A Post too Random to Name

How's that for a title?

I will get to my leave of absence in a minute... First, let me begin with a story... A story that explains why the Nilla Life is never as vanilla as one would think, given the name ;).

First let me say that photobucket let me back in and so now all these pictures, when clicked, will take you to my album (which I just added these to the one with my passport and solo-girlie night pics).

So, Monday morning, I'm getting ready to leave for work. Stefanie, who is definitely my opposite in this issue (I mean, who wakes up at 7 in the morning when it is unnecessary? -- Stefanie ;)) was already awake and had eaten breakfast. She walked past me in the hall and said something like, "Hey girl." I replied in kind and went into the kitchen to get my stuff while she went into her bedroom. Suddenly I hear her yelling, "Hila! Come here, quick! I don't know what to do!" Oh my gosh... I'm thinking it's going to be a roach. I get in there... There's a little baby mouse coming out of her closet. Coming out slowly, I might add. It doesn't look like a healthy mouse to me... It looks like it's dying. I mean, we're talking about baby baby mouse. She's like, "What do I do?" I, of course, have no idea. She goes, "Okay, you just go to work, I'll call the apartment people." Which is what she is doing when I leave for work. Of course, I got off work on Monday at 11:15. I get home and walk in the door. I'm met by Stefanie who stands there and looks at me with a sheepish smile on her face. Somehow I'm reminded of a little girl. I say, "What?" And she says, in a sheepish voice to match her sheepish smile, "Can we keep them?" Mind you, by this time I've all but forgotten about the mouse (which is why I forgot to mention it in my last blog post). I'm like, "Keep what?" I turn around and she points at a little shoe box with a washcloth draped over it and little eyedroppers inside. This is what I find:

And what am I supposed to say? No? So then I get the whole story... Apparently there was a nest under her dresser. I asked what the nest was made of, and she said insulation. I said, "I wonder how it got under the dresser?" And she said, "Yeah, I know... You'd think we'd have noticed a big ball of insulation walking down the hallway." I so totally laughed. Because it is, after all, what I was thinking. As she pulled more stuff out of her closet, she found two more baby mice. One, though, was already dead. Stefanie said, "It was in rigor mortis." So, she introduced me to Sandy and Eggo (think San Diego, since Stefanie loves that place). I asked her what maintenance said. She said he showed up with gloves and a bucket, because he thought she wanted them caught and killed. When he saw the little home she'd made for them, he was like, "Okay, I guess I'll go now." Hahaha... Oh, and it turns out they were coming in through a hole in the wall behind the stove. Which is funny, because Stefanie told me a few weeks back that she thought we had mice. I said, "mice? What makes you say that?" She said, "Because I got munchie at 2:00 one morning and came in here and flipped on the lights and saw something scurry across the kitchen under the stove. I figure it was either a mouse or a really weird frog that doesn't hop." And statements like that are exactly why I adore Stefanie. I laugh every time I think about it. Anyway, I went to Wal-Mart after being introduced to our new pets. By the time I came back from Wal-Mart, Sandy had died. I asked Stefanie, "You didn't throw him in the trash can, did you?" She said no. I'm thinking she threw him outside in the bushes. Turns out she flushed him. Burial at sea. Actually, that was the rigor mortis one she flushed. She left Sandy in the shoebox for the majority of the afternoon because "Eggo would snuggle up to Sandy." She admitted that it was morbid, but she didn't have the heart to separate them right away. Stefanie was a good mouse-mommy. She fed Eggo milk with an eye-dropper and that little piggy had a huge tummy. Sadly, Eggo didn't make it through yesterday. He died sometime after 5:00. So, these happenings make me think of some more stories to tell you... But as this post will be long enough (trust me), I will keep them in my mind for another day. Trust me, they are stories you won't want to miss.

Oh, also on Monday afternoon, I was putting away papers I'd written for school. Okay, I'm a bit neurotic. I've kept all of my major papers. So, I found one of the many spots I keep them... In this big manilla envelope. And I figured I should look through some old papers from my undergraduate degree. Let me tell you... I had one teacher that would slay us. She was great. I respected her, I learned a lot from her. She forced me to think outside the box (a feat at which I do not thrive). I got so far outside the box once that I wrote a paper about how a stool empowered one of the characters in a play. Go figure. She liked that paper too. I got an A-/B+ -- no easy thing. It was the last paper I ever wrote for her, and the topic came to me like a revelation while I was in the shower. Anyway, she would grade our papers in like 3 or 4 different colors of ink/highlighter/pencil. This paper was not one of the two that I got an A-/B+ (and no, I'm not sure why she graded like that). But just so I can give you all an example...

It's a beaut, huh? That one merited me a B-/C+. Ouch. I still got A's in all her classes, though. She just demanded a lot of us. She taught me what passive voice is. So, I just thought I'd share.

But, on to some fun news! So, Monday night, Stefanie and I decided, since she wasn't working, to do Family Home Evening at home! We ended up inviting Virginia to join us. Stefanie planned the lesson, and I was in charge of treats and the activity. The activity was watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Stefanie had never seen the whole thing, and she'd made the comment on day that all the Indiana Jones movies are based around religious stuff. Our treat was Coldstone ice cream, because I had a coupon to buy one, get one free. Ah, sweet indulgence. I got "all lovin' no oven." And I was so busy driving and taking pictures that I was the last one to finish! woohoo! And it was soooooooo good.

Gotta love Coldstone.

Oh, I do want to say that, in preparation for the fat-filled indulgence we knew we were going to consume, we ate a healthy dinner of salad:


And finally, my leave of absence. So, yesterday I had a dermatologist appointment to determine why my hair is falling out. It was everything I wanted to hear (well, except for the fact that I had to get another blood test so they can test my iron levels). My hair loss is not related to my hormone imbalance. He said the type of hair loss I am experiencing comes from other types of hormone issues or from stress. And, if my iron levels aren't up to par, my hair won't be able to grow back in correctly. Or also if my life doesn't become less stressful. Maybe I internalize all my stress. Who knows? I really don't. The point is, I took in pictures from when I had lovely hair and said, "I just want to know that my hair can be like this again." And he said, "I think it will be." He said it will take time. I swear, I think my life is one big exercise in patience. And we all know how good I am at that. Sigh. In fact, I find myself wanting to doubt his diagnosis because I'm still losing hair (as though his diagnosis would be the magical switch that would stop my hair from falling out). I'm soooo impatient. So, I need to figure out how to stop thinking about my hair (since that's obviously not helping me to de-stress). I need to figure out how to stop worrying about everything. I think a Panama vacation is just what I need. And also the end of schooling. How fortunate that I shall have both in about 2 months. Yee-haw!

Also, I have added a new category to my blog... It consists of my blogosphere buddies -- defined as people I blog-stalk that I have not formally met and who do not mind me putting their blog there. The first person I asked is my friend Kira's sister Anna. We've left comments on each other's blogs before, so I figured I'd ask her :). She was kind enough to say yes :).

*Julie has guessed the movie quote correctly!*