Rapid Eye Movement

The past few days have been a blur of activity around the household. Starting with the return from the family reunion in Okoboji, and discovering to my dismay that my mother broke her leg. Or rather, her fibula at the base of where it connects to the ankle. For those of you medics out there, that's right, the hip bone is connected to the leg bone and the leg bone is no longer connected to the ankle bone for mom (at least until November) I feel so bad for her :( For such an active person to be inactive will be tough. My first joke though was that because she's immobile, she's easy to get by mobile. She's been on the cell quite a bit. Luckily my mother is a fantastic woman, and has many many friends here in IC that have been out to visit her and bring her food, and at the same time my friend Cassi has been staying with the Winklers, and she's been great at pitching in with the family chores. I love that girl...not just for her attitude but her wonderous ability to have so much energy when it comes to household duties that aren't even hers. She's a guest for goodness sake, and yet, she's washing dishes and clearing the table just like me. She's my bestest twin sister ever. :)
In related news, I was hesitant to go due to mom's injury, but leaving her in capable hands (and feet of others) I did head up to Ames to help with the move in process for the Astrophysicist in training. It was a very smooth gig and his folks and sis were very nice, (they even got me a cake, gift and dinner for my birthday! How very very very thoughtful of them! THANK YOU!)
The rest of the birthday festivities commenced in IC this weekend, which included a wonderful birthday cake designed by Maggie for Laura, Elissa and myself. Thank you!!! Special thanks to Laura for sharing her nighttime activities with me. Such fun.
Thanks to everyone who called, emailed, facebooked (and yah, that's gonna be in Webster's in a few years) and well-wished in person. You all make my time here on Earth that much more enjoyable. (Sounds sappy I know...but it's true)
This next week will consist of working, and helping mom and then this weekend will be Madison for Beerfest. Should be an interesting time.

Dead and Gone Like Me

Actually this title comes from a t.v. show I just discovered via Sci-Fi, which I now want to go out and rent the entire first season to watch. It's totally the type of shows (movies) I like. Dark Comedies are the defence mechanisms of the mundane daily existence for the rest of us I guess. Dead Like Me is an interesting premise with a well written script and it is also well acted. I caught this last night while my father and I watched t.v. and mom and I played Scrabble ( i beat her 219 to 216. yes, that's right TOm, I BEAT someone at Scrabble, imagine after all these years playing with you online, I simply needed the board in front of me to win, though I don't count a 3 point differential "kicking ass" or anything.)
In other news the "gone" part. I will be gone to Okoboji Iowa this weekend, through Tuesday for my family reunion. Much rejoicing and such will occur (or so I hope) though this gal has to apparently stay out of the sun! WHAT!?!?! stay out of the sun on a LAKE? are you kidding me? Doctors are on crack btw. Or at least those I apparently wind up seeing. I've been on an antibiotic (which I'm posed to be on for the whole month which says on the bottle "avoid prolonged exposure to the sun) okay, well, fine, I heed bottle warnings. I was out for all of an hour on Monday, wearing a new bikini (which makes me self-conscious enough anyways right?) and low and behold about half an hour later, I start to itch on my stomach...well surprise....rash city! lovely right? so I'm thinking, okay, go see the doc. Tuesday morning, i see the doctor, and he's like, stop taking that antibiotic, this is a photo-sensitivity rash, and you can develop allergic reactions to drugs even after taking them for a week and a half. so, tah-dah, I stop taking it call the doc that prescribed it, and she says, "NO, keep taking it, it doesn't cause photo-sensitivity." - Except that it has to, b.c otherwise they wouldn't put a label on the bottle warning about it right? and besides the other doctor that saw me actually saw the rash and diagnosed it...so I go with his answer.
I seem to have rotten luck with health these days :( blah. otherwise everything else is going well...still looking for that full time job, so I can move out of the basement, and the ability to pay rent somewhere else (perhaps moving in w. laura or pete or cassi? who knows!)
anyways, the "gone" part also means I'll be in Naperville next weekend - going to see the King Tut exhibit with Erik and his folks...hooray. I am looking forward to that. and I promise I won't collapse in the museum ---been there and done that already.
Hope all is well with the rest of you out there.

Home for the holiday and quite happy ;) I've gotten some of the assignments done and turned in on time for the classes. my mom is doing okay after her car accident - a dog hit the passenger side door. I've had a blast hanging out with my ole pals from the IC Crew :) I miss having nights when all I have to do is call one of the friends and soon I've got five people to share the time with and watch movies or whatever. such fun. tonight we watched harry potter which I bought this afternoon. last night we watched elf and I finally got to plan San Andreas and Halo II. was really fun! NOw I just have to kick my butt to get my pathfinder done or started tomorrow during the day, and then going out for wing night at brothers possibly, or at least, hanging out and drinking a bit with the boys and gals perhaps. should be fun! and the Indy folks have already emailed and text'd and called and such, so I feel like I've got a nice home away from home started too! hooray! such great folks. Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Turkey Break

So, now that my paper is finished, and all stappled and read to turn in, I have to do a few more homework assignments tonight, and attend class in the morning, and THEN, fun coffee time with Traci and THEN, driving back to Iowa City. I wantedt og et home earlier, so I'm missing class on monday, mostly cause mom was in a car accident - though she's okay, i feel like i should go a bit earlier if i can to make sure she's REALLY okay, and not just saying so, so that i"ll stay for class like I'm posed to. I'm looking forward to partying with the iowa city folks again for an extended weekend instead of the rushed visit last time - though mostly Im looking forward to a break from grad school life and the chance to actually relax and watch amovie or two and visit and chill and so forth and so on. I"m hoping that everyone else has a great holiday too!