Dreams & Rodeos....

I keep thinking of what to blog about, and I got nothing.

Maybe I could talk about the CRAZY dreams I've had lately. Seriously, I wake up everday and tell Dave, "Oh my God, I had the craziest dreams!" and he's like "really, that's getting old". Dreams are never fun to try and explain to someone. They always lose the thrill and make you sound like a lunatic when you say them out loud.

Last year my coworker Sarah took Chantix, a drug to quit smoking, and OMG, she had the craziest dreams! Everyday she would come in and tell us one crazy dream after another, and Tony and I would just laugh at the nuttiness of them. Needless to say, she stopped taking Chantix, and the dreams subsided.

What else...

We took my nephews Jack and Francis to the Rodeo last weekend, and had a blast. It's crazy, the rodeo. Do you know what they do to horses and bulls to make them buck? The tie a rope around their "junk" you know, their bits and pieces, privates, goods, etc...And then, if a rider has made it past the coveted 8-seconds, two cowboys ride up next to the bucking horse. One cowboy is so that the rider can grab him and pull himself off the bucking horse, and the second cowboy loosens the strap around their junk, and the horse immediately calms down. It's really nutty (ha-ha...no pun intended!).

Here are a few pictures!

San Francisco Fire Drills

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. A lot has happened. Nothing too exciting...but I've been busy.

After recovering from "Sinus Infection 2008", I went to San Francisco for work. I left last Sunday, the 17th and came back on Thursday the 21st. All in all, it was just an OK trip. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to be sent across the country for training...but I'll share the frustrations that came with it.

• The weather SUCKED! Don't get me wrong, I know it was freezing in Cleveland and that normally wet and windy sounds good...but not when you don't have a rental car and you have to walk almost everywhere. It was in the 40's! So much for California sunshine.
• I ended up buying a much used umbrella and a pair of gloves from Walgreen's. The pink gloves went into the trash after they turned my hands BLUE!!! I was terrified it was lead or something since we were so close to China town...but it was probably just an allergy to the dye.
• During the four nights we were there, the fire alarm went off THREE nights! Of those three alarms, we were evacuated from the building twice! This was frustrating as the alarms went of at 12am, 1am and 4am respectively. Nothing like being woken up to the worst noise in the world. After a while, it was just annoying. To the point that on the third night, I took my time getting ready, as I had already laid out my "fire alarm clothes". The most frustrating part was seeing the upset parents carrying their young children in PJ's who were very scared. And seeing the older couples wake their friends next door. That was really upsetting. Remember, it was cold, and people were out there without coats, shoes or socks.
• I was sent to a training class for an application I didn't have experience using, or with any clue what my role in that project would be. I made the most of it, but 8-hours a day of sitting behind a computer screen that had NO OUTSIDE INTERNET ACCESS was enough to make me crazy.
• And I missed Dave. It's a novel idea to think that I'll have a giant king bed to myself...but I missed his company and hogging the blankets just to annoy him. And I know he would have done some more fun things with me...like walk across the Golden Gate Bridge :) You can do this. It only takes an hour round trip! How cool is that?

But it wasn't all a wash. We did get to do a few fun things. We were staying right near Fisherman's Wharf. So we walked there everyday.

• We rode a trolley car.
• Walked down Lombard Street (curviest street in the world)
• Went into the Sir Francis Drake Hotel
• Walked around Union Square (shopping)
• Saw the seals at the Wharf
• And made a visit to Ghiradelli Square (yum! they give free samples)

I don't have much luck traveling via airplane. I always get stuck with...

• The person who should have two seats (and I'm not trying to be mean)
• The sniffler...blow your damn nose already!
• The throat clearer (This was on my 5.5 hour flight to San Francisco)
• The bad movies
• The bad movie screen view..you know, the one right above our head.
• The middle seat...ALWAYS!!!
• The person who crinkles their bagel bag in your ear when you're trying to sleep!
• The people who are rowdy and play cards the whole flight to Vegas and don't shut up once in 4-hours. They are so loud you can hear them over the in-flight movie!
• The drunk guy who smells like a bar and chats the whole flight home from Vegas.

Note to reader...don't sit with me on a flight...it's not going to be pretty!

I'm going to try and post some pictures of San Francisco. It is a really pretty place when the sky is blue.

Here is a link to my pictures...I'm working on adding the slideshow to my blog, but it's not working.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24104769@N04/show/

"You are such a baby!"

That is what Dave has told me multiple times over the past few days. I guess I have complained a bit about not feeling well. I am doing much better today. I finally went back to work...and just have a lingering headache. When you blow your nose 24/7 for four days, your head tends to hurt. No amount of drugs has helped with the head pain either.


That was a doozy. I think in a few days I'll be over it completely. Thank God my trip to San Francisco is this weekend and not last weekend. I'm not sure I could have survived a five hour flight, plus three days of training. My head hurts just thinking about it!

I did manage to suck it up and take my nieces shopping Friday night. We have a bit of a tradition, although this year it was really late! Instead of buying them Christmas gifts, we do something fun together. This year, the three younger girls wanted to do Build-A-Bear and the twin "tweens" wanted to shop for clothes. So Friday night we went to Southpark Mall in Strongsville. Here is a picture of us after our shopping and dinner at "Johnny Rockets".

(LtoR: Emily 2, Susie, Janie 5 at the end of the month, Leah 7, Natalie 12, Sarah 12)

Miserable Sick Person

So, I kind of have felt a bit under the weather. I went to the gym Monday, but then on Tuesday, I just didn't feel good, so I went home. It all started with a burning in my chest and the start of a runny nose. So Tuesday and Wednesday night, I went to bed early. On Thursday, I was blowing my nose more...and I think that is so annoying to do at work. So, I made an appointment with health services for Friday. I requested Friday off since I felt like dirt.

The plan was to sleep in. But it's hard to sleep when you can't breath. My ears ached and my throat was sore....so I went to the appointment. SINUS INFECTION. I've had these before, and I was surprised that this was one. It didn't feel that way at first. She looked at my throat. RAW from the drainage (sexy, I know). Negative Strep Test, good. Negative Ear Infection, good. The ear pain was caused by the sinus pressure. For the last two nights, I've slept with an outdoor winter headband. My ears are so clear, even the regular air hurts them.

So, I got the Z-pack. Let's hope it works fast. I thought I was going to die this morning. I look pathetic. The only thing I think will make me feel better, is if I break my nose on the right side. Or scoop my right eyeball out. The problem is obviously on the right side.

I haven't been sick in almost 18-months. I mean really good and sick. When I first started taking vitamins in preparation for a baby Shafer, the colds and sinus infections stopped. This was a pefect "I told you so" for David. When we found out we were pregnant with Angela, I had to go off all of my allergy medicine, and that was the worst withdrawal experience I've ever had. (I'm allergic to my dog). I never went back on it again when I was no longer pregnant, because I didn't want to ever go through that pain again. And I was fine. My body adjusted when I was pregnant, and continued to be fine when I wasn't.

So, I don't know how this happened, but it is a doozy. This was probably one of those door handle things, or something I picked up it up from a coworker.

I just feel bad for David. He has to put up with me. He should buy stock in Kleenex.

Week Recap

My last post was a bit depressing. I honestly didn't mean it to end like that. Dave was great though and reinforced some of the memories and reminded me of different things. As always, he's great.

My weekly challenge went pretty well. I made it to the gym 6 of the 7 days, and did a total of 20-miles on the treadmill. The goal was supposed to do 6-days * 4-miles = 24 total miles. So, I'm only sitting at 83.33% (20/24). A "B" performance. I got out of work late on Thursday, and just decided I needed to go home instead.

I skipped Yoga today because Dave and I had too many errands to run, so we went to the gym early and did our treadmill workouts. Yoga is at noon, so it kind of messes the day up if you have a lot to do.

Next weeks challenge will be similar to this weeks, but just slightly different. This week it will 3-miles on the treadmill and 4-miles on the bike each day, with the exception of Wednesday (Yoga). Last Wednesday, the treadmill wasn't available before Yoga to warm up, so I did the bike...and it wasn't as easy as you might think. So, I'm going to mix-it-up a bit :)

I'm off to go watch the Super Bowl commercials and work on my crocheting.

Have a great week!