Just a quick note on being surrounded by FFA teens from Utah. I just overheard "he's never had a bagel, I've never had eggplant." I thought I was sheltered as a teen. Geesh.

Enlightenment and encouragement...and no I don't mean spiritual

I've been incredibly busy recently, not to mention I had some sort of disgusting flu/sickness for almost a week, but I'm still around and better than ever.

This week marks the midterm point for the semester. Anyone who's ever attended college, has a kid in college, or doesn't live in a cave knows what that means: exams. Woopety-poopety. :) Thus far this semester, I'm doing really well. It feels great to be successful not only academically, but also on a personal level. Asked if I could do this a year or two ago, I would have laughed in your face. Go me for getting my shit together. I'll also give credit where it's due. Without Lindsay I would not be here. She's the one who ultimately inspired me to go back to school. She's the one who for the first time in my life, gave me the confidence to do this and do it WELL. So, thanks babe.

Anyhow, so enlightenment. I still have to remind myself sometimes what the hell I am doing with this whole I'm-going-to-become-an-academic-at-thirty-years-old thing. Now that I am in it, am doing well, and am completely committed to it the number of kicks in the ass I have to give myself are shrinking, mostly because I'm good at being a student so my confidence is pretty much at an all time high.

However, that doesn't mean I don't like to be reminded by others. Everyone likes a nice ego stroke every once in a while. I got mine tonight. BONUS! Reward.

I finished rocking the socks off of my archaeology exam and decided to mention a few things to my professor. He's a graduate student studying archaeology (duh) AND cultural anthropology, which if you don't know by now is my obsession. My few comments turned into us talking for an hour and a half. I addressed a few of my concerns with him about "taking a different path", not having an extensive volunteer/study abroad history(many anthro majors claim this), what the hell am I going to do with an anthro degree, and any recommendations he may have for me. These are the issues that I debate in my head pretty much everyday, so this was a perfect opportunity for me to talk with someone in my intended field of study.

After talking with him, I've realized quite a few things. Number one is that everyone makes their own path in life. I'm always (still) so concerned that I'm doing this the wrong way or that I should have taken a more traditional path, right out of high school and off to college route.
Lindsay is constantly reassuring me about this, and after talking with my professor it is sinking in a little more. I think this will all just take time to adjust to, but I'm on my way.

The other major point I really took from our conversation, is that being an anthropologist will open so many doors for me. It's such a broad spectrum of life to study, so the possibilities really are endless, it's all up to me where I want to take it from here.

I guess it all boils down to the lack of outside AND personal motivation that I had for the first 28 years of my life. No one in my immediate family, and only one person from my extended family has ever graduated from college. No one ever encouraged me as a child or pressured me to go to college. I didn't really have much of a support system growing up. It really was all about surviving and working to pay the bills. Don't get me wrong, I think if that's what people want to do then by all means, go for it. It takes all kinds to make the world operate. However, I think that people, parents especially need to take the initiative to support their children and teach them that there are many options in the world.

Anyhow, just feeling enlightened and encouraged and thought I would share. It was really great to talk to someone in my own field about their experiences.

All at once...

I like swimming, but not in my house. Too bad for me, cause that's what's been going on over here at casa de Ange and Lindsay for the past few days. It all started just a few days ago when I came home from work and Brian had mentioned that the rug in the kitchen was soaking wet when he came home. We assumed it was one of the dogs and maybe they had an accident during the day. We cleaned it up and I went on a cleaning spree vacuuming, mopping, doing dishes, and laundry. Just about the time I get everything all nice and clean, disaster strikes again: the kitchen is soaked again.

S O A K E D

I didn't know what the hell was going on so I pulled everything out from underneath the sink (which was like 764, 091, 259 containers of cleaning stuff with about .2 ounces in each one) to investigate. Keep in mind, I'm no plumber. All I know is that there was about two inches of water standing under the sink so I soaked it up, cleaned up the floor again (since whatever was leaking made another huge mess) and called it a night. What the heck else was I to do?

Fast forward to tonight. There was some laundry going when I noticed that once again the floor in the kitchen was soaked. UGH, welcome to frustration central. I soaked it all up and decided to get to the bottom of the situation at hand. Brain had one more load of clothes to wash so I of course encouraged him to do so (he clearly knows about this ongoing dilemma) and I also thought that maybe it was linked to either the dishwasher, washing machine, shower, or toilet. So pretty much any plumbing in the house could be the culprit, but I had an inkling about the washer.

Big surprise!! Who was right?? ME.

Something goes terribly wrong when the washer drains. It (obviously) makes a mess in the kitchen, water backs up in the tub, and the toilet makes a gurgling sound. Eww. The first thing I can think of to do (other than freak the eff out) is to call my dad. He has an extensive history in fixing houses/maintenance since he owns fifteen of them. All I hear is something about if I can't find the sewer line outside the house, it's going to cost eight skamillion dollars to dig up our yard in order to find said pipe and install something or another. About this point, panic sets in. Like real panic. Next, I call Laurie and Dale (Lindsay's mom and step-dad) to ask if they know any plumbers. Yes, they live in California but also they have owned at least two homes in the Indianapolis area and also have a lot of home repair experience.

Thank God, Dale knows where the sewer line is outside of the house, so I can calm down about a backhoe showing up sometime in the near future. Whew! Anyhow, they rack their brains and end up recommending that I call Roto Rooter or some other company. I looked up RR online and they have great reviews, so I gave them a call. The lady I spoke with was super friendly. They could have gotten out here tonight between 830p-1130 but since I have to work tomorrow I decided to pass on that. She helped me make an appointment for Tuesday and mentioned that it "sounds like" there is a main pipe clogged. Let's hope this is the case.


I imagine this is something similar to how our pipes will look. GROSS.
Keep your fingers crossed that this is not nearly as disastrous as it could be.

Ouch!

Guitar classes should come with a disclaimer to the student:

WARNING: your fingertips may bleed from practicing with this instrument, therefore hindering your ability (and willingness) to actually play this amazing piece of art. Hang in there though, cause it's gonna happen. Until then though, this is what your fingers may feel like:

And when you finally do achieve some awesome calluses, people are going to notice (or at least they better):


"He noticed my fingers, and he asked me if I would play."-Ani Difranco

Back to school!

Tomorrow is the big day, people! Back to school, at a new school, taking classes I WANT to take! I'm feeling really good about it and just hope that I can keep my level of optimism and motivation at a maximum. Nerd classes I'm taking:

• Intensive Spanish! (it waits for no one!!!!)
• World Geography
• Beginning Guitar
• Human prehistory and origins (totally stoked about this one!!!)

So, wish me luck in my new adventure. Watch out Bachelor's Degree, here I come!!!

Poop my pants...

A friend posted a picture of a ridiculous spider today on Facebook that inspired this blog. I thought it would be fun to post a few of the things in life that scare the shit out of me. So here goes, in no specific order.

First thing's first...spiders. Spiders are so sick and disgusting. I know they are really good for the environment because they eat pesty bugs and blah, blah, blah, but ultimately they are just repulsive. I couldn't even post an actual picture of one on my blog. It would just be wrong , plus it would make my skin crawl. So here is what my friend's at Google came up with...

Sick.

Moving on.

Roller coasters. I'd pretty much rather eat glass than ride a roller coaster. My dad made me ride The Beastie at King's Island when I was about eight years old. It nearly scared me to death. I cried my face off and have never been on one since then. Generally, after people get to know me and my personality they find it really hard to believe that I HATE roller coasters. Too bad, so sad for them...cause I freakin' hate them.


My heart is pounding just thinking about this!

What scares you?

Painful fail

So yeah, I have to admit it. I am kick ass when it comes to starting IVs. I've been doing this job now for a year and a half and can honestly say I have mastered this skill. You probably won't find a person that is better than I am this, and I'm not just saying that. My job is cake...most of the time.

Yesterday, I received a page to go to the hospice unit. No big deal. I've been there plenty of times and experienced the sadness that looms over the entire floor. The patient's name sounded really familiar, but I couldn't put a face with the name until I walked into her room. Which by the way had her "code status" posted on the door, which included oxygen, IV fluids, and CPR. Nothing else.

This patient is incredibly sick. She has cancer of some kind...I think she had previously mentioned that it was liver and kidney cancer. In addition to this, she is a dialysis patient so she only has one arm available for IVs because of her fistula (equipment used to dialyze patients). She has been in the hospital for almost a month, so try to imagine what one arm being stuck for labs and IVs looks like after a month of torture.

Anyhow, I walked into the room and her face lit up. She was so happy to see me and told me she was relieved because I was the one starting her IV. (Keep in mind, I've started probably five or so on her during her stay at the hospital). She seemed to be in generally good spirits. She was reading her Bible (as she always is) and had a couple of visitors in the room.

I stuck her the first time in the biggest vein that I could find, which was not big by any sense of the word. It didn't work: the vein blew. I looked around her arm some more and thought I would try something else. A smaller gauge needle I thought would surely do the trick.

I found the nurse, and requested a 24g needle. We had to have one sent over from the pediatric unit because 24gs are generally only used on infants, premies, and newborns. I waited around until the supplies came, talking to my patient. When it finally arrived, I found another vein, stuck it...and again....no luck. It blew.

The only other trick I had up my sleeve was to try starting the IV without using a tourniquet. This works sometimes in older patients because there is no outside pressure on the vein. Outside pressure from a tourniquet can make veins blow if the they are fragile from age, overuse, or certain drugs. My patient had all of these things stacked against her.

So, she was happy to let me stick her one more time. However, no luck. Same situation with the vein blowing. She burst into tears and was hopeless. She knew that "if I couldn't do it, then no one could."

I cannot express to you how devastated I was. I felt like a complete failure at my job. I know that it's impossible to successfully obtain an IV on everyone, especially patients like this. It's just that this particular patient has a special place in my heart, as all cancer patients do. I really wanted to help her...and I couldn't.

I apologized to her and left the room, crying.

Sometimes health care is just overwhelming. Most of the time (like 99% of it) I can keep my emotions together and move on. And there were other options for this lady, but she had so much faith in me and I let her down. Some days, my job just sucks.

Tomatoes! (or not)

Mmm....yummy! What is left of our "garden" are these lovely tomato plants. There are some beefsteak and cherry tomatoes growing. They are delicious!

Too bad the freakin' dogs keep eating them! I won't say whooooooo, but SAM and DAISY don't care if they are ripe or not...they eat them regardless. Pick em' right off the vine.
A-HOLE dogs.

Roasting

The word hot doesn't even begin to describe the temperature right now. I can't remember it ever being this miserable and scorching hot. Even the Carmel doesn't like it, which is weird because she usually loves to lay around outside being a little sun seeker. Not so much now. Glad we have AC. It's supposed to feel like 110 degrees today. I might die.

DONE

I just submitted my last paper ever for my Associate's Degree! Glad that's over. Now, where's my bed?

This pretty much sums it up...

YAY for me!

Nephews...

I can't wait to spend the a few days with these two little men this week! It feels
like they were just little babies. It's so crazy to watch them grow up and totally makes
me have a sad. I will always see them as being little boys.
Love these guys to pieces.

GT! GOOOD TIMES!

i don't mind waiting in line
no no
i don't mind if the bills pile up
and the work is slow
i don't mind the gas or the groceries or the grind

as long as i'm with you
i'm having a good time

don't mind the stoner waiter
or the poorly cooked food
don't mind little miss kitty
or her knuckle-head dude
don't mind if every last person here
is ugly and rude
long as i'm with you
i've got a good attitude
long as i'm with you

we could be stuck in traffic
for over a week
with a car full of quintuplets
who are all cutting teeth
around my neck
could be a flaming christmas wreath
and i'd be smiling underneath
smiling underneath

i don't mind waking up early
for a flight that's delayed
i don't mind a week's vacation
was chilly and grey
i don't mind the traffic cops or the tsa
as long as i'm with you
i'm having a good day

don't mind spilling my hot sauce
onto my white shirt
don't mind the twinge when i walk
in that knee that i hurt
don't mind my gums peeling back
or my hair getting thin
long as i'm with you i win

We could be near a mountain...


Or in a land far away....



Or even right here at home...



It doesn't matter where we are. Even though there are like a skamillion miles between us right now, I am always thinking of you and waiting for you to come to me so we can have a good time!

Busy day

This pretty much sums up my work day today. It's a rough life.

Sleepers

The dogs have officially taken over the bed now that Lindsay is gone. It's ridiculous but so cute all at the same time. The arrangement used to be Sam by Lindsay's feet, Daisy curled up somewhere near my feet and legs, and Carmie RIGHT IN BETWEEN US (being a brat all night long). Of course Stone and Duke are way to big to sleep in bed, so they are always on the floor, snoring their faces off.

However, things have changed. All three of the little ones think it is now their job in life to keep me safe at night since Mama L isn't here to do make sure I see tomorrow. First of all, the three of them all have to be touching me in some way. Either a paw or a nose or an ear...but something has to be touching me. Sam sleeps on Lindsay's pillows (AHAHAAAHAHAAAA!!! Sorry babe!), Daisy sleeps wherever other dogs won't be touching her, and Carmie sleeps with her nose on my head...all curled up in my pillows and blankies.

It's nice to have all of these little creatures surrounding me and keeping me company. In fact, I think the five of them will keep my sane for the next few months. I love these little dogs. Anyhow, here is a picture of Lindsay's Baby Blonde Dog early this morning before I left for work.

Almost done!

Good news, peeps! In a little more than one week I will OFFICIALLY be a college graduate! Not that an Associate's Degree is something so huge, but it's a stepping stone. I'm so happy I get to leave Ivy Tech and move onto IUPUI. I really feel like I'm going to do so well in a larger school. Until then though, I will be writing my face off for my last two classes. Hats off to me!!

iTunes is playing tricks on me.

Seriously. iTunes must know that Lindsay is gone...or something. It's messing with my brain.

The last five songs that have played:

Storms in Africa-Enya

Where'd ya go-Fort Minor

Come on life-Melissa Ferrick

Come home-One Republic

Pictures of you-The Last Goodnight

Thanks, iTunes for serving up a nice big spoonful of reality. JERK.

Bittersweet

I've had more than a year and a half to prepare for Lindsay to leave. I didn't realize the downside of this until about two weeks ago: waiting for her to leave. Thus far, this was the worst part of this trip, hopefully it remains that way.

Regardless, here we are this morning before I took her to the airport:

December seems like it is forever away, until then...I'm going to write more. So stay tuned.

I love you, baby!

Updates!

I haven't blogged in a hot, hot minute. I was busy. Gimme a break. So, what better way to reintroduce myself than to do an update blog?!?!?!

*First and foremost, I passed that GD math class! I didn't get the grade I wanted, but I passed with a "C" so I never have to take it again! YESSS! It was an absolutely miserable experience. Did I mention that I HATE MATH??? Cause I do.

This is how math equates in my brain. Moving on...

*We planted our garden. It's a work in progress..that's what we'll call it. The broccoli plants are kicking ass (and yes...taking names!), the carrots are doing well (or at least they seem to be), but the onions, tomatoes, and peppers...I don't know about, yet. Just in case, this past weekend at the Broad Ripple Farmer's Market we bought two tomato plants to put in our garden.

*I will be taking my last two classes this summer at Ivy Tech! I technically only had to take one, but since I was taking one, I figure why not take two? I'll be taking a exposition/arguments writing class and a sociology class called "social problems." I'm a total nerd, but I just LOVE learning about people, hence the anthropology major. DUH. Making this doubly awesome is that I bought BOTH of my books for the semester for less than thirty dollars! WOOT!

*I'm all set and ready to go for IUPUI, almost. Just when I thought math was O.V.E.R. I had to take a placement test before I can do orientation. Whatever, I guess. It was only 7 problems, so I did really well or really shitty. I'll find out in orientation on June 9th. I'm stoked for my classes though! I'll be taking the following: human origins and prehistory, world geography, advanced spanish I, and beginning guitar.

*I'm starting to do some fund raising for the mission to Nigeria. I'm so excited to go back to Africa, and to be a part of something so amazing. Plus, I will get to visit with Lindsay since she will be there for six months.

*We bought a new mower that I'm obsessed with. No, really. It's a reel mower, also known as "hey, 1953 called and it wants its' mower back." This is what it looks like:
Awesome for many reasons, but mostly because it uses ZERO gas, so no nasty fumes and loud noise when I mow. BEST. MOWER. EVER. And no, it isn't difficult to use.

*In the midst of all the craziness happening in the world right now, Lindsay and I are just as in love as ever! I love the family and love that she and I have created. It's comforting, warm, and where I'm supposed to be.


Hope everyone is well!

A year of travel--reviewed.

I haven't written for a while, I'm a busy person. I decided that since it's officially been one year since Lindsay and I took our very first trip together I would celebrate with a post dedicated to some of my favorite photos of us and a bit of reflection. Here goes...

The very first trip that Lindsay and I ever took together was to Tennessee for my 28th birthday. I'm not gonna lie, it was a wreck mess because we couldn't get it together, but there were some good times (as always, duh). We rented a cabin for my bday and off we went.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 02.09

Chillin' on the balcony of our cabin.

Being incredibly in love.
We ultimately had a good time on this trip. It was just a little rough. We had only been together for about three months and we hadn't figured each other out, yet. We still made the most of it!



Chicago, Illinois 04.09
This is one of the shortest(two days), fun-filled trips I have ever been on in my life. Lindsay and I went to Chicago for her first Girlyman show. It was fantastic. We saw Millennium Park, I rode a train for the first time in my life, the Girlyman show was excellent, and we did some touristy stuff, which actually was really cool. By the time we took this trip, we had our shit together (finally) and realized that traveling together made for the best times.
See us? :)~
On Navy Pier. I LOVE this picture.
Our last day in Chicago.




Portland, Oregon 8.09
Since Lindsay was gone nearly six weeks out of the summer, we decided it was time to take a real vacation. We didn't have any particular place in mind...just somewhere that neither one of us had previously been. We googled a map of the U.S. and after lots of talking we decided on Portland, Oregon. Excellent choice! We had a blast...although people rave about the food and we didn't understand why (with the major exception of VooDoo Doughnut). Portland is super clean, very GLBT friendly, easy to navigate, and gorgeous. Rent a car and go explore, it's awesome.
The world famous maple bacon bar from VooDoo Doughnut. Absolutely delicious. We waited in line for 45 minutes for these little gems. Worth every second of it.
At the Washington Zoo. They had a ton of animals and exhibits. We loved it, of course.
Wakheena Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. Gorgeous waterfalls all around us.
Let me tell ya, Mount St. Helen looks much closer than it is when you start driving towards it. GEESH! When we had driven as far up as we could go, there was a state park-ish thing. We just walked in (hello, it was open to the public, no gates, no one taking money except inside a building) and took a look at our surroundings. Lindsay was convinced we were going to get kicked out, so the experience was short lived.
Ridiculously in love. Watching the sunset in Astoria, Washington on the beach. This was my first time seeing The Pacific Ocean. It was COLD!!!!



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11.09
Lindsay had an APHA conference to attend in Philly in November, so we decided that one of our friends and myself would tag along. Bad idea. I should have stayed home. I got the stomach flu the night we arrived and was sick as hell the entire time. It was awful. However, I still managed to go out and see a little bit of Philly.
Star fish at the New Jersey Aquarium! Yep, that's my hand. Brandi and I went here and acted like five year olds while Lindsay was busy being a big brain.
Thanks for still loving me babe, even when I'm sick and we are traveling. :)






Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa 1.10
It just kinda happened that I got to go on the trip to Africa with Lindsay. I had never been on an international trip before and still to this day, can't believe that we had such an amazing opportunity to share this adventure. I'm honestly still in shock about how inspiring this trip was, so I'm still processing. I got to see things I could never dream of. A couple of things I hold near and dear to my heart from this trip: it opened so many doors for me and my eyes at the same time, made me want to learn Spanish (we had a layover in Spain, plus pretty much everyone speaks Spanish), the trip made me want everyone to SLOOOOW DOOOOWN, and last but not least it inspired me to study Anthropology. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. You can check out Lindsay's post to get a more in depth review of our trip.
Welcome to Banjul! This was taken from a tower in downtown Banjul. I composed myself and picked up my jaw long enough to snap this little beauty. :)
BEACH!!!! Did you say beach? The Gambia is landlocked on three sides by Senegal (take a peek, here) but luckily we were staying on the coast, so I got to see (and play in!) The Atlantic Ocean from Africa! HA! As you can see, it was gorgeous.
Lindsay with her favorite thing ever, solar panels. We visited a HUGE hospital out in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (no seriously) that uses solar power for 90% of it power.
Dream come true! I got to hold this cutie little African baby. He wasn't so sure about me, but let me hold him anyhow. This was taken in a remote village.
A different village with LOTS of kiddos. This is our driver, Yabo's village. The very tall white man is Dr. Nagengast, the man who made all of this happen.
Lindsay and I near a HUGE koi pond at The Gambian President's resort. Just keepin' it classy, as always.
Cattle, just crossing the road. No bigs. This happens CONSTANTLY in Africa. If you don't stop for them and you hit one with your vehicle, you have to find the farmer it belongs to and pay him for his loss.
I found this very interesting. It's just a bore hole to get water from, but I'd never seen anything like that, so I was amused. One of the students lowered a bucket down into the water, pulled it up to our level, and then transported it up a sand hill to the main water pot that the residents use for daily cooking, drinking, etc. NEATO-O.
The group.
We visited a slave house on an island in Senegal. It was uber creepy. This is me in solitary confinement. I was being bad, apparently.



New York City, New York 1.10
Our flight from Africa arrived in NYC later than we could catch a flight back to Indy, so we just stayed there! I had only been once when I was much younger, less traveled, and it was a really bad experience. Lindsay wanted to show me that it's not so bad. She was right! In about 6 hours, we saw Ground Zero (BOOOORRRRRING), Times Square, and Central Park. Oh..and we got lost (kind of). It was awesome.
Ground Zero. I told you it was boring.
Times Square was fantastic! Soooo many people and places.
Excited to be in Central Park. It was nice to escape the noise for a while and see what the hype is about. I figured it out....it's HUGE.
Me and Lindsay in Central Park. We were judging people. =D




I've never traveled this much in one year, ever. It just kind of happened for me/us. As you can see, I've been so many places and met so many people in the past year. I'm so fortunate to have Lindsay in my life. Without her, none of this would be possible and so many other great things wouldn't have happened (going back to school, believing in myself, this deserves a whole other blog post). Our travels will continue and I will always try to share them with you. Stay tuned!

You want me to do what??

Brilliant idea to go stay in East Lansing, Michigan this weekend with Lindsay's sister (Hilary). The events (thus far) have included meeting the world's largest dog (Diesel, a 140lb great dane),a wonderful Girlyman show (where I was once again so happy to see Ty AND she remembered my name), lots of fire building in the fireplace, a brief tour of the Michigan State campus, lots of shopping(including a fantastic new pair of Keen's for me!), and a breakfast made caveman style.

Caveman style breakfast?? What does that mean, you ask? Did you hunt a rabbit, skin it, then cook it over an open flame?

NO. THIS WAS WAAAAY WORSE. :)

Sidenote: Lindsay and I have a Sunday morning ritual, providing I am not at work, where we make the best best eggs ever; Sunday Morning Eggs. They are fairly labor intensive considering they contain many veggies.

Sooooo....we purchased the ingredients last night when we got here, making sure to ask if Hilary had each and every staple item we needed (i.e. eggs, butter...not margarine, salt, pepper, veggies, a pan). We did this only because Hilary is a college student, still living the pretty simple life.

Anyhow.....so this morning comes. We wake up, talk for a little bit, build another fire, and then realize we are so hungry we could eat a hippo. That's my cue...I'll start cooking now, thanks.

So I start rummaging around in the kitchen looking for a pan, a cutting board and a knife...only to discover that two of these items aren't available: the knife and the cutting board. HOLY CRAP! Is what I was thinking. How can someone have a kitchen without a knife and a cutting board? I mean, you might as well just install a hot tub where the kitchen once was if you don't have a KNIFE and a CUTTING BOARD.

GEESH.

Anyhow, we made due with what was here. Let me tell ya though, chopping bell peppers, onions, and garlic with a butter knife and pizza cutter on a slippery ceramic plate is not something I ever want to do again. Here is a little glimpse of the madness...



Me looking a little freaked out by this beast of a dog.

Excited and nervous to be talking to Ty, again. Did I mention she knows my name? Lindsay and Hilary got ROASTED by Ty. She looked at me and said "Angie, right???" HAAAA!! They didn't believe me. Little do they know...

You want me to do what??? Okay...I'll give it a shot. (Props to Lindsay for helping out!)

Speaking of helping...someone else was willing to lend a paw.

Here's the finished product!!!