You have suffered enough.

Gosh, I just feel like these last few weeks have been just so odd.  Not ironic odd, just like nothing else I've ever experienced.  Maybe it's been the crazy weather so far this year or all the fantastical young adult books I've been having to read.  Things just seem strange.

The Captain's grandfather is dying.  He has been sick for quite some time, but up until less than a week ago, he was functioning normally.  I'll give some back story.  He was diagnosed several years ago with colon cancer.  He had surgery and treatment and came out of it fine.  Shortly after his bill of health was cleared, his wife was diagnosed with cancer, as well.  Her case was not so fortunate.  It progressed rapidly, and she passed only a couple of months later.  I believe that was the summer of 2009.  Last summer, his cancer returned.  He, once again, had surgery.  While recovering from this surgery, he complained of stomach pain.  It took some convincing on his family's part, but they did a scan on him and discovered a large tumor in his stomach.  He's been living in an assisted living community for a little over a year.  He misses his wife terribly.  He had decided at the finding of the mass that he would not have treatment, that he would let the cancer run its course.  Over these last few months, we've enjoyed spending time with him, visiting him at his "apartment", taking him to lunch, seeing all his artistic creations.  Last Wednesday he had a bad night.  And he hasn't quite come out of it.  Late Saturday night, he was moved to hospice and given a five-day window.  TC has been on the boat since Thursday.  I went to visit Son (what we call his grandfather) while TC's mom was staying with him yesterday.  I would say that it was even more of a 180 since I'd last seen him just a few weeks ago.  He was in and out of sleep and uncomfortable, but it was very hard to understand what he was saying when he did speak.  The moments I could understand him, he asked for a haircut.  He wants to look nice for his wife when he sees her soon.  It's easy for me to be torn up about this, but it takes me completely by surprise how calm TC's family is.  They are all so strong.  Perhaps they are more compassionate or less selfish than me.  They understand that it's his time.  They've all made their peace with it.  They love him SO much.  When TC comes home Thursday, he plans to go spend as much time as possible with Son.

Onto another weird topic, three weeks ago I had a growth cut off of my shoulder.  It popped up after I went to the tanning bed (like a moron) a few times before my friend's wedding in December.  This may sound gross, but it looked like a pimple.  I tried to pop it, but it was hard.  I waited far too long to have it checked out, but they lanced it immediately to have a biopsy.  I finally heard back about it today.  They say it's an abnormal mole and that the cells don't look regular.  They casually mentioned the "possibility" of skin cancer, but they want to cut it out either way.  So next Tuesday, I'll be having my shoulder cut into.  I'm super not excited about this.  But with my skin and my stubbornness, I suppose I always expected to have a skin cancer scare.  My mom and TC will both be with me.  I just would rather not have to go through all that.  But, given other recent events, I really can't complain.

Guys, there are also lots of good things happening.  I'm just feeling so odd today, I just had to get out why.

Hello. Is it me you're looking for?

Did you guys think you'd never hear from me again, or what?  I honestly didn't know if I'd find the time or inspiration to blog again, but alas, the Ides of March approaches, so I thought I needed at least one post before then to catch everyone up.

Ummmmm soooooo, what's been going on in my life?  Hmmmmm...

(I probably should have read my last post to see where I was at that point...)

I'm in my final semester of undergrad right now.  Like, literally.  Like, I'm sitting in class while writing this.  The class I'm in is English, adolescent literature, emphasis on fantasy.  Yes, Twilight and The Hunger Games trilogy are on the reading list.  This was the class I was most looking forward to taking. Here's the problem.  I'm a little bit older than your typical college student.  A lot of these books were written after I graduated high school (with the exception of a couple of them, like The Giver).  Said books were the kinds of books these kids read for fun in middle school.  Their perceptions of the themes and issues in these books are REALLY different than my own.  It sort of takes away from my excitement.  I wish I could tell you guys to read some of these books and discuss them with me.  (This one kid [who knows everything, obviously] just mentioned that he was 15 during Hurricane Gustav.  I was 15 during Hurricane Andrew.  [Okay, not really.])

SO.  Presuming I'll pass all my courses, after a decade of college on and off, I'll finally have a bachelors degree.  And I'll celebrate with a trip to my favorite place on Earth with some of my favorite people on Earth.  While I'm sad that my big brother and The Captain won't be joining, I'll be honest, it'll probably be more fun to just have a girls' trip.  Plus, since TC has never been there, it ensures that I'll have another trip that way hopefully in the next few years.

Family stuff has just become so strange.  Both my brothers live an hour away now.  I miss my big brother.  So much.  I haven't seen him since Christmas.  TC and I went into the city last weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day, and I wanted so badly to get together with him, but it just didn't work out.  Then he came into town the next day, and I was throwing a baby shower for my bestie, and it didn't work out again.  My parents each have their own separate things going, and it's just taking some getting used to.  I don't hate it at all.  It's just different.

Things with TC's family have been quite transitional, as well.  I don't feel comfortable elaborating much on those things, but I'm sure as things come up, I'll share more.

Welp, there's your update.  I hope I've covered the main topics.

We'll be singing when we're winning.

Saturday morning.  The Captain is on the river, and I'm at home with my boys.  TC called at 7 am to talk with me about Disney, since L has done her research.  He called me lazy for still being asleep.  I reminded him it was Saturday.  No apology.  Oh well, I much prefer being up early than sleeping in, anyway.  So now it's 10 am, and I've already had breakfast and coffee, read the newspaper, looked through some old photos, read a couple of chapters of a new book, and now I'm watching the pilot of Dawson's Creek, as it's my summer goal to actually finish the series this summer.  This show is just so nineties and so wonderful and has so much fantastic music.

Summer school beings on Monday.  I'm only taking one class, Management.  I've attempted this class once before but dropped it because there was a group project (I'm not a team player, people).  I'm pretty excited about it.  I got my syllabus on Thursday, and I've already filled in test days on my planner, as well as study days.  Super nerd.

I saw Snow White & The Huntsman last night.  I really, really enjoyed it.  This was certainly Kristen Stewart's ideal role.  Oh, don't get me wrong, she had her awkward moments.  Seems any time she has to show any positive emotion is when she is most awkward.  But my goodness, is Bella Swan the WRONG role for her!  The acting was on point.  I even teared up a few times.  Charlize Theron has never been better, either.  (I haven't seen all of her movies, mind you.)  She's SO beautiful.  I've thought that since That Thing You Do (which happens to be my favorite movie of all time).

Well, today I have a kitchen and bath shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law.  So weird that my little brother is getting married.  I'm kind of excited, though.  I love weddings.

Please come to Boston for the spring time.

AM I REALLY ABOU TO FINALLY POST ABOUT MY BOSTON TRIP?  Yes!
I have a list of excuses why I haven't done it yet.  Wanna hear them?  Okay!  I had a bunch of assignments, I had finals, I moved, it took me forever to get the photos uploaded onto my computer, and because I've moved I've been trying to get used to a whole new life.  I mean, I not only moved, I migrated.  It's true.  I learned all about it this semester in my Sociology of Population class.  Riveting.

Anywho...last Christmas (I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away) The Captain (having newly earned himself an exclusive relationship with me) decided that my gift would be a trip to Boston.  We'd probably been talking about going to Boston for years and more seriously about it for months.  He paid for the airfare and hotel(s).  I couldn't have him spend that much without contributing, and I got a good tax return, so I bought us Red Sox and Celtics tickets (which he would have done, had I not).  Almost everything else was on him, with the exception of a few meals and cab rides.  The four and a half months waiting for it were grueling.  And so, without further adieu, I present to you my trip to Boston (photos included, since I'm fancy).

Day 1:  We arrived in Boston in the afternoon.  We were hungry, and dinner wasn't until 8, so we swung by a restaurant which I no longer remember the name of (sorry) for slider happy hour!  Sliders were only a buck each!  So we got one of each (there were only three to choose from), another couple of appetizers, and a couple of beers (Sam Adams for me, thanks).  From there, we headed to our hotel to clean up and get gussied up for the most expensive dinner we'd have our entire trip.  Before dinner, we stopped at the Prudential Center (which was a block from our hotel, conveniently) to see the view and have a drink at the top.  From there, we headed to dinner at O Ya.  I won't tell you how much money he spent on this meal.  All I'll say is that it was a once-in-a-lifetime (or maybe decade) type of thing, and the quality of the food, the skills required to prepare the dishes, and the experience made it worth it.  For the record, he picked this place out.  And it was divine.  We had 21 courses.  There was gold leaf.  There was caviar.  There was foie gras.  There were truffles (ew).  Some of them haunt me to this day.  We were given a copy of the menu to always remember what we had, so if anyone is THAT curious, I'll be happy to let you look over it.  On our walk back to the hotel, we discovered that there was a bowling alley directly next to our hotel.  Bad news.

Day 2:  Ah, my favorite day of the trip.  We began at the Sam Adams brewery.  It was a must for me.  Cherry Wheat is my poison of choice (in the beer department).  We went for the free tour (they only ask for a donation to charity), which came with free samples of three of their best selling brews (for the of-agers) and free sampling glasses to take home!  We even got to taste the barley and smell the hops.

We had a food tour to go to later that afternoon, so we decided a quick but yummy lunch would do.  We went to Legal Sea Foods (there are many locations, but we went to the one in the Prudential Center since it was so close to our hotel) and split a crab cake plate, which came with two crab cakes and a salad with fruits in it.  Fantastic.  We thought it might be too tourist-y, and it probably was, but it was so delicious that it made up for it.  Plus, we had a really cool waitress at the bar.  She helped me decide to drink sangria, and I don't think I've wanted to drink anything else, alcoholic or non, since then.
Then came our food tour in the North End.  This is Boston's own Little Italy.  Our tour guide was excellent.  He taught us a lot about the history of immigrants in Boston before the tour began.  He was obviously quite familiar with every establishment there.  We began at Maria's Pastry Shop where we sampled lots of goodies.  From there, we went to a pasta shop (where they make their own pasta), a spice store (where I had the opportunity to show off my supreme agronomy skills), a produce shop, a prepared foods store, and a wine shop.  We learned about history, tradition, and how to pick out the right ingredients, all while sampling some of the goods.  This was my second favorite part of our entire trip.  We ate dinner at a restaurant called Mamma Maria's that evening before heading back to the hotel.
That night was the Celtics game, my very favorite
part of the trip.  Here's why:  Imagine Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night football game.  Now imagine it's condensed down to the size of the PMAC.  That is what it was like being at that game.  I didn't know basketball fans could be that enthusiastic.  Now I know, and I'm afraid I'm a Celtics fan forever.  Plus, I'm almost certain I went to middle school with one of the players on their team.  PLUS, the game went into overtime, and the Celtics won.  The best kind of game to be at.  I loved it so much, I bought striped knee-socks and wore them the next day (it was chilly).


Day 3:  The day it rained.  We hoped the rain would be short-lived, but it was not.  We began with breakfast (the best one of the trip) at a bookshop!  Trident Booksellers and Cafe.  Remember that if you ever go to Boston.  Then go there and get the corn beef hash.  Tell them Ashleigh sent you.  They won't have any idea what you mean, but it might be funny.  They had good coffee, good food, and good music.  Plus, they were right by Newbury Comics (a nerd must).  After that we walked a bit while we were still being optimistic, then we decided we'd make that day our shopping day.  Or rather, my H&M day.  We did our (my) shopping then had dinner at a restaurant called Torro.  It was Tapas, and it was my favorite meal in Boston.  They had this corn that could kill you and these mussels that were served in tin cans that I cried about for days (and I till cry about them) and a red wine cocktail that could rival any drink I'd ever had.  GO TO THIS RESTAURANT.  It's owned by a chef named Ken Oringer, who has a long list of restaurants in Boston (we tried many of them).  At one point we realized he was sitting at the table next to us just ordering things off the menu (unbeknownst to the folks in the kitchen) just to see how it would all turn out.  He's our new favorite person.  We got back to the hotel room and immediately watched his episode of Iron Chef America from a few years ago.  And we fell more in love with him.  Then we hit up the bowling alley.  The had a Golden Tee machine.  It was as if time stood still.  TC needed another meal after bowling, so we went to another Ken O. restaurant, a sushi place called Uni, that had late night ramen.  It was perfect.  I saw an ice cream sandwich on the menu, so I got it.  More reasons to cry.  Sadly, I have no photos from this day.

Day 4:  (This is where the days began to jumble together.)  Opening day at Fenway Park!  We headed out to Fenway via pedicab (a first for both of us) a bit early because we wanted to have lunch at yet another of Ken O.'s restaurants, a Mexican place called La Verdad, which happened to be directly next to Fenway.  They had great guacamole, but after Torro, I could think of little else but that corn.  And hey, we saw Ken at this restaurant, too!  We had pretty good seats for the baseball game, but we were more interested in walking around the park.  The Sox were playing the Rays, who had a local St. Amant boy on the team (who I actually saw play in high school), and the home team won.  Afterward, we went and had oysters and drinks at the Island Creek Oyster Bar, then went for more bowling at a place called Lucky Strike, also in the area.  TC was hungry again later that night, so we tried to go to Uni for their regular sushi menu, but we were too late.  We headed for a steak place where TC had a giant steak and I had a cheese plate.

Day 5:  The day we went to Salem.  We started the day at The Thinking Cup, where I had maybe the best hazelnut latte of my life.  It was flavored not with syrup, but with actual ground hazelnuts.  The most amazing flavor!  Plus, they put a heart of foam on top!  We intended to ride the train the whole way to Salem, but the tracks were being worked on.  We ended up taking a bus most of the way, then a train at the end.  When we arrived, we ate at a place that Guy Fieri ate at called The Lobster Shanty.  I got a lobster for 20 bucks.  And it was good.  TC made me order some awful drink called a Lobstertini.  It came with a huge lobster claw on top, though, so all was not lost.  Then we went to the Maritime museum, a destination I was sure TC would love (him being a riverman, after all), but that sort of fell flat.  At that point we headed to the Witch Museum just in time for a showing.  It was pretty juvenile, but cool nonetheless.  We missed our train out by about ten seconds (literally--and not figuratively-literally but literally-literally), so we went to a restaurant to sit at the bar, have a drink, and watch some hockey while we waited for the next one.  That night, we finally made it to eat at Uni.  We had about nine courses there, and it was amazing.  Definitely worth trying.  I think we went bowling again that night.  We're wild!

Day 6:  We headed into Cambridge on Sunday to stay our last night just around the block from Harvard at a boutique hotel called Hotel Veritas.  (Fun Fact:  "Veritas" is the Latin word for "truth" and is part of Harvard's school crest.)  It was so adorable!  TC picked it out all on his own because he claims he knew I'd love it.  He was right.  We had brunch (sorry, nothing comparable to Mason's here in Baton Rouge), and on the way we saw an ice cream store who claimed to have the best ice cream.  I looked up reviews, and it seemed legit, so we got a scoop after, then I wanted to vomit for the next couple of hours.  We then went to shop for TC (he had gotten khakis earlier in the week and wanted some brown shoes to go with them), and headed back to the room for a quick rest.  Well, I rested, unpacked, and reorganized (the last time I ever saw my hair straightener), while TC headed to the gym.  We ended the night with Italian food (where everyone wished up good luck in the marathon the next day) complete with a cannoli in the North End again.  It was a night after that.  We were pooped.

Day 7:  For the last day of our trip, we began with breakfast/brunch at a little place in Cambridge called Tory Row, which was open-air and wonderful.  We watched a bit of the marathon there, too.  We toured Harvard Yard and considered sitting in on a class, but we decided against it.  We bought souvenirs and hopped a cab back to the North End, yet again.  We had pizza for lunch, then made our way back to Maria's Pastry Shop to load up for my mama, who, bless her heart, only requested Italian pastries as a souvenir.  Then it was a hop, skip, and a jump to the airport to head home.

Sorry for the extensive delay in getting this blog post out.  Also, sorry that it's a million miles long.  I hope it was everything everyone wanted it to be.  Of course, if anyone wants to know anything else, I'll be happy to fill you in as much as possible.

Please forgive me.

Okay, okay, it's pretty clear that this 30-day blogging challenge (which I initially pretty much forced everyone to do) was a big, fat, whopping failure on my part.  Seriously.
I went to Boston.  And I'm moving next week.  And I only have two weeks of class and one week of finals left in school.  Tonight I have to put together a presentation for my Women and Gender Studies class (which I have to give tomorrow), and I have a five-page interview paper to write for the same class due on Thursday.  And then I have a five-page research paper due in my Agronomy class next week.  And I'm not trying to excuse myself, but I just want to show everyone how busy I am.

I promise you'll get a Boston post.  I just have to get my memory card for my camera back when The Captain gets home because he stole it.

By the way, I've decided that my honey's new interwebs name shall be The Captain instead of The Boy.  I'm fairly certain he doesn't even read my blog, nor does he know that I've been calling him The Boy for the past several months, but I think he'd prefer his new name, mostly because it's more manly and he is, in fact, a captain.  Plus, who doesn't love a good How I Met Your Mother refrence?

Blame it on a rush of blood to the head.

I've been writing a lot of restaurant reviews lately on Trip Advisor.  Seems I fancy myself a food writer.  If I had the patience to become an english or journalism major, I think I'd like to do that for a living.  Every time I think about that, I immediately imagine myself as Julia Roberts in the opening scene of My Best Friend's Wedding.  Oh, that I could do it all over again.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

I tried giving blood today.  The Boy really wanted me to go donate with him, and I've always wanted to know my blood type.  I don't think anyone could understand how much giving blood terrifies me.  Seriously, I don't even want to do it when I have to have blood tests done.  I just hate that feeling of the needle in the middle of my arm.  Thinking about having to have it there sucking my blood away from my body for minutes at a time.....ugh.  I think it would feel like an eternity.  But I was going to give it a shot.  I don't know why I bothered because all the women in my family practically are anemic.  And what do you know, it turns out I am, as well.  I felt bad feeling so relieved when the nice woman told me that my iron count was too low.  "It's not turribly low."  But too low to donate.  Darn.  She was nice enough to type it for me, though.  Turns out I'm O+.  Just in case you guys needed to know.

I'm sucking on the bitter to get to the sweet part.

My phone is restoring right now in hopes that when it's done I'll actually be able to edit contacts again.  I'd be willing to bet, though, that it won't restore correctly and I'll just lose all my apps instead.  Seems like every time there's a big iPhone update, I lose all my apps.  Here's hoping I don't lose everything else, too.

Today I will do lots of studying.  I really like agronomy, but my teacher puts SO MUCH INFORMATION on the slides, and he really doesn't narrow it down for us come test time.  We have nine topics on our test Thursday, including probably 1,000 slides.  Eesh.

But I tell ya, boy, once that test rolls around Thursday, it'll be smooth sailing after that.  Hair party that night, slumber party the next night, Titanic and spending time with my mama the next day, then Easter, then mani/pedi, packing, and work on Monday, and THEN I fly off to Boston with my honey for seven beautiful days.

I'm having lunch with my dad tomorrow to discuss some stuff, which I'm equally excited and nervous about.  Wish me luck!

It is not said. I always know.

Welllllp, turns out weekends with TB home are almost impossible to blog on.  They. Are. So. Busy.  Until this morning (or last night, I suppose), I just almost hadn't stopped since Thursday morning.  So today is lazy Sunday at TB's house.  He's currently snoozing next to me while I catch up reading/writing blogs and watching Food Network.

Aside from the test I have Thursday (which I should be studying for right now instead of blogging), this week will be quite short.  Once TB goes back to the Mighty Mississippi, I'll get some visitation with all of my other favorite people for pretty much four days.  THEN, the Monday after Easter, I'll go have a pre-work mani/pedi and post-work crazy Boston packing, then head to Boston on Tuesday.  So I won't even have to wait until Thursday to see TB again since we're going on vacay together.  Pretty exciting stuff.

I wanna do right, but not right now.

...I sure hope I haven't used that line for a title already.  Eh.

I did too much today.  Woke up early to straighten my hair (since TB was coming home today), took Batman to the vet (not exactly on my way to school), went to ALL my classes (9-3, one of which was a test), picked Batty up from the vet (not exactly on my way home), went grocery shopping for two big meals, drove to Prairieville, cooked supper (not exactly an easy dish, either), cleaned the kitchen, and baked a cake for dessert tomorrow night.

So forgive me that this is a short post, but I'm about to go into a Chopped coma.

She's ahead of her time.

Well, it's another night of blogging from my phone in bed.

TB goes home tomorrow, which means I can look forward to another busy week. Sometimes I feel a bit like I have a double life. Around Tuesday before he gets off I sometimes feel like he's just a dream. But then he's back and it's like he never left. Blaaahhhh, sorry for going on about it.

Coombses are here, and all is well. Nothing like getting a run-and-jump hug from Bug this evening. And goodness, the oldest is just growing FAR too quickly. And Monkey told me I can't call him Monkey anymore because I called him that when he was "like, three," in his words. For the sake of the blog, though, he shall remain my Monkey. I can't wait to spend more time with them and their parents.

Through chaos as it swirls.

Whoa, almost forgot to blog again. Thank goodness I have an app that lets me blog on my phone from my bed, because my computer is kaput for the night.

Well, I did my scheduling today. Unfortunately, I'll need to talk to someone about two of my classes. Since I've already taken and passed them at another school, the system won't allow me to schedule them, even though LSU won't give me credit for them because they were taken at a community college. Stupid. It should be an easy fix, though. I got all the really specialized classes I wanted anyway, so it's good.

TB sent me a link to the house we're staying at in Tahoe in September with his family since it was booked today. He made sure there was a hot tub on the deck just for me. I sure am a lucky gal.

Today I went to all my classes AND swept the house AND put away all my laundry including redressing the bed, all while watching (and crying through) two episodes of One Tree Hill. I'm sucker for that show, I tell ya. Oh, and L came over for some much-needed Community and Vampire Diaries catch-up. Now I'll need to read some women's counseling material tomorrow for out writing assignment on Thursday. I swear, they should just give me a degree in being a college student by now. Oh well.

I've got my life in a suitcase. I'm ready to run, run, run away.

Y'all, I almost forgot to blog AGAIN today.  I'm failing pretty miserably at the blogging challenge.  I apologize.

I actually journaled twice this weekend.  Granted, I was on an airplane both times, but I'm kind of proud of myself.  I like blogging, and I like journaling.  Journaling allows me to be more specific since it's just for me to read.  I don't have to worry about whether or not I sound like a crazy person because deep down I know I actually am a crazy person.  And I can accept that.

Minnesota was so lovely.  I really miss being able to hang out with Charlie and Stephanie more often.  I know that once they're closer again, though, it'll get REAL fun.  And they'll have this wonderful experience to look back on.

I have an accounting test tomorrow.  I started studying at the beginning of last week.  I find that when it comes to accounting, like math, practice is really all you can do to make it stick.  So I've been doing lots of practice problems, and I really feel like I'll do well.  There are a couple of concepts that I need to drill into my head a little more, but I'll just review those sometime before the test tomorrow.  I have them written down, and it's literally only two things, so I should be fine.  I don't know why, but test-taking was never my strong suit.  Even when I feel confident, I can't shake the awful nervous feeling I get when I begin a test.  It's usually my downfall.

I also get to schedule tomorrow, which I've set two (count em, two) alarms for.  This semester is NOT ending up like the semester before last did.  I will not be scrambling for classes my last year of college, no sir.

And I go to Boston with The Boy in 15 days.  AAAAHHHHH!!!

Eyes can't look at you any other way.

Hey readers! Sorry bout yesterday. I just was too busy enjoying time up North to blog. Pretty busy today, too, but I guess since we're in the car, I can spare a paragraph or two.

Minnesota is lovely, and the weather couldn't be better. I enjoyed The Hunger Games, but not as much as I'd hoped to. Adrian won some money today, but I almost didn't get in to see it. By a stroke of luck, my fishing license had my DOB and signature on it, and my Sam's Club card had my picture on it. I kind of lucked out.

Aside from all that, I'm all around happy today. I might be seeing some big changes in the near future. And it's exciting!!

You're gonna save me from myself.

Welp, The Boy went back to the Mighty Mississippi for another week.  Yesterday, the weather was pretty bad.  He had gone out with his buddies the night before, so I was sure he was sleeping super late (his schedule at work sometimes runs over into his schedule at home).  When I heard there was a tornado is Geismar at about 9:30ish, I wasn't too worried because his house is a little bit from Geismar.  But then his best friend posted on facebook that his neighborhood had been hit by a separate tornado (within miles from TB's house), so I got a little worried.  We had a pretty big mid-day break at work, so I started to ride to his house to make sure there wasn't a tree through the roof or anything, but just before I turned onto the highway leading there, he called to tell me he was alive, and he was going to check on Best Friend's house.  When I told him I was headed to his house, he decided we'd meet up in a parking lot and I'd go on with them.  The roads were closed, but since we were with Best Friend who lived back there, they let us through.  I honestly felt like I was in a movie.  There were trees down everywhere, stumps halfway up the trunk that looked like they had been sawed clean through.  When we got to Best Friend's neighborhood, the first three or four houses were torn apart.  Roofs that were clearly in the path of the tornado made it look like the house was just ripped down the center.  Another home just outside of the neighborhood had the roof torn clean off, and all three cars in their driveway were demolished.  TB said Best Friend had (and excuse my--or rather his--language) "a horseshoe up his ass" because his house was the very first one in the neighborhood with no serious damage.  He had a small piece of siding from the edge of the roof torn off, but there were plenty of things from his neighbors' yards in his back yard and leaves splattered all over the back of his house.  He was, indeed, very fortunate.

Aside from that re-cap of my day yesterday, today I'm playing hooky (kind of) to do laundry and clean up and pack and study (for the three tests I have next week...ugh).  I am going to one class later, but until then I'll be a slave to my studies.  Sick day, schmick day.  I have things to do.

Come on in. I've gotta tell you what a state I'm in.

Okay, so I have to apologize for totally botching what the benefit we attended last night was for.  It was for a girl with Cystic Fibrosis.  It was actually pretty cool.  We bought a bunch of raffle tickets (20 for me, 20 for The Boy's mom, and 100 for The Boy), and The Boy actually won some stuff!  He won a baseball and photo of the baseball field signed by Paul Maineri (the LSU baseball coach) and a quail hunt in Mississippi, along with some little things won from playing games toward the end of the night.  I believe we walked out with some golf balls, a bottle of BBQ sauce, a $25 Advance Auto Parts gift card, a BMW travel coffee mug, and a vase with a Saints fleur de lis painted on it.  A successful night, I'd say.

I love O's idea about a warning label for our blogs, so I wanted to write mine!

"Upon reading this blog, here are a few things to be prepared to find:
1.  I often use nicknames or initials for friends and loved ones.
2.  I try to not talk about The Boy too much, but he will occasionally make an appearance.
3.  I 'm a little bit of an entertainment junkie.
4.  I'm definitely a travel junkie.
5.  I tend to post more often when I'm sad than when I'm happy (with the exception of the 30-day blogging challenge).
6.  At the moment, my personal life is going through extreme highs and extreme lows all at once.  I promise I'm not bipolar.
7.  My dogs are my children.
8.  I use song lyrics as titles.  They may or may not directly associate with what I'm blogging about."

Okay, that's all I can come up with for the time being.  That was fun!

P.S. Did anyone notice the song lyric I used as my title?  I kind of thought it was rather clever of me.

Her dignity shone so bright, like a light on a hill.

Well, hello, again.  I do believe that today's post will be much shorter than yesterday's.  Mostly because I'm just waiting on the boy to pick me up.

We're going to a benefit on campus.  It's pretty awful of me to say that I'm not sure what it's for, right?  I do know that it's for an individual battling cancer.  Beyond that, I suppose I'll find out soon.  I also know that there will be free food and drink and lots of fun things to buy raffle tickets for, so I've equipped myself with some cash.  Hopefully I won't spend too much, but if I do, oh well (it's for a good cause, right?).

Man, travel is expensive.  I've been trying to save a little of every pay check for spending money (for Boston, at the moment) for travel.  Thankfully, that trip is all paid for with the exception of food, tourism, and shopping money.  There's an H&M in Boston.  If I know anything, I know that I love H&M, and it will be a difficult task to limit myself in there.  Hopefully having the boy with me will make me want to get out of there quicker.  He's been well warned what that place does to me.

Okay, well, that's all for tonight, folks.  I'm off to support a good cause (and eat some food and stuff).  Until tomorrow...

The more boys I meet, the more I love my dogs.

Not really.  I just wanted to keep with the song lyric blog titles.  (That's a Carrie Underwood song, for all you who hate on country.)  Since the topic of this blog is Batman (my sweet little Pomeranian), I thought I'd go in that direction.

As most of you know, Batty's had some health issues for the past month and some days.  I wanted to take an opportunity to document everything that has happened.

It all started when I brought Batman and Cooper to the vet last December.  I knew Batman's teeth were pretty bad off.  You could tell by looking at them.  I had a feeling the vet was going to suggest I have his teeth cleaned.  I'd had Malibu's (my evil/sweet kitty who lives with my mom) teeth cleaned before, and I knew it was going to cost a bit of money, so I waited until I got my tax return check so that I could afford it without having to flex my budget.  So Friday, February 10th, Batman went back to the vet to have his teeth cleaned.  For those of you who aren't aware, when a pet has their teeth cleaned at the vet, they're put under anesthesia so that the dental hygienist can really get them clean.  I dropped him off in the morning and was going to pick him up that evening.  The vet called me that afternoon to let me know that Batty had woken up and I could come to pick him up in a couple of hours.

That evening when I picked him up, he was acting really funny, almost drunk, which was to be expected due to the anesthesia.  But what was strange was that when I tried to physically pick him up to take him to the car, he yelped.  Even the vet tech thought that was strange.  But I got him home and let him rest.  He was still acting very strange the next day and the following day, but everyone assured me that he would shake it.  His tail was down, he wasn't eating (unless I gave him a chicken strip), and he rarely wanted to go outside, choosing to instead pee on my bedroom floor (gross, and REALLY odd for him).  Monday I wasn't feeling all that well, so I stayed home.  I also wanted to continue to monitor him.  He was still acting strange.  It felt like I had brought home a different dog.  It was truly upsetting me.

The next day was Valentine's Day.  I had school that day and a date with my bestie that night eating carbs and watching Titanic.  I come home and did my cooking (which included penne alla vodka and a delicious chocolate cake, all homemade), and L came over to get down to Valentine's Day business (we have a standing V-Day date).  Just as we sat down to eat, she commented on how strange he was acting as well.  I went over to him and rubbed his sides very gently and I could feel very hard patches of skin on his torso.  I immediately called my vet (who also has an emergency clinic) and the emergency vet suggested I bring him in.  I intended to wait it out until the end of the movie, but under L's instruction, I went ahead and took him then.

We got to the vet, and they took him back to get a better look at it.  They called it a vasculitis, which is a swelling of the blood vessels.  They figured that the cause was an adverse reaction to the anesthesia.  They wanted to drain them, which would take about 45 minutes, and Grease was playing in the waiting room, so I just thought I'd wait it out.  Once they began to shave the spots, though, his skin was starting to flake off, so they suggested I leave him overnight.  Seeing him sedated with all those awful spots got to me.  I left the vet sobbing the whole drive home, not knowing if my Batty was going to even live through this whole ordeal.

He ended up staying at the vet until Saturday.  I visited him every day.  The team at his vet clinic was amazing.  He was being treated by a husband and wife team who kept me COMPLETELY informed with a lengthy call every day.  They decided that he would go through a series of laser treatments.  That meant, even after I took him home, he had to go back every day and undergo another treatment.  Eventually, his spots began to ooze, so he's been covered in tank-top-looking bandages since then.  As of right now, we go every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I drop him off in the morning and pick him up in the evening, and he LOVES being there.

Throughout this process, God has blessed me SO much.  I do not blame my vet that this happened.  They do this routine procedure all the time.  It was just an unfortunate reaction that Batman had.  As you can imagine, laser treatments, bandages, three-a-week vet visits, an emergency visit, a four-night stay and medication can get pricy.  Within the first week of this whole situation, Batman's doctor told me they would charge me nothing.  Not a penny.  And they are so dedicated to making him better, it almost brings me to tears.  It has brought me to tears.  I don't know how I could have done this without their kindness.

While we're still undergoing treatments, he is well on his way to being completely healthy again.  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.  Sorry that this is the longest blog in the world, but I just wanted to let everyone know what we went through and how lucky I am to have an amazing vet for my pets.

Please forgive me.

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday.  I'm terrible.  It's not even that I forgot, because I kept reminding myself that I needed to, but I was SO BUSY all day.  (...And then I drank too much last night to do anything but go to bed.  Please don't judge me.)

Yesterday was a wild and crazy day.  Lots of weird things happened.  Not necessarily bad weird things, but just oddities.  I do love when the boy is home, though.  It gives me the opportunity to hang out with "his" friends, who I really enjoy.  We pretty much spent tons of time with other couples all weekend.  His cousin's wife had a baby Friday night, so I'm hoping we go to meet him within the next couple of days.  We did get to hang out with a few of "my" favorites, too.  All in all, it was a nice weekend.

Aside from all that, I'm super excited about the coming weekend.  I've been looking forward to visiting Charlie and Stephanie since we first planned this trip, but now I'm actually getting REALLY excited just about seeing the Hunger Games movie.  I bought my China Glaze nail polish, the one for District 4 (I forget what it's called).  I saw a preview today, one that I had seen times before, but it gave me goosebumps this time.  I really just can't wait.

Baby, I'm a cop.

Meaning that I'm copping out tonight. But at least I'm writing SOMETHING, right? See you folks after the parade tomorrow. WOOHOO CAR BOMBS!

Here we are.

Beware the Ides of March, people.  It's 30-day blogging time!

Unfortunately, I always feel like the first blog is just sort of an intro, especially since I haven't blogged in several months again.  I've been a little busy.  I can't really complain about being busy these days, since for me busy means happy.

Today I met with an advisor about my schedule for next semester.  I schedule in two Tuesdays, but after my meeting, I've already nailed down my entire schedule.  Since I've been in college for 100 years, I'm among the first group to schedule, which means I'm pretty much a shoe-in for every class I want.  I'll be scheduling 15 hours (which is five classes), once again going to class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, only this time it will be from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm with two breaks in there.  Unfortunately, this is pretty much the only way it can be.  There will also be one online class.  The reason I had to meet with an advisor is because I only have TWO SEMESTERS LEFT.  Guys, I think I'm actually going to be a college graduate someday.

That's pretty much it for today's blog.  Oh, one more thing.  I'M GOING TO MINNESOTA IN A WEEK (and a few hours).