I had one heck of a beginning of 2011... want to hear about it? Now, bear with me... I find it a lot more amusing now, but at the time I was very upset!
I had to move back into my apartment at ISU on the 2nd. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... but I was in TEARS the night before because I was leaving my parents and family. I put off leaving on Sunday until the last logical moment because I didn't want to leave. It was a tough - living alone is not as much fun when you have people you love around during the holidays!
As I was adjusting and settling back in - my job started to FLY. As we got through a day of staff retreat and training, my days seemed to be 12+ hours long. I was covering for a coworker who had surgery in my area, as well as serving on the RA Training Committee AND trying to do my job. I was BEYOND stressed! Then, my supervisor reminded me I was to help train a new coworker across campus during that week. I was pulled in about 2938208 directions and I missed my family even more.
In the middle of the week, I had a doctor's appointment to test my allergies and come up with a plan. I had 97 shots put into my back to test the allergies and such. It was a little painful and time consuming... and scary because the doctor injected me with tree nuts! I had to wait almost a week for results...
As my week was droning on (and flying by), I took a few minutes in my apartment on Thursday. Deep breath, grab a snack, and go to the bathroom. As I was in my bedroom, I started to hear my cell phone ring, which was in the kitchen. I noticed the ring tone was the one I made for the new coworker. I sprinted across my apartment to answer it....
... and I tripped on my laptop cord. As I answered the phone, it crashed to the ground. When I say crashed, I am not being dramatic. It landed sideways on the screen and I heard a huge crack. After I frantically ran over to it, I saw the screen cracked and the CD drive bent. I burst into tears and called my mom. Hysterical probably isn't even the word to describe it. I forced myself to go back to work as my mom called my dad to sort it all out. As the week ended, it took everything in me to stay sane. Once the weekend came, I brought my laptop to Best Buy... to find out that the warranty my parents bought me did not cover accidental damage. What??? Are you kidding me?!
I burst into tears again as the Geek Squad guy told me it would probably be more cost effective to buy a new laptop as the repairs could cost between $400 and $2500 and take 4 weeks. I called my parents again and made them talk me through what I should do. By the end of it, the three of us agreed it was a better idea to buy a new laptop. After over an hour, I finally picked a new one out and paid for it. I left it with Best Buy because they were going to transfer my old hard drive onto the new laptop.
Remember the allergy tests? Just as I went to start the next week, I got the test results back. They came back positive... for being allergic to PEANUTS as well as tree nuts. Wait... what? As I tried to explain that I eat peanut products all the time. The lady explained that this is probably a new, gradual allergy that could possibly develop to one as serious as my tree nut allergy. I was literally stunned in silence and she told me I should consider altering my diet, added new meds, and said she'd follow up with my respiratory test in a few weeks.
As if my week couldn't get any more tiring, I got a call from Best Buy. My laptop was done!! YAY! Oh wait... except, my old laptop was so damaged that they couldn't retrieve anything off of it. Anything! As I hung up the phone, I called my mom immediately and sobbed... AGAIN. I was crying so loud and so much that I'm sure my coworkers heard and wondered if I was going nuts. I honestly thought I was going to throw up, I was so upset. I lost tons of pictures, music, and just ...documents.
THAT, my friends, is how my first few weeks here at ISU have gone. Talk about stressful! But now.. I am blogging from my new laptop, saving pictures from facebook to my hard drive, and throwing out all of my peanut products. I'm feeling a lot less frantic, and find it amusing that my first few weeks of 2011 were this random! Let's hope it get's a little less eventful in a heart breaking way!
Before dinner, we sat and watched Doug's video he made for a final product. We were all pretty impressed and it was fun to show what he has worked on.
A picture of our "family" eating dinner together at S&A's house!
After dinner, we started to open gifts.
Erin opened up a gift she was VERY excited for - a yoga mat!!
A picture of the 3 girl cousins on Christmas!!!!
And I thought it would be sweet to end with a picture of the hosting couple for this year's celebration!
