Recovery and Rewards

Monday, I had my first post-op appointment. The doc said everything looked great. He took the original cast off, took x-rays, removed the stitches, and then re-wrapped and re-casted it. Look what color I got!

It dried and ended up being the perfect shade of Wolfpack red, which makes me unreasonably happy. It's a silly, small thing, yes, but if I have to have this thing on my foot for another four weeks, I might as well have a reason to smile when I look at it, right?

Yesterday, I must have caught Mom in a really good mood or something, because she agreed to get me two early birthday presents that I really want. First, it was this.

Yes, that is Harry Styles' new album. I am ridiculously excited about it. A couple songs from it have been released already, and they are SO GOOD. I can't wait for the full album to be released on Friday.

Then, there were these.

Orange bluetooth wireless headphones. I need them because my headphone jack is broken and I can't get an upgrade/new phone until December. They're a really nice brand, too; they were on sale on Amazon for $20 when they were originally $90. They'll be here next week, and I can't wait to try them out.

Gotta find happiness wherever you can get it, right?

Apparently I can take my sling off in my sleep now.

Because I woke up and it was unhooked from me. I think I remember thinking that my elbow was hurting but don't remember taking it off. But who can blame me for that? My elbow has been at a right angle for three solid months now. It was bound to get cramped. So I went to get a glass of wine next door tonight because the roommates are bugging me majorly and decided to go without my sling since it is just next door and wasn't any major physical activity and my arm seriously hurts being straightened out and not strapped to my stomach. So that'll be fun to deal with.

I know I'm a whiner. But my body is weird and annoying.

My new coat and gloves came in today! Mom got them for me for Christmas since I don't have anything appropriate for a New York winter. The timing was perfect since it didn't get above 30 degrees today which is only a foreshadowing of things to come.

I'm going to have to figure out how to get to and from the grocery with one arm tomorrow. I've been asking Holly to do it for a week now and now it seems like she's just ignoring me to be mean and I'm tired of having to spend so much money because we have no food or drink in the house. So that will be interesting. Especially if it's as cold tomorrow as it was today. Eh, even if I can't wear the coat because of my sling, at least I can wear my gloves.

Truth be told, the cold may be rough, but I much prefer it over the heat, and I really can't wait for my first NYC snow! :)

It tastes like chocolate...wine...

I got chocolate wine in the mail from my friend Pam today.  See?

She was supposed to bring it to my graduation party, but since she couldn't come, she UPS'ed it.  Mom and I are going to crack it open this weekend, which really could not come at a better time because all hell is breaking loose over here.  Prayers are greatly appreciated.

The title is what I said to my mom's boyfriend when he asked me what it tastes like.  So thankful my mom has a man who can put up with my snark and sarcasm. ;)  He knows I love him.

Not much else happened today.  I've been resting a lot because I'm still dealing with a lot of pain.  But I did get my 4 miles done in a much better time today.  So yay for that! :)

Tomorrow, I really need to knock out these thank you cards.

Christmas Eve

Because I'm too tired to come up with a more creative title.

I woke up at 9:00, ate a quick breakfast, and then immediately got to work.  Mom goes into massive panic cleaning mode at every holiday, and this one was no different.  But Chelsea was at work (and thankfully Blake's daycare was open for part of the day), which meant I was the only one here to help.  I cleaned out her car, the bathrooms, did a ton of laundry, and basically did whatever miscellaneous things she needed me to do from then until just before 2:00 when Blake had to be picked up.  Then, Mommom and I went to get him, and I basically babysat him for two hours while Mom cooked.  Then, Mommom came back to get him and took him with her to get Chelsea from work and Ryan (Chelsea's boyfriend) from the Base (he's a Marine).  I was picking up and doing more laundry the entire time.

When Mommom, Blake, Chelsea, and Ryan got here, we sat down and had a delicious lasagna for dinner.  Mom kept talking about how she hoped it would turn out well because she hasn't made lasagna in a long time, and Chelsea and I kept telling her that of course it would turn out well because everything she cooks is amazing.  We were right.  It was incredible.

After dinner, we let Blake open his presents from the family so that he doesn't get too overwhelmed tomorrow.  He got more Hot Wheels, a helmet (which believe it or not, he's been asking for for weeks), this Etch-a-Sketch type thing, and a firetruck and police car.

Then we just hung out for the rest of the night, played with Blake until he went to bed, and watched Meet the Parents.  I know, great choice for Christmas Eve, but it never gets old. :)

And now I'm going to bed because it's been a very long day and it's going to be an even longer day tomorrow.

Holly and Michael will be getting here in the middle of the night, and yes, there will be pictures of all the family tomorrow.  Blake's just the cute one.  The rest of us don't look cute tonight. :p

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! When I wake up, I'm getting a CAT SCAN!!!

(No, not really.  In case you didn't get the reference, that's a quote from my favorite Christmas movie The Santa Clause.)

Fifteen days early...I'll take it.

I got Christmas today.

It was out of sheer necessity, mind you.  My mom does not usually give out Christmas presents this far in advance unless it was like, tickets to an event that just so happened to take place before Christmas Day.

But anyway.  What I got was something that I completely did NOT expect to get it.  Because us "kids" are older now, there's usually no real surprise to Christmas presents anymore.  What we normally just get is cash, unless there's a specific gift that we request.  It's much simpler this way.

Back in the beginning of July, I told my mom that I wanted a new cell phone for Christmas.  The only real issue with mine (at the time) was that the screen was all scratched up.  Plus, to be honest, I was just tired of it.  My mom told me I was crazy to want a new one when this one worked fine, but I told her it wasn't like it was going to be expensive considering I'd had it for two years so there was a $150 upgrade credit given by Sprint.  She just said "We'll see" which is Mom-code for "Ehhh, probably not going to happen."

Over the course of the next few months, things started going wrong with my phone. (I promise I didn't sabotage it!)  It wouldn't hold a charge for very long.  If I tried to make a phone call without it plugged into the charger, which was basically the only way I COULD make a phone call seeing as how reception indoors sucks at Campbell, it would completely turn off randomly.  Just all sorts of random, not-good-for-a-phone-to-do things.  So I kept reminding my mom that I'd suck it up till December 25th, but I really wanted, and now sort of needed, a new cell phone for Christmas.

Well my mom walked into my room about 2:00 this afternoon with a bag and said, "Are you ready for Christmas?"  She pulled out EXACTLY what I asked for...except way better.

A smartphone. To be specific, an HTC Evo 4G.

See, when my mom first got us all our own cell phones, we had internet on our phones.  But it wasn't unlimited, and the very first month, Chelsea blew. up. her phone and made my mom's phone bill skyrocket for going so far above the limit.  So that was the end of that.  And through all the years since then, she said she was never going to get internet on her phone plan just so that could never happen again.

Heh.  Now Chelsea's getting married.  That means that her mommy isn't going to be paying her bills anymore.  Her phone has crapped out completely, so she desperately needed a new phone, too.  But because she will be moving onto Shane's Verizon plan in just a few months, Mom didn't want to buy her a new phone and have to commit to a contract which she would then have to break.  And apparently, Holly will soon be taking over her own phone bill, as well.

My mom found a Christmas special on Sprint's website, and with the previously mentioned $150 upgrade that I had, and that she had, as well, all she had to pay for two new Sprint smartphones for her and me was the $36 activation fee and the increase in cost for the new data plan.  Not too shabby considering these phones are $300-$400 each, eh?

I love this thing.  I haven't stopped playing with it all day.  I am so stoked that she thought of this. :D

Merry Christmas to me!

Yay presents. Boo heat.

Spending the day with Mom was really nice.  That is, at least in the sense that we didn't fight and spent most of the time being goofy and cracking up laughing at each other.

The downside?  It's June. In North Carolina. June in North Carolina means one thing....brutal heat.  Today was so bad that after we ate lunch, which was a salad I've eaten a thousand times before and has never made me sick, I spent the next four hours going in and out of stores with a major case of an upset stomach and nausea so strong that it also made me feel like I was going to pass out.  So of course, every store we went to looking for one thing Mom needed ended up having a major sale that made the visit take three times as long as it should have but it's okay. 

She kinda spoiled me today.  Not only did she buy me the two poster frames that were my birthday present, she got me two Paris posters, a new pair of Reebok Easytones (which are like walking on pillows, I swear!), and three pairs of shorts that were on sale.  There's just no stopping that woman when she sees a good bargain. :)

Let's see, we dropped Blake off at daycare about 8:30 went to JCPenney, two different Belks, Target, Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Marshall's, Shoe Carnival, Sprint, the electric company, and O'Charley's for lunch.  All in the span of seven hours or so.  Needless to say, I am extremely exhausted.  But hey, at least I'm not sick to my stomach anymore!

2011 is already half over.  That's a little crazy to think about, isn't it?

HAPPY 2016TH BIRTHDAY JESUS!

Or somewhere around that number...since, ya know, no one really knows when he was born.

I had a great Christmas.  Or as my cousin called it, a great "Jesus Day."

I got exactly what I wanted - lots and lots of cash.

My neck, shoulder and right arm are driving me nuts, so I'm not going to say much. 

Except that I hope you all had a wonderful day with your loved ones.

And that I really really hope that this snowstorm actually comes - I LOVE SNOW!!!!!

:D

Yay for presents!

My grandmother is awesome. Seriously.

She bought me a very very very nice laptop and new printer (the printer my mom got me was faulty so we had no printer in the house) as my graduation present.

I am so EXCITED. I've spent the past like four hours downloading messenger and toolbars and microsoft and loading up the printer and just playing on it. I LOVE IT. It's going to be great to have at Campbell, especially since most of the classrooms have wireless hook-up and plugs for you to plug in your laptop in class, and I type wayyyy faster than I write so it'll be much easier to take notes. (And it has a real number key pad unlike most laptops, which means I can type in French accent codes when need be with ease.)

AND I got my bedding for my dorm room.

AND I got to go to Olive Garden.

Totally awesome day, I tell ya.



And I get to see Matt tomorrow. For the first time since December. :) But that's beside the point.