Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Happy Happy Sad Times

The world is in a serious state of flux right now, and it's affecting me in all sorts of ways.

1. The weather can't decide whether it wants to be sunny and high 30s (yesterday) or snowy and low 30s (today) or just plain icy/freezing rainy (a lot of recent days). I miss the sun.

2. I ate or came into contact with something which caused a serious skin reaction, and I'm covered head to toe in hives. Itchy hives. Bad itchy. Last night, the bottoms of my feet were so itchy I almost began to cry; that's how itchy. I went to the doctor today, and now I'm as 'roided up as any baseball player. I have to wash all my clothes and towels and stuff with fragrance-/dye-free detergent, and hope that fixes it (along with the 'roids). I'm completely exhausted by the itching, the burning, the low-grade fever, and the constant Benadryl intake.

3. Somehow, by some magical alignment of the planets, I scored a 100 on my last calculus test; my average is now a 91, an A-. I actually emailed my professor and asked him if there had been some error! So I'm still working on my final exam (it was take-home) plus I have an oral exam (during which I have to work some problems for the professor, so he knows we know the material) on Friday. I really can't believe that I might actually make an A in this class. Remember when I would've been happy for a C? I guess it's true, the life motto I've had since my teaching days: "You're smarter than you think you are." That motto has carried me through a lot. When I told my dad (the civil engineer and math genius), I thought he was going to cry, he was so proud. *sniffle!*

my secret weapon!

4. My four-day holiday weekend is fast approaching, and I cannot wait! I'm going to bird my little heart out! We're baking cookies, making gingerbread houses, sleeping under the christmas tree, eating cookies, playing games--all the traditions we've established during our almost-six-year history as a family. (the sleeping under the tree thing is from my childhood) It's gonna be so much fun!

5. Next week, sadly, I only have Jan 1 off; however, we were just informed that we will be allowed to wear jeans and sneakers to work all week! Yay! Business casual sucks! Bring on the blue jeans! I'll be wearing my Disapproving Rabbits shirt, my "Finch better have my money!" shirt, my Cape May migration mainline shirt--I'll be throwin' down the mad birdin' lookz, yo!

Woo hoo! I love casual days. It's funny--in the summer, we're allowed to wear shorts (as long as they're not blue jeans shorts). So I wear shorts every. single. day. all. summer. long. That's my favorite time to come to work!

So our Christmas bird count was postponed until this weekend, and we're not going to Ohio after all until before New Year's, so I get to go. I'm so excited. I'm planning on taking lots of pics, so I'll mystify and amaze you for the new year.

18 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Whhoooeey!! Congrats on the calc grade. I am hugely impressed. Going into college freshman math (don't even think about asking how many years ago that was) I flunked the pre-calc pre-test! The professor suggested a very nice statistics class that would fulfill my math requirements. I hope you really enjoy your time off and all the family things you have planned. I'll be wanting to see those birds too!

Patrick B. said...

I started reading about your calc class and then got the shakes due to bad calc college memories. And please don't ever mention linear algebra around me.

Where did you get the finch shirt? It's AWESOME.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Yikes! Itchy hives are horrendous! I had to take roids after my bypass because I had some kind of carzy infection so I feel for ya. Enjoy your four day holiday weekend!

Amy said...

Please send the URL for your post about the CBC. You're going to write one, right? And you're going to submit it for I and The Bird, right?! (c:

pissed off patricia said...

Pat yourself on the back for me. You deserve it for that grade.

If you worked for Mr Pop you could wear shorts to work year round, and your bathing suit underneath for the days you would be at the beach.

Merry Birding-mas

dguzman said...

Thanks, Lynne--it's been a real trip, after only taking dummy algebra twenty-plus years ago the first time around.

Patrick--believe me, when my last calc class is over next semester, I will NEVER even want to balance my checkbook, much less do a derivative or an integral. (oops sorry--might have given you the shakes again). The shirt is from Hot Topic--hope you can find one too!

Monkey--yup. I have no willpower when it comes to not scratching either.

Amy--sure! I will do that Monday; hope that's in time.

PoP--thanks! And OMG, shorts and the beach... how dreamy!

Mary said...

Congratuations on the Calculus grade, Delia. This is genuinely heartfelf, coming from a math moron who struggled through Algebra 2. I'm in awe.

Poor dear, hives will make someone insane. Drink plenty of water to flush those toxins and relax, relax, relax.

Do your birdy thing, too!

dguzman said...

Thanks, Mary! Believe me, it'll be a miracle if I do as well on the final, but I'll be happy to get anything above a C! (my best math grade the first time around)

Matthew Hubbard said...

Nice work in calculus, dg. Is this a one term course or is there more ahead?

Susan Gets Native said...

I never even MADE it to Calculus. I am not mathematically-inclined. And that's putting it mildly.
I'm proud of you!

dguzman said...

Thanks, Matty Boy, for your help and encouragement! I have to take one more semester, where we'll get into some serious integration stuff (that's all I know so far). Ugh. But then that'll be it for my math requirements! Yay!

Susan--believe me, it's all smoke and mirrors! If I didn't have to take it to become a forensic scientist, I wouldn't!

Earl Cootie said...

Each time I see the word 'roids I think of hemorrhoids, and then you throw itching and burning on top of that, and Yikes! You've officially given me the willies!

Business casual does suck. There aren't a whole of lot of places left here that still require such ridiculous dress, but I've managed to find them in most of my temp gigs. If I were able to wear jeans (or shorts in the spring, summer and fall!), I feel certain I'd be more productive somehow.

Get better! And bring on the mystification and amazement!

pissed off patricia said...

I came snowman hunting. I'll be back in the morning. Hope I find the wascal. (done in my best elmer fudd voice) :)

Jess Wundrun said...

Maybe you are allergic to sleeping under your Christmas tree? Or did the perfect score cause the hives? Eek!

Say, here is the best laundry recipe ever: Use 1 tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds and 1/2 cup of Borax. All natural mothernaturelovin laundry.

Have a fabulous holiday. I hope your next door neighbor kid doesn't get a red rider bb gun!!!

Fran said...

Wow, I have not been here in days and look at what I have missed.

All I can say is that I love that you get to wear jeans, go birding, sleep under the tree.

And sorry about the hives.

But yay on the calculus!

Susan said...

That rash sounds horrible - hope the steroids worked! Congratulations on the calc exam. Just wondering, why are you taking calculus???

dguzman said...

Earl--yup.
Jess--I was starting to wonder if the hives were caused by calculus stress, but I guess we'll never know. The tree is artificial, though, so I hope it's not the cause! Thanks for the recipe; I'll have to look for that stuff next time I'm at the grocery store. Bet the Mennonite store has it.
Fran--hee!
Susan--gotta take the big math to be accepted into the Forensic Science major. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the Calc grade!!! Have fun at work (with the lax dress code for the week)! :)
Tell me about all the birding! Sorry I couldn't join you for CBC.