Pee-ved

Yesterday I went to a training session for work. Whenever there was a break, all the ladies flocked to the restroom as you might expect. One of my pet peeves is when people (I suppose when I say "people" I mean women. I don't go in the men's room much.) don't follow a few basic (and, I think, obvious) public restroom guidelines. So, here is my Potty Rant:

Dear Women of the World,

Ok, people. I know bathrooms are not the cleanest places. But guess what, Hoverers? YOU'RE the reason the bathroom is a mess in the first place! Just sit your ass on the pot, mmmmmk? That way, it all goes where it's supposed to. And yes, I know toilet seats can be kinda icky. But so is your butt. Just wipe the seat off a little and sit. Simple. There's a reason the toilets have SEATS, and I don't think you'll catch any diseases, you OCD mess-makers!

If you know one stall is occupied, don't use the one RIGHT. NEXT. TO. IT.  if there are other ones available. Seriously, it does not make my day to hear your noises. Also, it does not make my day to inspect your shoes, and I'd rather you didn't inspect mine. I've heard that men always adhere to this logical guideline in their bathrooms, so why can't you, good ladies? Are you lonely? Are you trying to make a new friend? Sorry, I don't associate with stall-right-next-to-mine types.

I realize you feel it is necessary to fix your makeup every single time you enter a bathroom, but if you're blocking a sink and I need to wash my hands, I am not amused. Yes, you got there first, but you're not even using the sink! And I'm trying to get-in-and-get-out. Maybe get yourself a hand mirror? Or perhaps just get the heck out of my way. Yeah, I'd prefer that I think.

Come on, ladies. Take pride in yourselves. Take pride in your restroom etiquette. If you feel the need to be disgusting, do it at your house. Oh yeah, and don't invite me over.

Much love,
Ryan the Girl

Beachy Keen!

Back from the beach and back to reality. Damn that's depressing. So I had this brilliant idea to write a blog post while I was away... by hand. So here it is (and yes, I'm acutely aware that my handwriting sucks):

So, an added note: Chris's van's window did eventually decide to go up, and before it started raining on our drive back on Sunday! I don't think I've ever seen Chris so relieved. The few hundred dollars it would have cost to get that fixed simply wasn't welcome, especially after non-insured doctor's visits and a weekend away.

We headed to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel also on Saturday afternoon, and stopped at the restaurant/gift shop/pier in the middle. Three miles offshore, and you can just hang out. Very awesome.

On Sunday, we went to Fort Story near VA Beach (which is a military base and an historic site). We climbed the old lighthouse (after which my thighs seized up completely. Dehydrated much?), checked out the site where the Jamestown colonists originally landed (hence "First Landing"), and saw dolphins off the coast. T'was brilliant.

Some pictures of our trip for your viewing pleasure:

The walk to the Chesapeake from our campground.

Chris checking out the boats. He likes boats.

A tanker in the Chesapeake.

Posing.

The pier off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.

Chris and I on the Bridge-Tunnel.

Old Cape Henry Light= conquered.

The view off Cape Henry.

Assembly of Japanese tent require peace-of-mind...

Oh wait, that's a bunny!

Just another quick note: I've finally updated the Ryan's Recommendations section (which now permanently resides to the right of the posts). I'm trying to update this weekly. Some of the electronics on there now are things I'm in the market for and am on the verge of purchasing. I'm in need of YOUR recommendations there!

"Secret Single Behavior"

Things have been pretty much the same here at The Palace. Chris is still getting over what was diagnosed as Pneumonia, Coltrane is back to his happy, playful self, and I'm fighting off a little something. There has been more TV watching than usual, which is probably a bad thing. One of my favorite shows is Sex and the City (I used to be ashamed of this "guilty" pleasure of mine. Not anymore. The show features 4 strong, confident, sexy women, and the main character makes her living as a writer. What's not to love?). I have slowly been collecting the DVDs, and it's a great "me-time" thing to do to relax a little.

One of the recent episodes I watched featured a conversation between the 4 main women about what they dubbed "SSB," or "Secret Single Behavior." The main character, Carrie, was talking about the things she can't do after moving in with her boyfriend. SSB includes all of the behavior you take part in when you're totally alone, and often goes by the wayside when living with someone else. Charlotte mentioned inspecting her pores every night before bed, Miranda mentioned putting vaseline on her hands and putting them in gloves while watching TV. Since Chris and I have recently become roomies, this got me thinking about my own SSB.

Confession time! What are the things I can't/won't do now that I live with my boyfriend? More like, what are the things I can't/won't do when he's home (I think I revert to my SSB if he's away)? For one thing, when I lived by myself, I never really felt too guilty about splurging on myself every once-in-awhile. Here's the typical Ryan-is-by-herself-and-wants-to-splurge purchase: Pack of salmon roll sushi ($6.00), fresh strawberries ($3.00), bottle of red wine ($7.00), and lovely 72% cocoa fine dark chocolate bar ($3.00), fine evening to myself (priceless). No one around= no one to judge me for spending almost $20 on myself for one evening. Chris doesn't splurge on food. Like, ever. And he would certainly give me a look if I did that around him, so, I don't (which is probably good for my wallet anyways). Let's see, I also leave the bathroom door open when nobody is around. Not sure why. It may have been something that developed in my apartment when Coltrane was running around (and I was afraid he would start chewing on my baseboards if I took my eye off of him for one second). But also, growing up, our family was a bathroom-door-open family (hi mom!). Another thing I do when I'm by myself (grooming-wise) is pop any zits I may have. I'm a picker. All the way. And I get ingrown hairs from shaving my legs all the time. For me, ingrown hairs clog my pores and lead to little zits, which must go immediately. I realize this grosses people (including Chris) out, so it's an SSB. Then there are the normal things: I pluck my eyebrows (last time I was doing this the bathroom door was open and Chris walked by and said something like "aw, man, I don't want to see that." Mainly referring to how painful it looked), I take long-ass showers, I eat junk, and I watch Sex and the City!

None of this makes me regret the decision to move in with Chris. Besides, he won't be in the house every single second (At least, after this sick week at home he won't!).

What are your SSBs? Confess! Men, do you have SSBs too? You surely must!

Just a reminder that R's Rs are now a permanent feature to the right of the posts!

I will also keep you all updated on my search for a new laptop now that my current one broke. Anyone have and like a Netbook?

Pneu-MOAN-ia

Just as my bunny boy started to get healthy, my human boy started to get sicker and sicker. Chris has had a nasty cough for awhile now, which has sort-of come and gone. And he's been wheezing. He sounds like a set of pan pipes when he sleeps. I swear he wheezed the opening melody line to Ode to Joy the other night in his sleep (he is ever the optimist!). Anyways, things got much worse starting on Thursday/Friday, and on Saturday he finally decided to get himself to a doctor. I drove him there and ran a couple errands while he was at the Urgent Care place, then sat in the waiting room with my book. And boy, did I sit! The visit ended up taking over 2 hours! I saw people come and go who had gotten there before us, which worried me. When he came out and announced to me that he was diagnosed with Pneumonia, I was shocked. Seriously? I don't think I have ever met anyone who has had Pneumonia (until now, I suppose!). The first thing that came to my mind was the Oregon Trail game, because, to me, Pneumonia seems like one of those things only people back in the day got. Like a pre- modern medicine thing. You know, "You have died of Dysentery" and all that.  But, apparently, it's more common than I thought.

The type of Pneumonia Chris has is Walking Pneumonia, which is an infection of the lungs like regular Pneumonia, but it is from a bacteria and does not make the sufferer bedridden. They perscribed antibiotics and a couple other things, so hopefully he will be on the mend soon! He's one of those types who hasn't gotten sick too many times in his life, so he doesn't handle it all that well. And he doesn't like to let me take care of him, which is just too damn bad. (:

The other thing that sucks is that it is contagious, and I had been kissing on that boy until the diagnosis (let that be a lesson to all you young girls. Kissing boys is dangerous!). I had a really nasty sore throat yesterday and developed a stuffed-up nose last night, which continues into today. It's possible these things are unrelated, but at this point I'm convinced it is unlikely, mainly due to my paranoid stalking of sites that have any information regarding Walking Pneumonia in adults. Most of the things I've read say the symptoms start off like a cold or the flu, and it could take up to a week for the chest-cough part to kick-in. So, I think it's time to call my Doc and see what she has to say.

I want this stupid Pneumonia thing to walk its sorry ass out of our house!

Another bummer thing that happened this weekend is that my laptop screen blacked out. The computer still works, but you can't see anything on the screen! Not good. So, if posts are farther apart than usual, it is due to my lack of access to my compy. Frowny Face! Vet bills, broken laptops... I'm never going to be able to get myself a new camera! Double Frowny Face!

Anyhow, send some healing vibes our way if you are so inclined. We could use them!

Just a reminder that I've made the Ryan's Recommendations section a permanent fixture on this site, which is to your right (no, your other right!). ---------------------------------------------------------------------->

Another thing I wanted to say is that I'm sorry how spacey my last post was. I was running on too little sleep, let me tell ya!

Also check out my new "About," "FAQs," and "Links" tabs. Again, only if you are so inclined.

The Bun Who Lived!

No, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did not scar my rabbit with his killing curse. I had a scare with Coltrane that started last night when I got home after work and a meeting. He didn't want a treat (first sign of real trouble... Coltrane is usually quite the treat whore), he didn't want his greens, he didn't want his hay, he wasn't pooping, and he didn't want to move. These are all signs of GI Stasis, which is when a rabbit's digestive systems sort-of backs up. This is pretty dangerous, actually, and can quickly kill a rabbit if not taken care of. It is sometimes referred to as the "Silent Killer."

Send him some positive vibes! When he sits like this, my sister calls him The Blob Bunny!

So, Chris and I rushed Coltrane to the 24-hour emergency vet. They gave Coltrane an IV (does that just look like "4" to you? No? Just me? Okey dokey...) with some pain medication, some hydrating fluids, and something to try to get his gut moving again. They also sent me home with Critical Care, which is ground-up hay. You mix it with water and syringe feed it to the rabbit because it is pure fiber. Coltrane is not ok with being syringe-fed. He's a pretty stubborn little bun. Anyways, I was directed to give him the Critical Care every 4 hours until he started eating on his own. So I got to bed around 1 and then had to get up at 5 to squirt more hay mixture down his gullet. Also, still no poops at this point, which was quite worrisome. To rabbit owners, poop is like gold; it is priceless, and a tell-all in terms of health. I can't believe how much energy I've spent the past two days wishing for poop. Ok, so, after the 5:00 feeding (hoo boy, now I sound like a mom) it took me awhile to fall back asleep. Then the alarm went off at 7:50 as per usual. Got up, bunny still miserable, no poops, no food gone from the bowl.

SO, I called Coltrane's regular vet and took him in (of course, after I called work to tell them I had no clue when I was going to be able to get to the office). They kept the bun all day, and put him under to take an X-ray (this scared me. I don't like the idea of my little bunny boy being knocked out!), and did some of the same things the emergency vet had done. I picked Coltrane up after work and took him home. He seemed incredibly miserable still, and I was really worried. He finally started nibbling on some lettuce, then some hay, and then. there. were POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS! Hallelujah! More like Poooopalujah!Poooooooopalujah! pooooooopalujah! pooopalujah! poopalujah! Mmmmmk, I'm gonna stop now. But, it means we're out of the woods, so-to-speak. And a sigh of relief is long overdue.

I was such a zombie at work all day too. I think I scared the interns.

In other news, I did end up chickening out at band practice the other day. No on-purpose bad singing. I'm such a chicken shit.

In other other news, Chris is not feeling well at all. He has this really bad cough. He coughed so hard he threw up. So, I have two boys to take care of.

There's no need to fear! Nurse Ryan is here!

In other other other news, I've figured out a way to make Ryan's Recommendations a permanent fixture so that my posts can just be posts. See the right side of the page---------------------------------------------->

Feedback welcome!

Ok, I need sleep pronto.

BP

Muahaha, I bet you thought this post was going to be about oil spills. NOPE. TRICKED YA! You should have seen the look on your face. "BP" is what we often call band practice for short (and by "we," I mainly mean Chris and I). In case you didn't know, Chris and I are in a band together. We are the Guitar Players Two. Anyways, tonight, we can't even start BP until 9:00 PM, which is late. This essentially means I will not be able to try to go to sleep until midnight. A least I hope I'll be in bed by then, because, if I stay up any longer than that, I will turn into a pumpkin.

Band practice (BP!) can be fun, but it can also be frustrating and exhausting. Sometimes we get a lot done. Other times it seems like we do nothing. We practice in my friend/bandmate's basement (how very original of us). We usually practice three times a week, but lately it as been less, mainly because we've had so many shows. Today we'll probably focus on the set we'll play at a party next weekend. I'm really excited about this show in particular because it's in Deltaville. Our drummer's parents have a house there, so we'll get to stay the night and hang out on the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday-day and Sunday-day. I was thinking about making the boys breakfast on Sunday morning, but we'll see how nice I feel like being. Sorry, I digress.

I was thinking it would be funny if, today at practice, I sang everything completely out of key and pretended like I couldn't tell the difference. Or maybe I could play all the guitar chords incorrectly and pretend like I think I'm playing them correctly. What would the band do? Would they confront me? If I were to manage a straight face and be like "uh, what?" would they believe that I really thought I sounded good (now, the straight face thing is a big IF because I'm never capable of keeping a straight face in the line of humor. When something's funny, I laugh. I've been yelled at more than once for ruining a practical joke by laughing too early)? Whatever, straight faces are boring.

Anyhow, I shall report back on whether or not I had the guts to screw up on purpose. Perfectionists like me are bad at these things.

R's Rs:

Listening: The Once soundtrack. "Falling Slowly" came on the radio on my way home from work and I was so excited! Somehow it's better when you hear a song you love on the radio than when you put on the CD. It's somehow special; like the DJ knew you'd be listening.

Reading: Chesapeake. I'm hanging out on the Chesapeake this weekend!

Watching: Still on Season 2 of Bones. It really is a great show.

Working Out: Yoga! Yoga! Yoga! You know, like Toga! Toga! Toga! (Animal House, duh!)

Stress-Free Zone

Just as the stress from my day-to-day life has been toying with the idea of giving me a complete nervous breakdown, my dad sends me an email that just says this:

Subject: Save the Date! Beach 2011! 
Body: Stress-Free Zone at Crown Point, Corolla

"Stree-Free Zone" refers to the name of the house. All the houses at The Outer Banks in NC have names (like boats or guitars. If I ever have a house in the OBX, I am going to name it "Bahahaha, I'm Rich!" or "Go Ahead, Hate Me" or "Bob"). Now, we've stayed at this house before, so I wasn't surprised when I saw the name, but the timing on my dad's email and my current state made kinda go "whoa." And, the fact that I received the email when I was all wound up made me all misty-eyed to think of being in one of my favorite places with no obligations. And the name of the house is just too perfect. It practically orders you to relax. I envision this bubble surrounding the house (for those of you who play too many video games, we'll go with "force field") that strips away your stress when you pass through it. This is what I need at my own house. Oh yeah, and everywhere else I ever go. Oh, and a beach would be nice to have. The beach is pretty much my favorite thing in the world.

I haven't actually gotten to go the beach in a couple years now. Perhaps this has something to do with me being stressed... haven't gotten my relaxation fix! So, Chris and I are taking a weekend away to go camping at First Landing State Park near VA Beach in a couple weeks. We're going to bring the canoe. It's going to be awesome. Can't wait to get me some-a dat BEACH.

R's Rs:

Listening: Gillian Welch, Time the Revelator. Great album.

Watching: Bones, Season 2

Reading: Chesapeake

Workout: Bob Harper's Weight Loss Yoga. The cool down is RELAXING...