Scratch, scratch, scratch

I have a rash from antibiotics, and even after my doctor changed my medication, I still have an itchy, itchy rash! This is making me unhappy! Rich told me this morning that I should just stop taking the antibiotic, and I did actually skip the morning dose, but when I woke up I started taking it again, because people, you should not stop taking your antibiotic before you are finished taking all of it. That just helps the remaining bacteria develop immunities, and we don't need to grow stronger bacteria!

So I am taking Benedryl to help fight the itching, and it helps a little, and I'm using a clear Anti-itch lotion that Rachel had at her house. I'm still itching, though. Don't be jealous of my beautiful life.

I am still slaving away over my intro to chem class, and ugh, it's no fun at all. I could not be doing this at all without Rachel's help, and I am grateful for it. My friend Diane is taking this class, too, and she asks me for help, which is so humorous if you think about it. It's truly the blind leading the blind. She is impressed by my mad chem skillz, y'all!

Every night I go to Rachel's house and work on chemistry while the precious fat baby rolls around on the floor by our feet, playing with her toys, and I pick her up to love her, but then Rachel makes me put her down and figure out metric conversions. It's so unfair! I just want to blow raspberrys on the baby, but no, I have to slave away on chemistry instead.

So that is the story of my life this week - I scratch, do homework and play with the fat baby. The baby is the only part that is fun.

In which I remember our family motto: Cs get degrees.

I know it's been a few days, but I've been busy, and not with anything very interesting to write about. I'll try to write more of the boringness, though, because people are starting to complain that I never write.

Since my last post, I have continued going to the chem class, but it hasn't been anything worth journaling about. The kid with the completely tattoed arm hasn't been back to class, so he must have dropped. The annoying whiskey-voiced woman came in one morning and sat down beside me, but then she left the room to go smoke or whatever, and I got up and moved away from that seat. I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wanted to sit by Diane, and there wasn't room at the table for all three of us!

We had our first exam in the class on Wednesday and I got a B, thanks to Rachel's tutoring. I am not learning anything in class, because I go to class after work and I'm too tired to take it all in. Since I go over the notes and homework with Rachel, sometimes class is like a review of things I've covered, so it's not a complete waste of time.

We got Kim back to school last week. It was my working weekend, so Rich took her back by himself. He went with the van so he could take the harp, and she drove her car. Even though they took two cars full of her stuff, she still forgot things, so I'm filling a box with the things she asks me for, and she'll be home next weekend and can take the box back with her.

What I'm knitting today:

I'm working on a little shrug for Maddy to wear to church over her dresses. The air conditioning is always too cool at church, and Maddy has one little sweater that she wears every week, so Rachel and I are both knitting sweaters for her! I had mine about half done when I noticed the stitch count was off and I had to rip back 3 or four inches. It's a pattern from a Debbie Bliss baby pattern book. I'm looking at another sweater for her that has a fair-isle design around the yoke, and some beading that is sewn on after the knitting. (Yes, Sarah, it's the same one you made for Eugenie's little girl. Where did you get the beads?)

I'm also excited about the Bella hat that Diana knitted for Chanelle, so I'm going to make one for Kim. I still have a sweater on the needles for Carolyn and I need to get that one done soon so she can wear it this Fall! Rachel got very excited about making the fancy buttons for it when we were talking about it yesterday, so I will probably finish it soon with Rachel's encouragement!

What I'm reading today:

I'm re-reading a mystery that takes place in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, and I bought the next book in the series and downloaded it to my Kindle, so I've got that to read this weekend.

What I'm watching today:

Rich and I are planning to stay in tonight (not that we ever go out) and watch Kung Fu Panda. I just got it from Netflix on Scott's recommendation.

What I'm cooking today:

I'm planning to make chicken noodle soup because Rich says he is sore all over from TaeKwonDo last night. I haven't been cooking much for about 3 weeks, maybe a month, because it's been so stinking hot, but now I feel like cooking again. I made spaghetti last night, with turkey sausage instead of ground beef and it was really good.

So that's what is going on here, at the House of Boring. Aren't you happy I wrote something?

In which I have no class, but I had to go to one.

Today was my first day of Intro to Chemistry. This is the second time I've taken the class, and this time I'm taking it as a lecture class instead of self-paced. Last time I took the self-paced class and it was horrible, because I am not very motivated, and also, I don't like to do things involving numbers - they make me feel woozy and I have to lay down.

I had to go straight from work, so I stopped and bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi to keep me going, and I met my friend Diane outside the building and we walked in together.

I think the best part about the class will be making fun of some of the other students. It certainly won't be my amazing new knowledge of chemistry.

One woman followed us down the hall to class, talking in a cigarettes-and-whiskey voice about the stressful summer she had, and after class, she followed us outside and joined us in talking to someone Diane was introducing me to. Whiskey Voice lit a cigarette and started babbling about herself, and her kids, and her love of chemistry class - ugh. I was so tired from being up all night that I just stared at her and nodded, wishing she would go away, and finally Diane excused us. As we walked toward the parking lot, Diane said, "We need to avoid her in the future!" and I couldn't agree more.

In which I am not a doctor, but I can dose a baby. Sort of.

Friday is always such a long day! I went to bed early last night and woke up at 8, and went to do some errands with RA. I was back home finally at 2, but Kim needed some Mountain Dew and Ramen soup, so I went back to the store one last time.

Rachel brought Maddy over around 4 or 5 so that Rich could keep her overnight while the rest of us go to work. Maddy was having a bad day and Rachel had given her some infant Tylenol, but forgot to bring the bottle with her, so I had to go back to the drugstore later to get some. I accidently bought the wrong kind - I bought Children's ibruprophen instead of Infant ibuprophen, and there was no eye dropper in the bottle for measuring out the dosage and giving it to the baby.

I was looking around in the kitchen for something that we could give Maddy the medicine with, since she is too little to sip it from the tiny cup that comes with the bottle, and Rich suggested that we use the dropper from the cat's antibiotic. Kim had given the cat the last dose today, and she said she threw the bottle in the trash, so I went through the trash bag and found it!

I rinsed the eyedropper out carefully and then I had to figure out how much of the ibuprohen to give Maddy, based on the recommended doseage for a two-year old, and then I had to figure out how many of the tiny cat-size doses in the eyedropper would add up to the right amount for a baby. When I told Rachel about it on the phone at work just now, she figured it out on paper and told me I hadn't given her enough, but hey, that's better than giving her too much!

How to change a printer ribbon.

When I got home from work this morning, I was feeling very bitter about my life and my job, mostly because ever since we had an 'upgrade' (it turned out to be more like a downgrade) to the switchboard at work a couple of years ago, there are things that don't work the way they should and you have to do them in a roundabout way, but since I work in the middle of the night, I hardly ever have to do those things.

Mostly I just transfer calls to the ER or one of the nursing floors, but this morning some guy wanted to make a collect call or two from his room, and this is one of the things that is all bass-akwards now and had to be done a special way instead of quick and straight-forward like it was before the 'upgrade', and Barb wasn't at work yet to remind me of how she does it during the busy day shift.

So the process wasn't working like it should, and I was trying to do it, but the guy misdialed and had to make the call again, and then he had to call someone else collect, so it was going on and on and was very frustrating for both of us! I have no idea why he wasn't just using his cell phone to make the call, like any other person on the face of the earth would have because even small children and my mother-in-law have cell phones now. Although my mother-in-law would probably have been calling me to help her make a collect call, too, because she has a cell phone, but she doesn't really know how to make a call on it. My father-in-law has written the instructions for her and taped them to the back of her phone, but he's hoping she never has to use it - and so is she.

Also, earlier in the night I had to change the ink cartridge on the big printer, a job that I hate because it goes wrong every damn time I have to do it! It's not just like slipping a toner cartridge into a tabletop printer. I have to put a giant ribbon cartridge into a large printer that stands alone and is about chest-high to me (or waist-high to a person of normal height).

Here's the thing - I have to put in the ribbon cartridge and jiggle it into position so it drops down onto two spindles and OMG, the stinking cartridge just will not drop down onto those two spindles! There is a knob on top of the cartridge that can be turned counter-clockwise until it all drops neatly into place, and I turn it and turn it, and jiggle it and jiggle it and jiggle it, and it just will not go and then finally it does!

And then I start the printer again, because I still have more reports to print and the printer runs a little and then it beeps and shows me a red light and I look at the little window and it says "Ribbon Fault", which means something is wrong with the ribbon! So I clear it by pushing the Clear button, and start it again and it prints a line or two and then BEEP, Ribbon Fault. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I can clear it and start it as many times as I want to, but I might as well not bother, because in the end, I just have to take out the ribbon, throw it away, and start over again with another ribbon cartridge. Last night I had to use two cartridges, and the third one worked the way it should, so that was good, and at least I didn't fall into a pit of rage like last time and slam the faulty ribbon against a cabinet, causing the plastic casing to break and release pleated ribbon all over the place. I cleaned it up (covering my hands with paper towels) and put it all into a plastic bag, and gave it to the midnight housekeeping guy to throw away so no one would see it sitting in the wastebasket. It is important to hide the bodies evidence.

So that was my night and by the time Barb came in this morning I was pretty cranky and tired and I was so glad to come home and just go to bed!