Bye Bye Gallbladder

So I had to back to the Emergency Room because of the gallbladder thing - was having a terrible night, in a lot of pain, and just about inconsolable.  This time the ER was in Maryland, and this time I had health insurance, and bada bing, bada boom - they did all sorts of tests, found that the little GB was completely blocked by a 1.1 inch stone, and was not functioning at all - so I had emergency surgery to get the thing out, they sliced it open and in it were probably 40 or more stones, most of them fairly large.  And they were swimming in a major infection too.  So this was actually life threatening!  I could have died had it gone on much longer.

The surgeon was very nice to me and told me that I had been sick and suffering for a long time.  No kidding?

Moral of the story is not to put these things off.  Take care of yourselves.  And make sure you have health insurance since hospitals seem to take much better care of you if you do.

Could somebody pass the Duke's mayonnaise?

I just moved to Maryland...not even 72 hours ago, with my kid, my husband, my Jetta, my cats, and a 26 foot long U-Haul truck.  Changed my life in one fell swoop.  One weekend.  Seriously.  It's nice up here even though I'm still tired.  The trees and mountains are beautiful.  All of the leaves have changed into gold, red, or orange.  The campus I work on is gorgeous, and my apartment here is amazing!  But there's a few things I've noticed so far that surprised me even more than all of that.

I'm a southerner.  Definitely.  Even though I previously wrote about how bored I was at times with my country upbringing, now it's almost a source of pride.  Yep, there were cows next door.  And yes, I have an accent.  I say y'all.  I like Duke's mayo on my tomato sandwiches.  I talk about my "Granny."  It's colder up here and I have a legitimate right to complain if I want to.  I'm from Georgia for crying out loud.  We don't have winter.  It just gets a little nippy in January.   

People here say, "I'm from PA," instead of I'm from Pennsylvania.  Fortunately this southerner was smart enough to remember the state abbreviations!  And they don't pronounce Maryland correctly either...it's like the y and the d get left out.  But they are nice and I'm reminded everyday that I'm still below the Mason Dixon line.  So officially I'm not a Northerner.  Not that anyone in a million years would ever think that anyway.  

It will be a very interesting transition for me, but so far I'm having a good time.

Message from Granny.

There is a lot of sorting and packing going on at my house right now because we are preparing for a big move to Maryland.  I have gotten a great new job and we were so lucky to lease the house to a great family that's moving in the day after we move out.  Everything has fallen right into place, in spite of me.  So tonight I was going through stuff in the garage and looked over at my grandmother's little nightstand that came home with us after her death.  I brought it home and stuck it in my garage and have left it alone since.  Tonight I decided to look inside.  I found all sorts of little treasures of hers, but one thing in particular brought tears to my eyes...lots of them.  In a little notebook that I had given her years earlier, she had written on the very back page, "You better take time out to study your Bible [out] of your busy day of work & thank God."  I clipped the little note out and promptly put it in a frame.  I think it will go on my new desk at my new job in my new life that I've been given, that I am, by the way, very thankful for.

Toddler dictionary

like: as in "time to go to bed, turn off the like"

mayked: adj, meaning without clothes

note: command, as in uh uh, no way.

werts: refers to the little men in the famous story, Snow White and the Seven Werts

lello: one of the three primary colors - not red, not blue

bonny tail: what you have when you pull your long hair together in the back and put a rubber band around it.

copy: noun, refers to the piece of cloth that brings great comfort when you're sleepy
familla: a flavor, such as familla ice cream.

EGO trip

I drove up to Maryland this week to interview for a new job.  It was very nice to have a couple of days off and to have a change of scenery, and to meet so many interesting people.  The campus was gorgeous as was the town, and everyone was nice.  The drive was LONG.  The husband and I actually had a chance to talk to each other because we were minus the little one who talks constantly.  Or sings.  Or just makes noise.  

I know I've said this before, but I believe in fate.  And oddly enough, as I found myself in Maryland tossing and turning in the Best Western where I wound up leaving my "magic" pillow - I wondered what I was doing there, and how the whole thing would turn out.  Still don't know the answer to that, but something very neat happened on the way back.

We were driving down I-81 and couldn't help ourselves.  We had to stop off on exit 140 to drive by Roanoke College, get gas at our favorite gas station there where we used to live, look for that barbeque in the tub that I used to buy so much.  When we pulled into the gas station, which is in the parking lot of the grocery store, there sat a Starbucks!  Since I actually emailed corporate back in 2002 and asked them to build a Starbucks in Salem, VA, I had to go in.  Hal was funny.  He completely entertained my excitement and went along willingly.  We walk in and immediately are hugged by the former VPSA and now, special assistant to the president, of Roanoke College.  It was so good to see him, this wiry man who put me to shame hiking in the mountains five  years ago.  We chatted a while, caught up with each other a bit, and then he said something that made my heart swell.  He said, you know Heather, when you left it was so bittersweet - you had a great opportunity but man you had done such a good job here.  Five years later he says this to me.  What a compliment.  I'm still reeling.  It's really great, and the only compliment I have let myself hear in a long time.  (I'm naturally bad at accepting compliments.)  I did manage to buy myself a cup of coffee but completely forgot my one raw sugar and cream, so as we were driving out there was ANOTHER Starbucks!  I walked in there half expecting to see someone else I knew but it was late and they were about to close.  It was great to see the campus again and we drove by our old residence hall.  At one point I thought I shouldn't have left, but if I'd done that I wouldn't have been there in South Carolina to help my aunt through her last days with bone cancer.  Everything happens for a reason.  Everything.

So now I'm referring to the Maryland jaunt as my ego trip.  Cause now I feel good about myself in a way that I haven't in a while.  Fate?  We shall see.

Ideas for the middle of the night.

So I'm sitting here awake.  Again.  Let's see.  Fun things to do in the middle of the night.  Play on Facebook.  Make comments about all your friend's photos.  Catch up on email!  Seriously, and I needed to do that too.  Listen to New Kids on the Block with my cool Bose headphones.  Read cnn.com and catch up on the news so I won't look like an idiot when there's a current affairs conversation going on in the workplace.  Snack.  Drink mojitos.  Contemplate life.  Write.  Stare at my little boo sleeping.  Snicker at my husband and his almost snore.  I suppose I could pose them and take funny pictures.  Nah.  That might be weird.  Go outside and pet P.P. -- the cat we brought home from Virginia that refuses to enter the house.  I think she has kitty bipolar disorder.  Oh.  I almost forgot.  Tonight I'm sitting here wondering why some freaking IDIOT in Atlanta robbed a Starbucks at gunpoint yesterday morning.  The poor barista he pointed the gun at is my friend!  

I wonder if it's true that sleeplessness or lack of sleep actually does make you more creative?

There must be a happy medium.

Last night I decided to do something revolutionary. I took a real sleeping pill. Not your over the counter Tylenol PM types, but Rozerem. That tiny little pill knocked me OUT for 12 hours straight. I didn't hear anything, feel anything, or hurt anywhere. OUT. I didn't really wake up good until about 7 tonight. My husbands tells me I should take another one tonight, but I don't want to be groggy all day tomorrow too, so I opt not to. And here I am. Awake all night!
Where is the happy medium? I have written published articles on how to get a good night's sleep! I have led seminars on how to sleep! I know what to do! Yet I cannot sleep. I have barriers. Aches and pains, gallbladder issues, a very strange and jacked up work schedule, and a 4 year old. Can't get rid of any of those things at the moment. I think my next post will be all about the cool things you can do in the wee hours of the day.