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| It has been a while! Time for a little update. Springtime is joy-inspiring, that is for sure. And today, with temperatures in the seventies, I drove down to Athens, TN and spent the day 4-wheeling around a dairy farm, petting calves, talking with a friend, and sitting on the front porch looking at the mountains and drinking sweet tea. It was heaven. Well, I think heaven might be a little like a farm on a spring day, anyway. By the way, for the midwesterners - cows actually run around on hills down here. Big ones. Instead of constituting the tallest point in an otherwise planar horizon.
As for what most people probably are interested in, here's the scoop: Brett and I have accepted jobs down here in the beautiful state of Tennessee, so for the next year or two or three we'll be in Knoxville. Come visit. I'm planning to work for a private practice and will start providing services for schools and doing home health in July or August of this year. We still have to work out the details. Brett will be managing a Fastenal branch in Clinton. Also, after a year and 3/4, I am no longer bus-bound. I got a car last week. Yay!
I hope you all are well and that you keep posting things on xanga 'cause I like to read 'em!
Peace,
Melody
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| Those of you who went to Calvin know that folks would come from
the Red Cross on a regular basis to gather up healthy
erythrocytes. I was an eager participant at each blood drive
though they often dismissed me due to low blood iron. So I
started taking multivitamins with extra iron, eating red meat when I
didn't want to, and even swallowing raisins (I knew they were a good
source, but I can't stand the taste). Unfortunately, after I
conquered the Beast of Anemia, the heartless volunteers began to reject
me on the grounds that my blood pressure was too low. Again, I
did everything I could to arrive with high blood pressure. Well,
it's been over a yr and a half. Finally a friend, Grace, and I
went to a center to drip for a while. #1. They gave us
travel mugs (the nice kind with a slide open mouth hole and metal
exterior)! #2. They gave us coupons for a free meal at Chick
Fil-A. Grace got done before me & went to get a Coke.
While at the pop dispenser, she became lightheaded, falling to the
ground and simultaneously throwing Dr. Pepper all over herself.
When she came to, people were all around her asking questions.
Then, she vomited all over herself. And all this after just
telling me that her boyfriend broke up with her yesterday. Bad
week, huh? But they gave her a free T-shirt to cover up the pukey
outfit. We made off like bandits! Now all of you find your
way to a blood donation center and save a life. See ya!
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|  | Currently Watching
The Warrior
By Woo-sung Jung, Sung-kee Ahn, Jin-mo Ju, Ziyi Zhang, Yong-woo Park, Jeong-hak Park, Hye-jin Yu, Seok-yong Jeong, Du-il Lee, Yeong-mok Han, Rongguang Yu, Jae-ho Song
see related |
I've just awakened from a dream in which I was a participant on a reality TV show where everyone hated everyone else and we were all bored and didn't do anything. . . until I discovered a crab that lived inside an oyster shell but was actually a bug. It swallowed one of our decorative Easter eggs, so I pried the shell open in order to retrieve the egg, but in doing so angered the crab host which crushed a much larger, porcelain Easter egg belonging to my Grammie. So I called the others to help me with the pest. I slipped off the radiator and fell into a nest of the thumb nail-sized crabs! They all attached to my leg and it was very painful the end. This might be stemming from my recent run in with pests in our own home, but please - someone send me a coping strategy. I will be vexed if this dream or one like it prevents me from sleeping in the future.
Also, I was just home for a brief visit which was most pleasant . . . but I discovered that my brother has adopted an alter ego. This alternate personality could host a reality show of it's own - Hell's kitchen. I have not seen this show, but I believe that it consists of one chef watching the young chefs and shouting directions/insults at them. This ego is born of an ability to make scrumptious pecan rolls. I suggest that the Vander Koddes demand freshly-made pecan rolls each morning in addition to beer money for rent.
Oh, Adam. I went to the movie store and picked out a foreign film. Don't worry - everybody dies at the end. Don't watch this movie. | | |
| Today I received the strangest comment on my appearance. If any of you, my friends, can top this story with a similar but more appalling tale, you will be handsomely rewarded.
As you may know, my computer crashed on Saturday. That same night I went out with some people (some whom I know well, others I'd met only once before) to shoot pool and have a beer. One of the acquaintances, we'll call him Eric - because that's his name and I don't care to protect his identity, offered to back up my programs! This news was the highlight of my evening. So today I brought to computer to his office & we brought it to tech support. On the way back upstairs he asked me to look at him straight on. When I did, he said, "Yeah, I think you have a lazy eye."
How can someone go 23 years without knowing about something like that? So I stopped a girl in the hall and asked her opinion. Her opinion was that my eyes moved in harmony with one another.
On a related note, Brett and I were going through the check out at the grocery store & I told the cashier that his eyelashes were astounding (or something to that effect) and he replied, "They're not mine. But thanks anyway." Another source of confusion for me.
If you know the truth about my lazy eye, have a related story, OR can explain why a young man would be wearing fake eyelashes . . . contact me. | | |
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Rrrready yourselves for the list-making of Melody -- very unlike the expository ramblings which run in the family (Adam. Ryan.). They're delightful, but I have no desire for doing that on a day like today. You may have been wondering what I do in TN. Here's the short list:
1. School. Wrapped classes and clients up yesterday!!!!
2. Listen to music. Last night I went to a free Ben Folds concert in fraternity park.
3. Hike. We went on a b e a u t i f u l waterfall & cave hike last weekend & I'll take you to it if you come visit us. See profile pic.
4. Rock climb. Last time we went was a little . . . less safe that we had been assured rock climbing would be. I think we're gonna go to some easier cliffs from now on.
5. Read. I've started reading "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and "Mere Christianity" and "The Book of Mormon" for pleasure/educational purposes.
6. Try to keep up with my family. As Adam mentioned, my Grammie is off rockin' the Ohio river on a barge, my parents are thinking about investing in an art gallery, my brother is (apparently . . . I haven't spoken with him directly) going to the country, and my sister is making big decisions about school.
7. Thank God for all my bajillion blessings. Now I have to go. Here are some pictures from recent ventures. Love you all.
PS - in case you were wondering what happens when you leave peaches in their can for too long, see the bottom 2 pictures.
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