"Come Fly Our Friendly Skies"

(This is really long, sorry...it's more me de-stressing than anything. You don't really need to read it all. I won't be offended if you don't) :)
So after 3 weeks of vacation in Colorado and Utah I finally flew back to DC a couple of weeks ago. It was by far the WORST trip I've ever taken. Everything that could have gone wrong (minus crashing the plane) did.
This was the sequence of events that fateful day (I added that for dramatic effect :), you're welcome):

I had a really bad night because I was really sick coughing and I was on narcotics so I didn't get very much sleep...

I ran out of time getting ready so I didn't get breakfast (my favorite meal of the day), then we took my nephew to a friend's house before Kindergarten and I said goodbye to him.

My Sister-in-law drove me to the airport, but by the time we got there, both of my nieces were fast asleep so I didn't get a chance to even say goodbye to them. Booooo.

Salt Lake International Airport is not exactly a large airport and I usually don't have problems flying through there because it's small enough that checking in and security doesn't take very long (nothing like DC). That shouldn't have been any different this day right? WRONG! I waited a good eh, 45 minutes in line just to check in my baggage because there were families all over the place from Europe with skis and a freakin' ton of bags. Lovely. Good thing I got there early and my flight was already delayed.

Getting through the security line took another probably 20 minutes, the line was all the way out into the hallway. But of course, what should happen when my purse goes through the x-ray? TSA person: "Who's bag is this?" Me: "Mine" TSA person: "We need to run it again" Me: "That's fine" (what did they think I was going to say? No? Yeah right.) They run the purse again. Nada. Me trying to be cooperative: "Do you need to look through it?" TSA Peeps: "Yes." Me: "Go ahead." At this point they proceeded to rip apart my purse piece by piece, which is an ordeal in and of itself. Nada. TSA Peeps (who is obviously new and being coached by someone else next to him): "Can we run this through (the wallet, the purse without the stuff in it, etc.)?" Me (annoyed by this time, but acting very nice and calm and cooperative...and glad my flight is delayed since this is taking forever): "Of course, you do whatever you need to." They finally told me what they thought they saw, a pocketknife. Are you kidding me?! A pocketknife. In my purse. Yeah right. I don't have any clue what they thought they saw that looks like a pocketknife in my purse, but I'll tell you this much, I don't have a pocketknife in my purse. They finally let me go when they didn't find anything. Good grief.

So I get to my gate and my plane is delayed....like a while. So I get something to eat, oh and I get my seating arrangement since I didn't have an assigned seat on my ticket (nice one). But only after standing in another line for a good 30ish minutes. Then....*Ding* "Attention: flight 522 (or whatever it was) to Chicago O' Hare your flight has been delayed" AGAIN. Ok, so that's not exactly what they said, but close. Apparently the President of the United States was in Chicago so NO flights were going into or out of Chicago. I guess he's more important than we are. :) Well, a lot of people were already going to miss their flights out of Chicago and the more we got delayed (since they kept changing the time we were leaving) the more concerned I got about missing my flight.

Salt Lake to Chicago was ok. Then run to find my gate....phew, made my plane. But, I'm absolutely miserable by this time because I'm coughing and I'm on a narcotic and I'm feeling somewhat sick. So we get on the plane and we sit and we sit and we sit. The Captain finally gets on the intercom and proceeds to tell us that for some reason (we switched original planes or something) we have no crew and not only do we have no crew we don't have gasoline. Say what?! That definitely got my attention. I looked at the two men beside me and we were like, that's never a good sign. I was more than nauseous at this point and basically conked out against the window. We sat there forever though. We finally started taxiing and we taxied and taxied and taxied and then STOPPED. What? Why did we stop? Runways are for taking off. Not stopping in the middle of. Needless to say, Chicago is not know for its good weather. There was actually lightning and rain that was visible out the windows of the plane. Back on the intercom, "Sorry folks, no eastbound flights are taking off at this time." They did let us talk on our phones though. I was quite possibly the shade of green by this time and it was roasting on that plane. Their idea of a free movie to show everyone was Jane Austen's Book club or something like that. Uh, no. I didn't watch it. We sat on the tarmac for about 2 hours and 15 minutes. On the runway. We couldn't even re-route because, oops, we don't have enough fuel. At one point I saw the line of planes behind us. It was long. We finally got in the air for one of the bumpiest rides I've ever had (and I was already nauseous). I don't think I've ever come so close to having to use one of those barf bags before. I actually had my head between my knees for a long time. I could describe how sick I was in detail for you, but I won't. Narcotic + Motion sickness (which I get really badly) + bad turbulence + little food (airport food for that matter) + sinus infection + cough = recipe for disaster. It was pretty darn close. I have never been so glad to see the Washington Monument and the Kennedy Center!!

I felt horrible for my roommates, by this point, who were supposed to be picking me up because I knew they both had to get up early the next morning and it was getting later and later and I had a lot of luggage: a huge suitcase, a Massive duffel bag, my laptop bag, and my purse. I had some serious issues carrying all of those at once. Moving on....I made it without puking all over everyone and everything. I'm sure United appreciates that, as do the guys sitting next to me. But, now I have a headache headed toward a migraine. Who wouldn't? So I wait for my bags and duffel bag? Yes. Suitcase? No. They delivered it the next day (I didn't get it on the way there either) Booo....That officially made this the worst trip EVER. I'm NEVER EVER EVER flying through Chicago again. Not if I can avoid it at least. By the time my roommates showed up and I had filled out my missing baggage claim ticket I was nearly in tears. I was dry heaving when I got home and then the trip from HELL was over. The End.

A review of 2007

I stole this survey from someone else :)
[X] Became single
[X] got kissed
[X] kissed someone new
[ ] kissed in the snow
[ ] kissed in the rain
[ ] kissed on the beach
[ ] 'fell in love'
[ ] 'fell in love' with a fool
[X] had my heart broken
[X] broke someone else's heart
[X] had a stalker
[X] lost a friend
[X] had a good relationship with someone
[ ] came out of my closet
[ ] got married
[ ] had a divorce
[X] kissed someone of the same sex (on the cheek)
[X] dated someone that you will never forget
[X] did something I regret
[X] lost faith in love
[ ] kissed under mistletoe
[ ] got a promotion
[ ] got a pay raise
[ ] changed jobs
[ ] quit my job
[ ] dated a co-worker
[ ] dated my boss
[ ] dated my boss's son/ daughter
[ ] got fired from my job
[ ] got straight A's
[X] met a teacher who I became friends with
[X] met a teacher who I really hate
[X] found the subject I love
[X] failed a class (since a 78% is now failing for me. Booo)
[X] cut class
[X] skipped school
[ ] got in a fight with a classmate
[X] did something I was proud of
[X] discovered a new talent
[X] proved myself that I'm an idiot
[X] embarrassed myself in front of the class
[ ] fell in love with a teacher
[ ] got the lead/minor lead role in the school play
[ ] made a team
[X] was involved in something that I will never forget
[ ] painted a picture
[ ] wrote a poem
[ ] ran a mile
[X] listened to music I couldn't stand
[X] double dipped
[X] went to a sleepover
[ ] went to camp
[ ] threw a surprise party
[X] laughed till I cried
[X] flirted shamelessly
[ ] visited a foreign country
[X]visited a state
[ ] cooked a disastrous meal
[X] lost something important to me
[X] got a gift I love
[X] realized something new about myself
[ ] went on a diet
[ ] tried to gain weight
[ ] dyed my hair
[ ] came close to losing my life
[X] someone/thing close to me died
[ ] got arrested
[X] read a great book
[X] saw a great movie
[ ] saw a movie so scary that it made me cry
[ ] saw a favorite band live
[X] did something that I wanted to tell everyone
[X] experienced something new
[X] made new friends
[X] found out who your real friends are
[X] lied to your parents
[ ] snuck out
[ ] got in trouble with the po-po
[ ] kissed in a pool
[X] kissed under the stars
[X] had the time of your life
[X] danced
[ ] fell out of love
[X] had a crush on someone
[X] swam in a pool
[ ] made a snowman
[ ] went snowboarding
[ ] went sledding
[X] slept in past 2pm
[X] held someone’s hand that you care about
[ ] got wasted in a public place
[X] told someone you like them as more than a friend
[X] gone on vacation
[X] gone on vacation with a friend
[X] driven a car
[ ] danced in the rain
[X] got in a car accident
[X] seen someone get in a car accident
[ ] got in a fist fight
[X] laughed until you couldn't breathe
[X] missed someone
[ ] sent someone to the hospital
[ ] got a new pet

A YEAR-END SURVEY1.) Who was your best friend at the beginning of this year? The end?
At the beginning- friends from home and Utah, End- Still friends from home and lots of new friends from Va and DC.
2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day? Single.
3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Yes, the whole year.
4.) How did you earn your keep? Ha. Doing homework and more homework and more homework and going to clinicals. Did I mention doing homework?!
5.) Did you ever have to go to the hospital? hahahahaha all the time....for clinicals.
6.) Have you encountered the police this year? :)
7.) Where did you go on vacation? Utah, Colorado, NYC, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts
8.) What did you purchase that was over $500? Tuition, books
9.) Did you know anybody who got married? Of course
10.) Did you know anybody who passed away? My Grandma died :(
11.)How many times did you go on facebook/myspace? many many times
12.) Did you move anywhere? To Virginia
13.) What sporting events did you go to? Caps, Nationals (is that it?! Ugh. That sucks)
14.) What concerts did you go to? Harry and the Potters is the only one I can remember. Lamesauce.
15) Are you registered to vote? In Colorado
16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 6? I didn't get my absentee ballot. I suck.
17.) Where do you live now? Arlington, VA
18.) Describe your birthday. I sent all of my friends and family an email describing what they could and couldn't talk to me about (see in one of my previous blogs) and CRD brought me DP (he is awesome!!). Then my roommies took me to dinner at P.F. Chang's (the only Chinese food I like- not really Chinese, but very good). It was fabulous!!
19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2007? make it through my first year of nursing school (I knew I'd do it, it's just amazing it's done)
20.) What is one thing you regretted this year? Don't really want to rehash bad memories, thank you
21.) What's something you learned about yourself? That I'm a different person on the East Coast than I am at home
22.) Any new additions to your family? Not yet...unless you count the nephew in my sister-in-law's belly
23.) What was your best month? Do people have "best months?"
24.) How would you rate this year with a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (amazing)? I dunno. 7 maybe

Narcotics Anonymous

I have been horribly sick for the past week and a half while I have been on vacation in Colorado and Utah. I finally went to the Dr. and he gave me some meds, so here is my disclaimer for the past few days and for the remaining time that I am taking said medication,

To whom it may concern:
I, Jennie, cannot be held responsible for anything I say or do while I am on narcotics. Thank You.
(If you don't believe me, read my appendicitis blog)

Now I am feeling slightly woozy and should go to bed before I pass out or throw up, whichever comes first. Good night.

Have I told you lately...

How much I HATE grocery shopping? Yeah I'm not saying a little bit of hatred here, utter contempt. It's hard to portray just how much I abhor it. I've told several people that I'd write a blog on this though, so I'll try to explain my reasoning here. When I lived in Provo, Utah and went to school there for five and a half years, I obviously had to go grocery shopping (except my first year that I lived in the dorms, yucky food). The problem with Utah is that there are so many couples. Maybe that's just my warped point of view, but I hate seeing the couples there. It makes me sick. They're disgusting. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for affection and dating, but it just felt like people were sickly affectionate and it makes me gag.

Alright, moving on to grocery shopping. I quickly discovered that people rarely go grocery shopping alone in Utah, or so it seemed to my single brain, at the time. I swear you can see more couples at the grocery store than anywhere else, including the movie theaters, or restaurants, etc. So every time you go you have to be reminded just how single you really are. Of course you could try to drag a roommate with you, but then you're on their schedule and feel rushed and forget things. So around every corner is another couple and the gagging just kind of takes away the appetite. So after years of dealing with the stupid couples everywhere you go, I developed a loathing for grocery shopping. Therefore, I started avoiding it as long as I possibly could. Basically I'd rather starve to death for weeks than have to go to the grocery store. No, I'm not kidding. I like food, don't get me wrong, it's just not really worth it if I have to go to the grocery store all that often to buy it. Even now that I live in Virginia where I rarely (as in never) see couples shopping together (welcome to career family central) I still absolutely dread having to go. Besides, you have to spend money and decide what you're going to buy and that means you have to cook and you should be eating healthy, but I don't have time to really make food that's healthy nor do I particularly enjoy cooking most of the time (and...who has time to cook?), so that means that it's just plainly a chore to shop for food. (deep breath) OK, so sometimes I don't hate cooking, but I think I'll always hate grocery shopping. Some people hate doing laundry (haha, Lex), dishes (these aren't my favorite...scraping other people's food off of dishes kinda freaks me out), washing windows, etc....and I hate grocery shopping. I also hate hair, it freaks me out too, but that's an entirely different story. So there you have it. When I get married, maybe I'll make my husband go, or at least I'll drag him along with me...then we can be like those disgusting couples in Utah....YUCK!! haha

Why I don't go on blind dates anymore

So some friends and I were discussing malpractice insurance for Doctors the other night and it reminded me of the time that I could have sued a Doctor for misdiagnosing me....We were also discussing dating which reminds me of the same story. This is why I will NEVER go on another blind date again. This is also why I don't have an appendix, or a belly button either.

I woke up at 12:30am with the worst pain I've ever experienced. Actually, it's a toss up between that pain and the pain of having the packing removed from my nose after that surgery. But, that's an entirely different story. I can tolerate my fair share of pain, really at it's worse I've only called my pain an 8 out of 10. For me to call it a 10, I'd have to be unconscious from the pain, nearly dead. Anyways, I suffered through the night somehow until 8:30am and then convinced one of my roommates to take me to the Health Center at BYU (this is no way degrades the care of the Health Center, they are great!!). Let me back up just for a second, my pain was in my abdomen, but was not localized like appendicitis usually is. Since I knew appendicitis is usually pain in the lower right quadrant of the abdomen I figured that it was not appendicitis so I could put heat on it, which I did. BAD BAD idea. NEVER EVER put heat on appendicitis. It can kill you! I'm an idiot. Luckily I survived my stupidity. Back to the Health Center....I received IV #1 and fluids. They took a x-ray of my abdomen and the Doctor determined that I was constipated. Are you freakin' kidding me?! Worst pain of my life and he's says it's just constipation. Yeah right. He wouldn't give me any pain medication because he said that would make the constipation worse. Lovely. I stayed in misery for the next 4 hours at the Health Center. They finally sent me home sometime after noon (they took out my IV) and told me to call if I started vomiting.

I went home and of course...I started vomiting. At this point they decided that I needed to get in to have a CT Scan. So I drove to the Imaging place, bawling my eyes out. At this point, I called my brother and sister-in-law and asked them to meet me there. At the Imaging place of course they had to start another IV (IV #2) to do a contrast CT Scan. If you've never had one of these done, I'll just tell you this, it leaves a copper taste (kind of like penny's) in your mouth and also makes you feel like you peed your pants. I know, awesome. At least I can have empathy for my patients now, I guess. They did the CT Scan and I sat in the waiting room with my bro and sis- in-law and nephew for a while crying until they told me to go straight to the hospital, I had appendicitis, I have to have surgery immediately. Basically, do not pass go, do not collect $200. So, luckily the Imaging place was around the corner from the hospital. I was no longer in any shape to drive though, so I had to leave my car and have my sis-in-law drive. I'm so grateful for the Priesthood in my life. My brother gave me a blessing on the way to the hospital, it wasn't the only one I would get during this hospital visit.

We got to the hospital ER (I don't remember what time it was). So much for being an emergency, though. I sat in the waiting room of the ER for like another 2 hours, puking my guts up in a bucket. Oh the joy. I vaguely remember that one of the bathrooms was flooding in the waiting room too, but maybe I just made that detail up, I don't know. My brother called my Mom while when we got to the ER waiting room to tell her what was up. Unfortunately, I had not warned her of what was going on, so she just got a phone call from my brother saying..."we're in the ER, Jennie has to have surgery." Hahaha, my poor Mom. My brother thought I had talked to her earlier, so that news was a bit of a shock to her. Luckily my home in Colorado is only a 5 hour drive from Provo, so she left right away. Now, to the blind date part....

I had a blind date planned with a guy who's parents were good friends with my parents for the night after my surgery. Well...as I was puking in a bucket in the ER waiting room, my date called me to finalize details. Of course I didn't want to answer, so I made my brother answer and explain to him that I was in the ER and about to go to surgery for an emergency Appendectomy, so the date would have to be postponed, obviously. End of story, right? Wrong! But I'll get back to that a little later.

I was finally admitted to the actual ER around 5pm, where they FINALLY gave me Morphine for the pain. YAY for narcotics!!!! Big fan!!! So basically I hadn't had ANYTHING for pain for the past approximately 17 hours since my pain had started. Yeah, it was the day from Hell! Well, I had never had Morphine before and it works great for me, but it also knocks me out and makes me pretty loopy. Basically I am NOT responsible for ANYTHING I say when I'm on narcotics. I DO NOT edit what I say and basically you could probably get me to tell you anything. I'm pretty sure it would NOT make any sense though, sorry. I'm not sure if I received IV #3 or if they left the one in from the Imaging center. I thought I spent like 2 hours in the ER waiting to go into surgery. I found out later that it was actually 5 hours. My poor brother, who must seriously love me, sat with me for the entire 5 hours. I love him dearly!! Poor guy! Apparently there were like 3 or 4 more cases of Appendicitis in the ER at the same time I was there, which was really random. I was finally taken back into a prep room for surgery at about 10pm. They gave me something that they said would make me kind of drowsy. Hahahaha, yeah right. I was completely out in like 30 seconds. I don't remember anything until they were taking me into my room 3 hours later. I wasn't even awake to go into the OR. I woke up at 1am as they were wheeling me into my room on the Med/ Surg floor and my Mom had just barely arrived.

The funny thing is they put me on the floor below where I worked. 3 weeks previously I had started work on the Medical/ Oncology Floor as a PCT (Patient Care Tech- basically a CNA who gets to draw blood and put in catheters, woohoo :P). I was even supposed to work that weekend. That obviously didn't happen, but I did go up to visit my co-workers, IV pole and all, just to prove that I wasn't just skipping out on work for fun. :) The next day was pretty blurry for me. I was on a lot of drugs, which not only knocked me out, I was also in pain. I know a bunch of people from church, who I didn't know yet (later we became really good friends) came to see me. I don't remember the details though. The funny thing about narcotics and me is that, like I said, I don't have the ability to edit things when I'm on them. So, apparently I told me brother something that is entirely too graphic to put on here (I've taken so many medical classes that I tend to use correct medical terms. This isn't coming out right. Ok, I described something in detail in medical terms that normal people don't use in casual conversation). My mother was mortified, though. I think it's hilarious, but my brother was kind of horrified. Anyways, me on narcotics is dangerous for casual conversation.

Back to the blind date thing. The evening after my surgery, we got a phone call in my room that my Mom answered and guess who it was? My blind date. Yeah, guess where he was? Downstairs in the hospital. Oh yeah. No, I'm not kidding. He drove like an hour and a half to get there, it wasn't like I could turn him away. Another note on narcotics, they make me incredibly emotional. So I was completely irrational and had just been crying about something. So anyways, I got to meet my blind date while lying in a hospital bed wearing literally nothing but a hospital gown, no make-up, I've just been through surgery, and I'm totally loopy on narcotics. Lovely. Talk about embarrassing. He does get points for making me cookies and bringing me a card, but I can't quite forget how humiliated I was. Now it's just funny, but it wasn't very funny at the time. Apparently, my Mom spent almost the whole time talking to him. I was too drugged to be very conversational. That may be kind of rude, but considering the state I was in, I didn't care. I did end up going out with him later on our date, which was disastrous, by the way. It was awful. He was sizing me up for marriage the whole time, basically. But, I don't want to totally trash the guy, so back to my hospital story. Nope, I'm not done. It gets better, although the blind date part is done.

I should have gone home the next day (Post-Op Day #2?), I think (I don't know, the days all kind of ran together). But I do remember the PCT coming in the next morning and taking me vital signs. She stuck a sat monitor on my finger and nearly panicked when it read my Sats as in the 70's. Yeah, VERY bad. Ok, your "Sats" is your oxygen saturation in your blood. Basically you want it to be above 90% (my nursing professors say much higher, but basically when it gets to 88% it rapidly drops)...so the fact that I was in the 70's was a bit of a panic moment for them. I had to get a chest x-ray, which showed that the bottom of my lungs were starting to collapse (I had atelectasis, my nursing friends will appreciate that diagnosis). Basically, that put me at a big risk for getting pneumonia, unless I started moving around and coughing, deep breathing. By the way, when you've had you're stomach muscle cut through, the last thing you want to do is cough or deep breathe. Yay for nurses who told me about using a pillow as a splint. Ok, I better stop there before I get really carried away with the nursing stuff. They also sent me down for ultrasounds on both of my legs to check for DVT's (blood clots) from lying in bed too much (a cause of the atelectasis). It was a rough day. I finally got to go home the next day (I think). Recovery was like 3 weeks at home and another 3 weeks not lifting anything. That was just a laparoscopic appendectomy. (P.S. Yes, this means I have 3 tiny scars, one of which is in my belly button, basically he destroyed my belly button. I don't really have one anymore). I can't imagine what an open appendectomy would be like. Recovery sucked, to put it lightly. Lortab (Vicodin) was my friend for weeks! Thank goodness I only had one appendix, I NEVER want to do that again.

Anyways, the good thing is it did give me a lot of empathy for my patients. I know what it feels like to have a sore throat from being intubated. I know what it feels like to be in pain from having air inflated into your abdomen for surgery and then to have to burp it up for the next day (yes, they do that, and yes, it actually hurts). I know what real pain feels like (to a degree, of course, pain is subjective and different for every person). I know what it's like to need pain medication and to have to wait forever (or so it seemed) for your nurse to bring it to you. Ok, I should stop. Basically, I learned a ton from the experience.

Hmm...did I forget anything? That's a really long story, sorry. It's better when I tell it in person, with my voice inflections and facial expressions, of course. I'm not telling this to be cocky or dramatic, it's just a great story. Anyways, I refuse to go on anymore blind dates. They're not worth it. What would happen next time? I'd probably get hit by a truck and have to get my spleen out or something. I can only lose so many internal organs. Yeah, it's not worth it. No go. (because I'm morbid and like pictures) :)

Who needs a conscience, I have a nephew...

It was my niece's turn to say the family prayer tonight, she's 2 1/2. (Oh, P.S. I'm in Utah with my bro's family right now, yay!) So she said her prayer, but then my nephew (he's 5) decided he needed to say his own prayer too. I don't remember exactly the words he used in the prayer, but it went something like this..."please bless that Aunt Jennie will not be good and will not be mean to Daddy and put hot sauce in his water again like she did last time." He struggled through that part trying to put it into words, but by that time I had my hands over my face trying REALLY hard not to laugh out loud. Once he was done, I burst out laughing. I couldn't help it. That was 3 months ago, he has an amazing memory. Apparently I traumatized him by doing that. I was just getting my brother back for something he did to me, I don't even remember what. Welcome to my family! That's what siblings are for, right?! My brother was like, "yeah, he's got my back." Blah...now I feel a little bit guilty. OK, maybe not. Kids are great!!! He repeated the "Aunt Jennie will be good" part at least twice. So apparently I'm supposed to be good this vacation. Hahaha!! We'll see.... :D

My Birthday Rules (or rules for my birthday either one)

(The email I sent to my friends the night before my birthday)....
Ok people here's the deal...I've had a terrible week, no kidding. It started out horribly and got WAY worse from there. My bday is on Friday. I hate birthdays, but since a lot of you already know about it, I'm setting some ground rules. I have a bad track record with birthdays. They do not go well for me, I'd rather just kind of skip over them and I already feel old. My roommate decided I needed to make up this list of approved and unapproved topics and Rules/ Restrictions. If you think I'm kidding then you obviously have not talked to me this week. I've had the week from Hell. This is NO joke. If you bring up one of these restricted topics or break a rule do not think I will just laugh and blow it off and we'll be ok next week. You will be excommunicated from my birthday and probably as a friend too. I'm not feeling very forgiving this week. So read carefully. Ok, have a good rest of the week. Love you all, Jen

Rules/ Restrictions:
No one can wear the color pink in my presence
No one can "pop" their collar in my presence
No cutting onions in my presence

Unapproved topics:
School (don't ask me how it's going)
Nursing
Hospitals
Moving
Black Beauty (or any cars in general)
Papers
Exams
Sleep (or lack thereof)
My week (do NOT ask me about it)
Denver
Babies
Clinicals
My relationship with ANYONE (guy or girl)
The Metro
Rubik cubes (I'm sick of hearing about them, no offense)
Being old
Previous birthdays
Utah
the War
Iraq
Saudi Arabia (or why this is my nickname)
Baltimore
Homework
Harry Potter (I like HP I just don't want to hear about it on my bday)
Your advice on my life
Idaho
Arizona
Booeymongers
Awkward relationships
Dating
Marriage
Mitt Romney
Politics
Winter
Turtles
Humidity/ Heat
the Yankees
missing the baseball game on Monday
Finals
Transformers (I haven't seen it yet, stop rubbing it in)
Pinatas
Honey
Cauterizing
Rook
Sea Food
Grocery shopping
Clowns
Hair
Calories
Weight
Poison Ivy
Langley Ward

Approved Topics:
Baseball
Red Sox
Boston
Moose
Lighthouses
Pickles
Milk Chocolate
UFC (especially if you are a guy and want to try the moves on me- um, a friend said I should say that) :P
Bones (it's a TV show)
the Office
Colorado (but if you make me homesick you get kicked out)
the beach
Winnipesaukee
Ice cream
Dr. Pepper
Motorcycles
Black olives
Hot tubs
Shoulder holsters
Amusement Parks
Good music
Thunder and lightning storms
Painted toenails
Cowboys
Good movies
One liners from 8 Simple rules (that's for you, Lex) :)
Luv Sacs
My blog
Horses
Boats
Bulldozers
Guns
TWSS
Lightning bugs
Verbal vomit moments
Cereal
Bubble gum
Good memories of/ with me
Tree Houses
Swings
Boots
Squirrels

You can always try to bring up another topic but that's pretty risky for you unless you want to be on the hit list. Apparently, 24 would like to go out with a vengeance so my last week of being 24 is one of the worst I've ever had. Either that or 24 hates me. :) I'm past the tears point now, it's almost funny how bad this week has been, so I'm only partly joking here. :P Laters ya'll....

I got picked up by a guy...literally!!

(This blog is also from my Myspace page, but hey...this one's just plain classic and funny, so it needed to go on here. The comments back from Shane and I aren't on here obviously though, which is too bad).

My roommate told me to write this one, so here goes…I went to Utah several weeks ago, which was really fun as weird as it is to go back after being away for over a year. Although I went to school there for 5 ½ years I never really liked living there, unfortunately. But going back there I found there were a few things I really missed. Ok, I have no idea why I wrote any of that….Oh yeah, I remember now, I didn't really want to come back to Virginia after being in Utah for a week. Even though I only saw a few friends in Utah (most of my friends are spread all over the U.S. now) and there's not much there for me, I still found a few very compelling reasons to stay. I also really miss my family, especially my nephew and nieces. I lived with them for the last 6 months of my time in Utah and so it's very easy to go back and fit right into their family again. Anyways, before I get really nostalgic, I'm going to move on. I also had a really, really, really BAD sunburn from playing in the kiddie pool the day before. I know, brilliant Jennie. So needless to say, I did not want to get on a plane and sit for hours on end to come back to a place I didn't want to be. So this is possibly the best thing that could have happened to me that night, as weird as that sounds, because it got me mostly out of my "I don't want to be in DC" mood. I also got to sit next to a really cool girl on the plane for the whole trip, yeah we're friends.

Ok, here's the background….a month or so ago, my roommate posted a picture of me and my car on facebook. I did an awesome parallel parking job that I was really proud of (in all honestly I have to admit it wasn't that great, but whatever, we just like taking pictures and I LOVE that car), so she took a picture, of course. Well, she tagged her friend, Shane in the picture because she had a similar picture of his parking job of her car in the same place from a long time ago. So the tag line on the pic. was, "Jennie parked perfect too. She wanted to have this rival Shane's parking job in the same spot in front of our house." So, I commented under the pic. "YAY for Black Beauty!" That's my car's name (yeah, she's hot and I look hot in her ). (This isn't the pic, but I looked horrible, so I'm not putting it on here) Anyways, it started out innocent enough, but then our friend Mark and Alexis both commented on it, and Shane responded. So naturally, I had to give a sarcastic reply. I won't write that whole thing down, but it's very entertaining to read that whole commentary under that one stupid picture. Well my sarcastic reply incited Shane to challenge me to a fight to the death. Bring it on, buddy. One of my other friends complained that I like to start fights with their guy friends (which is probably true since guys are fun to fight with), but in all honesty in this case Shane totally started it, I swear. I may have kept it going, but hey, I'm competitive, if someone challenges me, I'm no wimp, I refuse to back down until it's over, and by over I mean, when I win. I do have at least 2 weaknesses, but I refuse to give those out, unless I'm asked by the right people, of course. So, Shane challenged me to a fight and told me that he was going to "administer unto [me] the kiss of death." Yeah, right. Good luck, buddy. I told him he could dig his own grave. So the consensus was that we would fight when he came to DC the weekend that I was returning from Utah.

I got back to DC on a Saturday night and my roommate told me she'd come get me because my brother bailed on me like the day before, lamesauce. So I went out on the curb to wait for Lex cuz she told me to call her when I landed cuz that's about when she needed to leave our house to get to the airport in time. Well a bunch of people from my plane and I were waiting, in the rain, imagine that in DC, haha. No offense to my roommate she was taking forever to get there, it probably only felt like that cuz I was exhausted. Come to find out later, they got lost in DC, and probably got a speeding ticket as well, I guess we'll find out if her parents get one in the mail. Oops So they finally pulled up and my roommate got out of the passenger side of her car which totally confused me, but she came flying at me and gave me a big hug and said she me missed me. I feel loved. I was too tired at this point to figure out why she wasn't driving, nor did I have the time to figure it out because the next thing I know Lex grabs my suitcase and all I see is Shane (who I recognized from pictures) come flying around the back of the car and come running at me. I didn't have time to react before he came around me and picked me up and carried me all the way to the car and threw me in the back seat. All the way I'm screaming/ laughing, "I don't even know you…put me down!!!" Apparently the people's expressions on the curb were priceless, my roommate was really sad they didn't have a video camera. I was glad she came and gave me a hug first otherwise those poor people would have thought I was being abducted. LOL….It was classic though. I literally got "picked up" from the airport. Nice first impression, huh?! So he proceeded for the rest of the night to try to kill me. (Attempt #1- I'm trapping his hand right here to keep him from killing me with it). He found out about my sunburn later, good thing he didn't pick me up higher, besides the fact that that would have been awkward. Well, more awkward than it already was. Haha I might have killed him on the spot. I seriously radiated heat and was flamingly red. Yeah, I rock. It made for some interesting outfits for me for the next week or so. I didn't want to be touched though, much less wrestling with someone who wants to kill me, lovely.(Attempt #2- friendly guy, huh, yeah we just met). Besides, it's only fun to get pinned if you get kissed, I like to say. Or as my friend Seth likes to change it to, it's only fun to get kissed if you get pinned, lol. I got dragged to another friend's house that night, by default (actually he wants to kill me too, go figure). (Attempt #3- He looks like he's trying really hard, except I'm just laughing, maybe he should have tried harder). Unfortunately, I sat behind Shane in the car for the 10 minute drive to Corey's house. BAD idea! Wrestling matches over car seats aren't very effective, but they are kind of fun. (This is like attempt #145 at the end of the night, he might have suceeded this time, but he reached through the headrest, duh). Luckily, Corey wasn't home, so I didn't have to deal with 2 guys trying to kill me in the same night, at least not that night. The next night, on the other hand, I was not so lucky. Shane, Corey, and I in a room is hazardous to my health. (Me between the two of them...I look like I'm going to puke. This is a terrible picture of me). Don't get me wrong, I can totally defend myself and I'm not afraid of either guy, but them together is a little, how do I put this….disheartening. I was not in the mood to take on either guy, luckily it was mostly a verbal fight that night. That, I will take on any day, anytime. (Ok, maybe it wasn't all verbal. This may or may not have been a picture in the middle of a pillow fight). Anyways…that's the story. We're both still alive and we live in different states, so it's all ok, at least until he comes to town again, j/k Shane…you know I like you, ok maybe not like, but tolerate. Only good friends get to see the Numa Numa Dance afterall, and you freakin' recorded it. BOOOO….that's blackmail, buddy (especially since I'm pretty sure I'm dressed like a skank in it, lovely). By the way, I am NOT putting the one from Lex's bday on YouTube no matter how badly Lex wants that other pic. off of Facebook.