Assorted

I know some of you check this blog semi-regularly so I thought it might be nice for me to post something for a change. :)
It's been a crazy past few weeks. My would-be grandfather-in-law (if I had the law part) died on the 23rd. He had been in the hospital for awhile after surgery so it wasn't completely unexpected. I got the phone call Wednesday evening on my way to see clients that he was going downhill. I had planned to go in to work Thursday morning to get a few hours in and then leave at lunchtime to drive home. But when I woke up Thursday morning, something told me that I needed to go then, that I didn't have idle hours. So I called in to work and my dawghter and I hit the road. 20 minutes away from home I got the phone call. 20 minutes away! I got to the hospital as soon as I could (had to drop my dawghter off at home) and stayed there with my Bf and the rest of the family for several hours. The next day was filled with funeral home appts and church appts. Somehow in the course of the church appointment I agreed to give a scripture reading at the memorial service. The weekend after that I spent putting together a scrapbook of pictures and things that represented him since he wouldn't be at the actual service. I also colloborated with my Bf in making prayer cards for the service. I drew the praying hands for the front of the card and he typed up the poem for the back and printed them. On the day of the service, somehow I got up in front of 100+ people and gave the scripture reading. I remember walking up there and I know I read it but I don't know exactly how and somehow everyone heard me too. It was a beautiful memorial service for a beautiful man. We should all be so lucky to have been as good a person as he was. No one could say anything negative about him b/c there was nothing negative to say(not that you would say negative things about someone at a memorial service; my point is that there was nothing negative about him). I had a midterm the day after the memorial so I came back last Tuesday in time for that. Sweetheart that he is, my Bf helped me study the notecards that I made. Unfortunately, not everything on the exam was information I made notecards about...but I WAS able to remember the info I had studied with the notecards. I did have big blanks on questions though so we will see how I did. Considering the circumstances, I feel like whatever I did was the best I could do at the time.

Now it's the weekend and I need to be studying for the midterm this Tuesday afternoon. I am not motivated to study b/c I am still tired. I slept and wandered around in my pj's most of the day yesterday. I also looked to see what non-animal testing shampoos there are out there. You'd be amazed at how many shampoo brands are listed as testing on animals. FINALLY watched "50 First Dates" (which I bought MONTHS ago) and really enjoyed the movie. It also helped me to cry, which I hadn't really had the time to sit down and really do fully until yesterday. I had cried most of the week off and on but hadn't gotten around to the sobbing yet. It felt great to finally sob and I could probably do it again today.

I've decided that as part of my getting healthier regime I am going to start making fruit smoothies. My brother has a fruit smoothie recipe book, but it's back at home. So today I am going to go grocery shopping and buy some frozen fruit and just make stuff up for this week. When I am home for Spring Break (since my 2 other plans of doing things fell through) I will peruse through that book. I also want to go to the craft store today to buy some shamrocks and Easter eggs for my winter tree (was my Christmas tree but decided to leave it up for other holidays). After Easter I will take the tree down, since the next holiday would be 4th of July and leaving a white wire tree up until July is a little much, even for me.

I also wanted to take the time in this blog to thank those of you who responded to my email with the support I needed. It was really neat to see how many of you understand me and nice to be reminded of my true self by others.

Also, today is the 6 year anniversary of my uncle's death (the one who gave me my middle name) so I just wanted to make note of that. It's hard to comprehend that he has been gone that long. He was another great man. For a women's studies grad, I sure do know a lot of great MEN in my life!! ;)


Oh wait, I almost forgot. I was inducted into my profession's honor society on Thursday evening. There were several neat parts to say about that. 1) two very prominent theorists were present at the induction b/c we had a symposium with them in Thurs and Friday. 2) there was a cash bar that somehow turned into an open bar by the end of the ceremony. I'm not a drinker but I did try a small glass of red wine. 3) I was nominated and voted to be one of the officers of the society for next school year and there were cheers when they announced my name. I didn't think anyone had really noticed me so that was really awesome.


I hope everyone is bliss-fully living life and I will try to update again soon.