Happy Friday!!

Well, I am sitting at work, wasting another day. I mean, I don't mind it because it beats being outside (it is hot as sin today) or sitting in our stuffy apartment, but jeez, I am so bored!! I really should be working on homework, but I cannot motivate myself to call my stupid sources so I can write this stupid article. Our teacher gives us automatic points if we submit our stories to the DI or maybe the Press-Citizen, and more points if it is actually published, but I have no desire to see my work in the paper. I think that's a pretty sure sign that I am in the wrong area of study. If I wasn't also majoring in women's studies, my last semester here would be awful.

It's so dorky, but I am getting excited about fall classes. Well, the courses themselves, not having to waddle around campus as big as a watermelon. Not cool. Anyway, I am taking one journalism class (a persuasive writing) and three women's studies classes - women in lit, sexuality and culture and the anthropology of women's health. The last one sounds pretty interesting because subject matter includes pregnancy and birth. Basically, the "mission statement" of the class is to examine how female gender intersects with culture, environment, and political economy to shape the incidence, outcome, and experience of health and sickness among women. Well, I'm excited about it anyway.

I drove back from Des Moines this morning - I am exhausted. I went home yesterday afternoon because I had a colposcopy scheduled. Basically, when I had my pap test done when I was admitted as an OB patient at the clinic I go to, it came back abnormal. The interpretation from the lab results was that there were atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance on my cervix. Try saying that three times fast. So anyway, when the nurse called and told me my lab results that's all she said. She didn't explain it in layman's terms, so I had no idea what it meant. So I looked online to see what I could find out about it. Well, I came across really big scary words like CERVICAL CANCER. So, naturally, I started freaking out. I cried for about two days straight (I'm half blaming that on the circumstances; half on these crazy pregnancy hormones). Anyway, they scheduled to have a colposcopy done, which is basically a procedure in which they take a very small video camera type device to look at the base of my cervix. Just the way I want to spend my afternoon. So I get to the doctor's office, and they don't have me down as having an appointment, so they pulled my charts. Upon doing that, they discovered that I did, indeed, have an appointment, but the doctor who was scheduled to do it was in GUATEMALA!! WTF?? So, they arranged for another doctor (who also happened to be a male) to do the procedure. So I sat in the little room and waited for him to come talk to me. He finally did, and expressed that it was up to me, but he didn't see what good it would do me to have the procedure while I'm still pregnant. He said that it would probably cause bleeding, which is just an unneeded side effect, and that even if they found something unusual, they couldn't start any kinds of treatments or possible surgery until after I gave birth. Because the cells had only minimal changes and they were in no way precancerous, he thought it would be better to have another pap a few months after junior comes and if it is still abnormal then go in with the colposcope to get a better look. So to wrap it all up, I arranged to have someone cover my shift at work, I left class early and I drove two hours to get to an appointment in which the doctor was out of the country and another doctor suggested I didn't have. Can you understand the frustration? But you've probably heard more about my cervix than you ever wanted to know, so I hope we can still be friends after you've read this.

The one good thing about going home was that I was able to take my car into the shop to start repairs from when that punk hit me. Don't know if I mentioned that, but on June 1st, I was coming home from the grocery store and this kid was stopped in the driveway at Gilbert Manor, so I turned left to turn into the parking lot, and before I was all the way into the lot, he pulled out and hit me. I was like "Thanks a lot, pal." So I filed a claim with his insurance company and for the longest time they wouldn't approve it. Then we hear that the little rat told his insurance company that I HIT HIM!! Basically, it was his word against mine because he wouldn't send them a police report. I finally obtained it and sent it to them, and they finally sent me a check for the damages!! Only a month and a half after the accident. I tell you...So anyway, they gave me a rental car - a Hyundai Elantra or something like that. It drives ok, but I wouldn't purchase one like it.

I have to work at Dillard's tonight after I get done at the computer lab, and I have to work Saturday and Sunday, too. :( Actually, once my class is done in two weeks, and my work at the LMC is done until fall classes start, I will finally have some time off. I think I am going to take the first few days of August off and just go home and hang out by Dad's pool all day - I think I deserve it after running around campus in the heat, taking two summer classes, working more than 40 hours a week and enduring an apartment with no air conditioning. Yep, that sounds like a plan. I'd also like to go to the State Fair - who can resist going to the best state fair in the country? Plus, I'd like to go to Okoboji for a few days to relax and see Ann. And the Paterson's. I haven't seen Linda since Mother's Day when I took her flowers. Actually, I was thinking that I might like to ask Jason to be the godfather. Bri will be the godmother. Granted, I could ask Shane if he would perhaps like to ask his brother to be the godfather, but seeing as I've never met the kid, and I know for sure that I'm the parent who will always be around, I think I should be able to pick the godparents. But I don't know if that's wrong...

Well, I've hit my word quota for the day.