On the first day...

Can you hear that? That's the sound of my first day off after the last day of the semester. Aaaahhhhh... I went and picked Rachel up from school a little early as a mea culpa for having forgotten that I promised to bring her something for lunch. (Only 2 days of school this week, so hold off on calling DCFS for now, okay?) I finally got all of the to-be-mailed cards in the mail, as well as my sister present for Lori. Hopefully everything gets there this week, as I'm sure the post office is SLAMMED. I'm finishing up the neighborhood and local friends cards for the annual handing out tonight. I was addressing cards just a few minutes ago and she said, "Mom, your cards this year are awesome." I told her that I'm not sure about them, and she gave me this look like, "Give me a break." I really need to start writing down all these moments with her, because they're getting fewer and farther between. Ah, the joys of having a tween.

Update on the foot: I went in for an appointment this morning. I told him the same thing I've said every other week - pain on the heel side of the incision. Numbness on the toe side of the incision. The compression sock is helping, but I still have limited range of motion in my ankle and feel like something is being ripped/pulled when I move my foot this way or that way. (I showed him.) He poked and prodded my foot and I let him know when he was zinging me. He grabbed what looked like wire cutters and pulled off the scab and the dead skin, and then used the weapon to dig into my incision and pull out three abscessed stitches that hadn't dissolved. He said it's rare that it happens, but it does. It was weird because when he was digging around, I only felt certain parts. It's funny how nerves really make that huge of a difference in things like that. Anyway, I now have an open spot on my foot again, and I'm going to be taking extra precautions to make it heal as perfectly as possible. Oh, and one more thing. The things I showed the doc this morning that caused the pain and sensation of ripping/tearing? Not even as noticeable now. :)

Embedded!

This song by The Weepies always makes me think of my friend Karli. This video was recently published and I wanted to share it with you in case you haven't seen it yet.

New song

I found out about this guy on one of my personalized Pandora stations, and I absolutely love him despite the fact that he toured with no talent Miley Cyrus. I'm posting a link to the song because I don't know how to embed videos from YouTube, if that's even possible on this website. I love this song so, so much. Don't pay attention to the video because I don't know what the person who uploaded it was trying to accomplish. It's all about the song.

Mike Schmid - Lullabye (Christmas is Here)

In my efforts to show that I can be mildly creative, I'm giving you a sneak peek at this year's card. I prefer to make cards instead of making treats, which in my neighborhood is huge. I make about 100 cards every year, and that number is growing, which I'm totally cool with. I like doing this kind of stuff. My purple and silver cards from 2008 are my favorite to date, but I absolutely love this color palette. I loved the paper and knew that I had to use the three patterns that kept popping out at me. I think this design speaks volumes about how I've felt lately, and I believe the simplicity of the card itself is a sign to me that this is really what I needed to do. I just don't feel like it's impressive enough for my friends.

Another thing that's bugging me about these cards is that they're usually out by now. I'm not even finished assembling them. :/

Update

This has been a crazy however long it's been since my surgery. I spent two weeks pretty heavily drugged and since then I feel like I've been in a slight tailspin. I've had a chance to do a bit of reflecting on things, and I think 2011 is going to be the best year yet for me. Maybe I'm coming up on a midlife crisis or something, I don't know. I really don't have the desire to spend insane amounts of money on frivolous things, but I do have plans to hire a personal trainer (who's also a good friend) and get my sorry self whipped into shape. I have a gym membership already, but I know that hiring him will help me (re)learn what I need to focus on and what will be the best benefit to me.

My foot is slowly getting better, I think, but Mama Angie looked at it yesterday and says my foot is really, really angry. I see Dr. Mark on Monday, so we'll see.

I'm almost done with the semester, and I am so ready to be done with it. I had a Chem test last night and the final's on Thursday. I did better on my 3rd test than I thought, but this test I took last night made me feel uneasy. I had a cheat sheet, but even then I left the classroom trying to fight back tears. (I've cried after at least one test every time I've taken Chemistry, except for this semester, and I'm determined to keep it that way, although last night after my pain medication kicked in I was sobbing, but I think it was mostly because I was so loopy and everything was making me cry uncontrollably.)

And if you're still with me, thank you. Not only for staying with me in this post, but in my blog at all. I have these intentions to blog about being woefully uncreative and to show the latest ideas I've hijacked from other people (hey, Martha Stewart does it, too) but school has managed to take over my life. Next semester, that will all change. I'm taking 9 credits - two classes and their subsequent labs, and I'm hoping that things won't be so chaotic for me.

So thank you.