First off, the collection is underway for the “look how crazy I am” trees! …Er…I mean, the “I wonder what this says about my personality” trees. They are being MS Painted, scanned, or digitally photographed, and have been coming my way already. Awesome! There’s still plenty of time to get in on the action if you’re interested. Since completing mine, I now have the luxury of peeking at everybody else’s without risking them affecting my own picture, and I can say that it’s kind of neat how much variety there really is! I never realized how many variations there could be in those things, but they really are strikingly different. Cool stuff.
Beyond creating a tree, this week has been kind of lackluster. For some reason I appear to be in one heck of an energy slump the past while, and the minor exertions of going out last Sunday left me completely exhausted for the remainder of this week. And not “exhausted” like “damn, I sure wish there was more coffee here because I’m crazy tired!” but “exhausted” like “Why can I literally not remain conscious in the afternoon??” and “Why is getting up to walk to the bathroom such a harrowing ordeal??” and “Why do I have only a tiny window of time every day now where I even feel up to being on the computer?? How strenuous and typing possibly be??” and “Seriously, I’m too tired to write a to-do list of the things I’m too tired to do?? Somebody kill me now. …Except don’t. Because I don’t actually want to die in even the slightest way, I’m just very frustrated by my current physical limitations and being somewhat dramatic with that last statement. But still, not having the energy to write a freaking list kind of sucks.”
(Hear that, internet stalkers? Somewhat dramatic. Step away from the firearms.)
Anyway, it’s been a frustrating week.
But it’s Friday! And that means questions! Five of them, in fact! And I fully intend to blow today’s wad of energy answering them.
As per normal, questions come originally via Mama M, were introduced to me via Spokeit, and may or may not contain at least one predicate. And of course, your own answers to any or all of them are welcome in the comments below!
The Questions:
1. Have you ever had surgery?
2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?
5. When did you move out of your parents house?
My Answers:
1. Have you ever had surgery?
Yup. But all when I was 5 or 6 years old. I had really chronic ear infections, so they put me under once to put tubes in my ears and then again a while later to remove my adenoids when that didn’t work. I remember being wheeled in and holding on to my stuffed dog (which for some reason I seem to keep trying to type as “god” and becomes a FAR more interesting statement on my childhood that way). I remember being asked to count backwards from ten when the anesthesia was administered and only making it to nine. And I remember that there were banana popsicles after and that they wouldn’t let my mom stay in the hospital with me overnight and we were both pretty upset about that.
I also had no idea exactly what adenoids were, or that they were related to tonsils, until maybe my mid-twenties. And to be honest, I’m still not sure I could describe them accurately, but Wikipedia tells me they do this. I am kind of embarrassed at not understanding them better, but to be fair they were removed from me, so I suppose really I have the least need to know exactly what they are. Do you know what yours do?
2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
Only once, and that was voluntary. 
One of my friends is a paramedic, and I did a ride-along with him once in my early University days. Mostly this involved staying up all night hanging out with my friend, but he did get a call at one point in the evening. Drunk driver with his kids in the car. Classy, that.
My sister was in an ambulance once. She had to call it herself, and the driver gave her flack the whole ride to the hospital because she thought she was just faking because she was a University student around exam time and there wasn’t anything visibly wrong with her. Turns out she had a fever of 105. No exaggeration. One hundred and five degrees. Ack.
3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
Generally extremely calm on the outside. Unnaturally calm. I go into Action Mode and start making sure that everything that needs to get done gets done. Of course, if I’m attached to the person having the emergency, I also do things like grab huge stacks of purple towels just in case we need towels, but damned if I don’t also make things happen.
It’s after the fact that I go into adrenaline shock and I start shaking and laughing like a crazy person.
4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?
I tried to plant a few things around our house last year. Flowers and a few herbs. Someday I would really like to go all out in planting a nice bed out there. There wasn’t a whole lot going on that way when we bought this house, and what there is was kind of lackluster. …Like the rosebush with a single short-lived rose, or the pile of green stuff that appears to really just be green stuff. There were three trellises, suggestively placed. Not one of them actually had anything growing on or near it. I’m hoping to remedy that slightly this year.
5. When did you move out of your parents house?
I moved out at 18, when I went to University, and not a moment too soon. I was dying to go. I love my family, but I really needed to get away from there.
Tags: five question friday, I HATE that I feel like I'm constantly whining about health stuff, I love my mother very much but I love her better in small doses, I might actually have gotten a diagnosis now though not a firm one. But I'm not sure I'm ready to talk about it yet., I wanted to walk to the mailbox today but I just didn't think I could manage it. How messed up is that??, So can I say that I still have my tonsils or not? That's the part I'm unclear on...
I don’t understand! I just posted the longest comment EVER, in the history of the world and then it said it was blocked, and then it got deleted. And now I’m sad.
I will save up my finger strength and come back.
Oh no! I’m so sorry! I HATE it when that happens to me. Ditching that stupid spam filter is on my list of eventual things to do when I have more energy, but I will kick it up a couple notches if it’s being temperamental like that. As it is, I still end up having to delete bucketloads of spam comments every day. Please do come back. I would love to hear what you had to say.
Yeah, I drew my tree when I realized I was spending WAY too much time thinking about how I would draw it, and wondering what different things would mean. I figured overthinking it might ruin it so I bit the bullet and just drew the tree!
I had the same thing, IfByYes. I kept wondering about little differences, but in the end just tried to go with what felt natural and right. Looking through the various trees, I think any variation I would have thought of would still have come out TOTALLY different from everyone else’s anyway, so those central things are probably the ones that say something about who I am compared to others. I probably didn’t need to overthink it so much.
Can you imagine what it’s like for me to draw a tree now? I seem to be stuck making only Christmas trees now. They’re always happy, even Charlie Brown’s pathetic little evergreen.
The Questions:
1. Have you ever had surgery?
Yep tonsils out when I was 14. (Sometimes they just take the adenoids out so you might still have your tonsils). Wisdom teeth pulled at 18. C-section at 33. That one was by far the best and worst surgery all at once. The freaky part of the c-section was that I had a big disconnect from the baby in the belly to the baby on the outside, I’m guessing because I skipped the pushing him out part.
2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
Yes. So embarassing. I fainted at work. I had only been there a few months and I faceplanted in front of a customer onto the cement floor. Lots of blood, no real damage. Turns out I became a bit hypoglycemic.
3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
I panic but get stuff done anyway. My husband is too calm. Um dude you just cut your finger off, can you show a bit more concern?
4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?
I wish. A tiny balcony we call the Terrace. I kill plants. Not intentionally though.
5. When did you move out of your parents house?
When I was 19. Not soon enough. Although I was pretty much taking care of myself from 14 on. I just had to start paying all the bills myself.
I’m sorry you had a crappy sort of week
I wish I could send you some energy, but I seem to be lacking some of my own right now!
1. Have you ever had surgery?
I had 2 of my wisdom teeth out when I was 18. I was awake for the whole thing and hated every minute of it. When it was time to take the other 2 out, they put me out for it. That’s the only surgery I’ve ever had (knock on wood) and I’m happy to keep it that way!
2. Ever ride in an ambulance?
Nope. Don’t think I really want to either! I don’t even think I could do an ambulance ride along cause I don’t do bad smells very well. All it would take is for someone to throw up and I’d be walking home.
3. How are you in a medical emergency? Panicked? Calm?
I haven’t had a ton of experience with medical emergencies (again, touch wood), but when emergencies of any kind crop up I’m a ‘doer’. I get shit done. I stay calm, keep focused and make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be, doing what they’re supposed to do. I guess work helps with that!
4. Do you have a garden? Flowers or veggies?
I have a flower garden out front of my house. Every year I plant them with the intention of taking care of them and having a beautiful little spot that everyone can see when they pull up. Every year I kill the plants cause after July I forget about them. I have a black thumb. One year my dad and I both decided to grow tomatoes. He bought his little plants and I bought great big ones that cost more money. We had a challenge to see who would get the best tomatoes. I can’t remember who did, but I know I watered and fertilized them a ton!
5. When did you move out of your parents house?
I moved out at 18 for University. Then I came back. Then when I was in my late 20′s, my sister and I decided to buy a house together. Little did we know that my parents were going to split up and we’d end up buying their house. So technically, it’s my house now, but I grew up there.