Miss me?
Have you missed me??? I was in Ohio last week. It was a great week. I helped my best friend from college and her family move. In reality, I was the nanny. I drove out on Monday morning and made it to the Columbus area by dinner time. Now, you know I don't exactly know how to relate to children. Well, I really grew this week. It was great. I played tag, hide and seek, stamped with the kids (of course), played with clay, brushed lots of Pretty Ponies' hair, and entertained them. By the end of the week I was very comfortable around them. Stefanie's oldest daughter and I even went grocery shopping together.

Stefanie is about 37 weeks pregnant so we were all holding our breath that she wouldn't give birth until after the move. We made it, but there were a few scares throughout the week. Their house is absolutely GORGEOUS! I want to build a new house now! She has a fabulous gourmet kitchen, a room dedicated to homeschool, beautiful cherry hardwood floors, a 100ft ceiling in the living room (at least that's what it seems), a HUGE master bathroom, and neighbors who know what I look like naked! Oooops....there weren't any curtains.

It was a wonderful trip. I loved visiting with the family - especially Stefanie. I learned lots. I learned that hide and seek is the best game EVER!!! When kids hide, they're quiet and don't run around! And, you can take as long as you want finding them!!!

Then it happened....you know how accident prone I am? You know I don't have health insurance? Yes, a bad combination for me. So, disaster struck on Thursday night. I was driving back from dinner with Elyse, Stefanie's 4 year old daughter, in my backseat. Somehow how I crushed my thumb in my car door. Wow. Now that's pain. It was terrible. I actually cracked the nail down near the cuticle. Blood was oozing out of the cut. It swelled. It was painful. I couldn't do even the simplest tasks - forget about putting on certain articles of clothing, or holding pencils, or grasping. I had ice on it for over 24 hours straight. I was taking quadruple the amount of pain medicine. If I even lightly brushed it, I burst into tears. The ride home (12 hours later) was interesting. It was a 530 mile drive. It took me about 8.5 hours to get there. It took me about 11 to get home - on 3 hours of sleep. How was I going to keep ice frozen for that long??? I had a plan. I was going to buy those instant ice packs and activate them as needed. Good plan, right? Well, I hit a grocery store and two drug stores, and none of them worked. I finally stopped at a grocery store and picked up frozen peas. They're a MUCH better bargain. An instant ice pack is usually $1.99 each - and last 30 minutes. Frozen peas are around $1.29 and stay cold for 3 hours!!! So, my plan was to buy peas, some ice, and a styrofoam cooler. The only cooler I could find was a Budweiser King of Beer cooler. So, there I stood in this no-name grocery store with my Budweiser cooler, two packs of peas, and a 7lb bag of ice. What must they have thought?!?! It didn't matter, it was good. I did have to stop one more time to buy more peas near Harrisburg. The only problem was with the peas on my thumb and 4x the Advil in my system, I was relaxed enough to fall asleep behind the wheel. I couldn't win.

The pain started to cease on Saturday - that's when I tried draining my thumb. I stabbed a pin in several areas. What relief that was. Mom suggested I "google" remedies. Well, they suggested I heat a paperclip over an open flame until it was red hot. Then I should burn a hole through the nail. Hmmm....sounded dangerous to me. But, I tried it. It smelled bad and I chickened out before it worked. Now I just have an ugly dark spot on my very purple nail.

I had an appointment with a doctor tonight. Guess what....they would have burned a hole in my nail to drain the blood!!! Ha! I was on the right track. But, he feels I probably drained it all. He doesn't think I'll lose the nail. And, he says the discomfort will last for a couple of weeks. Waa. I can't hold a pen. I can't stamp. I can't do many things. Wanna see a picture? Of course you do!!! Think it looks like a toe? Well, you're right. It's my deformed thumb. This isn't the first time my thumb was slammed in a car door. My mother did it when I was younger and we think she may have messed up the growth plate or something like that. It grew wide, not tall. It's a good half-inch shorter than the other.

Finally....today was my first day of work. Lots of good stuff there. I have my own office!!! It doesn't have a door, but all four walls reach the ceiling and I'm the only one in the room. It's great! As a consultant, you're lucky if you have your own table in the closet where the client puts you. Then I looked at my desk - there was no laptop - only a desktop. You know what that means? They don't expect me to work from home! Woo Hoo!!! Then my boss did the one thing he may regret. He left me alone with the Staples catalog and a stack of order forms and told me to order whatever I needed. AAAGGGHHH!!! I love office supplies. But I hadn't the slightest clue how to complete the order form. So, we'll see what shows up in a couple of days.

Okey dokey...my thumb hurts now. Hope you enjoyed the reading!!!