Surprising, I know...

Apparently when I sit my butt down and force myself to work I can get stuff done. Nice. :) And I actually don't hate it as much as I thought. I guess that's why I'm here.

Weekend in brief

We had a marriage retreat on Friday and Saturday at our church, and I though it went really well. The couple that led the retreat was very insightful, and very frank. I appreciated that. It's nice to know that we're normal. :) Well, as normal as normal is... Seriously, though, I think we walked out of it even more sure that we are where we're supposed to be, and ecstatic that God has led us in the right direction all this time. (As a side note, I think there were only two couples there who had been married longer than us: one couple are in their early 40s and have three children, and the other are in their late 20s and have been married only one year longer... We were the third-longest married couple, and the youngest participants! Strange...)

I had a bad back day on Friday, so I got about 2, 2 1/2 hours of sleep Friday night. Ew. But I took a long (3 1/2 hour) nap on Saturday and a shorter (1 1/2 hour) nap today. Problem is, all this napping is seriously cutting in on my brief-writing time. (Well, so is blogging... but that's another story...) Truth is, I really dislike this stuff. I wish we could write briefs and memos in our substantive classes so it seems more relevant and more worthwhile. It just feels like this class is a joke, and it's hard to get motivated for a joke. You know.

My sister is getting married in less than 2 weeks. Weird. In less than 2 weeks Bryan will no longer be the only son-in-law. My little sister will have a different last name. She'll be someone's wife. This is surreal.

OK. I guess I have to get writing. But I won't like it. :)

The day just got a little brighter

I just had an amazing interview. It seems like every time I have an interview I want to work at that place. They convince me! :) I'm really excited about this one, even though it is unpaid. I think I can get summer public interest funding for it, but I'm not sure. Anyway, he is going to email me about a second interview, which is super exciting! :)

Yipee skipee!

Katie

All I can say is...

Sometimes things suck.

Couple of things

Today is perhaps the laziest day in the history of lazy days. I slept until almost noon, and I've been glued to the Discovery channel ever since. Now I'm blogging, but then I intend to get some work done!

Catching up in Stilly
I talked to two important Stillwater figures yesterday, one via email and one via speakerphone. It was good to touch base with both. I really miss OSU. And they both helped me re-align my focus. As I was giving my soap box on my philosophy of balance, I really started believing it again. It made me feel good. Though I did admit to one of the two that sometimes my philosophy is merely an excuse to put off studying. :) But it turned out well for me last semester, so I'm not too super worried about it now.

The major thing going on there right now is the whole Eddie Sutton deal. It's pretty crappy of him to do, and I am horrified that he did it, but he is a pretty sympathetic character. People in Stillwater LOVE this man. And he's struggling with chronic pain. I'm not saying it's an excuse, I'm just saying it's really sad. The man's 6 wins away from 800. He's #5 on the list of most wins for NCAA Division 1 coaches. It's sad to see the end of his career marred in this way.
What it does do is bring up an interesting point we were discussing in Crim this week about preferential treatment - should celebrities like Sutton and Cheney be treated differently in criminal cases? Most people agree they shouldn't get preferential treatment, but should they be made an example of/treated more harshly than others? Something to think about...

Medical mumbo-jumbo, hopefully the last word
I got a call from my spinal specialist yesterday. Apparently I had a hemangioma, which made my bone weak and led to my fracture. It could have stayed there, silently resting, but instead I decided to go sledding and smack it around a bit. :) Oh well...

Blizzard!

Church cancelled today.
Wind like tornado sirens,
Our windows all blocked.

I have a famous friend!

My friend was on NPR yesterday morning. :)

Update

So apparently I'm not dying. The radiologist's report said I probably had a benign tumor in the bone, but it was a type that's apparently really in the spine - my doctor's words were "common as dirt" - and no big deal. So I'm OK. :)

The downside is, after my appt I had to run all over Mount Auburn Hospital trying to get the images from the scan. Then I had to wait while they burned them to CD. Then I had to run them back to my doctor. And by then it was already 1:05, and I didn't have my books or computer or anything, so I had to miss class again. I'm not complaining too hard, but let's just say my grades have informed me of the importance of actually attending class... :)

Anyway. Now I've got to do some reading, do some research, write two homework assignments, and meet with my Ames partner. But the payoff is great - a sectionmate in my building is throwing me a welcome back party tonight. Should be tons of fun. :)

CT

I should make a note about the CT scan I got this morning. It was surprisingly uninvasive - I'd never had one before - and surprisingly no big deal. But the craziest thing was the tech.
So I walked in all good to go, and he was like, "So, compression fracture, huh? What were you, snowboarding?" in his verrry Bostonian accent. I tell him the short version of the story. Then I get on the table by myself, get scanned, and afterward he's like, "Nice cell phone in your pocket. We see everything!" and then: "Do you need help up? Are you moving around OK? I could see it." I'm not too sure how to take that other than not to take it as anything. But it was weird how his attitude changed. Let's hope that is just a reaction to the fracture period, not to the horrible-ness of it.
I get the results on Thursday, noonish. I'll post when I can...

How my day went

The longest email

I've written in my whole life

Made me feel better

An invitation

To open a dialogue

Made me feel better

The smell of tulips

Surprising me in the Hark

Made me feel better

Random encounter

She didn't know what she said

Made me feel better

The Harbox Cafe

Hot Chocolate Lady's big smile

Made me feel better

Internet outreach

One sentence of a question

Made me feel better

It's the little things

The "Wow, God" moments of life

Make me feel better

Thanks be to the Lord

Who can cover every hurt

And make me feel good.

My current ache

Today I'm missing home. I miss my friends. I miss being able to just have a deep conversation without back story, just knowing that they understand where I'm coming from. I don't know why I'm so weird lately, I just feel so disconnected. I know I have friends here, and they're great, but I just haven't found that connection. I want to delve into the deep recesses of the psyche, to swim around in someone else's head and have them swim around in mine. I want to sit and laugh over coffee. I want to sit and cry over ice cream. I am such a relational person, and though I feel like I'm willing to open up, it doesn't feel like anyone's interested, or willing to reciprocate. I know these things take time, and I know it took years to build that up in Stillwater, but I miss my base. I just feel like everyone here already has their little groups.
Don't mistake this; I know I have Bryan. And he is amazing, no doubt. But I just feel like in Stillwater I had this whole network. This gap has just ripped it apart. I need connections.