E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D

SCHOOL!!!!! Holy cow, I don't think either Jordan nor myself have ever been so busy with so many things.

Jordan: applying to medical school, taking 16 credit hours at school plus, extra lab time, research twice a week, volunteering at the Road Home, volunteering for Hearts for Hospice, running XC with a meet every other week...ahh!

Melyn: taking 16 credit hours at school, 14 hours of clinical every week, studying 3 hours a day, working my business as much as possible, trying to sleep 8 hours a night, working at least once a week, trying to tie up loose ends with the wedding (grr)...

I know, I know. Jordan is SO much busier than I am, but I feel like I'm going crazy! If it literally were not for the fact that I don't do anything on Sundays besides take naps, go to church, and visit family, my mind would freak out and die.

Ranting is good. Ok, I'm done. For a while :)

Abuse

Recently, my Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing class had a discussion on abuse and its implications for human beings everywhere. I wanted to put some facts out there for people as well as some resources to help those suffering from abuse of all types: physical, emotional, neglect, and sexual.

1. Abuse crosses all barriers - gender, race, religion, socio-economic status, education. Men get abused too.

2. There is a cycle of violence. It begins with tension building, moves to the actual abuse, and then the "honeymoon" phase, where the victimizer apologizes and is extremely tender and loving toward the victim. These cycles always repeat themselves, and they always get shorter. LOVING THE VICTIMIZER IS NOT ENOUGH TO STOP THE VIOLENCE.

3. Emotional abuse is the attempt to isolate, threaten, or intimidate a person.

4. Neglect is a breach in duty of care which causes harm to others.

5. Sexual abuse is ANY unwanted sexual contact. This is regardless of whether two people are strangers, acquaintances, dating couples, OR married couples. Rape is a crime related to domination, not passion.

6. Every 15 seconds, someone is battered. Every 6.4 minutes, a sexual assault takes place. Every year, 60,000 Utah women are assaulted by their intimate partner. 28% end of these assaults end in homicide. 1 in 3 people will be abused at some point in their life. 6 million American women are beaten each year. Violence occurs on a regular basis in 10% of marriages.

7. It is estimated that over half of all violence is not reported.

8. Abuse is not the victims fault - ever. No one deserves to be treated in such a manner.

If you or someone you know is suffering from any type of abuse, please know that there is help. Your life does not have to be like this. Things can improve. Please, please, please give yourself a chance. Call a national abuse hotline at either 1.800.897.LINK or 1.800.656.HOPE

Migraines. Grr.

Today was the first time I have had a migraine since May of last year. I thought they were behind me, and what a glorious thing that would have been. Too bad my brain or blood vessels or hormones hate me. It is not really known what causes migraines, or what an effective way is to treat them. So home treatment is usually what people do, unless they want to go to the hospital to get the lovely Imitrix shot, which I thankfully have never had to recieve.

Usually about 15 minutes before I get a migraine, I get an aura. Only 15-20% of people get these auras, and they are different for every person. My auras are white spots that completely block my vision. For example, one time when I was talking to a gentleman, my aura cut off the top half of this mans body. I could not see his face or where I was looking - SLIGHTLY freaky! Auras are useful, though, because they are a warning sign to you to get home to a dark, quiet room and take some medicine. Today however, I did not get an aura.

I was helping my landlady around 0830, getting her blood sugar, blood pressure, and weight, when it came like a ton of bricks. Everything was very loud to me and I thought it was just another horrible headache, because there wasn't the aura. Oh no. I did the dishes and went to my bedroom to lay down, hoping it would go away. I lay there for about an hour. Another unpleasant side effect of migraines is extreme nausea and vomiting. That is all I will say there for people who are queasy.

I finally called the only person close enough to help me, my lovely mother-in-law Wendy. She came immediately over with some Extra Strength Excedrin (the only thing that works for me), some coke (caffeine always helps), and ice for my head. It was lovely. I slept for about two hours and when I woke up, the majority of the migraine was gone. It still hurt when I stood up and walked around. I swear I was experiencing some orthostatic hypotension (when your blood pressure plummets as you stand - not a good thing) in addition to the migraine.

These things are so debilitating. You literally cannot do anything - can't have ANY noise, ANY light, can't move, can't cry, can hardly talk - because all this will provoke it. I think mine are stress induced, and the extreme stress of school began it. Thankfully, I don't get migraines that often KNOCK ON WOOD.

Addicted to Running

I think Jordan is addicted to running. Which is by no means a bad thing! I am SO glad he has an outlet of some type to get rid of his stress from school, applying to med school, and life in general. Running is so healthy for you - in fact, I am not terribly worried about Jordan's health in the future, because he runs so often. He will wake up at 0547 (exactly, not an even number, which bothers me. oh well :) to get ready for Westminster XC. See the link at the top of this post; Jordan is on the header of the mens XC website! His coach is someone new this year, who we believe has great promise in taking both the mens and womens teams to a new level. In addition, the men have EIGHT people running! Twice as many as last year!

As exciting as this all is, I am basically rambling about Westminster's team and not Jordan's love of running. Let me get back on track.

There must be something very instinctual about running. From the time we are young, we begin running - not only to run away from someone, but to play and enjoy ourselves. There is something exhilarating about running. I once asked Jordan what makes him love running so much, and he replyed, "It is the feeling of going fast." Speeding by pedestrians is indeed very fun. Maybe we should call it "funning."

I however, do not particularly enjoy running at this point in my life. It is not "fun" to me right now. Despite this aversion I currently have, I very much used to enjoy running as a member of the Westminster Womens XC team. I am by no means good at it, I simply enjoyed that exhilarating feeling of flying past still objects. :) Reaching a goal you thought you wouldn't be able to do is very powerful. One of my favorite quotes that applies is:

My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny. - Elaine Maxwell

Maybe someday I will get back into running. I am very glad that Jordan is going to continue "as long as [his] joints hold out." I don't really know why I posted this, or if it even makes any sense. So take it as you will.

Stick Shift!

Today Jordan and I had an adventure. He has been wanting to learn how to drive my stick shift for a very long time, and today we had nothing else to do besides learning! So we cleaned our house, ate lunch, and then drove to the church I learned at.

Let me just say that Jordan seriously impresses me. He is such a fast learner! He sat down in the drivers seat and we went over how to start the car, how and when to shift, reversing, and simply driving and connecting it all together. We were in the parking lot for about 15 minutes...and then we went around a little neighborhood...and then we drove down 3300 south to the freeway!!

Basically Jordan did a great job. He learned how to drive this new way in a half hour! It took me seriously all day to learn plus several weeks of practicing.

He still has a way to go in terms of starting to drive but practice practice practice :) I'm pleased!

Airport Fun

Oh my goodness. I am so sick of this airport in Charlotte!!! Let me tell you the fantastical story of my time here since yesterday at 12 PM.

So basically there was no one staying at the hotel until Tuesday, so I would have to fork out $80 for a lame hotel room for a few hours to wait until my flight left today at 10 AM. Who wants to pay more for nothing? I don't! So I decided (ahem) to sleep at the airport and wait for my flight to leave. So I checked out from the hotel at 11 AM yesterday and waited for the shuttle to take me to the airport at noon.

Then I decided that I was not checking my bags because they can fit into the overhead bins. BUT I forgot that I had shampoo, hairspray, this huge thing of peanut butter in my suitcase. Those all classify as liquids and gels according to the airport security...so I had to throw away all my things. But it was ok, I wasn't worried at that point.

Then I go to my gate and just start sitting. Playing on the computer. Facebook. Watching movies. Emailing. Texting people. Reading. It got very boring very fast. So I decided to walk around and went to the bookstore and (surprise!) sat and read some more! It was about 7 PM when I decided to eat my food. There was hardly anyone in the airport and it was getting awkward between me and the airport people. I mean, they have seen me sitting in the same seat all day long, not doing anything. "What is she doing?" they must wonder. So I just do some more of the same things and around 11:15 PM I decided to put my pajama pants on and lay down on the seats in the airport.

It was freezing and all the lights were on, so of course I could hardly sleep. Besides that though, the airport people were cleaning and vacuuming the entire time. I probably slept for a half hour and would wake up, sleep for a half hour, wake up, and so on. Around 12:45 AM a huge group of people that just got off their flight walked past and were talking very loudly, so I woke up and sat up. I noticed a man dusting and when he got near me, he said, "You are going to have to go downstairs. The security is closing and they are going to come through soon, so if you go downstairs you will see other people that are sleeping waiting for security to open in the morning." I explained how confused I was because I didn't see anyone else sleeping near the gates, but no one stopped me from sleeping either. So I went downstairs.

Then I sat by these teenagers and these young kids who were crying basically the whole night. It was a lot warmer downstairs but I was more worried to fall asleep there because the doors to go outside were right there, so anyone could come in and take your stuff if you were sleeping. I tried to get comfortable and put my suitcase between my legs and my arms and head over my backpack to protect them. Around 3 AM another cleaning man came and woke me up so that he could move the seats back to their original position. I took my things and went to a protected corner in the hall and laid down. About a half hour later the same man told me to move so he could vacuum. It was ridiculous!! I went back to the chairs and just waited, dozing sometimes, until 5:10 AM so I could go back upstairs to go through security.

I got through and I've been awake ever since. I can't wait to get on the plane and sleep. With a blanket!!

Secondaries!

Jordan got a letter to send secondary applications to Colombia University, Ohio State, and George Washington University!! Yeah! Congrats sweetheart. :)