling Sark. Or at least Sark's accent. Speaking of Grey's Nads, I did watch the premiere, even though I said I wasn't going to. It wasn't great. And I've not watched last night's, but I've got it, so I may. You should all be really proud of me, because I am. No, really, because yesterday I hooked the DVD recorder up to the TV and the DVR so I could dump stuff from the DVR onto DVD. And it worked. I didn't need to make any calls or anything. Color me skilled.

Also, this website that I love, so I'm not sure why it's not on my links here, has been having a Donors Choose challenge and since it started at midnight on October 1st, the readers of Tomato Nation have raised more than $50,000. Now, I totally think you should be reading Tomato Nation, but now is not a very good time to start, for since the crazy awesome success of the challenge, the posts since Monday have been all congratulatory(click on leaderboards on the donors choose website to see more on why). One of the things that has been making me laugh is listening to the audio version of this in my car all week. I think the Girls' Bike Club stories probably make a little more sense if you start at the first one rather than the most recent. But they are freaking funny. And she does an advice column type thing where she advises people more like an actual friend would advise them, rather than the way Ann Landers would. And also just writes general stuff about odds and ends. So anyway, maybe later I will put a link up. Shut up, I am way too busy right now! Obviously! :-D

As promised...more on the living space search!

Last night Shannon and I looked at only one place, but we loved it. It is adorable and reasonably priced and there are no dragons on the walls. It even has a fenced in backyard, which is cool since Shannon has a dog. So now we just have to wait for the dude to call us back. I hope he does. If he doesn't, we'll be tempted to take the $350 a month attic. It is sooo cheap. And the guy who owns it called me yesterday and said he wants to rent it to us and asked what he could do to make that happen. So apparently we are awesome. Which, duh. Like, more than once he asked if there was anything he could change or fix to make us take it. And he said if we think of anything we should call and let him know. Which makes it tempting, but really, I think we are too old to be living in a crack den. We didn't even fill out an application, so he couldn't have checked up on us yet. I think he must like us simply because we are not crackheads. So pray that the guy with the adorable house calls us today.

Also, I just wanted to say that even though Shannon and I spent two days painting in my parents' not well ventilated family room, I did not get sick. Allergy shots and having my tonsils removed are totally the two best things to happen to me in my adult life. Other than maybe going to DisneyWorld those times with my people. I totally don't get sick much now. And last time I got sick was, I am fairly certain, simply because I kept crying. I think the crying made me get sick. It might not sound logical, but it's my theory, so suck it.

75% less whining, guaranteed

So I started to say this ealier, but I got sidetracked because I was talking to Rachel and Dave while I was typing. Yeah, whatever, I've been down lately, but the other day Shannon was driving us down Smallhouse Road to look at a place and I simply said, "Dude." She looked at me and went, "What? Oh, mailbox!" And we both started cracking up. Probably for a little too long, but when we were in high school and she would drive me home it always seemed like she was about to hit the mailboxes on Smallhouse because it's a narrow road and she was pretty far over. As of yet, she has never knocked one over, but I swear everyone who rode with her back then knows what I'm talking about. And I realized that despite feeling stupid and restless and lonely, I am lucky to have some really great friends. And even luckier to have some really great relatives who are friends. So thanks for being so awesome.

parade of janky homes

I guess I haven't had much to say lately. I got my hair cut-somewhere between two and three inches. I feel so much better without that weird layer left over from when it was short. Shannon and I painted my parents' family room. It's just lovely now. Or something. I've been down for a while now, feeling sad and kind of restless, like I should be doing something (not painting).

So Shannon and I are looking at apartments, because I would save so much money if I lived with her and also because it wuld be fun and she spends a lot of time at my apartment anyway. We lived together before and while it didn't end well, we decided our only problems were...extraneous. And we don't have those problems anymore, so we'll be fine. The first place we looked at was so awesomely funky. It was huge and it had a yard, but it was paneled. All but the bedrooms and bathroom. And it had one of those dungeon things and a floor unit for heat and three window units for air. So, not practical and also disturbing with all the paneling. But way cheap and really big for a rental house. Yesterday we saw this apartment that was only $350 a month and it really had two bedrooms, but it was...weird. Like it was an attic apartment so all the ceilings sloped and made it seem very small. And then we looked at one that had two bedrooms, but you had to go through one bedroom to get to the other one. That seemed less than ideal. But it had this awesome breakfast nook that was all windows. It was so cool. And there was a fabulous chandelier thing that had Mason jars over the bulbs. It might sound strnage but I really liked it. We tried to figure out if we could live with one of us sleeping in the living room and the other in the back bedroom and using the middle bedroom as a living room. But I don't know. Lest you think I am way too picky, the last two were leaning towards trashy. So we called a ton of places that had signs out front and hopefully someone will call us today and let us come look. We found one place that we both completely loved, but it was $750 a month. That would be the same as what I pay now. But it was an awesome house that had just been renovated. The bathroom and kitchen were awesome, but it had three bedrooms, and since we don't know anyone else we like enough to live with, it would be too much. More on the search later, I'm sure.