Oops I forgot this one...

Sorry for the delay. This was originally for Wednesday. Oops.

What a hellish day today. It was one of those days when you dont want to get out of bed. As a matter of fact, I fought it with everything I had. Too bad I wouldnt get paid though. Its bad enough that I wont get paid for last weeks vacation. Yeah, thats one of the perks of my job. When there is vacations or just days off, I dont get paid. Not even for a snow day. Not even for a 1 or 2 hour delay. Hell, not even for all summer.

But let me jump back to where I left off on the previous post. Saturday proved to be a wonderful day. Come hell or high water, Im going to camp. But I wanted to stop off at the Nature Center first. They have some really cool stuff there that I wanted to show Cami. Seems she has this issue about bees. I wanted to show her a bee hive. They have one inside that is all encased in glass. There is a tube to the outside that allows the bees to come and go freely. Honey bees to be exact.

So we took the ride up to the mountains and went to the nature center. Its a little place off the beaten path. In fact, they have alot of paths there. For hiking of course. One of these days, Im going to do some of that there too. Its near the hiking trail on the escarpment where I go alot.

I showed her the outside and where they have alot of plants and natural goodies all nicely marked. I showed her what each one was and its purpose to the wildlife that comes to visit. I have been to the center a few times with the kids at school for field trips. I do believe I posted about it before. But anyways, they have a model of the mountains and the escarpment and all the trails. Where the lakes are and all the roads. Its really cool. Cami pointed out where we were and all the things she remembered from last summers hike on the escarpment trails.

We looked at fossils, bones, furs, and stones. Then we looked at some live animals that they had in the building like a turtle and some bugs. Yes, bugs. Seems that bugs behind glass dont scare her as much. She liked the bee hive and even found the queen.

We looked out the windows at all the birds and squirrels eating. She enjoyed watching that. Then we went outside and I showed her the beaver lodge. She knows this well enough because we have them at the camp. So she pointed out things that she knew. We stopped at the gift shop so she could buy some crystals and stones that were pretty. Even an arrowhead. By the way, that one may be made into something that will be up for sale.

Then we left the nature center for the ride to camp. Being that the leaves havent formed on the trees yet, we were able to stop and look at a hidden waterfall near the Alcove. I watch the Alcove every time I go that way. It tells alot about the water levels and drought. It looked great. We stopped and took some pictures but nothing great. I need to get down in there to get better ones. Also another shot at a hike.

We pulled into the campground and drove straight to the lake. I wanted to check out the damage from the beavers over the winter. Seems they were really busy. I would say that 80% of all the smaller trees there have been chewed off. We hiked back in on the little road. We couldnt drive in because there was a very large tree down. It was very depressing to see so much damage.

From there we went on to the campsite. We started out by making a fire. Then raked some leaves from around the front of the deck and cleaned alot of that out. We burned alot of them but Cami was upset about the punky flies. The disturbed wet leaves made that worse but all the smoke from the leaves cleared them out. She opted to sit in the truck for a while though.

We left there and headed for home. On the way home, I stopped for a small pint of icecream. Seems we cant have any in the house because she will sneak it in the middle of the night. Nothing like eating something that she decided to stick her fingers in. So I figured the small pint wouldnt have been a big deal. Well I took a little nap and then I found out that she ate the entire pint. Oh joy. Another sleepless night because she was zooming. Girlie thought that I was going to bury her in the back yard for that one.

Sunday went off without a hitch. I was happy to have a relaxing day though. I really didnt want to go back to school. Monday was a decent day. I was a little tired. The kids all kept me awake. Seems they couldnt wait to come back. Nothing major happened though. At least nothing that involved blood. It seemed that there was an incident in the neighborhood while we were away though. Same shit, different day for there.

Tuesday rolled around and seems there was more activity. We went into lockout at about 1pm. Not lockdown. Just a lock out. Also on Tuesday was picture day. It was crazy to make sure that all the kids looked their best. Lunch was french toast sticks with syrup. Who thinks of these things? Are they doing this to punish us? Also on Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with those that I was with for the Monday TCI training. We had a nice meal and some drinks. Then we all got our certificates.

Now we come back to Wed. What a hellish day. Oh I did mention that earlier huh. Lets just say that someone didnt want to wake up and smell the coffee and it wasnt me. I dont want coffee. But this someone was such a brat that her head was spinning. I was waiting for the green soupy stuff to come flying out but no such luck. If it had, then that would mean that she ate some sort of vegetable and that would be so wrong to her. Gawd forbid she have a vegetable.

We get to school and she gets out of the car. I asked her where her violin was and she forgot it. Today was rehearsal at the highschool. So off she went without a violin. This was not a good sign. This afternoon was pretty decent though. She changed her mood and was much more pleasant.

There was a play today. The Childrens Theater comes once a year to our school and puts on a play. This one was the Emperor and the Nightingale. What a great show they put on. I gathered autographs for Cami while she had to go back to class. Also when we were outside, the girl that played the bird was out there with us on break.

Over all it was a decent afternoon and evening. Tomorrow proves to be a crazy day for me though. Violin lessons, guitar lessons and a class after that.

Sproing

Not that is not a typo. Just a word that I liked to say.

Finally. I couldnt wait. It was driving me insane to feel cooped up inside. I was feeling a little bit of cabin fever from the hazy shade of winter. I thought it would never end. Not like Colorado that got some snow recently. But that came in handy for the fires there. I have been having the windows opened to allow the fresh air in. *coughexhaustfumescough* I would not have been able to do that with the tree there.

I was on vacation all last week. Spring Break from school. Not like I was running around naked or having cool parties. Seems I am little too far away for all that fun. Fifteen hundred miles away. Plus I think Im a little too old for that crowd and I for damn sure aint doing that here.

A couple of weekends ago I had planned to go to the camp to get things cleaned up. Actually it was more for raking the winter mess of leaves and sticks into the fire pit and lounging. Sounded like a good plan to me. But the weatherman said that it was going to rain and thunder and all that good stuff. So I opted out on Wednesdays class and canceled the trip to camp to take Saturdays class instead. I really need to slap the weatherman because it was a beautiful day. Bright and sunny and warm. All the people that did show up at camp were pleased with such a wonderful day. Since the weatherman is my cousin, I can politely call him a jerk for that. He he he.

So anyways, Saturdays class went very nicely. Although I can kick myself in the ass for missing that Wednesdays class. It was something I wanted to do but money only allowed me one class a week. I will take the lessons of Wednesdays class some other time. But Saturdays class was a new bracelet. I will be making more of these and they will be available for sale on the site.

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I enjoyed sleeping in. It rained off an on in the morning but it was a nice day over all. Monday was pure hell. I was up early and started Spring cleaning. It took me three days to clean out one room. Just so happened to be my daughters bedroom. Shes not even a teen yet and it was beyond trashed. I dont mind the toys and the books everywhere but there is a slight problem that involves her medications.

She has always been someone that never required much sleep. Hmmmm I wonder where she gets that from? But it was getting out of control and she was placed on Clonidine for sleeping. Doesnt work though. Not much more we can do about it either. She is too young for anything else. The day time medicine makes her feel icky to her stomach so she doesnt eat much after breakfast. Lunch time is just her sitting at the table with her friends and I pack her some snacks to munch on if she wants them. She drinks her juice and her milk but thats about all. At about 3 in the afternoon, shes hungry. So she will eat her snacks then. Dinner time rolls around and sometimes she will eat like a horse. Other times she nibbles.

But then about midnight to 2am, shes up and sneaking in the kitchen. I hear her but sometimes Im too late. She steals what she can get and hides it in her room. Well the past few days, I have found pudding cups, banana peels, spoons, paper plates and cups all behind her dresser, under her bed and behind her toybox. What a joy it was to clean that mess. Not. For those of you that read the fruit fly blog titled, Whats that smell, you know quite clear what this task was all about. Good thing there were no flies this time.

But also with the nice weather, we have gotten the bugs outside. And a few inside. My father has the carpenter bees outside his window again. I really dont like these but I know they are harmless. My kid doesnt seem to understand it. She will run to his door and ring the bell. I dont know why she bothers because her screams alert him that we are there. Shes such a pansey.

When she takes the dog out back, you can hear her out there too. The bees and the spiders are all welcoming Sping as well. So she yells up to me to see if the dog wants to come in. Shes standing in the stairwell with the door closed. She does this out front as well. Im glad we didnt go to camp last weekend because there is nowhere to hide from the bugs. I need to break her of this soon or its going to be hell there.

But there was something else that got me last night. I was sitting at my desk and I noticed my cat was signaling in on something. I couldnt see it because the kitchen light was off. I watched her for a little while and she was definately tracking something. I got up and turned on the light and I saw something dart behind the dogs water dish.

I was almost afraid to move it but I dont want any bugs in my house. So I grabbed a paper towel and put on my brave face. Yeah I need to do that or I will scream like a little girl. Oh wait, we already have one of those in the house. Ok, so I didnt want to scream like her and wake her up. Not like she was asleep anyways. She was aleady in the doorway by this time.

I moved he dish carefully and the cat pounced, the dog barked and the kid screamed. Well that was a fun moment at 130 in the morning. I was able to catch the object of my cats desire and squish it. I dont know what the hell it was but it scared the bejeezes out of me. It looked like a large male mosquito. The six long legs. Yes it had six and not more. I counted them. Eight or more legs and I would have passed out on the floor.

This was something like a small alien. Omg there is life out there!! Seriously though, I didnt know what this was. It was dead though. I just dont want to find any of his friends around. It gets bad enough that there is the occasional moth in my room at night. Thats enough for me. Im thinking that its time for a Spring bombing of the house. There are those creepy crawly things in the basement that occasionally make their way up here. I pissed my pants one night seeing one of those in my bath tub. And we cant forget the peep shows with Godzilla. Not looking forward to running into him and his friends any time soon.

Wednesday was a fun day. My father hasnt been feeling too well lately but he felt good enough that he wanted to go out to lunch and get some soup. I picked him up and we went to the mall. He was doing fairly well and we walked for a while. Did some shopping and took him home. He will call if he needs something.

Oh, I should also include that lately it seems that I break desk lamp switches. My father is an electrician so I bring them to him. The first one was a brand new lamp. (I need clamp lamps with the goosenecks) It was great until the bulb burned out and I couldnt change it. Seems the glue that held the light unit in, melted with the heat and glued the bulb into the socket. He will have to break the bulb and clean out the socket.

So I got a new lamp in the meantime. The switch is one that you turn on the top of the lamp. I dont know what happened but after a week, it wouldnt tun anymore. So he decided to take it apart, rewire it and try a new switch. When he plugged it in, it went POP and that was the end of that. So I now have a new one again. Lets see how long I can make that one last. I need it for my desk because this is where I sit and make all my jewelry. Very well cant make stuff in the dark. I can try but you never know what will come out. Could be some really interesting stuff.

Well after leaving the house, he said he wanted me to stop over Friday after his doc appointment. I know its to clean his place out. Not a major thing. I dont mind. I just hate making his bed with all the layers and straps to hold everything together. He has the bed propped up at the top and uses the straps to keep things from sliding down in the middle of the night. Nothing like having your sheets all bunched up at your feet. At least it may keep him from sliding down too.

Thursday was guitar lessons for Cami. Her teacher and I talked last week about the possiblility of me helping her out when her baby is born. She will need someone there while she does music lessons. Not a fun thing with a new baby. This is her first so she will need all the help she can get for a while. So if this comes through, I will have something of a job for the summer. I love babies and this is perfect. There will also be some light house keeping and some cooking. I can handle that too. Als today we talked about her wanting a spot for camping. They want to buy a trailer but all the campgrounds were so expensive. I told her that I would look into something where I am. Maybe she can get the empty spot across the road from mine. That would be great.

Saturday marked the last day of vacation time for me. Not looking forward to seeing it ending. I havent done anything for myself this week. Yeah I am feeling alittle selfish though. I want one day to just do nothing and relax. My life doesnt have such luck though. But I have plans to go to the camp on Saturday. More than likely I will behome in time for class. I did take Wednesdays class this time though and it was great. Once mom and Mousie return from FL, I will be doing all Wednesdays classes as Saturdays will be at camp.

Lets see what the weekend holds.

Part 2

Its gone. The tree is gone. Such a wonder event to pull the neighborhood together. I woke up last Saturday morning to the doorbell ringing. Yeah Im a little late with this post but Ive been on vacation too. I will get to that post later.

Anywho, the doorbell rang and it was the contractor that was taking the tree down in the back yard. Which, by the way, is still back there on the ground in a bunch of pieces. Yes it was that big. Where was I... Oh yeah, the contractor. Well he wanted me to move my car. He had a grin so I knew what was up. I was so excited.

I move my car down the block and then ran back in to take a shower and all that good stuff. About 1pm, they started cutting the branches. The cut to about 15 feet from the top and then brought in a Blazer. They tied the tree to the Blazer and told everyone in the area to step aside.

Yeah this caused quite a gathering. People were out there in lawn chairs. I myself went to the corner across the street and joined that group. At about 2pm, the Blazer backed up and down came the tree. They dropped it in the street. It was such a wonderful moment that everyone cheered as it fell. The crazy lady stood on her porch and watched. Im sure she was a little upset to see it go.

But you know what? Its sort of weird without it being there. Not so much THE tree but a tree. No shade. Its really open. Maybe I will be generous and buy her a blue spruce to plant there instead. No mess that way and it would be a pretty tree. Im being sincere.

I tried to post the pictures up as a Before and After link but it didnt work.

So you will have to copy and paste them.


http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/BrowderChick/kids2007104.jpg


http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/BrowderChick/midnightseas085.jpg

Someone please explain to me how to post them without the actual photo showing.

That Effin Tree....

That Effin Tree....

Thats effin, not elfin... Yeah even I could have read that wrong. But it stands for frellin, friggin, fu... You get the message. I think I have written about this tree before though. Seems to be a topic of mine every Spring and Fall. I hate the damn thing.

Last year, I wrote about my anxiety attacks. Well they werent that at all. They were allergy attacks from the tree. I have tree pollen allergies. Not so uncommon. I think just about everyone has them. If you dont, you are missing out on alot. You could join the ranks of all of us that sneeze and grow green shit out of our eyes and nose from it. You can take up a collection. Ok, so its not all that fun. But Ive had a pretty darn good hand at keeping it to a minimum.

Every Spring, I spend my weekends at camp in the Catskills. I am surrounded by everything that pollenates. Ive been doing pretty good about my allergies to trees. Only once did I make the mistake of taking two of my moms Benedryls. I passed out and didnt wake up til the next day. But I felt pretty darn good. Those things are like party favors. Next time I will only take one. My mom keeps them there because she is allergic to bees. She never used to be though until one fateful day that she had a bee in her pants. We wont go into a full discussion about that but Im sure that where she was stung had nothing to do with allergies. But ever since then, she swells up where she gets a sting. Speak of the devil, shes on the phone. Be right back.

She must have known that I was talking about her. Mothers intuition or something like that. Anywho, Im also allergic to bees but we wont go there either. And I didnt have a bee in my pants to find that out.

So, back to the tree. This is a tree that sits on the edge of my neighbors property. There is a chain link fence that seperates the property from my driveway. My driveway is barely wide enough for a car. I have to park the passenger side right up against the fence so that I may open my driver side door. So you can tell that this tree is close to the house.

The neighbor that used to live downstairs always complained of being sick every Spring. We thought it was allergies to an old furnace filter that was there all Winter. But being that Im not allergic to dust, I never had a problem. So every Spring, we would have the furnace cleaned and a new filter put in. But she was still sick for a couple more weeks.

Ive also never noticed any strange allergies because Im the type that cant stand the heat. I would keep my apartment closed up and the AC running. In fact, I have one running all Winter too. But thats another topic about my neighbors and the thermostat issues. But anywho, I have noticed though that this tree would put off a very strange oder. Its a sickening smell like something died. But I only went out to get to my car and leave. So once again, I never had any problems.

In the Spring, I always keep some allergy medicine handy for when I have to venture out of the city. I normally dont have any problems here. Not even with the trees at the school. Its only when Im in a heavily wooded area that I would need them and its only for a couple of weeks.

Well this tree tends to leave a hell of a mess out there. It grows these green pea-ball looking things and then everything turns a yellowish green. It covers the cars and the driveway. After that happens, the pea things grow a bunch of white flowers in a cone like group. I never thought anything of it. I didnt know what sort of tree it was though. When the flowers bloomed, thats when the smell would hit.

Once that happened, the flowers would die off and then I would have another mess to contend with. Alot of brown stuff all over everything. And this would mix with a new round of the green film on everything. Isnt this such a lovely tree? Once again, I hate it.

Now the place next door had been empty for years. It was in serious neglect and the roof caved in. The city took it and then sold it. The new people gutted it and made it a really nice house. My landlord talked to the new owners and requested that the tree be removed. They put the house up for sale and said that we could talk to the new owners when it was sold. How nice of them.

Soon the house was sold and the new owners did alot of yard makeovers. They removed a fence that opened up to their back yard. They removed an old garage and put up a new shed with a party deck and grill. They added lamps all around and flowers. It really did look nice. You can tell these people have money. The vehicles they have are all high end ones like a BWM and such.

So we brought up the issue of the tree. Of course at this time it was in full bloom and the lady liked it. She thought it was pretty. I also should add that this tree spread seedlings like wildfire. They popped up in the neighbors bushes as well as mine. There were five of them in my back yard that another neighbor promptly had removed when he put up a new fence. I didnt mind and he was willing to pay for it. Plus we got a new fence in the far back.

Also in between my house and the house on the other side of me have all these saplings. We remove them every year. There is only one left behind their shed. Which so happens to be right outside my back door. We are removing that one this year. Everyone in the neighbohood is in agreement about this damn tree. We all hate it. Even Christy (who45) and Lance (LaBomba) came to my house and smelled that tree. They know very well what I am talking about.

So anyways, lets travel back in time to last Spring. The tree is splitting. I think its actually 4 trees in one. The trunks are narrow for these things and this one seems twisted. Also its a huge tree. It stands taller than my house. But the trunk is seperating. We had a hell of a storm one day and some of the branches fell. A few days before that, a couple of the neighbors complained to her about the mess of the tree and she complained right back that she likes the tree because its pretty.

Oh and I should also mention that this is the same woman that bitched of our fence. We were getting it replaced. Its not ours but the landlords fence. He has been back and forth to Iraq so we didnt complain at all to him. He had a job to do. So he finally had someone come and remove the old fence and put up a new one. Well, while the fence was down, we had access to their yard. So the dogs had to be taken out on a leash.

While being outside with the dogs, my downstairs neighbor noticed a family of skunks coming out from under their shed. He mentioned it to her and she said that she had been taking care of the "squirrels". Are you kidding me? We informed her that these were infact, skunks. Im not sure where she came from but it wasnt the US. Thats for sure. So we told her that she would need someone to come and trap them. I think she was miffed that her "squirrels" would have to go. I wanted to ask her what the little grey things up in the trees were but I was afraid to hear what her answer would have been. Maybe Koala Bears.

Well anyways, back to that storm. The wind was whipping and the rain was pouring. Even some hail and lightning. Branches fell and slammed the houses and vehicles in the street. Afterwards, the neighbors were out there bitching and complaining about the damage and she was out there cleaning up her yard. She heard all the yelling and promptly went into her house.

So now the weather is getting nice and the tree starts that green shit. The AC that was once in my front window quit so I put in a double window fan. The one in the dining room and my bedroom work fine. But I noticed a problem. At night, I was having trouble breathing. I would end up pacing and panicing. The more I paniced, the less I could breathe. It was terrible. I went to the doctors but he would check me out as fine. Once I got home, the problem would start again. I would go back and it was the same. So he gave me an inhaler and a new allergy medication. They worked but only for a little while.

It felt as though my lungs were collapsing. I couldnt breathe. It was getting worse and worse. One night, I was in the livingroom with the fans on and watching tv. I couldnt breathe and I was near to going to the ER that it was so bad. Thats when we decided to have someone come and check out that tree. I called the local college and someone came out to see what I was talking about. They thought I was crazy. I decribed the tree and they had no clue.

Well when they came out and saw it, they knew what it was. All the charactoristics were there. The only thing that was confusing was the size. It was definately a white sumac. Can you imagine? A friggin SUMAC!!! And this chick thought it was beautiful.

So now we have some ammo against her. We informed her of this and she is still clueless. She then bitched that she cant afford to cut down the tree and then filed a petition that the tree is on my property. So now my landlord had to have someone come out and survey the lines and sure enough, its HER tree. I should also add that in the Fall, this thing sheds like a willow tree. Its a frigging mess. And it all comes into my yard. I dont have any trees in my yard but I have to clean up everything.

All Winter, I was contemplating "feeding" that tree some battery acid. Waiting for a heavy snow, drilling a hole into the ground to the roots and pouring in a nice drink. My luck is that it would hit the gas line that runs nearby or that when it did die, it would fall on my house or car. But we didnt have the luck of the heavy long lasting snow and I wasnt taking any chances of having my house suddenly 40 feet in the air. Thats a hell of a wake up call that I dont want. And she would bitch about her beautiful tree.

So now I bring you to the present. Ok, so it was like last week. But close enough. I was rudely awakened last weekend by the sound of chainsaws. Then a few thuds that shook the house and more chainsaws. While laying there in bed, yeah Im that lazy, I got to thinking about what the sounds could be. Here in the city, it could be anything. Some things are better left unseen. That way you arent nailed for being a witness. If you dont live in the city, this means that the less you know, the safer you are.

So while laying there, I was thinking the worse. But then it dawned on me. That sounds like a tree. Hmmmmm.... Chainsaws and thudding sounds. The TREE!!! Whooohooo!!!! They finally figured it out!!! I sprang from my bed and ran to the front window like a child looking for Santa. But the tree was still there. Damnit. Oh sure. Spoil my Christmas wishes will ya. But there was about 5 trucks parked out front. Hmmmm..... Im curious now.

So of course, I put on my robe and my slippers. I didnt want to scare anyone while going outside in my jammies. Or lack of. Oh shut up. I do wear something to bed. Ha ha ha .... Yeah it was funny. But anyways, I took the dog outside in the back yard and low and behold what do I see. They are cutting down a tree in the back yard. There are three major trees back there and that yard doesnt get much sunlight. Apparently, its the one blocking the sun to their party deck. Oh Joy.

But if they can afford to take this one down, why didnt they take the front one down? Losers. So being the little witch that I am, I took a shower, got dressed and went out front. I talked to one of the guys that were doing the cutting and asked about the one out front. They dont have it in the contract to have that one removed. Just the one in the back. How frigging stupid is that? But we both noticed that there were other neighbors out watching too. And they came over and asked the same thing.

The lady was watching too. She knew what we were doing. She knew we were pissed. Well its now a week later and the tree in the back is still standing. Its missing all of the major branches except for the very last 10 feet at the top though. There are branches and huge tree limbs and parts of the trunks all over their yard. No one has been back. I dont know why though. Maybe they will finish this weekend.

But I will also inform you that these tree people looked at the tree in the front and noticed the split and I also noticed that he did speak to the lady about it. There is a future lawsuit if that tree falls. I think we will park our cars down the street for a while. Hint hint. If it hits the house, it takes out the front porch and part of my living room. The landlord has been wanting to replace the porch anyways. And he wants to put new (much needed) siding up. I think this will help in that fact. And at the cost of the neighbor. Isnt that a joy. Actually it is because I want to see this happen. Im waiting for it.

Then I can sit on my new porch and watch her sweat while feeding her "squirrels" and "koalas".

Update from Sunday....

I will have to say that Mucinex is a blessing. I broke down and spent the big bucks for this stuff. I love the commercials but I never tried it. Well I tried it Monday night and it sort of made me a little loopy. But then again, that could have been because I was so damn tired from coughing all night for a week.

So I was sitting here on line, debating on what to do and I was just so over tired. I logged off and figured to take a small nap. About 3am I woke up and got a drink and went back to bed. I prety much slept from 9pm to 7am straight. I woke up this morning feeling so much better.

The day at work was seriously stressful and alot of bullshit going on with the kids. I did about 20 write ups and there are still more to do. All stemming from some fight thing. ANd it was exactly that. Alot of bullshit. Why cant we all just get along....

So anywho, Ive been feeling so much better and I havent been really coughing at all. I did take some more tonight and I fell asleep about 7pm. I woke at about 11 and cooked something for my lunch tomorrow. I will be going back to sleep in a few but wanted to let you all know that I am still alive and that I am feeling much better.

Im also hoping for a better day tomorrow.

I thought it was Spring...

Oh what a beautiful day... I guess I should tell you all that Im sorry that I havent written anything in a while. Yep. Ive been sick again. Only this time, it caused me to make a trip to the doctors because it was bad. Started out as yet another cold but turned into a sinus infection and an inner ear infection. As it stands right now, my head is clear but my chest filled up. I have brochitis. That lovely barking cough that keeps me up all night. It also keeps everyone away from me so thats a plus. Now if only I could infect all the kids at school and make my job a hell of alot easier. I have been going bonkers trying to get my hands on a decent violin for Cami. Ive narrowed it down to three that I want. Yes, I am saying that I want it. I say this because Im the one paying for it. I want to get her something that is decent and affordable. I dont want a cheapy that will easily break on her. She is really taking this all seriously. She loves to play it. She has been doing really great on her guitar lessons as well. She learns very quickly. She has picked up three chords already and will start working on learning a song with them. She wants to play something by the time the talent show comes around in June. She already has two orchestra concerts to work for. One for the Strings Fest May 1st and the other is the Spring concert at school. But while being so sick, I havent been able to do much of anything lately. Ive had a couple of jewelry orders to work on but I havent been able to get anything done because of all the loopy medications. Dont get me wrong, I like party favors but when things need to get done, its not fun. Im rambling here because its 1:30 in the morning and I really should be sleeping. I will finish this tomorrow. Tis now Sunday... Ok so I forgot I started this. We will bounce back to Friday. The kids had the day off from school because it was Superintendants Day. Fun for them but hell for us. I will start by saying that I got no sleep the night before because someone was up sneaking around the house and trying to steal cake out of the fridge. So 5am rolls around and I know I have to get up and shower. I really dont want to do this. Please. Someone hold me back. Anywho, I go to leave and its a frelling snow storm. Im not driving in this shit. So I get a ride in. We wait in the parking lot for the others to show up and watched a guy in a pickup attempting to plow the lot. Wasnt working for himbecause he just couldnt get it right. it was entertaining. At about 7:15, I was wondering what was up so I went in. I called one of the girls up and they were already inside waiting for me. Oops. How did that happen? She parked out front. So I meet up with them and I was completely out of it. Somehow I lost my bright eyes and bushy tail. If someone finds them, please return them. We have to be to the first class at 8:30. Good thing they know where they are going because I damn sure dont. We breeze through the classes and then head back to the school to do more work there. I really just wanted to go home to sleep but that wasnt happening. But there was something going on that I wasnt too happy about. Not only was I coughing still and my sinuses were still bothering me, but my left eye was sore. So I chalked it up to all the hard coughing. By Friday night, my eye was pretty swollen. Looked like someone punched me. Saturday morning it was worse. There was no way I was going to go to the Health Day at school. I stayed in bed and icepacked my eye. Today, it looks even worse. I went to the mall with my father and picked up some stye drops because it says that it will cool the pain and swelling. Im yet to use them though because I have to remove my contacts. I will tonight when I go to bed. Im a little cranky and whiney and I still dont feel all that well. I think Im calling it an early night.