Wait, what?

Ha! I almost forgot I had this thing!

Good lord, it's really been over a year since I updated. I blame it on Facebook. Things here started to massively drop off after I joined that particular social networking site.

Aaaaaanyway, I'm still alive. Shock! Awe!

Still working on my undergrad at UT. I will be kicking my own ass again next week when class starts after a nice little summer break. Still single, though I had hope there for a little while that it would be otherwise. Three years is a long time without a date *insert frowny face*

Still reenacting! Next event is in Jackson MI the 28 - 30. 25th anniversary for that event, so it should be a lot of fun.

What else, what else...

My body seems to have stopped trying to kill me for a little while. It worries me a bit though, cause I thought it had stopped just before that last thing I had. I think the safe time just means it's plotting more and more against me. Damned body. I hate you and your machinations!

Oh! My younger brother got engaged! They're adorable together and I can't wait to have a sister in-law. Three brothers does not a happy Manda make. Yeah, I shortened my name. Only I can do that. Or, you know... special other people who have permissions.

Why do I always feel like I'm talking to dead air when I do this?

I require a bagel.

Yeah, yeah....

Ok, so I know I haven't been around much. There's actually several fantastically good reasons for that....

Allow me to explain.

So CP was awesome, this we all know. The after affects, not so much. The weekend of the encampment I managed to hurt my knee again (bursa sak) and, because of the somewhat unsanitary conditions reenactors deal with as part of the hobby, I got a bladder, UT, and kidney infection... which, because I have a rather high pain tolerance, went unnoticed by me until I work up in intense pain and had to be carted off to the ER. Let me tell you.... that is the WORST pain I have even been in, and I almost lost six fingers once, so that's saying something.

Ok, so after that I'm slowly recovering from both the kidney thing and the knee thing while starting my new job. Long days, lots of standing, it's a hard life :P

On the upside, I can now make kick ass smoothies.

Couple of weeks ago I'm talking with my friend Maggie and she tells my that our friend John who went off to boot camp in May and is one of my ex boyfriends, is getting married. Married! Before he left, John and I went to see a movie and we talked a lot. He kind of left me with the feeling that we'd be hanging out a lot and maybe more when he got back, which was awesome cause he broke up with me and there were still feelings on my part and yeah... that thing. Anyway, so we were writing back and forth when I got sick and injured and I stopped writing because of how shitty I felt and didn't want to send him depressing news in addition to the fact that I was drugged... a lot.

Of course, once I stopped writing, he stopped. I find out later that he's calling and talking to people, just not me. Ouch. So he goes and get married to his girlfriend (who, oddly enough... looks like a less charismatic version of me ;) )) and then comes back into town for the 4th and tells his friends... except me.

Smooth....

Moving on.

Went to Gettysburg, had an aaaaawesome time. Sadly, I got poison ivy that weekend. Also, sadly, I didn't realize it was on my legs and shaved a few times before I thought 'Hey, that odd bumpy thing is spreading!' Stopped shaving, got an anti-itch treatment, forgot to check ingredients on the gel, had an allergic reaction to the Benzyl IN the gel.... swear to god man, I almost clawed the skin off my legs.

While dealing with the itching, I'm notified of a meeting for myself and two of my co-workers at the park where I work. These co workers and I all hold the same position/title and we're the only ones left who have it because they're not hiring anyone else into that position. Because the parks if funded (mainly) by the money from county property taxes, our income is based on what things are worth... because the housing market and economy are in the tank.... you get where I'm going with this?

Anyway, we had the meeting today and yeah, our jobs are being 'eliminated' at the end of July.

Instead of having us as year round employees, they want to hire seasonals who will work from April to mid December. Of course since we're all trained, they want us to apply for the seasonal positions. However, IF I get the seasonal job, the only thing I'll keep is my pay rate. Five years of seniority, paid holidays, paid time off... all gone.

So yes, I've been a little stressed out lately. Juuuust a tad.

On the upside, my knee is actually doing better and I have it out of the brace. Yay?

And now, after I'm sure I've given you all WAY too much info for your liking, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is the first day off in a couple of weeks and I'm going to get as much sleep as I can :D

One down...

Ho

ly

Crap.

Seriously... holy crap.

It may be the sunburn on the top of my head talking, but I just had one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I was a little nervous on Friday when I drove the 4 hours from where I live to Fishers IN... but after a few hours of waiting for my tent to show up, I got a call from Swayer. Dinner time, yay!

Swayer rocks in person. Rocks more so then she does in her online down time. Ren, this is where you get all jealous and start thinking about that one time where you thought she and I ______ with the _______ and then sent you the ______ without the _______ just for giggles.

Anyway, I told Swayer of my tent woes over our delicious dinner and my huge margarita since the tent thing is what was making me all nervous. You see, period tents aren't cheep, not my a long shot. So because I'm just starting out I was planning on using the Company's loner tent so I had someplace to sleep should it rain or I needed some quiet time. The tent is left with the Quartermaster who brings to to events for the poor newbies who need it. I got to Conner Prairie at 3:30... the tent was not arriving till 9 or 10. There went my plan to set it up in the daylight...

So I go out, have a tasty dinner, and then the lovely Swayer drops me back off at camp where I wait until the rest of the company comes rolling in at 10pm. Tent setting up time! I wish... turns out the guy who was bringing the tent forgot the ridge pole, which is the big pole that holds the bloody tent up. Needless to say there were many jokes made about poles and I decided to sleep in my car because there was a fairly good chance of rain for the weekend.

On the upside, Ion's have wonderful backseats/trunks for sleeping in!

Moving on... nothing much happened Friday night, I turned in early at about 11:30 and got up around 9. Conner Prairie is a great living history site that I just had to check it out. They have different time periods, lots of animals, the staff normally wears clothes that go with the period they're in at the village... it's really quite nice. I didn't get to look around as much as I would have liked, but it was still cool.

There were two 'battles', one on sat and one on sun, both at 2pm. As battles go, I have to say I really wasn't impressed. It felt like they were doing a drill against each other instead of actually fighting. Hopefully it'll be a bit more refined next year if I go back.

I got to talk with a lot of people about reenacting over the weekend. People have some of the oddest questions.. but once you say you're new to the hobby that conversation almost always turns too how do you get started in something like the encampments. I think a few of the IN company's may have some new members soon, thanks to yours truly.

As much as I love the people who come to the events, I still think the best part is after the sites close and the reenactors can relax a bit. Period instruments and songbooks come out, fires are lit, talk and some drinking ensues... it's just nice. people who have been in the hobby for years have great ideas on camp life and what to do too make yourself at home wherever you go, and a lot of them are just huge fonts of knowledge about anything Civil War related.

Saturday was really the best day for me. I hung out with Ma Chin and learned some tricks of the trade. She plans on moving to NC, so the company will need a cook and all around awesome person to fill her sizable shoes. I think I'm up to the task, but I need a loooot of work yet.

After dinner was music, a ball (which I couldn't dance in because of my knee), and the drinking. The music for the ball was great, but by the time we got there that half bottle of tequila Mac told me I should drink was catching up with me. I ended up sitting with some of the guys under the trees and taking sips of peoples beers... and then I somehow ended up with the Captain's kepi... which looked WAY better on me then it did on him, and I even have the ego to fill it out! Mac's hat was bigger though, so I need to work on filling that one out too....

Also, my new nickname is Cinnamon.

Back to camp, played some eucker with Euclid and totally kicked the 4th Virginia's butts at it even though my team was halfway and a bit to passing out. Finally decided to call it a night when it started raining. Now my car is a good 5 minute walk from where the camp was, so I had a ways to go.. carrying my quilt, haversack, key (just the one), walking in the dark, the rain, and the tipsyness. Needless to say, I dropped my keys. To this hour I have no idea how I found them so quickly. It's really a miracle that I wasn't wandering around the grassy infield for ages looking for one key.

Really long story short, my drunk friend and I made it to my car without getting totally soaked, but at last count I have bruises just about everywhere, including my spine, God only knows how I got that one....

Assume nothing! No cake was had, but I did sleep daaaaamn well and was nice and toasty all night.

Sun was a bit slower, more relaxed. I kept looking for some chick in a pirate hat but I must have missed her. Gives me a good reason to go back next year though.

The only part of the weekend I regret is not being able to answer my cell when John called. John has been a friend of mine for quite a while and right now he's in GA at boot camp. I miss him and I wish we could talk more often, and Sat was the first time he'd gotten a chance to call me since me left back in March.

All in all, it was a kick ass weekend. At this point I'm reconsidering the trip too Gettysburg just because 7 hours of driving with my knee as is will be a bad idea if the 4 hours one way this weekend was any indicter.

Oh, I have pics too! Tons of pics! I'll pop them up later but right now I have too head to bed. The lack of sleep is catching up with me and I have my new job tomorrow at 8am.

I'm alive! In a manner of speaking...

Yup, I live!

The knee is doing much better. No surgery, just a little PT and TLC... plus two weeks off of school. Ouch. I think I managed to pull it back together in time for finals though. Now I'm just waiting in the grades to show up.

So now is catch up time. All the things I put off while dealing with my knee and finals gets done this week... hopefully. I'm also out looking for a second job and getting ready for the start of the reenacting season. Swayer, I'll be in Fishers starting on the 16th if you're still up for shopping. I'll shoot you and email with more details in a bit.

More fun comes after Fishers though... I'm going to Gettysburg in June!

Yeah, it's a short update, but I do what I can. I have a job interview tomorrow to prepare for a tons of cleaning. Wish me luck!

So not out like a lamb

I am officially the worlds most accident prone woman... seriously...

I'm not sure how it happened, but sometime on Friday I popped the bursa sack in my right knee. The bursa sack is full of fluid and cushions the kneecap when you move. When it popped it released that fluid into the area around my knee, causing a lot of swelling and a good amount of paaaaaaaaain.

Now I, being the devoted idiot that I am, decided not only to go see the gent on Sunday night when I should have had my leg up, but used crutches to get to class on Mon morning.... which was almost a half mile walk to and from the parking lot.

At the moment I'm 'supposed' to have my leg up and be resting. Like that'll happen....

I am trying to be good about it though. The last thing I want it for it to keep getting worse and have to get it drained... which involves a very very large needle

So yeah, knees... the bees knees... *shifty eyes*

Blame the meds.

By the way... this is the 2ooth post!!!! This calls for confetti of some sort ;)

In like a lion?

So it's March.

I've decided I hate March....

It's still wintry outside, which means cold and snow. 'Spring ' break is also over today, which was a total jip in the long run since we got a late season snow storm... bah I say!

March is also the time I got the first hint last year that it was over.

Yup, here I sit at a little before 2am doing things I know will only make me sleep badly. Why? Because letting me on Facebook when I'm bored is a bad idea... Too many applications to add and friends to look for.

I have a friend leaving for boot camp this week and I tried looking for him on Facebook so we had another way to keep in touch. Nothing on him, so I looked up a few more friends in case I got any hits. Because my minds like me to suffer, I went and looked up an old flame. Didn't find any entries and went to look for someone I know he knew.

Now, this could just be my mind running away with me, but what I found still caused a painful heart twinge.

I got a matching result on the last name I put in, but the pic wasn't of who I thought it would be. It was a baby, looked only a month or two old. Knowing what I know about the owner of that profile and coupled with some other info I had before this random and stupid idea, it means my old flame was having sex with said owner of the profile around 2 - 3 months after he broke things off with me.

This man, the one I think of as the love of my life, who told me he was mine and would never let me go even if it meant we were only friends. This man who I would have gladly married if he had asked. This man who I'm still in love with even though I've tried to convince myself that I'm not, and who swore up and down that he loved me... obviously didn't.

If someone can turn around and do that after they say such pretty things, if they can cut off all communication and act as if you mean nothing to them, if they can discard you as easily as one would a plastic cup, then what did they really mean anyway? Nothing... nothing at all.

Like I said... this could all just be in my head, but given what I know it's highly unlikely.

Want to know why I don't trust people? Want to know why I don't let myself fall in love with anyone else? I'd say that right there is a shining example of why I'm wise not to do such a thing.

Bah. Just bah.

Edit: Why yes, this DOES seem vaguely creepy and stalkerish in retrospect. In order to prevent you all from thinking I'm insane and/or obsessed, let me assure you that that was the first, and last time I ever go looking for someone who knows someone I know of Facebook. I don't need that kinda of trauma in my life.

Me.

With straight hair.

In crappy lighting.

At my grandma's.

I'm adorable.

;)