Why I Haven't Been Posting

Hey guys!

As you may have noticed, I’ve been awfully absent lately. There are a few reasons for this, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Family Medical Drama

The Saturday night before finals, I was watching Criminal Minds and trying not to freak out. I should have been working on my finals, but I had done a bunch of that already, and I needed a break. Finals are big and scary, and I needed some down time. Partway through an episode, something funny happened between my two favorite characters, so I called my mom, who also loves Criminal Minds, to tell her about it.

I happened to call right as my mom was sick. She’s had recurring medical problems, and they have, at times, been quite scary and serious. This was the final straw for me; I could deal with finals, I could deal with being homesick, I could deal with school drama, but having my mom get sick in the middle of finals weekend was just too much.

I talked to my dad for a long time that night, and by the time I went to bed around two, it was still unclear whether or not she would need to be hospitalized.  What was clear was that I needed to come home. I like to think of myself as a strong, capable person, but it was too much. I needed to be with my family, to be around while all of this was being figured out.

My dad woke me up Sunday morning and we arranged a flight to get me home. I had been planning on driving home with my mom, who was going to fly out that Tuesday, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen anymore. I packed, my dad booked my flight, and I went back to sleep.

Then he called again and told me my flight had been canceled. This most likely would have resulted in a full-scale breakdown, but I was too tired to have that level of emotions. Instead, I told him to fix it, and got off the phone.

My dad is a wonderful, magical person, and he did fix it. I was booked for a different flight, the only downside being a three and a half hour layover in a rather boring midwest city. But at least I could still come home that day.

I got to the airport about two hours early and settled in with the seventh Harry Potter book. It was extremely absorbing, and I didn’t notice anything was wrong until fairly late in the game. It seemed to me that I had been sitting in my chair for an awfully long time, and someone Official probably should be at the gate by then. I checked my phone and indeed, it was a minute before my flight was supposed to take off and no one was there.

I called my dad in a state of minor panic, and he told me to find someone and ask them. The first person I talked to had no idea what was going on, and insisted she had no way of finding it out. I was about to call my dad again when someone finally did show up. The Official told me there was a slight delay, but the plane should be touching down in ten or fifteen minutes, and we would be on our way shortly. He asked about the timing of my connection, and assured me there was no way I could miss it.

He was, of course, right. I got to the second airport with three whole hours to spare and, thankfully, my trusty HP book. I did a lot of reading, and a lot of waiting, but I did eventually arrive home safely. My mom was already doing better, and continued to improve bunches over the next few days. No hospitals were needed, and everyone is alive and healthy.

My professors were absolutely incredible, and allowed me to do my finals online. There was some drama surrounding that as well; look for it in an upcoming post.

Christmas Gifts

This bit is significantly more lighthearted., and also more currently relevant, since medical drama has settled down. I’ve been doing Super Secret things I can’t share in public in preparation for the upcoming holiday, and when most of my life revolves around knitting and making cards I can’t post online lest the wrong person see them, it’s hard to figure out what to write about.

Being At Home

I’ve been doing lots of hanging out with old friends and parents and cats. These things are wonderful for me, because I’ve missed them all, but they’re not super interesting to others, unless you want to hear in detail about the five hours I spent at the mall with Robin, or seeing the new HP for the second time with Leah, or sitting around watching all the old HP movies with my parents.

Not Being At College

One of the wonderful things about having a blog at college was that it was time, just for me, when I could write, just for me. Amidst all the craziness of college and bajillion essays I needed to write, it was wonderful, and necessary, to have some time to do something fun that wasn’t assigned. Now that I have lots of time to myself and don’t have anything I have to do, writing posts seems more like something I have to do, and thusly less enticing.

All those reasons aside, I promise I won’t abandon you forever. Posts might be fewer and farther between, but they will happen, and, hopefully, they will still be entertaining. There aren’t any pictures along with this one, but I promise that’s temporary. Love you all, friends.

College Is Bad For Your Health

College is bad for your health. This is a thing you hear a lot, since the food isn’t good and there’s a lot of stress. But, at least at my college, people are regularly seriously injured. And I don’t even go to a big college.

First off, there was a guy from a neighboring college who was here at a football game. He was a player, so I guess there’s some sense of risk, but he was so seriously injured he couldn’t get up and an ambulance had to be called and he had to be attached to a stretcher and removed from the field. He lifted his arms in triumph on his way out, so presumably he’s at least a little okay. But still. This was the first weekend of school.

Pictured: survival?

The day before Halloween, one of my best friends here, Emily, and her friend Dana got hit by a car. They were crossing the sidewalk completely legally, and someone turned left into them. Emily was okay, though her leg was in enough pain that she couldn’t ride her bicycle anymore and she’s been borrowing my car. Dana was less so; she has to wear a leg brace, and is going to need surgery this winter. She runs track, so this is a super big deal for her.

This is the actual police report of the accident.

McKenzie, yet another girl from my dorm, got Mono and had to leave early. She’s going to have to redo her term.

Mono.

There’s another girl named Bonnie who I’ve never met, but she lives in my dorm. She also got into a car accident, though she was in her car. She broke her foot and then got pneumonia, so she had to go home early. She’ll be able to do her finals over the internet, so at least she doesn’t have to redo the term.

Apparently she hit a telephone pole and not another car, but I was informed of this about two seconds ago, after the post was already up.

Another friend, Lauren, was in the hospital for about five hours on Sunday. She’d been semi-delirious from a fever for a day or two, but when she woke up, she couldn’t really move because her back hurt so much. Her grandfather drove down to take her to the ER, where they determined she had a kidney infection. This was actually a blessing—the other option was kidney stones.

These are not really the colors kidneys are, but I don't have my good color pencils with me.

Also the thing that looks like a hat is an Adrenal Gland and not a hat at all.

A friend of mine named Tony was in the hospital for six hours on Monday because he thought he had appendicitis. He doesn’t, but they don’t know what is wrong, so he has to go see his actual doctor next week.

Tony looks like a stick bug, only much more human and also way cuter.

Someone whose name I don’t know broke her hip a few weeks ago and needed emergency surgery. There was something already wrong with it, but all she did to break it was fall and land wrong.

Almost what a hipbone looks like...

Plus, all the bicycles outside my dorm had their tires slashed a month ago.

This is Steve Holt, Emily's bike. He was very sad until my roommate repaired him in Shanonie's Bike Shoppe.

We don’t actually believe there’s a curse, mostly. It’s the sort of thing we laugh about nervously and then look over our shoulders to make sure there’s no natural disaster about to kill us all, or a serial killer, or maybe yellow fever.

p.s. This is a picture of my roommate’s pillow that has bicycles on it. She wanted it to be used as Steve Holt, but I’m attached to my drawing of him, but I also promised her it would go in the post. So, here is the Steve Holt that lives on Shanonie’s pillow:

Shanonie's pillow.

p.p.s. Guys, you need to stop taking me so seriously. Of course I miss Jimmy on Degrassi; who wouldn't? But I’m super happy for him that he’s doing so well and doing what he wants to be doing.