Sunny Blizzards!

Things are looking up. I had all the right answers on my German homework this morning, and I feel like I did the kind of job on my IPE midterm this morning that would make Mr. Middlebrooks proud. Then I had two letters in the mail (one from Mr. Middlebrooks, one from Deniz) and my Christmas present from David (a t-shirt that reads "Ladies is Pimps Too!"). Pictures may follow sometime in the near future. And I'm pretty much caught up on homework now--but I have my third meeting with the German tutor tomorrow morning, and I'm meeting with my Econ prof on Friday for the who-knows-what time. Goodness me, I like being productive.

I also did a bit of shopping today. I bought myself a new pair of shoes for the first time in... I don't even know. I'm just been wearing my green Vans forever now, since I decided I couldn't wear slippers everywhere any more (and I left my hiking boots in Switzerland). But these shoes are much more attractive. They're black with a thick reddish-pinkish stripe on the side. They make me happy. I also bought some giftwrap for David's birthday present (his birthday's tomorrow--March 1st). Then I went to the grocery store and bought some things like plastic dinnerware and milk and yogurt-covered pretzels. Every time I entered or exited a store there was different weather. Enter the store with sun, exit with snow or vice versa. Craziness.

David and I went over to my dad and Angi's house for dinner last night, since I haven't seen them in over a month, and Angi made lasagna, which was qutie delicious. It was all quite nice. O, and Soraya had just returned from Joshua Tree, so we got updated on her travel adventures.

That's about all I can up with at the moment. I bought some stamps today! Hooray for that! I forgot to buy international stamps though, darn. That just occured to me. Did I spell that right? I feel like no, I didn't. O, and I need to turn in my RA contract tomorrow!

Things are steadily improving...

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but things have continued to be rather crazy, although I am happy to report my recovery is coming along quite well. Eating yesterday resulted in no symptoms, whatsoever. True I still need to watch the amount of fat in things, but I can now eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches without a problem! That's all that really matters, right?

In other wonderful news, I am going to be an RA (Resident Assistant) next year! I am incredibly excited about it. I'm going to be stationed in University. I was rather nervous about it, especially since I had to turn in my application late and do my interview early (thank you, gallbladder).

Yesterday, David and I participated in a Relationship Study. We're not supposed to discuss it with people in case they might take it--you know, to make sure they don't know exactly what they're doing. It was pretty interesting, and we got paid $15 each. In three or four months they're going to let us know our "results" and give us a full "debriefing" of the study.

The word "debriefing" reminds me of 24... You know, the TV show? Anna and Alyssa had started watching, I think, the first season. So intense.

Anyone watch the Oscars last night? David and I went over to my mom's house for homework and dinner and ended up watching a fair amount of the Oscars.

Which reminds me that Matt and Corydon came up from Oregon this weekend, so I went over to Matt's house with them on Friday and watched The Departed. On Saturday night, Corydon, David and I went and saw Reno 911 (I would recommend it) while Matt and Amanda went to see Hannibal Rising. Before that Matt, Amanda, David and I went to The Ram. I had never been there before...

I have a lot of homework to do today, so I'm going to go work on that now. Especially since I'm working tomorrow which = not much time to do other things tomorrow. And I think I'm going to meet up with someone to study for IPE this evening.

More soon! :-) Ari

O, Cursed Gallenblasse

It has been quite a while since I last actually posted, more than a month I believe. I have not been having the best of luck during the first few weeks of my second semester in college. I think everyone has now been informed that due to biliary dyskinesia (essentially, a non-functioning and very angry gallbladder), I had to have my gallbladder removed on Friday. I ended up staying the night at the hospital and leaving for Oma's house on Saturday afternoon, where I have been more or less stationed ever since. My stomach has been pretty funny looking between the bandages over my four little incisions and the fact that it's been full of gas from the surgery (for laproscopic surgery, they fill you up with carbon dioxide in order to manuever better inside you). I have been able to eat a bit more normally, but now my digestive system has to figure out how to function without a gallbladder (which generally produces bile and helps you process food, especially rich foods). This has been an exhausting three weeks. Due to missed classes, I ended up having to drop my Statistics class, and now I'm hoping that I can keep up enough in German class that I don't have to medically withdraw from school. German is not looking so good right now, but I'm hoping that I can make super-efforts to get caught up and hopefully get a passing grade in the class.

In other news, not related to my gallbladder (and I'll admit, there's not much of that right now), I am applying to be a Resident Assistant next year. I ended up being allowed an extension on the application (I missed it because of, well, you know), and they were nice enough to let me interview before my surgery (I interviewed on Thursday, everyone interviewed over the weekend). I wasn't able to participate in the "Group Session" segment on Saturday, so I'm hoping that won't weaken my odds. I'll have the news on the RA-ship on Friday, so I'll keep you posted.

Oh, did I mention that I have a roomie now? I'm sure you all know that, but for anyone who hasn't been updated, I do indeed have a roommate. She's from Hawaii. That's been going pretty well. I've really been gone so much lately, though, that I haven't gotten to really know anyone. So that's been sort of tough. I joined (or am in the process of joining) a Relay for Life team with the rest of my floor, so hopefully I'll get to meet some people that way.

Soraya is going to Joshua Tree on Sunday, and I must say I'm quite jealous. I'm getting very antsy, as I've been cooped up for the last three weeks and haven't really been anywhere or done anything apart from fighting with my gallbladder and struggling to keep up in school. But Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland are in the near future (at least those are my plans). I would excited just to go to the Grand if that gives you an idea of the extent of the excitement I've been allowed.

All right, that's all for now, but I promise I'll start keeping this up again. Oo, and I have my follow-up meeting with the surgeon on Friday to make sure everything looks good and to have my incisions checked out. More soon! :-) Ari

Gallbladder Removed.

Surgery went fine. Going back to bed.

-Ari

Gallbladder Update

Hello everyone, just wanted to let those faithful few who are still checking in on this blog that I am planning on keeping it up, I've simply run into some health issues lately, which have prevented me from doing much of anything other than trying to keep up in school! Now, that was one terrible sentence.

In any case, you can probably start expecting some good solid posts late next week once my life starts to get back in order. And for those who are wondering:

I will be having my gallbladder surgically removed on Friday morning. I check in at 6:00am, and surgery is set to begin at 8:00am.

There you have it folks, and I'll write more soon!

Smile, Ari