Poor weenie :(

Nope, this is not Woodstock (just another cute long haired weenie dog). I don't have any good quality recent photos of him. One day I swear I'm going to use my crappy camera instead of my iPhone... or I'll use J.D.'s when his memory card gets here ;) haha nah I'll use mine, charged it all weekend.

Anyways, tangent. What I'm going to talk about might get a little gross. I might hold back, we'll see how it goes....

Woodstock has been ill with a bladder infection for almost a week now. I feel so bad for the little guy, because every since I was 14, I've had at least one or two a year. WORST.FEELING.EVER.

He's only a little baby, and he really doesn't show much of an indicator of pain, but his urine samples came back positive of an infection and we've got him on twice-daily antibiotics. I was such a nervous wreck when we took him to the vet - they took blood and forced urine samples in the back and I could hear him screetching and crying. It was a disaster. When he wouldn't urinate, they asked me to keep him there for an hour or two, so they could force it and then test the sample. So I had to go home, upset as I've ever been before, madly cleaning all of my house. I'd make a terrible mother. I always fear the worst. I'd freak out all the time. But, at least my house would be spotless then, ha.

Anyways, I don't know if he's having relapses or if the medicine just takes a while to become fully effective, but he's been having problems with vomiting and other gross things you don't want to read about on my blog. He also hasn't been eating his food during this entire fiasco, so we've been giving him canned chow, it's the only thing he'll eat. Which brings me to believe that maybe his change in digestion is related to the abrupt switching of food???

I don't know, I just want my baby to be better. I'm going to take him back to the vet if this continues tonight. At the very least, I'm going to call the vet just to see if this is normal behavior or not. I might also get a second opinion.

Told you, overly concerned mommy. For the future, now I know that dachshunds are prone to UTIs, I read that it's good to serve your puppy a bowl of vitamin C each morning to help keep him from getting further infections. So maybe when he's off his meds I'll give him a small bowl of either cranberry or orange juice diulted with water. We can have breakfast at the same time in the mornings ;)

Just need to talk to the vet about it. Please keep your fingers crossed for my little puppy!!! I'm hoping when we have him fixed after he's six months old (next month, already!) this issue might resolve itself.

And if you missed it, check out my "three day weekend," (which only ended up being one free day) recap.

What a pair we make

Yesterday a nasty combination of cramps, backaches and a gnarly headache sent me home from work around noon. This morning, they kept me from having any desire to get out of bed, so today I am home for what I hope to be the last time this week. However, it's not so bad since I'm at least able to get some work done from home.

Being home isn't too bad when you have good company:

Roll over, Woodstock!

He's a good listener.

However, Mr. Stinky (what a loving mommy I am for calling him that on a regular basis) woke up feeling in a funk as well. He hasn't been eating a whole lot over the past week and I arose this morning to find him with crusty puss all over his *ahem* male part. So I made an appointment to get him to the vet this evening and get him back to puppy shape! The two of us have been cuddling up on my bed and the couch all afternoon. It's nice have a puppy with whom I can commiserate.

So in the meantime, taking a break from getting my work done I gathered up a bit of an appetite. Who's hungry after hearing about puppy male parts now?!?! After living in France a few years back, I grew accustomed to quinoa meals. Remembering that, I went and purchased some at Trader Joe's the last time I was there. Today seemed like the perfect chance to dig up a recipe and use my quinoa.

Warm Quinoa + Spinach Salad Recipe with Grape Tomatoes
(taken from Gluten-Free Goddess Recipes, which has also provided the following photo)

It was a fairly simple and tasty recipe!

Basically follow the directions on the quinoa box (two cups water + 1 cup quinoa, boil, cover then simmer 10-15 minutes until all the water is gone)

When that's finished, heat up a pan of olive oil and essentially toss in whatever you'd like to go with your quinoa!

I chose to chop up asparagus stalks, heirloom grape tomatoes, walnuts/almonds and tossed in a little fig balsamic vinegar. Then dress it however your little heart desires: standard is a pinch of salt and pepper. Her recipe calls for fresh herbs, I think basil would be to die for in this. But, being the South of French girl at heart that I am, I went with my go-to seasoning: dried herbes de Provence!

For the final touches, with the burner still on, toss in 1/4 of your quinoa, mix it all together and voilà - lunch is served!

You could really take this in any direction, add meat, cheese, fruits, etc. It was so light and delicious! The perfect warm salad for a cool, spring afternoon (that feels like autumn, what's with this weather?!?!?) Desperately hoping for summer, I paired mine with Minute Maid light pomegranate tea. Mmmmmm, and I'm still pretty satisfied/full nearly an hour later.

And hey, if you haven't checked it out yet, see what I was holding out on you with my "teaser" post earlier this month! Back to work now, I suppose.

Day 2

Yesterday was a bad day. Today is slightly better, but still a struggle.

Our women's soccer team played at UC Davis (about 18 minutes from Sacramento, which is only 40-45 minutes from me) at noon, while J.D.'s men's soccer team would be playing at Sac State at 1 p.m. So my game plan for the day was to forgo the team bus ride up to Davis and drive both J.D. and myself up there. After his game, the two of us were going to go to the mall in Sacramento or Roseville and use my Macy's gift card, make a Target run and then have dinner at Cheesecake Factory afterwards, since his parents gave us the gift card to Cheesecake and Sacramento's the closest one to Stockton.

10:12 a.m. I make a stop at McDonald's for J.D. to grab some breakfast (bleh) and grab a vanilla iced latte and some yogurt myself.

10:30 a.m. During the drive up to Sac State/UC Davis, I took two Excedrin Extra Strength when my TMJ headaches began to bother me. I didn't want that affecting my drive or my ability to pay attention at the soccer game.

11:05 a.m. I begin having panic attacks, accompanied by slight chest pains during the drive, before dropping Mr. Fox off at Sac State around 11:15.

11:42 a.m. I arrive at the UC Davis campus and make my way to the athletic facilities, trying to take deep breaths and calm myself down. We're up 1-0 at halftime and I eat the (soft PB&J) sandwich I made myself earlier in the morning. That's the extent of what my jaw will let me have.

2:13 p.m. I write my game story from my car (it was freezing and sprinkly and all I brought were shorts and a tee-shirt with a jacket). As I finish 20 minutes later I pop two more Excedrin, after my head and jaw continue bothering me, in order to make the drive back to Sac State.

2:58 p.m. I arrive at Sac State and wait in the parking lot for J.D.'s soccer game to finish in five minutes and for him to let me into his office. After waiting for two minutes, I sprint into the basketball/volleyball gym in search of a restroom where I compose myself and hope not to vomit.

3:03 p.m., heading back towards my car, I see J.D. in the hallway and he takes me to his office, where I plop down on a couch and apparently shiver/tremble/hyperventilate for the next 20 minutes, while he worriedly tries to finish up his story. I make two trips back to the restroom to throw up.

3:30 p.m. We go to the student center to try and find me some food, I cannot walk much faster than a crawl, worried about my twisting stomach. Luckily, Round Table Pizza and the student center are open, so I grabbed some bread sticks, goldfish crackers and Sprite. I eat it all slowly, feeling a little better.

4:15 p.m. I ask J.D. to drive my car back home and apologize for ruining our evening plans. After making all 38 minutes of the drive free, I pop my head out of the car and empty the contents of my stomach in the street, less than 10 feet from our complex.

4:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Without much luck, I try consuming soup or carbonated beverages. I make six or seven trips back to the restroom. Until J.D. gets scared enough to do some research on Excedrin and allergies and overdoses. At 9:30 p.m., he fears I might have overdosed, due to my jittery spasms, panic attacks, heart rate and irritable stomach.

10 p.m. We get to Kaiser's urgent care facility, which is not an emergency room at all, but a specially-open late-night appointment center. I find out that I've consumed way more caffeine than my body could handle over the course of the day, and that I may be allergic to that combination of aspirin and caffeine. She says there isn't really anything for me to do but drink Gatorade or Pedalite to replenish the electrolytes I've lost throughout the day. If I continued vomiting through the night, then I should go to the nearest ER to get an IV or something.

11:15 p.m. after taking very small sips of Gatorade, I have to go one last time. It is at this point that I decide being dehydrated or low on electrolytes is the lesser of two evils. I have absolutely nothing left in my stomach and am throwing up bile at this point. If drinking/eating induces this, then I will not do it anymore until my stomach can handle it. I'll replenish in the morning.

All night long: I toss and turn, sweating, stomach irritated and in a severe twisted knot, praying that I won't have to vomit anymore.

11 a.m. October 19, I finally get out of bed and take a bath, nauseous when standing or walking. I resume drinking Gatorade in small doses.

12:30 p.m. Brave enough to try to eat again, I make the trip downstairs. My body won't hold down the bread I try to eat, nor the orange lemon (caffeine-free) soda I try. I still feel queasy and sick.

12:45 p.m. I sleep for over three hours.

And now here I am, back with jaw pain, but restricted from any pain medication whatsoever for the next 24 hours. My jaw has me limited to eating soft, liquid foods, but my stomach will only allow for bland tasteless foods.

I'm just hoping this has run its course and I'm now at the end.

Sick at home again....

I'm really tired of this not being able to function thing. So while I'm sick at home (when I'm not sleeping) I've been searching Central Valley newspapers for possible housing situations and doing a bit of work from home, where I can't infect anyone else with my diseases. Though, that means I won't be able to go to UCSB this weekend with the baseball team because I don't want to risk getting any of the players sick :( That means I won't get to have my mini-undergrad reunion with the 10ish people who are still down in Santa Barbara.

I wish that was an April Fool's joke, but it's not. So instead I'm going to try to rest up from home, call the doctor again and hopefully get better.

Until then, here's a bit of what I've been working on:

Perfect Tigers Continue Big West Play Down at UC Santa Barbara This Weekend

Pacific starts out 2009 with the best mark since 1999, after going 3-0 last weekend

Senior catcher Kurt Wideman is leading the way for Pacific, as his .403 batting average ranks fifth in the Big West. His .68 doubles per game is also the best in the nation.

April 1, 2009

Stockton, Calif. - Off to its best conference start in a decade, the Pacific baseball team looks to improve on its 3-0 Big West Conference mark after sweeping UC Davis last weekend. The Tigers will have some work to do when they head south to take on UC Santa Barbara, who after dropping last weekend's series to Cal State Northridge 2-1, has fallen out of the national polls.

Pacific enters the week with a 10-13 overall record and a perfect 3-0 record in Big West Conference play. The Gauchos are 14-8 overall, with a 1-2 conference record.

All games during the 2009 season will be broadcast for free on pacifictigers.com. You can also follow every game in 2009 on Gametracker. Big West Conference games on the road can also be heard on KSTN 1420 AM.

Complete Release in PDF Format

Pacific Tiger Baseball This Week
Monday, March 30 - vs. Stanford, L 10-2
Friday, April 3 - at UC Santa Barbara, 2 p.m.
Saturday, April 4 - at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m.
Sunday, April 5 - at UC Santa Barbara, 1 p.m.

Pacific Tiger Baseball Last Week: 3-0
Friday, March 27 - vs. UC Davis, W 8-4
Saturday, March 28 - vs. UC Davis, W 11-7
Sunday, March 29 - vs. UC Davis, W 15-9

PROBABLE FRIDAY STARTERS:
LHP Joey Centanni (3-2, 2.16 ERA) vs. LHP Mario Hollands (2-2, 3.69 ERA)

PROBABLE SATURDAY STARTERS:
RHP Cole Akins (2-0, 5.02 ERA) vs. RHP Mike Ford (3-2, 4.86 ERA)

PROBABLE SUNDAY STARTERS:
RHP Hunter Carnevale (1-3, 6.23 ERA) vs. TBA

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
All of Pacific's 2009 contests will be broadcast online at the newly-redesigned Pacific Athletics site: www.pacifictigers.com. But now with the start of road Big West Conference series, all the action can be heard locally on KSTN 1420 AM in the Central Valley. This week's contest at UC Santa Barbara kicks off the Tigers' first true radio broadcast of 2009. Pacific Baseball can also be heard on 1420 AM for the following three-game series: at Cal State Fullerton (April 17-19), at UC Riverside (May 1-3) and at Cal State Northridge (May 15-17).

RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCES
During the last homestand, Pacific set a few new records as a team and with individual performances. On Saturday, March 28, the Tigers' crowd of 934 fans in attendance at Klein Family Field broke Pacific's previous record of 881 on opening day last season, Feb. 27 against Santa Clara. One of the driving forces behind the record crowd was a joint effort with the United Way of San Joaquin County who gave out over 600 tickets to fans in the local community.

Individually, senior Kurt Wideman and Nick Longmire muscled their way into Pacific's all-time record books with their performances at the plate last weekend. After going 5-for-5 with three doubles against UC Davis on Sunday, March 29, Wideman compiled 15 doubles on the season and 35 for his career in three years with the Tigers. Wideman's 35 doubles ties him for eighth in Pacific history with Vince Brigman (1984-87). By moving up the ranks, Kurt pushed Jason Walker's (1999-2001) 34 doubles to 10th overall, knocking off Stan Rogers (1976-79) from the all-time top-10, who currently sits at 11 with 33 doubles.

Longmire's fourth triple of the season also came during that Sunday game against UC Davis, making his career total reach nine in two seasons with the Tigers. Those nine triples tie Longmire for seventh in Pacific history with David Boer (1974-75), Terry Maple (1965-68) and Pat Tobin (1978-81). Out of the top 10 fell Scott Boras (1972-74), Frank Halvorson (1976-78), Keith Johnson (1990-92) and Chip Sell (1991-94), who are each tied for 11th overall with eight three-baggers.

FIRST TIME'S A CHARM
Behind an impressive three-game sweep of UC Davis to start out Big West Conference play, the Pacific Tigers are off to their best start in conference action since 1999, when they also swept the first three conference contests of the season. Pacific's three-game sweep of the Aggies was also only the Tigers' second sweep in conference since 2006, when they defeated Cal State Northridge in three-straight from May 26-28, 2006. Finally, the sweep over UC Davis marked the second sweep in 2009 after Pacific defeated Houston in three contests at home mid-March. The Tigers have not recorded two sweeps in one season since 2005, when they swept Northern California rivals Sacramento State and UC Davis to finish out the 2005 season.

THE NATION'S FINEST
One week into Big West Conference play, the Tigers are making their way up the rankings. Senior Kurt Wideman headlines the entire country, as he is recording .68 doubles per game, which is good for fourth overall with 15 total doubles in 2009. He is joined by teammate sophomore Nick Longmire, who has also been a force for extra-bases this season. Longmire's four triples ties him for 10th in the nation this year.

For the second-straight week, Pacific is in the top 20 for double plays, as the Tigers rank 16th among all Division I schools for their 1.23 double plays turned this season and are 29th overall with 27 double plays.

Wideman is also making waves in conference play after Pacific's 3-0 sweep of UC Davis. Kurt's .403 batting average is good enough to put him at fifth overall in the Big West. His .740 slugging percentage is only bettered by one player in eight other universities, as Wideman holds the second-best slugging percentage in the conference. And his 15 doubles in 2009 are tops in the entire conference.

Again, Longmire is right there with Wideman in the rankings. His four triples in 2009 are the most from any player in the Big West Conference. He is also tied for fourth in walks drawn, as Longmire's patience at the plate has resulted in 14 walks this season.

From the mound, Pacific is also up among the Big West's finest. Senior Joey Centanni's 2.16 ERA is the second best in the conference, and batters against him are hitting the 10th lowest, with a .260 average. In relief, senior Mark McCain's 14 appearances out of the 'pen are good for the most amount of appearnces overall and as a reliever in the Big West Conference. McCain's one save this season ties him for 10th in conference, as sophomore Thomas Berolzheimer's four saves are the second best in Big West play.

What happens when you're too ill to do anything

To say I've had a lot of free time in the past few days would be an absolute understatement.

Originally, I was supposed to work at the NCAA basketball regional held at Cal in Berkeley this weekend doing all sorts of media and press conference tasks. I drove home Thursday night and was planning on taking BART to Cal at about 11 a.m. on Friday morning. As I mentioned a few days back, I thought I had been victim of food poisoning earlier this week.

So come Friday morning, I could not sleep and essentially was up and ready to go at 5:30 a.m., feeling like garbage. I took my shower then called Kaiser around 8 in the morning to see if I could get an appointment in ASAP. Luckily, everyone at the call center was extremely nice and helpful after I described my symptoms and fit me in at 9:15 a.m. The day went on and I kept feeling worse, but pumped my system full of newly-prescribed drugs. If you're curious, they diagnosed me with a gastric intestinal virus which is super contagious I guess. Good to know it wasn't food poisoning.

A day later, I've called the people at Cal and canceled for the weekend, feeling really bad about having to back out a few hours before I was scheduled to work. But at least no one else will be getting my sickness.... except my parents, ha.

Needless to say, the past few days have been highly uneventful. When I'm not sleeping/watching tv/trying to hold down my food, I've been very preoccupied with a new gadget. J.D.'s dad bought him a new iPhone so guess what happened to his old one?!?! That's right, after wanting one for a long time now, I am the new owner of a slightly used iPhone. The best part is the data/Internet service is only $20, as opposed to the BlackBerry's $30/mo. charge. That means my service costs even less per month now with my new iPhone! And it couldn't have come at a better time since my BlackBerry kept dying on me, dropping calls and freezing up. So he gave me the new phone with all the accessories free of charge, when he could have sold it online or something similar! Love that boy :)

Long story short, it is extremely fun and distracting and just the thing to keep me busy when I'm sick. Because you know, the insane amount of homework I have piling up won't keep me busy.... I tried reading and laying out by our pool this morning, but instead got quite sunburned.

Maybe I'll just stick to being indoors.

Long Day

The last time I rode a plane was when I came back from Europe in April 2008.
The last time I rode a plane was Sunday night.

Boy was it a long day. For some reason I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on my own without the help of my alarm, phone or wake-up call from the front desk. The athletic trainer and I happened to both be up obscenely early and met up in the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed our final breakfast of the weekend, mine was the granola supreme. Granola gondola is what it should have been called seeing as how I was served a boat-sized bowl filled to the brim with at least three servings of granola layered with mixed berries, sauce and vanilla yogurt. So essentially five bites into the damn thing, I had enough. From there, I went down into the lobby to print out stats for my coaches who were also enjoying their breakfasts before 8:30 a.m.

Because of the ever-present drizzle that kept falling since 11 p.m. Saturday night, both teams decided to forgo batting practice, as Gonzaga left the tarp over the diamond up until about 10 minutes before game time. The rain kept steadily falling when we arrived at 10:30 a.m., and Gonzaga staff frantically ran around worried because the Doppler maps showed dense patches of rain storm headed our way.

But the show went on as originally scheduled with a 12:00 first pitch and lots of rain.

I don’t feel like talking about the game much, mainly because I broadcast the whole damn thing and then wrote about it so if you’re looking you can find it on the website. Not a pretty weekend in short.

So we pack up around 4 p.m. and get to the airport on time for a 5:50 departure from Spokane to Seattle to Sacramento. Much to our long-awaited surprise, who should be on the same flight as us but three more high school girls’ volleyball teams?

Remind me never to be around high schoolers again. Lots of excited talk, general disregard for everyone else on the plane, high-pitched giggling and craziness. Glad it’s over. But I can’t really talk, because I was part of a different “annoying” crowd as I was with my suited baseball boys. So instead of being super loud shrill and obnoxious, we were telling dirty jokes and being rude/sarcastic/witty to one another. Just how I’d like it.

Oh, I feel like I should mention that for the second time, I traveled on a Southwest flight with a comedian crew again. As we start to take off, the pilot flips on “Danger Zone.” It was really bizarre and the first time I’d ever heard something like that happen. The only thought racing through my head was if someone was afraid of flying, this is a really twisted joke. But two of the guys next to me took my mind off that thought quickly when the started reenacting scenes from Top-Gun. Well worth it.



As the flight attendants started going through the safety measures, the PA announcer started explaining where to stow baggage, both emotional and physical. Then she went over the flotation device protocol, and I quote, “Should your Southwest flight become a Southwest CRUISE.”

Sick. Cole apparently didn’t approve either.

But the male flight attendant was nice enough to come back and greet the boys, giving them pairs of wings to take home and brag about to all their friends on the playground.

As amused as I was with the whole travel experience, I’m still exhausted. We hopped on the bus in Sacramento with all 80+ pieces of luggage and made the hour drive back to Stockton. By the time we arrived, it was well past 10 p.m. and I still had work to do.

All-in-all, I’m really glad I got to make the trip up to Gonzaga. I’m having an absolute blast with this team and coaching staff, but am still not sleeping enough.

I’ll probably get more sleep now that J.D. is on the road with his baseball team to University of Oregon this week. Now when I get off work, I’ll have nothing to do all night, since we pretty much have dinner and go out and do something every other day. Maybe I’ll catch up on the homework and research I’ve been neglecting.

Oh well, summer’s just around the corner…..

It does get a little better, however. I tried to finish all my homework yesterday and somehow ended up with food poisoning, vomiting for nearly two hours in the middle of the day. Then I passed out for five, woke up very late into the evening, finished my homework and couldn't sleep or eat since I'd been sick and sleeping all day. This just keeps getting better and better!

How I hate being sick.

I believe that over the course of the past two days, I've slept for about 21 hours. Seriously. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong, but I'd surmise that I've got a cold/flu/sinus combination.

My symptoms are: terrible sinus pressure headaches (which have kept me asleep when I didn't feel like being awake), dizziness, fever, runny nose, deep cough and on top of it all, horrendous cramps.

This is probably the sickest I've been in a while, but I don't feel as bad as I should. I'm thinking I built up a bit of an immunity working with kids in France last year, because before fall 2007, I used to get sick about 3-4 times a season. Now, it's about bi-annually. The last time I was feeling under the weather was some time in July.

Not too bad.

With a couple of naps a day, movies/tv show veg fests, and some low-key class reading each day, I'm hoping I'll kick this thing in a number of days so I can be back to feeling 100 percent.

I like being happy and optimistic and playful. However, I don't think I'm any of that when I'm sick. So wish me luck!

What the F?

I have no idea what's going on right now.

(Well, this blanket statement applies to pretty much most of my life, but I'll zone in here and be specific with y'all.)

For some reason I cannot hold down anything. Whenever I eat I just feel disgustingly sick. And I don't think I've ever had this sensation before. My mouth is watering and I'm insanely hungry, but my stomach isn't having any of it. Not even Squirt, citrus soda! :(

Well, at least since it's now June 1st and I've been approved for Kaiser's health insurance, I can try to make an appointment to see a doctor. Though, since being denied from my PPO, I am not sure who my doctor will be, but, hopefully I'll be able to see one....

This is all TMJ's fault! If I never had that, I wouldn't be considered a "high risk" patient and I'd be back on the same Blue Shield plan I had before I left France. However, come August I'm going to return to full-time student status, thus will most likely be able to mooch off UOP's student coverage.

And no, I take it back. It's my dad's fault for being a contractor. Haha, if he was employed through a company, I could still leech off the family's health coverage.

Oh well. Until then, I'll just keep dreaming of sandwiches and mint-chocolate ice cream (among other dairy products). Bread and crackers are getting old....

Just a spoon full of (fake) sugar

I am still sick. Day seven now.

After two bouts -- in six months, not too bad -- of violent stomach aches and vomiting, I finally summoned up the courage to go to the pharmacie yesterday and try to explain what was going on in hopes of receiving some magic pills.

I'm not so sure I correctly explained my situation. Though I was able to tell her what I did not have. It's not heartburn before/during/after meals and it's not nausea. Well after thinking it over for five minutes, the pharmacienne gave me a 3 Euro packet of some kinds of pills. She told me to take them whenever I feel sick, no more than three times a day. They are to be placed and dissolved in the mouth, no water necessary.

I then turned to my friend Sarah and said, "Oh, these must be like Tums," which would indeed be some sort of an ease to the pains I've been having as of late.

However, upon closer inspection after already purchasing the pills, I noticed they're made with ASPARTAME!

Earlier in this cold/flu thing, I'd been sucking down throat losenges like they're candy -- not too far from the truth, but I did have a real bad sore throat. Then I'd notice my stomach would begin to hurt after taking them because, shock of all shocks, they're made with fake sugar.

Apparently I can't handle more than one small dose of fake sugar, AKA Aspartame, a day.

Hopefully this goes down better than the last ones I tried....

Oh yeah:

(Happy Spring!)

And speaking of Spring, I'm kind of bummed I missed out on MLB Spring Training in Arizona this year. I've gone three times and have missed out on two because I've been here in France. And I never in my life got to make it out to Dodgertown, what with the Dodgers leaving Vero Beach as their spring training site, opting to join the rest of the West Coast in Arizona next year.

Either way, I AM going to as many games as possible this summer when I return to the United States to make up for the 2.5 months of baseball I'll be missing abroad!! Though, I'm not sure how excited I'll be to watch some ball if Barry Bonds gets picked up by someone else. The A-hole needs to retire already.

Opening Day is only five days away!

OVER IT!!!

Before yesterday, it had been a little over a month since I last had lunch at my school's cantine.

Since it was such a nice day yesterday, I figured, screw the bus, I'll walk to school. And since I'm getting all this exercise -- it takes me 50 minutes both ways to get there -- why shouldn't I "splurge" on a 3 Euro meal at school, even though it's probably LOADED with calories??

It was nice. We had some light white fish, with an aïoli mayonnaise sauce, sautéed vegetables (why does this word end in -ed? the accented e already implies past-tense), cheese and bread, and fruit with chocolate for dessert.

At least I thought it was a nice lunch. Until a few coworkers started complaining about being sick shortly before school got out. And until I spent THREE HOURS LAST NIGHT throwing up in the toilet.

That's right, I was up until 2:30 - 3 a.m. vomiting, and the culprit most likely was that lunch. It was this terribly unsettling feeling, as my stomach kept doing violent flip flops back and forth, kind of like a fish just out of water. And I don't have any stomach medicine, nor do I have a car, NOR does France have 24-hour convenience stores to go buy such a product.

But I finally fell asleep in the wee hours of the morning, not remembering feeling this bad since my 21st birthday, ha figures. So today I have NOTHING TO DO. I slept until 12 p.m., I plan on taking a bath -- my first in YEARS -- and then we're having our Mexican dinner tonight.

...Not sure what I'm going to eat at that one, but I'm definitely making some PLAIN oatmeal soon.

Wawaweewa! (Borat, nevermind...)

Man, these last two days have been a doozy! Yes, I just typed that, get over it.

It all started at Carrefour. I told Sarah when we were checking out that I kind of felt like I had been drinking. You know that feeling when you're so congested, from blowing your nose/sniffling so often, that everything kind of becomes fuzzy around the perimeters? I just felt like I was going through the motions in someone else's body, all dizzy-like.

Promise though, I wasn't on Nyquil or any other alcoholic substance. She said she always gets super overwhelmed at Carrefour -- which my dad's boss said is the second-largest grocery store in France and I believe it! -- that she kind of feels like that normally.

But the feeling lingered. After scarfing down my dinner, then proceeding to feel really nauseous and dizzy, I put myself to bed at 8 p.m. No joke.

Upon receiving a text message at 11:23 p.m., I seriously thought it was 4 or 5 in the morning. I was almost getting ready to wake up for the day, when I realized I'd only been asleep for a few hours. Oops. Then I kept tossing, turning and sweating, until I changed into lighter p.j.s and browsed the iTunes radio library for an "ambient" station. Under that heading I found a "soothing piano" station and kept it on all night. When the rain started to drizzle lightly, it washed away the traffic noises below, I finally gave in to taking some Nyquil and fell asleep.

Then my day began at 6:15 a.m. when I popped out of bed on my own accord. After starting off the *ahem THANKSGIVING* morning well by talking to my family, I picked out the best outfit I could find for the occasion and proceeded on my merry little way to school. Yep, I still have to work. Except, when I got out the door, I was pelted with heavy rain. And wind. And then that wind so graciously flipped my umbrella inside out multiple times. Once it even hit me on the head, grreeeaaat. So I arrived at school sick, manish-sounding and soaked.

But when I got home for lunch it was all worth it, because I got to set up for my Thanksgiving dinner tonight!! And then I made a really blistery day-friendly lunch: hot oatmeal and coffee! The oatmeal idea came to me after buying an "American mix" of nuts yesterday, Oceanspray cranberries, pecans and almonds, mmmm. So I boiled that in some water, added oats and cinnamon and warmed myself right up. Plus, knowing what's coming tonight, I didn't want to eat too much.

Then -- this is the best part of my day, no joke -- I got to break in my brand-new EIGHT-CUP cafetière à piston!! That's a French-coffee press for all you at home. So I used my new Brazilian grinds and whipped up some coffee, then used the press to froth some milk, added in the rest of my cinnamon and boy am I satisfied.

Now off to class I go for three more hours and then it's back here to prep for the big international American fête!! Surprisingly enough, the Thanksgiving lesson has been one of my best thus far, because the kids are all interested in the colonists and Indians story, while we in the U.S. are a bit, uh, ashamed of what happened after.

That, and they get to make hand-traced turkeys. Can't go wrong there!

OH YEAH (edit): I got my récépissé TODAY!!!! Meaning, all I need is one more apointment and then I have my carte de séjour -- long stay card. So I have the receipt, I'm just waiting for the actual thing. Good start, because very soon I'll get my social security, medical insurance and housing assistance money!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Merde's hitting the fan

I didn't feel like swearing in English. So I'm not.

Anyways, Day 2 (or 3, I'm not sure) of me being sick has progressed significantly. Not in a good direction. Last night my stomach and intestinal tract seemed to be all messed up and I again couldn't sleep another night. So instead I stayed up watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice -- again -- and it seems that I'm now all caught up. I've even seen this week's episodes that y'all don't have yet in the States! I also washed all of our dishes last night. But today my throat's bugging me, I sound like a boy and my nose is super runny. At least I woke up two hours earlier than yesterday...

Oh and my roommate apologized for being a bitch. Still doesn't change the fact that she was, but we kind of had a bit of a talk and from now on out she's going to be napping in her own bedroom when I'm home. Take that! And she's paying me for toilet paper this time, because I've bought it the last three times. So that's a bit of good progress.

Another merde-y situation: SNCF -- Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer, in short, rail systems -- is striking an eighth day. And while 400 of 700 TGV (high-speed) trains are running throughout the country, there are "les boycotts," I'm not even kidding, the news report actually used that word, and people are setting fire to some of the cables. Excellent. And it's raining today! Stoppppp.

Crappy situation No. 29,475,629: I have to work tomorrow!!!! On Thanksgiving :( However, I usually have Wednesdays off, so today Sarah and I are going to Carrefour to do all of our pre-Thanksgiving dinner shopping and preparations.

Here's how the menu's going to look (8 people total):

-Apéritifs: Cranberry kir to be eaten with olives, bread, cheese and spinach-artichoke dip

-Green salad and bread/butter

-Pumpkin and chestnut soup

-Mashed potatoes and gravy

-Orange-zest green beans with honey and walnuts

-TURKEY and stuffing, however no one has an oven large enough, so it's going to be pre-made. Let's see how that one goes...

-Cranberry sauce (2 euros a pop at the grocery store, it better be worth it)

-Apple, Pecan and/or Pumpkin PIES


-Mulled wine and cider slash coffee.

And of course, lots and lots of wine and champagne throughout the evening.

I totally can't wait for this! It's going to be so fun celebrating my second un-important holiday to this "foreign" country.

Seeeeck.

I think that's phonetically how a French person would say, "sick." Am I right?? haha.

Anyways, big day for me as I ditched my classes for the first time here. Since my jaw was bothering me so much, I practically was awake until 3-4 a.m. My problem, however, was that I took Tylenol PM and when I'm on that and not getting a full 7-8 hours of sleep, my body goes into anarchy mode.

Basically, from the moment my alarm went off all I wanted to do was either throw up or sleep. So I tried to ignore my stomach and I slept. And slept, and slept. Until noon. It was a dang good feeling.

Don't worry, I was responsible about it though. I called La Tourniere at 8 a.m. to let them know I wouldn't be coming in today. Luckily, today's my shortest day and by the time I woke up, I would have been off work anyhow.

So no more staying up late for me. If I ever take Tylenol PM again in the near future for this problem, it needs to be around 9 p.m. -- as soon as my dinner's over.

EDIT: Oh snap, I totally forgot what today was. A bunch of teachers told me they were going to be striking today and I probably shouldn't show up anyways. So I guess I accidentally aided the cause by unwillingly striking today as well! How funny....

I just hope all this striking B.S. comes to an end soon.

--------------

And I just wanted to say that I officially hate my roommate. Before I was scared of/embarrassed for her, but now I full on hate her. She is the most petty and rude person I've ever met. I don't know what I'm going to do other than try not to be here as often as possible. For example, she woke me up this morning when I was sick, but I didn't mind, I just went back to sleep.

She came home for lunch today and while I was cooking, I went into my room to get something. I guess usually she sleeps in the living room -- why I have no idea, her bedroom, which blocks out noise with a DOOR is literally two feet away -- and as I'm leaving pops up from laying down on the couch. She screams my name super loud -- I know she's upset when she calls me by my name, usually she forgets it and calls me whatever she pleases -- and yells at me saying that she has such a long f-ing day and needs only 15 minutes to sleep each afternoon. Then she continues treating me like a child, saying, "What's so hard for you to understand about not making a single noise for 15 minutes??"

And I'm too much of a chicken to stand up for myself, so I just apologized six times, wanted to cry, and finished making my lunch in total silence. P.S. She's been sleeping for 45 minutes now, so does that mean I can make noise because I only had to be quiet for 15? And where does she get off acting so rude to me? I didn't yell at her when she woke me up, from within MY OWN ROOM.