Spring in my step

The next part of spring in the yard is pretty great. The dogwood that lived is really pretty this year, its unfortunate neighbor has one living branch. The little blue and white starflowers in the grass are terrific and cheerful, and I actually manned the mower to keep them alive and make a path around them for old lady dog; we were losing her in the weeds. The little flowering plum bush is just the cutest pink happy thing, it was a rescue from a farm homeplace about twenty years ago and I love its pinkness. I was feeling even worse and called the doc begging for Singulair to get some relief from all the pollen this spring has brought us. I felt better in, no lie, four hours. I have gotten a lot done in the last few days with less misery, hope it lasts because I am really enjoying taking walks and pulling weeds.

Win

I passed my final with flying colors, albeit some panic the day before and some glitches immediately prior. Actually brought my grade up in the class, which is saying something for the power of not overthinking your answers on a multiple choice test that you have studied your ass off for. I am waiting for the stress relief to magically heal up my guts and make my limbs stop twitching also. C'mon, magic. The new CPAP mask, while not magic at all, has me sleeping until five every morning and then going back to sleep until eight. That's an improvement. I'm super surprised I don't feel a lot better in consequence, but we will see. Right now the pollen count is making me feel like I'm allergic to my bones or something. So, magic...c'mon. Meanwhile, back off to the pool. I am swimming five minutes and walking five for a total of at least 30 minutes every day, which is pretty great when you consider I couldn't swim half a lap two months ago. It's not where I thought I'd be...c'mon magic.

Volunteers Welcome

As a rule, I go to the garden center in the fall, get tulip bulbs, and commandeer my neighbor's unused crisper in his fridge to chill them in. I like to celebrate New Year's Day by going out and planting them, generally in horrible weather. Last year my feet were crippled up from surgery so I made OoA#2 do it. This year I didn't even get around to buying the bulbs. Tulips do not generally return in the South, the heat and rain rot the bulbs. This little guy decided to make a comeback despite the odds. He is all pink cuteness in an otherwise straggly bed; there are quite a few other tulip leaves but his bloom is the showoff so far. Spring is awesome.

Someone is trying to kill me

I got my fancy CPAP rig and was happy and rested for a few days. Then it seemed to blow germs up into my sinuses and I got a wicked dull ache and started on some neck pain. The doc gave me some ointment and I think I got the germs under control with that and the neti pot; feeling around on my neck and jaw, I realized I was really clenching my teeth extra hard with this thing on. And I have waked several times with my chin jammed into my chest; trying my best to cut off my own breathing apparently. So a store run was in order. Armed with my new neckroll pillow and mouthguard, I set off on my sleep adventure last night. I apparently spent the entire time fighting the apparati instead of sleeping, and woke myself not only doing painful neck raises multiple times, but managed to make the most horriblest crunching noise ever in the front of my mouth. Convinced I had broken off a front tooth, I struggled awake to check the damage; noise only, thank god. I can't afford someone to sit next to the bed and put my neck down and pry my teeth apart.  I wonder if a hypnotist could get your unconscious to stop trying to kill you in your sleep.

A Mighty Wind

My CPAP mask seemed to really help me rest the first few days. Now I am having sinus and neck problems. I am going to the doc today and I think I'll stop by the Target and look into replacing my neckroll pillow I lost in a hotel a year or so back. The mask was definitely not the panacea I was hoping, the first two days waking up more rested really had my hopes up. Now I keep having a bad headache and neck-ache; I am waking up doing something very odd with my chin, all balled up. Suppose I am trying to get my face out of the wind in my sleep or something, and can't because it's strapped to my nose. It's not uncomfortable on, I don't know why I'm so willfully determined to be sleep-choked.
I tried again last week to use the machines in the weight room at the gym and had lots of weird neuromuscular symptoms and just general malaise afterward. I'm going to get the doc to check some blood work and a UA but I've also made an appointment with my friend who is a neurologist. All the times these other docs have said "Auto-immune" to me have finally made me get off my butt and look into the MS possibility. It would be better to know, right?
I only have a few weeks left of disability that I can possibly take. So I have been sending out some feelers, looking for an eight-hour job. Nothing so far, but my sis got my resume all polished up when she came to help a couple of weeks ago and it looks awesome if I get some interest. Ten more days of this class; with any luck I can pass the final and concentrate on sending out applications. I'm not that good at not worrying, and this stuff is giving me a workout.

Hissyface

I have been sleeping with my CPAP machine this week. It is going pretty well. There are still some odd moments when I have to wake up to turn over but now I am going right back to sleep, which is very unusual. I feel better in the morning so I think I am finally getting some rest. Well, I know I am; the sleep study said I was choking myself more than 20 times an hour without the thing. The odd 4 am abdominal pain and general peristalsis party that the GI doctor is concerned about continues, however. What I really can't believe about it is that my wary, street-smart alleycat who loves to sleep next to me on the kitten blanket the kind lady got for him when he was feral does not mind the thing. I put it on and have this harness all around my head and this  hissing hose coming off my nose and he just pretends like everything is normal; the first time, he gave it a wide berth but still came and slept by me and now just stomps across my stomach to his place like nothing. I thought the first time it blew on him he would be all claws and distress and he just turns over and purrs. Evidently not having me snore is a huge payoff even for the cat.

C'mon Spring

These little Scilla are awesome. This is my favorite color. They are the bluest flowers I know.

Pink Tree

My pinkberry camera doesn't take accurate pictures of red and pink things. This Japanese magnolia in front of my house isn't purple, it's fairly light pink. But I had to get a closeup of it anyway. When OoA#1 was small, and so often sick in the spring, she was electively mute much of her childhood, from about age 13 months to nearly six years old. One way to get her to talk was to plop her in the carseat if she was sick and drive all around town and play "Pink Tree!!!"; as in, whoever spots it first gets to yell in the car,"Pink Tree!" She wasn't much on yelling but she was born competitive. So I would spot some and call them first to aggravate her, and then pretend not to see one, and pretty soon the backseat would be chirping, or croaking if that was what she was doing that week, "Pink Tree! Pink Tree!" Our part of town has one in about every fifth yard, and she would be delighted if she got one she knew for sure I hadn't seen first.  Even sleepy or cranky, she would rouse herself to point one out I'd missed, and still does it sometimes. 

She's been really upset lately. She sent out eight graduate school applications and got cut immediately from the first, super-competitive ones. But she made it into final consideration at four others, apparently; they sent her rejection letters only this last week. Another place sent her something to our house inviting an application, so she has two apps still to hear from and the one new one to apply for. Her professor called around; her GPA, which was in the toilet her freshman year due to pretty much abysmal advising by her faculty advisor at the time, and which she has been slaving to bring up, put her behind some candidates who had not wanted to go to grad school until the economy tanked their jobs. Once they were out of work, their easy A's from state schools gave them the leg up. Depressing. I wish I could put her in the back seat again and we could drive around and let her beat me at Pink Tree, and that would make it better.

Stylin'

I got my CPAP machine today. It makes me look like a Star Trek bad guy. Awesome. The "mask" is cool though, not mask-y. It has a baby-blue head harness and this nosestopper thingy for the air. I can't wait for bedtime, I have the hook-up. And it's pretty creepy too; it's got Big Brother on the thing to show how often you use it and for how long. So Medicare cheaters can't cheat with it. Big Brother has a memory chip watching my ass not snore. Whoo Hooo!!!!

Awesomeness

I planted these daffodils so many years ago I can't recall; maybe seventeen. I've dug up lots and given them away, and my neighbors have patches of them that make me happy too. They just started blooming this week and I looove them. They smell nice but I usually don't cut them, they last weeks outside. Spring is my favorite.