one of the best weekends of my life

was last weekend, bar none.
I've done lots and lots of Lay Renewals in my ten year-ish span of being a team member, but this one that took place last weekend has to be my favorite.
Why? I got the opportunity to worship and have an amazing time with the coolest, most amazing friend in the entire world.
Rachel was able to go with us, and we both had the best time praising and serving and spreading the Word. :)

Another really awesome thing was that I got to be a part of this:



Okay, so not that particular service, but we did the same thing. I can't watch it being done without getting major chill bumps, and it feels so cool to say that I was a part of that. (In case you're wondering, I painted a hand!)

It was pretty much awesome. :)

so, as is often the case in life, I have good news and bad

Bad news: I went back to the doctor today and received yet another steroid shot and one major side effect of those is that it makes it very hard to sleep at night. Thus here I am, not a bit sleepy, and I have to make the fearful journey back to school (and yes, I am an absolute wimp and am terrified) in just a few hours. Bah humbug.

Good news: I'm almost completely better! I can hear again, out of my left ear anyway, and I hardly have any pain left in my right ear, even though it's still pretty swollen down in there. I'm thinking that in just a couple more days, I'll be back to my old spunky self. ;) I know everyone's excited, ha.

Today was the first day I really felt myself in a week. I took a nice shower, took extra time with the hair and make up and enjoyed spending some time with my mom shopping and just goofing off after my doctor visit. I even went walking at the track for a while since it was just so pretty.

Which was a good idea...at first.

The walk and being outside was great. The fact that there was a baseball game and tons of people there? ...not so much.

Here's a secret about me: I'm deathly afraid of people. No, really. Like some people have an irrational fear of ...I don't know, cotton balls or grape juice. I'm just afraid of people.

You know that person in social situations (really? social situations? how old am I?!) who's just standing there awkwardly and uncomfortably pretending that the floor or their shoes or their phone is the most fascinating thing in the world that they must stare at and/or fiddle with?

That's me.

Walking laps past many, many people I know but don't know well enough to talk to may not sound that scary, but for me it's darn near a source for panic.

It's not even that I'm particularly shy! Trust me, ask anyone I'm close to, and they'll tell you that's NOT the case. I'm incredibly fun and outgoing as soon as I've gotten comfortable with someone. Until then, however, I'm closed off like a jar of jelly that's set up out in the hot cellar for a little too long.

I don't know how good of an analogy that is, so forgive me if it's a little, well, stupid.

So be nice to that awkward person. Believe me, they'll appreciate it. Most of the time, they want to be friendly, they just don't know how to do so.

This is only about 1/4 what the title said it'd be about.

Boy, can I digress or what? Ha! :)

you never know what you got 'till it's gone

I would really, really love to listen to music right now.

Like, it's one of my favorite things to do, but I've never really appreciated it (or my hearing in general, for that matter) until now that I can't do it.

Why's that, you might ask?

I have an ear infection - actually, make that two. One in each ear.

If you're thinking ouch, you're on the right track, but the proper way to describe it uses a lot of profanity and just all out inappropriateness, and I'm just not okay with that, so I'll keep it to myself.

So I went to the doctor today to get it all checked out after quite possibly the most miserable night of my life last night, and I came home blubbering like a baby after having two little white twig looking things, aka wicks, shoved wayyy down in my ear in order for the drops I've been using to actually get down in my ear. They couldn't, as it were, because my ear was so swollen, to quote the doctor, I "may as well have been pouring them in the floor." (p.s. I was not a fan of this doctor - a. because he was kind of a smart aleck, and not in the way I can appreciate; no, he was rude; and b. try having something shoved down in your ear when they're already ridiculously sore. yeah, it's not fun)

The point is: I can't hear that great to begin with, but now with these little thingys down in there, I can hardly hear at all. Try having a legitimate, face-to-face conversation with me right now, and I assure you, it probably wouldn't end well.

So basically, I probably could listen to my iPod right now, but the volume would more than likely have to be turned all the way up, and considering the current state of my ears, I'd hate to cause any further damage.

So yeah, it's 2:45 AM right now, and the Loritab they gave me for pain is starting to kick in and make me a little loopy, so I'm gonna try and get some sleep. Good night, all.