I'm back to sneaking into my own xanga account by pretending to answer the featured question, then deleting the link, title and tag that say so. I will not give in! I refuse to believe that a free trial, if it's truly "no strings attached", would have to thrust itself under people's faces and prevent them from getting into their own blog until they acquiesce. You have strings, TrialPay, I know you must have some strings. And I'm a college student; I'm way too tired to deal with more strings attached to things, especially things like xanga that I once enjoyed string-free.

And speaking of strings attached... Like the time I went to the ASC simply to get irrefutable proof to show all the profs I'll ever have here that I need enlarged-print printouts and some alternative way to see what's on the board or overhead, (get someone else's notes, get a printout, go up to the front of the room and stick my face in it after class and copy it all myself- whatever works.) And the lovely overly-helpful ASC people wanted me to use "Dragon Naturally Speaking" to write papers and request extended time to take my exams- they had a lot of other "helpful" ideas, some of which I'd think would pertain more to learning disabilities than visual impairment. Um... HELLO? I'm only legally blind in ONE eye. And I KNOW how to study! I got here with a 4.0 in high school without using "Dragon Naturally Speaking"! I think I'll be okay without it now!

Well, I fear the Wellness Suite may be as overly-helpful as the ASC. They helped me out big time when I had bronchitis, and I am so glad that they're nice, well-informed, and charge you a measly $15 co-pay appropriate to the typical college student's budget. (And you can even put that off by putting it on your account!) But when it comes to explaining my more unique physical concerns... Maybe I just need to have more of a spine, but I let them help me WAY more than I need.

I woke up this morning and was even more stiff and robotic than I am most mornings. My lower back has decided to annoy me since yesterday afternoon and it was awful when I just woke up today- and shooting pains ensued. Whoop-dee-doo. This is where Nicole admits she should have found a chiropractor in Harrisonburg months ago, BEFORE these problems start arising because when she's 4 hours from home, Mom and Dad can no longer take her regularly to see "Dr. Ben", the chiropractor and old family friend that, as far as my orthopedic surgeon is concerned, may have single-handedly prevented me from ever developing scoliosis.

I went to the Wellness Suite and asked the receptionist if they have chiropractic services on-campus. "No, but I can schedule you an appointment with a nurse."

Since I have no idea where to find a chiropractor in this town, I figure an appointment with a nurse might be marginally helpful, if only to ask if she knows where the chiropractors are. "Okay."

So I come back for my appointment at 10:15. I have class in an hour and a half. I end up missing that class. Seriously, I was there that long, and they gave me a lovely to-do list when I left. I just wanted to know where the heck the chiropractors are in this town!

I had to explain why I was here when I was in relatively minor pain, so I explained about the ligament thing and... well... next thing I know I'm spelling "Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome"... next thing I know I'm trying to remember WHICH one of my elbows I fractured by merely rolling off the sofa at the age of 18 months... next thing I know, I'm giving this nice, friendly nursing student my entire medical history! (And my family's; this well-intentioned nursing student now knows I get EDS from my mother's side, and I have only one biological sibling- EDS-free but allergic to seclor. And I don't think I spelled that right.) All this wasn't helping me at all, but I was charitable and decided I was doing the nursing student a favor, giving her an experience with a patient with a unique medical history.

At least it made me realize that, once I'm out in the "real world", I'll need to be a little better-informed on my own medical history. I should have Mom quiz me over spring break. "How do you spell the name of your rare cornea condition?" "What did they actually DO to your knees when they gave you those lovely six-inch scars?" "Which elbow did you fracture as a baby?" People with more common medical issues just need to know how to pronounce the name of whatever's wrong with them, and the doctor will know how to spell it- not to mention, what it is and how it affects their prognosis. Oh, if I could be so lucky. I start out many awkward conversations, both in and out of doctors' offices, with, "Have you ever heard of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?"

So once they finally examine me, they tell me to ice my back once every 2 hours- if I can. (Yah! Great! I'm a college student!) Also I need to take 3 (of the "take 2 unless recommended by a doctor" size) ibuprofen, 4 times a day, til my follow-up appointment on Friday. (That's what, TWICE the amount that the box tells you to take in a day?) Yeeea! I get to pop pills! Takes me back to the days of the aftermaths of my knee surgeries! (And by the way, the nurses are "researching" where the chiropractors are in this town- they personally didn't know.)

I told them I had a big bottle of generic ibuprofen in my room- perfect for popping like Pez candies. I take the elevator up to my room, my new ice packs, (a gift from the Wellness Suite,) in hand, and discover my "stash" is actually acetaminophen. Crap. When you're "take two" self-medicating for minor pains, most of the time it doesn't really matter which one you're taking, but I obviously can't OD-on-doctor's-orders on the wrong stuff! So it's off the campus bookstore I go a-limping, with a sense of dread in my heart. Sure enough, there's no generic stuff, and 20 Advil cost 6 bucks.

6 bucks for medicine that won't last me 2 days. Okay, now I felt like Dr. House. Walking in pain, popping pills, and getting more cynical by the second. I bought the stuff, just because my back pain got much worse while I stood there and agonized over the price. Also, I can never drive, and today I can't walk, to the Rite Aid down the street to seek a better price. I had the fleeting compulsion to ask the bookstore cashier how he can sleep at night, charging poor college students borderline-extortionist prices for simple pain meds- but even in my pain-induced state of bitterness, I knew the cashier's a decent guy and the prices aren't his fault, anyway.

At lunch I discovered why so many people are skeptical of the medical profession and instead trust their friends' advice on all their ails. A friend of mine has a big bottle, (kinda' like my acetaminophen stash,) of ibuprofen that's going to expire in August; since she won't finish it by then, she'll lend it to me to foster my new nurse-approved pill-popping habit. This friend also knows of a chiropractor in walking distance. (Well, maybe not walking distance in the state I'm in, but I can find a ride.) And she told me, "Every time I go to the Wellness Suite, they give me a follow-up appointment. I never go, though."

I can see why. Now excuse me while I grab my flame-decorated cane and Vicodin and limp down to the cafeteria to play mind games on Wilson...

It's not every day you move to a place where you have the right to claim geographical fandom over a certain team, (and by this I mean Allentown, PA, where I live when NOT in college in VA,) and before the year is out that team becomes wild-card winners of the Superbowl... So, thanks to that incredible stroke of good luck, I'm joining the ranks of roughly 50% of Allentown's population that is New York Giants fans.

But I'm staying an Eagles fan too. I don't take it all that seriously, so I can be a fan of more than one team, right? I'll really only be in a conflict if they're in a major game against each other. And I don't think it's possible to have an Eagles vs. Giants Superbowl, because aren't they both in the NFC?

I could be wrong. And if I'm right, I have NO IDEA why I know that. Sooo... whenever I decide to even give a *y'know* about football, my priorities are as follows:

1. Eagles fan
2. Giants fan
3. *Whoever's playing against the Cowboys* fan

hehe I hate the Cowboys... so I guess that means I still have the heart of an Eagles fan.


On the research paper front, I'm going to learn how to pull full articles off a research database. Clicking on the link on the name of the journal doesn't work; it takes you back to the database, showing you entries for every article from that journal.

Google definitely doesn't work. Not if you don't want to pay to buy hard copies of the stuff, and I am much too cheap for that.

I have less than a half hour before lunch and then 2 classes, so there's no point in going to the library now- I'll wait 'til after Philosophy. ("What is love?" For goodness' sake, I don't know, but it sure is fun to watch you digress on that subject every class period, Christian.) Once my mind is thoroughly muddled by THAT, I can go and spend the afternoon humbly accepting advice from the librarians, and finally getting this annotated bibliography done and over with.

Good news is, I did all my other homework for the week, (well, through Thursday,) in anticipation of spending today doing the annotated bibliography... Then a busy day tomorrow, then a Spanish field trip to DC on Wednesday!

I'm not quite as giddy from excitement as I was before last semester's Spanish field trip to DC. Maybe because now I know that DC makes me a little tired and claustrophobic after a couple hours. Or because we're not staying overnight this time, and something of my inner child still gets psyched when the itinerary says "sleepover".

But, it will be a fun car ride, (especially if the language assistants are back from Canada by then and decide to come with us,) and I'll have conquered the annotated bibliography and have virtually no homework to worry about.

At least, that's the plan. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
("Blackbird", The Beatles)



   

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

That's my personal favorite, anyway. And here are my personal runners-up...

Listen to the tide slowly turning
Wash all our heartaches away
We're part of the fire that is burning
From the ashes we can build another day
("The Story In Your Eyes", the Moody Blues)

If you hear the song I sing, you will understand (listen!)
You hold the key to love and fear, all in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both, it's there at your command
("Let's Get Together", The Youngbloods)

And his heart is laughing, screaming, pounding
The poem across the tracks rebounding
Shadowed by the exit light
His legs take their ascending flight
To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night...
("Poem On The Undergound Wall", Simon & Garfunkel)

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left inside on that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", Don McLean)

And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment, what has been is lost- in what will be
("When Love Takes You In", Steven Curtis Chapman)