The past couple of days have been a whirlwind. A lot has gone on, and quickly. My brain has been all over the place thinking about this, that, and the other. Work aside, this week has been odd. Not necessarily bad, but not necessarily great either.
Just the other day, while I was working from home, I took my Dad to the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor because he's just been casually loosing hearing in his right ear. At first I told him that he should try some ear drops and then maybe go to Prompt Care in town to see if he potentially had an inner ear infection. Thanks to how everything went down with my Mom, no one ignores me when I tell them to go to the doctor now. So, last weekend, my Dad went to the local Prompt Care, and they told him that they examined him and didn't see a single thing in his ear that could be causing these issues. He seemed clear and did not have an ear infection that they could see. So, they then referred him to an ENT doctor at OSF to better look into this. Flash forward to Tuesday - I took Dad to this appointment in which they gave him a hearing test. I had high hopes that Prompt Care had been incorrect and it was just a super bad and inconvenient ear infection like I initially thought. Unfortunately, I was incorrect. Very, very incorrect. Seemingly, my Dad has just been losing his hearing steadily over time in one ear, but the other ear that was much worse was recent. Apparently this is a thing that has been occurring worldwide, according to the doctor that say my Dad. He said they are unsure as of why it is occurring, but they are seeing it all over the place. Sudden hearing loss can also just occur for no reason, which is part of why it hasn't yet been determined what is making this happen all over the place. Anyways, long story short, they gave my Dad a steroid shot directly in the ear drum with the world's longest and scariest needle. I have to take him back later this week for another one. Apparently it has been determined that three to four of these shots can help significantly with the problem. However, the doctor did let us know that after two shots, if things are not improving, we may have to look into other alternatives for the problem. As of our regular Sunday dinner last night, my Dad said things haven't gotten all that much better. So, fingers crossed it'll start to improve after his next shot tomorrow! After Dad's appointment, I took him to the gas station for a drink and a treat; a silly little tradition I used to do with my Mom when I took her to all of her appointments. We always stopped for a drink for the drive home and some candy to make up for whatever appointment we were at. Whether the news was good or bad at the appointment, the one thing she could always count on was a little treat from me. So, I did the same with Dad. On the drive home, we chatted about the upcoming concert we planned to go to and what the workweek looked like for the two of us the rest of the week. Neither of us had high hopes, knowing we'd both be super busy. But, at least we had the weekend to look forward to!
The rest of the work week wasn't as bad for me as I had anticipated. I worked pretty far ahead, ran some really scary meetings that horrified me to the point of getting intoxicated on a random Wednesday night, worked from my favorite coffee shop, and got to come to work and pressure wash some cool stuff on Friday. Then I finally made it to the weekend, which was actually fantastic.
Wednesday I had four back to back meetings all day long. And on top of that, I was tasked with leading an important meeting for a group I work with. Our area of work has a group called our Culture Team. That team is broken up into smaller teams, one of which I am a co-lead of. However, last week, our "Big Leaders" from the larger group were all traveling for meetings together, and their travel happened to fall on one of our monthly meeting dates. Because of this, they had to find coverage for the large, group meeting. For whatever reason, I was one of the two people asked to do this. We had prep meetings to go over the agenda and prepare ourselves to run the large meeting that normally housed anywhere from 100-250 participants. I panicked for over 48 hours about this meeting. I panic about running my regular team meetings that have less than 10 people in them. I was mortified at the thought of having to talk to that many people for such a long period of time. Well, wouldn't you know it -- Only 25 people outside of myself and my other co-lead showed up to this meeting. This was bittersweet. I was thankful to not have to talk to so many people, but I was also a bit miffed that so many people willingly chose not to show up or participate in this month's meeting. Is it because the leaders were gone? Was it because I was the one running it? I'll probably never know, but as you can imagine, my anxiety took the latter thought and ran with it, resulting in multiple mid-week panic attacks. Thanks to this stressful day, I decided to abandon my plans with my husband to instead get incredibly intoxicated with some co-workers on a weeknight because I couldn't handle the thought that over 100 people didn't want to hear me talk about culture. It was a great time. I had to stop at a gas station on the way home to throw up. Fabulous. Awesome.
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| My Co-Worker Before the Weeknight Drinking Went Downhill |
Thursday was a hell of a lot better than the rest of the week. I worked at my local coffee shop, as I typically do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I had been working ahead and cramming schedules together when my husband surprised me at the coffee shop and had lunch with me! Over the course of this lunch date, he mentioned that we should go next door to the bookstore to see if they had updated my store credit for all the used books we had previously brought in and shop around a bit. In doing so, not only did I found out I have an astronomical amount of store credit and donated a book worth a heck of a lot more than they could sell it for, I also got a special surprise I never expected. The owner came up to me and asked me which book I was on in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I told her I had just started book four, to which she let me know she just so happened to have received a "damaged" copy of book five and if I wanted it, it was all mine. I stared at her excitedly and asked her how much she would sell if for, assuming it would get sold at some "used book" price. Nope. She just gifted it to me. I stopped dead in my tracks and nearly fell down. These books are fantastic, but books are pricey now. Especially brand new hardback copies in a really popular series. I believe the cheapest they retail at new is around $30. That's not a lot to some, but it makes a difference. And she just gave it to me! She said the sellers they buy from usually either have them return the book for a replacement or refund them and let them donate it. I was, very gratefully, the one who was now on the receiving end of this donation! I could not believe my eyes or ears. This is just one of the millions of reasons to shop local -- You form relationships with all the best people, and sometimes it turns into something special like this! Forever grateful for my local bookstore!
Friday was almost as good as Thursday. I got to work and finished all my pressing work within an hour, freeing up the rest of my day for shenanigans with a coworker. I actually got to pressure wash a set of old lockers some of our staff had in their area that were going in the dumpster. Instead of recycling them, we decided to repurpose them for storage in the garage and some offices! Because of this, though, we had to thoroughly clean them. They were GROSS. Think of 15-20 years of dirt, grime, food, soda, coffee, germs, stickers, tape, and everything else imaginable. Now think of it with the additional caveat that they were both sticky and smelly. We took them outside, hosed them off, and pressure washed and scrubbed and cleaned for hours. It actually took almost the whole day, but they are now so clean, sparkly, and beautiful. Do they look brand new? No. But am I still proud of how nicely they turned out? Abso-freakin'-lutely! Plus, after work I went back over to my best friends' house to continue on in our Marvel journey. We stayed up late to watch Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk! They were both great. Obviously I've seen Iron Man a million times. Robert Downey Jr. Duh. Obviously. But I'd never watched any variation of the Hulk, other than seeing him in the newest Spider-Man movie! It was actually really good. It was sweet, actually. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.
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| Exhibit A: One of the Cleaner Lockers (Ft. Hilarious Butt Stickers) |
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| Before. |
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| During. |
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| After. SPARKLING! |
Saturday was the day we'd all been looking forward to: CONCERT DAY! After a frustrating day of shopping for some pants I could wear (thanks, body dysmorphia, anxiety, and trauma - yay!), we were finally on our way up to the city to see Extreme, Tesla, and Motely Crue! For Christmas this past year, I got my Dad, best friend, uncle, and cousin tickets to see them! We waited eight whole months for this show, and it was absolutely worth it! Obviously my Dad and uncle had seen Motely Crue before. In fact, I'd seen Motley before, too. My Dad, other uncle and cousins, and I went to see them when I was in high school! It was awesome. We saw Motley and Poison back then. Then, about three years ago, we all went to see Tesla play, too! So, we got to rewatch them preform, and it was incredible. But, the real reason we went to the show was to see the band Extreme and to see John 5 play with Motley Crue! The last time we saw Motley Crue, Mick Mars was still their guitar player. He's since had to step back due to medical issues. We wanted to see John 5 play, and he did not disappoint. But, if I'm being honest, Extreme was the star of the show. I don't know if it was just because none of us had ever seen them, or if it was before the second edible set it, but I was just so impressed by them and their performance!
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| Before the Show (i.e., Before the Edibles Kicked In, Ft. Bestie) |
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| Motely Crue Obviously "Still Kickin' Ass!" |
The best part of the concert, though, was actually seeing how happy my Dad was. A.) He doesn't like going too far from home on the weekends, because he likes to stay home with the dogs because he works all week. B.) He doesn't normally drink when we go to concerts because he usually drives (I secured DDs, do not fret, dear readers). C.) He got to see a band he'd never seen before in all his years of concert-goings. I even got to buy him a concert t-shirt that he said he used to have from way back in the day when he saw them originally! The smiles he smiled Saturday were so real and so genuine that I didn't know what to do with myself. I hadn't seen him that happy in what felt like a million years. The smiles were so real and true, they nearly brought me to tears to look at in our photos. Not only was it a great show, I got to see my Dad happy for one of the first times since we lost Mom. Even yesterday when I shared the photos with my Grandma, she mentioned how truly happy Dad looked. It just melted my heart that I could do that for him. He certainly deserves it. More than anyone I know.
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| Maybe the Happiest I've Ever Seen mi Padre. |
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| My Concert Crue (Get it? CRUE!). |
Sunday Dad Dinner went off without a hitch, per usual. I was, unfortunately, hungover -- Or whatever you call it when you get too stoned and drunk that it all carries over. I'm actually pretty positive that when I woke up yesterday morning I was still a little bit high and sauced. I actually don't remember anything after my feet hit the concrete of the sidewalk after the show ended. I barely remember getting in the car, let alone the drive home or going to bed after. But, that just means I had a good time, right? Not that I have a problem. Because I don't. Obviously. ANYWAYS. My husband made us all dinner yesterday, which is great because I was in no shape to do so. It was great. We talked, we ate, we had fun. Perfect Sunday dinner, and the Fever played and WON! Thank god they clinched their spot in the playoffs Saturday when another team got knocked out, because they lost Saturday (thankfully I was concert-going and unable to see the BS loss). But they won last night, which if I understood correctly, moves them up to the fourth seed with homecourt advantage in the playoffs! YAY!
Now back to work and back to reality! But, I do have plans to continue on in my Marvel journey and education this evening with my besties. On to Iron Man 2 tonight! What comes after, I do not know. God forbid we just watch all three Iron Man movies in a row. I'm sure there's something in between Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3 I'll have to watch. I'll keep you all updated, as always. But in the meantime, it's back to work I go. I've already been here for three and a half hours, accomplished everything important on my to-do list, and ordered lunch. I thought a little blog break was needed. Thanks for reading! Or not. Probably not.
P.S. I have become so obsessed with Spider-Man I ordered a stupid phone case, and I've been so excited about it (not that anyone cares, because why would they? LOL). Anyways, LOOK AT IT!
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| LOOK AT IT. |
Xo,
K.
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