10.17.2011

Today, Barb is: ready for the day to be over.

well.
its been more than years since i have been here last.
lots have happened.
quick recap!

did Brawl of America. Made new friends and fell even more in love with roller derby.
met a new friend from the Windy City Rollers. Hoosier Mamma. One of the few derby players not from the state of minnesota that i have gotten to know and call a good friend.

let see...what else has happened?
the bank i was working for was shut down by the FDIC and then sold to another bank.
i got cancer.
i went to africa.
i was let go from the bank.
they tried to deny me unemployment and the state came back to tell them that they had to give it to me. (haha suck on that bank!)
oh yeah, you saw that whole cancer thing?

yeppers.
Hodgkins Lymphoma.
did chemo. lost my hair. had lots of tests done.
was officially cancer free in December 2010.
was let go from job in November 2010. yeah they timed that real well.
CT scans. PET scans. bone marrow biopsy. heart and lung tests. fine needle aspirations.
more info?

caringbridge.org/visit/barblind

you can go there. it tells a bit more.
let see... what else happened?
i went to africa. Tanzania to be exact. 3 weeks of amazingness.
i loved it and can't wait to go back in a couple years.

oh yea, i joined a rollerderby league.
now before you get all crazy excited, i am not skating. i am part of the officiating staff.
I am an NSO. that means non skating official. i like it. i like it alot. i get to help with derby.
i have made new friends. i get to know more about derby but not enough that it hinders me from being able to sit back and enjoy other teams playing.

i just got a new job that i will be starting in about a week or so.
still living with the parents. not so horrible when i was going through chemo treatments or after getting let go from the job and being on unemployment.

and now.
now i just got back today from another appointment.
i have to go in for another biopsy on friday.
i am starting to REALLY hate the term 'just to be on the safe side'
nothing good has ever come after those words.

my very first doctor appt with my enflamed lymphnodes
just to be on the safe side, let me get a second opinion
just to be on the safe side, lets get an ultrasound
just to be on the safe side, lets get a CT scan
just to be on the safe side, lets have you do a PET scan
just to be on the safe side, lets have a fine needle aspiration
just to be on the safe side, we should do a full biopsy.
and you should know what happened after that
(hint. it was cancer if you didn't know)

so now the
just to be on the safe side, i am going to send you to a ear nose and throat dr.
just to be on the safe side, we are going to do a biopsy on the back of your tounge.

apparently the back on my tounge, tonsils, voice box area has something going on so on friday i have to go in.
is this what my life has turned into?
everytime i go to any dr i am going to be waiting in dread to hear those words.
just going to be waiting and waiting until the other shoe drops.
i don't want to turn into that person.
i can't turn into that person.

i don't know what will happen on friday.
hopefully it will be nothing. i am praying it will be nothing.
so here it goes!

8.22.2009

hello hello hello!

Greetings and salutations from your long lost me!
Things in my life are progressing nicely.

The work front is going well. We have undergone some changes in staffing and responsibilites and documents and forms and it is ALL GOOD!
When everything was going on, it was a little weird but there has been enough time for everything to settle back down and things are on track and we are kicking collective bank booty!

So i moved back home.
Yep, that is right. My old apartment was crappy. It was infested with bed bugs. The landlord is a jerk and so i moved myself out of there and back into the parents basement. (yea, i feel like a boomerang) Mad props to the mom, dad, erin, matt, eric, liz, charlie, and nate for helping move and pack stuff. :-)

so since i have moved back home and with the rent reduction, i am saving money for AFRICA!
yep, i am going to Africa! My church has a sister congergation over there in Tanzania and in January/February of 2011, we are sending another group of people over there and I am going with!
the only thing i am nervous about is the lack of western toilets. i have decided that i need to start practising how to squat to take care of business.

so, we have the Brawl of American rolling into town in the next month or so.
The Brawl is the north central regional roller derby tournament. it will be at the Roy Wilkins from September 18-20th. i am doing some volunteering for it so expect to hear more in the coming days.

alright, so i am at work and need to get the nose back to the grindstone.

6.06.2009

Today, Barb is: back!

have you missed me?
I know, I have been gone for a very long time, but never fear I have returned!
The world can continue spinning because I have come back to you!

After a very long break (and lets be honeset, I kind of forgot about you) I am back in the saddle.
There have been many things going on while I have been gone.

People have come and gone at work.
I have gotten more responsibilities at work.
Been to see some Rollerderby up in Duluth.
Found my Rollerderby name.
Married my friends Matt and Erin.
Moved back home with the parents.

just a small tidbit of what has gone on so far!

2.26.2009

Today, Barb is: cold and slightly mad at the snow.





i thought the snow was done.


nope.


it came back.


came back like a bad ex who is intent on runing you happiness.


the whole 6 inches (give or take) in a matter of 4 hours!





the bright and shining part of this? MY NEW PHONE!


yeah, i have a new phone. it rules.


i have never had a new new phone before, it has always been the free phone with the plan but i decided that i was going to splurge and get a good one. i got eh Samsung Instinct.





two words -


touch screen!



i love my new phone and my number is wicked!


2.10.2009

Today, Barb is: tired. very very tired.

so, we are one less employee today.
it is not a bad thing. at least i don't think it is.
it is one of those situations that it is really probably the best for everyone involved that said person is no longer an employee. that is not to say that it is a little wierd. because it is.

and actually we have the replacement already.
so far so good.
it has been overcast and dreary and cloudy for the past few days.
i am very excited for one of two things to happen.
one - i am leaving on thursday to go and visit my cousins out in Cali, San Diego to be exact.
two - for the spring to get here soon!

call me horrible if you want, but i am done hearing about the baby Caylee that was murdered.
now here me out, i have been listening to the funeral and songs and video and picts of her the WHOLE day. i think it is a VERY VERY slow news day out there if they can spend this much time on her. we get it, she was killed by her mom. move on.

1.31.2009

Today, Barb is: tired at work on a saturday and that totally sucks because she doesn't feel 100% and so all she wants to do is go home and rest but has to be at work which isn't horrible because there are almost no customers.

so hi.
i am back.
it is saturday and i am rounding out the month of january.
it has been a good month.
i had my birthday, i was in charge of the youth lock-in, i went to work, i got days off, i went and saw Spring Awakening.

oh Spring Awakening, how i love thee. it is my new favorite musical. i want to travel around with the cast. i feel kind of bad for the cast. they are mostly young adults and i just want to know if they actually get to do anything other than preform! like, i want to take them to the MOA and the falls and get them out of the theatre. i would think that it is sleep in late from the late preformance, wake up, eat, warm up, show, eat, bed. if they do have time to run around, they are in a city they aren't familiar with so they probalby don't do a whole lot. i feel bad for them.

so yeah. not a whole lot new going on.
OH OH OOh, i get to go and visit my cousins out in Cali in 2 weeks! yeah cousin christie!

have i told you that i have decided i am going to be going to Africa in 2 years?
yeah, i decided that.

1.02.2009

Today, Barb is: glad to be back!
so a new year is upon us!

now this is normally the time that i go through the 'new years lose weight resolution'.
not this year. i never do it and so i am not going to set myself up for failure already.

what am i going to do? well i am going to try and be healthier for the rest of my life.
eating right, more excersice than normal, get out and do stuff.

so the life is going well on my end.
the apartment is going OK. it was really really bad for a while. i found out that my apartment was invested with bed bugs. not cool. not cool at all. the only shining light is my friend erin. she works with a big bug killing place and she came out and being the certified applicatior that she is, she sprayed and did stuff to make them go away. she came back on wednesday and did a check and they are GONE! so that is good. it was really gross knowing that i had lots of little friends wanting me and living with me for a while but i learned all sorts of things about bed bugs. you have bed bug questions? call me your resident expert now!

1 - they are nocturnal
2 - they like beds and couches (places where people spend time in the dark at)
3 - they are small and find all sorts of exciting places to hide (they like where seams come together and if you have a pillow top, they really like to hide in corners and creavases)
4 - they suck your blood
5 - they don't carry any disease
6 - you can buy mattress and box spring covers to trap them and kill them
7 - if you can trap them, they can live up to 8-12 months without food (ie blood)
8 - 20% of the human population is allergice to the bed bug bite (i am part of that percent)
9 - sustained extreme cold or sustained extreme heat can kill them
10 - it doesn't matter where you live or what lifestyle you live, you can get them in penthouse apartments or crappy hole in the wall condos (i have a run of the mill crappy apartment)
11 - bed bugs don't care what your skin color is, what religion you are, what your political leanings are, if you have warm running blood; you are their friend.

so christmas was really good.
i got some awesome cooking/baking stuff. i got a bunch of sweet pyrex baking dishes, new airbake cookie sheets (which people tell me are AMAZING) and stackable cookie cooling sheets. i also got some book ends, a clothing steamer, a sewing kit, new towels.. just a bunch of great stuff! oh, and my gift to myself? a GPS. nothing fancy, just one of those day after thanksgiving sale ones. but i had a 10% off card and so it was only 90 bucks! not to bad i say, not to bad.

so there you have it.
make it a great year!
-b

(oh, i should be coming back more often now, so check back!)