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QTpiKZ83
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Name: Christine
Birthday: 6/27/1983
Interests: Scrapbooking, music, hangin with my friends, sleeping, dancing, movies, shopping, my camera, vacations, road trips, water balloon fights, reading, warm weather, Nerts
Expertise: Traffic
Occupation: Advertising
Industry: Media
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  QTdynamite
Yahoo:  Qtpikz
Member Since:
12/20/2003
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| So I realize that it's been about four months since I last posted. I haven't kept up with xanga quite as much as I wanted to. But I figure being on short term disability leave gives me enough time to make a new post. What??
First an update on the first part of 2008:
It's been a very busy year so far, but you may have guessed that from my lack of posting. I've been putting in a lot of overtime at work. And since we're on the military network there, I have no access to xanga at work.
When I'm not at work, my time has been filled with small group, bible study, youth group, kids ministry, make a wish planning, and planning events for the singles ministry at church. Oh, and my boyfriend. Yes, at 24 years of age I officially have my first boyfriend. He treats me incredibly well and puts up with my insanely busy schedule. And yes, I mean INSANELY busy.
I also started planning monthly events for the singles ministry. We did an Amazing Race - Little Rock version, a murder mystery dinner theatre, a spring formal, and I'm planning a crawfish boil to take place in a couple of weeks. It's been a ton of work, but a lot of fun as well.
So back to the short term disability. Sometime around the beginning of March I decided to go get lasik. I'd had a lot of eye infections over the last couple of years resulting from my contacts and I had never been a big fan of glasses. I'd talked to a lot of people who had the procedure done and were very happy with their results. So I decide to go for it. You don't get anywhere without taking some sort of risk right? And since the success rate is like 98%, I figure I'm golden.
Until the procedure messes up and doesn't work for me. I go in, get the valium, get into the operating room and they put the huge machine over my eye. The machine goes down to pull up the top flap of my eye and instead grabs half of the flap. So they stop the procedure, put a contact bandage over my eye, and tell me they will not be able to do anything until my eye heals back up.
What do you mean lasik won't work for me? The doctor explains that due to my small eyes and steep corneas, lasik will not be an option for me. But they can do PRK instead...which basically involves grinding the flap completely off, and waiting for a new one to grow. So about a month later I go back in to have PRK done. This procedure is much more painful and has a much longer recovery time, but the nurse assures me I should be back to work in a couple of days, a week at most. I have the procedure done on a Thursday and basically spend the entire weekend in bed, in pain. Monday morning comes and my left eye is starting to heal up nicely, but my right eye is still completely blurry. I can't read a computer screen at all. So I opt to stay home from work.
Tuesday afternoon roles around and now my left eye is in pain. I think it will go away, but it keeps getting worse and I call the dr. Come in Wednesday morning, they say. I spend the night in more pain. The next morning I learn that my left cornea has retorn open. They put a new contact bandage on my left eye, but now everything's blurry. Thursday passes as does Friday. I still can't read a computer screen. So much for going back to work in a week.
That weekend I'm throwing a huge formal at the church. I can't drive, and everything's blurry, but at least I can still tell people what to do. I decide I need to get back to work so Layne drives me to work Monday morning. But the computer is still blurry. I ultimately end up going home and applying for short term disability coverage. My insurance calls to tell me that they usually don't grant it for cosmetic surgery, but they have decided to put my case under review. My left eye has healed again but my right eye is still blurry.
Tuesday the dr. tells me I might have to have a third procedure on my right eye. Thursday comes and I find out the insurance has granted me an exception for short term disability. Horray. I go back in for the dr's verdict that afternoon, and he decides I will need two more surgeries. One to get my eye back to the starting point and one to correct the vision. In fact he decides to go in for surgery number three right then. Oops, I wasn't prepared for this. This time we're doing PTK. My right cornea isn't level, so they're going to scrape part of the cornea down. Only they don't tell me how painful this is. I'll just say it was one of the worst pains I've ever had and I had to be awake for the entire procedure. The nurses said they hadn't ever seen anyone look so bad after an operation. Gee, I feel great.
So a week later, I'm waiting for my right eye to heal. I probably won't get perfect vision from this, but I can hope. I go back this Friday to find out the prognosis. But another surgery won't be done for at least six weeks and I'm supposed to head back to work on Monday. The bright side is that my boyfriend is a very attentive nurse and more than willing to drive me to all my appointments and entertain me in my drug-induced state. The downside is, well I still can't see well out of my right eye, I've dealt with lots of pain, and what do you do all day when you can't get on the computer, you can't read, you can't drive, and you can't watch tv?
Once I get through all of this, I'll let you know my recommendation on lasik. I'm still holding out for good vision. But for now we will have to wait and see (no pun intended). | | |
| Hello new year.
Hello Internet.
I haven't had the Internet at my house for about a week and a half, so I am flippin excited that it is working again.
"If you could describe the last year in one word or phrase, what would it be?"
So I've been reflecting on 2007 and I'm finding that it's a difficult year to describe. In one sense, it was a year of refreshing and renewal. In another sense, it was a time of growth, change, and continuing to trust God in all things. For me, 2006 was a rough year. 2007 brought many of those trying times to rest. I moved to North Little Rock on New Years Eve and have amazingly lived in one place for an entire year. That my friends, is almost a record. From the girl who changed roommates almost every semester of college. And while I actually lived in Cammack Village for a little over a year, the last six months of that time I knew I could get kicked out at any moment.
With the new house came new friends to get to know and hang out with. We had some fun months while I discussed with God when I should start grad school. I figured the most logical thing to do would be to start in August and I started preparing to move to Austin.
As summer approached, God started doing some things in the singles ministry at church and it started growing. People started hanging out more and I got more plugged into the group. As the end of the summer drew near, I realized that I did not have a peace from God about starting school in August. After praying through it, I felt the Lord leading me to postpone school until January.
In the meantime I had a job that I loved, I was developing good friendships, I finally joined a new small group, and I started working with the 10th graders at church in addition to my 3rd graders.
Because I was underpaid at my job, people started passing information to me about new job opportunities. But I told everyone I just planned to stay where I was until I left for grad school. Well along about August I found out about an opportunity at the air force base. I didn't really think I was interested, but for some reason I decided to go ahead and interview.
The next thing I knew, I was being offered the job. After spending a lot of time praying through it, I ended up taking it. It came as kind of a shock to me, because I was convinced that I was on my way to Austin - one of the top cities in the U.S. for singles. I was ready to be back in Texas, to live in an exciting city, for the chance to learn new skills, and for the opportunity to meet new people.
So these last few months have been different than I expected. Leaving my first job was hard, but I am slowly building relationships with new co-workers. More opportunities for ministry have opened up for me. Around the same time I accepted the new job, I got a call from the Make A Wish Foundation asking me to be on the steering committee for their annual golf tournament. I'm helping to plan all of the parties associated with the tournament. I've also become more involved in planning activities for the singles group.
One of the best benefits of staying in Little Rock has been my church. It continues to grow and I am so grateful to be a part of a body that seeks to follow hard after God and that encourages me in my pursuit. I am seeing more and more the value of a community of believers - a family that pushes me towards God. I'm watching my goals and desires change as I seek to use my life to glorify Him. God is teaching me to trust him with everything, especially my future. And he is teaching me to be a good steward of what I've been given.
I don't know what is in store for 2008, but I am excited about finding out. Hopefully it will be one awesome ride.
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| It seems like I haven't had a lot of time for xanga lately. Most of this stems from the fact that almost every Web site on the Internet is blocked at work and most of the time I had stuff going on at night. It doesn't leave a lot of time for journaling one's thoughts.
So here I am slightly sick and trying to get well by taking it easy for a night. I guess the highlight of my week was running my first 5K on Saturday. Granted I didn't run the entire thing, but I still finished in about 35 minutes which was an accomplishment for me. Actually, the fact that I did it at all was an accomplishment. Layne, Patch and I have been going jogging after work for the last couple of months, so that helped me get into shape. Although, even with all that, I have realized that my body was just not made to be a runner. I'm so not one of those people that can run a couple times and the next thing you know they're running a marathon. Oh well. As long as I'm doing some kind of physical activity, it's all good.
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| Just a thought:
Sometimes I feel like all I do is go to weddings and showers. It's kind of my hobby.
Proof of this:
Last month I had two weddings and two showers to attend.
Weekend before last I threw a shower and bachelorette party.
This past weekend I attended a wedding, found out one of my friends had her baby, and learned that two couples I'm friends with got engaged.
Luis told me to stop making friends with people who are getting married anytime soon. But I can't help it if I meet people, a month later they start dating, and two months later they are engaged!!
I finally decided to add up how many weddings I've been to. Not exactly sure on the count, but here's what I can remember.
19 weddings attended
19 weddings received invitations but couldn't attend
6 weddings on the schedule for next year so far.
This weekend I plan to not think about weddings at all. I will throw my fabulous 80s party and think about the joys of singleness. And maybe start seriously contemplating becoming a wedding coordinator. | | |
| Yeah, I was so busy that I didn't realize I'd written this, but never published it.
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I didn't realize how busy I'd gotten until I looked and I hadn't updated xanga in almost a month. I mean it's not like my life's been boring. After all I did start a new job, bought a new car :), got a new cell phone, and got involved in some new volunteer oportunities. Throw in multiple weddings, working with the kids and youth at church, small group, friends having babies, and Tiger Tunes (watching, not participating), and there you have it.
The job is not so much exciting right now, but it should be more interesting once I have a security clearance and can do actual work. In the meantime I am left filing papers, comparing lesson codes, watching Adobe CS3 training videos and playing Sodoku. Not exactly the thrill of making sure an ad gets created, approved and sent out in a span of a few hours. The pace of military life and the government moves much more slowly. I'm trying to get used to it. On the upside, I am taking full advantage of the gym and workout facilities. Nice!
Yes, I did mention that I traded in the posessed car. Now I have a civic coupe. It rides well, starts every time I turn on the engine, doesn't have paint peeling off of it, and gives me peace of mind that I'm not going to break down on the side of the road. And it has a moonroof :) The downside is that the front windshield was hit by a rock a week after I bought it so I've been driving around with a cracked windshield for a while. They don't call me the posterchild for Murphy's Law for nothing.
The weekend is finally here...not that I plan to relax. Between catching up with friends, attending a Crisis pregnancy dinner, broomball, planning meetings, church, teaching, watching movies, going to the fair, and perhaps feeding the homeless...I'm going to try to work a little sleep in. I'll let you know how it goes.
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