Rain

It rained this weekend for the first time this Fall.  It was nice.  Of course, it wasn't so nice when I had to take Gizmo potty.  I tried to hide under a tree, and he decided to do the same instead of going potty.  He doesn't care for the rain nor the snow.  He doesn't like to get wet nor get cold.  Boy is he in for a surprise come winter time.

From what I've heard, this Fall has been a fairly dry Fall for Wisconsin.  But then I also heard the Summer was a wetter Summer than normal.  So, who knows?

Job Update

Jared has been offered a job at Best Buy.  It kind of stinks that he has to resort to retail and various other crappy jobs after getting a bachelor's degree.  But oh well.  He needs something to occupy his time.  He's still waiting to hear back from a bank before he accepts the Best Buy job.  Working at a bank would at least give us our holidays together.  I guess we'll see.

I also found out that I'll be taking a third trip in November for work.  I'll be in Georgia in a week.  I'll get to hang out with my family on Saturday and then off to work the night shift starting Sunday.  As soon as I'm done with my shifts (Tuesday morning), I'll be on a plane headed home and back to work in no time.  I've yet to figure out how my sleep schedule is going to pan out.  I know two out of those three days will probably consist of no sleep since I have to adjust to the night shift and adjust back to the day shift.  And then I'll be in Ohio in two weeks.  Fortunately, it's the day shift.  And the weekend after that, I'll have off.  Yes, I will be working for 12 days straight starting a week from tomorrow.  Anyways, the week before Thanksgiving, I'll be in Reno.  Hopefully I'll be home in time for Jared's birthday.  Let's hope I'm not too exhausted before it's all over.

And then Thanksgiving will be here.  Jared and I will probably do something low key.  I'm still debating if I want to attempt shopping the day after Thanksgiving before going into work.  I'm not sure.  Probably not, but we'll see.

Cast Pictures

A reminiscent post.  And it's about casts like it says.  First up is Gizmo...

This picture was probably taken the first week we got him (May 2009).  His leg had been broken for three months I think.  And he hadn't had a haircut since his leg was broken.  I had to call around to find a dog barber who would deal with a dog with a cast.

This is him after his haircut.  The bones in his leg wouldn't heal back together.  His leg was removed a month later (very horrible experience and I hope to never have to relive it).  He also happened to chew up this bed completely.  It was a nice bed until he ruined it.

Next up...  Me (because I like my baby pictures, haha)...

One of the first ( if not the first) surgeries done on my hands.  And if you honestly have no idea why I had surgery on my hands, then you don't know me too well (I have amniotic band syndrome just in case you really didn't know).

You can barely see the cast in this picture (it's the pink blimp on the left).  Being a three-year-old girl choosing the color of my next 5 casts with one simple word ("PINK!!!!").  And that is how I ended up with bright pink casts; I don't think other colors existed to me back then).

Now, why did I post pictures about casts?  Honestly, I have no idea why.  Life is boring, and I found these pictures.  And just in case you happen to fall into the category of "My dog's leg broke and is going to be removed" or "I'm about to have a baby with amniotic band syndrome," I can loan a shoulder to cry on and ears to listen to your worries.  And I can also tell you it'll be okay and life does go on.

Scarf

So, I haven't really had anything new and exciting going on lately.  Life has been boring but good...

I just finished making my scarf.  Did I mention I took up knitting recently?  Well, the cheating kind anyways.  I have to use a loom.  Maybe one day I'll be good enough to knit on my own (or maybe that just takes too much time to figure out).  But the fact that I can knit with the fingers I have, I'm satisfied...

My scarf is pink.  And I have some yarn left over to make a hat if I really wanted to.  I made a whole lot of mistakes with my scarf, but good luck finding those mistakes.  I'm happy with my scarf even though most people will consider it mediocre.  And, the best part?  Jared asked me to make him a scarf.  So, next up is Jared's red scarf (red for UW Badgers).

A funny story from the week.  Jared had an eye appointment, so he can get more contacts and stuff for his eyes.  Anyways, when I got home, he was still waiting for the dilated eyes effect to wear off.  And the funniest thing was looking at his eyes in the light.  One was back to normal and restricted just fine.  The other was completely dilated.  So, looking into his eyes that had two different sized pupils was a little odd and unsettling.  It made me laugh...

I guess I'll end with a few funny pictures of Gizmo...

I wanted to see Gizmo's eyes.  His 'bangs' are too long.  Unfortunately, he wouldn't go along with the hair clip.  It was funny watching him try to pull it out.

Why yes, I did shove Gizmo down Jared's shirt.  And the best part is neither one of them complained.

Books

I just realized I haven't given a book update since the end of July.  So, here's for my massive book update.  Since finishing school and getting a job to fund my habit, I've been extensively reading as of late...

The Mercy Thompson series (by Patricia Briggs):

   

   

Another series involving the supernatural. That's what I enjoy.  This series deals with vampires, werewolves, and the fae.  I enjoyed the books.  Her next book comes out in January next year.

The Alpha-Omega series (also by Patricia Briggs):

   

I enjoyed the Mercy Thompson series more than this one.  Maybe it's because I can connect more to her character rather than the main character in these books.  Unfortunately, the next book for this series doesn't come out until Fall of next year.

The Dark Swan series (by Richelle Mead):

   

I very much enjoyed this series.  These are strictly related to faeries (or the Gentry as the book refers to them).  Kind of weird that I liked the bad guy in this series (well, he's only the bad guy inasmuch as he's not human...  so not much of a bad guy other than he wants to take over the human world).  The next book comes out in March of next year.

The Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins):

   

The second book was by far my favorite.  Usually, it takes me half a book to get into a new series.  So while the first may have been good, I thought the second was better.  The books are about an overpowering government and how people bring an uprising and start a war.  And while I immediately fell in love with one of the main male characters, I despised the other male lead the whole way through the series.  Also, the series does tend to hit a gigantically huge climax and just end.  It took me a week to completely digest all that had happened  and after that, I appreciated some of the characters more (yeah, I'm weird).

The Kushiel series (by Jacqueline Carey):

   

I am currently reading the second one of the series.  My sister-in-law recommended this series to me.  From what I can tell, there's an original trilogy and then more books follow afterwards from another character's point of view (I could be wrong).  These books involve a lot of political intrigue and are set in what I can tell as the olden days (maybe 100-200 AD - again could be completely wrong).  Oh, and the main character is pretty much a prostitute with a pain fetish (but the author makes it sound a lot better).  I'll let you know if I continue on with the series (the books are huge and take a lot of thought processing to catch the subtle clues).

And here's to the number one book I am anticipating at the end of this year:

This one is the last of the Vampire Academy series (by Richelle Mead), and it comes out in December.  This is probably one of my favorite series to read.  And while I recommend these books to everyone, if you plan on starting the series, then start it in November so you don't have to wait too long for the last book...  Super excited!!

So, any recommendations for my next series to start?  Unless my plans change, I'll probably start the Otherworld series by Kelly Armstrong.

Finger

You'd think I'd be over all of this amniotic band syndrome silliness...  As much as it is a part of me and no matter how much I accept it, I'll still always wonder why and what if things were different...

I must say that I am very thankful for living in Wisconsin.  I'm thankful for the coworkers I deal with, the friends I have, and the people I see at church.  Because no matter where I am or how much I may consider some one a friend, no one has asked me about my hands.  Maybe those friends are waiting to catch me alone or waiting to be good friends before asking, who knows?  But I haven't had to lay my whole life story out to acquaintances only to hear awkward silence followed by a mumbled, "I'm sorry" or something along those lines.  It's been nice to actually keep this knowledge to myself.  But it's also weird.

Maybe Utahns are more open with asking personal questions.  Or they're more nosey.  I'm sure I'm the nosiest person out there (yeah I kill the cat all of the time with curiosity).  And while there's nothing wrong with people asking me about my hands (usually, I'm not stand-offish when it comes to my hands), I just feel like the conversations can get very one-sided.  For example, having people ask me when I worked in retail, they didn't know me and had no business asking, yet they did.  And I didn't force them to spill their whole life story about why their eyes are blue or why they're so tall (you get my point, maybe).

It's nice not having to talk about it constantly.  But I still catch the subtle stares.  They look when they think I'm not watching.  Or when they're caught off guard by watching me type.  I do have to give people credit with how fast they can regain their composure and act like they didn't just witness something completely bizarre.

I'm happy with my hands.  Happy with who I am.  But some days, I have to indulge in the what-if's and how life could be different.  And while I'll never be able to answer the why's, I at least take comfort in the fact that God knew what He was doing when He created me.

On a completely different note (and not so personal), we went and saw Wicked last week.  It was awesome. I had a few reservations about it at first because of all the girls I've heard sing the songs (not so well, but kudos to not caring what I or others think).  But the musical was awesome.  And I look forward to the next one I get to attend.

The Music Hall or whatever it was they performed in was nice.  But it wasn't really built outwards.  Rather, it was built upwards.  The rows went up three seats as you went higher.  I was a little afraid of the height.

And before the musical, we went to a Mexican restaurant downtown.  It's probably the closest we've come to with good Mexican food out here (did I mention Wisconsin's like it completely bland and without spice?).  And while we were eating, we got to witness our first protest rally.  Now, let me remind you that Madison is super-super liberal, and it's a huge college town (think opposite of Logan's ultra-conservatism, and if you thought Logan was a college town, it's not big at all).  Anyways, can you guess what the protest was for?  It was for the legalization of marijuana.  I'm pretty sure I could count the people over the age of 30 joining in on the protest with one hand.  It was a lot of hooded, baggy pants, makes-you-want-to-pin-a-"Trouble"-sign-on guys.  Very interesting...  It certainly made my day, haha.

Accent

It's more than official.  I have a Wisconsin accent.  Want to hear it?  Give me a call, and you can laugh at my dialect.  I can't help it.  I assimilate to the people around me.  And even though I'm laughing very hard when I hear those thick Wisconsin accents, I can't stop my own from starting...

How is my brother doing now?  His ACL is torn.  And he has a hairline fracture.  He needs surgery done on his knee.  But that can't be done until after the fracture heals.  So, a few extra weeks of not moving.  But at least he's okay and doing better...

A lot of traveling is coming up for me.  I'm getting nervous and oh so excited....  When I go on-site, I'll be doing 12 hour shifts in the hospitals.  So, that leaves very little time to check out the sites.  I probably won't sleep a whole lot either.  Oh well.  I'll be in Atlanta Halloween weekend.  I'm planning on going out a day early, so I can spend Saturday with my family.  Then I'll be working Halloween night and Monday night.  The night shift; we'll see how that goes (think Wisconsin accent on all of the "o" sounds - kind of nasally sounding).  And the weekend after that, I'll be in Zanesville, Ohio.  A new city.  I don't think I've ever been outside of an airport in Ohio.  So, this'll be fun.

I need a good camera to take lots of pictures.  I might actually be able to justify that if I used the camera a lot and enjoyed taking lots of random pictures.  But no, taking pictures is more extra random work for me when all I want to do is take in the sites...