Sometimes..

Sometimes I have this little wish that Patrick Stewart was one of my Theatre profs. I'm pretty sure I could listen to and look at him alllll the doo-dah-day.

I might also feel that he is an attractive man and should he become one of my profs he would not be the first prof that I felt had been sculpted extra nicely by the hand of our Creator.

Priorities

As a student who has lived in and had to set up four off campus houses, I understand the priorities of the newly moved in person. Here are some of the main ones in the order that they get set up:

1. phone
2. computer & internet
3. bed
4. food/kitchen
5. stereo
6. tv/dvd/vcr

and two months later everything else...

Oh Betty!

Today after church Betty Spoelstra (my favourite woman of colour) told me that the reason I don't have a boyfriend is because of my quickness and my brightness, and she said that all the boys would be intimidated by that/me.

Prayers Answered In a Big Way

Alright, this should be what I am hoping is the last addition to the Sting Saga.

My parents came and picked me up on Sunday and gave me the love that only a parent can. It was nice not to have to worry about meals and such. I also got to take advantage of their satellite television and catch up with some old friends called V.I.P. and Star Trek T.N.G. (my goodness i love Spike TV).

Tuesday rolls around and in the middle of a nap I get this call from the City of Hamilton telling me that I have to go back to work and what day am I coming. Let us just say that my heart started to pump quickly as I struggled to grasp what was going on. I fumbled with an answer of Thursday, but told her that I really wasn't sure. She told me I had to come back before school started and that there were all kinds of forms that I should have filled out and would need to fill out and get a doctor to fill out. This was all a surprise to me. No foreman had mentioned anything like this in their phone calls to me. I did what I could to satisfy the woman on the phone and the call ended.

I tired to convey the details of the conversation to my Mom and almost ended up in tears. I knew I wasn't ready to go back to work. Mom and I devised a plan of heading to the hammer on Wednesday, seeing a doctor at the Locke St Clinic to fill out the Functional Abilities form the City wanted, take that to my yard and then see what happened. I still can't really drive so my Mom was going to have to take me to work the next day.

Wednesday morning we were preparing to go and I tried to get a hold of a foreman to make sure everything was for real. After leaving a few messages I had given up on trying to reach them. Then I struggled with my parents dial-up 24.0-26.4kbs internet to try and get the aforementioned Functional Abilities form to bring with us. While I was online God worked in a very tangible way. He got the acting foreman, George to call me and leave a message.

After a very affirming call to him things became much clearer. He agreed that still being dizzy, running a fever and super tired I was still unfit to return to work. He told me to go and see a doctor and get back in touch with him. He also said that he would lean on the people downtown for me. (yeah George!) That lead me to believe that the trip to the hammer might be premature. We called my parents General Physician (formerly mine) to see if he could take a look at me and fill in the form. His receptionist told me to come in in one hour! I called the lady downtown who had put so much pressure on me. She had just got off the phone with George. (yeah George!) She agreed that I likely wasn't ready to come back to work, but still needed to see the doctor. She faced the F.A form to the doctor's office for me.

I went to the doctor in Brighton. He said that I had been entirely over medicated and wondered at the functional abilities of a doctor who would put a girl being sedated by an antihistamine on a stronger more sedating antihistamine. He continued and told me that I was having a delayed hypersensitive reaction to the sting. I would make a full recovery but with such a short time being left in my contract, wouldn't feel comfortable sending me back to work in that time. So he wrote me off for the rest of my term. My term was to end on this coming Tuesday.

Now I am able to recover without stress. my parents brought me back today in order to avoid the bulk of holiday traffic. I am still dizzy, very tired, and running a slight fever. But I do know what is going on, and that I am being taken care of by my heavenly Father and my friends and here on earth.

I'll be at the house sleeping and cleaning this weekend if you want to stop in (maybe call first).

Home for a rest

Hey, just lettin all yalls know that my parents are on their way to pick me up and bring me to brighton to love me up until i get alllll better. so if you need to get a hold of me you'll have to do it there (i'll have my cell with me).

Oil Prices

Is it just me or will just about anything raise oil prices....this just in, a month with an R in it is following August, oil prices to rise....George Bush cut his toe nails, oil prices to sky rocket.....the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains, oil prices to increase accordingly.....your mom, the price of oil expected to jum.....

bah.

Blooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

the blood work came back fine.



i really need to get off these drugs...i almost typed: the blood work cabameke fine...you know, cabameke, that almost combination of came and back....eep.

The Up and Up

I think the new pills are slowly helping. I am feeling less and less dizzy all the time. The morning and early afternoon are still a little woozy. The pills make me really, really sleepy which could be a good thing for the healing. They do make me a bit of a social write-off :( ..or a lot more fun than i usually am due to being a space cadet, youi can decide.

I'll let yoi know if the blood work tells us anything.

Thanks for the prayers.

Only infidels drink Coke

Check this out.

progression

um..so my personal champion/amublance Dan took me to the Locke Street Clinic today where the Dr (who reminded us uf the hypnotist from Office Space) thought i might be having a reaction to the Benadryl still and the remenants of the sting/bite. he's got me on some other medication in some potent dose...the side effects made me laugh though; dryness of the mouth, headaches, diarrhea (which thank you bowels, i am also now suffering from....fist shaking), drowsiness or diziness, and unusal tiredness.... ha ha ha. Oh good, i'll feel so much different if i'm having side effects from this drug... there was also some blood work taken and the results will be back soon...

my family is stopping by today as they drop John off to go back to Iowa...it will be nice to get some family hugging.

well, my adventures have tired me out and i have some soup waiting for me...

?

Yesterday after I posted I kept feeling worse. It was kind of scary. I called the nice people at telehealth and they didn't know what was going on and suggested that I see a dr much sooner rather than later. I agreed and the rock of a man, Dan Postma gave me a lift and 5 hours of company at McMaster ER. I spent just over 6 hours there and came away with this: they didn't really know why I was woozy, or running a 5 day fever. They thought maybe the benadryl that I was taking to combat the effects of the sting was the cause of all the fuzz in my head. so i am off of it, they say it will take 24 hours to exit my system. And the fever?... the dr wondered if it was possible that i contracted a virus at the same time that i got stung. I told her anything was possible. so yeah...

in conclusion i am still alive, last night i felt the most human that i have since last thursday morning, but i'm still pretty out of it and will be spending today (tuesday in bed too)

thanks for your prayers, your rides to the hospita and ER support (Dan), your rides to Shoppers and your standard driving skills (gayle), your snuggles and y our tortellini (Mira)

An update (before I have to go lay down)

Ok, so my little saga continues I guess. This sting thing is still affecting me. I have spent the past4 days in bed being quiet and still. Not usually and easy thing for me to do, but I can't say that I really feel like doing much else.

The tri coloured welt is now just looking like a wacky bruise. The fever has elavated and left me a little more loopy than I was before. I think I might be amusing/freaking out my roommates. I keep doing stuff that I have no recollection of doing and then when they ask me about it I get mad at them. Oh dear. Its kind of trippy.

So other than sore elbows and armpits and a wonky head I think i'm doing ok. Remind me not to get stung again. Five days in bed is not my idea of fun.

Ben and Mylana's Naked Wedding?

These two ladies were sitting two pews infront of me at Ben and Mylana's wedding.


I dunno, maybe they were excercising stewardship in their fashion budget...?

(photo taken by the lovely Mrs. Amy Hoogstad - who had a better view)

Fun Times

Once upon a time (aka Thursday morning) I was working at the greenhouse steaking chrysanthemums, minding my own business when all of a sudden something (I still don't know what) bit or stung me on the lower bicept/upper tricept area of my left arm. I yelped in pain and fruitlessly looked around for the culprit.

When I looked at my arm I already had a raised bump and a growing red area around the wound. I didn't pay that much attention to it until about half an hour later when I started to feel really woozy, it became harder to swallow, my chest, neck and face turned red, my chest tightened up, my head started to hurt, I got really tired and I was itchy head to toe. So I layed down for a while at the onset of those things.

One of the ladies from the office came over to the house and saw me laying on a bench and took a look at me and expressed some concern. When she went back over to the office she told another lady. They, both being Mothers, decided I really needed to go to the hospital. I'm not one to argue with two Mothers and was feeling pretty shitty and out of it didn't put up a fight.

Sheila drove me to a local urgent care ward where I received a shot of Benadryl in the hip for the reaction and received the instructions to take it easy while my body fights over the next 24-48 hours.

Currently I still feel woozy, itchy from head to toe, if I don't keep taking the Benadryl my body temp goes up and the headache and tight chest return. The shot made the welt on my arm go away but as the shot wore off the welt came back. Right now it is a tri coloured 11cmx12cm oval on my bicept. Its really, really itchy. I've been a good girl and icing it.

I have been too drowsy (the pills) and out of it (the reaction) to really do much. I can't really concentrate on reading so I have been colouring and watching episodes of Air Farce off of their website (see previous post). Feel free to give me a call or drop by for a few minutes (though you'll have to excuse the mess of our house and the drowsiness of me), I've spent the past two days humanless and am getting a little lonely.

Tah, tah.

Canadian

I was reading one of Dan's latest posts this morning and felt his pain about the lack of Air Farce Canadian education. So I thought that I would bring to the blog world's attention that you can watch seasons 7-12 of Air Farce online at their website. If you aren't Canadian and wonder about what makes us tick, then you might want to take this in. Or, if you are a Canuk and you want a good laugh, sit down and start clickin'!

Peace/Paix!

Congratulations

Congratulations Adam and Camille on the birth of a healthy baby boy!

Purr

I want one.









(i wanna little black boy kittie that i would name Moses)

Hamilton In Desperate Need of Lives

S.O.S! The City of Hamilton needs a large shipment of lives. These will be distributed to the citizens of Hamilton so that they have a life. This need became obvious to me today. Canadian Idol winner Kalan Porter is singing right now at the WestJet Festival of Friends in Gage Park. On my way into the greenhouse from the parking lot all three of us workers got stopped and asked if we were there to line up to see Kalan. It was 6am. I thought it was ridiculous. Then I looked into the park. There were people already sitting in front of the bandshell. Apparently some had slept overnight. As the day went on, despite rain and wind, more and more misguided souls showed up to get themselves a seat close to Canada's favourite boy singer who looks like a 12 year old girl.

I can only hope they have all gone home by the time I want to see the Wailin' Jennys and The Nylons on Sunday night.

Professor Idol

I would like to see the nominees for this:


TVO unveils 'Professor Idol'Last Updated Wed, 10 Aug 2005 16:59:58 EDTCBC Arts

First there was the singing contest Pop Idol. Then came spinoffs like Canadian Idol and American Idol. Now comes a series that could very well have been dubbed Professor Idol.

The aim of the show, which will air on TVOntario, is not to find the best singer; instead, the producers are scouring Ontario to find the best teacher in the province's post-secondary school system.

Titled the Best Lecturer Competition, it aims to find instructors "who explain their thesis clearly, are passionate about their topic, and share their views with conviction and flair."

"In other words, we are looking for the most engaging, entertaining, and enlightening lecturer in Ontario," said Wodek Szemberg, a producer with TVO.

The channel, a public broadcaster with a mandate to produce educational programming, announced the names of the 30 semifinalists on Wednesday.

They were chosen by a panel made up of Literary Review of Canada editor Bronwyn Drainie, National Post columnist Robert Fulford and playwright Andrew Moodie.

Among the finalists are Tim Blackmore (a Faculty of Information and Media Studies professor who teaches at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.), Claudio Colaguori (a sociology professor at the University of Toronto), Tony Dimnik (a business professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.), and Susan Haslip (a business professor who teaches at Algonquin College in Ottawa).

The list will be winnowed down by the judges in September to 10 names. The finalists will then deliver lectures on TVO's Big Ideas series, and viewers will have the opportunity to vote for the winner by phone or e-mail.

The grand prize is a $10,000 grant, which will go to the winning professor's school.
In recent years TVO has begun forming partnerships between specific programs and educational institutions. Saturday Night at the Movies, for instance, provides interviews for film courses at York University. Studio 2, the nightly current-affairs broadcast, is likewise linked with journalism courses at a number of schools.

Journalist Irshad Manji hosts Big Ideas, which will air the Best Lecturer Competition this fall.

Highlights

Highlights from this past weekend include:

• Katrina's hospitality
• the warm, warm water
• the frisbee
• the raft thingy
• very cool people
• very warm weather
• burning flesh
• amazing food!
• church on the beach
• skinny dipping
• time to relax
• "...LMoe...tickle me!"
• "Scotch, scotch, scotch, scotch...I love scotch"

Some obvious advice...

Put all your hope in Christ.

Yum II

Bloodscicle anyone?

Yum!

This is possibly one of the greatest things I have put in my mouth!

(except not blueberry, though it is good, i mean french vanilla, they didn't have a pic of that flavour)

Today was so hot..

I wear the same 2 pair of jeans to work everyday (one pair at a time). So they have been washed quite a bit.

Today was so hot and I was sweating so much that my thighs were turning blue from my jeans and the sweat.

Things I liked about the weekend

• not working
• the (somewhat) open road
• seeing long lost friends like Naomi, Matt, the Vant Erves, Kristel, Amy, Tep, Lorraine, Ruth, Sarah, Joyce-Ann, Alaina, Jaime, Lauren, Kim and Jason and their kids...
• seeing 3 couples start their new lives together
• eating well
• seeing my friends look pretty
• seeing my family
• spending quality time with Mom, Dad, John and Grandma & Grandpa Stewart at Presque'ile
• watching Hunt for Red October
• making Abby squeal
• getting board shorts
• watching baseball with Dad and John
• farting, a lot
• a real sermon at my parents' church
• and sooo many more