Today is Amy's birthday. Joey and I called her at the firestation tonight and sang to her. I'd already given her her gift and spent a couple hours with her yesterday but I wanted to recognize the actual day of her birth, though. We're big on that in this family. And my family loves to hear Joey sing Happy Birthday on the telephone--it's been a tradition to call everyone and have Joey sing since she was about 2 or 3 years old.

I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by the sound of feet in the hallway and the entry way. I got up and discovered it was my father, all packed up and ready to go home. He said he had woken up and couldn't fall back to sleep so he decided to head on home. He'd planned to go home as soon as he woke up anyway, but hadn't planned on getting up at 5am. It was very funny, actually, to be hugging and kissing my dad goodbye in the dark but there we were. Then I went back to sleep.

I was coughing a lot yesterday and last night and when I woke up my chest and lungs hurt to breathe in deep. I wasn't rattly or anything so I wasn't afraid of pneumonia, it just felt like my lungs or muscles were bruised from all that coughing. And my lungs felt twitchy, like I was about to have an asthma attack at any moment. Whenever I breathed in quickly, I'd cough a little. It wasn't a fun morning. And I was really tired from not sleeping well and from getting up at 5:30 am so I rested and catnapped this morning and early afternoon. I sent Joey and Ed off to church and decided to take a hot hot bath. It felt great. The steamy, warm air felt good to my battered bronchii and the hot hot water soothed my sore intercostal muscles and when I emerged 2 hours later, I was a new woman. I feel much better this evening than I did this morning, that is for darn sure.

I got a phone call from my neighbor's daughter today. (She thought I was Ed--tells you what my voice sounds like lately. She's the third person to mistake me for Ed on the phone in the last 2 days.) She was playing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Jr. and I was her phone-a-friend. It was so cute! She needed help with the meaning of a French phrase--sans doute--and I was able to help her.

Back to school tomorrow. I hope we get time in the dark room. We're scheduled for a slide show and technical talk. ::sigh:: I just want to print, baby. Print! I missed a day of open printing on Monday so I'm feeling behind. I have to get all my prints done by Friday, mostly. I just have 3 hours of open printing next Monday to finish off any last minute details. I feel like I need to do a lot more printing, though. More more more more more! I'm insatiable, I tell you. Like that's news.

--L