Summer Fun #43,892

Probably the most entertaining story I have from this past summer came father's day weekend. We decided we were going to head about 45 minutes down the road to camp at one of the beautiful Minnesota state parks. So, Thursday night we loaded everything up into the van so we could leave on Friday as soon as CB got home from work. This part all went off without a hitch and we were even on the road about fifteen minutes earlier than we had anticipated. We even arrived to the campsite, got everything set up and had time to go for a little tour before it was time to make dinner. The only thing was that CB had this pain in his mouth. It was really hurting, but when he took advil or tylenol it went away. It was a beautiful day, and turned into a beautiful night where the stars were brighter than I had seen in forever and the mosquitoes were at a minimal level!

Saturday morning turned out just as lovely, but the pain in CB's mouth was beginning to hurt even worse. But, he was a good sport, and we went Geo Caching and swimming in the river. This is where the story turns sour. First, CJ and Diva sliced their knees open on rocks in the river. Not too deep, but enough blood to make me a little queasy. Fortunately, CB is a planner and we had a first aid kit in the car.

However, nothing in the first aid kit could help CB. By Saturday night, he was in so much pain that he was shaking and tears were rolling down his face. This is a man who dislocates his shoulder once a year and utters nary a swear word. Obviously, the pain medications weren't even touching the pain at this point. I finally convinced him that he needed to go to the ER, so at 8 Saturday night, I dropped two very upset children off with my mom and took CB to the ER. Two hours later, we learned that he had an absess. We were sent back to the campsite with a prescription for antibiotics and Vicodin (which he didn't take).

By morning, he was feeling much better. So, on Father's Day, CB got up early to make US all breakfast. Lo and behold, he bent over and his back went out. As if that wasn't enough, it started to RAIN! And not just rain, but downpour. CB decided enough was enough, and we left for home. Needless to say, the ride home was VERY quiet.

CB took Monday morning off so we could get him to the dentist, only to have the dentist not be able to find anything wrong! They took multiple x-rays, poked around, and found NOTHING! Odd. From there, we headed to the chiropractor to get his back put back into place. Finally, fully fixed up, we headed back home--putting an end to what was obviously the most expensive camping trip EVER!

How about you?? Any horrendous camping stories you want to share?

Cleaning out the cobwebs

and making my way through the layers of dust to see if anyone is still out there?? I've officially finished the last day of classes for this semester, and I'm relieved beyond belief! Finally finished with my generals, it's going to be intellectually stimulating Lit classes and super fun Education classes from here on out.

I found this semester especially trying. One where I was forced to defend my beliefs and convictions on several different occasions. Frustrating, yes, but also exhilirating because I'm old and don't care what grade I get if it comes to readings that go against everything that I believe.

We've made it through another year, this one without any major tragedies. I found it funny because I haven't had time to blog in forever, and this summer seemed to be one full of interesting blog fodder. Facebook updates have been my connection to my interweb friends as of late. I can't seem to get my mind wrapped around twitter, and still don't feel like I have anything entirely interesting to share lately. But I'm going to try. I miss the blogosphere. I miss interacting with all of you.

So, if you've still got me in your reader (another thing that I can't seem to understand), and you don't mind bearing with some mundane musings, I'm back. At least until next semester.

The benefits of having a virtual diary.

August 24, 2004 Someday I'm gonna go back to school. I know it shouldn't bother me because I've got a really great job that only improves the longer I'm there, but it really just irks me that I don't have a college degree. I loved school! I love learning, and I think that's why I hate not having that degree. But I made the choices I made because that was what was best for my family at the time. And in three years, I'm SO back to school!

I needed to see this today. The past couple of days have been not-so-stellar. Right now, I am killing time in between a major meltdown (thank GOD for girlfriends!) and picking up the kids from school. So, I decided to check out the bloggy place I had before I became Glamorous Redneck. And I started at my very first month of blogging. This is the entry I found. I can’t believe I really am doing this craziness! But, I somehow am. I am exhausted, on the brink of insanity, crazily overwhelmed, but I actually set my mind to something and achieved it. Granted, it wasn’t exactly three years from when I wrote that entry, but it was exactly when I was supposed to start.

So, this is what it’s like to have a goal and see the achievement of that goal not to far away in the distance? I think it’s almost better because I had forgotten that I made this goal for myself. I wanted to go back to school. I wanted to be a teacher. And now, I’m doing it.

Like I said, I needed to be reminded of this today.

Where in the world is Glamorous Redneck?

I can tell you where she's not. She's not on a nice, warm beach, the waves lulling her to sleep. Nope, she's still here in Podunk, finally over a stint of -22 degree weather and spending the day off school trying to get a jumpstart on homework for the week.

Other things that have gone on in Glamorous Redneck's life:

-November: A very dear friend lost her 16 year old daughter to a car accident. We are still trying to process and we are still hurting.

-December: I survived my first semester on campus. I may have even made a friend or two. I also made the Dean's List. Shocking, I know!

-January: Started what I thought was going to be a fairly simple Spring semester. Missed the first day of classes because of snow. Also missed my morning class last Thursday (which was the fourth day of classes) due to the fact that the warmest it got was -13. We have not been outside for more than two minutes in over a week. But, after having the few classes that I did have, I am now absolutely terrified of this semester. I wrote 22 papers the last week of classes last semester. I will not be a bit surprised if that number is doubled this semester. I will also be ringing in the birthday that marks my last year of 20's. Not entirely sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I am excited because I think my 30^th birthday (which also happens to be my golden birthday) will be spectacular, but the whole notion of turning 30 scares the crap out of me.

So, that's what's been up with me. I have disappeared into the chaos of the Holidays, grieving, and being a college student. I'm still not entirely sold on stopping blogging all together, but it is getting difficult to carve out the time necessary for me to attempt to be witty and engaging here. Plus, I have to save all my wittiness and engaging-ness for the eleven thousand papers I have to write.

But the main reason I've come out of hiding today is to thank the one and only Big Sky Girl (Her linkie is over -à there. I'm using a program that hasn't quite shown me how to do linkies, so just click over there. Her awesomeness will astound you) for giving me this totally sweet Lemonade award. Especially since the title of her blog post is oh-so-funny. However, I won't nominate anyone else because a) the people that I would nominate have already received the award and b) 99% of the blogs that I've linked to on my side bar are no longer active. Which means I really need to get back out there and find some more totally awesome bloggers. Maybe somewhere around the year 2140.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

It occurred to me the other day that I am sort of like the middle child here at school. Too young to fit in with the real "Non-traditionals" and too old to fit in with the whipper-snappers that are more concerned with where their next party is than "am I going to be getting myself any financial aid AT ALL next year?" It's an odd feeling, this middle child thing. I'm the oldest. Everything goes my way. I get the hard stuff so that by the time the wee little babies come around, it's a cake walk. So I kind of feel like I'm floating around in-limbo most days. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly not a bad thing. Just kind of. . .odd.

On the plus side, though, I've yet to fall again! And I do believe I've made some. . .erm. . .let's call them acquaintences. I really do have some super nice people in my education classes. The other classes seem to be full of people with the mindset that they are but robots, simply moving through the system. They don't speak to anyone unless directly spoken to. Or if they do speak, it's hushed little giggly whispers to the girl sitting next to them they've known since kindergarten. It makes it a little difficult to try and have discussions on things like Pride and Prejudice (Hello! Most awesomest book. EVER!) and The Remains of the Day (eh, not so much. He talks in proper British circles so that I have to re-read paragraphs many times. However, today in class it was a little better, so there may be hope. Now that we're like HALFWAY into the semster.

Now, I must be off. I have a short story that I need to get written. Creative Writing has been an awesome class for me! I haven't done any writing of any kind other than analytical essays in a very long time. So it's fun to get my little fantasy world back!

Embarassing Moments

It occurred to me that in my rash of tiredness, I forgot to tell you about my stellar first day as a student here at the college. I had put much thought into my back-to-school clothes shopping, and had obtained several outfits that say "I'm older than you, but not so old that my pants get pulled up to my chest." but also said "Because I am older than you, I will not try and dress like you, but I will look cute, dammit!" and so I was ready to go!

On the first day of school, I got up right when my alarm went off (at 6:15! An hour that was non-existant to me prior to this), did everything that I needed to do and was running perfectly on time. I got to my first class a couple minutes late, but that was due to the fact that I had not calculated the time it takes to get from my car into the building in my travel time. But I was feeling pretty confident.

After my first class was over, I had (and still have) about two hours to kill between classes, so I headed down to the "commuter's lounge" to eat my lunch. I wasn't even uncomfortable with the fact that I would be dining alone and actually welcomed the chance to get a head start on my reading. But, I made the stupid mistake of trying to text and walk at the same time. As I went down the little flight of TWO WHOLE STEPS, I misjudged my footing and ended up tripping down the last one. I landed flat on my face and hit my head on a table and chairs on the way down. Yes. I am AWESOME! I shook it off, and fortunately for me and my fragile ego, there was only three or four people that saw it. I pretended like it didn't hurt and made the comment "that's what I get for trying to do two things at once" and then sat down. I ended up with a minor bump on the side of my head that hit the chair, and a busted fingernail.

Stellar start to my first day, right?

Like I said, I am OH-SO-AWESOME!

Another run-down

I am tired. Tired of the political ads that are every other commercial every time I want to watch TV. Tired of Feeling sorry for poor Sarah Palin because the poor girl doesn't have a chance against all these big-time (and at some times extremely hostile) media peoples. Tired of getting up at 6:00 every morning. Tired of seemingly everyone I know (yes, I'm including YOU in here too, Missy! :) ) going to San Diego and it looks like my planned trip is disappearing by the moment (THANK YOU, crappy economy. Thank you so much for saving me from getting away from the frozen tundra in January. Lord knows I would have been miserable parked on the beach whilst everyone here was in their winter coats. You have truly saved my life.)

But! I am getting really good grades in school. I'm not quite sure how to react to it all. I haven't seen a report card with only A's and B's since I was in 7th grade (this was before I hated running and anything else that involved sweating and so I would get A's in P.E.). If this keeps up, I just might make the Dean's list. And then, I will be treating myself to something big. Not sure what it is yet, but it's gonna be big.

So, anyway, the real reason I'm posting is because there is a cool website that is giving away FREE purses for 24 hours in a couple of weeks. I looked, they are gorgeous. And I have not bought myself a new purse in a very, very, long time. Unlike some other people *cough* BSG *cough*. Even though I would really like to win, I also think it would be fun to at least KNOW someone who won. So go to here and enter. Even if you happen to be a boy reading this (really, does anyone even bother here anymore? It's not like I'm posting with any sort of regularity), what better way to surprise your significant other than a handbag that looks like you spent beaucoup bucks on it. I'm not sure about YOUR ladyfriends, but I know in MY house, my significant other would be rewarded handsomely for getting me a purse. So, go enter. Right now. I'll maybe blog again in another month. Or twelve. Whatever.

I am tired.