Salmon and Souvlaki

Ode to a Rug

Posted on October 20, 2006 by Laura

Once you were beautiful, ivory, and clean. You were purchased from IKEA with birthday money from my mother and it makes me sad to see you go. But now, you’re not so ivory anymore, my bedroom is small and carpeted and I don’t need you. So it’s off to the dumpster you go. I will miss you.

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BB Guns and Moving

Posted on October 19, 2006 by Laura

How’s that for a title? One of my favorite students brought a BB gun and pellets to school today. He took it out in the boys’ bathroom and another boy turned him in. He is a great student and has never given me any indication that he was anything other than fun-loving and good natured at heart. His best friends are two of my other favorite, well-behaved students and he’s been learning English so quickly. I had him as a low beginner last year and as a low intermediate this year and it’s been so fun to see him figuring out English and advancing so quickly. They think he just brought the gun to school to show to his friends – he didn’t threaten anyone and I don’t think they had to call the police or anthing like that. Nonetheless, he probably will be expelled. My heart is sad tonight for him and his family. It was just a huge, tragic mistake.

And in other news, packing is coming right along. Nik brought me dinner last night (grilled mahi mahi enchiladas with cilantro-jalepeno sauce – yummy!) and then helped me pack for a couple hours. As he discovered as he packed them, I have a ridiculous amount of books. Eight paper boxes worth of books, to be exact, and that’s after taking out at least another box’s worth to give to the Book Thing and separating out more to give to family and friends. (That doesn’t count grad school or college textbooks either.) I was getting a little frustrated with myself – “WHY DO I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF?” And then I realized that the answer is, “Because I’m 30!” So there you go. I’m allowed to have accumulated some things in 30 years of life. And in fact, because I’m so old, I’d say I’ve done pretty good to only accumulate this much! I should have at least 4-5 more boxes of books! I have tomorrow off from school (praise the Lord for that gift) so I’ll be packing all day and then Nik’s coming over in the afternoon and I think we’ll start moving some stuff over to my new house. Then John Decker is bringing his truck on Saturday morning to help me move some furniture and I have a couple friends coming to help as well. I’m hoping to be done with the majority of the moving by lunchtime on Saturday. I have other things I have to accomplish this weekend besides moving. I’ll be glad when the moving is over. I’m not actually moving out of my apartment until the 29th. Kristen and I are calling next week, “camping” – because we’ll have no furniture left! I’d better get back to packing!

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The Final Installment of…

Posted on October 19, 2006 by Laura

MY LEG IS GOING TO FALL OFF

In fact, it’s not going to. Because, not only did I not have bacterial or fungal infections, I don’t have Lyme and I have completely normal blood cell counts. So basically, there was nothing wrong with me! And to that I say, do you want to see the circle on my leg that I’ve been dealing with for about a month (and continue to deal with)? There was something wrong with me! Meggan says it was all psycho-somatic! So, rest assured, I’m not going to die, I think I’ll be able to keep walking on two legs, and hopefully, out of all of this, I’m not going to have too big of a scar. And that’s the end of that.

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To Meggan

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Laura

Thank you ever so much for the incredibly thoughtful and amazing birthday present. Not only is it currently gracing and beautifying my bedroom wall, I am amused every time I look at it. The thought that went into its selection must have taken an immense amount of time and research. I am also looking forward to receiving the related presents that have been promised to arrive throughout the year. (They’d better come!) You, my dear, are a truly amazing sister-in-law!

Love,
Laura

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Being 30 isn’t half bad

Posted on October 10, 2006 by Laura

“Happy Birthday miss!” “Happy Birthday miss!” “Happy Birthday Miss Judge!”

“Miss, is your birthday? Happy Birthday!”

“You not old!”

“But miss, you no looks 30. Really, I mean it. You no looks 30!!”

“Miss, are you glad that you’re 30?”

“I hope that Dumbarton will have more inspiring teachers like you. I also hope that I would have you as my teacher again. 🙂 ONCE AGAIN, Happy Birthday!!” [from a card]

“Miss, I am so sorry. So so sorry. I forgot to say happy birthday yesterday. I’ll make it up to you!”

“I wish you best.”

“Happy Birthday Miss!”

Posted in school | 4 Comments

The Last BLOG

Posted on October 8, 2006 by Laura

At least the last blog entry of my 20s!

I thought I should just make it official that tomorrow, I’m going to be old! And so, to celebrate that fact, Nik, Kristen and Katie threw me a great fiesta last night! We were at Nik’s house, he made fajitas, my friend Betsy made me her famous carrot cake, and we generally had a great time! My friend Dee also drove up from DC and it was great to see her, especially because January was when we saw each other last.

To my siblings, I’ll let you know how the 3rd decade feels, since I’m the first one to enter it!

Here’s a picture of the beautiful cake platter (from Williams and Sonoma) that Kristen gave me!

And my currently listening CD is my present from Nik!

Posted in family, friends | 3 Comments

At least I know what I didn’t have

Posted on October 5, 2006 by Laura

I didn’t have a bacterial infection. (So I got a lot of “oh poor thing, she has a staph infection” sympathy for nothing.) I didn’t have a fungal infection. In fact, according to the cultures, there was nothing wrong with me. (Obviously, there was.) But, after I described my symptoms to the doctor at my appointment this evening (including the new rash that formed after I started taking the antibiotics and my flu like symptoms for one night), she ordered two more blood tests: a CBC (complete blood count) which measures for white blood cell activity and for Lyme disease. So here’s hoping that I DON’T have Lyme but if I do, I guess it will be good that it was caught early on. I did go hiking on Labor Day in PA so if I have it, I probably got it then. And this concludes yet another chapter in the never-ending saga of “My leg is going to fall off.”

TO BE CONTINUED (when the lab results come back)

Posted in health and beauty | 1 Comment

Moving Out

Posted on October 2, 2006 by Laura

Our landlord just called and told us that they’ve rented our apartment for November 1st. So that means we have less than a month in our beautiful apartment. YIKES!! I’d better get packing. (We were hoping that this would happen because it will save us a ton of money but still were figuring that we would have through November. So now we really have to pack!)

Posted in house/neighborhood | 2 Comments

A Day Off and A Place to Live

Posted on October 2, 2006 by Laura

I may not be Jewish but I do appreciate their holidays! Today is Yom Kippur and Baltimore County Public Schools are not in session. It’s nice to have a random day off and especially nice that this year it fell on a Monday. Three day weekends are great.

Friday night, Nik and I along with 3 other people from our church went to the National Aquarium to see the new Australia exhibit. We were underwhelmed to say the least. It was cool but very small. The rest of the aquarium is great though and the shark tanks at the end are really fun! And, we only had to pay $4/person (instead of $25 normally) to get in. So that’s a deal!

Saturday night, we went to a Greek festival that Nik and his friends go to every year. I attempted (relatively poorly) to do a little Greek dancing, and I am happy to say that at least I didn’t fall over! Opa!

Yesterday was Kristen’s bridal shower at her future mother-in-law’s house. So I went and played stand-in maid of honor (because her sister couldn’t come). It was fun to meet Tim’s family and a few of our friends came too. After that, I went out to dinner with Nik’s mom, brother, and sister-in-law. Nik’s birthday was last week, Nikki’s is this week, and mine is next. So this was Nik’s mom’s birthday dinner for us – the Libras.

And that is all the random, relatively boring details that you’re going to get about my life right now. Except to tell you that I do have a place to live. I’m moving in with three women from my church, into what is known as the “39th St. House”. I’m really looking forward to living with them and I’m so thankful that it worked out this way!

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I think I’m going to live

Posted on September 27, 2006 by Laura

I feel much better today! Although my leg is still discolored, the inflammation is gone and the sore is looking like it’s starting to heal. Or at least it’s starting to go down a little bit. The redness has lightened a little bit too. It’s been pretty itchy but that seems to be right around my bandage where the tape has been so I think it’s just my healthy skin reacting to having something on it all the time for 6 days. Also, I really felt pretty good today – which helped me realize how badly I’ve felt the last week and a half. I guess having a bacterial infection will do that to a person. Don’t worry Mike, just because I’m getting better doesn’t mean I’ll stop taking the antibiotics mid-stream. I’ll finish them! Thanks for your prayers.