I am sooo much better. I went home and Dad gave me some of the prescription stuff that he uses. Three days later, the blisters are mostly dried up and scabbing over. I look like I scraped up my arms real good, but the itching is mostly gone. Mostly. What a nightmare. It will be a long, long time before I forget about the existance of poison ivy again.

Other than that, it was a great three-day weekend. Lew and I made it through two discs of Buffy season 4, we went to see Star Wars, and played a lot of Power Uno. Memorial Day was georgous. Couldn't have asked for better weather. After the service, we grilled out at Uncle Tim and Aunt Joyce's and played croquet. It's been years since I've played and Lew completely kicked our butts. I didn't realize he's played so much, but I guess he learned a lot from Uncle Dan.

This is day six of misery. I went back and looked at the bushes where I was working, because I didn't clear out Max's half of the bushes, and he had poison ivy, so I think that's what I have, instead of poison oak. How could I have been so blasé? This Ivarest stuff I've been using has done a pretty good job controlling the itch, but it's just so uncomfortable, especially the patch between my fingers. I've started wearing mittens to bed, so I don't scratch, and that's helped keep the Ivarest on the blisters while I sleep. I'm so uncomfortable! That and I made the mistake of reading horror stories on the internet. I just need to stop looking at it. Ignore it, it will go away.

Poison oak update: Going nuts. I've got another outbreak on my neck, and I don't know if it's spreading or if I scratched and then rubbed my neck. I'm trying not to scratch! Plus, this rash is totally grossing me out. When does it start getting better?

I've decided to take my parents up on at least part of their offer to pay for my plane ticket to go visit Emily. If I could afford it myself, I wouldn't take their money, but I wouldn't be able to go if they didn't pay for it. And I really want to go see her, in part because I was such an ass when she was here. Plus, if Lew gets to go, too, how much fun would that be? Emily says we can go fishing at night. Which won't be night, because it will still be daylight. I will have to research what else I want to do.

Itching is my idea of hell. This isn't as bad as the itching I get when I'm healing a sunburn - that's scrape-my-skin-off-so-it-will-stop bad. But this is still bad. All that weeding I did Saturday left me with a case of poison-something. I know what poison ivy looks like, so I'm thinking it's poison oak or something else. I woke myself up Monday morning itching my forearm, so I went to the pharmacist yesterday for something, since I'm allergic to topical cortisone. She gave me a calamine lotion mixture, which takes like an hour to dry after I apply it, so I've been accidentally wiping it off and reapplying it for the past 24 hours. I hate itching. It's on my forearms, up onto my hands and a nest broke out between my index and middle finger this morning. I used that word for Emily. :) Between that and a shiny new migrane last night, I'm feeling peachy!

It was a nice day for a birthday. I started celebrating on Saturday. After a long day of lawn care and house cleaning, I took a wonderful long shower in the clean tub (which doesn't happen very often - the clean tub, I mean - cleaning the tub is my least favorite job) and cooked one of my favorite meals: three cheese ravioli in garlic sauce, ate an entire bar of the chocolate Leah sent me from Germany and watched Angel episodes all night, guilt-free, because I had gotten so much done that day.

I woke up early Sunday morning, on my own, because I'm getting so old and stuff, and read for a while. The I watched A Hole in the World and bawled my eyes out, and then went to church. I drove home to the farm, and we had a weenie roast, which is a long standing tradition for my birthday. Even longer standing than strawberry pie, so it made me feel young. Those were damn good hot dogs, too. Also in long standing tradition, it was windier than all get out, so it was an excercise in keeping our food on the picnic table, but it was really warm, and the wind kept the gnats away.

I got pots and pans for my birthday. Really nice, heavy Revereware. I can't wait to get them washed so I can cook something and not leave bits of pan in my food. The stuff I've been using I got as second-hand when I started college, so most of it is in pretty bad shape and will get tossed. Pretty, pretty pots and pans!

I started showing the apartment last night. The first guy came in with his girlfriend. I showed them around - explained what stayed, mentioned the crawl space, pointed out the "closet", and mentioned again that it was a full bath. We were standing there talking when his girlfriend said something about the toilet behind the door. (Time out to explain the bathroom set up: when you open the door, to the left is the tub/shower, and right in front of you is the sink attached to a half-wall. The toilet is on the other side of the half-wall, and you have to close the door in order to get to the toilet.) The guy gets this look on his face and goes into the bathroom and looks behind the door. Sure enough, there's a toilet. He comes back with a sheepish look on his face and said, "That was going to be a deal-breaker, and I wasn't even going to ask."

That made me rather like him - I hope he applies.

Mom called this morning and they're back from the Mayo Clinic. She ended up joining two studies: one to study the familial relationship of cancer and one that studies the lymph nodes that are common to several types of cancer and why they develop one type over another. She said spent an hour and a half in interviews and they took tons of her blood. The nurse set down a tray with like 14 tubes in it, and Mom said, "Are you going to fill all those?" The nurse replied, "No, but you are." Neither of us are very good at giving blood - I get queasy just having a needle in my arm and IVs are worse. She said she spent quite a bit of time recovering with her head between her knees.

The only thing the doctor was concerned about was how fast her counts are doubling. I don't know whatever happened to the possibility of a bone marrow transplant, but I assume it's still in the options. I feel bad for hoping for it. If there's a chance it will cure her, I want it. It's selfish to want her to have to go through it, but I want it, I want it, I want it. I'd do it for her if I could.

Good news and bad news on the teeth front. The good news is that I really am a hypochondriac and I have no cavities. (Wait a minute...being a hypocondriac is good news?) The bad news is I have receeding gum lines and the roots of my teeth are being exposed and causing sensitivity. The dentist said the first thing I can try is using my sensitive teeth formula as a salve: after I brush my teeth, I should apply some of the toothpaste to the sensitive areas. The potassium nitrate is supposed to help desensitize the exposed nerves.

I don't have periodonitis, which usually causes receding gum lines, but a quick look on the internet says that receding gum lines can also be caused by overbrushing. Which is probably my problem, because Dr. Bob said that I've cleaned my teeth so well, a professional cleaning wouldn't be of great benefit to me. Combine that with the fact that I haven't had them cleaned in three years, and overbrushing is a definite suspect.

So this is what I get for taking "such good care" of my teeth. Sheesh. An old person problem. What is it with me and old person problems? Though I do have the zit from hell erupting on my chin. Average out an old person problem with a teenager problem, and...I'm still 40.

My teeth hurt. And it's not like I can do anything about it except for refraining from putting anything in my mouth. It's been three years since I've been to the dentist, and the hypochondriac in me thinks I've probably got cavities up the wazoo. I broke down and called for an appointment with Dr. Bob, and they're getting me in tomorrow. Must've been a cancellation or something. So me and my poor teeth are going to the dentist tomorrow.

You know, growing up, I never had problems with my teeth. I've never had cavities, I didn't need braces, and now I can barely brush my teeth because my teeth hurt. I'm only 26 and I'm going to lose my teeth! I knew I should have signed up for dental insurance this year.

I'm not really in a good mood right now. As in right now, I mean the past couple weeks. I think my problem is that I'm tired of being an adult. I'm tired of adult responsibilities, I'm tired of adult relationships, I'm tired of adult jobs. I'm tired of being pulled all these directions at once. It's no one's fault, and I feel like I'm being immature, but if one more person asks for a demand on my time, I'm going to scream. I don't feel like that all the time, but I wanna do what I wanna do, not what other people want me to do. I was hoping to slow down for a while, but I seem busier than ever.

I'm going to go shower now, but only because I smell and I have to go out in public, not because I want to.

I went to lunch yesterday with Aunt Judy and Uncle Dan. I usually try to have lunch with Aunt Judy when I'm auditing at the United Way, since her law office is in the same building, and Uncle Dan decided he'd like to come along. When we sat down, I said, "It's been a long time since we've done this. I remember going to a hotel to eat, and Uncle Dan had the catfish." Aunt Judy looked at me a moment, and said, "You remember that? That was for the fifth anniversary of your baptism." I was surprised that I was only five, but it was nice to know that I do keep *some* memories. Plus, I think Aunt Judy was quite pleased that I remembered.

We had a nice lunch, even though the Three Samurai is now on my top ten list of places not to go when you're in any type of a hurry. It took 10 minutes for the waitress to show up at our table and another forty for the food to get there. Definitely not a lunch hour place, but oh, so yummy. Their sushi is the BEST. It just melts in your mouth....

And, I got a Japanese lilac out of the deal. They dug one out of their yard and asked me if I wanted it. I think I'll plant it by the garage, so I can see it from the kitchen and smell it every time I go to or leave my truck. Lilacs smell so wonderful.

What a great weekend. I took Calvin on Saturday for his birthday present. Cassie said he had been so excited all week, she was sorry she had told him about it. "Is Amanda coming to pick me up today?" "I'm going to Amanda's house and I'm not coming back." "Where's Amanda?" I was so flattered.

I picked him up about noon. We had to get his booster seat so he could ride in the front seat of my truck, and turn off the passenger side airbag, which led to a long discussion about what airbags were and how they worked. I also got a long description of the time when a trash fire got out of hand and the fire trucks came. We went to McDonald's to eat lunch. I don't know how parents do it. He told me what he wanted (a Happy Meal, cheeseburger, no pickles, no onions, lemonade) but he would not wait in line with me. I'm half watching him and half paying attention to the line movement. We sat in the kid s' section, Calvin on a FryGuy seat and me in a Grimace seat and watched Lilo & Stitch. That kept him pretty occupied.

Then we went to Toys 'R' Us. We spent a lot of time playing with the Thomas the Train set they had out, and a lot of time asking "Can I have this? Please?" So cute. But finally, he spotted a Crash Test Dummies van, and he pulled it right off the shelf "I want this." so I knew that was the one he really wanted. On the way to the register, he spotted a Hello Kitty doll and said, "We need to get this for Malea." I was so pleased he was thinking about his sister that that went on the tab, too.

Then we went back to Wilton and played in the park for a couple hours. They have some really cool equipment. We played tag and hide-and-seek and dug in the sand with the diggers and ran around the sidewalk. The drinking fountain there did not drain, and he started drinking the water out of the bowl while I was on the other side of the playground. I yelled at him to stop as I ran, but he kept drinking, and I about puked. Who knew how long that water had been sitting there?

Then we went to the Jette Diner for ice cream and walked around the block while we ate. An ice cream cone in the hands of a five-year-old is a disaster. Good thing I had some wet wipes in the truck. All in all, it was a lot of fun. I'm thinking maybe we should make it a yearly tradition.

My iShuffle came in the mail yesterday. Along with the handy dandy little armband that Amazon says hasn't shipped yet. I don't know what that's about, but it's all good. As long as I don't get charged for two.

I went for my first run with it today. I have a little bit of trouble concentrating on my breathing with it, but otherwise, it's awesome.

My other little problem is my lack of music with a good running beat. That and the fact a third of my CDs are at work, and I haven't brought any of them back with me yet. I'm monitoring the FIRM ASS thread on the WD for music suggestions, but I would appreciate any other suggestions (or loans of music).

When I was at my parents' house, I walked into their bedroom as Mom was getting out clothes to wear the next day and stopped short. Under Mom's side of the bed was a bag of rock salt. One of those heavy bags. I looked for a moment and asked, "Why is there a bag of rock salt under the bed?"

Mom laughed and replied, "That takes my place in bed for your father when I'm not there."

See, Dad works swing shift and often does not sleep when Mom does. They have one of those Sleep Number beds that you can adjust each side to the sleeper's preference. Dad likes his bed nearly deflated, so when Mom isn't in the bed, it doesn't provide the support for his air chamber and it's softer. I don't know why he just doesn't adjust it to his liking. A bag of rock salt. *shakes head*