Sunday, August 29, 2010
house hunting
i'm falling in love with a house on Franklin St. in downtown Harrisonburg. someone needs to buy it fast so that a) i don't buy it, and b) so that i can mourn it and get over it. god it's gorgeous, hardwood floors, huge front porch, great kitchen with gas range, built-ins in the office, fireplaces, built in 1920. ahhhh!!!! sigh. holding me back is being unsure of a) whether i want to spend that kind of money at this point in my life and b) whether i want to stay in harrisonburg after this year is over. i'm not sure of either. and i'm not sure where i want to go after this year either.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
News of the day
I learned this morning that my godmother, Laura has a stage 4 brain tumor. She'll be sent to either Duke or Houston for further treatment, but my mom said the prognosis isn't great. ;o( I also learned that to replace the coat that I ruined at Shack-a-thon (Greek Week) I have to pay $300. Lovely way to start the day. So Annalisa and I took our friend Daniel who is living in our complex and went to the book fair and bought books. Buying books is always a good way to feel better. We then came back and made a chocolate cake that I have to make the icing for before dinner.
It's going to be an interesting house dynamic this year. J and A are going to sell tickets for when M and I are ready to kill each other. It's a complete clash of personalities, which I didn't realize the extent of clashing until she had moved in. Yay!
My last piece of news is that boys are stupid.
It's going to be an interesting house dynamic this year. J and A are going to sell tickets for when M and I are ready to kill each other. It's a complete clash of personalities, which I didn't realize the extent of clashing until she had moved in. Yay!
My last piece of news is that boys are stupid.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
healthy life and family discoveries
I just saw a RMH tweet about how diabetics should eat on schedule...yup, so should people who are hypoglycemic and prone to sudden drops in blood sugar like me. Hence, why I always have PB crackers around.
Got good news from the doctor about the appointment last week...perfectly normal test which means my body has actually been healing so all that sleep was worth it! All those pre-cancerous cells that were removed in Feb have stayed gone. I'll get another test next Feb to check and make sure it's all still normal, and if it is then I can go to once a year exams. I won't be able to skip a year like others can because of my increased risk factor, but it's such a relief to know that my body actually can heal. All the stress about it from the last 6 months has evaporated, well most of it.
The other night I got onto ancestry.com, where I had entered as much of my family as I knew, and was able to figure out some new people to add. I couldn't figure out who the parent's of David Dows (my great-great-great grandfather) were until I did some searching and found his father was named Eleazer. How's that for a family name? From Eleazer I was able to trace it back two more generations to Laurance who was born in 1613 in England and moved to Charlestown, MA. So that's my grandfather's side, but I couldn't figure out my grandmother's side which is how I have my family connection to this area. So after some more searching I found that the Dingledines had moved from Germany to a farm between Timbervill and Forestville between 1835-1845. Three sons, John, Adam and Samuel then fought in the Civil War on the Confederacy side. That was surprising to me because I had previously thought that my entire family was Union. Adam (my great-great-great uncle) was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness and brought back to Staunton where he died in the hospital. He's buried in Timberville, which is about 2 miles from Broadway High School where I'm working right now. If it's not raining after practice tonight I'm going to go find his grave.
Got good news from the doctor about the appointment last week...perfectly normal test which means my body has actually been healing so all that sleep was worth it! All those pre-cancerous cells that were removed in Feb have stayed gone. I'll get another test next Feb to check and make sure it's all still normal, and if it is then I can go to once a year exams. I won't be able to skip a year like others can because of my increased risk factor, but it's such a relief to know that my body actually can heal. All the stress about it from the last 6 months has evaporated, well most of it.
The other night I got onto ancestry.com, where I had entered as much of my family as I knew, and was able to figure out some new people to add. I couldn't figure out who the parent's of David Dows (my great-great-great grandfather) were until I did some searching and found his father was named Eleazer. How's that for a family name? From Eleazer I was able to trace it back two more generations to Laurance who was born in 1613 in England and moved to Charlestown, MA. So that's my grandfather's side, but I couldn't figure out my grandmother's side which is how I have my family connection to this area. So after some more searching I found that the Dingledines had moved from Germany to a farm between Timbervill and Forestville between 1835-1845. Three sons, John, Adam and Samuel then fought in the Civil War on the Confederacy side. That was surprising to me because I had previously thought that my entire family was Union. Adam (my great-great-great uncle) was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness and brought back to Staunton where he died in the hospital. He's buried in Timberville, which is about 2 miles from Broadway High School where I'm working right now. If it's not raining after practice tonight I'm going to go find his grave.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Families and Homes
Family and home are themes that have been re-occuring in my life lately. The beach trip definitely started that with 28 of us hanging out for a week and everyone getting along! Then going back to Broadway for a day of football practice and remembering that my great-great-grandfather was born just outside of Broadway, so in some ways it really is home. Then Natalie and Brent's beautiful wedding this weekend followed by a fun evening with friends at Annalisa's house. (Can we say lake, zipline, slip n slide and mud fights?) Then attending my first meeting as a Theta advisor, which is going to be great, but it will definitely be an adjustment from being an active member of the chapter. Tonight we made a welcome home banner for the Theta house, just another reminder of these themes. Life is beautiful!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Football Home Again
I was so bored today that I decided it would be a good day for a trip to Broadway, plus I needed to get a bunch of Sports Med shirts to L, who's working there this year. I'm so happy I went. All of my mini-depression from being so bored was wiped away, the sun was shining, the boys were in pads and life was good. It was as though I was home and could really breathe again. Simply lovely. I forgot how much I love high school football. I even missed the smell of those sweaty boys, how crazy is that. I'm hoping, and planning to go back next week when I have nothing to do until school starts on the 30th.
"Beware of monotony; it is the mother of all the deadly sins." ~Edith Wharton
"Beware of monotony; it is the mother of all the deadly sins." ~Edith Wharton
quote
"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen, but understanding it for the first time." ~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
hello again
OH MY GOD our internet is finally working! It's been a frustrating few days without it. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy to cut myself off, like at the beach, but when I need to start getting things organized for school, it's a pain to not have it available. Our rental office just switched us from NTC internet to High Speed Link, and the nice part is that it's now included in our rent (holla!) but we shall see if it works as well. I've managed to get it plugged into my computer (necessitating a purchase of a longer internet cord) but haven't managed the wireless yet. That will come with time and this is a good start.
Since we left off I believe I was in NYC or had just returned from NYC to my parental's in State College. While home I slept, ate really well, sneakily scanned photos of my parents from the past 25 years of marriage (I can write about it now, party's over), slept some more, read some books and tried not to use my brain. Considering that I would sleep from 11pm until 3pm the following day when not setting an alarm, I would say that I needed some R&R. I did get to visit SPRA, where the summers of my youth were spent, only to arrive and have a thunderstorm decide to show up too. Didn't get to swim there, but got to look around, examine the record board and relive some memories.
From State College, we rented a van from Enterprise because my parents downgraded from the mini van to a prius, to get us and all of our stuff down to the beach. This car was a nightmare. Barely out of SC we discovered that there was no oil cap, thus returning to Enterprise to get one and trying to leave again. Alex and I were in my car, mom and dad in the van. Heading over the mountain, apparently the van was having some break issues, not a good thing when planning to drive 14 hours and over many mountains. Calling every Enterprise between SC and Harrisonburg, our next stop, produced no vans to switch with, and thus we ended up in Harrisonburg for dinner, delivered my new bookcase and half of my stuff, dropped off my car and headed south, all together in one white mini van. Another couple mountains and a sudden crazy rainstorm around Danville and we arrived in Chapel Hill, only to have google maps put the hotel in the wrong location. Finally found it around 11:30pm and discovered that we had a queen bed and pull out couch, rather than the two double beds we requested. We completely unloaded the van into the hotel room and went to bed. Mom and Dad got to take the van the next morning to the airport to get the brakes fixed, and we got a second rental car for the day, packed up all of our stuff, left it in the hotel office so that we could change rooms (that pull out couch was a nightmare) for the second night and went to collect Poppa and head to Chinese food. Some of mom's family was driving through as well so they stopped and we had 10 people plus a 4 month old for a Chinese buffet. It was great! The food was good, the company was good, lots of laughter, it was a relief from the crazy trip stuff. We even gave Patrick (age 4) and Poppa (age 86) WarHeads and have videos of the resulting faces. ;o) After a 3 hour lunch we dropped Poppa back off, picked up the fixed van, moved hotel rooms, took naps, got dinner and went back to Poppa's to watch a movie and eat. I think we were all ready for bed that night. Sunday we got up early to pick up Poppa for breakfast at the Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe, yummy grits and bacon and pancakes and heart destroying goodness. Breakfast took a while and then we dropped Poppa back off and drove off to the beach.
Oh the beach was lovely. We had one of the top apartments, and some of the cousins were in the apartments below. After dropping off all our stuff we walked down the beach to find the house where the other half of the family was staying, got lost, met our neighbors for the week and ran into the ocean, which was a balmy 80-something degrees and felt like heaven. Half of the clan had arrived, and the other half showed up on Monday, but we made sure to get the waves to the correct pitch for boogie-boarding, bought the booze, and started the traditional puzzle for them. By Monday night (BBQ night) we had 28 of us there. Grandpa got a sign that said "Doll Beach House," and we hung it up out front as our lighthouse. We do family style dinners, so on Sunday you sign up for a night if you want to cook, and then others sign up as crew. It's one of the best things because then we're all eating together and can sit around and catch up. Tuesday was the surprise party for the parent's 25th Anniversary at dinner time after taking family pictures. I don't think they suspected anything. Aside from a little issue playing the slideshow on the TV, it all went really well. Wednesday was Beach Shrimp, with 9 pounds of shrimp to feed us all, Thursday was Thai and Friday we had Uncle Jack's Firehouse Style Italian. In the morning a bunch of us went to water aerobics. I was the youngest by about 20 years or so, but it was a fun workout and a great way to start the day before hitting the beach in the afternoon. I got sick on Wed night, some weird fever and stomach bug that kept me off the beach on Thursday. I always wish that we could have more time there and our week always seems to end too quickly. Hope to do it again next year!
Since we left off I believe I was in NYC or had just returned from NYC to my parental's in State College. While home I slept, ate really well, sneakily scanned photos of my parents from the past 25 years of marriage (I can write about it now, party's over), slept some more, read some books and tried not to use my brain. Considering that I would sleep from 11pm until 3pm the following day when not setting an alarm, I would say that I needed some R&R. I did get to visit SPRA, where the summers of my youth were spent, only to arrive and have a thunderstorm decide to show up too. Didn't get to swim there, but got to look around, examine the record board and relive some memories.
From State College, we rented a van from Enterprise because my parents downgraded from the mini van to a prius, to get us and all of our stuff down to the beach. This car was a nightmare. Barely out of SC we discovered that there was no oil cap, thus returning to Enterprise to get one and trying to leave again. Alex and I were in my car, mom and dad in the van. Heading over the mountain, apparently the van was having some break issues, not a good thing when planning to drive 14 hours and over many mountains. Calling every Enterprise between SC and Harrisonburg, our next stop, produced no vans to switch with, and thus we ended up in Harrisonburg for dinner, delivered my new bookcase and half of my stuff, dropped off my car and headed south, all together in one white mini van. Another couple mountains and a sudden crazy rainstorm around Danville and we arrived in Chapel Hill, only to have google maps put the hotel in the wrong location. Finally found it around 11:30pm and discovered that we had a queen bed and pull out couch, rather than the two double beds we requested. We completely unloaded the van into the hotel room and went to bed. Mom and Dad got to take the van the next morning to the airport to get the brakes fixed, and we got a second rental car for the day, packed up all of our stuff, left it in the hotel office so that we could change rooms (that pull out couch was a nightmare) for the second night and went to collect Poppa and head to Chinese food. Some of mom's family was driving through as well so they stopped and we had 10 people plus a 4 month old for a Chinese buffet. It was great! The food was good, the company was good, lots of laughter, it was a relief from the crazy trip stuff. We even gave Patrick (age 4) and Poppa (age 86) WarHeads and have videos of the resulting faces. ;o) After a 3 hour lunch we dropped Poppa back off, picked up the fixed van, moved hotel rooms, took naps, got dinner and went back to Poppa's to watch a movie and eat. I think we were all ready for bed that night. Sunday we got up early to pick up Poppa for breakfast at the Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe, yummy grits and bacon and pancakes and heart destroying goodness. Breakfast took a while and then we dropped Poppa back off and drove off to the beach.
Oh the beach was lovely. We had one of the top apartments, and some of the cousins were in the apartments below. After dropping off all our stuff we walked down the beach to find the house where the other half of the family was staying, got lost, met our neighbors for the week and ran into the ocean, which was a balmy 80-something degrees and felt like heaven. Half of the clan had arrived, and the other half showed up on Monday, but we made sure to get the waves to the correct pitch for boogie-boarding, bought the booze, and started the traditional puzzle for them. By Monday night (BBQ night) we had 28 of us there. Grandpa got a sign that said "Doll Beach House," and we hung it up out front as our lighthouse. We do family style dinners, so on Sunday you sign up for a night if you want to cook, and then others sign up as crew. It's one of the best things because then we're all eating together and can sit around and catch up. Tuesday was the surprise party for the parent's 25th Anniversary at dinner time after taking family pictures. I don't think they suspected anything. Aside from a little issue playing the slideshow on the TV, it all went really well. Wednesday was Beach Shrimp, with 9 pounds of shrimp to feed us all, Thursday was Thai and Friday we had Uncle Jack's Firehouse Style Italian. In the morning a bunch of us went to water aerobics. I was the youngest by about 20 years or so, but it was a fun workout and a great way to start the day before hitting the beach in the afternoon. I got sick on Wed night, some weird fever and stomach bug that kept me off the beach on Thursday. I always wish that we could have more time there and our week always seems to end too quickly. Hope to do it again next year!
Monday, August 2, 2010
lactose or proteins or both
My dad and I got on the topic tonight of what I can and can't eat with my dairy-free diet, because my mom thought that butter (any amount) was ok, but milk was not and I had to explain that only small amounts of butter were ok, but that chocolate chip cookies with lots of butter were unfortunately not ok. My dad now is wondering whether it's really lactose that is the problem because there isn't any lactose in butter. I'm not convinced that's true, but it is possible that I have an intolerance to other parts of milk besides the lactose (sugar), which leads me to wonder about the proteins. I'm not sure that I want to have more tests done (which would include blood, as well as upper and lower endoscopies, along with biopsies, fun!) because is it really worth it? I'm already trying to be as dairy free as possible and how many things contain just one part of milk and not some of the others. It is interesting reading about it tho. And I think in general that my stomach is just hypersensitive (like my nerve endings) and doesn't like food, might be a good diet.
I do need to start working out, but motivation is a problem, exhaustion is a problem and I'm so out of shape that I just don't want to start. Argh!
I do need to start working out, but motivation is a problem, exhaustion is a problem and I'm so out of shape that I just don't want to start. Argh!
another update
Monday night in NYC was the first night that it was a decent temperature even after the sun left, so the entire city of NYC decided to join us in Bryant Park for Monty Python. Seriously, the entire city. I got there at 7 and the law was full, so we sat in one of the outer alleys, half way back and could see 3/4 of the screen, but since we knew the movie, we just had to hear it. A's friend L joined us with one of her friends, then our cousin L stopped by with her BF towards the end. We had yummy pasta salad, beer and cookies, which sounds like a complete college dinner to me. After the movie we sat in the park talking until a police officer came around, only shouting "park is closing" in the strongest NY accent you can imagine and shining his flashlight in our faces. We got the hint and headed back to A's place.
Tuesday I got up early with the boys and headed out after breakfast to the subway taking it over to Penn Station and back to Union where Aunt V picked me up and I got my car. Another easy drive with lots of trucks and construction. I did see an oil tanker that had run off the road and was being held up by wires attached to other trucks so that it did not fall and explode. There were lots of guys running around in hazmat suits, and there wasn't anything in the paper the next day about a tanker explosion so I think they recovered it safely. Had dinner with the parents and thus began my time at home.
So far at home I have: made new bathroom curtains, added light-proof backing to my bedroom curtains, read Undaunted Heart (about the daughter of the UNC president who married a Union General right after the Civil War), finished the first season of Friday Night Lights (tv show on netflix), done some secret projects, slept in (until 3pm the first day, 11am the rest), saw Smokey Joe's Cafe with the parents which was great, went shopping with mom (more like errand running), had a cookout with smores for my parents' students, and am getting ready for the beach. We leave on Friday at noon. Should be spectacular. (and possibly my last year ;o(
Tuesday I got up early with the boys and headed out after breakfast to the subway taking it over to Penn Station and back to Union where Aunt V picked me up and I got my car. Another easy drive with lots of trucks and construction. I did see an oil tanker that had run off the road and was being held up by wires attached to other trucks so that it did not fall and explode. There were lots of guys running around in hazmat suits, and there wasn't anything in the paper the next day about a tanker explosion so I think they recovered it safely. Had dinner with the parents and thus began my time at home.
So far at home I have: made new bathroom curtains, added light-proof backing to my bedroom curtains, read Undaunted Heart (about the daughter of the UNC president who married a Union General right after the Civil War), finished the first season of Friday Night Lights (tv show on netflix), done some secret projects, slept in (until 3pm the first day, 11am the rest), saw Smokey Joe's Cafe with the parents which was great, went shopping with mom (more like errand running), had a cookout with smores for my parents' students, and am getting ready for the beach. We leave on Friday at noon. Should be spectacular. (and possibly my last year ;o(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)