The More Things Change...
August 31, 2003 @ 10:46 AM
...the more I itch. It's no fun trying to keep a journal up-to-date when the only thing I have to talk about is an itch. *g*
I went to the doctor on Friday. He made me strip down to my undies, and later remove said undies, making him one of a very (VERY) select group of individuals who've seen me model my birthday suit.
Unfortunately, after the doc was done admiring my physique and had done a little research in his medical-type tomes, he still wasn't sure what I had. His best guess, he said, is that I have erythema multifome (which is a rash and not related to spiders in any way), and after doing a bit of research online of my own, I think I agree with him.
More unfortunately, the doc wants to make sure he isn't wrong, so I have an appointment with a Dermatologist Tuesday at 11:15, meaning I have to miss all three of my classes on Tuesday. If I didn't take that spot, I would have been waiting until ~next~ Tuesday for an appointment, and that isn't particularly helpful. I would have itched my own hands off by then. *g*
So, I've got no drugs until I go and see the Dermatologist. The rash continues to grow and spread, and now my stomach itches as much as my hands do. Oh, and that poison ivy I thought was coming back on my legs? Nope. That's more of the rash. It's on my ankles and even a couple of my toes, so wearing socks and shoes is once again an uncomfortable experience (though not nearly as much as it was with the ivy).
In non-rash related news, I'm about 60% or so done with a new skin for the site, and I think it's looking quite nice. It's my favorite so far, at any rate. I'm thinking of calling it "Endless Summer", as it has a sort of summery theme to it, and summer here in Iowa is already winding down. The high today is in the mid-low seventies (compared to the upper nineties of last week), and it feels a bit like autumn out of doors. I noticed a couple of the trees on the northwest side of campus have already started to turn colors, too (note: the directional indication was meant to help those familiar with campus picture it, not to suggest that I believe that fall and winter really ~do~ follow a perfectly linear north-south progression pattern. *g*).
Time to get away from the computer for a bit and do some homework. One of my professors assigned a whole bunch o' reading over the weekend, and I haven't started it yet.
Fun link: The music video to "Weapon of Choice", as interpreted by stick figures (the dancer in the original music video is stick-figure-like Christopher Walken).
I... Still... ITCH
August 29, 2003 @ 07:27 AM
Itch. Frigging, stupid Itch. I'm really sort of sick and tired of itching, you know? I have had a horrible, irritating itch of one sort or another for the last eighteen days without rest.
I don't know if I've poison ivy still or no. My leg looks like it, but it doesn't seem to itch constantly. Either that, or my hands are just too distracting, and I don't notice one itch for the other. That isn't a comforting thought.
And yes, I said ~hands~, as in plural. Remember those couple of marks on my left hand, the ones that itched horribly? Well, I have about a dozen of those angry, swollen, lumpy marks now, on both hands, and each one itches as bad as the next. It isn't easy scratching both hands at once, either. *g*
And now, the rest of my body is starting to itch as well. I'm desperately hoping that it's just some sort of a weird sympathy-itch sort of thing, or maybe just a reaction to the bites on my hands or something. Of course, now I'm not sure that those marks ~are~ bites, because how could I end up with a dozen of them? That seems like one malicious arachnid. Maybe the first couple of marks were bites, and the rest are reactionary or something. Who knows?
Hopefully, I guess, the doctor knows. I'm going to try and see someone today, even though I loathe to do so for more than one reason, the financial reason being the biggest one. When I went to the Student Health Center last time, I showed them my insurance card, and the lady said, "That won't work. We'll just mail you the bill and you can send it to your insurance company." And I don't know what that means. Perhaps my insurance card was just too worn (it's pretty old). Or perhaps it was just a nice way of saying "you're screwed". If that is the case, I doubt I can afford two doctor bills any more than I can afford one of them.
Anyway, that's the latest update on yours truly. I still itch. I'm still going to work and classes regardless of the fact that I can't really concentrate on either. And now I'm starting to think that I'm not going to be able to go out ~this~ weekend, either. I haven't been out with my friends on the weekend since early July. I saw JJ on the bus yesterday, and I had to kick him before he recognized me. *g* None of my friends up here have seen me with my shorter, blonder hair yet.
Anyway. Off to exercise, take a shower, and go to work and probably a doctor.
Goodbye, Tae
August 27, 2003 @ 09:41 AM
I just had to do something that depressed me to no end: I dropped Taekwondo.
If I had just one reason for doing so, I probably wouldn't have been able to talk myself into doing it, but I've a few reasons. None have anything to do with the art itself, or with the instructor, or with the sauna they teach in, or anything of the sort. These are all personal reasons.
Not least of all (but not most of all, either), are my piercings. The syllabus the TAs handed out in Master Pak's absence on Monday make it clear: absolutely no jewelry, of any sort and in any physical location, allowed in the dojang. I thought long and hard about the rule, and decided that I was okay with it, since it's in the spirit of safety (of self and others) and respect. So, I spent a good long while figuring out how to take out my earrings (I'd never done it), and I practiced taking out my tongue ring, so I could do so quickly. My eyebrow ring doesn't exist right now, so that was easy. My nipple rings were another matter. I tried and tried to take them out, and I couldn't get them to budge. Eventually, I figured out that the lady who put them in me simply closed the metal hoops ~far~ too hard, and the little metal ball that's supposed to 'pop right out' (as I've been told countless times) is jammed in there with enough pressure that I can't unpry it with my hands. So, I used a pair of needle-nosed pliers to loosen one. And promptly lost the little metal ball on the floor somewhere, never to be found again. THEN, I discovered that the only way to 'quickly' remove these rings, based on the width of the gap in the metal hoop and the relative size of my lil' niplets, would be to bend the hoop straight and pull it out. And that, my friends, I'm not so okay with. I went through a lot of pain for these rings, and I'm going to keep them for a while longer, thankyouverymuch.
More significant than my piercings, is my health. I'm not so healthy right now. My legs still haven't fully healed from the poison ivy episode, and in some spots on my right leg, it's starting to look very suspiciously like I've got ivy where I didn't have any before, which I need to keep a close eye on. So, that takes both my legs out of commission. Not for normal use, but certainly for running around barefoot in a robe (dobok), swinging them around in the air and at others.
And then, there's my left hand. I don't know what the hell is wrong with it yet, but the pad of my thumb is sore and unevenly swollen and really friggin' itchy (not ivy-itchy, though), and it's making it tough to make a fist with that hand. And making a fist is sort of essential, you know, for punches and all. I'm wondering if maybe it was a spider bite or something (though it looks like three spider bites, if it is), and maybe I picked up a lovely new allergy from somewhere *cough*mom*cough*.
And there's other little stuff, too, but those are the big ones. So, I dropped the class. I'd still love to take Taekwondo at some point in time. I plan to replace my nipple rings with barbells so they'll come out easier, and my body's bound to heal up ~someday~, right? So then, I'll plan to give it another shot. I could just join the club, instead of taking the class. One credit doesn't make or break me at this point in time. :) It just means I've got five credits to go until graduation after this semester, instead of four. I was planning on taking nine credits or so, regardless, so it's not a big deal.
But I didn't even get to meet the famous Grand Master Pak. That was going to be one of the best parts. :( At least, the part that was going to make Kara jealous. *beams*
Chimerical Professors
August 26, 2003 @ 07:59 AM
(I just wanted a big word in my title)
Yesterday morning marked the beginning of the ninth semester I've spent here at ISU, and it was an odd start, even as far as first days (which usually have something noteworthy about them) go. Yesterday was odd, in that, although I went to both of my classes, I didn't meet either of my professors. And I'm not talking intimate, face-to-face conversation-type meetings, either. I have yet to see what either of them look like.
My first class of the day was Tae Kwan Do. After spending ten minutes finding the room (it was down a hallway that was under construction, diagonally across a gymnasium in use, and up a back flight of stairs to the third floor of a building I didn't know had three floors), I get to the door, add my shoes to the growing pile, and step on to the mats. I look around for the professor (I'm looking for the little old Korean guy who could kill me with his pinky, so he should stick out), but I don't see him. Turns out, he's in Korea. Go figure. The TA's walked us through the basics, and we'll probably start in earnest on Wednesday.
Oh, and it was hot in that room. Real, ~real~ hot. A long, squat, poorly-ventilated padded room on the third floor of a huge exercise complex can really get nice n' cozy when it's 98 degrees outside. :)
After my sauna (heh), I headed across campus in the (comparatively) cool summer sun to my English class. Since we were all English-ites and upperclassmen, we sat around and socialized a bit before class started. My old buddy Rob Backstrom is in the class, which makes this something like our seventh class together. :)
Anyway, we socialized. And then we socialized some more. And then we asked each other for the time. And then we socialized. And then we got bored, and tried to come up with reasons that the professor hadn't shown up yet. My favorite was the idea that it was some sort of a hazing ritual / endurance test, and the professor was sitting just outside the room with a list of our names accompanied by our photos, and would check off attendance and make notes in the margin as we walked out on him. In reality, though, it turns out that the guy is an English professor, and simply got his days confused. He sent us an email a couple of hours later to apologize and to assign homework. What a guy, eh? *g*
So. Let's hope today's classes go a bit more smoothly, eh? I just found out through the wonder that is the Internet that the teacher for my first class of the day (Visual Aspects of Business Communication) is a graduate student, so that has me wary already. The 'Net also informs me that my Poetry teacher is a Distinguished Professor, which makes him an old fart. Let's hope he's a nice old fart.
In other news, I finished reading Lord of the Rings a couple of weeks ago and never thought to mention it, which means I made it well before my self-imposed deadline of today. I've read a couple of back-issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction that I never got around to since then, and a couple of days ago I started reading Stephen Dobyns's The Church of Dead Girls. It's a bit slow so far, and there's far too many character names for my poor fuddled mind to get ahold of, but Megan promises that the book picks up and the minor characters fall to the wayside after a while.
Time to work out (I'ma gonna need to be in better shape than I am for Tae Kwan Do), shower, and dress for another day of Academia (Wacky Acky?).
Gnomedex Pictures, at Long Last
August 21, 2003 @ 09:22 PM
Alright, you want some stinkin' pictures? I'll give you some stinkin' pictures. But only cause I promised.
[related aside]
I just took the bandage off my ankle, and, as it did the day before, it hurt like a sonofabitch. It felt as though I were ripping large chunks out of my skin. Because, you know what? I was. And it hurts a whole bunch. So I'm in a really pissy mood until I find something to kill the pain.
[/related aside]
But first, the story behind the pictures:
It was the last evening of Gnomedex, things were winding down, and I was enjoying the free 'beverages' from our loving sponsors, Google and Budweiser. Lorenzo, Nathan and I were sitting at a table, talking, when a guy we'd never seen before walked up behind us and said, "So, you guys go to Iowa State?"
Turns out, this guy didn't know who we were either. He needed a ride back to ISU, and was walking around the crowd asking everyone roughly our age the same question. We said we did, in fact, go to ISU, and what was it to him? He explained his quandary, and I offered him a ride back north. He (whose name is Adam, by the way) joined our little party.
Adam had a digital camera with him. Adam had ~also~ been making the most out of the free beverages. Adam and I quickly devised a devious plot to get our pictures taken with all the cute girls at Gnomedex: we'd walk up to the cute girls, digital camera in hand, and ask if we could have our pictures taken with them! Brilliant! Couldn't fail! And, it didn't.
First up was Chey, also known as Gnome-Girl:
Chey and Rob (click to enlarge)
Next up was the lovely Miss Gnomedex 2003, whom, just the night before, had only been known as Jennifer:
Jennifer and Rob (click to enlarge)
Lori Lockwood and Gretchen Pirillo weren't tough to track down, as they were the only two in attendance decked out in leather. *g* From left to right, we have Nathan, Lorenzo, Lori, Adam, Gretchen, and yours truly:
Gang and Girls (click to enlarge)
Last, but certainly not least, we got a snapshot of Chris Pirillo, Mr. Lockergnome himeself. You know the names. The guy you don't know, by process of elimination, would be Chris:
Gang and Pirillo (click to enlarge)
And that's all I really have for good-quality, generally interesting shots. I didn't get pictures of (or with) all the people I wanted to, but the night ended all too soon and Lorenzo had to drive us home. :)
Pain's slowly starting to wane. I think I'll celebrate with some sort of pain killer. *g*
On Lost Humors and Future Paths
August 21, 2003 @ 09:27 AM
Yay! So, I think the drug is starting to do its stuff. To the untrained, unaccustomed eye, I'm sure my legs and ankle look just as nastified today as they did last week, but I've noticed definite, significant improvements. For one, although I had a horrible time sleeping again last night, it had a lot to do with general restlessness and almost nothing to do with pain. The night before was all about burning, searing, itching pain. Also, I'm walking a lot better today (when compared to earlier in the week, not when compared to before (and even during) the ill-fated camping trip), which means that the swelling in my ankle has gone down a lot. My ankle, for the last week or so, has been ballooned with angry, vengeful flesh to far more than its FDA-approved size, and has just now (within the last 18 hours or so) shrank back down to within regulation dimensions. I don't wince when I bend my ankle anymore, which makes walking a helluva lot easier.
Don't get me wrong: my ankle is still pretty gross. Today it looks more like a giant scab than a giant swath of dead gray-and-purple flesh, but I consider that an improvement. Scabs mean healing. At least, that's how I'm choosing to interpret it. Also, I'm losing far less bodily fluid through my ankle now, which is good. I'm tired of losing my humors through my feet.
Okies, enough about the nasties for today. Promise. :)
Yano what? I used to be funnier (speaking of humors). I swear it's true. I also used to be smarter, but I don't know what happened there and that's not really what we're talking about, so I'll leave that one alone for now. But really. I was reading through some of my archived entries last week (the scant 130 or so from the last few months, since everything from 1999 until late 2002 has been lost), and I realized that my journal entries used to be a lot more entertaining. I'm not sure when the transition from 'ha' to 'blah' occurred, and I suppose it was more of a gradual thing than an instantaneous switch, but I'm gonna do my best to recapture some of that old humor. I think I was just more 'myself' in those older entries, more sincere. By nature, I'm a weirdo with a natural knack for weirdo, nonsensical humor. And I think I musta started filtering out the weirdo stuff a while back. Which really isn't fair in a lot of different ways. I mean, if I don't bother to filter out my oddities at work anymore, why on earth would I want to do so here? So I'm going to try and find my inner freak again, if you don't mind. It'll probably be a gradual transition again, as all worthwhile transitions are (with the exception maybe of lottery-generated transitions).
You know what else I've noticed (aren't ~I~ just a bundle of introspective wonders this morning)? I haven't done a lick of real web design in something like two weeks. I need to change that here pretty quick, before I lose all interest in it entirely. Especially since, you know, I keep hoping to make money with this stuff.
One of the side effects of prednisone is weight gain (being a steroid and all, go figure), and damned if I haven't gained at least three pounds in the last couple of days. I absolutely refuse to believe that the pizza I had for lunch yesterday had anything to do with it. *grin* The pizza couldn't be avoided. Lorenzo and I have been getting pizza for lunch on Wednesdays for most of the summer, and since it was likely the last Wednesday we'd ever work together over the lunch hour, the pizza was a necessity. And then Megan made me a yummy salmon-and-rice dinner last night, and I had barely enough appetite to eat about half of what she served me. I felt bad about that, since I normally pounce on feesh any chance I get.
I wonder if another side-effect of prednisone is rambliness? Or if that's just another form of restlessness?
School starts again in a few days. Gah. School itself doesn't scare me anymore (I'm actually looking forward to this semester), but what this coming semester MEANS is scary as all-get-out. Or is it I'll-get-out? I can never quite catch which variation it is when I hear it said out loud due to my dullard ear drums. Anyways, what this coming semester means, is that I'm almost done with my undergraduate career. I need to decide, some time this semester, whether I want to start working and paying back my enormous student loans, or if I want to get more enormouser (hehe) student loans and head to grad school. And if I ~do~ go to grad school, do I stay in the English department, or do I decide to become yet-another-lawyer or something (cause I love to argue)? And if I ~do~ stay in the English department, do I stay in THIS English department, or do I do the traditional thing and head for a new school?
So many questions that need some answering soon. Scary stuff. Stuff that will determine the path my life takes from here on out. Or a significant portion of it, at least. I'm 22 years old now. By the time I graduated with a Ph.D. in anything, I'd be at least 27 years old, and likely older. I've been going to school for nineteen years now (counting two years of preschool, and since I learned a lot of fundamentals there before kindergarten, I'm counting it). Do I really want to sign on for another five?
Yah. Big, scary, important stuff. All thoughts, comments, and encouraging hugs will be accepted. :)
Hehe. I hadn't seen my boss (Dwight) all morning, and he just walked in and said, "Where the hell have I been?!" Turns out, he forgot that it was his kid's first day of school, so he had stuff to do this morning. Which means he doesn't know that I was fifteen minutes late again this morning, since I wasted five minutes wrapping my legs with gauze and consequently missed my bus. At least, he doesn't know until he reads this. Ah well. *g*
I ~promise~ that I will post my Gnomedex pictures later today. Just not right now, because this post is getting too long. So, talk to you all later.
It's a Four-Letter Word
August 19, 2003 @ 10:05 PM
Five days without updating, all of which can be attributed to one thing: Itch. If I had to summarize my life with one word right about now, 'itch' would be the word of choice. I Itch through the day, and I Itch through the night. I've missed the last two days of work due to the Itch, and I've gotten horrible sleep the last five nights at least, due in part to the Itch, and also because I'm sleeping with my legs hanging off the end of the bed due to Itch-related nastiness.
However, and end may now be in sight. Yesterday afternoon, I broke down and went to the student health center, after verifying over the phone that this week counts as a part of Fall semester, meaning I'm covered by my Fall health fees. After a short visit, most of which was spent discussing the long list of previous health problems while I wrapped/unwrapped my ankle, the doctor was merciful, and for the next eight days I'll have a stomach full of Prednisone to counter all the ivy oils in my body. The idea is to suppress my immune system long enough for the oils to leave my body naturally, without all those well-meaning but pain-inducing white blood cells intervening.
So! I'm hoping to go to work tomorrow. I was planning on trying for a half-day today, but my boss ordered me via email to stay at home. I can't afford more than two days off worth, though, so working tomorrow is a likelihood, not just a probability.
I hope you are all doing well. I've been ignoring the blogs on my list as of late, so I'll have a lot of catching up to do once the Itch stops being so damnably distracting. Right now, I can't really focus long enough to read all the long-winded entries you're all so good at producing.
Time for bed. I've gotta spend a lot of time in bed, on the off-chance my body feels like sleeping at some point. :) G'night.
Now 50% Less Metallic
August 14, 2003 @ 10:59 AM
Well, another day of itching most horribly, simultaneously trying not to do anything about it, and rebuilding computers maimed by the latest tragedy to strike the Windows-based Universe is upon me. It would be easier to focus on these computers if my legs didn't itch so much. The good news is, I suppose, that thus far my malady is tolerable, if not fun. When I went to bed last night, I wasn't so sure that I'd be able to walk this morning (the worst of the ivy is on the top of my foot on either side of my ankle; both wearing shoes and walking are quite painful), but I'm up and about today just the same. I even made it to work before my boss did. :)
I am sad. Moderately depressed, at the least. The reason being, in the last week, I've lost more jewelry precious to me than I have in a long time. I actually feel a little bad mentioning this first here, and not in an email, but there's too good a chance I'll forget to mention it entirely if I decide to mention it in email only.
The first piece of jewelry I lost was my necklace, which I lost while camping this last weekend. I loved that necklace; the look of it, the feel of it, everything. It was given to me by my parents the day I turned 20, or two years and three days from when I lost it, if you want to count it that way. That was also the eve of the first time I ever kissed Megan. And now it's gone. But I don't think I'll read too deep in to that one. I wore it as a piece of jewelry, a pretty silver chain, not as a metaphor or a symbol or anything like that. *g*
The second piece of jewelry I lost is my eyebrow barbell, which disassociated itself with me just last night. Megan and I were laying in bed, me with my Lord of the Rings (only a couple hundred pages left), her with her Children of the Mind (she finished it last night), when she looked over at me, gasped, and said, "Oh my God, Rob!"
Her cry wasn't very specific, to be sure, but it was certainly enough to let me know that either something wasn't quite right, or she had me confused with someone rather more omnipotent than I. As it turns out, she wasn't claiming me a deity or anything like that. Instead, the ball had unscrewed itself and fallen off the bottom end of my eyebrow ring, leaving the rest of the barbell free to the wiles of inverse gravity or anything else that might pull it out the top of my eyebrow. We searched high and low (mostly low) for the ball, but it couldn't be found.
I left what was left in my eyebrow, but I lost even that in the night. I plan to get a new eyebrow ring (sorry, grandma. I bet you had your hopes up), but I'm thinking about making this one only part-time. Now that I've proven to myself that eyebrow rings can and do come out just as easily (and painlessly) as earrings, perhaps I'll be more comfortable removing it from time to time. When we get to the face-mauling portions of Tae Kwan Do, for instance. I don't know how or when I'll be able to replace the necklace.
Well, I ~still~ have pictures to post, don't I? Well, they'll have to wait once again, because I've computers to update. I've updated four while writing this, and I'm working on four laptops and a desktop as I wrap this entry up. Have a good day, wish some health my way I've you've not yet done so, and keep in touch. :)
An Ivy Education
August 13, 2003 @ 06:58 AM
I survived the trip home, I did, though it seems that I've not come through our little adventure unscathed. Could I have expected anything less? Not really, I guess, though one always hopes otherwise.
Camping itself was a very fun time. I'd not spent much time with Eric or Renée for many months, and it was good to catch up a bit, gossip a bit, and just to spend time together not speaking, just communing in the silence.
We left on our voyage from Ames Thursday around five in the evening, and despite sundry construction zones, a couple of restroom stops and the one storm I was able to find in the state of Iowa to drive through, we arrived at our campsite in just under three hours, with less than an hour of daylight left in which to find two campsites, claim them as our own, pay for them, and make them habitable. We accomplished all, and in a fair bit of luck we even ended up with two of the campsites we were hoping for.
[aside]
I need a talking scale. You know, like the one Garfield has in the comic strip. I could step up to weigh myself every morning (as I do), and it could greet me with an "Ow! Get off! Get off!," or a "One at a time, please," or even "Good afternoon. one fifty-nine... p.m. You're heavy." I bet something like that could encourage me to lose weight. Much better than being too tired and pained to worry about dinner and ordering pizza does, at any rate.
[/aside]
We spent three nights under the watch of the pine trees, and aside from the few remaining sprinkles that fell on our heads from a small cloud chasing the storm we drove through, it didn't rain on us once the duration of the trip. I was astounded.
We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. Eric and Renée left a couple of hours before Megan and I. I still hadn't done anything stupid on this trip, and felt I needed the extra time to allow the inevitable a chance to strike. It took the chance, I'm guessing, when I wandered out into the woods a short distance in my sandals. I had heard nature calling, and thought that the was no better place to answer nature's call than in the woods, despite my poor choice in footwear.
Two and a half days home now, and I've got a fairly good case of poison ivy going on both my legs.
My case isn't terminal or anything yet. It's not nearly as bad as the last time I had it, six or so years ago. Last time, the sly poison worked its way through my skin into my blood stream and out throughout my entire body (yes, even ~there~, thankyouverymuch. Try being male and not being able to scratch ~there~ when you desperately need to), and I was forced to take a strong regimen of drugs to fight it out of my system. I am reminded of my last case of poison ivy every time I look down at my legs: this outbreak has formed right on the edges of the large, ugly scars the last outbreak left on my legs.
So! Wish me luck, health and healing in the next few days, as I bend my will against the mindless poisonous oils invading my system in an attempt to not allow ~this~ time to send me to the hospital. Oh, and wish me wealth, too, while you're wishing. It couldn't hurt. :)
I'm just over two-thirds the way through The Lord of the Rings now, so I should be able to finish it without a problem before the second movie comes out on DVD, as was my goal. I read several hundred pages yesterday, through the second half of the Two Towers and on in to the Return of the King. I'm surprised more of Tolkien's prose hasn't worked its way into my own, after so much reading.
Or, should I say, Surprised I am, sitting here in my short-pants of cotton and dark hair still arranged comically about my head from a long night's uneasy slumber, that more of the Great One's prose has not entered into my own following such a communion as we enjoyed the previous eve, as the summer sun dipped below the trees in the West. :)
Maybe I just don't have the mental lung capacity it would take to write as he did. :) It would be a fun mental exercise, though.
Alas! Time to shower (gently, very gently, ivy doesn't enjoy warm water) and prepare for another day at work. I'll try to update again today, as I've a couple pictures to post.
Maquoketa Bound, The Safe Way
August 07, 2003 @ 03:05 PM
Thank goodness it's the weekend. Well, it's the weekend as far as I'm concerned. In a few short hours, Megan, Eric, Renée and I will be leaving Ames headed east with Maquoketa Caves State Park as our point of destination. So, if any of you need me this weekend, I will be here:
Maquoketa Caves Campground (click to enlarge)
I've taken the liberty of plotting out my own course, seeing as how Yahoo! is still adamant that their directions were the correct ones. For those of you unfamiliar with the story of our last trip to Maquoketa, you can read it here. Our course does NOT include the one-way bridge of eternal peril.
Bridge of Eternal Peril (click to enlarge)
Time to finish up packing. Have a good weekend! I will be. :)
Happy My Birthday
August 06, 2003 @ 06:58 AM
So how's everyone else's Rob's Birthday going? Mine's a bit bleary-eyed and fuddled so far, but I'm hoping that clears up after a hundred or so sit-ups and fifteen minutes under a steaming (and water-squirting, I hope) shower head. It usually does.
Remember how I said I was trying to eat healthy this week? Yah. It hasn't been going very well. The last two days in a row, people at work have brought Lorenzo and I chocolate chip cookies. No one has ~ever~ brought us cookies before, and now it's happened twice in two days. Also, the last three or four days in a row, Megan has made a batch of Rice Crispy Treats. Remind me not to let that girl buy marshmallows again for a good long while. She's just plain dangerous with them. I just had a Rice Crispy Treat for breakfast. Just my luck, I'll have cookies for lunch (I did yesterday - I forgot to bring yogurt). Luckily, I haven't seen any cake yet that I have to worry about. :)
Plans so far: Work from eight until four, maybe go out for dinner around six, go shopping for camping supplies thereafter. Oh, and read all the nice Happy Birthday emails and comments that I'll be getting at some point (right? *grin*).
Is it time to go camping yet?
Regardless, Happy My Birthday. :)
2 to 22 (and lots of links)
August 04, 2003 @ 09:25 PM
Booo-ring...
I've spent the last few days doing little but working, playing Battlefield: 1942, reading The Lord of the Rings, working on templates for my new, yet-unnamed job, and planning for my camping trip this weekend with Megan, Eric, and Eric's better half, Renée.
Know what I just realized this morning, when I checked the calendar to see what date I should put on a form? My birthday is in two days. Go me, or something. :) I'm not one to get overly excited about my birthday, like some I know. Really, I wish I could rekindle some of that lost excitement, but I don't see it happening. Wednesday is my birthday. I plan to go to work, spend a full eight hours there, and then maybe go out that evening, if I can find anyone to go out with to any place that sounds more exciting than an evening spent quietly at home with Hitler, Gandalf, and Dave (or Rommel, Frodo, and Jeff, depending on what campaign I play, where I am in my book, and what sort of CSS reference material I find most helpful).
For those of you who feel inclined to get me a gift of some sort, I do have an Amazon wish list, as well as a Think Geek wish list, although Eric tells me that my lists are rather uninspiring (course, I forgot to mention the Think Geek one to him. Hey, Eric! Check out Think Geek, mayhaps). Loving e-mails and shameless blog endorsements are also accepted at the Robbystyle House O' Good Times.
Gah! Guess what else I just figured out? This also means that my driver's license expires in two days. It's ironic: I've spent the last year arguing with vendors of things-that-require-identification that I, this long-haired hippy with thick black glasses frames in front of them, am also representative of the short-haired chubby fellow without glasses on my driver's license. And now that my license has expired and I desperately need a new photograph, I have short blondish hair, which I don't plan to keep for any longer than is necessary. I'm looking forward to four more years of the same. *g*
At least my weight won't say 250 pounds anymore. Of course, I'm glad they don't weigh you for that sort of stuff, or they would have found me closer to 275 back then. :) I weigh 185 today, and since I don't plan to eat much other than yogurt, rice, fish and chicken until our camping trip this weekend, maybe I'll be closer to 180 whenever I get around to getting my license renewed. Sound good? The plan, that is. Not the food. :)
The Fellowship awaits my return, so I bid you all a fair evening. Have a Happy Jason's Birthday tomorrow.