"You should see my schedule..."

The infamous phrase that's been coming out of my mouth for the past week. Yesterday, I was looking at my calendar of due dates for my classes and I just realized that the rest of this week and next week is going to be completely crazy.
Tomorrow, I have an English presentation due, an essay due Sunday, three essays due Monday, Tuesday, I have a major homework assignment due and then I have to work that night, Wednesday I have two midterms and a ten-page paper due as well as a major homework assignment due, and then on Thursday I have another midterm. Yeah, ridiculous. I am feeling a little overwhelmed and I really should be working on all of the stuff I have to get done, but I really needed a break. I have been living off of liters of Dr. Pepper for the last week, but I am thinking I am going to have to bump it up to two liters a day the way things are going. Prayers for me would be greatly appreciated...

But after these couple of crazy weeks, I will be home for Spring Break! I am coming home Friday, the 13th of March and will be returning to UofA on the 22nd. I think we should hang out. :)

Wow.

It has literally been forever since I have posted; my apologies to those few and far between people who actually take the time to read this measly thing. I guess I should try and cover everything as briefly yet completely as I can.

Classes are a lot better this semester. I am taking 15 credit hours, with four attendance classes and one online class. I am enjoying the subject matter of my courses far more than I did last semester, however, my classes are more difficult which means more homework. I am taking mostly gen-eds (with one graduate level course), but they are higher level gen-eds or whatever. Classes include:
Educational Leadership: Mondays and Wednesdays at freaking 7:30am. Ridiculous. My professor lectures like she is giving a speech, meaning she just brushes over topics in a well-versed manner that does not explain anything, so we are forced to read the textbooks to gain any sort of knowledge about what the class is about. All of her tests are online, which is great, but you would think that because of this factor I wouldn't have to go class...WRONG. Being the clever professor she is, she assigns in-class activities due at the end of the hour so we HAVE to be there. It's usually not that bad, but a lot of them are group projects and I am not a sparkling pearl at 7:30 in the morning...
Nutrition: It's online, so there's really not much to talk about...I am really glad it's online because it's the stupidest class ever; my physiology majoring RA even thinks so...Besides the complete and utter less than lack of motivation to do anything associated with that "class," everything is fine.
Mythology: My favorite class! The subject matter is so interesting and my professor is absolutely fabulous. I think I am developing a slight personality-crush on the man, to be honest...But overall, that class is just fantastic.
Language and Culture of Deaf Communities: This class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:00. Nice that's it's my only class on those days, but Mondays and Wednesdays are really busy for me, so after that class, I am just wiped. The class is taught by the professor I had for my ASL class last semester, which at first I was like, "Oh great..." but now I am really starting to like her. At the beginning of the semester, we had a lady come certify our class to work with the DeafBlind, which was a really neat experience for me and now I am qualified to work with the DeafBlind in either a casual, volunteer, or paid environment. As of now, we watch a lot of videos and have a lot of class discussions (all in ASL), so it's totally chill. The only two things are...1) There is a lot of homework. AND 2) Professor Volk is having us serve 30 hours of volunteer work in the Deaf community and I have yet to find a place to volunteer. The whole class is centered around our service-learning project, so the fact that I haven't found a place to serve yet has really set me back. Being the over-planner that I am, not knowing what I am going to do to serve my 30 hours really scares me. I have roughly two months left to finish 30 hours and all of the work associated with it and it is stressing me out like you wouldn't believe.
English 102: THE. STUPIDEST. CLASS. I. HAVE. EVER. TAKEN! I can't even reiterate that enough. To start, my teacher is a total creeper. Seriously. Tim Meloni is a skinny, hairy, grad student in his late twenties who has the greasiest hair and the longest, yellow finger nails I have ever seen. He says, "OK?" more than any human ever should and he has trouble breathing when he teaches. Speaking of teaching, he has never taught English 102 and he told us on the first day of school that he is going to be learning the material we are learning right along with us. EXCELLENT. He writes cutesy, cheesy poetry that would make any girl swoon...but only enough for him to get in her pants, something of which he probably had no experience of whatsoever. He assigns us ridiculous busy work that will never help us when writing our essays, the main thing our grades are based off of. We recently handed in our first essay, on which I got the highest grade in the class. The girl who sits next to me thinks this is because Tim has a crush on me, mostly because he tends to look at me whenever I am doing anything awkward. I, personally, like to consider that my writing is better than everyone else's in the class (even those who think they are all that by using big words that create a circumvented argument), and I feel like I am not learning anything whatsoever other than to never to take a gen-ed English class ever again; I actually feel like my writing is deteriorating rather than improving, but whatever. Basically I cannot wait until I get into upper-division English classes, even though I am pretty sure they are going to kick my butt...

As far as majors go, I have decided to double (and almost, triple) major. My vowel-infested majors are: Secondary Education with an emphasis in Extended English and Educational Interpreting for American Sign Language (boy that's a mouthful). In addition, I have joined Future Teacher's Club, also know as The Lamest Club on Campus. There are about ten regular members (on a good day) and we basically just sit around and talk or listen to guest speakers from the College of Education. I absolutely love the people in the club and even after my third meeting with them, I feel like we are going to be good friends. FTC is supposed to be a community outreach club for teachers, but they are not doing so well on the outreach aspect. I am trying to get more involved with the club so I can help with that. If you have any good ideas for outreach in the community revolving mostly around students, teachers, administration, or just school in general, please let me know.

Really the last thing I am doing to occupy my time besides class, homework, and FTC is work. I still work at Centennial Hall as an usher and I absolutely love it. UA Presents got another Usher Manager (my boss) this semester and he's totally awesome. His name is Tadj Hodges (I had to add that in there because saying his full name is totally fun!) and he's totally cool. Some of the other ushers and I agree that we like him better than old boss, Sam, which is a big deal because Sam was absolutely fantastic. Speaking of ushers...I am starting to get really close with the student ushers, which is really fun. A lot of the volunteer ushers know me personally now (most of them are teachers or were teachers at one point so they like to talk to me about their experiences and sort of take me under their wing) and I love talking to them; I guess I just have thing for old people. :) I work at Centennial two to three days a week and it's totally chill. Basically I just love my job all-around and I really hope I am in the running to become a manager for next year...

I think that's about all. Things are still going great with the roomie and we have decided to live with each other next year in the same dorm. I still haven't found a solid Christian group to be a part of yet, but I am looking. I haven't been to Ballroom at all this semester because I have been working a lot and have just kind of lost interest, which is a little sad but not too heart-breaking. My elbow is doing a lot better. I am going to physical therapy twice a week and it's pretty much back to normal. I don't think it will ever be completely back to the way it was, but that's to be expected after such an awful break, but what can you do? Basically things here are just good, plain and simple. ;)

Hope you all are doing well and I would be blessed to receive an email telling me how you are and what is going on in your life. (allison.sherer@gmail.com) God Bless. <3

School

has been far too stressful for its own good. It's the end of the semester and the professors are just packing on the work. I had six papers due the week of Thanksgiving, one ten-pager last week, and another one due tomorrow. I have two finals tomorrow, one on Friday, I am working all weekend, have my hardest final on Monday, and then my last one on Thursday, the 18th. Not to mention I have countless other events I have to go to. I calculated the amount of sleep I have been getting and in the last week and a half, the total hours are 21. Crazy. I have been so busy, I haven't had time to breathe. It stinks I am not going home until the 19th. I just want to cut the stress, make some Christmas cookies, and play Sequence with the family; that's it.

My health is not so good. I am losing my voice from all of the stress (and screaming at the UA vs. ASU game--BEAR DOWN, CATS!). I have been running on adrenaline for so long that my body has finally just crashed. I am still taking my iron pills, but they are giving me other health problems, so I switch on and off from taking them. I feel tired all the time when I don't take them, but I am sick when I do take them. It's just a lose-lose situation, really. I went to the orthopedic doctor a couple weeks ago and I no longer have to wear my arm in a sling. My elbow, however, is not healing as quickly as he would like it to, so I have to do intense physical therapy on my own, which I have been bad about doing. My arm should be completely by Thursday of next week at my next appointment, so my friend Kyle down the hall is going to work with me every day to get my range of motion back. Basically, I am just all messed up...

The day before my birthday, I had a meeting with my adviser. It was basically a major session of "Let's Crush Allison's Dreams, Shall We?" We were discussing the fact that I need to declare a major and minor soon, so I asked her if I could major in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Extended English and a minor in Educational Interpreting so that I can be qualified to teach both English and American Sign Language. She informed that Deaf Studies and Educational Interpreting are not minors they offer for Education majors and that the state of Arizona does not offer a teacher certification exam for ASL teachers, so if I wanted to do anything with sign language, I would have to a) change my major altogether OR b) wait until I graduate and get accepted into the masters program. Even then, they would be teaching me how to TEACH the deaf, not teach hearing high school students sign language, which is what I really want to do. I kept thinking to myself, "How come this isn't possible for me when I know I had two great sign language teachers in high school? They must have had some way to be able to teach ASL..." So I emailed Mrs. Thomasson (my level 1 ASL teacher and one of my all-time favorite teachers in high school) and asked her how she became a sign teacher. She told me that she took 24 credit hours related to Deaf Studies and then took the Arizona Educator's Proficiency Assessment (which is the exam that all Arizona teachers must take to become certified) in order for her to get certified as an ASL teacher. So I am going to speak with the head of the Deaf Studies/Education Interpreting department and see what advice they have to give me. I am thinking I am going to have to double major in Educational Interpreting and Secondary Education, but I think it will be well worth it. If I have calculated my credits correctly, I believe that I have fulfilled half of my required credit hours already and I am only a freshman; double majoring will be a piece of cake. I really want to make myself marketable as a teacher so that people will be begging me to be working at their school, and working half as an English teacher and half as an ASL teacher will not only allow that to happen, but teaching both is what I want to do. It's my passion to teach and I want to be able to teach the two things I love and (hopefully) help my students to love them just as much as I do. Plus, if I teach English for only half the day, it'll be less papers to grade. :)

I really need to get started on my paper considering it's due tomorrow and I haven't even started, not to mention, I still have two finals I need to study for. Can't wait to see you all over Christmas Break! Love you all.

This week

has been pretty crazy for no real reason. I have been lax of a lot of homework and exams, which has been great. I have had some time to rest, do dorm chores, and work on getting my arm healed. I am making great progress, I think. I still do not have full extension of my arm, but it is getting there. The saddest thing is that I cannot bend my elbow to touch my face or my hair...let's just say, watching me try and do my make-up is pretty hilarious. I have been taking those iron pills to help with my anemia. I am no less-tired than I was before, so I have no idea if they are working or not. The weird thing about the pills is that they make me incredibly not hungry. I have basically been eating nothing but Craisins for a week. I have eaten stuff here and there, but it has been about five bites. I guess taking iron pills are one way to lose the freshman 15...

This week has been what my sister and other seniors say freshman year should be. It has been the spontaneous late-night, "Hey, you want to hang out?" with just random people. Adam, Andrew, and I have been making snow cones like crazy. Andrew asked his mom to send their old snow cone maker to him (he is from Washington, so they obviously don't need a snow cone maker right about now), and we have randomly been making cherry snow cones all week. Wednesday night, I went to a Ballroom costume party (I dressed up like a Pink Lady from Grease. I was still in my sling and it was funny because most people thought that was part of my costume...) and afterward Sarika, Cimone, and I raided the HoGG party, then VDP's. Afterward, I called and talked to Jared and right after I hung up with him, my friend Kyle down the hall walks up the stairs. I thought we were going to have a pleasant two minute conversation, but we ended up talking for two and a half hours. Crazy. The next night, I went to Intervarsity. Andy's friend Erin invited me to an Office party afterward, but basically a lot of stuff happened, and the long of the short is, Erin didn't come find me to have me join them, so I didn't go. I don't really know anyone in Intervarsity. The two girls down the hall go there, but we never talk to each other except for the friendly small talk we have in the bathroom. I know one guy who is also in Ballroom and we talked for about a half hour after IV. What a cool guy, seriously. I hope we get to be good friends. Other than that, I know Stephen Hall and Andy's friend Erin. There's this girl Rahel that I have talked to MANY times and she still doesn't know my name. She pretends to care about having me feel a part of the group, but I can totally see through her act. She doesn't even care to actually learn my name, for Heaven's sake. I really just feel like I don't fit in there, and sadly, I don't fit in at any Christian group on campus. I know it's because I am not making an effort to fit in, but I think I know that these Christian groups are not what I have expected them to be. IV is the closest thing I can get to what I was expecting, and even then, it's nothing like it at all. People keep telling me I need to be become a part of a Christian community, but eh. I'm not making an effort to fit in because I don't, and they're not making it an effort to make me feel I am a part of the group. So whatever. I'll still go when I can. Anyway, after IV some crazy stuff happened and basically I ended up hanging out with Adam and Andrew for a while until I calmed down and then I was in Kyle and Randal's room until the wee hours of the morning. Last night I went over to Katie's apartment and her roommates Erin and Davia and I made caramel apples, punch, popcorn, and other such goodies and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Hocus Pocus. I spent the night and we had a really fun time together. It's been nice being social for a change. I think it's funny that I spend the most time with 1) A friend from junior high 2) My roommate 3) The boys down the hall and 4) My sister's roommates. Makes me sound a little lame, but I am having fun. :)

Other than that, not much else is new. Next week I have the same sort of schedule I had this week, and after that, it starts to get crazy again. I have a quiz and a huge astronomy test next Friday. What a way to spend my birthday: taking a test for the class I hate the most and having this feeling of failure over my head for the rest of the day. Oh joy, oh rapture. I am going home next weekend to see Mesquite's play and have some birthday celebrations.

I applied for a job at Youthworks!. Youthworks! is a Christian organization that prepares and operates week-long mission trips for high school students, usually through their youth groups. I have been on four Youthworks! trips as a participant where I have spent two days painting or building a house for a family who cannot afford to do it themselves (either financially or physically) and then two days working with the impoverished kids of the neighborhood in a Vacation Bible School sort of setting. (On some trips, we also did various other projects like working at a Salvation Army, a food bank, or visiting the elderly in a nursing home.) Each mission site is run by four college-age staff members: one who organizes and runs the Kids Club portion, one who organizes and runs the work projects, one who gives the talks at night and runs other aspects of the worship service, nightly fun activities, and other odds-and-ends of the trip, and lastly, the one who oversees the entire site and everything in it. These staff members work all summer (May through August), getting a new group of teenagers every week to do different projects. I just finished my application a couple minutes ago and it was really intense. They want to know your experience in pretty much every aspect. Andy got a job with them last year and he told me how crazy the interview process really is. They interview you many, many times for many different aspects of pretty much everything, and the whole process is drawn out over a period of many months. I really want this job, more than I can tell you. I have wanted a job with Youthworks! since I was a freshman in high school. I really would like the job to be the one who does the talks every night, but I will take any job I can get. Basically just keep your fingers crossed and pray like crazy that I get a call for an interview...

Happy All Saint's Day! Today is to celebrate all those who love the Lord and are working toward the glory of His Kingdom!

Happy Diwali!

Today is the Indian New Year: Diwali, the Festival of Lights. I know this because Sarika is trying to Brownify me. I don't really know why, exactly, but she has dubbed it her duty to make me Indian, or at least an honorary one. She has this strange obsession with making me her project for various things and I really just don't get it, but whatever. It's cool to be cultured. :) Anyway, Sarika has been counting down the days until this holiday; apparently, it's her favorite. She has been filling me in for weeks about the different traditions and whatnot because I was going to do everything in my power to celebrate it with her as best as I could. However, because our schedules were so completely different today, we had to celebrate separately until we could celebrate a little together. We started the day off by wearing new clothes (I wore my shirt that I bought when Alysa and I went shopping forever ago that I hadn't worn until now because it had been too hot. Apparently it looks good on me, says Sarika). We spent most of the day apart, doing more schoolwork than celebrating, but we got together later tonight. We went to Kabobaque (a fast-food Indian restaurant on University. It's kind of like calling Taco Bell Mexican food, but it was the closest we could get). We got our food and walked over to a shady place under a beautiful tree to have a picnic. We ate our food on new plates (apparently the food was said to be horrible by other Indians, but Sarika thought it was good and that Indians only say it's bad because they want to cause drama. I really liked it, too. Sarika said they did the spices correctly because our noses were running, whatever that means) and sat in the candlelight of these battery-operated candles that I bought when I was causing trouble with my sister's roommate at Walgreen's. When I first gave Sarika the candles (one for her, one for me), she was completely overjoyed. Squealy, even. She almost cried. She said it was the nicest thing anyone had ever down for her (which in my opinion is pretty lame sauce considering it wasn't even that big of a deal). She called her mom and told her about the candles (apparently they're a big deal in Indian culture and quite crucial to Diwali or something) and I think I got major brownie points with her mom, which I need. Not that I did anything for her to not like me, but she just doesn't like anyone really, so I need all of the help that I can get. We finished eating and then Sarika had to go to her chem lab. We were going to watch an Indian drama that's like, 5 hours long, but we just didn't have time for that. Another day. And then I will be really Indian. :) Also, you may have been wondering if we have seen the Diwali episode of The Office, and yes we have, and yes, we were going to watch that as well, but we didn't have time. I might watch it by myself before I go to bed because, well, I just can't get enough of The Office. In celebration of Diwali, I am keeping the lights on for as long as I can before Alysa goes to bed, and after I have to turn off the lights, my little candle will "burn" for the remainder of the night. Happy Diwali to all!

In other news, I got my cast off yesterday. It's amazing how much lighter I feel. They reweighed me at the doctor's office after I got it off and I had lost 2 1/2 pounds. The doctor said I am healing so well that all I have to do is wear a sling for the next couple weeks and do my own form of physical therapy. Basically I just have to keep my elbow moving and really work at having full extension and full usage of my arm, and so far, I think I am doing pretty well. I can move my arm so that it's almost straight (I basically look like I am doing the Mr. Roboto) and I am doing well with he suppination and pronation. I am actually typing with both hands for the first time in two weeks! Granted, it hurts like crazy, but I am getting used to it. I am in a lot of pain all the time, but hey, no pain, no gain. I am just really proud of my progress. I will be back to dancing in no time! In fact, cool story:

So I have been going to Ballroom like usual; I am just there to watch, not to dance. All of the advanced students have been really sweet and are always coming up to talk to me about my arm. Jake the Cake (my friend and Sarika's dancing partner) came up to me and told me that if I sit there and write all of the moves down that I have not yet learned, he would take time with me personally to teach me outside of class. Erin also offered the same thing, so potentially I will be getting double the one-on-one help. :D After practice, this guy Michael (Sarika has nicknamed him, her words not mine, McBastard because he is basically a pompous jerk. He doesn't really socially converse with people because he thinks he is too good for everyone else because he has been doing Ballroom for four years plus) comes up to me and asks how my arm was. I told him and he says, "I know it must be torture for you to just have to watch everyone dance [exactly what I had been thinking the whole time]. But you know, most of the moves are footwork and 95% of the time, the woman is led by her right hand; her left hand is merely for show. I don't know if you would be up for it, but I think you could should try dancing, even with your arm the way it is. If you want, I can be your partner and I will be extra gentle." I told him that it was a good idea and that I would consider it. I look over and Sarika's mouth is hanging wide open. We both could not believe that McB actually had a heart. Sarika thinks he has a thing for me, but I think he was just being nice (I have always thought he was nice deep down; Sarika was the one that thought he was "a hopeless case"). Either way, I am really thankful that the people in Ballroom (especially the advanced students whom I thought didn't know I existed) are being so nice about the whole situation and just really want me to come back. I think they see how much I just really want this.

Another thing that happened today...I had my follow-up appointment to get my test results back from "the worm doctor." Basically (as I thought), I don't have worms, a parasite, or anything creepy living inside of me (sadly the name I came up with for the potential tape worm inside of me, Herman, is no longer valid, but I do believe that I am going to keep the name in reference to my stomach nonetheless). I am, however, incredibly anemic and that is why I have been having so many physical problems. I think it's because I ate so many freaking goat kabobs and goat with rice and goat with cooked plantains and goat with ground nut sauce and goat with peas and just plain freaking goat that my body was pumped with iron (probably the iron it was missing all along), that when I came back from Africa and the goat supply was immediately discontinued, my body freaked out and yearned for its goat (or at least the iron that was in the goat), in which case I became incredibly anemic and hence my body was screwed over (the doc also said that that could have contributed to the breakage of my arm: I was just very weak and so a single fall just took me out). The doctor proscribed me with iron pills that I have to take three times a day for six months. Holy Goat Kabobs, I am just one messed up child.

Nothing much else to report...this week has been and probably will be a very chill week. I like it, especially since I am still recuperating from everything and I have been strangely tired all the time lately (probably due to the anemia). I do have a test on Friday and then a test next Friday (happy birthday to me...) that I need to study for and that is going to occupy a lot of my time. That's about it, though...

Sorry for another long post. I think I have realized that it is almost impossible for me to write short ones...

Surgery,

Yup. Surgery. On my elbow. Here is my story...

Sunday, my little sister drove back from Phoenix with my older sister and myself to stay at UofA during her Fall Break (oh, how I wish we had one). Sunday night, she stayed at my sister's apartment, and then on Monday, Katie's roommate drove her to campus. Monday night, I took Nicole to Ballroom with me (we were doing Rumba--one of my favorites!), and afterward, we walked back and were hanging out with the guys outside. I still had my heels on, and I was going to go change them, but I felt that I needed to call Sarika. Turns out she really needed a friend. So I leave my sister in my dorm room, fly down the stairs, and head toward toward PSP. Stupid me, I take the corner out of VDP too quickly and totally biff it and fall right on my elbow. It all happened so fast: one minute I was hurrying to Sarika's dorm, the next minute I am lying flat on the pavement in immense pain. I sort of blacked out a little, and I just laid there for a couple minutes. The sad thing is, there was a whole bunch of people sitting around and they all saw me fall and didn't do anything or say anything (including--I found this out later--one of the guys down the hall, who knows me and didn't even say anything. Then again, he's a total jerk, so I should've known better). I stagger to my feet, and I can barely walk, but I manage to get to Sarika's dorm. When I get there, she got me some ice and we talked for a while, then she decided we needed to get me back to my dorm. We get to my dorm, and luckily we run into one of the guys down the hall, Andrew. I told him what happened, and he concluded that it wasn't dislocated because I could move my fingers. He thought I needed to see a doctor, so he looked up when Campus Health was open (it closed at 4:30, and by this time, it was about midnight), but he found an emergency line I could call. I called (I was on hold FOREVER) and spoke to the doctor on call. I told him my problem, and he said (crankily), "Uhh...I can't really diagnose you over the phone, so if you can go to sleep, sleep and then go to Campus Health in the morning. But if you can't sleep...go to the emergency room tonight." Idiot. Andrew said he was willing to take me to the emergency room, but I didn't want to make him do that. He took me in his room, wrapped an athlete ice pack (he probably got it from lacrosse) around my elbow, and said goodnight. I went back to my room, took some Ibprofen, and went to bed. I slept on and off.

Tuesday, I woke up and I was in so much pain and I couldn't even move my arm. I decided to skip sign language and go to Campus Health instead. I was in the waiting room for a very long time, and once again, I made friends with the receptionists. I finally met with a nurse practitioner named Lisette who was older, sweet, and surprisingly really knowledgeable. I told her what happened and proceeded to tell her what I thought the problem was and how I thought it could be fixed (I have learned that with Campus Health, you just have to spell things out for them right at the get-go. If you're nor pregnant or don't have an STD, they just don't know how to treat you...). I tell her that I know it's not dislocated because I can move my fingers, and I don't think it's broken, so it must be like what I previously did to my knee where all of the muscles go into shock and tense up, so you just have to baby it but work at straightening them out. She told me that she was going to take an x-ray anyway, just to be safe. The lady who took my x-ray was heartless, she really was. She pushed, pulled, prodded, and bent my arms in ways that are probably some variation of a colonial torture mechanism. I don't think I have cried that hard in a long time. After my x-rays, Lisette pulled me in to show me the results. "And you thought you didn't need an x-ray..." she says to me. I look at the x-ray, and even a five year old can tell something is wrong there. Your eyes are immediately drawn to a break. It's not just a little line on my bone; it's a thick, BLACK space starting at the top of my bone going straight down to the bottom. Once I look at it, Lisette and the Asian nurse are running around with their heads cut off trying to get the stuff ready to put me in a cast, as if it were a matter of life and death if they didn't put my cast on right away. Huh. Must have been serious. They put me in a Baby Tong splint, which is a splint that goes from the top of my hand, around my elbow, to the palm of my hand and then from my bicep, around my elbow, to my triceps using this material that starts off squishy, then hardens as you have it on. It's really cool! Anyway, Lisette scheduled me with an Orthopedic doctor for the next day so he could better assess how to treat me (basically, Campus Health can only do so much...). Lisette gave me some serious painkillers (heavy duty Vicodin) and told me to not go to class for the rest of the day. So I didn't. :)

Wednesday, my parents drove down to take me to my appointment with the orthopedic doctor. They had to pick up Nicole on Thursday anyway, so they just drove up a day early to get her and to go to my appointment. We went to the doctor's and showed him the x-rays taken at Campus Health. He took one look at them and said, "You need surgery. Not having surgery isn't even an option." I flipped out. Dr. Wild explained that I had broken my ulna all the way through to my elbow joint and that my bone wasn't even connected to my elbow anymore. If my arm were to be simply cast up and have the bones mend themselves together, my arm would be in the bent position and I would have little to no range of motion for the rest of my life. After that, I was like, "Alright. Whatevs." My parents were then in a mad rush to schedule a time for my surgery, get everything figured out with the doctors, and try to see if my surgery would be covered on our insurance. I just sat there quietly and watched my parents basically freak out. It was kind of entertaining. After about two hours, everything was taken care of. My surgery was scheduled for the next day. I was pretty scared to be honest. I made and got a lot of phone calls about my surgery that night. It was nice to know people cared about me. :)

Thursday, I went to the hospital to have my surgery. They dressed me in that fabulously fashionable cloth garb and I sat there and wondered to myself why they even put you in it; it's not like it covers anything. I think they should just have you lay naked on those uncomfortable rolley beds; you would keep the same amount of warmth with or without those itchy pieces of cardboard. Anyway, they put my IV in and kept pumping fluids in like crazy; I took so many freaking trips to the bathroom, it's not even funny. I laid in the prep room for like, 3 hours (I took a nap) before the anesthesiologist came in. I remember closing my eyes for a second and then I woke up and my parents and the nurse were at the foot of my bed. "All finished," the nurse said to me. "With putting the anesthesia in?" I asked. "No, with everything." I look down and there's this hella bulky/heavy cast on my arm and I was like, "Tight." And the next thing I remember is waking up in the hotel room. I ate some dinner and went back to bed. I was incredibly drugged up, you have no idea. Apparently Origene from Rwanda called me on Friday and I just kind of yelled into the phone and went back to bed. I felt so bad. (I emailed him later and told him I was sorry, so don't worry)

I spent the remainder of my weekend at my sister's apartment. She and her roomies took very good care of me. We had Office marathons and Erin made me Dinosaur Pumpkin Toast (which is just toast but cut into the shape of dinosaurs using a cookie cutter and smuthered with pumpkin butter. Basically it's the best thing ever). Sunday night I went back to the dorms. The boys down the hall have taken good care of me. They carry my stuff up the stairs and do other such biddings like opening jars for me or whatever (every night I come into their room to have them open my medicine bottle for me and they all know what is coming so they all just extend their hands to receive the bottle. It cracks me up). Sarika has been an angel through this whole process. Every day, she comes over and undresses me so I can take a shower and the redresses me afterward. It's so embarrassing that I can't even dress myself, but whatever. It's been quite the bonding experience for the both of us, let me tell you. You can't say that you're real friends until a bra's come off, that's for sure. :)

It's been hard living with only one arm. I seriously can't do anything by myself and it takes twice as long to do things. Like this post, for instance. I have been typing a little every day and it's Saturday and I am just now finishing. Oy. But be proud of my accomplishment! Schoolwork takes me forever to do, but thankfully I chose to break my arm at a time when most of my midterms were finished and not that much stuff is going on. Sadly, though, doing the tiniest things exhaust me. I can't clean my room very well, I can't do my dishes in fear my cast will get wet, and I can't do my own laundry (that I don't mind). I can't even open a jar of peanut butter by myself for Heaven's sake. The once-Superwoman now has to ask for help with everything. It's definitely been a lesson in humility, that's for sure. I am in a lot of pain all the time, but the worst part is underneath my splint constantly itches like crazy with no way to scratch it. I stole a wooden s'more skewer from the guys down the hall to itch under my ace bandage wrapped around my arm and we have lovingly named it the Itch-a-Stick. I just have to be careful not to scratch too far down or else I will rip my stitches. And I am kind of getting sick of people asking what I did to my arm, especially people I am just meeting for the first time. I wish I had a cooler story than, "Oh, I just fell and broke my elbow." but I really don't. A guy from my work (his name is Barry and he's 65 and completely adorable!) told me to tell people that I fought a bear single-handedly and that's how I broke my arm. I've adopted that as my story and it's funny to see the expressions on people's faces when I tell them that, either of complete disbelief or of complete amazement. I do like it, though, seeing when people genuinely care about what happened to me and want me to get better. My professors and TAs have been really understanding and very accommodating. I went to Ballroom this week, not to dance, but just to watch, and the advanced students were really worried about me. It's nice to know they actually know how I am and want me to get back on the dance floor. I have an appointment on Monday with the surgeon to see how I am doing and he is going to tell me when I can get my splint/sling off. I hope soon because I am sick of being an incompetent, non-dancing, freak-of-nature anti-Superwoman; I ready to return back to normal.

Thanks to all for all of your prayers and thoughts. Please continue praying for a speedy recovery and for perfect healing. Thank you and love to all!

I have decided

to ditch the idea of posting every, single, minuscule detail about my life, because ultimately, it is not that exciting, nor do does anyone want to take the time to read about it. So therefore, only the important things that I find worth value to write about will be posted. My apologies...I am still learning how to do this blog thing minus the raw emotion...:)

Friday night, I worked my first show at Centennial. I arrived a half hour before my (what I thought was my) call time, which was fine because Sam (my boss) put me to work. I think I started off on a good note in Sam's book. The show I worked was called "A Motown Celebration," which was a concert of The Funk Brothers and Mary Wilson from the Supremes. Ya gotta love 60's Soul, baby. I worked the merchandise table for The Funk Brothers, so I worked before the show and after the show (I would have worked intermission if there was one), and I sold A LOT of stuff because both Mary Wilson and The Funk Brothers were signing autographs after the show. During the show, I sat out in the lobby, but I could hear the music loud and clear out there. It was really fun to hear that kind of music live and to "get my groove thang on." During the encore that they played, The Funk Brothers and Mary Wilson sung together and they sung "Ain't No Mountain High." It brought me immediately back to the days of Nothing but the Truth and I began dancing like we used to before our shows. I look down and realize my outfit is white on top, black on bottom and I was sort of lost back in the "times of old." It was really kind of a special moment. :)

I finished with work at like, 11:30, which was about an hour after I should have been finished, but because my sister is a manager there, she had stuff for me to do. Don't mind, though. I was paid for my time. Afterward, even though I was really tired, Sarika made me go over to her dorm to watch Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers with the people in her dorm. So her dorm is basically the introverted honors dorm, which means all of the people in her dorm are NERDS, and I say that in the most loving way possible. Basically they were sitting through the whole movie quoting every line and talking about how every single thing was "epic." I really don't like that movie in the first place (I like the third one best; that one is just really boring because I am so confused) and I was tired, so my negative comments about the movie were coming out like verbal diarrhea. I thought I was going to get flogged by the Lord of the Ring cult worshipers. I ended up going to bed at like, 3:30...

Saturday morning, I wake up semi-early to get the dorm room ready for Lys' parents come for Family Weekend. Yeah, didn't even matter because they never came in the room. To be honest, I didn't even SEE them the entire weekend. Seemingly odd, if you ask me. (Sidenote: I hate Family Weekend if your parents aren't there. I have been to Family Weekend before when I was still in high school visiting my sister, and I felt the same way as I do now. I feel like an orphan. I don't know why, but I look around campus with the students with their parents and I think to myself, "I wish I had parents..." even though I know perfectly well that my parents are only two hours or a phone call away. I have no idea why, but Family Weekend always makes me so depressed...) Anyway, I went over to my sister's apartment to celebrate her roommate, Davia's, birthday. Davia, her friend Stephanie (whom I REALLY don't like...), and I went to the football game. We got there about two hours early, and I was so tired, that I conked out on the bleachers for a slight cat nap. Stephanie wanted to sit by the band (for reasons that really bug me, but that is a story for another day...), and Davia said that once you sit next to the band, it will change your view of UA football games FOREVER! And it did! ...I NEVER want to sit by the band again. It's the most boring place ever. You can't see anything that is going on on the field and all you hear is the stupid Color Guard girls gossiping. Some things from high school don't change. I ended up watching the drum majorette more than I watched that game because I was that bored...
BUT! The cool thing that happened while I was there...I saw David Hasselhoff from Baywatch (his daughter goes to UofA so he is at like, all of the games. He's not as all-that as he thinks he is, but this story is still fun). I was about 10 feet away from him; like, I could spit on him if I wanted to. He was taking a video of the band and the crowd, and since I was standing next to the band in the crowd, I was in his video A LOT. How cool is that to be in a video of someone famous?! Bet you can't say that has ever happened to you. :) After the game, we went back to my sister's apartment and then to Applebees. I was so tired. Called and talked to Em (highlight of my weekend!!)...passed out. Literally. In the same spot I was sitting talking to Em. I seriously didn't move an inch all night.

Today, I haven't done anything. And I literally mean that. I slept in, talked to Jared on the phone, watched five episodes of The Office and now I am at Katie's apartment about to watch more. It's been a weekend full of pretty much everything and yet nothing that exciting...