Thank you, Angelbutt. You are a dear. I am taking your words to heart. Sometimes it's hard to not get down on yourself when you don't live up to your own expectations of perfection. Why do we do that to ourselves anyway?

So, I get to chemistry today and everyone is turning in their homework worksheet. Wha? Homework? Again? Oh yeah--homework. I missed last Wednesday (E. Coli day 2) when the worksheet was handed out so I didn't get it until Monday when I put it away in my folder and forgot about it for 2 days until today. Ack! So I did it during class while trying to take notes about how to name alcohols and how to do hydration reactions. Amazingly, I did it all (except one question) and got them right. And I was able to turn the paper in today so that I didn't have a late deduction.

Jenelle had her baby today. I was supposed to be there. Todd called me at 6am and told me they were at the hospital. It really pissed me off that I felt like I had to go to class today instead of go to the birth. I really wanted to be at the birth, but I have an A&P test Friday and didn't feel like I could miss the last lecture before the test, and I missed Nutrition last class period because of E. Coli, so I really needed to be at class. The sad and ironic thing is that I'm in school so I can learn to deliver babies and school kept me from being at a baby delivery. So I missed the excitement. I was kind of bummed, too, that they called me so late. I wanted to be there for the whole labor--to help with walking and massaging and all that. By the time Todd called, she'd been in labor for 9 hours and was being hooked up to the pitocin and would be stuck in bed after that. I wish I could have been there for the whole thing. It was just a weird day. I don't want school to get in the way of my education again, that's for sure.

And tonight I went to Holly's baby shower. She gave away all her baby stuff after her last baby, thinking she was done, and now 5 years later, she has Hayden, so she needed all new stuff. There were a ton of people there and she ended up with a lot of cute stuff. I gave her a sleeper and 2 summer creepers and a cute lime green and white summer outfit. It was fun to do the shopping. I usually avoid baby stuff so I forget how cute it is.

I think I want to get rid of our baby stuff--Joey's old strollers and carseats. I'm pretty sure there will be no more children in this family and even if there is, I'd want all new stuff. I hate the stuff I have! It's all old and dated looking and the new stuff is better and cooler and prettier. I can't believe how much baby stuff has changed in just 7 years! Maybe I need to have a garage sale. Oh, I know--I'll just bring my stuff to someone else's garage sale. That's it--Alison has garage sales frequently. I'll just wait until she has one.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend alone with Ed. We'll be downtown, which I love, and we'll be alone, which will be nice for a change. But sometimes I fear we won't be able to think of anything to say to each other or think of anything to do. That's sad, isn't it? We usually find plenty to talk about. In fact, one of the things I always love about going out to dinner with him is that we talk and talk and talk. I don't know why I'm afraid we'll run out of things to say or do this time around.

Jennifer told me that she went off sugar while Alison was pregnant (and observing her gestational diabetes diet) in solidarity with her and she's lost 20 lbs. in the process. Wow. I need to do that. I don't know if I could go off sugar, though. Sugar's a tough one. I've got a serious sweet tooth. Or chocolate tooth. Mostly I've got a fat tooth. Perhaps I should try to go off fat. Yeah, that'll work. In nutrition today I determined that I'm supposed to eat 1400 calories a day. That's my target amount. It will be interesting to see how close I came to that in my dietary analysis.

Speaking of losing weight, I'm starving! What's up with that? I ate a decent lunch--took myself to Buster's Texas Barbecue for lunch. (Interestingly, 95% of the patrons there were men. Hardly any women, except a large group of silverhairs there from the Portland Fire Bureau.) I had most of a smoked turkey sandwich with bbq sauce. It was ok. Not as great as I wanted but it was better than cafeteria food. I had only a little wedge of veggie lasagne for dinner, though, and some strawberries and cinnamon cream at the baby shower. I eschewed the little quiches and the cake, though. But now I want some popcorn. A lot of it. I've got a serious craving going on.

Well, tomorrow is a busy day--going to visit Jenelle at the hospital, meeting with Kate about my Giardiasis paper (there's a fun one), and most importantly, studying for my A&P exam Friday. But I need to do laundry, too. I'm really needing clean clothes, and Joey does, too. Why does the idea of staying home all day doing laundry appeal to me? Can you spell a-v-o-i-d-a-n-c-e? I can spell it *and* do it. I'm the queen of it.

And on that note, adieu...

--L