spring break. yippee.
So I'm on spring break right now. The very first night of my break (last Thursday), my mom called to tell me my brother was in the hospital. Apparently he took a whole bottle of tylenol on Monday (we don't know why) but didn't tell anyone about it. He had a cold, so my parents thought his coughing and stuff was because of that. On Thursday they were getting worried that he might have pneumonia, so that's why they called an ambulance and found out the real reason he was so sick.
It was pretty scary. His liver was severely damaged and the doctors weren't sure what they could do. My aunt is a nurse who was able to pull a few strings so Scott could get into Baylor Hospital in Dallas where there has been a lot of liver research, which I think is one of the reasons he's pulling through. He was in critical condition when my mom called and I was very close to flying home immediately, but we decided to wait a day to see if he improved. Friday morning the hospital had a meeting to decide whether or not he was eligible for a transplant if it came to that. Since this was self-inflicted, he was denied.
Luckily that day his numbers started looking better. He's continued to improve since then. Though he is still in ICU, the crisis seems to have passed. He can't talk right now because he had an intubator down his throat for the first few days and now his throat is pretty raw and sore. He's tried a couple times to talk to my parents maybe about what happened, but they told him to not talk right now and just get better. We really don't know why he does this stuff :/
They were in Arizona for my grandfather's 90th birthday party on Monday, and were still on their way back to Dallas (in Midland, I think) on Thursday when he went to the hospital. He got flown to Dallas and my parents had to drive up the next day. My mom said they were all having fun and she has no idea why this happened. I don't think we'll ever really understand my brother.
So I didn't fly home and I'm here on my spring break trying to get some homework done. I have a 10-page paper due next Tuesday, a lot of reading, my internship, and a couple other projects I have to do this week. I'm trying to get some relaxation in between those things. Now that I'm not completely worried about my brother, I'm enjoying it a bit. I finally finished sewing up my hoodie a couple days ago. Now all I have to do is block it and it's ready to wear! I'll have to take a picture later.
That's really all there is. I've been pretty stressed and depressed because of recent events. It's making me question things and think in depth about family and the future. It's not going so well in my brain.
eternal schoolwork of the braindead mind
I studied for seven hours today and I'm still nowhere near ready for this test on Tuesday. So far, I've outlined all the chapters and looked for common themes (it's an essay test). Tomorrow I get to memorize. All the articles make sense to me individually; I just need to make sure I can come up with all the concepts needed for the essays on the spot. Luckily, besides my internship tomorrow until 1pm, I have no other obligations besides studying and writing a 5-page essay. Yep, that's it. Ugh.
Then I have another test on Wednesday that I haven't even started studying for. I'm not even going to think about it until this other test is over. But it shouldn't be too difficult. Though it will also be essay.
Then, this coming weekend is the beginning of Spring Break! Woo! Well, I've decided I will take that first weekend completely off from school work. But starting next Monday, I have to work on my 10-page research paper and the beginning steps of a couple other projects. Plus I'm doing extra internship hours that week. I dream of days when I get to come home and not have to worry about school work anymore. Only two and a half more months. Only 11 more weeks. Only 73 more days. I won't think about it that way, actually, because that makes it sound like a long time. I'll go back to only 11 more weeks.
I took a little time off from school stuff yesterday to do some yardwork. Though I'm sad that the nice sunny weather went away before the weekend. I got most of the front courtyard all weeded. I love all our yards and courtyards and beautiful plants, but man is it going to take a lot of work to keep them maintained. That's what I will do with all my spare time after I graduate. That and knitting, which I haven't been able to do for awhile either. I think I will go knit at the coffee shop next weekend too.
My life is so exciting right now. This is why I do not post often :)
Oh, our kitchen is still disassembled. Tim is working on the electical wiring. He also needs to do some plumbing work and then get that stuff inspected before we can put up the drywall and it can start looking like a kitchen again. We're trying to decide whether we really want to go with ceramic tile or if we want to go wish some type of linoleum or something. Though I love the look of tile, we're afraid it might be too hard (being right on top of a cement slab) and I'm also worried about cleaning the grout and if stuff will get stuck in there. Any input? We picked out our kitchen faucet yesterday, though we still haven't decided on a sink. We need to do that pretty soon so that Tim can do the plumbing.
Anyway, I ramble. Goodnight :)
baby book and pg&e
First of all, I would like to recommend a book to everyone who has children under 5 or who wants to have children in the future. We're reading it for one of my classes and it is just fabulous. Anyway, you should check it out: Being the Parent You Want To Be: A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years by Laura Davis and Janis Keyser.
Second, I would like to express how much I hate PG&E right now. For our kitchen remodel, we need more electricity coming into our house. We submitted an application for this work (pulling wires 20 feet to our box) at the beginning of February. Oh, did I say yet that they required a $2500 deposit just to submit an application? Ya. They also said that it could take up to FIVE MONTHS before they got to the work. They said someone would contact us soon to set up an appointment for someone to come to our house and check out what needs to be done. After not hearing from anyone and not being clear on this whole process, Tim started the challenge of talking to the representative for our area. This guy is always on his cell phone whenever we hear from him. I say "hear from him" because until today, we were just exchanging phone messages. Phone messages that we could not understand a word of because he is always on his cell phone.
Tim called a week or so ago asking specific questions and asking the guy to call back. He called back last week but, of course, didn't have our file in front of him so he couldn't answer the questions we had. Why call back if you can't even answer the questions? So Tim called and left another message. Finally I was home today when the guy called again, so I gave him Tim's mobile number.
Tim said he got to talk to him for awhile. Of course the guy didn't have the file in front of him again because he was once again on his cell phone. He started asking about gas lines, which we aren't doing at all. When he realized that we had submitted our application at the beginning of February, he said we were "jumping the gun" even though we haven't heard from anyone about someone coming out to check out the work. He also started giving ballpark estimates of $3000 to do the work! THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to pull a wire 20 feet. Of course, this won't happen for five more months though. Our electrical lines are underground. Keep in mind that if the lines are above ground, they do this for FREE.
Oh, and the guy never left his direct number so whenever Tim would call, he would always get the person at the front desk. She just tells him that this guy knows what he's talking about and seems upset that we've called so many times. Tim says, "The thing that kills me is that there's a pamphlet that i got that shows the steps, and makes it look easy and simple. But we haven't even gotten to step one yet! and nobody can even tell me what to expect."
I hate PG&E.
we have walls again!
You would not believe what our kitchen has been through in the past few days. Friday it was just your normal kitchen. It went from that to trash heap to not having a wall to now having new windows and doors (and a wall again). I can't believe we've been doing this only for a few days. There's still so much left to do. I'll cut most of the pictures because there sure are a lot.
No turning back now!
Aw, crap.
Out kitchen appears to have moved outside.
Now the outside is being torn up too!
No wall!! (This was the freakiest part, really.)
Ooh, new windows!
After that last picture, they also installed the new sliding doors. The window guy is coming back tomorrow to finish stucco-ing the outside of the house around the windows. Then Tim is going to start the electrical wiring this weekend. We got our new kitchen lights today.
While all this was happening, we also had an electrician come and wire some stuff for the living room. Can you believe the people here before us had no ceiling lights at all? It's pretty weird for a room with a vaulted ceiling so that any lamp light just kind of disappears into nothingness. Tim finished hooking up the lights tonight and is going to install the ceiling fan tomorrow. More pictures to come. So many more that I'm sure you'll get sick of them by the time this is all over.
Oh, one last picture for tonight. Take a look at our new cabinets!
And there are a whole lot more here if you want to see more.
Exciting stuff.