kuh-RAY-zee

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I've done some pretty crazy stuff in my life, but I've got to call this one out for shizzie!

Last Thursday, Nov. 6th, was the grand opening for Chick-fil-a in McCalla, AL. I live just a few miles from there, so I am just excited to have a Chick-fil-a nearby! Well, anytime a new Chick-fil-a opens, they offer 52 free meals (1 per week for a year) for the first 100 people in line at 6am on the morning of the opening. Since Chick-fil-a is about my fave fast food, and I live close, I decided to get up before the roosters and be out there about 4:30am. The whole way there I was thinking that whoever gets there after me would totally think I was crazy for being there so early in the morning. It only took me about 5 minutes to get there from my house, and when I pulled into the shopping center where it's located, this is what I saw:

Yep--Not kidding, people! There were about 100 tents out there--in the Chick-fil-a parking lot. I thought I was crazy for getting there at 4:30, but these people totally had me beat. I mean, I'm all for some free stuff, but it was 35 degrees that night--some things just aren't worth it! A couple of things to note:

1. One of the tents was a Dora the Explorer tent. Now, this is funny because children cannot be in the first 100 people to get the free meals. That means that some adult took their child's tent for a night out in a restaurant parking lot. Sad, but true!

2. There were a couple of cars that look as though they may have gotten there just before I did, and the tent people looked pissed about this. How dare someone get in line before them at 4:30am when they had been there all night.

3. I didn't stay--I decided that braving the tent people was not worth the $7 per week I would save...Or, I'll bring my lunch.

This comes really close to the top of my"You have to be kidding me" list. I'm just glad I had the camera to capture such kuh-RAY-zee-ness!

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What a graceful fall

My sister had to do a physical assessment on Greg for one of her classes. I had to video tape her doing a 30-minute assessment on all of his face, legs, arms, etc. We used a room at Children's South, where Sissy works, so that she would have everything she needed. There were segments to this tape. Anytime Sissy looked at me directly, I was to turn off the video camera so that she could reposition and collect her thoughts.

In order for me to get the entire view of everything she was doing, I had to stand in a far corner of the room in a chair (for a bird's eye view). After the 3rd of 4th segment, I turned the video camera off. To relax for a second in between takes, I leaned my shoulder blades back against the corner....and there went the chair...clean out from under me. I kept grabbing for the walls while holding on to that video camera for dear life. Once I got as far down as I could go, my knees collapsed and I flipped over the back of the chair and onto the hard concrete floor. I fell straight onto the right side of my back and hip. Completely couldn't breathe. Greg and Sis both ran to me. All I could do was open my mouth and signal that I couldn't get a breathe. That's an awful feeling. My nurse sister ran down the hall to get a nurse...that's just to add to the funny! All in all, I was fine. It had just knocked the breath out of me, so when a few minutes passed, I was able to breathe fine.

The worse thing about it was that after that, we had to keep turning the video camera off because one of us would crack up laughing. I only wish I would have had the video camera on so that we would have this wreck from my point of view--because I knew that their views had to be great!

I must note that they were both very worried at first, but once they knew I was fine, laughter was well-warranted! Anytime you are feeling a little down or having a bad day, please just picture a 200 pound girl flipping backwards over the back of a chair IN A HOSPITAL! I do, and it's funny as hell!

The only thing I took away from it was a sore next-morning and a nice black bruise on my backside!

Laughter is the best medicine!

Another Rockstar in my life

Yep, you heard it! I've already exclaimed my Mom's Rockstar-ness!

Well, now I'm screaming my sister's Rockstar mojo from the rooftops. That's right! I mean, I've always known that I am really blessed when it comes to my parents and siblings. My family is one of those "do-anything-for-you-no-matter-what" families.

Let me set the scene for you: Thursday night, me, Greg and Ginger went to Children's South to film Ginger's Physical Assessment for one of her nursing classes. It took a little longer than expected, but we got it finished--not without a few bloopers (see next blog for details). Once we finally got that all finished up, we all headed to Greg's now-former apartment to get the last things out of it so he could turn in his key. It was quite a few trips up and down 3 flights of stairs, but we got that all taken care of as well--both mine and sissy's car were pretty loaded. We all got home about midnight, and sis had to stay up late to get Greg's work laundry done. I'm guessing she was in bed around 2ish.

Friday morning, I got up, thought it would be a good day because I got my long lost "friend", and went to work. About 10am, I got to feeling really crappy, and the tylenol wasn't working, so I decided to run home real quick and get some good pain meds and come right back to work. Well, I was halfway home when the awful feelings started! If you are a man, you would never know these feelings, and, if you're a woman, I hope you never know them! I had pain that began in my lower abdomen, near my ovaries, and radiated all over my body. The pain was causing cold sweats all over and then the light-headedness set it. At that point, my vision started closing in and it was all I could do to stay conscious. JC called, and we talked for a minute but then I had to concentrate on trying to see. I felt nauseous, and I really wanted to get home. 2 miles later, and I had to pull over on the side of the road. I couldn't see. I was lucky enough to get a call off to Sis before the vision completely left. There I was miserable, and on the side of the road. Sis called Jon and he left work to hunt for me.

A few minutes went by and I thought I could make it home, or at least a little closer to Jon. I set out. Called sis back. Talked to her all the way home. Once I got home, I took 2 percocets and laid on the couch. I told her she could decide what to do because I didn't think I was capable of making any kind of decisions. ER it was. And, I couldn't argue--I was in a lot of pain, and the vision loss had totally spooked me! She demanded coming to get me and taking me to the ER. But, she had Kenlie, her assessment video was due and Jon was busy at work. After resting for about 30 minutes, I felt like I could at least drive myself to the ER and meet her--that was ok by her. We got there about the same time 11:30ish.

Daddy left work and came to the hospital to get K so that Sis could stay with me--she was spending the night with Mimi and Pop anyway, so it just worked out quite well for her! I think we got back to triage around 1:30 and finally got a room about 2ish. The nurses and doctors at Brookwood were AWESEOME! I had to have some test run and then they did an ultrasound. All in all, we left there about 6:30. My sister never left my side. She even shared her turkey sandwich and peanut butter crackers! What a trooper!

That's a rockstar--when it matters so much!