Eye, Injured

Although I frequently injure myself, I never cease to be amazed by the new and interesting ways I find to injure myself.

Recently, I was sweeping the back porch of my parents' house with a standard household broom. As the broom swung back and forth with its pendular grace, for reasons I still cannot explain, my head somehow came into contact with the top of the broom.

Pause and imagine a sweeping action in your mind. You can see how the top of the broom moves in the opposite direction as the bottom of the broom, right? Now imagine what happens if your head is in slightly the wrong spot as the bottom of the broom swings forward and the top swings back toward you.

It hit me right at the corner of my eye, where the bone is right under the skin with nothing to shield it.

It hurt.

A lot.

For days.

And right when it happened, I couldn't figure out how on earth I had done that to myself.

But after a few hours of consideration, I can't for the life of me figure out how I haven't ever done it to myself before now.

I, Doctor

One of my new favorite ways to occupy my time is self-diagnosis on the internet.

Weirdly enough, I've become pretty accurate as to my diagnoses.

I try not to bring up my self-diagnosis prowess when I visit my healthcare providers.

I'd hate to make them feel like they wasted all of those years in medical school.

Eye Doctor

I've often said that it takes a large team of highly trained professionals to take care of my health. Thus, when I have something wrong with my eyes, I hasten to my regular eye doctor, who is actually also an eye surgeon. Like I said, I like to have a highly trained professional attend to my needs.

When I was visiting my adorable nephews in Wisconsin, something happened to my eye. Although I suspected that it was a scratch on my eye, I also thought that I could see something stuck on it. After endless rinsing and drops, I swallowed my pride and made an appointment with my eye doctor. (I like to have fancy people attend to my needs, but I am also cheap, so I try to avoid going to the doc when I can).

It turned out that I was correct--there was debris stuck to my eye. After much reassurance that there was no amount of rinsing that would've removed it, due to the nature and placement of the offending object, my eye doctor had his assistant hand him some forceps. Before I could really have time to object, he told me he'd take care of it.

And then, he took the forceps and peeled the debris out of my eye.

Yep.

Off of my eye ball.

Yes, I had had numbing drops first, but still, when you have to hold your eye open so that someone can come at you with gigantic tweezers and pluck things out of your eye, it's pretty scary.

Fortunately, it only lasted a moment, and the relief was instant.

All in all, it was a successful trip to the eye doctor, and well-worth the copay.

Unfortunately, this event cemented in my mind my preferences for seeing experts whenever possible. When I head to law school, I suspect that my student health insurance won't be nearly as accommodating to my desires.

I'm going to have to work really hard to not get any debris in my eye once I'm in New York. There's no way I'm letting anyone besides my fabulous eye doctor go anywhere near me with forceps.

Things People Say

Life's funny. When you tell people that you're making a major life change, EVERYONE seems to have an opinion about it. It's amazing how many law school "experts" I've met since I've become more open about my decision to attend.

Because my choice in law schools is taking me to another city, I also get to hear lots of very strong opinions about moving and about New York.

It occurred to me the other day that you might find some of these things interesting as well. So here they are, the good, bad, and ugly, in no particular order, and without attribution since, well, lots of these things have been spoken by my various blog readers. Love you all! Without you, I would laugh far less frequently, and my life would be the sorrier for it.

Things people say about law school:

• Don't you hate school?
• Didn't you just graduate?
• You're going to meet so many great guys! (ed.: uh...)
• My condolences.
• Congratulations!
• Huh.
• Really?
• Why?
• That's so exciting!

Things people say about New York City:

• Are you sure you made the right choice?
• Maybe you should start carrying some pepper spray.
• Don't take anything you don't want to have stolen.
• You're going to get to see so many fun things!
• How will you afford that?
• As long as you go home before dark...

Love you guys! Thanks for your adorable, hilarious support!

Sold!

I sold my car yesterday. It was very, very sad. I'll spare you the melancholy details, but I did sell the car. I suspect that my insurance company was baffled as to my sniffly nature when I called to cancel my policy, but they didn't say anything about it, which was nice.

I immediately took the cash from my sale down to my local financial institution to deposit it where it would be safe and sound. Since this local financial institution is where I was employed until recently, I know basically everyone who works there, and they all assured me that my car wasn't cool enough to be sad about. Hosers.

It's odd to not have my car sitting outside. One thing that I've mentioned to several people is that I've had to give up many things to go to law school, and selling my car was the last big, tangible thing that I had to give up. I told my mom that now I have no tangible property, and she assured me that I have a "couple of little things."

If I have to sell my TV, I may die of a broken heart.

For Sale

I'm selling a fabulous, wonderful, practically-perfect-in-every-way car. I had planned on owning this car for at least another five years. I honestly wouldn't be parting with it if I could afford to take it on my cross-country move with me. Dealers are selling cars not in nearly as wonderful shape as mine for upwards of $8,000.

The scoop:

2002 Toyota Corolla LE

• Silver
• Automatic transmission
• Power locks, power windows
• Cruise control
• Gets fabulous gas mileage - anywhere from 25-33 mpg in the city in my experience, even higher with highway driving
• Extremely low mileage - just under 65,000 miles
• Great condition
• Very, very low-maintenance car. Other than changing the oil regularly, tires once, and brake pads once, I've never had to do anything else with it. Runs like a dream, I tell you!

Asking price: $6,850

I would love to find a good home for my fabulous car, so if you know anyone who is in the market, send them my way!

Thanks!

Something Funny

Here's a little tidbit for your day. My sister shared it with me, and I've been giggling about it ever since. Be sure to click and read the whole thing, including part two.

Is That Your Signature?

The First Goodbye

First, my apologies for my recent lack of blogging. I've been on vacation, so all of my free time has been dedicated to living it up with my sister and her family.

Stories from this vacation to be posted here on this blog, as time, reader interest and ambition allow: (for your anticipatory pleasure)

• The boys learn how to swim
• LL gets domestic
• Big girl panties
• Nephews trick their pushover aunt into letting them do all kinds of things they don't normally do
• Javi prepares a family home evening lesson about the Sabbath day
• LL explains to her sons what a wedgie is

Since my sister has moved out of the state where I live, I've been fortunate to visit her on a pretty regular basis. I had a job where I made enough money to do some traveling, and I was blessed with a pretty flexible schedule, so I visited at least a couple of times a year. Each time I left, I always had an idea of I would be coming again.

This is the first time I left her with no real plans as to when we'll see each other again. She's hoping to come visit in New York, but that will really depend on her husband's work schedule (he'd have to take some days off to watch their little rugrats) and the issue of money. Although LL's husband makes a lot more money than I do (as I am an unemployed student, that's not hard to do, but...), she has three little guys and a house and all kinds of other expenses to deal with. When I take a break to go home for a visit from school, I anticipate that I will visit Utah, not Wisconsin, as most of my family lives in Utah.

LL dropped me off at the airport a few minutes ago, and other than holding it together to get through security (didn't want to be frisked for sobbing), I've been pretty upset. I hate being so far from my sister. When you've just got one sister left in this world, you tend to be pretty tight.

So here it is: the first goodbye. Over the next 40 days, I'll be saying goodbye to all of my friends and family as I embark on this law school journey alone.

I'd better invest in some tissues.

Go ahead and buy stock in whoever makes Kleenex. Their revenue is about to be increasing substantially.

My Apologies

Yesterday, as I read the live-blog coverage of the new iPhone, I was extremely excited. Giddy, even.

At one point, I exclaimed aloud, "That is the BEST PHONE EVER! I have to have one!"

It was at this moment that I noticed my current iPhone, sitting next to my computer.

It looked sad, somehow, and I then apologized to my phone for making it seem like I didn't love and appreciate it.

I really do love my current phone, and it was the best phone in the world, but now there's something better.

My phone is in my line of sight as I write this post. I still feel a tiny bit guilty.

Dear Insurance Company

Cash my check already. Just cash it. You make such a fuss about getting my check on time, and then you wait three weeks to cash it. It's complicating my life.

Cash them faster, or I'm going to stop sending them.

For people who are always pestering me about sending money, you sure are slow to go to the bank.

Questions You Haven't Asked

Although most of you have talked to me a least a little bit about moving to New York, we've all really talked very little about the school I will be attending.

So here's a first in an occasional series I'm calling, "Five Things You Didn't Know About Cardozo."

1. Full name: Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
2. Founded in 1976
3. Part of Yeshiva University
4. As part of a Jewish university, all of the food on campus is kosher
5. Located near Union Square Park in Manhattan

Now you know. And knowing is half the battle...

Serious Rules

Yesterday, I went out to dinner with my family to celebrate Captain Awesome officially becoming an EMT.

We headed to his favorite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in town. He really, really got his money's worth.

However, this restaurant is unlike any place I've ever eaten. There was a list of rules on the menu. They will bring you all the sushi you want; however, you cannot waste anything. Order a gross sushi roll? Tough. Suck it up and eat that bad boy. Full? Too bad. Eat it anyway.

What are the consequences for not eating your food? They'll charge you for anything that's left on your plate. Seriously. You already paid for all-you-can-eat sushi, but if you cannot eat what they bring you, or if you choose to not eat it because it's yucky, you will have to pay an additional charge.

Apparently, they're totally serious about it, too. We had to rush out in a hurry to get my dad back for a meeting, so my brother asked for a box for his remaining sushi. They reluctantly granted him a box, but warned him that next time, they would charge him for that uneaten sushi.

Is it just me, or is this totally bizarre?

Days of Yore

In all of my sorting of various bills, pay stubs, receipts, awards, report cards, school papers, and all kinds of other things, I found a letter I wrote to NASA in 1996.

Why did I have that letter?

It was attached to the reply that NASA sent me.

See, back when I was a teenager, we wrote letters for class projects to do career research.

Ah, internet, how you've eased my work load.

Then again, it's been a long time since I got a letter from NASA, so I guess it's a trade off.

Brain Dump

• My apartment has smelled like bacon all day long. I have cooked no bacon. I'm toying with heading over to the neighbors' apartments and seeing if any of them have some left over bacon for me.
• I love Netflix. I'm currently discovering a show that aired and was canceled years ago. I wish it hadn't been canceled, but I'm sure enjoying watching what was produced.
• As I watched LOST tonight (no spoilers), I couldn't help but notice that the characters poured milk for their cereal from a pitcher. Seriously, does anyone pour their milk from the carton into a pitcher so that they can have the pitcher at the breakfast table with the box of Super Bran?
• I had dinner with two dear friends that I haven't seen in a long time. It's always nice to catch up with people, especially two people who are that funny.
• In my search for an apartment in New York, I have found all kinds of interesting things. Today's fantastic find? An apartment where the shower is in the kitchen. The toilet and sink are in the bathroom, but the shower is in the kitchen. I don't know why. I'm adding it to my list of interesting things I've seen in apartments in Manhattan.
• In other apartment news, I've had to make some really tough decisions about what I can and cannot take with me.
• Anybody want to buy a beautiful, wonderful car? (That sound you hear is my little heart breaking...)

Disney Formula

Five minutes into The Princess and the Frog, both parents are alive and the little girl is happy.

This can't last, people.

Oversight

In my haste to type up an example of what I do each day, I completely neglected to include my two delightful conversations with my sister.

She may live a gazillion miles away, but she's always right on the other end of the phone whenever I need some sisterly advice or someone to listen to me whine.

Also, I didn't have a milkshake that night.

And today, I got a haircut.

It's been a pretty busy week.

Today's Events

My brother recently asked me what I do all day these days. Here's a quick run down of today:

1-Woke up right on time. Was still tired, so mostly just sat on the couch for a while working on breakfast and waking up.

2-Got dressed. Too rainy to go for my regular walk outside, so worked on packing some more.

3-More packing/sorting/organizing/resting (I've been under the weather).

4-Dr appointment

5-Returned skirt that was much, much cuter on the hanger than it was on me.

6-Went for a long indoor walk instead of outdoor, as it was still cold and rainy.

7-Picked up Cafe Rio for dinner. Free meal!

8-More packing

9-Back up to Orem to run a quick errand for my brother.

10-Back to Provo. More sorting of boxes.

11-Awkward (all my awkwardness, of course) phone call, courtesy of Karry.

12-Time working on plans to become less awkward

13-Blogging

14-Can't predict the future, but I suspect I'll be getting ready for bed. There may be a milkshake.

See? I'm plenty busy.

Adventures in Baking

I needed to make some cookies for an even this weekend. I found the recipe, dumped the butter into the bowl, and proceeded to gather and mix my dry ingredients.

No flour.

No powdered sugar.

No cornstarch. (Later found the cornstarch in the cupboard, fortunately).

So basically, I had butter and vanilla.

Mmmmmm...butter and vanilla cookies...

Good thing I live right by a grocery store.

Projects

Moving across the country has added a couple of projects to my life. One is packing. The packing project is not going well...at all.

Another project that I am working on simultaneously is eating the food out of my freezer. The freezer food simply cannot come to New York with me, so I am eating my way through it.

Today, I heated up some delicious baked beans that I froze a long time ago, when they were actually delicious. They were not delicious today, so I moved on to some ravioli. I overcooked it. Did you know that ravioli can be overcooked? It can, my friends. It most definitely can.

One of the things that I happen to have a lot of in my freezer is frozen blueberries. From now on, every dish I make will have some blueberry element. Blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry smoothies, and who knows what else will be gracing my plate.

In related news, I recently bought a giant carton of strawberries at Costco. They were too lovely, too delicious-looking to pass up, so I bought them.

These two situations have morphed into some sort of berry-palooza here at my apartment.

Clearly, my life is difficult.

Moving

It turns out that moving one person across the country is far more complicated than I anticipated.

My response to all of the stress? I've been watching Arrested Development, available streaming through Netflix.

Have I been watching this while I productively pack boxes to move across the country?

Negative. But I have really been enjoying myself.

Incidentally, if you're not totally clear as to where I'm moving, stop using your Google Reader and actually visit the blog. It's the audio clue round of Jeopardy, people.