I have a case of the Mondays ...

Good morning. I'm sitting here eating my delicious oatmeal (aka - overly-thick slop). It's not too bad, but I got sick yesterday so I want to take my time eating it to make sure it all stays in my belly. Nice way to start the week ... I'll tell that story at the end - if you want a good laugh at my expense you can just skip to the last few paragraphs.

We're in the dog days of summer out here (whatever that means). The weeks are flying by - June is already half way through! Last week was just another week, nothing too special. We bought life insurance on Friday, that was an important but not very thrilling step in our lives. The newsletter I edit for AGU's (the American Geophysical Union) atmospheric science section came out after about 6 months of editing and waiting for the bureaucratic tape to clear. That provided me with some satisfaction.

Thursday and Friday evenings we cleaned the rocks we had moved to the front yard - they had a lot of dirt on them and dirt = weeds. Although we have moved and cleaned close to 20 wheelbarrow's full of dirt, I think we still need about 4 more. Boo. But it looks much better!

Saturday we went with Jeramy and a friend of mine from the cycling team, Beth, to Lory State Park, which is right outside of the Fort. There is a new dirt jump park there for bikers. I'm not into that personally, but it's fun to watch. It was the grand opening so there were demos and give-aways. We also did some riding, I rode for a couple hours, mostly with Beth. We rode up a service road that is infamous for it's relentlessly steep pitch. It was kind of (REALLY) hot - Beth started getting the chills - so we stopped a lot and turned off onto a side trail early instead of forcing ourselves to go to the top.

The rest of the day was spent vegetating inside, and cleaning and mowing the lawn. But it was a good day for Chris and I, pretty much a perfect combination of fun, relaxation, and productivity.

Sunday we slept in and then rode our bikes to church. It was getting hot and the high ended up at 99!! We worked in the yard for a couple of hours and then rode our bikes over to Jeramy and Christine's for a cookout. There was a good group there - Victor and Marcy (their friends), Dave (also their friend but now ours via Steamboat), Matt, Beth, Rob, and Mollie (from our Bible study group). I had been looking forward to it. Good food with good friends, and I had a growler of beer in my bag (basically a jug of beer you can get filled up at the breweries in town, it's about the equivalent of a 6 pack but cheaper and fresher).

I was kind of grouchy by the time we got there because of the heat. Then I felt tired and thought a coke would do the trick. Then, after munching on some broccoli, I started feeling nauseous. Christine gave me an alkaselzer, which was so gross I almost threw up right there. So I laid down on their couch for a while, feeling gross and wiped out. Finally I decided to go to the bathroom and just see what happened. I hung out in there for a while with no effect. I flushed the toilet and it was kind of slow. I just wanted to go lay down again - but then the toilet overflowed!! Great. I quickly opened the top and grabbed the little stopper thing. Now I was stuck, standing in toilet water, feeling like I was going to be sick, and yelling for someone to come help. It was stupid. Why do things like this seem to happen to me? Finally Chris came in and Jeramy found a plunger and we fixed everything and cleaned up. Geez. I think people may have gotten the impression that something that came out of me had clogged the toilet, but it was just my bad luck. But I was too tired to set the record straight. Like I said, they're good friends and were being understanding and sympathetic, but it's still a little embarrassing. I told Chris that I wanted to go home, and he borrowed Dave's truck to drive me (so much for saving the environment with our bike ride).

I spent the rest of the evening on the couch, and I finally threw up, which helped a bit. It sucked. Oh yeah, and we were supposed to have a doctor's appointment this morning to show how healthy we are so we can get the life insurance. I had to cancel that.

The only thing I can figure is I got overheated, which is weird because I've done more intense things in the heat before. But I didn't eat much Sunday, so I doubt it was something I ate. Who knows. At least now I feel better and in the past 30 minutes I've eaten half my oatmeal. Way to go me!

Well, time to go to work. Joy! I really like summer, I don't mind that days pass with nothing eventful happening. I like the long days and extra hours of sunlight to play outside. I like the laid-back attitude that's bound to infect a college town when the deadlines and class schedules cease and 30,000 of it's most rambunctious inhabitants take a temporary leave of absence. And I even like what I do for "work" ... it's just that one thing stays pretty much the same regardless of season - Mondays suck!

Hope yours isn't too bad. Thanks for reading and have a good week! :)