springading.com

Well, I’m in a good mood. For one, Jim finally caved and went to the doctor. The diagnosis? Pneumonia. I’m not allowed to mention this on Facebook, by the way. I did have it up for 5 minutes for those who knew Jim was sick, figuring it was a quick way to give everyone an update. (Also, to gloat. After all, I was right that he was sick enough to go to the doctor!) However, Jim made me take the status down, stating that it would just freak his mother out.

Which…well, yeah, probably. Let’s just say Jim gets his drama from somewhere, heh.

Anyway, I’m not happy about Jim being sick, but I am happy that he went to the doctor, got some medicine, and is starting to seem like he’s feeling better.

I’m also happy because we got our tax refund! This is the first year that we did our taxes earlier than usual, albeit just a couple weeks, and we already have it! And it’s just in time because we’re planning on going up north in a few weeks to Medieval Times and to see my family. Hopefully, I’ll see these two:

Lily and Isaiah

The little girl is my niece Amber’s daughter Lily (the one who was born on the day before my birthday, on my dad’s birthday), and the little boy, Isaiah, belongs to my niece Jasmine. I’ve only seen Isaiah a couple of times, and I’ve yet to meet Lily at all. I’m hoping I will on this trip.

And then, of course, there are Jen’s kids! My most favorite kids in the whole world. I hope to see them as well.

At any rate, I seriously doubt we’re going to spend the entire tax refund while up north. I thought Jim and I would stay out of town for a while, but as we talk, I’m starting to get the impression that we’ll end up drifting back down here after a few days. We were talking about our honeymoon last year, and do you know what we both liked the most about it? All the napping we got to do! Heh. Yeah, and you don’t need to be out of town to do that.

Speaking of our honeymoon…our one year anniversary is coming up. Guess part of the tax refund will be spent getting Jim a present, huh?

At any rate, I seriously doubt we’re going to blow the whole refund up north, so I’ve been looking around the apartment, trying to decide what I want. The first thing that always pops into my mind, of course, is getting a new computer. Just last night, this laptop overheated while I had Word open, reading Jim’s story. Freaking Word, guys. I used to think it was Warcraft that was overheating my computer, but now, I’m convinced that it’s my computer overheating my computer.

I’d also like some end tables…maybe some furniture for our balcony…maybe an iPod because my MP3 player is almost full…and of course, the obligatory CDs, since I listen to music all day at work and always need something new in the mix. But I don’t know what we’re going to get. I’m not even for sure what Jim has in mind. So we shall see!

If you’re curious about the title of the post, it’s derived from the fact that I’m on Vicodin that the very nice dentist man gave me. Ah, yes, what seems to be my yearly tooth extraction. If I keep this up, I will have no teeth left. Hopefully, I’ll have no more infections, either.

Anyway. Forget that. I’m just following up to the last post because now I have pictures. Check this out!

Jim flipping through Expressions literary magazine, talking with Walter.

Jim getting his Best in Fiction award.

Jim and my lovely mother-in-law Lori.

Jim received his Best in Fiction award for his short story “Bad Men” in Expressions literary magazine. If you’re curious as to why the first picture is cropped, that’s because Walter, Jim’s friend/classmate and recipient of Best in Poetry, has been cut out. I don’t know the dude, so I don’t want to assume that he’s okay being posted on a public blog somewhere.

Now, you might be wondering…why would I post a picture of Jim’s mom, then? Well, because I do know her–and she’s absolutely, hands-down, the LEAST shy person I’ve ever known. Ever. EVER.

Plus, she looks totally cute in that picture. And proud. And she should be. Cool factors that were found out during the ceremony: One professor who had never met Jim before had already heard of him. How? Because when she gave an assignment to her students for them to bring in their favorite poems, one of Jim’s former classmates brought in a poem he wrote last semester. Even the department chair mentioned how “now [he had] finally met the famous Jim Stearns.”

I’m happy my mother-in-law took pictures, since I was unable to go. Curse me and that whole paying-the-bills thing.

Okay, the next post won’t be bragging about my husband, I swear.

I better hurry up and post this while Jim is too distracted to notice!

So, on Monday, Jim got an e-mail that not only did he get a story published in Expressions (his college’s literary magazine), BUT his story was voted Best in Fiction! He’s getting a small monetary reward and he’s reading an excerpt tomorrow.

I just hope his voice clears up a bit before he does his reading. He’s been sick since the weekend, and he sounds awful.

But still! My husband! Best in Fiction! NOT SURPRISED.

Happy Friday! Of course, I plan on going in to do overtime tomorrow, but we’re going to pretend we didn’t hear that, right? And stay up all night, anyway?

(And be sorry for it in the morning?)

So, not too long ago, I knocked something off one of the stand thingabobs where we keep our DVDs (and yet, it’s not really a DVD stand–don’t even try to understand our furniture choices) and the something (keys, I think?) slipped between the wall and the stand. I reached behind it and made an odd discovery.

A poster, in a hard plastic casing, of this picture:

OMG, it's Ned!

Yup, Ned Stark from Game of Thrones. The odd thing is…I don’t remember buying this. When Jim came home, I questioned him. He scratched his head. “Maybe I bought it for you and hid it back there…and forgot?” He couldn’t remember buying it, either.

Regardless, the picture is now hanging in our hallway, although we both agree it would have been even better if it were over the toilet, haha. As it is, that space–the space over the toilet, that is–is occupied by a cross stitch made for me by my sister of a cat grabbing onto a branch that says “Hang in there!”

Actually, now that I think about that picture in the toilet-context, that’s pretty funny too. Well, if I were 12. Or me.

Anyway, Jim’s out tonight. I am not playing Skyrim. Are you shocked? I’m learning that it takes me hours to do anything in the game, and since I don’t have much time before I have to get to bed, I might as well not bother. I’ll try to get some game time in tomorrow.

Besides, Jim updated his blog, making me feel sufficiently guilty for not updating my own. Although he has a better reason for updating than I do: He’s actually finished the first draft of his first novel! I’m impressed. I’m looking forward to getting to read it, although it’s going to have to squeeze in between Skyrim, reading Name of the Wind and Storm Front, and crocheting these:

Cthulhu!

Ha! I have my own accomplishments. This is my first attempt at amigurumi–a cthulhu. Granted, my skill is nowhere near Ruth’s (a.k.a. Cthulhu Chick), but I don’t think it’s half-bad for a first attempt, especially considering that it was just a short time ago that I got over my longtime fear of crocheting in circles.

Here’s the back:

Wings!

I did better on the wings that I thought I would; however, my stitching is still sloppy. Also, I found out afterwards that I should have used a smaller hook. I actually figured it out myself when I decided that the gauge should be tighter, then looked it up online and found out that this, apparently, is a well-known fact in the universe of amigurumi-making.

Dumb of me? Well, maybe, but what do you want of a girl that pretty much only makes scarves?

At any rate, I knew my first attempt would be sloppy, but it’s all about the learning process. I’m on my second, and I already think it looks much, much better than the first.

The real goal, by the way, is to make Jim an amigurumi-like kobold. He found some by Meri Greenleaf. (Click the link, scroll down, behold some awesome pictures of her husband and the kobold plushies.) Jim thought of all the kobold plushies he’d seen, her kobolds looked more…well, kobold-y, heh. So he wants something similar.

You know what I want? To go to bed. Actually, that’s not true at all, but I don’t want to be as exhausted as I was this morning, when I decided to go in early at 6 AM. Blech. Remember when Friday nights were FUN?

Yeah, me neither. Night!

Well, this post was started almost a week ago, but then it came to a screeching halt when I was writing and heard the mouse trap go off. Yup, a mouse trap. In all my years of apartment-living, I’ve never had a mouse, and if it hadn’t been for Gremlin hovering around the bottom drawer in the kitchen, we would have never known. We hadn’t seen any evidence of a mouse until we checked the drawer Gremlin was so desperate to get into and found mouse poop.

If you’re wondering why we hadn’t noticed it sooner, let me point out that it’s a rarely used drawer. Pretty much every where else is clean.

I really hate mouse traps. But I also hate mouse poop. I also hate arguing with Jim about when said mouse poop should be cleaned up. Me: Immediately. Him: Never.

Okay, I exaggerate. He wanted to wait until we verified that all the mice were gone before he cleaned it up. “Otherwise,” he said, “I’ll just have to clean it up all over again. ”

Whaaaaa…? If someone breaks into your house and poops in your kitchen, you do NOT leave it there, saying, “Well, they might break in again, so let’s just wait and see and clean all the poop up at once.” That’s just crazy talk, not to mention gross.

Whatever. Jim caught himself a couple mice and has cleaned up everything very nicely. He’s a nice guy, that man.

Sadly, that was our excitement for the week, epitomized by images of Gremlin circling that drawer and Jim shaking his fist at an imaginary mouse, shouting, “I declare war on your tiny, furry house!”

I think I picked a husband that’s like my cat, come to think of it. I don’t think that’s really a bad way to pick one’s soul mate, really.

If my husband doesn’t quit being so damn hot, we’re gonna get in trouble again. I’m just sayin’. I married one hell of a beautiful man, inside and out.

Okay, I’m done being mushy. Time for bed.

First, the awesome:

Grocery bag dispenser

“What is that goofy-looking thing?” you might be asking yourself. Well, I’LL TELL YOU. It’s a grocery bag dispenser! I used to have one with sunflowers on it, but it got lost somewhere in the shuffle, and truth be told, I don’t really like to keep anything I had during my first marriage, anyway, know what I mean? It could be tainted with evil by now. But I did want another one–grocery bag dispenser, I mean, not evil–and lo and behold, I found a pattern on the web for it! And guess what? It only took maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of a skein of yarn I didn’t really like anyway, two hairbands (when I have dozens), and one afternoon.

And now I don’t have a ton of bags floating around loose underneath my sink. Which was driving me nuts.

Okay, admittedly, if you don’t understand my excitement for it, be assured, Jim doesn’t really either. The mess of bags under the sink never bothered him, either.

Okay, the not-so-awesome: Monday morning, Gremlin was acting odd–looking like he was trying to go to the bathroom everywhere, and eventually, growling and hissing when Jim tried to pick him up–so Jim took him to the vet. The poor little guy had bladder stones and an infection that was starting up. The vets recommended that they keep him overnight so they could cath him–and gave Jim an estimate.

Jim started to panic. Monday was his first day after quitting his job to go to school, and it figures that THAT was the day to get hit with an estimate that would nearly clean out our savings account. He picked me up from work, worrying.

Yeah, it had me worried, but here’s what I figured: We have the money in the savings. This is what savings is for. It wouldn’t touch our checking. It wasn’t earmarked for bills or anything. And I work a job where I can work as much overtime (at least for now) as I need, so I can just work more hours and fill ‘er back up again.

I think that reassured Jim a little, but what helped is that the actual bill was only about half of what they quoted. Big sigh of relief. Because I was planning on pulling 11-hour days. I did that yesterday, and I was already exhausted just from that.

So, actual bills being about half of estimates: More awesome. Add that to Gremlin feeling better = even better yet.

Also, awesome: Jim is in school, although with a twist we didn’t expect. He thought his class was 4 hours long. Turns out that it’s only an hour and 15 minutes. And he’s already quit his job, and it’s too late to find another course (plus, I don’t want to pay out of pocket for another one), so basically…Jim has a lot of free time on his hands! Hahaha. He seemed to feel bad, but I figure he might as well enjoy it while he can. It’s a nice break.

So far, though, Jim doesn’t just sit on his ass, like I expected him to. Every day, he’s cleaned, run errands, and he’s done a beautiful job of it. Now I’m thinking he wouldn’t be a half-bad house husband, heh. OH. And to top it all off, when he picked me up from work today, he said, “Hey–wanna listen to your new CD?”

“What new CD?”

“This one.” He handed me an Evanescence CD, one that I had had before but, again, was one of those things that got lost with all the moving.

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever? Anything that was ever “not-so-much” awesome, Jim makes better, always.

Damn, I’m tired. Loved my three-day weekend last weekend. Didn’t get so lucky this weekend. I pulled overtime all week and I just did overtime today, on a Saturday, from 6-11 AM. The only good thing about working on Saturdays, though, is that at least you know you’re not going to be put on the phones.

Oh, yeah. I was put on the phones two days in a row this week. That’s never fun, but it wasn’t too bad, either. My concern is that I’m supposed to be working a special project (the portal) that I’ve been told has high-high-high priority, and then I’m also only one of two people allowed to contact an outside vendor, which is only done two times a week, and which also has high-high priority, but if I’m stuck helping the phone people out, this high priority stuff starts getting really behind.

And the special project is already behind. So Friday, I waved my supervisor down and said, “Okay, I need to know which of my prorities is REALLY the priority. Portal? Phones?” I told him that sure, I don’t like doing the phones, but if they want me to do that, that’s fine–but I’m worried about other stuff getting even further behind. Luckily, he agrees with me, and they’ve already had meetings to see about getting those of us working this special project from getting stuck on phones.

That’d be nice. Until then…I just do what they tell me, heh.

Wow, that’s the most I’ve talked about work in a while. Let’s stop now.

Anyway, I’m tired. Tired enough that I snapped at Jim last night, in front of Phil, both of whom seemed surprised by it. (As Phil put it, “That’s the most heated discussion that I’ve ever seen you two have.” And it really wasn’t that bad.) Still, I felt bad about snapping at Jim, but sometimes….JIM. ARGH. We’ll just leave it at that.

Maybe I just need some time alone. Maybe I’ll suggest that to Jim because I got really bummed last night (WHY? WHY? MY LIFE IS AWESOME) and I’m still kinda moody today, so I think that’s all it is–time for some Spring Break, haha. Whatever it is, I’m gonna have to figure it out soon. Everything’s been pissing me off.

Maybe I just need a nap. Works for Gremlin.

Jim and Gremlin, playing the XBox

Of course, Gremlin makes sure that he has a high-quality person to snuggle with first. Maybe that’s the key.

Well, I haven’t posted much in the last week, but there’s a lot going on. I did not have to get on the phone Monday at work, as I had wondered about in the last post. Nobody did, as far as I could tell. Instead, I’ve been working the portal at work all week, and I think I’m getting the hang of it. At first, it started off rocky, with very low production, but then, once I started getting responses back that I could actually work, my productivity skyrocketed.

Jim also found a desk next to the dumpster this week, perfectly fine, nothing wrong with it, and we really needed a desk. So he hauled the thing up himself. So, YAY, I don’t have my laptop on the floor next to the sofa anymore, and the cable cord is no longer right in the middle of the living room floor where everyone walks. Now it’s more off to the side where people rarely walk. I’m very happy with this, although now we’re going to need a proper chair. Right now, I’m sitting in the rocking chair, and while I love rocking chairs, they’re not so good when paired up with office desks.

But the real event of this week was that my sister, Jennifer, left with her kids, Damian, Trinity, and Seth, to move to North Dakota, where her husband is.

I cannot deny it: I’m bummed. Jennifer is the sister I’m closest to, and I LOVE her kids. I even lived with them fairly recently after my divorce, when Nate (her husband) was then living in Texas for a different job that he had. It was a good set-up because I got free room and board and she got a free 24/7 babysitter. Honestly, I only moved out because when her husband came back, it was just too crowded. I probably would have stayed there even if she didn’t need a babysitter , and I would have just paid her rent. (Which I did when he did come back and she didn’t need a sitter anymore. I’m not a mooch.) But my point is that Jennifer and I get along well.

Anyway, I texted her Wednesday night, remembering that she was supposed to be leaving Thursday. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to see them again, but as it turns out, Thursday, she called and asked me to stop by because her ISP won’t turn off their internet service until she returns a modem to them.

Aside: The ISP is Mediacom, and she confessed to me that she didn’t think they ever gave her a modem in the first place. The modems she had were her own. She came to Illinois not needing one because she already had one from California. I mention this because Mediacom did the same thing to me and my ex-husband. We turned down getting a modem for them because we were computer people and wanted to choose our own. So we bought one. Then I accidentally plugged it in the wrong place, fried it, and we had to get another modem the same day, and we were pissed about having to buy two. When he and I split up, he ran up bills in my name, including Mediacom. Mediacom tried to claim we owed them money for a modem, and through ALL the fighting he and I were having, that was ONE thing we agreed on: NO, Mediacom, YOU NEVER GAVE US A MODEM.

I still don’t know how/if my ex resolved that one, but per the divorce decree, all that stuff is his responsibility, so I don’t really care. I just want to mention that if you have to have Mediacom, you might as well get a modem from them because they’re gonna claim that they gave you one, anyway.

But I digress. Jennifer decided to just give them one of her old modems she wasn’t using, but she needed me to take it because they were closed, and she needed to get moving. So Jim and I drove the 40 minutes out to her house and visited with them briefly before getting the modem. The visit HAD to be brief, as she was trying to get out that day, she had no furniture left as the movers had already taken it, and the power had already been shut off. She was doing all her cleaning by candlelight.

So we say goodbye. We’re sad. Yes, even Jim is a little sad because although he didn’t know Jen’s kids very well, he did like them (no small feat, considering he doesn’t really like kids that much) and he was actually excited about being an uncle.

But I’m particularly crabby about it, and when we get home, we putz around a little bit, then we try to go to bed early. Jim hasn’t been feeling well this week, anyway. And it’s about a quarter ’til 11 when my phone rings.

I pick up. It’s my sister. Wasn’t she supposed to be on the road? “Spring,” she says worriedly, “I’m driving along here, and I realized–I don’t think I ever put out those candles.”

So I get up, get dressed. Jim starts to get up, and I tell him he doesn’t have to come. He insists. There could be looters, he says. I have to laugh at his paranoia, but he comes with me because he doesn’t like the idea of me going out there and traipsing around in the dark alone. So we drive 40 minutes out there again, and guess what? She DID forget to blow out the candles! They were still going on in the basement. OH MY GOD. Good thing she remembered and called me! Good thing she still had a relative in the town that she was leaving, and good thing I still had a key to her house!

We check out the house to make sure she didn’t miss any others. She hadn’t. We marveled over the owl that had been making creepy screeching noises when we first came in (I just looked up owl sounds; I think it was a barn owl), then drove home. We didn’t get home until midnight.

And we proceeded to be cranky until the next day, particularly due to lack of sleep. And it’s not going to get any better if I don’t replace this chair, stat. Like I said, rocking chairs and office desks don’t mix. Especially when paired with a bummed Aunt Dingy.

Nothing much to report, just letting everyone know that Jim’s doing okay. I did convince him to stay home the day after he went to the ER, and I managed to “sneak” and let his mother know what had happened. I had to “sneak” because Jim originally told me not to tell her anything. And by “sneaking,” I mean that I posted it as a Facebook status while he was in class, knowing full well that his mother would read it, call, and I could give her the details.

Of course, right after I posted it, Jim’s cell started going in crazy in class as people started texting and calling him, all concerned. He ended up ripping out the card, heh.

I had a good reason, though. First of all, Jim was feeling guilty about having me do all the work, and I figured if his own MOTHER pretty much ordered him to stay off his leg…well, pressing upon him how important it was to give it a rest would make him feel less guilty.

The second reason is that she gave freakin’ birth to him. She deserves to know every sniffle he has, and she certainly has a right to know when her first-born child has landed himself in the emergency room.

Anyway. Jim seems better, although a little sore from time to time. Meanwhile, I’m anticipating this ambulance bill. I’m telling myself that it can’t be that bad because we don’t live far from the hospital. On the other hand, I work at an insurance company. I see what some providers want to charge–and how much we make them write-off for being in-network.

Gulp.

So. Yeah. The last two days, I’ve been doing a lot of overtime, 10+ hours, and I plan on keeping up the pace the rest of the week, all while trying to eat semi-better (screwed it up tonight, had Mexican, still down 13 pounds, though), work on Jim’s Lego Pirate Ship blanket, and finish A Game of Thrones. That will never happen before the premiere on Sunday night.

Yeah…

I’m so very tired.