Breathing
Hey there! Sorry it's taken me a little while to write. I've been sick for the past week or so. It has not been fun. A lot of coughing, very little sleeping, and hardly any thinking. I think I got it from the Goob (for those of you not in the know, that's my sisty ugler, Sarah).

In addition to my woes and cares, my family has had quite the time in the past couple weeks. On Tuesday the 14th I got a voicemail from Jamie (my sister-in-law) telling me my Mom was in the hospital. I called her back and she explained to me that Mom had gotten a really bad infection in her face and my brother Wayne had taken her to the hospital in Rexburg. I called Wayne and got the details.

Mom had been having problems with a tooth and had scheduled an appointment with a dentist to get it pulled. Well, her face had started to swell and the day before the appointment my Dad took the day off, took her to the dentist to get the tooth pulled, and then took her to my Uncle Winston who is a Physicians Assistant. The reason for all of this? The tooth had abscessed and the infection had spread into the right side of her face. Her face was so swollen that she couldn't open her eye and she had pussy, bloody drainage coming from it. Sorry for the gross-ness. Uncle Winston gave her a few shots of antibiotics and said if it didn't improve in 48 hours to go to the ER. Yeah, it didn't improve.

So, Tuesday came and Mommy was admitted into the hospital. The doctors put her on an IV with several antibiotics and pain-killers. It was really bad. Wayne said it looked like someone had beat the crap out of the right side of her face. He said it was kind of gross (but admitted he thought it was kind of cool at the same time... that's why he's a nurse!).

I must admit, I cried. I was on campus when I found all this out, so I went to the nearest restroom, locked myself in a stall, waited for everyone to leave, and sobbed. My poor Mama! I was scared for her.

She was in the hospital for a little over a week and had to have four or five surgeries to get all of the infection and dead tissue out of her face. She got to go home just in time for my nephew's birthday party, looking a million times better than when she went in and wearing a blue eye-patch. There was enough muscle and tissue damage that she currently has gauze packed inside her face and she's going to need reconstructive surgery in a month or so.

But she's still happy, cheerful her. The day she was released I got to talk to her and she said the nurses were so surprised at her happy attitude. She just told them that there wasn't anything she could do to change what was happening, and it wouldn't help to be sad or whiny, so she preferred to be happy. They had her on antibiotics and morphine, but all the cheerfulness was just her. Although, one time when she came out of surgery she was seeing little red men and red plants on the ceiling. That was definitely the anesthetics.

So there is life for ya.

Oh! I forgot! I didn't talk about my date. Oops! Sorry for the suspense. It wasn't intentional.

To preface the event I need to say that I'm not at all interested in the guy, David. Not romatically, anywho. He's a really nice person and fun to talk to. But I'm a spinsterish ice-queen right now. The evening was a salute to Columbus day. We got in his roommate Aaron's car and picked a direction and drove. The idea was to find a restaurant we'd never been to and stop and have dinner. We ended up going about twenty minutes south of here to Springville and eating in a trolley car. Of all the places for a trolley car, I know! The food was good and the conversation was fun. He is studying Arabic and Hebrew and loves languages like me, so we had tons to converse about. And boy did we ever! I don't think we stopped talking for more than a few minutes the whole time. It was quite fun. And that's about it. He walked me to my door and I gave him a hug and said thanks. The end.

Sorry for the (probably) anticlimactic story. I don't see myself finding "the one" any time soon. Too much to do. And he hasn't shown up in the four years I've been here, so I don't think he's likely to suddenly appear in my last few months. Who knows, though.

More and more lately it seems like life is happening with a vengeance all around me. Friends are getting married and having babies and living like it's going out of style. And here I am. Studying, and speaking various live and dead languages, and attempting to better myself. Sometimes I think that I should be so much further into things at twenty-seven than I currently am. But then I have to stop and tell myself, "Ange, you know that you're where you need to be." Sometimes it's even out-loud. I know that the Lord has a lot in store for me. He's made me a lot of promises, and I know He's good for them. But sometimes it can be so darn hard. And sometimes I really want to give it all up. There are moments when I honestly would prefer to not have any thought of marriage and romance and a family flitting about in my mind and heart, and just get on with planning my life out for me. And at those times I'm not sad about it, either! It really would just be so much easier. Probably not happier, and probably not sadder, but most definitely easier.

Sorry for the poor-me-rant. I really don't feel very poor-me. Honestly. I just wish it was more okay in our Mormon society to not be "normal", if you catch my meaning. I'm actually pretty darn good with where I am, and who I am, in life. It's only when I get to looking around and seeing where everyone else is and where I'm "supposed to be" that I feel a twinge of sadness.

But enough of that! I've got to get going. Lots of 17th century French to make in to passable English. Here I go! Wish me luck.

PS I don't know why, but I've been on a major pink kick lately... my wallet, my phone, my flash drive, and now my blog. It just feels right. Who would have guessed!