Series of Unfortunate Events

Okay, so last week was a doozie! It started off with a bad Monday, which is never good. Tuesdays are never good days for me because I have to bring the dog with me to work. I never know how she will behave. But this past Tuesday was horrible! One of my responsibilities at work is to print out the next day's appointment sheets and call the clients to remind them of their appointments. I had just printed out the sheets and I was getting up to get them when my pinkie finger on my left hand got stuck between the counter and my chair as I swiveled. I had some good momentum going as I was swiveling (it amuses me to make myself spin in my chair!) and so I smashed my finger so well that it took two tugs to remove it from its pinned position. I immediately jumped up and stated dancing around because it was some of the worst pain I had ever experience! I also had to keep a scream bottled up because we had a client in the first exam room which is very close to my desk. My entire hand was killing me. It felt like every one of my fingers was being cut off and the pain was quickly spreading up my arm. I have never gotten nausiated from seeing blood, but after I looked at my pinkie I started to feel the blood drain from my face and became very weak. I knew I was about to faint so I went to the bathroom (so I was not on display at my desk), put my head between my legs and fainted. I was not out but a few seconds and then had to vomit. That, however, did not make me feel better. I got up to get a band-aid from my boss's medicine cabinate, but she wanted me to wash my hand first. On my way back to the bathroom, a coworker asked me to look something up for her, but I could not think straight to do it. I walked back to the back, stumbling the whole way, fighting not to faint again, when my boss looked at me and told me to go sit in her office. I did and tried to put my head between my legs, but i could not keep it there. All I could do is rock back and forth trying not to focus on the intense pain, but on not fainting and not vomiting. Another one of my coworkers brought me a cup of water and a cold wash cloth because I was pouring sweat. The moment I realized that I was in shock was when my hands started to tingle like they were going to sleep. It did not take long for the sensation to rise all the way up my arms and for them to turn completely white. My hands became immobile and were stuck in a crab's pinscher like position and I was slurring my words. At this point, I was solely focusing on willing myself not to get into anymore trouble than my body already was. Thankfully that only lasted for about a minute, then the blood started to flow back into my limbs. I made a full recovery just in time to eat lunch!

My next unfortunate event occured on Saturday night at a restaurant. I was eating fried rice when someone asked me a question. When I went to answer, I inhaled a piece of corn and could not breathe. I coughed it up pretty quickly though. The third unfortunate event was this morning. I was sitting at my desk and had to sneeze so I sneezed. I then had to blow my nose as a result of that sneeze. Then my nose started gushing blood. I stopped my hemoraging rather quickly. Pay attention next time something happens to you. Chances are they happen in threes so watch out!

FB

Once upon a time I was free. I did stuff that every normal, free person does. I worked, went to school, did homework, hung out with my friends on the weekends and got as much sleep as possible. I did not get "online" that much. I checked me email twice a month (which annoyed my mother), I used the internet for school and did basic research. Then a friend, who will remain nameless, kept bugging me to sign up on Facebook. I did not want to becasue I have never been that interested in doing computer related things. The more and more my friends talked about it the more curious I became. So I logged on for the first time, filled out all my info, and immediately became a slave to Facebook.

First, my enslavemnet started off slow. I would log on once a day to change my status and to read about what my friends are doing. Everyday, I would have more and more friend requests so naturally that increased the number of times a day I would log on to Facebook. Suddenly, I started to receive "flair" and "bumperstickers" and "invites" to causes and events. After I figured out how to access all that stuff, the length of time I spent logged on would increase. It started off low, about five to seven minutes, then the time rapidly started to increase until it spilled over and I needed to log on more times a day to get in all I wanted to look at on Facebook. Soon, the enslavement increased. I did not notice it at first because the chains were tightening in very small increments. But, it did not take long to realize that I no longer type like I used to. My sentences were all screwed up. Sometimes, they were not even sentences just sentence fragments. I no longer capitalized anything. I started using alien acronyms like "lol", "brb" & "ttyl" among many others. What finally caught my attention was that I no longer used any kind of puctuation at the end of a sentence except the exclamation point. I did not use puntuation at all in my sentences anymore. I found myself using commas, colons, semicolons and parentheses to form different smiley faces and hearts. The clincher was when my coworkers invited me to join a specific application on Facebook called Mob Wars! I joined and immediatley I was hooked permanently. Of course, I had to bring my husband in on it too! What kind of wife would I be if I did not include him in everything?! Now, I check FB more times a day than I can count and I stay connected longer than I care to reveal.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is the holiday of love. It triggers fantasies of beautiful flowers, sparkling gifts, and love in every girl's mind and anxiety & inevitable doom in every guy's mind.

Mark and I learned very early that higher expectations lead to a harder fall. Our first Valentine's Day was a complete disaster. It was not because of the traditions expected of the holiday, it was for personal reasons. The second time V-Day rolled around we thought we would do it right. We made plans to go to dinner with another couple to J. Alexanders. The pressure got to both of us and we ended up fighting the entire night. Third time's a charm, right? We did nothing. We got each other small gifts and I think we rented a movie and ordered pizza. We learned that pressure ruins everything. The fourth year, Mark sent me some beautiful Daisies to my work and we made plans for the weekend, but that night we fought over a stupid miscommunication. The next year we did absolutely nothing except give each other cards because Mark could not make in into town. I am pretty sure there was a fight about that, too. Last year, we were planning a wedding and that put enough pressure on us. We did not need to add fuel to the fire! This year, Mark and I got it right. He surprised me by sending me 32 long stemmed white, pink, & red Tulips. He remembered my favorite flower! Then he took me to one of my absolute favorite restaurants (The Melting Pot) the night before V-Day (less presure!). We had a fabulous time! I almost thought that the night was going to be ruined because of Mark's school. He was handed a take home test Thursday at 3pm. When he got home, he ate a quick meal (his last before we went out) and got started on his test about 4pm. He worked on that test until 5:30am , went to bed, and got back up at 8:30am to continue the test. I know because I am a light sleeper and it always wakes me when he gets up and down. When I got up at 9:30am, I immediately made him some coffee and kept it coming until he had to leave to turn in his test at school at 3:30pm. He worked on his test the entire time. Bless his heart! He did not even eat since he started the test! He was so stressed and sleep deprived that I thought he would not be up to dressing up and going out, but he surprised me! He was in a good mood and ready to shower and go eat even though he just drove in Atlanta rush hour to turn in his test. He even opened the car door for me and was willing to have his picture taken to remember the occasion. He looked good, too! I rarely get to see him in anything other than cargo pants and a t-shirt, so the button down and tie was a welcomed change! To be fair, he hardly gets to see me in anything other than scrubs so I know he was pleased to see me all spiffed up as well!

Dog Parking

One of the best bonuses I have discovered about living in Atlanta is Brook Run Park. Legend has it that the park was built on the site of an old insane asylum called Brook Run, and because of that, the park is said to be haunted! Fortunately, I have yet to be graced with the presence of anything supernatural. Brook Run is a park located smack dab in between my apartment and where I work. It has a playground for small and big kids, an inground skateboard ramp, several walking paths and best of all, an off leash dog park! It is the best way for us to exercise Jade. She is so social. Jade sniffs every dog and every human in the park. She loves to play with other dogs especially small, fluffy dogs. Jade also enjoys being chased and boxing with the heavy weights!

When Mark and I were discussing adopting a dog, we of course discussed which breed would best fit our life style. The Rottwieler breed made it to the number one slot. After a lot of research, it was confirmed that we would start looking for a breeder. We knew from the get go that we would have to battle the steriotype that comes with the breed. This being said, it does not make it any easier to deal with naive people. Owning a Rott narrowed down possible places to live in Atlanta to one. Even then the rules were bent to allow us to live there. It has also given us some negative experiences at Brook Run, but they definately do not out weigh the positive experiences.

Two weeks we took Jade to Brook Run three times. On Thursday, Jade bounded inside the gate and after conducting some specific business of hers, she immediately made a friend. The owner of the other dog politely asked me if Jade was a Boxer. How could someone get a Boxer and a Rottie mixed up is the thought that went threw my mind, but I lightly laughed and answered no that she was a Rottie. Immediately he picked his dog up and left without another word. Of course my heart sank deep into my chest. How could someone not want their dog to play with a friendly, energetic, loving dog just because of its breeding? I sometimes cannot help but feel a little prickly, like a porcupine, when we arrive inside the gate, anticipating someone to treat her like that again.

Last week, we also took Jade to Brook Run three times. When I took her there on Thursday, I met a very nice gentleman who told me that Jade reminded him of his Rottie whom he had just lost to cancer. He was over joyed to see her run and play! At times like these I swell with pride to know that others see her like I see her. Several people, including children, fell in love with her on Saturday and Sunday and just could not stop saying how wonderful she is. We never get tired of hearing compliments! :)

Cold, Cold, Cold!

I cannot believe that it was 16 degrees this morning with a wind chill factor of 1 degree! The last time I remember it being that cold was when I went skiing in Telurid! I am sure I looked like a marshmellow walking into work today. The view I have from inside the clinic is a wall of windows. It is hard to believe that suck a gorgeous day could still make people run inside.I am looking forward to the warm weather that is heading our way this weekend.

Jade usually loves her bathes, but today's bath was not so enjoyable for her. Poor thing was so cold she was shaking when I was shampooing her up. It also did not help that where she has to stay, it takes a long while to heat up. Everybody at work is so kind to look after her and keep turning the dryer on to help warm her up!

Our bedroom is always fridgid on the cold, cold nights. We have to keep our bedroom door closed to have a "hair free" zone. Mark is allergic to cat dander and he snores less when we do not let them inside to sleep on our bed. Of course, if you enter the room and leave the door even slightly cracked, they will push it open and charge under the bed. Then its this big ordeal to chase them out. During the day and when we go to bed at night, if they see us enter and exit our bedroom, I will hear them pushing on the door to test if it will open. Apparently, they do not want to miss out on any chance of getting into mom and dad's room! As a result of the bad kitties, the room never heats up. The sun never has an opportunity to shine in our bedroom window because it gets blocked by another building. Our apartment faces East so all afternoon the sun smiles through our sliding glass doors. Which is good in the Winter, bad in the Summer. Needless to say the bedroom stays at least 10 degrees colder if not more, and I sleep with three blankets. Double pained windows, what is that?

My first entry!

Mark and I are currently living in Atlanta. He is attending Georgia Tech getting his Masters degree in ME. He will be graduating May 1, 2009. He received his undergraduate degree in ME from Tech in December 2007. Mark wants to ultimately become an Intellectual Properties Lawyer. He has applied to a few schools. His top two choices are the University of Virginia and the University of Alabama. I am along for the ride!

I am working for a vet clinic in Dunwoody. I am the receptionist. I used to work for my brother-in-law and assisted with the animals with him. I miss getting to hold the animals. I now get to answer the phone all day and check people in and out.

Mark and I have two kittes and a dog. Charlotte is a silver tabby and Ginger is a calico. Our dog, Jade, is a one year old Rottwieler. She is so much fun!