Potpurri!

It’s been a while, ne? A lot has gone on since my last post, so this one will be quite a mix-up of everything that has happened.

 

SCHOOL:

School started again this past Monday. I am definitely not as excited for this semester as I was for last semester. I think when I have too long in between academic learning I get a little antsy. Maybe I am an education addict. The great thing about that is: I don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to learn crap when the Internet is only like $20/mo. (Relative figure.) Anyway, I have three classes at the start of the semester: Introduction to Music, which will be annoying only for the fact that I have to legitimately go to live music events and do reports on them to get full credit. I work all the time and I don’t know anything about Roseville in that respect. I found some colleges that have some music concerts, but I’m supposed to go to specific “types” of events. (Pop, Jazz, Classical, and Folk) I’m hoping I can get all of them done before May. I also have Medical Office Procedures which is essentially about taking tests on what I do at work. Boooo-ring. Finally, the dreaded Introductory Algebra. I don’t really know why I need to take these Algebra classes if I’m trying to get a degree in being a MEDICAL SECRETARY. They tell me it is because it is a degree and there are higher graduation standards than diploma. Urgh.

HEALTH STUFF:

I’m going off my birth control to hopefully start regulating my PCOS (though NO doctor I have gone to will diagnose me with it because there is no evidence of cysts in my ovaries Rrrrghhh) through diet and weight loss. However, since the STUPID doctors (sorry, still raging) will not diagnose me with it, I can’t see a Nutritionist and have it covered under my insurance policy. I would have to pay for it out of pocket which is not possible at the moment.

 

WORK:

Which brings me to my next point. Work sucks. I hate working. I hate the concept of working the way I am working. I like getting money, yes. I do not like having to drive 80 minutes a day, numb my mind do get through menial tasks, and get no credit for what I’m doing. I know, I know. This is the way the world works. It sucks. I am still searching and searching for jobs closer to where we live, but I haven’t gotten any call backs for any of them. I believe the current application count is nearing 30 or so since November. :/

 

HOME:

Josh and I finally got back into our apartment! /Kermit Yay! All of our stuff is still in boxes from being moved back in. We have been busy and just completely apathetic. We have so many books! We got the kitchen together and started sorting out what the restoration company had to throw away or couldn’t fix then send that list away to the insurance company to get money to buy new stuff. I hope everything went OK with that because I haven’t heard anything since I got a call confirming they got the lists. I just want all this crap to be over so we can return to some semblance of a normal life again. (Not that anything is really “normal” for us!)

 

PONIES:

As always, the saving grace of my existence (aside from my awesome boyfriend and family) ponies make me happy all the time. I’ve been reading and even contemplating writing fanfics, but I can’t bring myself to write something. I really want to because I want to start writing fiction again, but I keep telling myself that I have a book to write that has been on a slow simmer since 2007 and I need to start kicking myself in the butt to get going on it again. /Le sigh.

And on a different note:

I have been cigarette free for 15 days now. Hooray!

Haiku:

Wait for Saturdays,

For they bring the happiness

Formed from cute ponies.

Until next time!

Winter Wrap Up.

Well, not technically, seeing as how Minnesota is seeming to finally start its winter. We’ve only had one big snow, which was after the Mall of America Brony Meet Up incidentally, and a few light dustings.

I’ve got a few things I want to express tonight.

First, I am finally officially done with this semester at school. Considering that I moved halfway through, had an apartment fire, was displaced for almost 7 weeks now, and working three-fourths time (in between part- and full-time), it wasn’t too bad for me. It was a struggle to make sure everything was done and turned in on time because of moving around so much. I got an A, 3 Bs, and a C. I am not proud about the C by any means, as it is the lowest grade I’ve received in over 2.5 years, but the teacher sprung extra work on us last minute and I was unable to finish it. I pride myself on academic integrity, but things were just not going to work out as well as I wanted it to in that class. I am SO glad to be finished with my extensive typing classes. I had Keyboarding II, Word Processing II, and Medical Keyboarding being the three extensive typing classes. These were all completed WHILE being a Medical Transcriptionist the entire time. My wrists and digits rejoiced after my proctored finals were completed. (As did my back!)

I am looking woefully forward to nearly my last semester of school (hopefully forever). I have three full-semester classes and two last half semester classes, putting me at five classes by the time March rolls around. Thankfully, I gave myself some leeway and picked up an “easy A” class which is Introduction to Music (ha.) and I’m sure I will have no trouble in that class whatsoever. I am, however, taking Medical Office Procedures, Advanced Medical Office Procedures (which I clarified I could take in tandem), Data Entry Applications, and Introductory Algebra. The one I am worried most about is the math. I can write my way out of a paper bag, but when it comes to math, my brain turns to complete mush. I have NO idea how I pulled off an A in my last math class. It was probably because I had already taken it and gotten a D in it.. The rest of my classes will be only time-consuming as I have worked in a Health Information Management department for about 4 months now, and have done just about every job there is to do there except for supervising and coding. I’m just kind of irked that I have to take another math class after this Spring to complete my AAS. I wish I would have taken Introductory Algebra this past semester, so I could have taken Intermediate Algebra in spring. Unfortunately, brain no work dat way.

I’m hoping that it is 1.) offered in Summer this year, and 2.) it’s not going to be that expensive. I paid about $800 for my last summer semester including everything (tuition, books, technology fees, all that crap for 2 classes) and I don’t think I’ll be able to do that this year. It will be dramatically less, however, because I would only be taking one class and I will already have the book for it, unless they decide to be a-holes about it and release another edition like they did with my Transcription books..

And now for something completely different: I should have blogged about this the weekend it happened, but I’m going to do it now instead anyway. A few weekends ago, Josh and I went up to the Mall of America to meet up with a bunch of Minnesota bronies, and wonderful times ensued. I got to reconnect with a friend from my youth and her boyfriend, and I got a cool hat. See?

It was handmade by a local brony. It is very cool. There were like 40 people there which was more than I anticipated. And very few females which I also didn’t expect. However, we had a lot of time running around and conversing with other adults about how awesome My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is. We eventually broke of with my friend and her boyfriend and kind of did our own thing because there really wasn’t a plan and we were getting tired of following everyone around with no structure. We got new t-shirts at Hot Topic (even Josh got one!), got some Jelly Bellies, and eventually ran into half the group and totally raided the ColdStone. Sharky, the aquarium mascot even jumped us in the food court sporting a very Spikish mustache. It was pretty awesome.

The new episodes have been really good the past couple weeks, too. I still want my Applejack-saves-the-day episode. Patiently. Patiently waiting. While her younger sister gets two centric episodes. And Rainbow Dash gets a few too many. Don’t get me wrong. I like me some Rainbow Dash, but recently she has just rubbed me the wrong way. Nonetheless, I have been loving the songs, though there has been a definite lack of Sweetie Belle. From what Michelle Creber (actress for Apple Bloom and singing voice of Sweetie Belle), season 3 is going to have a song “like almost every episode” which makes me very excited.

I’ve also received The Sims Medieval for an early Christmas present from my lovely boyfriend and have been playing that almost every day this week. It’s pretty fun, though there are definitely things I would change, as with most everything I see/hear/read/do. But that is just my nature.

Ponies are awesome,

Just have to reiterate

My love for ponies.

(Lame, I know, but I’m tired.)

TMI with Mixed Results.

WARNING. This post may be TMI for some. If you have issues with reading about “lady parts”, you should skip this post. You have been warned. I promise there isn’t anything too gross in here.

I have a lot of medical problems. I know not as many as some, and not as extensive as some. I am fully aware of this. That being said, it doesn’t make it any easier. I’m not trying to whine or complain, and this certainly is not a ‘Why me?’ post.

The short list of my problems are: allergies (to all furred animals, several kinds of trees/grass/pollens, dust, peas, and mold), contact dermatitis (I get hives very easily and my hands are severely dry and cracked most of the time, it used to get so bad before I found treatment I wouldn’t be able to move my fingers without them cracking and bleeding), asthma, lactose intolerance, gluten sensitivity, migraine headaches, and PCOS.

I can handle most of that. Or I try to at least. A lot of these conditions I have had for my entire life and have learned to manage by making lifestyle choices (obviously no pets, attempting to keep my place of living clean, medications, limiting my time outdoors during certain seasons, etc.).

The worst so far has been the PCOS. Now, for those of you that don’t know what it is, I’ll give you some facts. PCOS is short for polycystic ovary syndrome. The main issue is an imbalance of hormones. Women with PCOS create less estrogen and progesterone than women without and tend to create more androgens (“male hormones”). Now before you go “eeww”; androgens are found in all women, just in different amounts. These hormones (when balanced) help produce normal eggs in the ovaries and regulate menses (that “time of the month” for the non medical term savvy). However, in women with PCOS, menses can occur infrequently or not at all, or even very violent menses in an infrequent cycle (menorrhagia). Effectively, during regular menses, there are follicles in the ovaries that contain immature eggs. In women without PCOS, these eggs mature and are released from the follicles into the uterus. This is ovulation. In women with PCOS, the eggs do not release or release infrequently and can sometimes develop into cysts within the ovary. Thus, if the mature eggs are not released, the woman does not ovulate causing infertility. That is the main part of the issue.

The secondary part is the “side effects” or attributed symptoms. Obviously, with ovarian cysts, there is a lot of pain. A LOT OF PAIN. Most of the time the cysts can resolve on their own over time, but in severe cases, the cyst needs to be aspirated. (This means essentially poking a needle into it and draining it.) There are also symptoms associated with PCOS called ‘virilization’ in which, without getting too gross, means a deepening of the voice, increased acne breakouts, growth of facial hair (hirsutism), and insulin sensitivity. Others include weight gain and increased difficulty with weight loss, and the big one: infertility.

I think of all of these, the possibility of infertility scares me the most. I have not always wanted kids, but after some growing up and a stint at a daycare taking care of babies and being around other family members’ kids, I kinda do now. I am not planning on having kids until I’m married. I know that’s not always possible, but I am going to do everything I can to prevent that from happening. Plus, I’m only 24. I have a long way to go before I get to the point of no return. Anyway, I do want to have kids someday, and if fertility drugs fail; in vitro is VERY expensive and is not guaranteed to be successful.

There are a few treatments for PCOS, but no cure. These include weight loss (though difficult), hormone replacement therapy, metformin (a diabetic maintenance drug for the insulin sensitivity), and use of birth control for cycle regulation, among others. I have been on birth control since I was about 15 or so. Not because I was sexually active then, but because I would go six to seven months without a cycle. Some women would be thankful for that, but it just made me feel abnormal. I’ve gone through everything but ‘The Pill’ because I am forgetful and I didn’t want an ‘oopsie’ even if that was possible. I’ve tried the patch, the ring, and now the shot. I get one shot every three months. This is great for convenience and as long as I know when my appointment is, there is only a 0.01% chance of ‘oopsie’. It even goes so far to say that when I stop the shot, it will be at least 6-10 months before it completely clears my system. This is hardcore stuff, man. (No pun intended.) The shot comes with its own side effects. These being weight gain, absence of menses (amenorrhea), spotting, possibility for DVT (deep vein thrombosis or blood clot), and ovarian cysts. I have probably had cysts before, but they were never “caught” and resolved on their own.

Recently, and by that I mean for the past two years, I’ve been having a lot of pelvic pain. I was absolutely convinced I had cysts. I talked to my new doc, and she told me they can do a pelvic ultrasound, but if they find cysts, it might “take us down a rabbit hole” (her exact words). I was OK with this. I would rather find them and know they’re there than sit and wonder what is wrong with me.

–ENTER TMI PART–

I had the ultrasound done this past Monday, and it was super uncomfortable. You men are lucky you don’t have to have someone sticking things up your ding-dong to check for things (except for rare cases, but I’ve been told they don’t even do that anymore). Anyway. It was worse than a pap. Worse than a speculum. A student technician performed most of the exam, and I could tell she was new. I was OK with that. They have to learn on someone, right? Plus there was a real technician there as well to help her out. They were both nice and were joking with me. The student even let me look at the display when she was doing the transabdominal exam. (Like what they do for a baby ultrasound, but with no baby there.) I haven’t seen a picture of a uterine sonogram without a baby in it, and definitely not my own uterus. It was really surreal and weird to be able to see something that was inside of me. I know that pregnant women feel that way with their OB ultrasounds, but mine was empty.

Anyhoo, the results came back today. During the exam, the senior tech was telling the student tech that my uterus went straight up and down instead of being tilted like most uteri. My endometrial stripe (this is where a fertilized egg is caught and where a baby grows) is within normal limits, ruling out endometriosis (where the endometrial tissue grows too much and in severe cases can actually grow into the uterine walls). My right ovary was normal. My left ovary had multiple follicles (remember, the things with the immature eggs) that were all about the same size. There was also some fluid in the endocervical canal (the middle of the cervix). I don’t really know what either of these things mean at the moment, but both the Radiologist and my doc do not see any evidence for my pain from this study.

This makes me a little happy and a little worried at the same time. Happy because there are no cysts, no endometriosis, no cancer, no inflammation. Just an uncommon untilted uterus and some follicles. Worried because I still don’t know why I feel this way or how to make it stop. I’ve requested a follow up appointment to explore other venues. I want to know what is going on.

Sorry for all the grossity. I tried to keep it as clinical as possible.

Thanks for bearing with me through this. I just want some answers.

Haikuuuu.

In my ovaries

There would be some follicles

Where is my hair brush?

(Sorry. )

Mish-Mash.

Hay everypony! It’s been one of those days where all my thoughts have been mashing themselves together whether I want them to or not. I will try to separate topics with paragraphs but I guarantee nothing.

Work:  Work, actually, surprisingly, was pretty good today. I got put on a project where essentially I have to see if emergency department services were charged to patient accounts because Boss Carlee found a huge deficit when she was looking over the coding stuff. Essentially, she gave me a 6 or 7 page document that had all the patient information and what they have listed as charged and where there were charges missing.  I surprised her by doing something no one told me to do which was make up an entirely new Excel document with all the patient information and what charges WERE listed and whether or not there were missing charges. Now she can go to my document and be able to sort the columns to see where there were no charges and why. Some of the accounts she gave me were for emergency department visits that lead to admissions, especially for emergency surgery/observation, and admissions for births. She told me my plan was perfect and thanked me for doing all the work. I really love making lists, so it was right up my alley. However, I’m not sure if I will be able to finish it all before I start working for the Nursing Home. Essentially what is happening with that is I am technically done in the HIM department as of December 9th. It just so happens that the nursing home/assisted living at the facility I work at is now (finally..) transitioning to electronic records. It’s a completely different management system from what we use for the medical records. Gods forbid everything could be integrated!! Essentially what I have to do is pick through about 120 paper charts, pull the reports that are necessary to be in the electronic system, and scan each and every damn one of them -individually-, then electronically attach them to the proper patient accounts. My supervisor gave me the impression that it would only be a few weeks’ worth of work, but after seeing all the charts and all the reports I have to pull, I think I’m going to be employed until at least February. (I hope.) Anyway, it’s at a lower hourly wage, but I have the option of working full time because I am going to be the -only person- in the whole facility that is going to be working on this. I’m looking forward to being employed there further, but it is going to be a lot of work (and BORING). I need to make sure my iPod is ready to be on for 8 hours straight.

 

Ponies:  A lot to say for this one. Currently, I am working on doing some sort of brony podcast or simple video series. I really want to do a nice segmental show spanning many different topics, but I think I’m getting to the point of where I am trying to do way too much without any substance. I have a good format for doing fanfiction reviews, but I want a cohost and Josh (my boyfriend) will absolutely not read any fanfiction. He agreed to maybe do some discussion on topics revolving around ponies such as religion and politics of Equestria, how old is Celestia really?, and where do baby ponies come from? among others. It should be interesting once it gets off the ground. I want to have at least 5 shows written before I release anything so I don’t go, “Oh, I’m bored of this now.” like other projects and disappoint audience and myself. I started doing some concept art because originally, I wanted it to kind of be in line of Extra Credits (formerly of The Escapist) where there’s simply, stylized art with thought-provoking informative narrative over it. Anyway, that really hasn’t gone anywhere because I’m still getting the hang of drawing ponies and I have -never- been good at drawing animals. I’ve been doing a lot of style research and just drawing and drawing and drawing and I have done maybe one doodle that I actually like and am slightly satisfied with. Maybe I will post them someday, but right now they are downright embarrassing. Besides that, I only have my iPad to draw on and I really hate the stylus I got. I have a better one, but of course I didn’t deem it a necessity when we got kicked out of the apartment after the fire. The same happened with my tablet and our scanner/printer we had JUST bought paper and ink for. I can’t really get the hang of using my iPad for drawing and I never really got the hang of my tablet either, making digital art something on the other side of this creative wall I can’t seem to get myself over. I am thinking I am going to start trying to write some pony-try (poetry about ponies) which I think would be really fun. I might even make a Tumblr for them or some of my sketchdump in the future. We shall see.  Also check this out. It is severely awesome. I love the MLP:FiM fandom. It is so awesome! /)^3^(\

Also, I am (hopefully) attending a brony meet-up for local Minnesotan bronies at the Mall of America. I am really looking forward to it because I’ve really never met anyone in person I haven’t known before who likes ponies. I’m super excited. PLUS I GET PANDA EXPRESS. Eeee!

 

Apartment:  As far as I know, we are still going to be out of our apartment until the end of December. However, they reimbursed us for the entirety of November’s rent. Hooray! Josh stashed it somewhere I couldn’t get at it. Definitely a good idea. I’m really hoping we get an early Christmas present in the shape of getting back into our apartment before 2012.

 

I guess that is it for now. TL;DR BeatleBrony rocks and my head is like puree of thoughts at the moment.

 

If you are going to

Make great music on YouTube,

Ponies make it best.

Life Trauma.

Wow, I have just had one of those days, y’know? Where all the little things that have been bothering me and I’ve been putting off worrying about piled up and hit me in the head like a giant boulder. It’s one of those ‘realization’ days where I realize, “Holy sh*t. I’m an adult now. I’m actually responsible for things.”

I know a lot of these things I really shouldn’t worry about because the circumstances are out of my control. Such as the entire apartment debacle. Apparently we are going to be out of the apartment until the end of December. Hopefully our Christmas present this year will be to return to our apartment and stop living at a hotel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to not have to pay rent or electricity or the internet bill. That’s great. However, I would rather be in the apartment we signed a 12-month lease for with all our stuff and our own food and a gotdeim kitchen. I can’t begin to fathom how much money I am going to be spending eating out instead of in because the room we have has less than ideal ‘kitchen equipment’. By that, I mean that the freezer doesn’t work and the microwave either overheats or undercooks everything put into its jowls. I’m absolutely grateful I have a place to sleep that’s warm. I’m absolutely grateful I’m not living in my car or at a shelter right now. We’ve been out of our apartment for twenty-five days now. TWENTY. FIVE. And we’re expected to be out for another THIRTY FIVE days according to the management and the company that packed our stuff out. I am really hoping that everything works out better than they’re expecting so we can get back in before 2012.

Now, I’ve been a legal adult for almost seven years now, but I’ve never really felt like much of an adult. Mostly because I’ve lived with parents for the most part since I left Gustavus. Even then, I didn’t have to pay rent. I didn’t have to pay for pretty much anything there because I was poor and everything was paid for by loans I wouldn’t have to worry about for years. Since Josh and I moved out, even though it was only for a month, I was feeling more mature because I was responsible for half the rent, half the groceries, half the electricity, etc. Plus we had our own stuff, our own furniture, our own kitchen, everything. Then we got booted out because someone wasn’t being as responsible as they should have been. I really wish we could have gotten into a house for rent instead of an apartment, but that was not financially feasible, and we picked a pretty cheap apartment so we could start saving money to start paying our debts off.

The next issue is school. I’ve been in college for seven years now. I have a diploma and a certification, and am working on an AAS and another diploma. I wanted to be done with school next Spring, but because I am working on an AAS, I have to take three math classes because my math skills suck so much I had to start two levels down from the class that is required for graduation. I did not take a math class this semester, and in retrospect I really should have. However, my adviser(s) don’t really know what they are doing, and have not really given me any hints to get me out of school sooner. I was told that I would not have enough financial aid for even Spring, but now they’re telling me otherwise. If I have to take another class in Summer or Fall semester in 2012, I will have to pay out of pocket and I’m 99% sure that I will not be able to. I don’t want to have wasted a year in school and not have anything to show for it. It is incredibly frustrating, and I almost wish I hadn’t gone back. But I was considered an Independent Student this year and my financial aid return was based off of my income and not my mother’s. Mine was considerably less, because I only worked part-time (maybe even quarter-time) and barely made over $5000 last year. So I got a lot of money back, and that was great because we were moving and I got a lot of things taken care of like old medical/dental bills, old school debts, got my car paid off, etc. I know I will have to pay all of it back, but I am hoping that this will help me get a better paying, stable job.

So far that is not the case. The next issue is my employment situation. I knew when I started working at my current job that it was a temporary job until the end of the year. I was hired on at 40 hours a week for almost twice what I was making an hour at my previous job. Since the work was slowing down, they ended up having to lay off one of the union workers, thusly having to send me on my way earlier than I was expecting. They are setting me up at the nursing home to scan in their physical medical charts into their new electronic system. That’s great, but it’s only about another 3 weeks or so of work. Probably less because I am too efficient for my own good. That being said, it would be $2 less an hour and only four hours a day. Considering that once we get into our apartment, I will be about 45 miles away from work, and this will not be financially feasible. I have applied for about twenty jobs since I knew I was going to get cut three weeks early, but only one has any potential right now. I really, REALLY do NOT want to be unemployed. I know that financially, Josh will be able to handle me being unemployed, but I want to be an equal partner, and I don’t feel right putting all the financial burden on him. Especially because he will be gone at least ten days each month for his job. That’s great, but that leaves me with not a lot of money. Anyway, I am getting really anxious about getting a new job and what the future will hold there.

I had a complete meltdown today and thankfully I have Josh to calm me down and give me a good pep talk. He’s really good at getting me to stop freaking out and come back down to Earth. I sometimes wonder what great feat I have accomplished that warranted me having him in my life, but I try not to think about it that way too often.

I guess Josh would call it a “quarter-life crisis” because I’m only 24.

Anyway. It’s been a hard month for us, but I know we will get through this together. I just wish that there was more I could do about a lot of this stuff.

 

On a completely different note: I was pretty underwhelmed by this week’s episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I really love Rainbow Dash, don’t get me wrong, but I’m pretty sure she’s had more focused episodes this season than anypony else. There have only been eight episodes so far with two Dash episodes (May the Best Pet Win, and The Mysterious Mare Do Well), a Rarity episode (Sisterhooves Social), an Apple Bloom episode (The Cutie Pox), a Luna returns episode (Luna Eclipsed), Twilight Sparkle cracks episode (Lesson Zero), and the two-part opener that featured all the mane six plus DisQord (The Return of Harmony parts 1-2). So far Dash has the most episodes this season. I just REALLY don’t understand why Applejack’s only solely featured episode was one about her overworking herself to delirium. Every other pony has had a moment in the sun except for Applejack. The other three episodes she was primarily featured in were duo episodes (Look Before You Sleep, and Fall Weather Friends in season 1, and Sisterhooves Social which is debatable because it was a Rarity/Sweetie Belle centric episode). I want an Applejack episode! The next three episodes that we have information on feature Rarity (again), Spike, and then a Christmas Episode. I want AJ! This is the reason she falls last on most popularity polls, because she hasn’t had a good save-the-day episode like everyone else. Even Fluttershy had one (Dragonshy). I know I’m starting to rant and rave, but I promise I’ll leave that here and elaborate in a separate post. Nonetheless, The Mysterious Mare Do Well is in my second to least favorite episode with only Ticket Master barely snatching the least spot. The episode was very predictable and forgettable for the most part. I really hate to say this but every other episode has made me like the series more and more, but I can’t say the same for this one. Granted, I enjoyed it, just not as much as all the others. There needs to be more songs. And more AJ. And more Sweetie Belle singing. And I wish they would bring DisQord back. He was awesome.

Anyway, I’m done, I promise. Until next time…

 

If wishes came true,

I would be back at home now,

Sleeping in my bed.

My Little Pony.

(You guys were wondering when I’d bring this up, weren’t you?! It only took 3 posts!)

If you have known me for any amount of time, you know that I am a complete, utter, obsessed Brony. What is a brony you ask? Well, the term is used for adult fans (male OR female, mind you) of the television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The term, from what I can discern, started out in the toilet/black-hole of the Internet. If you know which site I am talking about, good. If you don’t, be glad to be spared your innocence. In short, someone or a group of someones started filling up a certain image board with screenshots of face reactions of the characters from FiM. This made a lot of Internet trolls very angry. As the ‘meme’ progressed (meme: 1.) An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.; 2.) An image, video, etc. that is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.) more and more people actually started watching the show and enjoying it. The demographic of this particular image board is about 99.9% 17-40-year-old males. These men (or adults, maybe, but remember there are no girls on the Internet) who enjoyed the show dubbed themselves (or were dubbed, the etiology is unclear to me) as Bronies, the b coming from part of the name of the image board. This particular term evolved to encompass the widely spreading epidemic of adult viewers of a TV show meant for 5-10-year-old girls.

This force took the Internet by storm, spreading love and tolerance wherever it went as the show preached. The show’s message at its core is essentially ‘Love and tolerate everyone, even if you really don’t.’ This was a big step for the Internet in general, as the Internet at its core is a black hole of nasty, lonely, attention-seeking trolls. (Internet Troll: In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, , or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response.) I am partially exaggerating, but anyone who has taken time on any discussion board, image board, or Facebook (whathaveyou) knows exactly the kind of people I’m talking about here.

But I digress. First, I will tell you how I came into My Little Pony as a franchise. It all started out when I was a young, toe-headed little girl back in the early 1990s. (This is partially a dramatization, because I don’t remember many specific parts of my childhood, but all of these things are based in truth.) My mom LOVES horses. I think if she could be reincarnated as an animal, it would be a horse. She grew up always wanting one, and was constantly denied. So she did everything she could to volunteer shoveling horse sh*t so she could have an opportunity to be around and ride horses. Then her first child came along. A blessing, yes, however, the gods had spurned my mother’s love for horses by giving her a daughter that was severely allergic to everything involved. Horse hair. Hay. Dust. Grass. Leather cleaner. Everything. I tried for many years to get into horses. My mom would stuff me full of Benadryl and drag me to the stables. I would have to cover every inch of exposed skin, wear a surgical mask (my mother was a nurse as well), wear riding goggles and gloves. I would only last about an hour or so before the antihistamines knocked me out. I couldn’t touch the horses with my bear hands. I couldn’t breathe in anywhere near the barns without a filter. If I did come in contact with something, my skin would break out in hives, my eyes would swell shut, and my nose would run like a faucet. I could feel my lungs start to seize up when I breathed around in the barn without a mask on. It was REALLY bad. (Also unfortunately, my younger sister was NOT allergic, but she had absolutely no interest in riding, and the horses scared her.) But I digress.

My mom and I were at the Winn-Dixie grocery store in our neighborhood, and we came across an amazing discovery. They made small, colorful, plastic horses with brushable manes and tails. They even came with wings and some had a unicorn horn. I had always loved fantasy stories, so these were right up my alley. I begged my mom to get one for me. (To this day, I can’t remember which pony was my very first.) She did and then discovered that she could share her love of horses with me and not kill me in the process! (Though I know my mother wanted to some days and still does. Lovingly, of course.) My uncle Chris built me a little barn for them, and I had little bridles and saddles that I could put on them. Pretty soon, I had a pretty ample collection of them. I even discovered there was a cartoon of my favorite ponies while browsing through the Red Giraffe video store! We rented My Little Pony: The Movie so many times, my dad actually bootleg recorded it so we wouldn’t have to spend so much money renting it. (I still have it, actually. That VHS tape also has Care Bears in Wonderland and Banjo The Cat, one of Don Bluth’s lost cartoons.)

Eventually, my parents split in a relatively calm divorce (from what I can remember anyway) and we moved from Kentucky to Minnesota. I don’t know what happened to a lot of my ponies, but I can guarantee most of them were pretty much ruined because of sun damage/tail rust/smooze. (Smooze is the main villain of the MLP movie, and is also a ‘disease’ of Generation 1 pony toys due to the cheap plastic they were made out of. Essentially the plastic hardens and discolored or purple spots appear.) I still have two of my originals that I know of. Steamer, a pink clydesdale (first run of Big Brother ponies) with a train on his butt. I affectionately called him ‘Training Pony’; and Speedy, a coral twinkle-eye (meaning she had horrifying gems stuck in her eye sockets) unicorn with roller skates on her butt. I called this one ‘Skating Pony’. I was such a clever child. Anyway, those have been rescued from the abyss of my mother’s house and I am looking forward to be reunited with them soon.

After we moved, and I grew up and got a job, I was introduced to the money-toilet that is eBay. I dedicated an actual percentage of my pay from my job to spend on My Little Pony toys. A little outrageous, I know. But who wants to go to college when you are surrounded by tiny, multicolored equines? Nevertheless, I acquired almost 200 of them including playsets. I eventually got over this phase of ponies (plus I needed money for stuff like a car and food and whatnot) and sold the majority of them back to eBay.

I went to college for a short time on campus and my mom thought it was hilarious that I went to a school that called themselves ‘Gusties’ so I acquired a Gusty as well.

Now I am a full-fledged adult with a(n arguable) career. I was introduced to MLP:FiM late in the game. I probably got into it about 10 months after the show had first aired. I was a little hesitant at first, as I went through both the Generation 2 and Generation 3/3.5 ponies and ABSOLUTELY HATED THEM. The G2 ponies looked like mutated giraffes, and the G3 ponies were way too cutesy for me. The animation for G3 was just horrible. Maybe it was the fact that I was an adult at that time and really hated that it was a show REALLY geared towards stereotyping girls as housekeepers and bakers and wanting makeovers (not that they don’t but there’s a wide variety of things here). Then FiM came along.

Lauren Faust is an evil genius. Ever see the Powerpuff Girls or Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends? Yeah, that was her. Both shows that were geared towards kids that were widely watched and enjoyed by adults. (Not quite to the magnitude of FiM, but still pretty significant.) Lauren also enjoyed My Little Pony when she was a kid, and really brought back the nostalgia (and then some!) for many of us kids of the ’80s and early ’90s that enjoyed them. That being said, MLP:FiM is not your average ‘little girls’ show.

Here is a list of what I love about MLP:FiM: (Because I love making lists.)

• Something everyone can enjoy. The writing is astoundingly versatile and can be enjoyed by both kids and adults of either gender. If you can get past the part about the pink and purple ponies, it’s very well-rounded.
• The characters have been very well developed. The protagonist is a bookworm who is strong and can admit her faults even if she doesn’t want to. The other characters include a crazy pink pony who loves to throw parties for her friends to enjoy and can pretty much diffuse any hostile situation; an overly confident blue pegasus who has a hard time admitting her mistakes, but is always there for her friends no matter what (she can also break the sound barrier); a soft-spoken yellow pony who is shy and fearful, but always stands up for her friends; a white unicorn diva artist who is always willing to help out even if it means getting her hooves dirty (though it may take some coaxing); and an orange pony who is a farmer and always gets through things with truth and hard work. This is just scratching the surface, but they are way, way deeper than that.
• The humor is great. There are still those silly weird-faced cartoon-y jokes, like a Benny Hill montage while two of the characters are chasing a rogue bird around the town, but there are deeper ones that go right over the little ones’ heads and right to a belly laugh in an adult. (ie. The Big Lebowski reference in one of the latest episodes.)
• The music is astounding. I don’t think I have been so captivated by a TV shows music since Glee came out. The lyrics are catchy and the tunes are enjoyable. The songs are a real work of art if you take the time to really listen to them.
• Morals. Every episode ends with a letter to the princess about what the main character learned about friendship that episode. Most of the time they are pretty well thought out, and other times they are just funny. Everyone learns something about themselves in every episode.

That being said, one of the biggest pieces to this tail (haha, pun.) is the Brony community as a whole. The Internet has practically exploded with an outpouring of fan art, fan music, fanfiction, and just about everything you can think to make about ponies. I’m not just talking about some crummy synthesized remix of a song or two (though there are some crummy ones) but whole albums of music about the show or interpretations of one of the songs from the show. It’s absolutely astounding. I don’t think I have ever seen any community like this, where the majority of the members are supportive and helpful and overall accepting of just about anyone, even the people who openly mock and berate them.

My Little Pony has also helped me through the tough times following our apartment fire. When you essentially get kicked out of your place of living, you always want to grab something that will bring you comfort and peace until you can get back in. Therefore, I retrieved my MLP throw blanked (that is oh-so-soft) and my Twilight Sparkle figure to help me remember that it will all be over soon and we’ll be home soon.

And lastly, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has taught me valuable life lessons:

Applejack taught me that I should be honest even if it hurts somepony else. The truth is always better than a lie.

Rarity taught me that I should be generous because there is always somepony that has less than I do. (I volunteered and donated money to some charities.)

Rainbow Dash taught me to be loyal to my friends because I never know when I will need them the most.

Fluttershy taught me to show kindness to everypony, because a little kindness goes a long way.

Pinkie Pie taught me to laugh at all the bad stuff that happens to me, because nothing can brighten a bad situation up but laughter. (But using discretion of course. I would not laugh at anyone, but with them.)

And finally, Twilight Sparkle taught me that friendship is magic, and everything and everypony around me has a little spark of magic within them.

That’s all folks! I will probably be blogging more about ponies in the future, but I will try not to overwhelm you.

Haiku of the Day:

Who would ever guess,
That my life would change over
Small purple equines.

My Industry is Dying.

As you all may or may not know, I am a certified Medical Transcriptionist. I really love the work, and I learn something new every time I go to work. That being said, it is rapidly becoming a dying industry. I never claim to be an expert on anything, and again, these are my opinions and thoughts built through personal experience.

When I started school in 2009, I dual majored in Medical Transcription and Medical Coding. I had a lot of fun and success doing both programs, however, I really thought I’d struck gold with transcription. I have always had a ‘knack’ for language, so it was very easy for me to understand the medical terminology and interpret speech of ethnic dialect. The interpreting thing wasn’t always easy, but I always found a way to understand just about anyone with an accent as long as they didn’t mumble. I was also excited about being a transcriptionist because my mother was one when my sister and I were young. I went in with the goal of having a stable career and the option to eventually work from home so I could save money and/or raise a family when it came time. I never really pursued Coding any further after I graduated this past May. This was mostly because I had some trouble with it in school, the certification that every employer wants costs too much and my school wouldn’t help with it, and I just didn’t enjoy my experience with it as much as I did transcription.

That being said, no career is without its pros and cons, so here is a personal list:

Pros:

• I enjoy it, which is very rare for me.
• I learn at least one new thing every time I go into work.
• I am a pretty quick typist, so I feel I can get a lot of work done. (Though it would help if I was paid by the line rather than hourly with that..)
• I already have a pedal at home, so if I was given the option to work from home, I would be prepared.
• I am very resourceful and I feel smarter every time I discover a new term I don’t know.
• Sometimes there are courteous providers who will speak slowly, clearly, and enunciate. They even sometimes spell out things they know are not common or sound like another term. That is SO awesome when that happens.
• Especially when I worked volunteer at the CARE Clinic in Red Wing, I feel like I actually matter to someone and what I’m doing is helping.
• The option of working from home, though I’ve never gotten to. I’ve heard that some companies who pay by the line makes you have to work twice as hard as what you would make hourly.

Cons:

• There are no jobs anywhere; not that I can find at least. Any positions I have applied for have at least a few hundred applicants with way more experience than I do.
• More and more facilities are moving to the Epic electronic medical records system (or something similar) and offer the option to their providers to write up their own notes and reports rather than dictating them. This has made business VERY slow. For example, I was hired on as a temporary transcriptionist when the medical facility I work at currently was transitioning to Epic. My boss essentially told me that they weren’t sure how much work there was going to be once the switch happened, but they were severely understaffed (due to one staff getting injured and having to take FMLA and another quitting) leaving about 4 part-time transcriptionists to handle 50-100 reports a day. They were really struggling. Now with the new system, we are severely OVERstaffed (with the FMLA worker coming back to full-time) and I am usually delegated to the front desk work rather than doing what I got hired for. I essentially got my work hours cut from a full 40 hours a week to 24. This is nothing new for me, and I realized going into this job that there was a possibility of them not needing me anymore. I have not been laid off yet, but I would not be surprised if I was the first one once they start doing cuts. My boss really likes me for some reason, and thinks I have strong work ethic which is pretty cool. She has been trying to secure a position for me elsewhere in the facility after the new year, but in the meantime, I’m looking for jobs closer to where we live.
• Doctors. Doctors, doctors, doctors. Some of them are awesome at dictating. Others, not so much. I frequently run into providers, especially SURGEONS who have to say the same things over and over and over again in their operative reports that they feel that they can just mumble all the way through them and whoever is on the listening end can just deal with it. I understand that being a doctor, especially a surgeon, is hard work, and they get frustrated, but I really don’t think it’s fair for that to be taken out on me or any other hard-working transcriptionist. Another thing I can’t stand is when docs yawn or burp or eat/drink or fart while they’re on the dictaphone. Come on now. I have to listen to you take a sh*t while you’re describing the excision of a 2-year-old’s tonsils. Really? I also don’t think some of them realize that they can pause the recording to gather their thoughts instead of ‘Ahh’ing, ‘Um’ing, or annoyingly clicking their tongues while they figure out what they are going to say. Again, I realize we are all human, and we get frustrated or complacent, but really, I shouldn’t have a 10 minute dictation where half of it is you yawning or clicking your tongue or going silent. Pause it, fart, then record.
• Ungrateful docs with heads up their butts. I haven’t run into many of these yet, thankfully. However, the radiologist that I work with never fails to make us all feel like complete crap under his orthopedic boot almost every day. He seems to have mood swings, where one moment he’ll be thanking you for your hard work and asking those questions he forgot to answer, and other times, he will call down and blame you for mistakes he made, or that the equipment is crapping out on him and he has to redictate something. It’s not my fault you said ‘diverticulitis’ when you meant ‘diverticulosis’. Not. My. Fault. So don’t make me feel like an incompetent, insignificant, uneducated peon because you made mistakes.

All in all, I have had a very good experience so far being a medical transcriptionist, but my industry is dying due to the crossover to electronic medical record systems that are extremely necessary for modern-day facilities to function. I am also very afraid that in the coming years, the talk-to-text phenomenon will be coming to the medical industry soon, and we will all become proofreaders instead. Unless they make a very, very intuitive, specialized software and have only clear-speaking and enunciating docs the text-to-talk take over won’t be without editors. I fear for that day, but for now I am just thankful I have a job having to do with all the money I spent at college (and still continue to spend so I don’t end up with useless pieces of paper in the future).

Haiku of the Day:

Work hard for six years,
What did I get from it all?
A piece of paper.

Unrealization.

Having (thankfully) never been in a situation of a major (arguably) natural disaster outside of a blizzard here and there, there were many things I did not realize would happen to me after someone else’s apartment caught fire. Now, I absolutely do not claim to be any sort of expert on this, and this is all purely personal experience and opinion, and probably quite naive. I still can’t express how incredibly lucky and grateful we were to get out of this thing relatively unscathed and I do realize a lot of those families had it a lot worse off than we did. I absolutely sympathize with those people. Please take this post with a grain of salt, because I’m not trying to be whiny or dramatic, I’m just rattling off what has happened since November 1st and reminding myself how lucky and thankful I am to have a strong support system.

Things I didn’t realize would happen when someone else’s apartment in our building caught fire:

• We were effectively locked out of our apartment from the moment the smoke alarms went off (about 7:25 p.m Tuesday night) until the next morning when the office was open (8 a.m. Wednesday). This meant I had no cell phone, no money, no identification, no socks, and no bra even!
• We, thankfully, were able to be escorted to our unit by police to get a few essential things we needed to live on: clothes, my purse/money/cell phone, bathroom gear, computers, textbooks, etc. We only had about 10 minutes altogether because the escort was a busy man with much to attend to (which I completely understood).
• We, thankfully, had very minimal damage to our material possessions. Everything smelled bad, but all the electronics we took out still worked and nothing was burned. There was a bit of sludge on the doorknob and the window ledge, but that was about it.
• Thankfully, I finally listened to my mom about getting renter’s insurance. THANK YOU, MOM! I sealed the deal and paid the first payment literally four days before the fire happened.
• The office management and the owner of the property have had a lot of miscommunication it seems and no one can give me a set date on when we will be able to move back in. Initially, it was 1-3 weeks, then it was week after next, maybe sooner. That makes me hopeful we can start piecing our life back together in our apartment we got to stay in for one measly month before we were effectively kicked out.
• The complex hired a company to clean the units, and essentially told us we have to move ALL of our stuff out and then store it somewhere while we are displaced, then move it ALL back in. They don’t have any on-site storage at all. We got lucky and this place also does restoration of personal property. This means that they will pack up ALL our stuff for us, move it off-site, ozone it (getting all the smoke smell out), assess what they can and can’t clean which gives the insurance company an idea of what needs to be replaced if anything, and move it ALL back into the apartment. It is going to suck moving in all over again after doing it just a month or so ago, but again, it could be much, much worse.
• The insurance company FINALLY, a week after the fire, put me up in a hotel. In the meanwhile, Josh and I had gone back to his parent’s house, that we just moved out of mind you, to sleep in our old room which is now the 8-year-old nephew’s room on an air mattress while the nephew was at his father’s house. Was it ideal? No. Was it better than sleeping at the Red Cross or The Salvation Army shelter for a week? You betcha. I am so thankful that mine and Josh’s families are so supportive and have a “our door is always open” policy. My allergies bar me from going to stay with my mom (cats, dogs, horses, hay, dust, ect.), but she was very supportive even so. Josh had to go to Texas that Monday-Friday for work, so when the nephew came back on Monday night from his dad’s, I was moved to a single air mattress in the nephew’s old-room-turned-office for the rest of the time I was there. Ideal? No. Could have been worse? Always. The office is essentially a closet off the dining room, and I’m sure everyone would agree with me that lives there. I have lived in dorm rooms bigger than this. Even the single one. Anyway, the room is also conveniently located right under the 2-year-old’s room and she is the earliest of early birds. I love the little squirt, but I am also very much not a morning person AT ALL. So it really only took me one day of pleading to the insurance company to get them to put me in a hotel for a week with option of extension if necessary. Don’t take this the wrong way, as I would have loved to stay with my future in-laws under different circumstances, but if the insurance company could put me in a hotel that was less than 5 minutes away from work, I was going to take it. I love my future in-laws like they were already related to me, and I really did start missing them, especially the kids, when we moved an hour away. It was great to see them again, even under the circumstances.
• The food in our apartment was mostly ruined. Not that we had a hugely stocked kitchen or anything, it maybe had about $200 worth of food in it, but still. $200 is still a lot of money to me. The power was cut when the fire happened, and I’m not sure when it was turned on again. It was still off the morning after, and I don’t think it was turned on again until the inspectors had come through and determined it was safe to turn the power on in the units that weren’t torched. Thusly, almost everything in the fridge/freezer were gone. The stuff in the freezer didn’t look like it even thawed, but I am not taking any chances on getting food poisoning. Everything except the carbonated waters I had in the fridge was essentially ruined. All the meat, milk, bacon, just about everything. Any dry packages that had been opened are probably done for, too, but we didn’t think of really checking those out, because we knew that stuff wouldn’t start stinking up the place.
• The hotel is great for the most part, but there are a few sucky things about it as well. I can’t keep much food here because I don’t have any place to put it. The fridge is reasonably big for a mini-fridge, but that is what it is: a mini-fridge. It is not meant to handle two to three weeks of food and the freezer is pretty much non-existent. The microwave is really old and either doesn’t cook things all the way through or totally fries it. This conundrum makes me rely mostly on fast food, which is getting old, and is not good for my weight-loss goals. I know I can do other things than eat fast food, but between making phone calls, homework, and actual work, I just haven’t had the time. Plus I am pretty much stuck with microwave-only because there is no accessible stove. I am also running out of money anyway, so things are going to be pretty tight until the 18th when I get paid.
•   Laundry is not a huge issue at the moment because Josh’s parents let us wash all our clothes when we were there and I have about two weeks’ worth of clothes to get through work and not have to wash clothes. If it does end up we have to use the guest laundry here, it’s almost cheaper than our apartment costs for laundry, but we don’t have any detergent.
• The displacement conveniently fell on Josh’s trip weeks to Texas, so I have been doing a majority of everything for the past week, and he is going back tomorrow morning. I can’t be too upset about that, because I am the policy holder, so he can’t really do anything with the insurance company anyway. It would be awesome if I could have him here for emotional support, but if he was here, he would have to commute the 45 minutes back to Roseville to work anyway, so it’s almost better this way. We still keep contact, but it’s not the same as it is when he is around.

I keep thanking my lucky stars every day we are displaced. It could have been a lot worse. We could have lost all our stuff, not had a place to live on our own, had to stay in a shelter with no Internet (meaning I wouldn’t be able to do my schoolwork, of course), and most horrifying, one of us could be dead. I can’t imagine the thoughts running through Josh’s head when he pulled up to the apartment building which was billowing with black clouds of chemical death, and not being able to contact me because I was so flustered I forgot my cell phone. Honestly, I can’t imagine having kids in this situation. I can barely deal with the trauma myself, let alone be able to comfort a young child.

Hopefully, I will never have to endure this situation again, but I definitely know what I would do different on my end. I know I can’t control what other people do when we live in a complex with 23 other units, but I know that I will be careful and mindful of what I am doing as not to cause anything like this. I know accidents happen, but I am going to take every precaution. I think we might even go out and buy a fire extinguisher for our apartment since there ARE NONE in the units and only one in the hallway on each of the three floors. Thankfully, they are having to replace all the doors in the building, meaning (hopefully) the unit doors will have a threshold and not a 3 inch gap between the door and the floor, and REAL STEEL THICK SEALED fire doors. The fire doors we had were a COMPLETE joke. They were thin, flimsy, didn’t latch properly most of the time, and DIDN’T GO DOWN TO THE FLOOR. They might as well have had nothing there, because that was about as much good they did.

I think when we look at future apartments, that is one of the first things we are going to check out. Do they have properly sealed fire doors? How do we get out if there is an emergency? Do the unit doors have threshold seals? Are there fire extinguishers in the units? Where are the fire extinguishers in the hallways if not? Does the building have a sprinkler system? Is it intuitive, or will it spray our stuff if the fire is on the opposite side of the building? These are things we absolutely did not consider moving into this place. I definitely feel that I have grown through this experience, and I know what is really important to me now. People always ask you those hypothetical questions: If your house was burning down, what would you retrieve? The truth is, if your house is really burning down, you really don’t have time to think about what to grab.

And for tradition:

The hotel is nice,
Though nothing like home, at least
I’m not on the streets.

A New Beginning.

Hi all. I know I haven’t been around or blogging for quite a while. I’ve decided to try and blog at least weekly again to work on some writing and try to do the whole ‘Blogger’ thing.

So.. A little update I suppose:

Last Tuesday night (11/01/2011) there was a fire in my and Josh’s apartment complex. Thankfully, we are both safe, and our stuff only smells bad from the smoke that came through  under the door that had no threshold seal. The fire ‘reportedly’ (I say it that way because I only read this in a news report and there is currently no confirmed cause) started because someone left their stove on and left the complex. The fire started on the second floor, rose to the apartment above it and up to the roof. The fire department responded quickly and contained the fire within minutes of their arrival. Everyone got out safely and the fire fighters even got all of the cats out safely. Out of the 24 units in the building, only two are deemed “uninhabitable” and one has severe smoke damage. The news crews that filmed/wrote about it estimated the damage at about 1.3 million dollars. Nuts, right? There was roof damage, and the two apartments (the one that the fire started in and the one above it) were completely torched and I am assuming everything inside are unsalvagable. All of the residents are currently displaced until further notice. From what I know, we are going to be out at least 1-3 weeks, and we have already been out for almost a week and a half.

With that being said, I have to say I haven’t been that afraid in a long time. Josh was out at Fantasy Flight playing some RPG I don’t remember the name of. I had just gotten home with take-out and was in the bathroom when I heard something that sounded like the door buzzer. I went to the intercom and the noise was not coming from there. So I walked out to the door and opened it and saw the girl across the hallway looking at me like a deer in headlights. Then I saw a couple running down the hallway. I couldn’t stop thinking if this complex did fire drills or not. I remember being at Gustavus and having to go outside in the snow at 4 a.m. because someone had burned popcorn or set off the smoke alarms because they couldn’t go somewhere else to smoke their pot. No, this was real. I ran back inside, grabbed my keys, coat, and put my flats on, thinking ‘I’ll be back inside in like 30 minutes, right?’ Ha! I wish. I was so startled I didn’t bother to grab socks, my purse, or my cell phone. I didn’t even have a bra on. All I had was my keys, coat, and shoes. It didn’t even occur to me that there were cop cars and fire trucks flowing into the road and parking lot of the complex and knowing Josh wasn’t home with no way of contacting me. I got about 8 phone calls and frantic voice mails telling me to get out as soon as I could when I retrieved my cell phone the next morning. I realized I didn’t even know his phone number off the top of my head to try and call him. This will definitely change in the near future. I remember watching our apartment window, chanting “No smoke no smoke no smoke no smoke’. I could see the firefighter’s flashlights going through our apartment to make sure there was no one in it. Anyway, I met a bunch of people standing across the street when they taped off the area. One woman especially, Holly, was kind enough to let Josh and I sleep on her couch for the night.

I know I’m with the man I want to be with for the rest of my life for this moment: When Josh came home and finally found me, he said,  “Thank goodness you are OK. I don’t care about any of that stuff. I’ve got what is important to me here. All that stuff can be replaced. I don’t care.” Or something along those lines.

We weren’t able to get back into our apartment until about 8 a.m. the next day. The fire happened about 7:30 p.m. We got a police escort up to our apartment to grab some things to go somewhere else. We were just astounded at how lucky we were. The smoke smell was pretty heavy then, but that was all the damage that was done to our stuff. We grabbed some stuff and packed up some suitcases and headed back to Josh’s parents’ place where we just moved out of a month ago (to the day!).

Thankfully, our rent will be prorated, though we don’t know if we are going to get reimbursed or  get a credit towards when we move back in or something. Apparently there is a lot of miscommunication (or lack of communication) between the property owner and the office management, so we can’t get very much information at this point in time, even though it’s been over a week since it happened, and there have been multiple inspectors in and out of the place. I don’t know what we would do if I hadn’t gotten renter’s insurance literally 4 days before the fire happened. The paper copy of my policy wasn’t even in our mailbox until Thursday!

I am so grateful for everything that happened, no matter how crappy it is to not be able to live in the apartment you’ve leased for the next 11 months, and having your boyfriend not be able to help you deal with the insurance company because he isn’t on your policy. The last week has been a mess of phone calls, stress, and unease. Josh is in Texas this week and next week for his job, so I’m by myself in a hotel in Hastings. I am really glad my insurance finally broke down and got me into a hotel. I still miss Josh’s family (my future in-laws), but it’s really nice to be 5 minutes from work and having someone else clean for me. I still try not to be a slob, but it’s hard when I have almost my entire life packed up in here.

Josh and I are going to go up to the complex on Friday night to help Holly, the woman that let us crash the night of, move. She’s moving to Arizona and we want to show her our gratitude for letting two strangers sleep on her couch.

We’re hoping to have things sorted out and more concrete answers sometime soon. We have all of our personal property going out to be ozoned. (That’s where they essentially air out the smoke smell.) They will also clean the apartment. Maybe they’ll replace the nasty cupboards.. Anyway. We’re hoping to be back in before December, but we’ll see. At least the insurance company will pay for the hotel for as long as we need for the most part.

On a happier note: I’ve got a decent paying job as a medical transcriptionist. My dream job for now, right? It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Though, I really do enjoy doing it, the medical center I work at just switched over to the Epic electronic medical records system where the MDs can input their reports directly into the system instead of dictating. This has lead to a nosedive in dictation jobs, and therefore a lesser need for transcriptionists. It doesn’t make sense to have four transcriptionists on when there are only 10-15 jobs on the line at any time. This has lead me to go from a 40-hour work week to a 24-hour work week. That’s OK because I’m still going to school online full-time, so I have time to do my homework. Although we won’t be able to save as much as we want to, we don’t really struggle with money at the moment. This position is only temporary until the end of the year anyway. I’m hoping that the places I’ve applied for closer to where we live call me back soon. Though I like where I work, it’s a 45 minute drive from where we live and it is expensive in gas and is time consuming in travel.

OK, I’ve bored you all enough with my wall of text. Short and sweet, everything is going pretty well considering everything. I have the best man in my life, and I’m not too broke anymore. I like where I work and school is going well.

EDIT:  Here is the link to the KARE11 news article. They had a lot of the facts wrong, but all the important stuff was just about accurate.

To keep up with tradition here is a Haiku of the Day:

When disaster strikes,
Insurance doesn’t cover
The love in your heart.